Both cards have their uses. Spell Pierce is more versatile, but Dispel is always live.
For the current meta I like Spell Pierce. Dispel does nothing against Junk, Affinity, Tron, Boggles and Jund, while Spell Pierce can catch them off guard. Dispel is great against twin and control, but we already crush twin.
It is a meta-call to run either card as they are both good in certain situations.
The issue is that while dispel does nothing against those decks, I don't think you'd want to board into spell pierce either for any of those matchups, except boggles. So in that sense (what does versatility of a card matter if it stays in the sideboard), its a bit more versatile, but not by that much. Junk is maybe a closer one, but if they manage to thoughtseize you and you don't have an untapped blue source, or they're on the play, they're going to be able to play perfectly around your spell pierce. For me, that, plus them running a ton of creatures makes siding into that not that appealing. The boggles one is totally legit though for sure.
How much room is there for creativity in this deck? I want to run cards I like (Which happen to be popular) Here is what I am looking at, feel free to criticize every decision. There are some flex slots as I am still re acquiring some things like cryptics. And I am really curious if the manabase is okay.
Dragons of Tarkir finally released on MTGO, so I can finally update my deck. Anticipate is an obvious auto-include, but what do you guys think of Silumgar's Command as a 1-of silver bullet? Is it strong enough in the deck?
I always say run what you have and work to trade up. Magic should be fun first and foremost
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Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
I don't think so. I'm fine with Fun-Ofs, but that command is total crap for the mana investment. I have been testing Kolaghan's Command and I am impressed so far.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
I've been testing Kolaghan's Command as well, but my impressions are kind of skewed by the strange lack of affinity in my local meta, so I never really see it where (I presume) it really shines.
Anyhow, I've gone in kind of a rather different direction with some card choices for my removal package and it's been working pretty well for me:
1. Cut Bolt entirely (blasphemy!)
At first I did have bolt in the deck, but it always felt a tad underwhelming. We're a hard control deck, not an aggressive tempo deck like Twin, so the aggressive bolt-snap-bolt line doesn't fit our game plan. That leaves Bolt doing two other things: killing dudes and chunking planeswalkers. Well, the meta has adapted to play against bolt, so I've often had bolts looking silly in my hand staring down >3 toughness dudes. Both murderous cut and dismember do a better job at killing creatures for just 1 mana (with some caveats bolt doesn't have, but not particularly strenuous conditions). Chunking down a planeswalker is important too, but it often doesn't actually kill it so you still need to invest more to kill it properly. Therefore..
2. Run 1-2 Hero's Downfall
It's ridiculous that this card sees so little play. This card does no-questions-asked what we wish bolt would do, even if it's at a premium 3 mana. Dreadbore is still pretty fine to if the 2 vs 3 mana bothers you more than instant vs. sorcery. When's the last time Terminate's no-regen clause was actually relevant? I think the only creature with regeneration I've seen is Thrun, which obviously can't get hit by targeting removal anyway.
3. Run 3-4 Sickening Shoal
This is sick sick tech that's gotten me out of so many otherwise sure losses. Slaughter Pact is somewhat similar, but Pact has a bunch of annoying targeting qualifications and annoyingly insists you still pay mana for it later. Shoal just asks for a black card with sufficiently large CMC (like, oh, Murderous Cut or Tasigur). We're a naturally mana-hungry deck with good CA, which lines up with Shoal much better than Pact. I half think of it as a modern equivalent to Force of Will.
I'll do a run through later on if anyone wants to hear about it, but I played in the TCG Player States tournament yesterday and I managed to nab a spot in the top 16 out of 50 something players. Played against a lot of solid decks so it was nice to see that a relatively inexperienced tournament player (myself) could walk in with Cruel and still place positively. A few highlights were that Tasigur, Engineered Explosives, and Batterskull are just monsters in the main deck (at least they did a lot of work for me).
Great job p00q! I would like to hear what you have to say about your tournament experience.
I'll be taking Cruel to SCG states next weekend.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Hi there fellow Cruel Mages, long time lurker and figured that it was about time I contributed to the thread. Below is my latest installment of my Modern deck. Lemme know how you feel about the deck. I can also go into detail about my sideboard options and choices.
So far I am in love with Kolaghan's Command and may even make more adjustments to accommodate for the card. It is pretty great to repeatedly destroy lands with Fulminator Mage haha. Makes the Amulet and Tron match-up a lot easier post-board.
Welcome to the coolest Cruelest thread on MTGSAL Xremag.
For your list I would say find some more room for another copy of Terminate. That card kills anything and whatever you kill stays dead.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Welcome to the coolest Cruelest thread on MTGSAL Xremag.
For your list I would say find some more room for another copy of Terminate. That card kills anything and whatever you kill stays dead.
Thanks for having me
I actually use to run 3 Terminate but over time I kept finding myself wanting a bit more diversity with my removal spells as Terminate would end up being a dead/awkward spell at times. My local meta plays a good amount of walkers such as Liliana of the Veil and Karn Liberated so I have been trying Dreadbore. The Slaughter Pact acts as the 3rd Terminate. Really good when I need something dead and need to keep fighting a counter war with Twin or Delver. Best part is when the games move to Sideboard I can take out the weakest of the 3 for better options.
Those are good points. If your meta is walker heavy try some sideboard Hero's Downfall mixed in with Dreadbore.
If you need match-up specific advice don't be afraid to ask. There is a lot of experience in this thread.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
This was the deck list I ran at States over the weekend. It is mostly the same as the one I posted a little while back, but I cut the discard down quite a bit to buff the counterspell suite as well as the creature removal to help with all the aggro match ups. I didn't write down extensive notes but I'll run through a general outline of the 6 rounds. This was my 2nd modern event ever (and the first event that was actually pretty competitive and legit) so needless to say I was a little nervous at first and probably made a few too many mistakes.
Round One: BG Rock
My opponent was running an old school Rock deck I never thought I'd see at this tournament (he was a fantastic guy who was just trying to enjoy himself). I had a lot of Phyrexian Obliterator's running my way. I kept an awful hand that I should have shipped game one for a very quick loss (stuck on 2 land). I sided in some of my creature removal and figured I'd be able to hold out on very few changes if I kept a real hand to start out. The second match ended swiftly after a few key Spell Snares and Mana Leaks kept the path open for my Tasigur to take over. Match three I managed to run my Murderous Cut and some Snapcastered Terminates over to keep his board clear and he ran out of steam once I killed his 3rd Obliterator in 4 turns. 1-0
Round Two: Abzan
This round was against the Tier 1 Abzan midrange build. It appeared pretty straight forward and it didn't seem like he was running any unique tech in it. First game I once again kept a terrible 7 (still getting over my nervousness) and he Rhino'd me into the ground. I wasn't very pleased to have to deal with BGx my first two rounds of my day as I was hoping to have at least one match to ease into but oh well, I sucked it up and ran with it. I boarded in some skites, creature removal, and some new counter magic tricks into game 2. I kept a solid 7 this time and managed to stall out through his Rhino's to land a Batterskull down. He Decayed the token but I managed to ambush viper in a Snapcaster and start swinging in with that instead. He couldn't top deck an answer and so we moved into game 3. I kept the same plan and managed to clear out some of his early game aggression. He proceeded to top deck several Lingering Souls in a row and I couldn't find enough answers for all the tokens. I fought valiantly, but I couldn't pull it off. 1-1
Round Three: Tarmo-Twin
This will be the last round where I have the tournament jitters and buckle down for the long haul. Game one he gets mana screwed but I notice his color combination and fear it is a Tarmo-Twin match up. He eventually gets a few cards online, but I have the answers ready and waiting to clear his board and lock up game one. I didn't see enough to know for sure, but I assume he is in fact Tarmo-Twin so I board in some skites and counter magic just in case (leaving the Rakdos Charms for now in case I'm wrong). Game two is a long, drawn out affair. We keep clearing each others threats when I realize that a. he is in fact running Tarmo-Twin and b. he boarded the twin piece out. He jams down a Keranos and whittles me away to tie it up 1-1. Game three I keep the previous changes just in case he decides to sneak it back in but I put a Keranos of my own in. Our last match starts out the same as round 2. However he manages to jam several Tarmogoyf's down onto the board and hit me before I Damnation them off the table. He once again lands his only Keranos while mine is no where in site and plinks away at me until I'm at 0. I'm not as nervous anymore at this point, but I am disappointed at my luck that round. 1-2
Round Four: Infect
As soon as a I dropped a 2nd loss, I assumed I'd get a reprieve from the top tier decks to get me a chance to rebound with a win, but behold, my 4th round opponent begins round one with an Inkmoth Nexus and the race is on. I manage to Terminate some of his lands, but as soon as I am forced to start bolting his critters he begins pumping and I drop game one. What luck I have, to drop to 1-2 and still face top tier decks. I side in my Chalices, my creature removal, and my skites. Game 2 I fire off a quick start, snap-bolting his critters followed by landing a Tasigur down on the table. He got stuck on 2 land and couldn't handle the Tasigur. I feel like my deck is beginning to work with me now and I'm calming down. Game three he mulls down to 5 but it is the exact 5 cards he needed. He gets off to a thunderous start putting 6 poison on me before I can clear his Nexus and some of his other critters out. He top decks a few creature buffs before he manages to grab any new threats, but by that point my hand was loaded and he couldn't land another card down onto the field. 2-2
Round Five: 8Rack
After that 2nd loss in round 3, I assumed my night was over but I wanted to keep going for the experience sake so I pressed on. Game one makes it immediately obvious what he is trying to run. He gets a little tight on mana while I get flooded (making most of this discard spells miss). He starts swinging with his Mutavault but luckily I have a Tarpit down to race him, and we all know which one wins that race. I keep the rest of the lands in my hand to shut off his Rack's and he doesn't find a way to stop the Tarpit. Game two I side in my Negates and Chalices plus a Keranos just in case. I draw a flooded 7, but it worked out well for me round one so I kept it. Wise decision as he once again began missing with his discard while I plopped down a Tasigur to keep my hand plump and proceed to shut down 3 Lilliana's in 3 turns with Negate, Mana Leak, and Electrolyze into a Lightning Bolt. Afterwords I plop down a Chalice on 1 and run away with it. 3-2
Round Six: U/R Twin
Of course, just to round out my wonderful day I get another twin deck. Game one goes back and forth, me shutting down his combo when he tries to go, him clearing my threats I attempt to play. He gets a few too many free hits on me and bolt-snap-bolts me away. I put in my usual suspects for Twin to get ready for game 2. He Clique's my hand to check for threats on my upkeep and clears out my one counter. I draw a Clique of my own afterwords and pass the turn for him to jam down a Exarch with him thinking my hand was now clear. In response I throw my Clique down, burying his Splinter Twin he thought he'd get to land and he proceeds to top deck nothing but irrelevant Dispels and land until I get to end his misery with a Batterskull. Our two matches went too long, and we saw we had only about 10 minutes for game three so we tried to pick up the pace. He tries to land some Blood Moon tech down but I Negate it. We manage to both get some healthy swings in on each other before I wipe the board and land a Tasigur with some Tarpits on the board. At this point we were about a minute away from going into turns, and he had the mana ready to try and land the combo whenever he felt he had the window. I was sitting on nothing but counters so I had to choose between rushing him with my Tasigur and Tarpits and hoping he didn't have it or trying to play conservatively to make sure I could counter his combo and hope I could top deck a faster answer to finish him in turns. I chose the conservative route (I'm not much of a gambler ) and he did try to jam the combo down right as we went into turns. I shut it down with a Logic Knot (what a monster of a card, by the way) and a Leak for his response. At this point I still didn't feel comfortable enough to try and tap out to push enough damage through so we ended up timing out.
Final: 3-2-1
I was comfortable taking the draw and it turned out I wouldn't have made the top 8 even if I had gone all out and gone for the win so my conservative ways paid off. I managed to squeak into the top 16 at my record with my opponent from the last round right above me. Overall I felt it was a great day and considering it was more or less my first real event for modern I was happy to come away with a positive record and a top 16 for my effort.
The only card I felt was a disappointment at all was the Jace's I was running. I only managed to land him twice, and while he was decently effective both times, I had a lot of games against a lot of aggro decks where I just couldn't afford the turn to cast him and I probably should have just boarded him out. It's a work in progress but overall I feel good about where the deck is at. Let me know if you want to know specifics about how any certain card or cards performed. I tried to trim most details to keep this post a healthy length, haha.
Good report p00q. You will be a tournament veteran in no time
I've only ever liked Jace as a one-of. He can be great, but as you noticed he really does not do much against hyper aggro decks. I recently cut the planeswalkers I was running for more removal and discard.
I can't wait until wizards reprints Scalding Tarn for my Cruel Control brethren. Bloodstained Mire works fine though, but turn 1 Island makes a lot of people concede
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Ulting Jace AOT into cruel ultimatum should already be GG. Wanting to hit another planeswalker is so overtly win-more that you should be somewhat ashamed of trying for it. One more mana than cruel ultimatum is a big deal when we're already the only deck trying to ever cast a spell with more than triple color requirements in the format. Yes, Nicol Bolas is nuts on the table against any fair deck. No, I don't think you should ever in a million years plan to play him; jam some grave titans if you want to beat midrange.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
Ulting Jace AOT into cruel ultimatum should already be GG. Wanting to hit another planeswalker is so overtly win-more that you should be somewhat ashamed of trying for it. One more mana than cruel ultimatum is a big deal when we're already the only deck trying to ever cast a spell with more than triple color requirements in the format. Yes, Nicol Bolas is nuts on the table against any fair deck. No, I don't think you should ever in a million years plan to play him; jam some grave titans if you want to beat midrange.
The problem, is people play Nicol Bolas because they like the card, not because it makes the deck better overall. Cruel Ultimatum itself is a better card at 7 mana than Nicol Bolas is at 8 mana. If anything, you would be better playing another copy of cruel in your 75, but you don't need more cruels if built correct.
But just for practice, if you're entirely behind Nicol Bolas maindeck, please enlighten the thread on which matchups maindeck Nicol Bolas helps out against :).
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Find me online - I'm on Cockatrice * Tag - Badd B - Or on MTGO - Tag - Cbus05
The problem, is people play Nicol Bolas because they like the card, not because it makes the deck better overall. Cruel Ultimatum itself is a better card at 7 mana than Nicol Bolas is at 8 mana. If anything, you would be better playing another copy of cruel in your 75, but you don't need more cruels if built correct.
I disagree entirely. In my experience, Cruel Ultimatum just doesn't do all that much by the time I get around to casting it. The drain for 5 is kinda nice, with the lifegain more important than the life loss. My opponent usually doesn't have a creature out (because I want to kill everything that moves anyway) and no cards in hand (because they've already played everything out and just topdecking). I don't have dudes in my yard to get back. So.. in terms of what we actually care about, Cruel ends up being mostly an overcosted Concentrate with a bit of lifegain. Oh look, a bad Sphinx's Rev. Nicol Bolas, on the other hand, decisively forces concessions in short order.
Seriously people, try out 3x murderous cut + 3x sickening shoal. It makes tapping out for Jace feel a whole lot safer. I've taken over so many games with Jace, it's crazy. He's pretty much our only long-term CA engine (keranos counts a bit too, I suppose) and resolving/protecting Jace really is one of the most important goals of the deck, IMO.
The issue is that while dispel does nothing against those decks, I don't think you'd want to board into spell pierce either for any of those matchups, except boggles. So in that sense (what does versatility of a card matter if it stays in the sideboard), its a bit more versatile, but not by that much. Junk is maybe a closer one, but if they manage to thoughtseize you and you don't have an untapped blue source, or they're on the play, they're going to be able to play perfectly around your spell pierce. For me, that, plus them running a ton of creatures makes siding into that not that appealing. The boggles one is totally legit though for sure.
1x Crux of Fate (don't have Damnations yet want to run 2)
2x Grave Titan (I want a good creature to close out games, I also have a single Batterskull that could take a slot)
1x Consume the Meek
2x Cruel Ultimatum
2x Terminate
4x Electrolyze (this card is so strong I cannot see running less)
4x Anticipate
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Mana Leak
3x Counterflux (only have one cryptic, but I do think this card is solid)
1x Cryptic Command (Want to run 4)
1x Snapcaster Mage (Only own one currently would run 3)
1x Shadow of Doubt (I love this card)
1x Jace, Architect of Thought
The rest of the slots are flex slots because I have some non legal stuff in there
2x Watery Grave
2x Bloodstained Mire
4x Polluted Delta
2x Darkslick Shores
4x Steam Vents
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Blood Crypt
1x Swamp
1x Mountain
4x Island
http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/bolas-control-2/
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Anyhow, I've gone in kind of a rather different direction with some card choices for my removal package and it's been working pretty well for me:
1. Cut Bolt entirely (blasphemy!)
At first I did have bolt in the deck, but it always felt a tad underwhelming. We're a hard control deck, not an aggressive tempo deck like Twin, so the aggressive bolt-snap-bolt line doesn't fit our game plan. That leaves Bolt doing two other things: killing dudes and chunking planeswalkers. Well, the meta has adapted to play against bolt, so I've often had bolts looking silly in my hand staring down >3 toughness dudes. Both murderous cut and dismember do a better job at killing creatures for just 1 mana (with some caveats bolt doesn't have, but not particularly strenuous conditions). Chunking down a planeswalker is important too, but it often doesn't actually kill it so you still need to invest more to kill it properly. Therefore..
2. Run 1-2 Hero's Downfall
It's ridiculous that this card sees so little play. This card does no-questions-asked what we wish bolt would do, even if it's at a premium 3 mana. Dreadbore is still pretty fine to if the 2 vs 3 mana bothers you more than instant vs. sorcery. When's the last time Terminate's no-regen clause was actually relevant? I think the only creature with regeneration I've seen is Thrun, which obviously can't get hit by targeting removal anyway.
3. Run 3-4 Sickening Shoal
This is sick sick tech that's gotten me out of so many otherwise sure losses. Slaughter Pact is somewhat similar, but Pact has a bunch of annoying targeting qualifications and annoyingly insists you still pay mana for it later. Shoal just asks for a black card with sufficiently large CMC (like, oh, Murderous Cut or Tasigur). We're a naturally mana-hungry deck with good CA, which lines up with Shoal much better than Pact. I half think of it as a modern equivalent to Force of Will.
Twitch channel
I'll be taking Cruel to SCG states next weekend.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
1 Batterskull
Creature
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Enchantment
1 Monastery Siege
Instant
2 Anticipate
1 Consume the Meek
3 Cryptic Command
2 Electrolyze
1 Izzet Charm
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Mana Leak
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Spell Snare
1 Terminate
Planeswalker
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Cruel Ultimatum
2 Damnation
1 Dreadbore
2 Thoughtseize
Land
1 Blood Crypt
4 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Watery Grave
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Monastery Siege
1 Countersquall
1 Dispel
1 Flashfreeze
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Slaughter Games
2 Thoughtseize
So far I am in love with Kolaghan's Command and may even make more adjustments to accommodate for the card. It is pretty great to repeatedly destroy lands with Fulminator Mage haha. Makes the Amulet and Tron match-up a lot easier post-board.
UBx Tezzeret: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/18-06-17-ub-tezzeret/
coolestCruelest thread on MTGSAL Xremag.For your list I would say find some more room for another copy of Terminate. That card kills anything and whatever you kill stays dead.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Thanks for having me
I actually use to run 3 Terminate but over time I kept finding myself wanting a bit more diversity with my removal spells as Terminate would end up being a dead/awkward spell at times. My local meta plays a good amount of walkers such as Liliana of the Veil and Karn Liberated so I have been trying Dreadbore. The Slaughter Pact acts as the 3rd Terminate. Really good when I need something dead and need to keep fighting a counter war with Twin or Delver. Best part is when the games move to Sideboard I can take out the weakest of the 3 for better options.
UBx Tezzeret: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/18-06-17-ub-tezzeret/
If you need match-up specific advice don't be afraid to ask. There is a lot of experience in this thread.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
3 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Island
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Desolate Lighthouse
Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Terminate
2 Electrolyze
2 Damnation
2 Cryptic Command
2 Mana Leak
3 Spell Snare
3 Remand
1 Logic Knot
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Batterskull
1 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Thoughtseize
2 Flashfreeze
2 Negate
1 Murderous Cut
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Spellskite
This was the deck list I ran at States over the weekend. It is mostly the same as the one I posted a little while back, but I cut the discard down quite a bit to buff the counterspell suite as well as the creature removal to help with all the aggro match ups. I didn't write down extensive notes but I'll run through a general outline of the 6 rounds. This was my 2nd modern event ever (and the first event that was actually pretty competitive and legit) so needless to say I was a little nervous at first and probably made a few too many mistakes.
Round One: BG Rock
My opponent was running an old school Rock deck I never thought I'd see at this tournament (he was a fantastic guy who was just trying to enjoy himself). I had a lot of Phyrexian Obliterator's running my way. I kept an awful hand that I should have shipped game one for a very quick loss (stuck on 2 land). I sided in some of my creature removal and figured I'd be able to hold out on very few changes if I kept a real hand to start out. The second match ended swiftly after a few key Spell Snares and Mana Leaks kept the path open for my Tasigur to take over. Match three I managed to run my Murderous Cut and some Snapcastered Terminates over to keep his board clear and he ran out of steam once I killed his 3rd Obliterator in 4 turns. 1-0
Round Two: Abzan
This round was against the Tier 1 Abzan midrange build. It appeared pretty straight forward and it didn't seem like he was running any unique tech in it. First game I once again kept a terrible 7 (still getting over my nervousness) and he Rhino'd me into the ground. I wasn't very pleased to have to deal with BGx my first two rounds of my day as I was hoping to have at least one match to ease into but oh well, I sucked it up and ran with it. I boarded in some skites, creature removal, and some new counter magic tricks into game 2. I kept a solid 7 this time and managed to stall out through his Rhino's to land a Batterskull down. He Decayed the token but I managed to ambush viper in a Snapcaster and start swinging in with that instead. He couldn't top deck an answer and so we moved into game 3. I kept the same plan and managed to clear out some of his early game aggression. He proceeded to top deck several Lingering Souls in a row and I couldn't find enough answers for all the tokens. I fought valiantly, but I couldn't pull it off. 1-1
Round Three: Tarmo-Twin
This will be the last round where I have the tournament jitters and buckle down for the long haul. Game one he gets mana screwed but I notice his color combination and fear it is a Tarmo-Twin match up. He eventually gets a few cards online, but I have the answers ready and waiting to clear his board and lock up game one. I didn't see enough to know for sure, but I assume he is in fact Tarmo-Twin so I board in some skites and counter magic just in case (leaving the Rakdos Charms for now in case I'm wrong). Game two is a long, drawn out affair. We keep clearing each others threats when I realize that a. he is in fact running Tarmo-Twin and b. he boarded the twin piece out. He jams down a Keranos and whittles me away to tie it up 1-1. Game three I keep the previous changes just in case he decides to sneak it back in but I put a Keranos of my own in. Our last match starts out the same as round 2. However he manages to jam several Tarmogoyf's down onto the board and hit me before I Damnation them off the table. He once again lands his only Keranos while mine is no where in site and plinks away at me until I'm at 0. I'm not as nervous anymore at this point, but I am disappointed at my luck that round. 1-2
Round Four: Infect
As soon as a I dropped a 2nd loss, I assumed I'd get a reprieve from the top tier decks to get me a chance to rebound with a win, but behold, my 4th round opponent begins round one with an Inkmoth Nexus and the race is on. I manage to Terminate some of his lands, but as soon as I am forced to start bolting his critters he begins pumping and I drop game one. What luck I have, to drop to 1-2 and still face top tier decks. I side in my Chalices, my creature removal, and my skites. Game 2 I fire off a quick start, snap-bolting his critters followed by landing a Tasigur down on the table. He got stuck on 2 land and couldn't handle the Tasigur. I feel like my deck is beginning to work with me now and I'm calming down. Game three he mulls down to 5 but it is the exact 5 cards he needed. He gets off to a thunderous start putting 6 poison on me before I can clear his Nexus and some of his other critters out. He top decks a few creature buffs before he manages to grab any new threats, but by that point my hand was loaded and he couldn't land another card down onto the field. 2-2
Round Five: 8Rack
After that 2nd loss in round 3, I assumed my night was over but I wanted to keep going for the experience sake so I pressed on. Game one makes it immediately obvious what he is trying to run. He gets a little tight on mana while I get flooded (making most of this discard spells miss). He starts swinging with his Mutavault but luckily I have a Tarpit down to race him, and we all know which one wins that race. I keep the rest of the lands in my hand to shut off his Rack's and he doesn't find a way to stop the Tarpit. Game two I side in my Negates and Chalices plus a Keranos just in case. I draw a flooded 7, but it worked out well for me round one so I kept it. Wise decision as he once again began missing with his discard while I plopped down a Tasigur to keep my hand plump and proceed to shut down 3 Lilliana's in 3 turns with Negate, Mana Leak, and Electrolyze into a Lightning Bolt. Afterwords I plop down a Chalice on 1 and run away with it. 3-2
Round Six: U/R Twin
Of course, just to round out my wonderful day I get another twin deck. Game one goes back and forth, me shutting down his combo when he tries to go, him clearing my threats I attempt to play. He gets a few too many free hits on me and bolt-snap-bolts me away. I put in my usual suspects for Twin to get ready for game 2. He Clique's my hand to check for threats on my upkeep and clears out my one counter. I draw a Clique of my own afterwords and pass the turn for him to jam down a Exarch with him thinking my hand was now clear. In response I throw my Clique down, burying his Splinter Twin he thought he'd get to land and he proceeds to top deck nothing but irrelevant Dispels and land until I get to end his misery with a Batterskull. Our two matches went too long, and we saw we had only about 10 minutes for game three so we tried to pick up the pace. He tries to land some Blood Moon tech down but I Negate it. We manage to both get some healthy swings in on each other before I wipe the board and land a Tasigur with some Tarpits on the board. At this point we were about a minute away from going into turns, and he had the mana ready to try and land the combo whenever he felt he had the window. I was sitting on nothing but counters so I had to choose between rushing him with my Tasigur and Tarpits and hoping he didn't have it or trying to play conservatively to make sure I could counter his combo and hope I could top deck a faster answer to finish him in turns. I chose the conservative route (I'm not much of a gambler ) and he did try to jam the combo down right as we went into turns. I shut it down with a Logic Knot (what a monster of a card, by the way) and a Leak for his response. At this point I still didn't feel comfortable enough to try and tap out to push enough damage through so we ended up timing out.
Final: 3-2-1
I was comfortable taking the draw and it turned out I wouldn't have made the top 8 even if I had gone all out and gone for the win so my conservative ways paid off. I managed to squeak into the top 16 at my record with my opponent from the last round right above me. Overall I felt it was a great day and considering it was more or less my first real event for modern I was happy to come away with a positive record and a top 16 for my effort.
The only card I felt was a disappointment at all was the Jace's I was running. I only managed to land him twice, and while he was decently effective both times, I had a lot of games against a lot of aggro decks where I just couldn't afford the turn to cast him and I probably should have just boarded him out. It's a work in progress but overall I feel good about where the deck is at. Let me know if you want to know specifics about how any certain card or cards performed. I tried to trim most details to keep this post a healthy length, haha.
I've only ever liked Jace as a one-of. He can be great, but as you noticed he really does not do much against hyper aggro decks. I recently cut the planeswalkers I was running for more removal and discard.
I can't wait until wizards reprints Scalding Tarn for my Cruel Control brethren. Bloodstained Mire works fine though, but turn 1 Island makes a lot of people concede
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
The problem, is people play Nicol Bolas because they like the card, not because it makes the deck better overall. Cruel Ultimatum itself is a better card at 7 mana than Nicol Bolas is at 8 mana. If anything, you would be better playing another copy of cruel in your 75, but you don't need more cruels if built correct.
But just for practice, if you're entirely behind Nicol Bolas maindeck, please enlighten the thread on which matchups maindeck Nicol Bolas helps out against :).
I disagree entirely. In my experience, Cruel Ultimatum just doesn't do all that much by the time I get around to casting it. The drain for 5 is kinda nice, with the lifegain more important than the life loss. My opponent usually doesn't have a creature out (because I want to kill everything that moves anyway) and no cards in hand (because they've already played everything out and just topdecking). I don't have dudes in my yard to get back. So.. in terms of what we actually care about, Cruel ends up being mostly an overcosted Concentrate with a bit of lifegain. Oh look, a bad Sphinx's Rev. Nicol Bolas, on the other hand, decisively forces concessions in short order.
Seriously people, try out 3x murderous cut + 3x sickening shoal. It makes tapping out for Jace feel a whole lot safer. I've taken over so many games with Jace, it's crazy. He's pretty much our only long-term CA engine (keranos counts a bit too, I suppose) and resolving/protecting Jace really is one of the most important goals of the deck, IMO.
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