frequently, players splash white off a single godless shrine. It can be fetched with any landcycler, and allows us to cast our pale recluses in a pinch
I can't see myself ever going below 4 maindeck Beast Within. It takes some know-how to use properly, but once you practice and get the hang of it, it becomes the best card in the deck not named Living End.
I can't see myself ever going below 4 maindeck Beast Within. It takes some know-how to use properly, but once you practice and get the hang of it, it becomes the best card in the deck not named Living End.
Pretty much this, as many list tweaks as I've made over the past few weeks, I could never see myself getting rid of Beast Within, it is far too much of a catch all, and has won me far too many games.
Hi all. I just built Living End on MTGO and am planning on sticking with it for the near future. I have been playing quite a bit of practice games, and am enjoying the deck.
I really would never have guessed that the deck I am having most trouble beating is Affinity. Arcbound Ravager makes it so that I literally can never wrath their board. When I Living End, they sac all of their creatures, and thus get them all back after Living End resolves.
Any strategic tips on how we beat this game 1? Game 2 I am siding into 4 Ingot Chewers. And I HAVE beaten it, but it usually means they just never saw Arcbound Ravager.
Hi all. I just built Living End on MTGO and am planning on sticking with it for the near future. I have been playing quite a bit of practice games, and am enjoying the deck.
I really would never have guessed that the deck I am having most trouble beating is Affinity. Arcbound Ravager makes it so that I literally can never wrath their board. When I Living End, they sac all of their creatures, and thus get them all back after Living End resolves.
Any strategic tips on how we beat this game 1? Game 2 I am siding into 4 Ingot Chewers. And I HAVE beaten it, but it usually means they just never saw Arcbound Ravager.
4 ingot chewers seems like a lot. to justify that you really need a lot of affinity in your meta. 3-2 to pretty good. as grullsmash pointed out faerie macabre is useful as well, keeps ravager from saving everything after you living end. if the situation works out for you, living end at instant speed with violent outburst in response to them casting a arcbound ravager, usually make the situation better. save fulminator mage for mopping up any man lands that they might turn to for getting around living end.
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Xenagos, the Reveler been testing this guy out in place of two domri rade, the hasty tokens have been useful against control match ups. I won't say they make for an alternative win con, but pretty damn close. I've built up to his final ability in a few games, its useful when you have two relics of progentius staring you down, but horribly inconsistent.
garruk relentless does pretty much the same as xenagos, but his wolf tokens don't have haste. I'll experiment with him in my next several games and let you know how he runs.
assistance against graveyard hate is really the fundamental reason i'd consider either of these planeswalkers in the deck
i'd totally splash blue for Dack Fayden if he were modern legal., draw 2 and discard 2 is right up our decks alley for first ability. second ability is great!, i'll take that relic of progenitus!, final ability make beast within awesome as hell. not only do i get to destroy the permanet i don't like but I get the beast token afterwards!. also demonic dread suddenly causes creature to swap sides.
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i'm assuming you refer to the pyromancer ascension builds. thankfully they don't run discard because enchantment destruction usually kills them, as well as there sideboarded blood moons. empty the warrens builds are much better match up.
Indeed, this is Pyromancer Storm builds. I find they just go off with 2-3 lands without an active ascension and then it's game over.
Hi all. I just built Living End on MTGO and am planning on sticking with it for the near future. I have been playing quite a bit of practice games, and am enjoying the deck.
I really would never have guessed that the deck I am having most trouble beating is Affinity. Arcbound Ravager makes it so that I literally can never wrath their board. When I Living End, they sac all of their creatures, and thus get them all back after Living End resolves.
Any strategic tips on how we beat this game 1? Game 2 I am siding into 4 Ingot Chewers. And I HAVE beaten it, but it usually means they just never saw Arcbound Ravager.
I run 4 Ingot Chewer. I have 3 Affinity decks in my meta and the matchup can be a real bear. If you have a lot of problems with it and are worried about Ravager you can use Krosan Grip to pretty good effect. More likely Leyline of the Void would do much more work post-board to beat out Ravager and it's good against quite a few other trouble matchups like Storm.
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My Modern decks: B/R/G Living End G/R/B G/R Tron R/G U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
Hi all. I just built Living End on MTGO and am planning on sticking with it for the near future. I have been playing quite a bit of practice games, and am enjoying the deck.
I really would never have guessed that the deck I am having most trouble beating is Affinity. Arcbound Ravager makes it so that I literally can never wrath their board. When I Living End, they sac all of their creatures, and thus get them all back after Living End resolves.
Any strategic tips on how we beat this game 1? Game 2 I am siding into 4 Ingot Chewers. And I HAVE beaten it, but it usually means they just never saw Arcbound Ravager.
I run 4 Ingot Chewer. I have 3 Affinity decks in my meta and the matchup can be a real bear. If you have a lot of problems with it and are worried about Ravager you can use Krosan Grip to pretty good effect. More likely Leyline of the Void would do much more work post-board to beat out Ravager and it's good against quite a few other trouble matchups like Storm.
I also run four Ingot Chewer, and I don't even play against Affinity all that much.
In addition to Chewy and extra Faerie Macabre, I've found that Bow of Nylea is a solid role player in this matchup, as well. Gain some life to help stabilize, and the 2 damage to a flier is great for picking off Vault Skirge, Ornithopter, and the two Nexuseseses.
Jund Charm can be a sweeper if Ravager isn't in play, or a piece of graveyard hate if it is.
All right, so I'm looking at getting back into modern now that grade school is all over for me (yay) and just pulled my old Living End deck from out of my closet. I'm looking to make this deck at least mostly competitive, though I am not looking into buying fetchlands at the moment, but everything else is fair game. I believe the list below is all of the Living End staples I have, and I am looking for the best way to put it together, and the best choices of cards to purchase to complete it.
Thanks in advance to anyone looking to help me out Pretty Much any cards are fair game to buy, just not fetches again , and I'm looking for a list that will face decently in a variety of unknown metagames.
I think you can afford to cut back slightly on the full sets of land cyclers. infact i'd strongly recommend twisted abomination over using pouncer, but what ever you prefer. cut down on them by 2 or 3 and get up to a full set of street wraith and a 3 or even up to 4 of for carabid or minotaur. since your not throwing out your life points to fetchlands, you can afford to lose life to street wraith cycling, so fill him in at least.
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All right, so I'm looking at getting back into modern now that grade school is all over for me (yay) and just pulled my old Living End deck from out of my closet. I'm looking to make this deck at least mostly competitive, though I am not looking into buying fetchlands at the moment, but everything else is fair game. I believe the list below is all of the Living End staples I have, and I am looking for the best way to put it together, and the best choices of cards to purchase to complete it.
<Cards Smarty owns>
Thanks in advance to anyone looking to help me out Pretty Much any cards are fair game to buy, just not fetches again , and I'm looking for a list that will face decently in a variety of unknown metagames.
You guys have been pretty helpful, thanks! Can you guys recommend builds though for unknown metas? Calgary has pretty much everything, you never know what you're gonna expect. Doesn't have to be an exact list, just things like Fulminator Mage over avalanche riders, etc. These forums are the greatest.
I really think you'd want a 3rd dismember in that sideboard, 2 feels like it just get lost in the 75, and shriekmaw can't really relate cause it isn't instant speed.
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I went 5-1-1 in the swiss with tiebreakrs putting me in 5th place. The metagame was very diverse, and even though this was my first modern tournament, I felt comfortable with the wide variety of matchups. Sideboarding is a rough indication of what I remember doing.
Round 1: Melira Pod
Round 1- Melira Pod
G1: Opponent mulligans to 5, keeps fetching non basics and gets fulminator maged to death.
In: 2 Damping matrix, 3 Leyline of the void, 2 Dismember
Out: 1 Jungle weaver, 3 beast within, 1 bow of Nylea, 2 simian spirit guide
G2: Opponent mulligans to 5 again, thoughtseizes me, seeing damping matrix put didn't take it. This made me hesitant to play it out, as I suspected he had a harmonic sliver in hand. He plays a wall of roots into a pod, but did not have mana to activate it. I kill the wall of roots with a shriekmaw, and pressure his mana with fulminator mage. End of his next turn, I violent outburst, when he casts thoughtseize again. I draw and play a leyline of the void next turn. He plays an orshov pontiff, paying life to pod into redcap and leaving himself at 4, while I had an unblockable street wraith with violent outburst in hand for the kill.
Round 2- Tarmo Twin
G1: I keep him off combo mana using fulminator mages, then when he eventually casts a deceiver exarch in my upkeep, I cast violent outburst to bring back 15 power of creatures. The returned mages kept him off 4 mana, and I kill him over the next 2 turns. Note, I assumed he was only UR, with a stomping ground for ancient grudge at this point.
G2: He plays two 4/5 tarmogoyfs and beats me to death, remanding my Living ends.
I had boarded Ingot chewers expecting relic of progenitus, but with 'Goyfs, that was a poor choice.
In: 2 Shriekmaw
Out: 2 Ingot Chewer
G3: I cast damping matrix unconestested turn 3, after he cast blood moon. I was able to land cycle for a forest to cast violent outburst whenever he tapped out, returning a lot of power, and beating him to death over 2 turns.
Round 3: Restore Balance
Game 1: He cascades into a Restore balance on turn 3, after I attempted to beast within his borderpost. I had kept a land heavy hand, and so I continue playing lands while he beats me with his beast token, with a Greater Gargodon on 6 counters. He is on 2 borderposts when I have 3 lands, so I cascade end of his turn, to return lethal power to the battlefield. He scooped.
Out: 4 Fulminator Mage, 3 Beast Within
In: 4 Ingot Chewer, 3 Sin Collector
Game 2: I ingot chewer his U/W borderpost, then on turn 3 sin collector him, seeing ardent plea and no violent outburst. I cascade into 10ish power, destroying another borderpost and he scoops.
Round 4: RG Tron
Game 1: He won the die roll, which I think is really important in this match up. I Turn 2 a fulminator mage from a spirit guide, and begin blowing up tron pieces. I cascade on turn 3, and he scoops.
Game 2: He gets natural tron on turn 3, and plays karn exiling a land. I play it out, and cascade for about 12 power. He manages to get to emrakul mana and kill me the turn before I kill him.
In: 1 Beast Within
Out: 1 Demonic Dread
Game 3: I Ingot chewer his chromatic sphere on turn 2, then blow up a land on turn 3. Next turn he plays double expedition map from two different tron pieces. Thankfully, I have a second ingot chewer and can cascade on my turn to sew up the game.
Round 5: UR twin
Game 1: This game went long and played out quite strangely. I drew 2 of my 3 living ends, and the third got remanded. I settle into hardcasting my dudes, and he can't seem to find twin. Eventually, he casts twin, and my hand is 3 living ends and a violent outburst, which I show him.
As the game had gone late, and I had seen no significant green lands, I'm fairly certain he is not on Tarmo twin.
In: 2 Damping Matrix, 2 Dismember, 2 Ingot Chewer
Out: 1 Bow of Nylea, 1 Jungle Weaver, 1 Beast Within, 2 Shriekmaw, 1 Demonic Dread
Game 2: I cast a turn 3 damping matrix uncontested. We both settle in for a tempo game, where I cast a pale recluse which kept getting tapped down before it could attack. The only cascade spell I drew was a single demonic dread, despite cycling ~6 creatures over a longer game. When he has tempoed to 5-6 life, I decide to cascade anyway and the living end was remanded. He played spells and killed me next turn.
He commented on how strange the game seemed afterwards, and I could only agree.
Round 6: UW Control
After looking at the standings, it doesn't look like any 5-2s can get into top 8 without anything strange happening, so this is a win-and-in, lose-and-out.
Game 1: I turn 2 fulminator mage with simian spirit guide, blowing up his celestial colonnade. This sets him far enough behind as he has another tap land, so I could recur fulminator mages to lock him out of the game.
Game 2: He plays meddling mage naming living end (something I hadn't expected). I began hardcasting guys. He goes bigger with gideons and collanades and I have to play my freshly drawn beast within on his Gideon to stay alive, and die the next turn.
I figured that he'd be on a rest in peace plan, rather than a relic of progenitus sideboard, and I think the shriekmaws are stronger against the mages.
In: 2 Shriekmaw
Out: 2 Ingot Chewer
Game 3: He casts meddling mage naming fulminator mage. I shriekmaw his mage, and he plays a rest in peace on his 3rd turn. I play a fulminator mage and destroy his only white source. He plays a tapped Celestial colonnade. I draw a second fulminator mage to keep him off white again. I hard cast guys and attack him to death while he is land screwed. At one point I cast Sin collector, and he revealed 2 ethersworn canonist and a second meddling mage. Fulminator mages seem to beat all the sideboard cards.
Round 7: Boros Landfall Aggro
We ID into top 8, and hope nothing has gone wrong.
TOP 8:
I play the RG tron opponent from earlier. He has a higher seed, so he is on the draw.
Game 1: I turn 2 Fulminator mage from spirit guide, and take over the game from there.
Game 2: He plays a turn 2 torpor orb to turn off my Ingot chewers, then turn 3 crucible of worlds. I can slow him down a little bit, but my land destruction can't keep up with the crucible, and he casts his giant spells to wreck me.
Game 3: I cast turn 3 fulminator mage, but he follows up with a torpor orb and a relic of progenitus on the following turn. At one point he drops a card on the floor and bends over to pick it up, followed by calling a judge. I seemed to have dropped an overgrown tomb under the table at some point, and as we couldn't properly determine when (I'd fetched twice and landcycled this game), the Judges ruled that I had most likely presented an illegal deck for game 3 and I received a game loss.
It was a disappointing end to the day, but I was knew what the judge ruling would be, so I accepted it. It was my first PTQ top 8, and it was in my first Modern tournament, so I was happy enough with my performance throughout the day to not be too bummed out by dropping a card.
I hope this tournament report helps. I thought living end was a great choice for the event, and most decks had really greedy, vulnerable mana bases. The top 8 was really diverse, with 7 or 8 distinct archetypes, and I think modern is in a really good place.
I felt like the jund charm and the leylines of the void were pretty underwhelming all day. I think they may have done more work if I had faced more Melira pod, but as it stands, I think Blood moons would have been stronger in their slot.
Edit: The bow of Nylea was also very underwhelming. I never wanted it, and it never did anything special when drawn. It would probably have been stronger as a misers avalanche rider.
Sorry but i don't know how your manabase should look like without fetches but other than that i think in this list you got a little bit of everything. You could though replace the 2 Twisted Abomination with 2 Pale Recluse if you like them more, but maybe not since the Twisted Abomination cycles for black. You could also play some Slaughter Games in the sideboard for combo matchups
All right, cool, I'll for sure put this together sometime soon, though I feel that a Bow of Nylea would only do me good.
this might come off as a strange list but when i was trying to port over Dragon stompy into modern, I found its key function of turn 1 chalice of the void wasn't working very well. but what was working was blood mooning lands and dropping 4cc red creatures to finish the job, if those creature died or ran into opposition i found myself wishing I had a living end to get them back. so far its actually worked quite well. demonic dread and violent outburst have been useful for just pushing large red creature combat thru, without having to use the cascade and LE.
gathan raiders is sort of meant to die as your trying to sneak an additional creature into the yard with its discard ability in the early game. late game its enabling hellbent
rakdos pit dragon is sort of a left over choice from original dragon stompy, hard cast or put in via a LE, its got good abilities.
oracle of bones no opponents seem to understand this card so far, my whole point of running it in this deck is as a secondary chance to cast living end at some point in the game if i've some how drawn an LE. using 4 blood moon in the main i've often shut off double Black for suspending it. often a 5/3 with haste is good enough.
blood moon i don't think i need to explain this, but its essentially the only other back bone of dragon stompy i could bring over to this hybrid since chalice of the void isn't as effective in modern.
fulminator mage compliments blood moon in a mono red stompy deck, we all know how good it is with LE so its a must in the deck.
I'd run magus of the moon in that slot but lightning bolt and lightning helix are common in modern, so common that it brings me back to why a dragon stompy port would benefit from living end bringing back the stompy creatures.
why so few cyclers? thats a hallmark of living end as a deck!?! because "stompy deck" says you want to at some point achieve hellbent. Land cyclers work better for getting cards out of your hand.
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Why isn't Fleshbag Marauder included in any lists? It seems like he'd be a decent alternative to Shriekmaw since he can hit artifacts, hexproof, and indestructible creatures. Is he just too slow?
I think that it's more along the lines that it costs 3, which is an incredibly cluttered spot on the curve. Also, after you return it from a Living End, you always lose a creature (unless you can sac a Faerie that's about to get hit by a deadshot).
If it does live somehow, it also dies to bolt, unlike most other cards in the deck. Finally, he don't have the ability to target a problem creature (Scavenging Ooze, etc.) if they have more than one creature in play.
I toyed with him for a bit, but he just doesn't do enough to overcome his flaws, unfortunately.
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Pretty much this, as many list tweaks as I've made over the past few weeks, I could never see myself getting rid of Beast Within, it is far too much of a catch all, and has won me far too many games.
I really would never have guessed that the deck I am having most trouble beating is Affinity. Arcbound Ravager makes it so that I literally can never wrath their board. When I Living End, they sac all of their creatures, and thus get them all back after Living End resolves.
Any strategic tips on how we beat this game 1? Game 2 I am siding into 4 Ingot Chewers. And I HAVE beaten it, but it usually means they just never saw Arcbound Ravager.
4 ingot chewers seems like a lot. to justify that you really need a lot of affinity in your meta. 3-2 to pretty good. as grullsmash pointed out faerie macabre is useful as well, keeps ravager from saving everything after you living end. if the situation works out for you, living end at instant speed with violent outburst in response to them casting a arcbound ravager, usually make the situation better. save fulminator mage for mopping up any man lands that they might turn to for getting around living end.
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Xenagos, the Reveler been testing this guy out in place of two domri rade, the hasty tokens have been useful against control match ups. I won't say they make for an alternative win con, but pretty damn close. I've built up to his final ability in a few games, its useful when you have two relics of progentius staring you down, but horribly inconsistent.
garruk relentless does pretty much the same as xenagos, but his wolf tokens don't have haste. I'll experiment with him in my next several games and let you know how he runs.
assistance against graveyard hate is really the fundamental reason i'd consider either of these planeswalkers in the deck
i'd totally splash blue for Dack Fayden if he were modern legal., draw 2 and discard 2 is right up our decks alley for first ability. second ability is great!, i'll take that relic of progenitus!, final ability make beast within awesome as hell. not only do i get to destroy the permanet i don't like but I get the beast token afterwards!. also demonic dread suddenly causes creature to swap sides.
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Indeed, this is Pyromancer Storm builds. I find they just go off with 2-3 lands without an active ascension and then it's game over.
I run 4 Ingot Chewer. I have 3 Affinity decks in my meta and the matchup can be a real bear. If you have a lot of problems with it and are worried about Ravager you can use Krosan Grip to pretty good effect. More likely Leyline of the Void would do much more work post-board to beat out Ravager and it's good against quite a few other trouble matchups like Storm.
My Modern decks:
B/R/G Living End G/R/B
G/R Tron R/G
U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U
R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
I also run four Ingot Chewer, and I don't even play against Affinity all that much.
In addition to Chewy and extra Faerie Macabre, I've found that Bow of Nylea is a solid role player in this matchup, as well. Gain some life to help stabilize, and the 2 damage to a flier is great for picking off Vault Skirge, Ornithopter, and the two Nexuseseses.
Jund Charm can be a sweeper if Ravager isn't in play, or a piece of graveyard hate if it is.
4x Copperline Gorge
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Kessig Wolf Run
4x Blood Crypt
2x Overgrown Tomb
Creatures/Spells
2x Deadshot Minotaur
2x Monstrous Carabid
3x Valley Rannet
4x Demonic Dread
4x Igneous Pouncer
3x Avalanche Rider
4x Architects of Will
4x Violent Outburst
4x Fulminator Mage
3x Living End
2x Street Wraith
1x Shreikmaw
1x Faerie Macabre
3x Beast Within
Thanks in advance to anyone looking to help me out Pretty Much any cards are fair game to buy, just not fetches again , and I'm looking for a list that will face decently in a variety of unknown metagames.
My Modern decks:
B/R/G Living End G/R/B
G/R Tron R/G
U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U
R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
I think you can afford to cut back slightly on the full sets of land cyclers. infact i'd strongly recommend twisted abomination over using pouncer, but what ever you prefer. cut down on them by 2 or 3 and get up to a full set of street wraith and a 3 or even up to 4 of for carabid or minotaur. since your not throwing out your life points to fetchlands, you can afford to lose life to street wraith cycling, so fill him in at least.
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Here's what I'd put on my shopping list:
1 Stomping Ground
1 Godless Shrine OR 1 Temple Garden
2 Deadshot Minotaur
2 Monstrous Carabid
2 Street Wraith
1 Beast Within
2 Faerie Macabre
4 Pale Recluse
2 Jungle Weaver
That should give you everything you need to construct the deck however you like.
I really think you'd want a 3rd dismember in that sideboard, 2 feels like it just get lost in the 75, and shriekmaw can't really relate cause it isn't instant speed.
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1 Swamp
1 Forest
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Kessig Wolf Run
Creatures
4 Deadshot Minotaur
4 Monstrous Carabid
2 Architects of Will
2 Shriekmaw
1 Jungle Weaver
2 Pale Recluse
1 Twisted Abomination
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Simian Spirt Guide
4 Street Wraith
1 Bow of Nylea
4 Demonic Dread
4 Violent Outburst
3 Living End
3 Beast Within
4 Ingot Chewer
3 Sin Collector
3 Leyline of the Void
2 Damping Matrix
2 Dismember
1 Jund Charm
I went 5-1-1 in the swiss with tiebreakrs putting me in 5th place. The metagame was very diverse, and even though this was my first modern tournament, I felt comfortable with the wide variety of matchups. Sideboarding is a rough indication of what I remember doing.
Round 1: Melira Pod
Round 1- Melira Pod
G1: Opponent mulligans to 5, keeps fetching non basics and gets fulminator maged to death.
In: 2 Damping matrix, 3 Leyline of the void, 2 Dismember
Out: 1 Jungle weaver, 3 beast within, 1 bow of Nylea, 2 simian spirit guide
G2: Opponent mulligans to 5 again, thoughtseizes me, seeing damping matrix put didn't take it. This made me hesitant to play it out, as I suspected he had a harmonic sliver in hand. He plays a wall of roots into a pod, but did not have mana to activate it. I kill the wall of roots with a shriekmaw, and pressure his mana with fulminator mage. End of his next turn, I violent outburst, when he casts thoughtseize again. I draw and play a leyline of the void next turn. He plays an orshov pontiff, paying life to pod into redcap and leaving himself at 4, while I had an unblockable street wraith with violent outburst in hand for the kill.
Round 2- Tarmo Twin
G1: I keep him off combo mana using fulminator mages, then when he eventually casts a deceiver exarch in my upkeep, I cast violent outburst to bring back 15 power of creatures. The returned mages kept him off 4 mana, and I kill him over the next 2 turns. Note, I assumed he was only UR, with a stomping ground for ancient grudge at this point.
In: 2 Damping Matrix, 2 Dismember, 2 Ingot Chewer
Out: 1 Jungle Weaver, 1 Bow of Nylea, 2 Shriekmaw, 1 Demonic Dread, 1 Beast Within
G2: He plays two 4/5 tarmogoyfs and beats me to death, remanding my Living ends.
I had boarded Ingot chewers expecting relic of progenitus, but with 'Goyfs, that was a poor choice.
In: 2 Shriekmaw
Out: 2 Ingot Chewer
G3: I cast damping matrix unconestested turn 3, after he cast blood moon. I was able to land cycle for a forest to cast violent outburst whenever he tapped out, returning a lot of power, and beating him to death over 2 turns.
Round 3: Restore Balance
Game 1: He cascades into a Restore balance on turn 3, after I attempted to beast within his borderpost. I had kept a land heavy hand, and so I continue playing lands while he beats me with his beast token, with a Greater Gargodon on 6 counters. He is on 2 borderposts when I have 3 lands, so I cascade end of his turn, to return lethal power to the battlefield. He scooped.
Out: 4 Fulminator Mage, 3 Beast Within
In: 4 Ingot Chewer, 3 Sin Collector
Game 2: I ingot chewer his U/W borderpost, then on turn 3 sin collector him, seeing ardent plea and no violent outburst. I cascade into 10ish power, destroying another borderpost and he scoops.
Round 4: RG Tron
Game 1: He won the die roll, which I think is really important in this match up. I Turn 2 a fulminator mage from a spirit guide, and begin blowing up tron pieces. I cascade on turn 3, and he scoops.
In: 4 Ingot Chiewer
Out: 1 Beast Within, 1 Bow Of Nylea, 2 Shriekmaw
Game 2: He gets natural tron on turn 3, and plays karn exiling a land. I play it out, and cascade for about 12 power. He manages to get to emrakul mana and kill me the turn before I kill him.
In: 1 Beast Within
Out: 1 Demonic Dread
Game 3: I Ingot chewer his chromatic sphere on turn 2, then blow up a land on turn 3. Next turn he plays double expedition map from two different tron pieces. Thankfully, I have a second ingot chewer and can cascade on my turn to sew up the game.
Round 5: UR twin
Game 1: This game went long and played out quite strangely. I drew 2 of my 3 living ends, and the third got remanded. I settle into hardcasting my dudes, and he can't seem to find twin. Eventually, he casts twin, and my hand is 3 living ends and a violent outburst, which I show him.
As the game had gone late, and I had seen no significant green lands, I'm fairly certain he is not on Tarmo twin.
In: 2 Damping Matrix, 2 Dismember, 2 Ingot Chewer
Out: 1 Bow of Nylea, 1 Jungle Weaver, 1 Beast Within, 2 Shriekmaw, 1 Demonic Dread
Game 2: I cast a turn 3 damping matrix uncontested. We both settle in for a tempo game, where I cast a pale recluse which kept getting tapped down before it could attack. The only cascade spell I drew was a single demonic dread, despite cycling ~6 creatures over a longer game. When he has tempoed to 5-6 life, I decide to cascade anyway and the living end was remanded. He played spells and killed me next turn.
He commented on how strange the game seemed afterwards, and I could only agree.
Round 6: UW Control
After looking at the standings, it doesn't look like any 5-2s can get into top 8 without anything strange happening, so this is a win-and-in, lose-and-out.
Game 1: I turn 2 fulminator mage with simian spirit guide, blowing up his celestial colonnade. This sets him far enough behind as he has another tap land, so I could recur fulminator mages to lock him out of the game.
In: 3 Sin Collector, 2 Ingot Chewer
Out: 2 Shriekmaw, 2 Simian spirit Guide, 1 demonic dread
Game 2: He plays meddling mage naming living end (something I hadn't expected). I began hardcasting guys. He goes bigger with gideons and collanades and I have to play my freshly drawn beast within on his Gideon to stay alive, and die the next turn.
I figured that he'd be on a rest in peace plan, rather than a relic of progenitus sideboard, and I think the shriekmaws are stronger against the mages.
In: 2 Shriekmaw
Out: 2 Ingot Chewer
Game 3: He casts meddling mage naming fulminator mage. I shriekmaw his mage, and he plays a rest in peace on his 3rd turn. I play a fulminator mage and destroy his only white source. He plays a tapped Celestial colonnade. I draw a second fulminator mage to keep him off white again. I hard cast guys and attack him to death while he is land screwed. At one point I cast Sin collector, and he revealed 2 ethersworn canonist and a second meddling mage. Fulminator mages seem to beat all the sideboard cards.
Round 7: Boros Landfall Aggro
We ID into top 8, and hope nothing has gone wrong.
TOP 8:
I play the RG tron opponent from earlier. He has a higher seed, so he is on the draw.
Game 1: I turn 2 Fulminator mage from spirit guide, and take over the game from there.
In: 4 Ingot Chewer
Out: 1 Bow of Nylea, 1 Jungle Weaver, 2 Shriekmaw
Game 2: He plays a turn 2 torpor orb to turn off my Ingot chewers, then turn 3 crucible of worlds. I can slow him down a little bit, but my land destruction can't keep up with the crucible, and he casts his giant spells to wreck me.
Game 3: I cast turn 3 fulminator mage, but he follows up with a torpor orb and a relic of progenitus on the following turn. At one point he drops a card on the floor and bends over to pick it up, followed by calling a judge. I seemed to have dropped an overgrown tomb under the table at some point, and as we couldn't properly determine when (I'd fetched twice and landcycled this game), the Judges ruled that I had most likely presented an illegal deck for game 3 and I received a game loss.
It was a disappointing end to the day, but I was knew what the judge ruling would be, so I accepted it. It was my first PTQ top 8, and it was in my first Modern tournament, so I was happy enough with my performance throughout the day to not be too bummed out by dropping a card.
I hope this tournament report helps. I thought living end was a great choice for the event, and most decks had really greedy, vulnerable mana bases. The top 8 was really diverse, with 7 or 8 distinct archetypes, and I think modern is in a really good place.
I felt like the jund charm and the leylines of the void were pretty underwhelming all day. I think they may have done more work if I had faced more Melira pod, but as it stands, I think Blood moons would have been stronger in their slot.
Edit: The bow of Nylea was also very underwhelming. I never wanted it, and it never did anything special when drawn. It would probably have been stronger as a misers avalanche rider.
All right, cool, I'll for sure put this together sometime soon, though I feel that a Bow of Nylea would only do me good.
4 rakdos pit dragon
4 Oracle of Bones
4 fulminator mage
4 simian spirit guide
2 twisted abomination
4 blood moon
4 violent outburst
3 demonic dread
3 living end
gathan raiders is sort of meant to die as your trying to sneak an additional creature into the yard with its discard ability in the early game. late game its enabling hellbent
rakdos pit dragon is sort of a left over choice from original dragon stompy, hard cast or put in via a LE, its got good abilities.
oracle of bones no opponents seem to understand this card so far, my whole point of running it in this deck is as a secondary chance to cast living end at some point in the game if i've some how drawn an LE. using 4 blood moon in the main i've often shut off double Black for suspending it. often a 5/3 with haste is good enough.
blood moon i don't think i need to explain this, but its essentially the only other back bone of dragon stompy i could bring over to this hybrid since chalice of the void isn't as effective in modern.
fulminator mage compliments blood moon in a mono red stompy deck, we all know how good it is with LE so its a must in the deck.
I'd run magus of the moon in that slot but lightning bolt and lightning helix are common in modern, so common that it brings me back to why a dragon stompy port would benefit from living end bringing back the stompy creatures.
why so few cyclers? thats a hallmark of living end as a deck!?! because "stompy deck" says you want to at some point achieve hellbent. Land cyclers work better for getting cards out of your hand.
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have you had a chance to test this out?
If it does live somehow, it also dies to bolt, unlike most other cards in the deck. Finally, he don't have the ability to target a problem creature (Scavenging Ooze, etc.) if they have more than one creature in play.
I toyed with him for a bit, but he just doesn't do enough to overcome his flaws, unfortunately.