Yes, 3/4 are very hard to remove for most decks. That is the reason I still play 3-4 Resto Angels. 3/4 flying with flash even without blinking something for value is awesome. I used Brimaz for a little while. My issue was he had no evasion and with only 3 power could not get past x/4 blockers. I have not tried him since the Splinter Twin ban (exarch once being the main x/4 blocker). With the increase in bolts flying around, might be time to try Brimaz again!
Depending on what you expect, Brimaz is really the all star. It's not just the 4 toughness, it's also the vigilance. I know it probably doesn't come up very often because how many Nahiris are ticking down, but Brimaz will never be tapped to get exiled, which may be something that can change the game. It's also the reason Serra Avenger is good. It also just wrecks creature decks, which surprisingly I ran into way more than I thought I would.
A quick exert about my choices, because some, again, worked great, others were a terrible choice.
- Judge's Familiar
Personally I just like the card. I won a lot of games because my opponent wouldn't be able to play a spell because it was a double tax for there spells. And the ability to fly allowed me to get some chip shots in on a stalled board. Going forward, I probably would not play a single one and switch back to Dryad Militant, for multiple reasons, some of which will be mentioned later. - Kytheon
I just wanted to test him out. Honestly, he wasn't bad, but he wasn't great. There was a few times that people didn't think about his ability, but overall, I would cut him going forward, again, didn't do anything great for me. It was just a test for him. - Brimaz
The all star here. The ability to dodge lightning bolt, anger of the gods, pyroclasm, the list could go on, was so valuable the entire weekend. People would just Anger of the Gods and just look upon the board in dispair as Brimaz stared them down and clocked them for 4. There was a few times he wasn't great, but he was always the first target for most peoples discard effects and Path to Exiles, so he wasn't terrible. 2 was the right number, but it can be changed. - The entire sideboard
Mostly just ignore it. I don't play much in person magic due to a terrible schedule so I do most of my research from the internet with articles and videos and coverage. I knew going in Ancestral Vision was a card, so was Nahiri, so the Spirits were a small amount of tech against it. Never used them for that, but they were awesome against my win against a Turns player. The Firewalkers were ok. I faced 2 burn and a Zoo deck, which they were all stars, every other match though I wish they were Kitchen Finks. Something I'm considering. Sunlance was garbage. It was ok against the burn/zoo decks, but I was already so heavily favored. I never faced Affinity, but Stony Silence should handle that well enough. I am looking to replace those as well.
Cards I Wished I Had All Weekend Long Wilt-Leaf Liege
In testing, this card was so good for me against anything playing Liliana, but going in, I wasn't so sure how much I would face. Turns out it was all of my losses, being 2 Jund and a Mardu which was basically white Jund. My hand just kept getting ripped to shreds by Liliana and Pyroclasms, I just wish I had the pump and the ability. I'll be trying some in the sideboard now. Mutavault
Sea Gate Wreckage was cute, I drew some cards. But again, against decks like Jund and Mardu, I wish I had the creature land to get the beats in. In my last round to give me my fourth loss, if I had Mutavault instead of Sea Gate, I would have won that game so easily. Live and learn, will be playing 3 going forward. Card is worth it.
Overall, I really liked the deck. I've always liked it. The numbers still need to be worked on, mostly because it's a very meta-dependent deck, but I think I made some good calls and some bad ones. My rounds for the weekend
1 - Infect - W - 2-1
2 - Grixis Control - W - 2-1
3 - Blue Moon - W - 2-0
4 - Jund - W 2-1
5 - Burn - W 2-1
6 - Burn - W 2-0
7 - Cant remember to save my life, but I won - W 2-0
8 - Jund (Mike Sigrest) - L 0-2
9 - UWR Control - L 0-2
Day 2
10 - Zoo - W 2-0
11 - Mono Blue Turns - W 2-1
12 - Mardu - L 1-2
13 - Blue Moon - L 1-2
I never got paired down the entire tournament unlike a lot of people. If you don't know about what happened at GP Charlotte, look it up, it was crazy. But all my opponents records were the same as mine.
Very quick match where the combination of Thalia, TKS, and Tidehallow really shine. Game one a Thalia and Tidehallow went the distance while a Wasteland Strangler refused to be useless and suicided to eat an Ancestral Visions. I won game two off the back of a Thalia and Eldrazi displacer. A flickerwisp came through a vial to turn his dictate off for his turn, which was displaced each of my end steps to do the same. 3-0
R4 - Naya Burn
Game one opponent kept a sketchy 6 with one basic mountain. A Thalia ate a riftbolt and a skuller revealed all red cards. A TKS the following turn wrapped things up. At this point I assumed he was on mono-red burn or some budget variant since all I saw were bolt, spike, blaze, and rift bolt. Game two opponent blows that theory out of the water and I die on T4 to an onslaught of Goblin Guides and Swiftspears. In game three we just both run out a fistful of creatures. I TKS and opponent is stuck off green mana due to an arbiter, I can take an Atarka's Command or Nacatl from his hand and choose the Nacatl figuring he'd have to start chumping next turn and I can close faster than he can. He ripped a land and punished me hard for that line. Luckily a Displacer came up and wrapped up the match by displacing his blockers and swinging for lethal. 4-0
R5 - Elves
I believe this matchup to be fairly bad. They have 8x must kill creatures (Ezuri/Archdruid) and we have 8x answers to them (PtE, Strangler). Once elves starts to amass a board full of 1/1's and 2/2's it becomes very difficult to break through without some Displacer action. G1 is pretty close, but he's able to make a billion mana, pay for both arbiters, pay thalia tax, chord for Ezuri and pump. RIP. G2 follows much of the same pattern. Perhaps we need an infest in the board, ZP has a short shelflife in this matchup and it's gotta really pull a 3-4 for one to be worth cashing in. 4-1
R6 - RG Ponza
This matchup seems great with Aether Vial. On the play I lead Eldrazi Temple into Vial. He starts on forst -> Utopia Sprawl. Efro was playing this deck online in my previous league so I had some idea of how it played out and could pin him on the deck T1. T2 Thalia slows him down a turn and he double Sprawls the forest during his turn. I vial in a Tidehallow to get some information before casting an Arbiter and stripping the double sprawled land to force the concession. Game two was interesting. After mulling hard for vial I kept a hand of GQ-Vial-3 creatures. He molten rains the GQ on T2 and vial goes to town. After Tidehallowing his hand and seeing 2x Stone Rain 2x Acid-moss I refuse to play a land for the rest of the game and he dies to a pair of bears. 5-1
R7 - Dredge
Game one I'm able to take after his draw just doesn't come together. Game two I remember him Thoughtseizing a RIP then "going off" with a fistful of vengevines and bloodghasts. G3 he boarded out his ancient grudges and a Relic was able to hold back his graveyard while I dealt with some mana issues. He forces me to pop the relic after a nice sized dredge and I'm able to find a cage. In his one turn window he's able to put 3x Anamilgram, 2x Bloodghast, 2x Gravecrawler. Thanks to a huge exile zone, Wasteland Strangler and Displacer worked double duty in order to stabilize at 3 and win the game shortly thereafter. 6-1
R8 - Abzan CoCo
Barring any very late game gavony township draws, their only real route to victory is to combo us out of the game. G1 a Flickerwisp - Wasteland Strangler blowout let me race him on board. Game two a Displacer is able to keep a township mangeable while the little flickerwisp that could gets there. 7-1
R9 - Ad Nauseam
This matchup seems incredible. G1 he leads on Halimar Depths and I'm not sure what he's on. I run out Arbiter hoping he's more than a bear. He is just a 2/2 here . A Temple off the top allows T3 TKS and T4 Smasher putting my opponent into Ad Nauseam to find Angel's Grace to live for the turn. He does, plays an unlife on his endstep which Flickerwisp takes care of.
A T2 Thalia eats a Slaughter Pact (which is fine by me). The T3 Thalia is proves to be particularly difficult to overcome as my opponent stumbles multiple times determining what line to make. A notible interaction my opponent missed was that when he is casting a Pentad Prism through Thalia, you can pay three different colors mana and get three counters. I made a little stumble when blowing a Flickerwisp to flicker his Leyline in order to cast a Duress. Unfortunately, I forgot about Thalia tax, so no duress. It didn't come back to haunt me as the opponent died on the following turn. 8-1
Day one record 8-1
R10 - Infect
Pretty close matchup, opponent mulligans game one and opens on forest - Heiarch. Next turn was Forest - Viridan Corrupter to tag my Aether Vial. I path the Corrupter in the my main phase and he doesn't take the search. ***GREEN LIGHT TO STRIPMINE*** I fire off the two ghost quarters putting him on only a heiarch. He doesn't find another relevant infect creature and dies to some bears a few turns later.
G2 he opens on Heiarch with Inkmoth and Blighted Agent in-tow. 9 balls me on T3 and I fail to draw an answer to the inkmoth.
G3 was pretty close but I end up getting there while controlling his drawstep with displacer and Tidehallow. 9-1
R11 - Jund
Short and sweet, G1 he does jundy things and Inquisition into Goyf into Lilly. Hand was meh after the inquisition and I never recovered. G2 went pretty long, but a timely Flickerwisp to reset and kill his Lilly turned it around in my favor. G3 was more of the same Jund. T1 Thoughtseize takes a path, T2 Bob sits around for 7 turns or so and eventually takes over the game. 9-2
R12 - Abzan CoCo
Game one I take with a tidehallow -> Strangler curve with Wisp to reset the Tidehallow. Game two I get some good Tidehallow - Flickerwisp - Eldrazi Displacer synergy but punt the game (and T8 contention) away with a horrible, needlessly agressive line... Opponent has one card in hand, Witness and a 3/2 Finks on board. I have two displacers, a tidehallow, strangler, and have the ability to either blink twice or blink and animate my Shambling Vents. I animated and sent the team figuring he'd have to have a removal spell, and even that would only put him to 3 life with no cards in hand while I had 5 power on board. He has a path, but in a moment of brilliance I don't displace my displacer. Almost every other line you could take would have been correct in that place. I could have even just displaced his finks precombat and attacked for lethal. Just a horrible line all around. Logan was a good guy about it though. 9-3 (rip t8)
R13 - Fish
Unexciting games, opponent floods in both and Stranglers and paths never let him establish a boardstate. There was some hot vial on vial action which involved me taking his two drop with sculler. 10-3
R14 - Abzan CoCo
G1 I was on the play and lead with a T2 Arbiter. His T1 was Tomb -> BoP. T3 was arbiter, thoughtseize go. He pays two mana for an arbiter then plays and cracks a fetchland, causing everyone watching to wince as a judge explains that he can't search since I have two arbiters. After paying a life, stone raining himself and tapping out his hand is garbage and I clean up G1 in quick order. 10-4
G2 goes long, but TKS and Flickerwisp put some heavy clocks while he's trying to assemble the combo. He is at 6 and draws a BoP and bolsters to stop my Flickerwisp. Another flickerwisp saves the day and presents lethal on the following turn. (For those that don't see the line, Wisp targets Wisp, EOT I get my wisp back targetting the other wisp, End of his turn I get my original wisp back and flicker his BoP until my EOT. Now I have 6 power in the air and he has no blocker.)
R15 - Kiki Chord
G1 Opponent mulligans and keeps a hand chock full of fetches and dorks. A pair of arbiters stop the chord in his hand and slow his fetches and TKS is able to close the game quickly. G2 opponent mulligans to a dork heavy hand and proceeds to lose while playing 3x Heiarch, 2x BoP, and an Eternal Witness.
Overall deck felt incredible. The only actual "Loss" I'd say was to the elves player in round 5. Jund was a close game and felt even, if I had an answer to his Bob it very well could have gone either way. And the punt against Abzan CoCo was a good case of the deck holding up it's end of the bargain and the pilot failing to close the deal.
T64 finish with a record of 12-3 is a great finish for the weekend. Every matchup felt good. I hit a good string of variance and rode it all the way.
From here I'd like to try a sampling of different hatebears out of the sideboard. Phryxean Revoker seems like a good one. I want to try Dark Confidant's in the main. I want to cut the Reality Smasher. Thalia was good, but she gets outclassed pretty quick and being legendary left me with deadcards in hand a lot of the time :\
The heart of the deck really lies in Wasteland Strangler, Eldrazi Displacer, and Flickerwisp. This trio was just incredible all day and got so many game wins where I appeared to be severely behind only to cast one, vial the other, and suddenly I'm in control. It's unfortunate that they all occupy our three drop slot because I'd like to try some other 3cmc guys but these are so good that I'm going to stick with them 4x.
After finally sleeping for an entire night I can recap my choices a bit better. I heavily buit my deck around jund being huge at GPLA and although it was i never faced it once, so mirran crusader wasn't great (good versus coco and infect bad versus nahiri, burn and random deck). In testing if you want good sideboard tech against jund use Leyline, you want at least 3 maybe 4 if you can fit it, yes the multiples late game are bad ( like when i drew all three of mine versus burn and slowly got killed by a non pumped swiftspear and a lavamancer swinging in, but you need to maximize your possibility to get it out turn 0 (much like 8-rack uses 4 with no ways to hard cast.) this turns of a minimum of 6 1cmc discard in their deck, turns off Liliana -2 and ultimate, take a mode off of K-command and turns off a number of sideboard cards. the grave hate is good, going forward I would dedicate 3 slots ( i prefer 2x rest 1x cage but if you run finks or lingering souls you may prefer a card like relic.) Affinity seems to be back in some numbers so don't forget the stony silence etc... Burn wil always be around so if not running leyline run firewalker multiple burrenton etc... the rest of my sideboard is chunked into archetypes IE 2-3 sunlance for aggro creatures (zoo, burn, merfolk, elves, etc....)
So people tend to woder what they should play or ask about power levels I will try to adress this below
Mono White Stock(Recommended for first time taxers): Most stable mana base, most flex spots for tuning, one of the only builds that can run 3x tectoic edge, VERY consistent overall and repeatable. Also able to use more WW cards like brimaz, finks, crusader more easily than other builds. Also takes 0 damage from mana-base which can be extremely relevant versus aggro builds and scapeshift. The reason why this is recommended to newer players by nearly all the veterans of the deck is because it teaches you the basics and how to use the important cards like flicekrwisp, so when you start splashing and tuning you know what effects you are getting rid of what you are adding. Simple deck building the card you replace in the build should be more powerful than the card you are taking out (which is why i never remove and flickerwisp.)
Mono white eldrazi- Not a real deck yet but since I'm making it my pet project (not first to come up with idea but I do see the potential power and want to develop it in the coming months) Still pretty stable mana base (12 white sources 11 colorless), a lot of x/4+ creatures to dodge bolt, smasher having trample prevents chump blockers, but since maxing out displacer for value with temple less flying creatures. Had to cut all tectonic edge to make room for the temples. Edge is really bad some games (versus aggro etc....) but great against control and scapeshift. Control since with thalia they need 5 lands to wrath and at 4 land we can activate to slow them down more also hits colonnade, against scapeshift once they go for the combo with valkut triggers on the stack you can blow up mountains so that the triggers become obsolete (with if statement the ability checks on resolution.) Still has some flex spots and room for tuning but not as much as the standard white built
B/W non Eldrazi. ok with this build you can get a lot of utility, still a fairly consistent mana-base a little bit of pain from lands but not too bad. Of course this depends on the amount of black you put in the deck. Users like @catmix have done micro splashes just for lingering souls flash back, at this point you can probably manage to take no damage from your lands. I went a little more than that successfully during eldrazi winter with 4x souls and 4 x orzhov pontiff main. When you start going deeper and needing double colored mana turn 2 for cards like tidehollow sculler it can get more painful but you get more control. personally when I play black splash I like to keep it to 8 cards or less that have black in them in the main and those black cards need synergy, the three sets i personally use are; tidehollow sculler with wasteland strangler (can be done w/o eldrazi but with eldrazi wil be discussed later,) Dark confidant with Pack rat and usually finks for regaining life, these synergize since pack rat can use extra cards drawn from confidant, pack rat helps keep the curve low to take less damage etc.... last I already talked about is souls with pontiff works great pontif can be used very well in this build for either offence or defence/board wipe. Black offers a lot of sideboard options not available to the white version cards like pontiff/zealous persecution against decks like elves souls sister tokens etc, anguished unmaking against random non creature threats like keranos, ghirapur aether grid, planeswalkers, ensnaring bridge, pyromancer's ascension etc... surgical extration yes all builds can use this but with black you have cards to see opponents hand and can cast it without pain. Black can also use Vault of the archangel which is amazing with both tokens and first strike creatures, as well as gaining life at before aggro can kill you (if you live that long.)
B/W Eldrazi: Little room for tuning, more tunes are shifting around numbers of the creatures in the deck. Mana can be very painful, and shambling vents can lead to awkward draws. BUT, this version when working correctly is VERY powerful and has a late game lock out potential no other version has (IE with displacer wisp, sculler and strangler in the game late you can lock your opponent out of their draw step and if they draw blank start flickering their permanents and processing them with strangler over and over.) But again many times you have to choose between either a T1 vial or a T2 sculler ( i usually pick vial to get sculler off from vial on their t3 draw step) sine cards like shambling vents come into play tapped. Also Blood moon can wreck this deck if you don't have a vial in play and even when you do you may be forced to tick vial up past three and then your 3 drops become bad as the game goes on. So there is some trade off less consistency and more pain, for more power (seems right for black overall in magic) and late game locks.
Gw Taxes- I apologize I haven't played this version in over a year so i am not the best to summarize this deck in the current meta, but I have played the deck so i can go over the basic mechanics of it, just had to get that out there before posting so I don;t get bad feedback of this or that isn't good anymore. The reason to play this build is noble Hierarch, great when you don't have a vial in your opening hand and gives the dream of T1 hierarch T2 arbiter and ghost quarter. Loxodon smiter is versus liliana and has that much important 4 toughness but I wouldn't take out all the blade splicers for him i think last time I ran the deck i ran 3 of each. The deck is still pretty consistent with the addition of mana dorks, and the fast lands (razorverge thicket) Other cards i had success with were, eternal witness would be an auto include in some numbers wince it can get back ghost quarter, whatever creature you need etc, qasali pridemage is great in the right meta and gives exalted trigger in matches where it isn't great, Voice of resurgence again can be very good in the right meta, scavenging ooze I love the creature but he is not as great here as in other builds do to limited number of green sources still always worth consideration when you are tuning. Lastly you can usually run 1x 4 drop with additional mana i usually went with either sigarda, host of herons or baneslayer angel and of course you get access to Gavony township which can take over games on it's own. Again this is not an all inclusive list, and I haven;t payed the list in awhile but just to give an idea of what you can do with green, this splash is usually the most aggressive at the cost of some of the evasion.
other color combinations have been tried but have yet to break out as heavily competitive. nto saying the power isn't there, but have not received the proper attention to stream line them and make them competitive.
@topher: great job! and congrats on T64. Thanks for repping the deck and help bring light to it and the great write up o the matches. Every one I know that piloted this in the GP made day 2, and a couple made it out with some prize support. Btw the ldrazi version alone is a top 10 deck now and even higher if you add in the mono white versions. but KEEP up the good work and I look forward to see how your list evolves in the future.
Swordeh, we run a very similar list! I have been running mirran crusaders recently instead of Brimaz. Mirran eats bolt, but dodges terminate and K-command. Mirran can also block or evade most of the problematic large ground creatures like goyf, tasigur, scooze, and kalitas. It is all a meta choice. They are both good extra beaters. Like I said, there has been a lot more bolts flying around with the rise of Jeskai and Grixis control type decks again, so I might switch back to 1-2 Brimaz.
My Modern decks: Death and Taxes, Hatebears, Well Oiled Machine, Merfolk, Nyx Wave, Soul Sisters, Stompy, Matyr Proc, Naya Zoo, Robots (I refuse to call it affinity!), Bogles, Kiki Chord
the deck has seemed great, i went 4-1 in my last modern league on mtgo (competitive lol)
i played against naya chord 2 times 1-0, 2-1
-wall of omens is annoying as ***** (i've started just pathing them early, im considering dismemeber)
-usually you can disrupt their mana with gut shots on mana dorks, and a early arbiter can just kill them.
-i rmemeber flickerwisping nahiri to reset it also lol
r/g tron 2-1
-had a game where i went mimic into thought-knot into arbiter ghost quarter
-stony silence is great
-fun note, lost to karn resetting the game and getting smacked with two of my own smashers
lost to affinity 0-2
-opponent had mainboard spellskite and killed me with a 8/8 masters i drew only 1 path.
-usually they are just soooo fast and i never had an opprotunity to draw any hate D:
beat scapeshift 2-0
-pretty self explanatory
-arbiter stop him multiple times by flashing in to stop tribe elder
-game 1 i was on play he suspended search and i had trn 2 thalia in turn three arbiter ghost quarter.
quick write up, its late, feel free to shoot qestions and i'll try and check back soon
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I'm going to a tournament this weekend with a GW Eldrazi list. What I'm wondering atm: How do you think is Scavenging Ooze positioned right now? You know what it does: Shrinks Goyfs, eats snapcaster targets, interrupts finks's combo, gains life, MD hate against grishoalbrand and delve decks. Decks I expect to see. Competing for scooze's slot is qasali pridemage which is for the matchups bogles, affinity, burn, merfolk and maybe some sword of the meek players.
I tested this shell thoroughly, but any suggestions I will take happily. 10 brains always think more than just one.
I'm whipping up a similar GW Eldrazi list. You've likely tested more than I have, but Smiter looks a bit redundant to me as a beater with access to 4x TKS. Have you tested running 2x Reality Smasher in that slot instead? Running 4x temples comes at a big cost to our mana base, so I imagine we would want to take advantage of it by upping the Eldrazi count. I'm also testing 3 Displacers for the same reason.
@Mighty Bento: I always had success with scooze, but usually played it as more of a 4 drop (or dropping when vial is on 2 and having 2 green open) in order to get around lightning bolt. it is god for all the reasons you mentioned, graveyard hate is important with living end, tarmogoyf, snapcaster and even dredge making a comeback and in the mid to late game it can just be a giant beater. 2 main seems to be good. Aslo i would try to squeeze in another e-wit when i played green it always seemed to be the best card in the splash (after hierarch of course)
@FLCL: I too have gone to trying to do the mono-white eldrazi list. The things I personally don't like that is in your list is the Random 1x mimic (could easily be 4th flickerwisp,) and the matter reshaper can be a card like kitchen finks if you want the value since you are always getting a creature upon death and finks can be blinked for value where reshaper cannot be, also reshaper could be splicer, I get why you would cut them since thought-knot and smasher make great beaters on their own, I just think in white with a bunch of flicker effects that we can get more value that reshaper. Also 1 of gut shot main is a bit weird and can have high variance, if you like the effect (since I know it can put in work) maybe think of icatian javelineers, at least it has a body and can be blinked for value. Personally I don;t use fiend hunter but it is a good card and can be blinked for a lot of value when played, and is largely a meta call. Lastly I would attempt to find room for 1-2 mindcensor in the 75 they are very god in many match-ups later in the game when arbiter starts to be less of a tax (against decks like abzan coco, kiki-chord, scapeshift, nahiri jeskai etc....)
****usual disclaimer the above are just my opinions from playing death and taxes for awhile and by no means am i Saying yo u need to do this. Just weighing in with what i have found.
@Mighty Bento: I always had success with scooze, but usually played it as more of a 4 drop (or dropping when vial is on 2 and having 2 green open) in order to get around lightning bolt. it is god for all the reasons you mentioned, graveyard hate is important with living end, tarmogoyf, snapcaster and even dredge making a comeback and in the mid to late game it can just be a giant beater. 2 main seems to be good. Aslo i would try to squeeze in another e-wit when i played green it always seemed to be the best card in the splash (after hierarch of course)
@FLCL: I too have gone to trying to do the mono-white eldrazi list. The things I personally don't like that is in your list is the Random 1x mimic (could easily be 4th flickerwisp,) and the matter reshaper can be a card like kitchen finks if you want the value since you are always getting a creature upon death and finks can be blinked for value where reshaper cannot be, also reshaper could be splicer, I get why you would cut them since thought-knot and smasher make great beaters on their own, I just think in white with a bunch of flicker effects that we can get more value that reshaper. Also 1 of gut shot main is a bit weird and can have high variance, if you like the effect (since I know it can put in work) maybe think of icatian javelineers, at least it has a body and can be blinked for value. Personally I don;t use fiend hunter but it is a good card and can be blinked for a lot of value when played, and is largely a meta call. Lastly I would attempt to find room for 1-2 mindcensor in the 75 they are very god in many match-ups later in the game when arbiter starts to be less of a tax (against decks like abzan coco, kiki-chord, scapeshift, nahiri jeskai etc....)
****usual disclaimer the above are just my opinions from playing death and taxes for awhile and by no means am i Saying yo u need to do this. Just weighing in with what i have found.
the mimic is in there because i needed another two drop for curving purposes and it randomly just kills them, helps facilitate a quicker kill through tax. matter reshaper is in here over finks because of temple, having the speed to come out with vial into matter reshaper is insane. gut shot is to slow affinity and chord decks while killing random x/1's, i dont think javelineers are very good, they dont deal with the problem matchups fast enough. i do like mincensor and have been adding/cutting a singleton for a while.
thanks for your thoughts
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Overall, I have to say that the mainboard has been performing splendidly (in fact, I'd go so far as say that it's felt like a strict upgrade to the classical mono-W D&T shell in my hands), so I have no complaints there.
I haven't quite been able to pin down the right type of sideboard, though, so I have some questions on that front.
1. Should I be reaching for Grafdigger's Cage to stymie Abzan Company and Jeskai Nahiri? I'm thinking Arbiters, Relics, and Sunlances with creature removal is enough to handle the former, but Jeskai Nahiri shrugs most of that off (they pay the mana for Arbiter and ignore the rest).
2. How about Kataki, War's Wage versus Stony Silence in the Affinity matchup? This is a decision I admittedly struggle with, given that Kataki has better synergy with Thalia, but a less definitive initial effect (and dies to Dispatch, Galvanic Blast, and Whipflare).
3. Should I have more Jund hate? If so, what should that Jund hate look like? I'm thinking Reality Smasher, but I was leery on having a 5-drop in a 22-land deck, especially when Vials get sided out (which they do against BGX Midrange).
4. I'm also wondering if Worship is any good right now. It was awesome in Eldrazi Winter and in the immediate, 8-Whack and Gruul Zoo-filled aftermath, but now I'm not quite as sure.
1) A single cage is great against Abzan Company as it's hard for them to access hate if you have it. Overloading on cages can cause you to die to random gavony township beats while you draw dead cards so you shouldn't go too deep on them. Cage is absolutely not for Jeskai Nahiri. If you want game against Nahiri, the best options are Pithing Needle (can be reset with Flickerwisp/deal with Celestial Collonade, great against Inkmoth decks and tron), Celestial Purge (doubles as Anti Bob/Lili/Kalitas in Jund) or Hallowed Moonlight (doubles as Chord/CoCo/Graveyard Hate and combos with displacer).
2) Kataki is very awkward in tying up your mana paying for Vials/Tidehollow scullers. Against affinity Your "end game" is often getting displacer mana active as it can blank ravager tricks, unequip platings, reset overseer counters ontop of all of the combos with your own guys. Playing more Zealous Persecution, or even Gutshots would be better than Kataki, it depends on their draw, but if they have a glimmervoid/nexus heavy draw kataki can often not do enough. If you want extra % against affinity move your pontiffs to Zealous Persecution as Zealous persecutions can hit nexus and can often clip steel overseer before it activates.
3) I'm not going to comment on how to fix this one. Running the stock list against Jund seemed like a nightmare when I tried it and ultimately caused me to move away from the stock list as I couldn't reliably beat them without Arbiter screw. I don't know if there's a good solution but Smashers, Lingering Souls, Celestial Purge, and Mirran Crusader are the best cards I can think of the would qualify as "Jund Hate". If you're running Smasher heavy you might even want to board up a Sea Gate Wreckage to 23 land.
4) Worship is typically good against decks you're already good against. Any Zoo deck has issues with wasteland strangler. Any burn deck will have Destructive Revelry. Any Chord deck will have some splash hate or just go infinite regardless. The only deck I see that this is actually good against would be the new Bant Eldrazi Deck which would have issues removing it.
I'm going to be running BW Eldrazi and Taxes this week at our monthy modern FNM. I'm hoping I can get some advice abotu sideboard slots.
Decks I know I will be facing -
Elves, Goblins, BW Allies, Abzan Company, EITHER Blue Moon or Jeskai Nahiri control.
Decks I will might be facing
Troll Worship, Merfolk, Bogles, Red Deck Wins,
I know Grafdiggers Cage is good against Nahiri and Abzan, Kor Firewalker is good against anything red, I'm not as sure about Worship, the go wide decks, and Bogles. Any help is greatly appreciated.
I'm going to be running BW Eldrazi and Taxes this week at our monthy modern FNM. I'm hoping I can get some advice abotu sideboard slots.
Decks I know I will be facing -
Elves, Goblins, BW Allies, Abzan Company, EITHER Blue Moon or Jeskai Nahiri control.
Decks I will might be facing
Troll Worship, Merfolk, Bogles, Red Deck Wins,
I know Grafdiggers Cage is good against Nahiri and Abzan, Kor Firewalker is good against anything red, I'm not as sure about Worship, the go wide decks, and Bogles. Any help is greatly appreciated.
either orzhov pontif or zealous persecution can be good against, elves boggles. sunalance can be good against all the creature decks. anguished unmaking is good versus bloodmoon, worship, boggle enchantments. the usual red hate with some number of burrenton and maybe firewalker. if a lot of decks are going wide ghostly prison can hep quite a bit as well. many times I wait until i can make a lethal swing and just wisp the worship, same with ensnaring bridge. Against boggles remember that daybreak coronet needs another enchantment; many times you can flickerwisp an enchantment to bounce off the daybreak coronet; in response to another day break or vial in in combat can ruin them. Also I like the 2/1 split with 2 RIP and 1 cage given most metas.
Sadly I don't have Zealous Persecution or Orzhov Pontif, and won't be able to get them in time for the event. I could possibly pick up a ghostly prison. What about Archangel of Tithes instead of Prison? Has anyone tried that out?
Anguished unmaking is a good idea, answers other things too.
I like the RIP cage ratio as well.
I appreciate the reminder about Daybreak. Boggles was actually my first modern deck so I probably know that lists weaknesses more than any other, but it's always a good thing for any player to keep in mind, especially since it seems to be an increasing part of the meta lately. Some people even get stuck on the fact that even though the creature is hexproof, the enchantments are not.
Any thought on Angel of Jubilation? I've used it with monowhite, it shuts off Abzan as well as fetch lands while pumping your team, but you don't get nearly as much mileage out of the pumping with the eldrazi list.
What are your thoughts on a singleton bojuka bog in the sideboard for b/w decks (and for my abzan deck)?
In my deck it can be found with oath of nissa. It can also be flickered/bounced with flickerwisp/kor skyfisher. I like that it can be sided in by just removing a land. In my case i'd remove isolated chapel but removing one shambling vent is good at preserving the tappped land ratio.
I was also thinking of siding it in when i side out too many exiling cards, like when i side out my tidehollow scullers, so that i can maintain more enablers for wasteland strangler. Bog also generally exiles a bunch of cards, which is good for multiple strangler triggers.
Hi all, this is my first post on this thread, though I have been playing Modern Death and Taxes for about a year now. When I first started playing the deck, I played with the stock mono white list that is on page 1 of this thread. Then after hundreds of games I started to sculpt my sideboard and main deck more towards my own style of play, as well as making the deck a bit more competitive in my area. Since then, I have won two PPTQs with the deck and have had many X-0 match records in both local and GP side events. That being said, this is where I have ended up:
I have found Reflector Mage to be invaluable in grinding out game wins. I have had several games where I would blink him 3 times on every one of my opponents end steps so that I could just beat him down with him.
Another great event with Wu Death and Taxes. My local store holds a nice tournament every week on Sunday. The average turnout is roughly 30-35 people. This past Sunday we were able to manage a 5 round event, cutting to top 8. I finished the day quite well.
Here were how my rounds went: Round 1 (1-1 Draw, 0-0-1): G/W Eldrazi Taxes
- Right off the bat this deck seemed like I would have a decent matchup, as the "taxes" that this deck plays, does not really effect me at all, as I built my deck around the same taxes to not effect me when I use them on my opponents. The big threat of this deck is the explosive turn 3-4 kills it can do.
Game 1: This game ended fairly quickly. He won the die roll, played T2 Thought-knot Seer into T3 Reality smasher. I lost on T5 when he played another Reality Smasher.
Game 2: On the play I played t1 vial, t2 meddling mage naming thought-knot seer, t3 blade splicer, and t4 worshi, into t5 vial in an eldrazi displacer to combo with the slicer. We ended up stalling out our board state, and even though game 1 lasted around 5 minutes, game 2 was won by me in turn 3 of extra turns of a 45 minute round. Board states can be large and stupid sometimes. I ended up killing him with a flickerwisp and restoration angel.
Round 2 (2-0 Win, 1-0-1): UR Storm
-For those of you that play this deck archetype, you know that Storm is basically a bye, even against a competent opponent.
Game 1: He mulliganed to 5, kept on top, then gitaxian probed to see my 7 card hand of : arbitor, arbitor, thalia, ghost quarter, hallowed fountain, meddling mage, plains; he immediately scooped to go to game 2, revealing he kept a 1 lander, then drew land number 2 from the scry, and had no interaction main deck to deal with the arbitor ghost quarter.
Game 2: He was on the play, we both kept at 7. I vialed on 1, then meddling mage calling Empty the Warrens blindly(I assumed that he brought them in as they are a better wincon against us), he had 2 of them in his hand, and was going all in on them, having sided out his grapeshots.
Round 3 (2-1 Win, 2-0-1): Naya Burn
-Burn is all around a risky matchup for Wu D&T, though not unwinnable.
Game 1: Dying on turn 4 against burn is never something you really want to do, but it happens. This was as free a win for him as the game 1 against our first opponent.
Game 2: This is probably the most secure game I have ever played against burn. Vial on T1 with forge tender in the hand feels like cheating sometimes. Especially when my turn 2 play was Meddling Mage naming Rift Bolt right after he spent his T1 suspending Rift Bolt...Turn 4 was me putting eldrazi displacer in play with vial, and blinking the lone missionary I played on turn 3. I ended up grinding him out with a flickerwisp and never-ending hp from the missionary.
Sideboard: No Changes
Game 3: This game had me sweating. Fire is hot...The game starts much like game 1, very in his favor. Luckily, I was grinding through the mana denial plan in this game. Leonin Arbitor + Ghost quarters until he had just 1 land in play. Then top decked my only remaining Thought Knot Seer to strip away his only card i hand. Dodged 4 draw steps with me at 1 life, then drew Lone Missionary to bring me firmly back into the game, and the following Restoration Angel put me way too far ahead for him to come back. (Whew!)
Match 4 (2-0 Win, 3-0-1): Grixis Delver
-It has been some time since I have even seen a Delver deck played...months I think. My opponent knew what I was playing due to watching my game 2 from round 1. I did not have that advantage, though I feel fairly confident against most anything with my variant of this archetype so I wasn't too worried. He decided that talking some smack was the right thing to do. I have no idea why someone with 16 lands in their deck, 10 of which being fetches, would think that talking smack to a mana/land denial deck is smart, but he spent two games sitting still with a crappy look on his face.
Game 1: I won the die roll, mulled to 6, vial on 1, Thalia on 2, he spends his T2 casting a serum visions and hitting me for 3 in the air with the delver he flipped. Then t3 I vial in arbitor and double ghost quarter him. He draws no lands for the rest of the game and loses delver to a flickerwisp block.
Game 2: He went first and casted a delver on 1. He hits me a few times for 1, not being able to flip his now 2 delvers. In the meantime, I top decked my eldrazi displacer and was holding reflector mage to vial in. He ends up playing a 3rd delver the next turn, doesn't attack. At the end of his turn, I vialed in the reflector mage, then blinked it, bouncing two of them. Then I untapped and blinked the 3rd so he still cant cast them on his next turn. Then I play ghost quarter and kill 2 lands(I had one in play already). Before he could search for the first one, I vial in a mindscensor and he finds no lands. Now landless, creatureless, with 3 creatures in hand he cannot cast on his turn even if he topdecks a land, he scoops and goes raging off to his buddies. Just desserts.
Match 5(2-0 Win, 4-0-1): Jund
-Two decks that I would pick to play, if given the option to choose my matchups would be Jund, and Junk(the seige rhino midrange versions). These decks are basically the ones that D&T prey upon deeply in an event. That being said, they normally end up somewhat grindy, and we tend to win because our deck has too many blinking and flash effects to lose to mono removal.
Game 1: t1 vial, t2 thalia, t3 arbitor and kill 2 lands. This seems to be my "nut draw" and probably one of the best hands against several decks. Jund is no different here. He drew 3-4 fetches with 1 land in play and lost to a flickerwisp.
Sideboard: +2 Burrenton Forge-Tender, +2 Dismember, +1 Spellskite, -2 Aether Vial, -3 Spirit of the Labyriynth
Game 2: Him on the play sees him ripping my hand apart with thoughtseizes and iok's. He has 2 Bob's in play, and I get into a stalled board state with him, goyf and tasigur can do that. Vial on 1 saved me yet again when he drew Anger of the Gods to kill my 6 Golem Tokens and blade splicer and displacer. I vial'd in forge tender and negated the damage from Anger. Eventually I drew a kill spell and some flickerwisps and started chipping in some damage here and there until I killed him(Mainly thanks to Bob + Lands dealing him roughly 12 throughout the game)
WE MADE THE TOP 8! YAY!
In the top 8, I got paired against the UR Storm player that I played in Round 2. Rinse/Repeat that match, as it is by far the best matchup for us, and the remaining players decided to split the money for top 4 and end the event.
All in all a good day for the Death and Taxes deck. FWIW the Eldrazi Taxes deck ended up not making the top 8.
If you have any questions about my deck or my sideboard choices, please don't be afraid to ask.
1) A single cage is great against Abzan Company as it's hard for them to access hate if you have it. Overloading on cages can cause you to die to random gavony township beats while you draw dead cards so you shouldn't go too deep on them. Cage is absolutely not for Jeskai Nahiri. If you want game against Nahiri, the best options are Pithing Needle (can be reset with Flickerwisp/deal with Celestial Collonade, great against Inkmoth decks and tron), Celestial Purge (doubles as Anti Bob/Lili/Kalitas in Jund) or Hallowed Moonlight (doubles as Chord/CoCo/Graveyard Hate and combos with displacer).
I hear you on this one. I faced Nahiri Jeskai after I posted my list, and I was able to dismantle their gameplan with relative ease. I guess I don't need the Cage.
2) Kataki is very awkward in tying up your mana paying for Vials/Tidehollow scullers. Against affinity Your "end game" is often getting displacer mana active as it can blank ravager tricks, unequip platings, reset overseer counters ontop of all of the combos with your own guys. Playing more Zealous Persecution, or even Gutshots would be better than Kataki, it depends on their draw, but if they have a glimmervoid/nexus heavy draw kataki can often not do enough. If you want extra % against affinity move your pontiffs to Zealous Persecution as Zealous persecutions can hit nexus and can often clip steel overseer before it activates.
While it's true that Kataki can result in some awkwardness, I would argue that Stony Silence can be even more awkward, because it shuts my Vials down. You make a good point, though, so I guess I'll look for another replacement. Maybe Disenchant?
3) I'm not going to comment on how to fix this one. Running the stock list against Jund seemed like a nightmare when I tried it and ultimately caused me to move away from the stock list as I couldn't reliably beat them without Arbiter screw. I don't know if there's a good solution but Smashers, Lingering Souls, Celestial Purge, and Mirran Crusader are the best cards I can think of the would qualify as "Jund Hate". If you're running Smasher heavy you might even want to board up a Sea Gate Wreckage to 23 land.
I think the suggestion of Celestial Purge you mentioned earlier is going to be my best bet, honestly. It answers what is the main problem card in my opinion (Liliana of the Veil), and does double duty against the likes of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or Blood Moon in Blue Moon decks (which stole a game from me in my testing).
4) Worship is typically good against decks you're already good against. Any Zoo deck has issues with wasteland strangler. Any burn deck will have Destructive Revelry. Any Chord deck will have some splash hate or just go infinite regardless. The only deck I see that this is actually good against would be the new Bant Eldrazi Deck which would have issues removing it.
Yep, Worship is not doing much for me, and I'm not all that afraid of the Bant Eldrazi deck. Out goes Worship.
The BW lists shouldn't be dieing to affinity at all, you have up to 8 mainboard removal spells, Stony silence out of the board is a trap, switch it for disenchant for their possible torpor orbs/needles, stony silence doesnt work vs lantern control either if they manage to get 1 or more ensnaring bridges, leyline is best for that issue, Affinity hates Pithing needle/Revoker and removal, we have great land destruction, use it.
Disenchant is looking like the way to go, thanks for the advice.
Depending on what you expect, Brimaz is really the all star. It's not just the 4 toughness, it's also the vigilance. I know it probably doesn't come up very often because how many Nahiris are ticking down, but Brimaz will never be tapped to get exiled, which may be something that can change the game. It's also the reason Serra Avenger is good. It also just wrecks creature decks, which surprisingly I ran into way more than I thought I would.
So, for GP Charlotte, I ran the following 75
3 Judge's Familiar
1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Leonin Arbeiter
3 Serra Avenger
1 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Flickerwisp
3 Blade Splicer
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Restoration Angel
4 Path to Exile
4 Aether Vial
1 Dismember
Lands
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
13 Plains
1 Ejandgo Castle
2 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
2 Sunlance
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
3 Kor Firewalker
A quick exert about my choices, because some, again, worked great, others were a terrible choice.
- Judge's Familiar
Personally I just like the card. I won a lot of games because my opponent wouldn't be able to play a spell because it was a double tax for there spells. And the ability to fly allowed me to get some chip shots in on a stalled board. Going forward, I probably would not play a single one and switch back to Dryad Militant, for multiple reasons, some of which will be mentioned later.
- Kytheon
I just wanted to test him out. Honestly, he wasn't bad, but he wasn't great. There was a few times that people didn't think about his ability, but overall, I would cut him going forward, again, didn't do anything great for me. It was just a test for him.
- Brimaz
The all star here. The ability to dodge lightning bolt, anger of the gods, pyroclasm, the list could go on, was so valuable the entire weekend. People would just Anger of the Gods and just look upon the board in dispair as Brimaz stared them down and clocked them for 4. There was a few times he wasn't great, but he was always the first target for most peoples discard effects and Path to Exiles, so he wasn't terrible. 2 was the right number, but it can be changed.
- The entire sideboard
Mostly just ignore it. I don't play much in person magic due to a terrible schedule so I do most of my research from the internet with articles and videos and coverage. I knew going in Ancestral Vision was a card, so was Nahiri, so the Spirits were a small amount of tech against it. Never used them for that, but they were awesome against my win against a Turns player. The Firewalkers were ok. I faced 2 burn and a Zoo deck, which they were all stars, every other match though I wish they were Kitchen Finks. Something I'm considering. Sunlance was garbage. It was ok against the burn/zoo decks, but I was already so heavily favored. I never faced Affinity, but Stony Silence should handle that well enough. I am looking to replace those as well.
Cards I Wished I Had All Weekend Long
Wilt-Leaf Liege
In testing, this card was so good for me against anything playing Liliana, but going in, I wasn't so sure how much I would face. Turns out it was all of my losses, being 2 Jund and a Mardu which was basically white Jund. My hand just kept getting ripped to shreds by Liliana and Pyroclasms, I just wish I had the pump and the ability. I'll be trying some in the sideboard now.
Mutavault
Sea Gate Wreckage was cute, I drew some cards. But again, against decks like Jund and Mardu, I wish I had the creature land to get the beats in. In my last round to give me my fourth loss, if I had Mutavault instead of Sea Gate, I would have won that game so easily. Live and learn, will be playing 3 going forward. Card is worth it.
Overall, I really liked the deck. I've always liked it. The numbers still need to be worked on, mostly because it's a very meta-dependent deck, but I think I made some good calls and some bad ones. My rounds for the weekend
1 - Infect - W - 2-1
2 - Grixis Control - W - 2-1
3 - Blue Moon - W - 2-0
4 - Jund - W 2-1
5 - Burn - W 2-1
6 - Burn - W 2-0
7 - Cant remember to save my life, but I won - W 2-0
8 - Jund (Mike Sigrest) - L 0-2
9 - UWR Control - L 0-2
Day 2
10 - Zoo - W 2-0
11 - Mono Blue Turns - W 2-1
12 - Mardu - L 1-2
13 - Blue Moon - L 1-2
I never got paired down the entire tournament unlike a lot of people. If you don't know about what happened at GP Charlotte, look it up, it was crazy. But all my opponents records were the same as mine.
I do custom signatures! PM me for more details.
List below. On mobile so I can't transcribe it well
http://imgur.com/bauriXa
GP CLT RECAP
-------------
R1 - Bye
R2 - Bye
R3 - Mono U Turns
Very quick match where the combination of Thalia, TKS, and Tidehallow really shine. Game one a Thalia and Tidehallow went the distance while a Wasteland Strangler refused to be useless and suicided to eat an Ancestral Visions. I won game two off the back of a Thalia and Eldrazi displacer. A flickerwisp came through a vial to turn his dictate off for his turn, which was displaced each of my end steps to do the same. 3-0
R4 - Naya Burn
Game one opponent kept a sketchy 6 with one basic mountain. A Thalia ate a riftbolt and a skuller revealed all red cards. A TKS the following turn wrapped things up. At this point I assumed he was on mono-red burn or some budget variant since all I saw were bolt, spike, blaze, and rift bolt. Game two opponent blows that theory out of the water and I die on T4 to an onslaught of Goblin Guides and Swiftspears. In game three we just both run out a fistful of creatures. I TKS and opponent is stuck off green mana due to an arbiter, I can take an Atarka's Command or Nacatl from his hand and choose the Nacatl figuring he'd have to start chumping next turn and I can close faster than he can. He ripped a land and punished me hard for that line. Luckily a Displacer came up and wrapped up the match by displacing his blockers and swinging for lethal. 4-0
R5 - Elves
I believe this matchup to be fairly bad. They have 8x must kill creatures (Ezuri/Archdruid) and we have 8x answers to them (PtE, Strangler). Once elves starts to amass a board full of 1/1's and 2/2's it becomes very difficult to break through without some Displacer action. G1 is pretty close, but he's able to make a billion mana, pay for both arbiters, pay thalia tax, chord for Ezuri and pump. RIP. G2 follows much of the same pattern. Perhaps we need an infest in the board, ZP has a short shelflife in this matchup and it's gotta really pull a 3-4 for one to be worth cashing in. 4-1
R6 - RG Ponza
This matchup seems great with Aether Vial. On the play I lead Eldrazi Temple into Vial. He starts on forst -> Utopia Sprawl. Efro was playing this deck online in my previous league so I had some idea of how it played out and could pin him on the deck T1. T2 Thalia slows him down a turn and he double Sprawls the forest during his turn. I vial in a Tidehallow to get some information before casting an Arbiter and stripping the double sprawled land to force the concession. Game two was interesting. After mulling hard for vial I kept a hand of GQ-Vial-3 creatures. He molten rains the GQ on T2 and vial goes to town. After Tidehallowing his hand and seeing 2x Stone Rain 2x Acid-moss I refuse to play a land for the rest of the game and he dies to a pair of bears. 5-1
R7 - Dredge
Game one I'm able to take after his draw just doesn't come together. Game two I remember him Thoughtseizing a RIP then "going off" with a fistful of vengevines and bloodghasts. G3 he boarded out his ancient grudges and a Relic was able to hold back his graveyard while I dealt with some mana issues. He forces me to pop the relic after a nice sized dredge and I'm able to find a cage. In his one turn window he's able to put 3x Anamilgram, 2x Bloodghast, 2x Gravecrawler. Thanks to a huge exile zone, Wasteland Strangler and Displacer worked double duty in order to stabilize at 3 and win the game shortly thereafter. 6-1
R8 - Abzan CoCo
Barring any very late game gavony township draws, their only real route to victory is to combo us out of the game. G1 a Flickerwisp - Wasteland Strangler blowout let me race him on board. Game two a Displacer is able to keep a township mangeable while the little flickerwisp that could gets there. 7-1
R9 - Ad Nauseam
This matchup seems incredible. G1 he leads on Halimar Depths and I'm not sure what he's on. I run out Arbiter hoping he's more than a bear. He is just a 2/2 here
A T2 Thalia eats a Slaughter Pact (which is fine by me). The T3 Thalia is proves to be particularly difficult to overcome as my opponent stumbles multiple times determining what line to make. A notible interaction my opponent missed was that when he is casting a Pentad Prism through Thalia, you can pay three different colors mana and get three counters. I made a little stumble when blowing a Flickerwisp to flicker his Leyline in order to cast a Duress. Unfortunately, I forgot about Thalia tax, so no duress. It didn't come back to haunt me as the opponent died on the following turn. 8-1
Day one record 8-1
R10 - Infect
Pretty close matchup, opponent mulligans game one and opens on forest - Heiarch. Next turn was Forest - Viridan Corrupter to tag my Aether Vial. I path the Corrupter in the my main phase and he doesn't take the search. ***GREEN LIGHT TO STRIPMINE*** I fire off the two ghost quarters putting him on only a heiarch. He doesn't find another relevant infect creature and dies to some bears a few turns later.
G2 he opens on Heiarch with Inkmoth and Blighted Agent in-tow. 9 balls me on T3 and I fail to draw an answer to the inkmoth.
G3 was pretty close but I end up getting there while controlling his drawstep with displacer and Tidehallow. 9-1
R11 - Jund
Short and sweet, G1 he does jundy things and Inquisition into Goyf into Lilly. Hand was meh after the inquisition and I never recovered. G2 went pretty long, but a timely Flickerwisp to reset and kill his Lilly turned it around in my favor. G3 was more of the same Jund. T1 Thoughtseize takes a path, T2 Bob sits around for 7 turns or so and eventually takes over the game. 9-2
R12 - Abzan CoCo
Game one I take with a tidehallow -> Strangler curve with Wisp to reset the Tidehallow. Game two I get some good Tidehallow - Flickerwisp - Eldrazi Displacer synergy but punt the game (and T8 contention) away with a horrible, needlessly agressive line... Opponent has one card in hand, Witness and a 3/2 Finks on board. I have two displacers, a tidehallow, strangler, and have the ability to either blink twice or blink and animate my Shambling Vents. I animated and sent the team figuring he'd have to have a removal spell, and even that would only put him to 3 life with no cards in hand while I had 5 power on board. He has a path, but in a moment of brilliance I don't displace my displacer. Almost every other line you could take would have been correct in that place. I could have even just displaced his finks precombat and attacked for lethal. Just a horrible line all around. Logan was a good guy about it though. 9-3 (rip t8)
R13 - Fish
Unexciting games, opponent floods in both and Stranglers and paths never let him establish a boardstate. There was some hot vial on vial action which involved me taking his two drop with sculler. 10-3
R14 - Abzan CoCo
G1 I was on the play and lead with a T2 Arbiter. His T1 was Tomb -> BoP. T3 was arbiter, thoughtseize go. He pays two mana for an arbiter then plays and cracks a fetchland, causing everyone watching to wince as a judge explains that he can't search since I have two arbiters. After paying a life, stone raining himself and tapping out his hand is garbage and I clean up G1 in quick order. 10-4
G2 goes long, but TKS and Flickerwisp put some heavy clocks while he's trying to assemble the combo. He is at 6 and draws a BoP and bolsters to stop my Flickerwisp. Another flickerwisp saves the day and presents lethal on the following turn. (For those that don't see the line, Wisp targets Wisp, EOT I get my wisp back targetting the other wisp, End of his turn I get my original wisp back and flicker his BoP until my EOT. Now I have 6 power in the air and he has no blocker.)
R15 - Kiki Chord
G1 Opponent mulligans and keeps a hand chock full of fetches and dorks. A pair of arbiters stop the chord in his hand and slow his fetches and TKS is able to close the game quickly. G2 opponent mulligans to a dork heavy hand and proceeds to lose while playing 3x Heiarch, 2x BoP, and an Eternal Witness.
Overall deck felt incredible. The only actual "Loss" I'd say was to the elves player in round 5. Jund was a close game and felt even, if I had an answer to his Bob it very well could have gone either way. And the punt against Abzan CoCo was a good case of the deck holding up it's end of the bargain and the pilot failing to close the deal.
T64 finish with a record of 12-3 is a great finish for the weekend. Every matchup felt good. I hit a good string of variance and rode it all the way.
From here I'd like to try a sampling of different hatebears out of the sideboard. Phryxean Revoker seems like a good one. I want to try Dark Confidant's in the main. I want to cut the Reality Smasher. Thalia was good, but she gets outclassed pretty quick and being legendary left me with deadcards in hand a lot of the time :\
The heart of the deck really lies in Wasteland Strangler, Eldrazi Displacer, and Flickerwisp. This trio was just incredible all day and got so many game wins where I appeared to be severely behind only to cast one, vial the other, and suddenly I'm in control. It's unfortunate that they all occupy our three drop slot because I'd like to try some other 3cmc guys but these are so good that I'm going to stick with them 4x.
So people tend to woder what they should play or ask about power levels I will try to adress this below
Mono White Stock(Recommended for first time taxers): Most stable mana base, most flex spots for tuning, one of the only builds that can run 3x tectoic edge, VERY consistent overall and repeatable. Also able to use more WW cards like brimaz, finks, crusader more easily than other builds. Also takes 0 damage from mana-base which can be extremely relevant versus aggro builds and scapeshift. The reason why this is recommended to newer players by nearly all the veterans of the deck is because it teaches you the basics and how to use the important cards like flicekrwisp, so when you start splashing and tuning you know what effects you are getting rid of what you are adding. Simple deck building the card you replace in the build should be more powerful than the card you are taking out (which is why i never remove and flickerwisp.)
Mono white eldrazi- Not a real deck yet but since I'm making it my pet project (not first to come up with idea but I do see the potential power and want to develop it in the coming months) Still pretty stable mana base (12 white sources 11 colorless), a lot of x/4+ creatures to dodge bolt, smasher having trample prevents chump blockers, but since maxing out displacer for value with temple less flying creatures. Had to cut all tectonic edge to make room for the temples. Edge is really bad some games (versus aggro etc....) but great against control and scapeshift. Control since with thalia they need 5 lands to wrath and at 4 land we can activate to slow them down more also hits colonnade, against scapeshift once they go for the combo with valkut triggers on the stack you can blow up mountains so that the triggers become obsolete (with if statement the ability checks on resolution.) Still has some flex spots and room for tuning but not as much as the standard white built
B/W non Eldrazi. ok with this build you can get a lot of utility, still a fairly consistent mana-base a little bit of pain from lands but not too bad. Of course this depends on the amount of black you put in the deck. Users like @catmix have done micro splashes just for lingering souls flash back, at this point you can probably manage to take no damage from your lands. I went a little more than that successfully during eldrazi winter with 4x souls and 4 x orzhov pontiff main. When you start going deeper and needing double colored mana turn 2 for cards like tidehollow sculler it can get more painful but you get more control. personally when I play black splash I like to keep it to 8 cards or less that have black in them in the main and those black cards need synergy, the three sets i personally use are; tidehollow sculler with wasteland strangler (can be done w/o eldrazi but with eldrazi wil be discussed later,) Dark confidant with Pack rat and usually finks for regaining life, these synergize since pack rat can use extra cards drawn from confidant, pack rat helps keep the curve low to take less damage etc.... last I already talked about is souls with pontiff works great pontif can be used very well in this build for either offence or defence/board wipe. Black offers a lot of sideboard options not available to the white version cards like pontiff/zealous persecution against decks like elves souls sister tokens etc, anguished unmaking against random non creature threats like keranos, ghirapur aether grid, planeswalkers, ensnaring bridge, pyromancer's ascension etc... surgical extration yes all builds can use this but with black you have cards to see opponents hand and can cast it without pain. Black can also use Vault of the archangel which is amazing with both tokens and first strike creatures, as well as gaining life at before aggro can kill you (if you live that long.)
B/W Eldrazi: Little room for tuning, more tunes are shifting around numbers of the creatures in the deck. Mana can be very painful, and shambling vents can lead to awkward draws. BUT, this version when working correctly is VERY powerful and has a late game lock out potential no other version has (IE with displacer wisp, sculler and strangler in the game late you can lock your opponent out of their draw step and if they draw blank start flickering their permanents and processing them with strangler over and over.) But again many times you have to choose between either a T1 vial or a T2 sculler ( i usually pick vial to get sculler off from vial on their t3 draw step) sine cards like shambling vents come into play tapped. Also Blood moon can wreck this deck if you don't have a vial in play and even when you do you may be forced to tick vial up past three and then your 3 drops become bad as the game goes on. So there is some trade off less consistency and more pain, for more power (seems right for black overall in magic) and late game locks.
Gw Taxes- I apologize I haven't played this version in over a year so i am not the best to summarize this deck in the current meta, but I have played the deck so i can go over the basic mechanics of it, just had to get that out there before posting so I don;t get bad feedback of this or that isn't good anymore. The reason to play this build is noble Hierarch, great when you don't have a vial in your opening hand and gives the dream of T1 hierarch T2 arbiter and ghost quarter. Loxodon smiter is versus liliana and has that much important 4 toughness but I wouldn't take out all the blade splicers for him i think last time I ran the deck i ran 3 of each. The deck is still pretty consistent with the addition of mana dorks, and the fast lands (razorverge thicket) Other cards i had success with were, eternal witness would be an auto include in some numbers wince it can get back ghost quarter, whatever creature you need etc, qasali pridemage is great in the right meta and gives exalted trigger in matches where it isn't great, Voice of resurgence again can be very good in the right meta, scavenging ooze I love the creature but he is not as great here as in other builds do to limited number of green sources still always worth consideration when you are tuning. Lastly you can usually run 1x 4 drop with additional mana i usually went with either sigarda, host of herons or baneslayer angel and of course you get access to Gavony township which can take over games on it's own. Again this is not an all inclusive list, and I haven;t payed the list in awhile but just to give an idea of what you can do with green, this splash is usually the most aggressive at the cost of some of the evasion.
other color combinations have been tried but have yet to break out as heavily competitive. nto saying the power isn't there, but have not received the proper attention to stream line them and make them competitive.
WDeath and TaxesW
RWGBurnGWR
WDeath and TaxesW
RWGBurnGWR
i have been playing (W/B eldrazi taxes?) for a little while now.
i was not having much luck with w/b, always seemed clunky/slow/trying to do too much.
so i dropped the black and went mono white.
http://imgur.com/KSeV594
the deck has seemed great, i went 4-1 in my last modern league on mtgo (competitive lol)
i played against naya chord 2 times 1-0, 2-1
-wall of omens is annoying as ***** (i've started just pathing them early, im considering dismemeber)
-usually you can disrupt their mana with gut shots on mana dorks, and a early arbiter can just kill them.
-i rmemeber flickerwisping nahiri to reset it also lol
r/g tron 2-1
-had a game where i went mimic into thought-knot into arbiter ghost quarter
-stony silence is great
-fun note, lost to karn resetting the game and getting smacked with two of my own smashers
lost to affinity 0-2
-opponent had mainboard spellskite and killed me with a 8/8 masters i drew only 1 path.
-usually they are just soooo fast and i never had an opprotunity to draw any hate D:
beat scapeshift 2-0
-pretty self explanatory
-arbiter stop him multiple times by flashing in to stop tribe elder
-game 1 i was on play he suspended search and i had trn 2 thalia in turn three arbiter ghost quarter.
quick write up, its late, feel free to shoot qestions and i'll try and check back soon
1st place GPT Seattle
1st place GPT Anaheim
I'm whipping up a similar GW Eldrazi list. You've likely tested more than I have, but Smiter looks a bit redundant to me as a beater with access to 4x TKS. Have you tested running 2x Reality Smasher in that slot instead? Running 4x temples comes at a big cost to our mana base, so I imagine we would want to take advantage of it by upping the Eldrazi count. I'm also testing 3 Displacers for the same reason.
@FLCL: I too have gone to trying to do the mono-white eldrazi list. The things I personally don't like that is in your list is the Random 1x mimic (could easily be 4th flickerwisp,) and the matter reshaper can be a card like kitchen finks if you want the value since you are always getting a creature upon death and finks can be blinked for value where reshaper cannot be, also reshaper could be splicer, I get why you would cut them since thought-knot and smasher make great beaters on their own, I just think in white with a bunch of flicker effects that we can get more value that reshaper. Also 1 of gut shot main is a bit weird and can have high variance, if you like the effect (since I know it can put in work) maybe think of icatian javelineers, at least it has a body and can be blinked for value. Personally I don;t use fiend hunter but it is a good card and can be blinked for a lot of value when played, and is largely a meta call. Lastly I would attempt to find room for 1-2 mindcensor in the 75 they are very god in many match-ups later in the game when arbiter starts to be less of a tax (against decks like abzan coco, kiki-chord, scapeshift, nahiri jeskai etc....)
****usual disclaimer the above are just my opinions from playing death and taxes for awhile and by no means am i Saying yo u need to do this. Just weighing in with what i have found.
WDeath and TaxesW
RWGBurnGWR
thanks for your thoughts
1st place GPT Seattle
1st place GPT Anaheim
Just thought I'd stop lurking for a bit and actually put up some thoughts on the D&T list I've been playing (both with and against). Here it is:
4 Æther Vial
2 Relic of Progenitus
Creatures (28)
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Flickerwisp
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Wasteland Strangler
4 Path to Exile
Lands (22)
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Godless Shrine
4 Plains
2 Shambling Vent
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Spellskite
2 Stony Silence
2 Sunlance
1 Worship
Overall, I have to say that the mainboard has been performing splendidly (in fact, I'd go so far as say that it's felt like a strict upgrade to the classical mono-W D&T shell in my hands), so I have no complaints there.
I haven't quite been able to pin down the right type of sideboard, though, so I have some questions on that front.
1. Should I be reaching for Grafdigger's Cage to stymie Abzan Company and Jeskai Nahiri? I'm thinking Arbiters, Relics, and Sunlances with creature removal is enough to handle the former, but Jeskai Nahiri shrugs most of that off (they pay the mana for Arbiter and ignore the rest).
2. How about Kataki, War's Wage versus Stony Silence in the Affinity matchup? This is a decision I admittedly struggle with, given that Kataki has better synergy with Thalia, but a less definitive initial effect (and dies to Dispatch, Galvanic Blast, and Whipflare).
3. Should I have more Jund hate? If so, what should that Jund hate look like? I'm thinking Reality Smasher, but I was leery on having a 5-drop in a 22-land deck, especially when Vials get sided out (which they do against BGX Midrange).
4. I'm also wondering if Worship is any good right now. It was awesome in Eldrazi Winter and in the immediate, 8-Whack and Gruul Zoo-filled aftermath, but now I'm not quite as sure.
Thoughts welcome!
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
2) Kataki is very awkward in tying up your mana paying for Vials/Tidehollow scullers. Against affinity Your "end game" is often getting displacer mana active as it can blank ravager tricks, unequip platings, reset overseer counters ontop of all of the combos with your own guys. Playing more Zealous Persecution, or even Gutshots would be better than Kataki, it depends on their draw, but if they have a glimmervoid/nexus heavy draw kataki can often not do enough. If you want extra % against affinity move your pontiffs to Zealous Persecution as Zealous persecutions can hit nexus and can often clip steel overseer before it activates.
3) I'm not going to comment on how to fix this one. Running the stock list against Jund seemed like a nightmare when I tried it and ultimately caused me to move away from the stock list as I couldn't reliably beat them without Arbiter screw. I don't know if there's a good solution but Smashers, Lingering Souls, Celestial Purge, and Mirran Crusader are the best cards I can think of the would qualify as "Jund Hate". If you're running Smasher heavy you might even want to board up a Sea Gate Wreckage to 23 land.
4) Worship is typically good against decks you're already good against. Any Zoo deck has issues with wasteland strangler. Any burn deck will have Destructive Revelry. Any Chord deck will have some splash hate or just go infinite regardless. The only deck I see that this is actually good against would be the new Bant Eldrazi Deck which would have issues removing it.
Thalia is surprisingly good against CoCo, i would not side them out. RIP is good enough for Coco, I think Cage is an overkill.
Zealous is weak against CoCo, Smasher is not better than Thalia
http://www.wizardryfoundry.com
Current Deck:
WDeath and TaxesW
RWGBurnGWR
Here's the list:
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Tectonic Edge
2 Horizon Canopy
12 Plains
//Creatures
4 Flickerwisp
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Dryad Militant
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Blade Splicer
3 Restoration Angel
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Eldrazi Displacer
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Vryn Wingmare
4 Path to Exile
//Artifacts
4 Aether Vial
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Fracturing Gust
2 Ghostly Prison
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Rest in Peace
2 Runed Halo
2 Stony Silence
My Meta is quite Tier 1 heavy: Abzan Company, Affinity, Jund, etc.
Any thoughts?
I'm going to be running BW Eldrazi and Taxes this week at our monthy modern FNM. I'm hoping I can get some advice abotu sideboard slots.
Decks I know I will be facing -
Elves, Goblins, BW Allies, Abzan Company, EITHER Blue Moon or Jeskai Nahiri control.
Decks I will might be facing
Troll Worship, Merfolk, Bogles, Red Deck Wins,
I know Grafdiggers Cage is good against Nahiri and Abzan, Kor Firewalker is good against anything red, I'm not as sure about Worship, the go wide decks, and Bogles. Any help is greatly appreciated.
either orzhov pontif or zealous persecution can be good against, elves boggles. sunalance can be good against all the creature decks. anguished unmaking is good versus bloodmoon, worship, boggle enchantments. the usual red hate with some number of burrenton and maybe firewalker. if a lot of decks are going wide ghostly prison can hep quite a bit as well. many times I wait until i can make a lethal swing and just wisp the worship, same with ensnaring bridge. Against boggles remember that daybreak coronet needs another enchantment; many times you can flickerwisp an enchantment to bounce off the daybreak coronet; in response to another day break or vial in in combat can ruin them. Also I like the 2/1 split with 2 RIP and 1 cage given most metas.
WDeath and TaxesW
RWGBurnGWR
Anguished unmaking is a good idea, answers other things too.
I like the RIP cage ratio as well.
I appreciate the reminder about Daybreak. Boggles was actually my first modern deck so I probably know that lists weaknesses more than any other, but it's always a good thing for any player to keep in mind, especially since it seems to be an increasing part of the meta lately. Some people even get stuck on the fact that even though the creature is hexproof, the enchantments are not.
Any thought on Angel of Jubilation? I've used it with monowhite, it shuts off Abzan as well as fetch lands while pumping your team, but you don't get nearly as much mileage out of the pumping with the eldrazi list.
In my deck it can be found with oath of nissa. It can also be flickered/bounced with flickerwisp/kor skyfisher. I like that it can be sided in by just removing a land. In my case i'd remove isolated chapel but removing one shambling vent is good at preserving the tappped land ratio.
I was also thinking of siding it in when i side out too many exiling cards, like when i side out my tidehollow scullers, so that i can maintain more enablers for wasteland strangler. Bog also generally exiles a bunch of cards, which is good for multiple strangler triggers.
Thoughts?
Another great event with Wu Death and Taxes. My local store holds a nice tournament every week on Sunday. The average turnout is roughly 30-35 people. This past Sunday we were able to manage a 5 round event, cutting to top 8. I finished the day quite well.
Here were how my rounds went:
Round 1 (1-1 Draw, 0-0-1): G/W Eldrazi Taxes
- Right off the bat this deck seemed like I would have a decent matchup, as the "taxes" that this deck plays, does not really effect me at all, as I built my deck around the same taxes to not effect me when I use them on my opponents. The big threat of this deck is the explosive turn 3-4 kills it can do.
Game 1: This game ended fairly quickly. He won the die roll, played T2 Thought-knot Seer into T3 Reality smasher. I lost on T5 when he played another Reality Smasher.
Sideboard: +2 Dismember, +1 Spellskite, +2 Worship, -3 Thalia, -1 Aether Vial
Game 2: On the play I played t1 vial, t2 meddling mage naming thought-knot seer, t3 blade splicer, and t4 worshi, into t5 vial in an eldrazi displacer to combo with the slicer. We ended up stalling out our board state, and even though game 1 lasted around 5 minutes, game 2 was won by me in turn 3 of extra turns of a 45 minute round. Board states can be large and stupid sometimes. I ended up killing him with a flickerwisp and restoration angel.
Round 2 (2-0 Win, 1-0-1): UR Storm
-For those of you that play this deck archetype, you know that Storm is basically a bye, even against a competent opponent.
Game 1: He mulliganed to 5, kept on top, then gitaxian probed to see my 7 card hand of : arbitor, arbitor, thalia, ghost quarter, hallowed fountain, meddling mage, plains; he immediately scooped to go to game 2, revealing he kept a 1 lander, then drew land number 2 from the scry, and had no interaction main deck to deal with the arbitor ghost quarter.
Sideboard: +1 Grafdiggers Cage, +1 Hallowed Moonlight, -2 Path to Exile
Game 2: He was on the play, we both kept at 7. I vialed on 1, then meddling mage calling Empty the Warrens blindly(I assumed that he brought them in as they are a better wincon against us), he had 2 of them in his hand, and was going all in on them, having sided out his grapeshots.
Round 3 (2-1 Win, 2-0-1): Naya Burn
-Burn is all around a risky matchup for Wu D&T, though not unwinnable.
Game 1: Dying on turn 4 against burn is never something you really want to do, but it happens. This was as free a win for him as the game 1 against our first opponent.
Sideboard: +2 Burrenton Forge-Tender, +2 Lone Missionary, +1 Spellskite, -2 Aether Vial, -1 Mangara of Corondor, -1 Thought-Knot Seer, -1 Restoration Angel
Game 2: This is probably the most secure game I have ever played against burn. Vial on T1 with forge tender in the hand feels like cheating sometimes. Especially when my turn 2 play was Meddling Mage naming Rift Bolt right after he spent his T1 suspending Rift Bolt...Turn 4 was me putting eldrazi displacer in play with vial, and blinking the lone missionary I played on turn 3. I ended up grinding him out with a flickerwisp and never-ending hp from the missionary.
Sideboard: No Changes
Game 3: This game had me sweating. Fire is hot...The game starts much like game 1, very in his favor. Luckily, I was grinding through the mana denial plan in this game. Leonin Arbitor + Ghost quarters until he had just 1 land in play. Then top decked my only remaining Thought Knot Seer to strip away his only card i hand. Dodged 4 draw steps with me at 1 life, then drew Lone Missionary to bring me firmly back into the game, and the following Restoration Angel put me way too far ahead for him to come back. (Whew!)
Match 4 (2-0 Win, 3-0-1): Grixis Delver
-It has been some time since I have even seen a Delver deck played...months I think. My opponent knew what I was playing due to watching my game 2 from round 1. I did not have that advantage, though I feel fairly confident against most anything with my variant of this archetype so I wasn't too worried. He decided that talking some smack was the right thing to do. I have no idea why someone with 16 lands in their deck, 10 of which being fetches, would think that talking smack to a mana/land denial deck is smart, but he spent two games sitting still with a crappy look on his face.
Game 1: I won the die roll, mulled to 6, vial on 1, Thalia on 2, he spends his T2 casting a serum visions and hitting me for 3 in the air with the delver he flipped. Then t3 I vial in arbitor and double ghost quarter him. He draws no lands for the rest of the game and loses delver to a flickerwisp block.
Sideboard: +1 Spellskite, +1 Grafdigger's Cage, -2 Thought-Knot Seer
Game 2: He went first and casted a delver on 1. He hits me a few times for 1, not being able to flip his now 2 delvers. In the meantime, I top decked my eldrazi displacer and was holding reflector mage to vial in. He ends up playing a 3rd delver the next turn, doesn't attack. At the end of his turn, I vialed in the reflector mage, then blinked it, bouncing two of them. Then I untapped and blinked the 3rd so he still cant cast them on his next turn. Then I play ghost quarter and kill 2 lands(I had one in play already). Before he could search for the first one, I vial in a mindscensor and he finds no lands. Now landless, creatureless, with 3 creatures in hand he cannot cast on his turn even if he topdecks a land, he scoops and goes raging off to his buddies. Just desserts.
Match 5(2-0 Win, 4-0-1): Jund
-Two decks that I would pick to play, if given the option to choose my matchups would be Jund, and Junk(the seige rhino midrange versions). These decks are basically the ones that D&T prey upon deeply in an event. That being said, they normally end up somewhat grindy, and we tend to win because our deck has too many blinking and flash effects to lose to mono removal.
Game 1: t1 vial, t2 thalia, t3 arbitor and kill 2 lands. This seems to be my "nut draw" and probably one of the best hands against several decks. Jund is no different here. He drew 3-4 fetches with 1 land in play and lost to a flickerwisp.
Sideboard: +2 Burrenton Forge-Tender, +2 Dismember, +1 Spellskite, -2 Aether Vial, -3 Spirit of the Labyriynth
Game 2: Him on the play sees him ripping my hand apart with thoughtseizes and iok's. He has 2 Bob's in play, and I get into a stalled board state with him, goyf and tasigur can do that. Vial on 1 saved me yet again when he drew Anger of the Gods to kill my 6 Golem Tokens and blade splicer and displacer. I vial'd in forge tender and negated the damage from Anger. Eventually I drew a kill spell and some flickerwisps and started chipping in some damage here and there until I killed him(Mainly thanks to Bob + Lands dealing him roughly 12 throughout the game)
WE MADE THE TOP 8! YAY!
In the top 8, I got paired against the UR Storm player that I played in Round 2. Rinse/Repeat that match, as it is by far the best matchup for us, and the remaining players decided to split the money for top 4 and end the event.
All in all a good day for the Death and Taxes deck. FWIW the Eldrazi Taxes deck ended up not making the top 8.
If you have any questions about my deck or my sideboard choices, please don't be afraid to ask.
I hear you on this one. I faced Nahiri Jeskai after I posted my list, and I was able to dismantle their gameplan with relative ease. I guess I don't need the Cage.
While it's true that Kataki can result in some awkwardness, I would argue that Stony Silence can be even more awkward, because it shuts my Vials down. You make a good point, though, so I guess I'll look for another replacement. Maybe Disenchant?
I think the suggestion of Celestial Purge you mentioned earlier is going to be my best bet, honestly. It answers what is the main problem card in my opinion (Liliana of the Veil), and does double duty against the likes of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or Blood Moon in Blue Moon decks (which stole a game from me in my testing).
Yep, Worship is not doing much for me, and I'm not all that afraid of the Bant Eldrazi deck. Out goes Worship.
Disenchant is looking like the way to go, thanks for the advice.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers: