Hello again and sorry for the late response Lil Bolas, im glad to be here :). I've been testing my version of the cruel deck. You suggested reducing Tectonic Edge due to cruel mana. I initially ran 3x to have more ways to deal with U/W/R Control man-lands. But lately, i've been thinking of adding Smother , since it takes care of almost every early modern threat. But the main problem I found with the deck is against burn. The deck has little to no interaction early game, and late game you spend too much mana trying to counted whatever is coming your way so you don't have time to deploy Cruel Ultimatum or a Batterskull . Im looking for any suggestions to counter burn and any lands i can add in place of ech edge
Cheap countermagic like Dispel can help. Also, Monastery Siege on paper looks like it could help slow down their burn as well as pull double duty by being a draw engine. If nothing else, you can always jam 3-4 Dragon's Claw into your sideboard and call it a day.
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EDH GWSelvala and the Return to HumanityGW UWDragonlord Ojutai, Control's Elder DragonUW UBGTasigur, the God-Pharaoh's Gift to EDHUBG UBRNicol Bolas and his SuperfriendsPawnsUBR
Modern UWUW Control/Midrange/Bad JundUW WUBRGHumansWUBRG BGMidrangeBG
Hello again and sorry for the late response Lil Bolas, im glad to be here :). I've been testing my version of the cruel deck. You suggested reducing Tectonic Edge due to cruel mana. I initially ran 3x to have more ways to deal with U/W/R Control man-lands. But lately, i've been thinking of adding Smother , since it takes care of almost every early modern threat. But the main problem I found with the deck is against burn. The deck has little to no interaction early game, and late game you spend too much mana trying to counted whatever is coming your way so you don't have time to deploy Cruel Ultimatum or a Batterskull . Im looking for any suggestions to counter burn and any lands i can add in place of ech edge
Dispel is one of your greatest tools against Burn because a large portion of their burn spells are instant speed so the ability to hold up a one mana counterspell is crucial in the matchup. Another all-star is Spell Snare. Stops their powerful spells such as Lightning Helix, Eidolon, Boros Charm, and Skullcrack. I use to run 2-3 Dragon's Claw in the side but Burn has learned from this and pack cards like Destructive Revelry to punish us for bringing in such tools. I currently use Monastery Siege and cheap counterspells to fight Burn. The Siege, when protected, makes playing Burn very taxing and forces them to invest in large amounts of mana to cast simple spells. Now Siege is also weak to the revelry but I would rather they pay 4 mana to destroy it than 2.
As for lands some people recommend Ghost Quarter to replace Tec Edge. I actually recently stopped running both because I felt that I can combat the land fight with Fulminator Mage as it is cheaper and not as restrictive as Tec Edge and it doesn't give my opponent a new basic to work with. Best part of the Fulminator is that he can be brought back with the new Command to grant us a menacing advantage. I like Smother as a catch-most kill spell, it is the reason why I run a one-of Consume the Meek to deal with an army of inkmoths and mutavaults.
First, I realize nicol bolas isn't an ideal card but the flavor interaction between it and cruel ultimatum is too good for me to pass up. Now for my questions/thoughts,
Jace seems pretty good, both to blank token strategies like B/W tokens or Twin, but also because his -2 is a skill check on the opponent. Is 2 copies too much? Should he be in the sideboard?
What is the ideal number of counterspells? Is mana leak better than rune snag? Condescend is decent because it have scry 2, but is Logic Knot better? Should I have more copies of spell snare?
Life total seems to be a problem with only cruel ultimatum being able to gain life, should batterskull be in the main? If so how many copies?
Dreadbore vs Terminate, the former doesn't prevent regeneration but it seems like that's not too much of a problem in modern, and it's nice to have a 2 mana kill spell against planeswalkers. Is this ok or should it be 3x Terminate?
Suffer the Past seems like it would be good against burn, mainly for the life gain and preventing grim lavamancer but other than that it seems kind of lackluster. I'm open to ideas
Kolaghan's Command is a card I'll be adding, but not sure what to cut in the main.
I have 25 lands, is that too few? Is 4 manlands too many? Also I'm open to suggestions about the distribution/color balance.
More general, given that I'm going into an unknown meta what potential cards am i missing either in main or sideboard?
25 lands is too few, you want at least 26, maybe 27. If you're going to run 4-of, rune snag cleanly beats out mana leak. I don't particularly like either but definitely snag>leak. I don't like dreadbore, if you want that effect I feel like you should split it with hero's downfall (instant speed). Kolaghan's command is good, maybe consier it over the second jace and a condescend, and cut the 2nd condescend for a 2nd spell snare. spell snare is crazy good.
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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
Hi everybody, I just put together a cruel control deck and I'm looking for some advice to take it into an unknown meta.
First, I realize nicol bolas isn't an ideal card but the flavor interaction between it and cruel ultimatum is too good for me to pass up. Now for my questions/thoughts,
Jace seems pretty good, both to blank token strategies like B/W tokens or Twin, but also because his -2 is a skill check on the opponent. Is 2 copies too much? Should he be in the sideboard?
What is the ideal number of counterspells? Is mana leak better than rune snag? Condescend is decent because it have scry 2, but is Logic Knot better? Should I have more copies of spell snare?
Life total seems to be a problem with only cruel ultimatum being able to gain life, should batterskull be in the main? If so how many copies?
Dreadbore vs Terminate, the former doesn't prevent regeneration but it seems like that's not too much of a problem in modern, and it's nice to have a 2 mana kill spell against planeswalkers. Is this ok or should it be 3x Terminate?
Suffer the Past seems like it would be good against burn, mainly for the life gain and preventing grim lavamancer but other than that it seems kind of lackluster. I'm open to ideas
Kolaghan's Command is a card I'll be adding, but not sure what to cut in the main.
I have 25 lands, is that too few? Is 4 manlands too many? Also I'm open to suggestions about the distribution/color balance.
More general, given that I'm going into an unknown meta what potential cards am i missing either in main or sideboard?
1. I constantly swap between 1-2 Jace, AoT. He is a really strong walker for the current meta with all of the Twin and Lingering Souls decks running rampant. I would run 2 if your meta has a good amount of Twin/Tokens, while run only the 1 if it is a minority.
2. I don't know if their is a decided number of counterspells but I believe we don't run any more than 10. Most list show a split between Leaks, Snare, and Cryptic with some 1-ofs in between. Rune Snag is better late game than Mana Leak, but is a nombo with Snapcaster and Tasigur (if you decide to run him). Condescend and Logic Knot are pretty good I guess it depends how much of your graveyard you are utilizing. As for Spell Snare 1 can be fine but I would certainly not run more than 2.
3. You bring up a great point and I would run Batterskull main. 1 is fine, but if you are having trouble against very aggressive decks than you could bump it up to 2. Just be careful you don't run too many win cons and no way to get to them.
4. I still run the split between Terminate and Dreadbore for a few reasons. I like the ability to kill a walker without the use of burn spells and because when game 2 starts up against certain decks they like to bring in Dispel to stop our spells so it is nice to have an answer that players are not ready for. Overall Terminate is a better spell because it it an instant, but Dreadbore is still a solid spell.
5. Suffer is generally good against any deck that fills their yard AND is threatening an aggressive early game. I think you have it spot on.
6. -1 Electrolyze +1 Kolaghan's Command, if you don't like that cut back on 1 Anticipate. The new Command is very good and gives us amazing answers game 1 and is one of the reasons why I have shifted from Sowing Salts to Fulminator Mages.
7. 25 is fine, but I was never really impressed by Lavaclaw Reaches. I think when it is good is up against the decks that can't answer the land at all which is primarily Tron whereas Creeping Tar Pit is always good and gives us more relevant colors. You run a good amount of basics which is great against getting Blood Mooned but I worry if you will have the right mana when you need it most. Fetches are your friend.
8. I think you have all of the core cards in and your sideboard is diverse so you should do fine in an unknown meta. Maybe make room for a Dispel or Counterflux in the side.
Best of luck
Jumping in the bandwagon here, more demoralizing is a cruel ultimatum into a snapcaster cruel ultimatum with the snapcaster you just picked from your gy
Which in turn draws you into another cruel ultimatum
interesting approach... between those, bolts, snapcasters, and electrolyze, the bolt-snap-bolt finish seems much more realistic. Has anyone considered going more of a traditional UB "death of a thousand stings" style of build with cruel ultimatum as the finisher, not just the massive advantage engine?
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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
First, I realize nicol bolas isn't an ideal card but the flavor interaction between it and cruel ultimatum is too good for me to pass up. Now for my questions/thoughts,
Jace seems pretty good, both to blank token strategies like B/W tokens or Twin, but also because his -2 is a skill check on the opponent. Is 2 copies too much? Should he be in the sideboard?
What is the ideal number of counterspells? Is mana leak better than rune snag? Condescend is decent because it have scry 2, but is Logic Knot better? Should I have more copies of spell snare?
Life total seems to be a problem with only cruel ultimatum being able to gain life, should batterskull be in the main? If so how many copies?
Dreadbore vs Terminate, the former doesn't prevent regeneration but it seems like that's not too much of a problem in modern, and it's nice to have a 2 mana kill spell against planeswalkers. Is this ok or should it be 3x Terminate?
Suffer the Past seems like it would be good against burn, mainly for the life gain and preventing grim lavamancer but other than that it seems kind of lackluster. I'm open to ideas
Kolaghan's Command is a card I'll be adding, but not sure what to cut in the main.
I have 25 lands, is that too few? Is 4 manlands too many? Also I'm open to suggestions about the distribution/color balance.
More general, given that I'm going into an unknown meta what potential cards am i missing either in main or sideboard?
Hey guys just got back from modern monday at my LGS. Went 1-1-2, not the greatest record but I was happy with the games.
Round 1: Grixis delver.
Not a whole lot to say. Tasigur is a pain to deal with and kind of blanks Rune snag and Condescend when he's casting it for B + delve with a bunch of mana open. One way to deal with that is to aggressively use rune snags early to get them in the graveyard and then use anticipate or jace to get more. I sided in Suffer the Past + rakdos charm to try and thin his graveyard, but only drew Suffer and it got dispelled or remanded. Rough draws.
0 - 1
Round 2: U/R Twin
First game is draw go on both sides, he gets a pestermite out which I bolt. More draw go. It kind of surprised me in that he seemed to have a more tempo/control maindeck but he also had a grim lavamancer. He all ins on a deceiver exarch EOT then splinter twin. I have a terminate but he dispels it and I had no counterspell back up. Game 2 side in Keranos, rakdos charm, night of souls' betrayal. Draw go, but it seems like he gets mana screwed. He taps out for batterskull which I counter, then immediately follow up with cruel ultimatum on my turn and ride out the card advantage to victory. I think I won with bolt snap bolt. Very fun games.
0 - 1 - 1
Round 3: UWr midrange
Game 1 I keep a blue heavy hand with no blue mana. He drops a turn 2 geist and I don't draw any more mana. Not much to say, I side in batterskull, keranos, consume the meek, anger of the gods, get rid of targeted removal. It seemed like he sided in cards to make his deck more controlly, which I think was the mistake that cost him game 2. He went for the colonnade beatdown and I blew him out with consume the meek. Dropped batterskull next turn with cryptic backup, next turn dropped keranos and won soon after. I suspected he thought I was grixis delver given that I lost so early game 1, so he sided in more aggressive for game 3 but I kept most of the cards to beat his creatures. Anger of the gods, damnation, consume the meek did work and I won on the back of cruel, next turn snap cruel.
1 - 1 - 1
Round 4: Gr tron
This is where my inexperience with the deck showed. Game 1 lasted 40 minutes and I should have started the tar pit beatdown at least 3 maybe 4 turns earlier. I resolved a cruel ultimatum to make him sacrifice his ulamog and started to burn him out. He had so much mana he could tutor with eye of ugin and then cast an eldrazi same turn. I managed to stall his ulamog+emrakul thanks to cryptic tap all creatures mode + bounce ulamog and then follow up with Damnation. From 10 lands I got brought down to 4 with several ulamog casts; the game came down to bolt snap bolt. We played a friendly game 2 where I accidentally kept a 1 land hand and then didn't draw any more. He got turn 3 tron and dropped karn so I just scooped.
1 - 1 - 2
Some observations: Suffer the past seemed meh but I'll need more testing.Jace was an absolute house, even against a deck where his +1 is useless, his -2 is fantastic. Sometimes it's 1 card, other times it's 2 cards if the opponent doesn't choose right. I think 2 is the right number, but I'd play 3 if I could get away with it. Nicol bolas is quite good, but 8 mana is rough and inefficient. With that said, coming in the battlefield with 5 loyalty isn't bad, but going to 8 after first activation is good. He's such a threat that it forces to the opponent to X for 1 him, where X greater than 1. In my case, it was 3 for 1 the only time I resolved him. I'm not satisfied with the counterspells. I will probably replace my 2 Condescends with 1 spell snare and 1 other one I'll decide later, maybe a 4th cryptic. With that said, given my meta I'm seriously considering some 3 mana hard counters. Very often my rune snags or condescends were blanked. Also the meta seems to have a lot of blue and a lot of snapcasters. I think Dissipate might be a relevant card. Kolaghan's command is quite good and essentially is snapcaster 5+ which is great because it lets you play a little more aggressive with the snapcasters. I will probably add a 2nd to the deck. Besides that, Lavaclaw Reaches was very lackluster and I will probably replace with regular lands. As painful as it is to say, I don't think this meta is very conducive to maindeck manland beatdown as a primary win condition and I might have to replace the nicol bolas for maindeck batterskull or keranos. As much as I like the flavor interaction, nicky B is too slow to be a proper win condition, although destroying a land every turn has its fun.
Tangentially, the LGS has a great crowd and everybody got a kick out of the novelty of casting cruel ultimatum + nicol bolas. Everybody was really nice and the games were fun.
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
It's been a very rewarding approach. I've had a few comments here and there on the thread but I've been strictly playing this deck for some time now, and I believe in the idea of mastering a deck, I intend to master this deck.
Jumping in the bandwagon here, more demoralizing is a cruel ultimatum into a snapcaster cruel ultimatum with the snapcaster you just picked from your gy
Which in turn draws you into another cruel ultimatum
It's been a very rewarding approach. I've had a few comments here and there on the thread but I've been strictly playing this deck for some time now, and I believe in the idea of mastering a deck, I intend to master this deck.
Night of Souls' Betrayal is SB tech that you should consider. Lingering Souls can be a bummer. Plus it's fine against Affinity when they get a derp draw. If you're budgeting, think about Curse of Death's Hold.
Anyway, good luck with CC in modern. Control is pretty hard to play right now but you'll learn a lot (like how to sneak games from Tron).
That's like the grixis version of the fabiano sultai deck. Interesting. Too midrangey for my tastes, but interesting. I like recurring EE lock.
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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
I think Ashiok is great, she I used to main a copy, but recently my meta had become far to hostile for a mainboard slot against most decks. Mogis in my opinion is probably just a waste of time, hrs never going to do what you want him to and he probably is more of a win more card than anything else.
The problem is most of my deck is still in Russian, which causes quite a bit of stress at my local lgs. Most of these cards are common but sometimes the opponents get a bit griefy having to reconfirm what it is that I'm running.
hah, I use a Japanese foil Consume the Meek. I feel like I'm almost cheating every time I cast it, especially as an Instant. Not the best decision, but I couldn't resist considering how cheap it was to get.
What dou youthink about 1x Rakdos's Return in mainboard?
Rakdos's Return was great for me in standard, but here, Cruel Ult is almost strictly better. If we want an alternate big splashy sorcery that isn't Ult, I like Sorin's Vengeance a lot more. It's also worse than Ult overall, but it could be more valuable for the deck to have a more focused lifedrain spell rather than the mishmash of effects that is Ult.
Where are you getting all this excess mana to feed into a Teachings package?
Yeaaaah. After trying it out, I've cut the one-of experimental Mystical Teachings from my list because I found it win-more. Modern is really too fast to afford taking a turn off to cast a 4-mana spell that doesn't actually *do* anything, and once I can afford to cast it, I generally don't need to.
My hard-on for Sickening Shoal has gotten even bigger and I replaced the Teachings with a 4th copy. I've distinctly felt a strong correlation between hands with Shoal and Winning.
Okay I think I'm finally sold on running alternate win-cons to compliment cruel ultimatum, the only reason is that it can easily be hosed with its color intensity against blood moon and cards like leyline of sanctity. Snapcaster and tarpit beats have been able to pull through but I think the deck needs to be able to fall back on an alternate gameplan.
Subtracting 1 damnation for olivia since she fills a similar role and can be better at times when facing a bunch of manlands (infect, merfolk, affinity) or lingering souls. I hate when I'm forced to blow my early removal even if I have a damnation saved up against aggressive decks with reach to keep them from netting too much tempo
Subtracted an ultimatum for Batterskull since lifegain is important and it's a resilient threat at least. Even having it against tron where you manage to kill a wurmcoil is nice to be able to defend against the remaining tokens. Wurmcoil engine might be better than batterskull but idk yet
Ended up splitting iok w spell snare 2/2, IOK is better in the early game for sure but I'd much rather top-deck spell snare.
Cheap countermagic like Dispel can help. Also, Monastery Siege on paper looks like it could help slow down their burn as well as pull double duty by being a draw engine. If nothing else, you can always jam 3-4 Dragon's Claw into your sideboard and call it a day.
GWSelvala and the Return to HumanityGW
UWDragonlord Ojutai, Control's Elder DragonUW
UBGTasigur, the God-Pharaoh's Gift to EDHUBG
UBRNicol Bolas and his Super
friendsPawnsUBRModern
UWUW Control/Midrange/Bad JundUW
WUBRGHumansWUBRG
BGMidrangeBG
Dispel is one of your greatest tools against Burn because a large portion of their burn spells are instant speed so the ability to hold up a one mana counterspell is crucial in the matchup. Another all-star is Spell Snare. Stops their powerful spells such as Lightning Helix, Eidolon, Boros Charm, and Skullcrack. I use to run 2-3 Dragon's Claw in the side but Burn has learned from this and pack cards like Destructive Revelry to punish us for bringing in such tools. I currently use Monastery Siege and cheap counterspells to fight Burn. The Siege, when protected, makes playing Burn very taxing and forces them to invest in large amounts of mana to cast simple spells. Now Siege is also weak to the revelry but I would rather they pay 4 mana to destroy it than 2.
As for lands some people recommend Ghost Quarter to replace Tec Edge. I actually recently stopped running both because I felt that I can combat the land fight with Fulminator Mage as it is cheaper and not as restrictive as Tec Edge and it doesn't give my opponent a new basic to work with. Best part of the Fulminator is that he can be brought back with the new Command to grant us a menacing advantage. I like Smother as a catch-most kill spell, it is the reason why I run a one-of Consume the Meek to deal with an army of inkmoths and mutavaults.
UBx Tezzeret: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/18-06-17-ub-tezzeret/
2 Condescend
1 Spell Snare
3 Cryptic Command
4 Rune Snag
Card Draw
4 Anticipate
Planeswalker
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
Sorceries
2 Damnation
2 Cruel Ultimatum
Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
Instants
3 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Dreadbore
1 Terminate
3 Polluted Delta
1 Watery Grave
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Scalding Tarn
3 Steam Vents
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Blood Crypt
3 Island
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
2 Suffer the Past
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Sowing Salt
1 Batterskull
1 Consume the Meek
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Slaughter Games
1 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Thoughtseize
First, I realize nicol bolas isn't an ideal card but the flavor interaction between it and cruel ultimatum is too good for me to pass up. Now for my questions/thoughts,
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
1. I constantly swap between 1-2 Jace, AoT. He is a really strong walker for the current meta with all of the Twin and Lingering Souls decks running rampant. I would run 2 if your meta has a good amount of Twin/Tokens, while run only the 1 if it is a minority.
2. I don't know if their is a decided number of counterspells but I believe we don't run any more than 10. Most list show a split between Leaks, Snare, and Cryptic with some 1-ofs in between. Rune Snag is better late game than Mana Leak, but is a nombo with Snapcaster and Tasigur (if you decide to run him). Condescend and Logic Knot are pretty good I guess it depends how much of your graveyard you are utilizing. As for Spell Snare 1 can be fine but I would certainly not run more than 2.
3. You bring up a great point and I would run Batterskull main. 1 is fine, but if you are having trouble against very aggressive decks than you could bump it up to 2. Just be careful you don't run too many win cons and no way to get to them.
4. I still run the split between Terminate and Dreadbore for a few reasons. I like the ability to kill a walker without the use of burn spells and because when game 2 starts up against certain decks they like to bring in Dispel to stop our spells so it is nice to have an answer that players are not ready for. Overall Terminate is a better spell because it it an instant, but Dreadbore is still a solid spell.
5. Suffer is generally good against any deck that fills their yard AND is threatening an aggressive early game. I think you have it spot on.
6. -1 Electrolyze +1 Kolaghan's Command, if you don't like that cut back on 1 Anticipate. The new Command is very good and gives us amazing answers game 1 and is one of the reasons why I have shifted from Sowing Salts to Fulminator Mages.
7. 25 is fine, but I was never really impressed by Lavaclaw Reaches. I think when it is good is up against the decks that can't answer the land at all which is primarily Tron whereas Creeping Tar Pit is always good and gives us more relevant colors. You run a good amount of basics which is great against getting Blood Mooned but I worry if you will have the right mana when you need it most. Fetches are your friend.
8. I think you have all of the core cards in and your sideboard is diverse so you should do fine in an unknown meta. Maybe make room for a Dispel or Counterflux in the side.
Best of luck
UBx Tezzeret: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/18-06-17-ub-tezzeret/
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
Hey guys just got back from modern monday at my LGS. Went 1-1-2, not the greatest record but I was happy with the games.
Round 1: Grixis delver.
Not a whole lot to say. Tasigur is a pain to deal with and kind of blanks Rune snag and Condescend when he's casting it for B + delve with a bunch of mana open. One way to deal with that is to aggressively use rune snags early to get them in the graveyard and then use anticipate or jace to get more. I sided in Suffer the Past + rakdos charm to try and thin his graveyard, but only drew Suffer and it got dispelled or remanded. Rough draws.
0 - 1
Round 2: U/R Twin
First game is draw go on both sides, he gets a pestermite out which I bolt. More draw go. It kind of surprised me in that he seemed to have a more tempo/control maindeck but he also had a grim lavamancer. He all ins on a deceiver exarch EOT then splinter twin. I have a terminate but he dispels it and I had no counterspell back up. Game 2 side in Keranos, rakdos charm, night of souls' betrayal. Draw go, but it seems like he gets mana screwed. He taps out for batterskull which I counter, then immediately follow up with cruel ultimatum on my turn and ride out the card advantage to victory. I think I won with bolt snap bolt. Very fun games.
0 - 1 - 1
Round 3: UWr midrange
Game 1 I keep a blue heavy hand with no blue mana. He drops a turn 2 geist and I don't draw any more mana. Not much to say, I side in batterskull, keranos, consume the meek, anger of the gods, get rid of targeted removal. It seemed like he sided in cards to make his deck more controlly, which I think was the mistake that cost him game 2. He went for the colonnade beatdown and I blew him out with consume the meek. Dropped batterskull next turn with cryptic backup, next turn dropped keranos and won soon after. I suspected he thought I was grixis delver given that I lost so early game 1, so he sided in more aggressive for game 3 but I kept most of the cards to beat his creatures. Anger of the gods, damnation, consume the meek did work and I won on the back of cruel, next turn snap cruel.
1 - 1 - 1
Round 4: Gr tron
This is where my inexperience with the deck showed. Game 1 lasted 40 minutes and I should have started the tar pit beatdown at least 3 maybe 4 turns earlier. I resolved a cruel ultimatum to make him sacrifice his ulamog and started to burn him out. He had so much mana he could tutor with eye of ugin and then cast an eldrazi same turn. I managed to stall his ulamog+emrakul thanks to cryptic tap all creatures mode + bounce ulamog and then follow up with Damnation. From 10 lands I got brought down to 4 with several ulamog casts; the game came down to bolt snap bolt. We played a friendly game 2 where I accidentally kept a 1 land hand and then didn't draw any more. He got turn 3 tron and dropped karn so I just scooped.
1 - 1 - 2
Some observations: Suffer the past seemed meh but I'll need more testing.Jace was an absolute house, even against a deck where his +1 is useless, his -2 is fantastic. Sometimes it's 1 card, other times it's 2 cards if the opponent doesn't choose right. I think 2 is the right number, but I'd play 3 if I could get away with it. Nicol bolas is quite good, but 8 mana is rough and inefficient. With that said, coming in the battlefield with 5 loyalty isn't bad, but going to 8 after first activation is good. He's such a threat that it forces to the opponent to X for 1 him, where X greater than 1. In my case, it was 3 for 1 the only time I resolved him. I'm not satisfied with the counterspells. I will probably replace my 2 Condescends with 1 spell snare and 1 other one I'll decide later, maybe a 4th cryptic. With that said, given my meta I'm seriously considering some 3 mana hard counters. Very often my rune snags or condescends were blanked. Also the meta seems to have a lot of blue and a lot of snapcasters. I think Dissipate might be a relevant card. Kolaghan's command is quite good and essentially is snapcaster 5+ which is great because it lets you play a little more aggressive with the snapcasters. I will probably add a 2nd to the deck. Besides that, Lavaclaw Reaches was very lackluster and I will probably replace with regular lands. As painful as it is to say, I don't think this meta is very conducive to maindeck manland beatdown as a primary win condition and I might have to replace the nicol bolas for maindeck batterskull or keranos. As much as I like the flavor interaction, nicky B is too slow to be a proper win condition, although destroying a land every turn has its fun.
Tangentially, the LGS has a great crowd and everybody got a kick out of the novelty of casting cruel ultimatum + nicol bolas. Everybody was really nice and the games were fun.
Lavaclaw Reaches is straight trash in my opinion. No evasion and a mana sink? Nope.
Until we see the UR manland, Creeping Tar Pit is the way to go.
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 Island
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
4 Polluted delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Reflecting Pool
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Instant/Sorcery (30)
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Spell Snare
4 Geth's Verdict
3 Think Twice
2 Countersquall
1 Terminate
1 Logic Knot
2 Electrolyze
2 Cryptic Command
2 Damnation
1 Rewind
3 Cruel Ultimatum
3 Snapcaster Mage
Artifact (1)
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Slaughter Games
1 Flashfreeze
1 Dispel
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Pyroclasm
1 Batterskull
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Counterflux
1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
1 Sowing salt
Twitch channel
That's too many Cruel Ultimatum's. 2x is the high end. Also, Terminate is a fine card and better in a format with Lingering Souls than Geth's Verdict.
Night of Souls' Betrayal is SB tech that you should consider. Lingering Souls can be a bummer. Plus it's fine against Affinity when they get a derp draw. If you're budgeting, think about Curse of Death's Hold.
Anyway, good luck with CC in modern. Control is pretty hard to play right now but you'll learn a lot (like how to sneak games from Tron).
4x Polluted Delta
3x Scalding Tarn
3x Watery Grave
1x Steam Vents
2x Darkslick Shores
2x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Tectonic Edge
1x Academy Ruins
2x Swamp
5x Island
Creatures (8)
4x Snapcaster Mage
1x Vendilion Clique
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Tombstalker
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Artifacts (2)
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Batterskull
Instants and Sorceries, and Artifacts (21)
2x Mana Leak
3x Victim of Night
2x Spell Snare
1x Remand
3x Cryptic Command
2x Damnation
1x Jace's Ingenuity
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Serum Visions
1x Thoughtseize
2x Slaughter Games
2x Clever Impersonator
1x Curse of Death's Hold
1x Dispel
1x Negate
1x Pearl Lake Ancient
2x Jorubai Murk Lurker
2x Vandalblast
2x Vedalken Shackles
1x Blood Moon
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
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/)
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
- Nicol Bolas
Where are you getting all this excess mana to feed into a Teachings package?
Teachings is a build around card. If you want more copies of Cryptic Command or Snapcaster Mage, just run more copies of Cryptic Command or Snapcaster Mage. Teachings for Snap or CC is really mana inefficient.
hah, I use a Japanese foil Consume the Meek. I feel like I'm almost cheating every time I cast it, especially as an Instant. Not the best decision, but I couldn't resist considering how cheap it was to get.
Rakdos's Return was great for me in standard, but here, Cruel Ult is almost strictly better. If we want an alternate big splashy sorcery that isn't Ult, I like Sorin's Vengeance a lot more. It's also worse than Ult overall, but it could be more valuable for the deck to have a more focused lifedrain spell rather than the mishmash of effects that is Ult.
Yeaaaah. After trying it out, I've cut the one-of experimental Mystical Teachings from my list because I found it win-more. Modern is really too fast to afford taking a turn off to cast a 4-mana spell that doesn't actually *do* anything, and once I can afford to cast it, I generally don't need to.
My hard-on for Sickening Shoal has gotten even bigger and I replaced the Teachings with a 4th copy. I've distinctly felt a strong correlation between hands with Shoal and Winning.
Twitch channel
Subtracting 1 damnation for olivia since she fills a similar role and can be better at times when facing a bunch of manlands (infect, merfolk, affinity) or lingering souls. I hate when I'm forced to blow my early removal even if I have a damnation saved up against aggressive decks with reach to keep them from netting too much tempo
Subtracted an ultimatum for Batterskull since lifegain is important and it's a resilient threat at least. Even having it against tron where you manage to kill a wurmcoil is nice to be able to defend against the remaining tokens. Wurmcoil engine might be better than batterskull but idk yet
Ended up splitting iok w spell snare 2/2, IOK is better in the early game for sure but I'd much rather top-deck spell snare.
Update
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Batterskull
Instant (22)
3 Cryptic Command
3 Electrolyze
1 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Think Twice
3 Geth's Verdict
3 Mana Leak
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Snare
Sorcery (6)
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Damnation
2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
4 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Island
3 Swamp
1 Mountain
2 Thoughtseize
2 Spellskite
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Terminate
2 Countersquall
3 Dissolve
2 Sowing Salt
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Wurmcoil Engine