He just played a land and passed as well, so I Outburst with no cards in my graveyard. He thought I was crazy, but said OK. I responded with 2 Street Wraiths and a Faerie Macabre cycled.
They way you are describing this makes it sound like an illegal play. If you pass priority and then your opponent passes you go to resolution and will not get to cycle. If you maintain priority and add cycles to the stack, he will then have the opportunity to counter when you do pass priority. At no point do you get to ask if they want to counter so you can know if the coast is clear.
This is very similar to Cabal therapy in older formats or sorcerers spyglass. If your opponent allows it to resolve, or allows you to name a card, it is too late to change their mind.
He just played a land and passed as well, so I Outburst with no cards in my graveyard. He thought I was crazy, but said OK. I responded with 2 Street Wraiths and a Faerie Macabre cycled.
They way you are describing this makes it sound like an illegal play. If you pass priority and then your opponent passes you go to resolution and will not get to cycle. If you maintain priority and add cycles to the stack, he will then have the opportunity to counter when you do pass priority. At no point do you get to ask if they want to counter so you can know if the coast is clear.
This is very similar to Cabal therapy in older formats or sorcerers spyglass. If your opponent allows it to resolve, or allows you to name a card, it is too late to change their mind.
He said OK to the Cascade trigger. He was like, "Is there anything in your graveyard?" before I started resolving the trigger, so that is what I'm referencing in my report. It did seem very odd that I would cascade with nothing on the battlefield or in my graveyard. Totally legal (and in fact NECESSARY) to allow your opponent to respond to the cascade trigger. And sometimes you get a snap Remand, to which I say 'Remand resolves' as fast as I can. He did end up casting Stubborn Denial once I went to resolve Living End, which I paid for with an SSG if you read that far.
I should have worded it as "I responded to my Living End with cycling," which is done very often to prevent drawing into a Living End. I'm sure you knew that tech, and my wording was just not clear.
Hey guys, sincere question here : How much do you think it is reasonable to plan for a meta for a GP or a very big tournament? I see all of you changing bits of your decks for each big tournament and in other pro articles I see people telling not to plan for meta because Modern is too diverse for that. Though I am 100% for planning for a LGS-size meta, I must admit than after seeing the plethora of different decks you play against in each of your reports, I wonder how much impactful can those little changes make. Again, this is not a negative remark on your decklists, I have been playing Magic for much less time than you do so I'm just asking the question, especially because I've been preparing for GP Lyon for a few months and wonder if I'll change my deck depending on the potential meta or not (which will be decided by PT RIX and GP Toronto very soon).
I will try Kessig Wolf Run after seeing that victory you got with it, never thought about using it. Same for Boil instead of a third Blood Moon.
Ken, if I may ask, how do you feel about your 1-ofs sideboard? For sure we draw a lot of cards, but do you feel the risk of not drawing your unique piece outweighs the number of options? I really have some trouble having 1-ofs unless they're split with the MB or have another near-similar card in the SB (Blood Moon / Boil, Ingot Chewer/ Krosan Grip, Lost Legacy / Slaughter Games).For this reason, kodieyost's kind of sideboard seems safer to me. Your experience on the subject may bring some new light on the matter.
Thanks in advance for your answers, I'll keep prepping for the GP!
Hey guys, sincere question here : How much do you think it is reasonable to plan for a meta for a GP or a very big tournament? I see all of you changing bits of your decks for each big tournament and in other pro articles I see people telling not to plan for meta because Modern is too diverse for that. Though I am 100% for planning for a LGS-size meta, I must admit than after seeing the plethora of different decks you play against in each of your reports, I wonder how much impactful can those little changes make. Again, this is not a negative remark on your decklists, I have been playing Magic for much less time than you do so I'm just asking the question, especially because I've been preparing for GP Lyon for a few months and wonder if I'll change my deck depending on the potential meta or not (which will be decided by PT RIX and GP Toronto very soon).
There's a fine balance here. It's true that preparing in the way you would for a standard tournament (significant sideboarding changes, even changing decks entirely, or "pre-boarding") would be really detrimental. At the same time, you absolutely should be lightly tuning your deck to what you expect to see more of. Moving to Blood Moons in the board is a really good example of this. Decks getting greedier is a large scale meta shift, and attacking that idea allows you to attack much of the meta at once. And it's true that you might just not run into any examples of the variety of deck you hedged for. But not changing at all out of a conviction that "Modern is just too wide open" is likely to get you left behind.
Ken, if I may ask, how do you feel about your 1-ofs sideboard? For sure we draw a lot of cards, but do you feel the risk of not drawing your unique piece outweighs the number of options? I really have some trouble having 1-ofs unless they're split with the MB or have another near-similar card in the SB (Blood Moon / Boil, Ingot Chewer/ Krosan Grip, Lost Legacy / Slaughter Games).For this reason, kodieyost's kind of sideboard seems safer to me. Your experience on the subject may bring some new light on the matter.
Thanks in advance for your answers, I'll keep prepping for the GP!
It's a principle I picked up from Ari Lax. Essentially, you play 1-ofs to get a bump in the matchups where drawing it basically wins you the game, without the huge downside of drawing a dead card coming up often. A great example is Shriekmaw. It's great in about 25% of your matchups (think Humans, CoCo, Eldrazi), fine to good in 50% of your matchups (Storm, Jund/Junk decks with Scooze and Gofys, Burn with 14 creatures, Delver, etc), and actively bad in 25% of matchups (Scapeshift, Affinity, Ad Nauseum, etc). You should draw it consistently across all matchups, but since in our deck we often have a pretty full grip and various cards to use, having a dead card is something we can work around. But when it's great, it basically wins you the game.
Of course, that is more my defense for playing singleton mainboard copies of Shriekmaw, Archfiend and Kolaghan's Command, because the sideboard is more redundant than it looks.
- Anger of the Gods is just an 8th Turn 3 wrath effect
- Boil is my 4th piece of anti-Blue tech. And since blue decks generally play a reactive game, I have plenty of time to draw into it.
- Fulminator Mage obviously pairs with the 3 in the main, plus Blood Moon
- Gnaw to the Bone is a random one, I'll admit, but I didn't want to completely punt the Burn matchup after removing my Leylines. Though I will say that Burn feels like a race to me now, so I don't want to be spending 3 mana on a Brindle Boar. If I'm spending 3 mana of life, it better get me 8+
- Krosan Grip goes with my Beast Within's and Ingot Chewers, while having a slightly wider application
- Slaughter Games is a 1-of because there aren't many decks that you can beat with a single card, though Ad Nauseum is one of them.
- Shriekmaw explained above
The other thing to keep in mind is that none of my 1-ofs are the only silver bullet in my deck, save Slaughter Games. They are nice to draw, and improve a matchup, but generally the deck does what it does.
Ken, I didn't realize so many copies of both Meddling Mage and Thalia were so standard in Humans. Shriekmaw makes a ton of sense there. Do we still find the matchup to be the cakewalk that aggressive guy decks have been in the past?
Gruulsmash hit the nail on the head. When I tune my list, it’s for the meta shift, not to anticipate any one deck. For example, this weekend I felt graveyard decks have been running a little unchecked recently so I sleeved up Living End.
When I see Dredge and Storm are running rampant, I’m more inclined to play Affinity so there’s less overlap. Keep in mind, for every Pro who says you can’t metagame an Open, there’s another one who slipped a well-times techy SB card into the MB and dominated the tourney with it.
Many non-Pros change decks and modify lists based on the recent articles and results, so if you understand the way most people will react to the info — you gain a major edge in the event.
I personally keep a core 50-55 cards static in my list, leaving me 5-10 cards that would definitely swing a MU if I run into it. On average we are going to see about 1/2 of our deck. This deck rewards a pair of singleton tech cards more than it punishes it, because the likelihood of you having it is approximately equal to not having it. Our deck also tends to end the game with cards in hand by nature, so an irrelevant 1-of tech card isn’t really that detrimental to our game plan.
I’ve certainly registered a list with 8 Singleton pieces of interaction in the SB before, and I’ve registered 8 Leyline 4 chewer 3 Shriekmaw before too. It depends on the broad meta you expect. Sure, people will “play what they want to play”. By round 8, most of the decks that aren’t broadly viable will be weeded out. You see an overabundance of burn and affinity at the top tables in the first 6-8 rounds, then the decks with stronger gameplans start eliminating them. It’s an art, not a science, but it definitely helps
Edit: sniped on the philosophy of Singleton haha. @gruul no humans isn’t the typical cakewalk
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Ken, I didn't realize so many copies of both Meddling Mage and Thalia were so standard in Humans. Shriekmaw makes a ton of sense there. Do we still find the matchup to be the cakewalk that aggressive guy decks have been in the past?
There's 7-8 Thalia/Meddling Mage in Humans decks, so yeah, not a cakewalk.
Well on the topic of humans, stop me if you think this is crazy, but have we considered playing turn//burn in the list for it? We don't have to play the blue half to use the shock half, and while this is probably not the kind of adjustment that we would find appropriate for a GP, for a troublesome concentration of them at an LGS is might be a way to actually get your version of Kommand out in time through a Thalia.
I'm so in love with this deck right now. I've had it built for years, but I never really got that into it for some reason until now. I think I just didn't realize how interactive, resilient, and dynamic it is. It really doesn't appear to be any of those things at a glance.
I still need help with the Storm MU if someone finds the time to write up some general tips, tricks, reactions, targets, sideboarding tech, various lines of play, etc. Anything would help. I got in a few games today against the deck on Cockatrice and ended up winning. I had a blast doing it too. A double Faerie Macabre that exiled three Rituals (Pyretic and Desperate) and a Manamorphose in response to Past in Flames completely screwed my opponent up while he was going off and slowed him down so much that I ended up coming back even though I was stuck on one land for what seemed like eternity. Later a Ricochet Trap redirected a Remand that was supposed to win him the game, and two Horror of the Broken Lands won it the next turn by getting buffed and messing up his combat math. I'm getting better at the MU, but I'm in no way confident about it.
I have some observations I wanted to share with y'all. I'm really having fun with this deck and want to talk about it with someone.
I've been playing 3x Faeries main and another in the side ever since I picked the deck back up. As of yesterday I've moved the last Faerie to the main deck and I haven't regretted it once. That card is such an all-star. And when it's not relevant it makes sideboarding much easier. I love it.
Do we really not care at all about Kari Zev's Expertise anymore? I haven't seen ANY lists running it lately, but I think about running it myself all the time. Living End is just magnetically drawn to my hand. Whether it's online or on paper, I always seem to draw an absurd and disproportional amount of Living Ends. Why don't we like this card? We've been talking about 1-of's and how they don't really bother us too much if they're dead. But even if there's no LE in hand to cast off Kari Zev's, we can always steal some fat creature of our opponent's for a turn (assuming, of course, they have 'some fat creature').
I've been trying out a singleton Kolaghan's Command per a number of people's recommendations, but it just hasn't been doing much for me. I usually end up siding it out. I'm not convinced about it yet. Still, I need more reps with it. If it doesn't start performing I might have to replace it with a Kari Zev's or some other super-secret secret tech.
I'm so scared to run Kessig Wolf Run. We just don't run many lands and it's crucial that we get the early colors we need. I fear it will screw me over more than it will push game-winning damage through. Can someone ease my reservations about this card?
I've gone down to 7 cascade spells and it feels right. The deck almost never ran 8 back when I first started "playing" it years ago. I do however think about adding the 4th LE sometimes. 3 can go very quickly sometimes.
That's all I have for now. What a great deck.
Thanks in advance for any help on that Storm MU.
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On the topic of singletons, I just wanted to add my 2 cents. I have long thought this because of the nature of the deck. There is a big different between having a small chance at an out against some lists, and no chance at an out. That being said I think they key to any singletons is that they intersect with each other.
You would likely not run a singleton of anything if it was narrow enough to help you against only one deck. In honesty there are not many cards that even fit that description except the most narrow of bullet cards. I would however run a card that is slightly worse against against dredge, like Faerie Macabre over Ravenous trap, if i felt that card had slightly better game against another match up like storm. I'll often have 4-5 cards in my sideboard that are singletons that all work against the same deck knowing that 2-3 of them can be applied to match up A, and another 2-3 against match up B, and so on.
A sideboard card does not always have to be a crazy blowout hoser like boil if stone rain is enough and the stone rain works against other lists (not a case, just an example.)
Well on the topic of humans, stop me if you think this is crazy, but have we considered playing turn//burn in the list for it? We don't have to play the blue half to use the shock half, and while this is probably not the kind of adjustment that we would find appropriate for a GP, for a troublesome concentration of them at an LGS is might be a way to actually get your version of Kommand out in time through a Thalia.
Shriekmaw is a much better answer. No need to get too techy.
I'm so in love with this deck right now. I've had it built for years, but I never really got that into it for some reason until now. I think I just didn't realize how interactive, resilient, and dynamic it is. It really doesn't appear to be any of those things at a glance.
I still need help with the Storm MU if someone finds the time to write up some general tips, tricks, reactions, targets, sideboarding tech, various lines of play, etc. Anything would help. I got in a few games today against the deck on Cockatrice and ended up winning. I had a blast doing it too. A double Faerie Macabre that exiled three Rituals (Pyretic and Desperate) and a Manamorphose in response to Past in Flames completely screwed my opponent up while he was going off and slowed him down so much that I ended up coming back even though I was stuck on one land for what seemed like eternity. Later a Ricochet Trap redirected a Remand that was supposed to win him the game, and two Horror of the Broken Lands won it the next turn by getting buffed and messing up his combat math. I'm getting better at the MU, but I'm in no way confident about it.
I have some observations I wanted to share with y'all. I'm really having fun with this deck and want to talk about it with someone.
I've been playing 3x Faeries main and another in the side ever since I picked the deck back up. As of yesterday I've moved the last Faerie to the main deck and I haven't regretted it once. That card is such an all-star. And when it's not relevant it makes sideboarding much easier. I love it.
Do we really not care at all about Kari Zev's Expertise anymore? I haven't seen ANY lists running it lately, but I think about running it myself all the time. Living End is just magnetically drawn to my hand. Whether it's online or on paper, I always seem to draw an absurd and disproportional amount of Living Ends. Why don't we like this card? We've been talking about 1-of's and how they don't really bother us too much if they're dead. But even if there's no LE in hand to cast off Kari Zev's, we can always steal some fat creature of our opponent's for a turn (assuming, of course, they have 'some fat creature').
I've been trying out a singleton Kolaghan's Command per a number of people's recommendations, but it just hasn't been doing much for me. I usually end up siding it out. I'm not convinced about it yet. Still, I need more reps with it. If it doesn't start performing I might have to replace it with a Kari Zev's or some other super-secret secret tech.
I'm so scared to run Kessig Wolf Run. We just don't run many lands and it's crucial that we get the early colors we need. I fear it will screw me over more than it will push game-winning damage through. Can someone ease my reservations about this card?
I've gone down to 7 cascade spells and it feels right. The deck almost never ran 8 back when I first started "playing" it years ago. I do however think about adding the 4th LE sometimes. 3 can go very quickly sometimes.
That's all I have for now. What a great deck.
Thanks in advance for any help on that Storm MU.
I'll answer the second half first. Kari Zev's Expertise is too cute for my taste. It's like a horrible Demonic Dread because you need the LE in hand and a target. You usually have LE in hand thanks to a Remand, and Remand decks often do not play creatures that you can target at sorcery speed. No thanks.
Kolaghan's Command not performing for you means you have drawn it against Affinity, which is one of our more lopsided matchups. You can also bolt a hatebear and smash a Vial, or even just get back a Street Wraith to draw another card. Keep trying it and you'll find a way to love it.
Wolf Run has been an absolute all-star for me. It is subpar in games where your opponent doesn't interfere with your combo, but in those games it often doesn't matter that you drew a colorless land. However, it completely shines when you see a Rest In Peace, or are forced to cast a Grey Ogre (and if you are like me, you play 11 of them). I've beaten plenty of opponents trying to sit back on counterspells by making my Faerie Macabre into a huge trampling dragon. And when they tap out to deal with your vanilla creature, then you can combo them out, or just cast another creature and beat face. I beat Rest In Peace twice at the SCG Classic, once by just casting stuff as the other with a Simian Spirit Guide attacking as a 6/2. And if yo read my tournament report on the previous page, you'll see how a top decked Wolf Run was what sped my clock up one turn and allowed me to steal a game facing down an Emrakul the Promised End.
Finally, the Storm matchup. You seem to know it fairly well already, but the key is to do your best to cut them off Blue sources and sandbag Faeries for the turn they are going to go off. I side in Shriekmaw as the cleanest answer to their mana dorks, and aggressively kill lands with Fulminator and Beast Within. Your best case scenario is to be able to go off on turn two with a Simian Spirit Guide and two creatures in the yard after they tap out for a Baral/Electromancer. From their you have a 3 turn clock that you can hopefully back up with land kill an Faeries.
Othersideboard options are the Leylines, white being the best because it turns off Gifts. If you are light on answers, you can bring in Anger of the Gods. You can try Jund Charm as well. And Gnaw to the Bone can make their Grapeshot miss killing you. Once they blow their load, they are usually done. And of course, Lobotomy effects like Lost Legacy and Slaughter Games naming Grapeshot can often win the game as they may side out Empty the Warrens vs us.
If you've seen my list from the SCG tourney, my sideboard plan for Storm would have been:
+ 1 Fulminator
+ 1 Shriekmaw
+ 1 Gnaw to the Bone
+ 1 Slaughter Games
- 1 Archfiend
- 1 Kolaghan's Command
- 2 Monstrous Carabid
Hi there - i've been having trouble as Jeskai Control player vs a land destruction focused version of Living End. He runs 4x Mage, 4x Avalanche Riders, and Beast.
Should I be heavily unfavoured? How does Living End sideboard against UWR Geist? What cards in my list are impactful?
Well on the topic of humans, stop me if you think this is crazy, but have we considered playing turn//burn in the list for it? We don't have to play the blue half to use the shock half, and while this is probably not the kind of adjustment that we would find appropriate for a GP, for a troublesome concentration of them at an LGS is might be a way to actually get your version of Kommand out in time through a Thalia.
Shriekmaw is a much better answer. No need to get too techy.
Shriekmaw is great for mage and thalia, but a card that says "nonblack" is a bit weak against black 1/2s that tear up your hand. Again, I wasn't suggesting it as a serious competitive tech, just for really small and predictable metas.
Have you played Raging Ravine in your deck? I have found that it does many of the same things as Wolf Run but is still colored mana. If you're scared by the color source dilution, that may be a good option.
Hi there - i've been having trouble as Jeskai Control player vs a land destruction focused version of Living End. He runs 4x Mage, 4x Avalanche Riders, and Beast.
Should I be heavily unfavoured? How does Living End sideboard against UWR Geist? What cards in my list are impactful?
As a 3-color deck, that much hate for lands would certainly be difficult for you to deal with. I'm not sure how a deck with 4 Avanlanche Riders would side for you, honestly because that is quite a deck change from my own, but my usual board strategy involves Blood Moon and Ricochet Trap.
Well on the topic of humans, stop me if you think this is crazy, but have we considered playing turn//burn in the list for it? We don't have to play the blue half to use the shock half, and while this is probably not the kind of adjustment that we would find appropriate for a GP, for a troublesome concentration of them at an LGS is might be a way to actually get your version of Kommand out in time through a Thalia.
Shriekmaw is a much better answer. No need to get too techy.
Shriekmaw is great for mage and thalia, but a card that says "nonblack" is a bit weak against black 1/2s that tear up your hand. Again, I wasn't suggesting it as a serious competitive tech, just for really small and predictable metas.
Have you played Raging Ravine in your deck? I have found that it does many of the same things as Wolf Run but is still colored mana. If you're scared by the color source dilution, that may be a good option.
Freebooter is not a huge issue. We have 7 cascade spells, so we're somewhere like 70% or so to draw a second. It's the delayed casting with the clock humans can put on us that can be devastating.
I’d rather have a colorless land to cast my Cascade spell on t3 than a colored source that doesn’t let me curve out. Interesting trade off though for sure. Could be merits on both sides.
Also, played Living End tonight to my first 2-2 finish in almost six months (extremely livid). I’ve had 6 months of 3-1, 3-0-1 or 4-0 Against strong opponents, most of them SCG grinders, tonight I lost to two opponents who didn’t even know their own deck, let alone mine.
R1 play against what should’ve been a roll over, opponent playing Affinity but has never played modern before in his life. G1 I crush it away, G2 I played loosely into his last two cards BOTH being spell pierce. EOT Cascade, untap Cascade, both got the pierce. G3 I never found a third mana source in 9 cycles and 4 draw steps.
0-1
R2 Against Burn, on the play, G1 he has me at 2, I Cascade and put triple horror, carabid, fulminator into play and then untap, double cycle, GG. G2 he’s stuck on 1 land and is never in the game truly.
1-1
R3 Against Grixis Deaths shadow, he’s new to the deck, I get a quick 2-0 because he takes my Beast Within over a Cascade Spell t2. G2 he took the Cascade spell but I had two.
2-1
R4 Against Grixis Deaths shadow, I steamroll him G1 and played around everything. Started with Two grove in play, he wasn’t in it. G2 I keep a hand that looked great at first, then I realized I have a blooming marsh and not a R source, so my triple ceradon hand is actually garbage because my 4th blackcleave is in my buddy’s Jund deck tonight. Stuck on 2 non-R land (forest + marsh) until he already had 2 street wraith and a shadow in GY, an angler in play, and I’m just not in the game. He thought scout and milled a rakdos charm g2, so I knew that was coming. G3 he had rakdos charm, Snapcaster rakdos charm, surgical, Snapcaster surgical, and I still almost had him deaf to a Fulminator Mage until he topdecked a Tasigur to plug it away.
I had decided I don’t like Ricochet Trap against Deaths shadow, they have a max of 4 stubs and that’s not even guaranteed at this point - not to mention 6-8 discard spells. Not to mention all 3 games in R4 I opened a 7 with Living End and then mulled to a 6 with a Living End, so nothing too great about that either. That’s tonigts beats!!
I went to 3rd faerie last week but the 3rd copy felt loose today, I’m going to swap for a 2nd archfiend Friday and see how it plays. Affinity and Kiki decks are both huge players in the FNM meta, I want to knock those off the board if possible.
Im just wondering why the guy at my LGS plays so much land hate when the 'stock' list doesnt? I assume its to beat blue control decks. However, if the 'stock' list is so different he must be losing points to other archetypes. What is preventing yourself and others from going all in on land hate?
Affinity, Burn, decks with a proactive gameplan... playing that much LD is basically removing either the Cyclers or removing the Utility cards like Beast Within or Faerie Macabre. Definitely sacrificing points in other places.
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They way you are describing this makes it sound like an illegal play. If you pass priority and then your opponent passes you go to resolution and will not get to cycle. If you maintain priority and add cycles to the stack, he will then have the opportunity to counter when you do pass priority. At no point do you get to ask if they want to counter so you can know if the coast is clear.
This is very similar to Cabal therapy in older formats or sorcerers spyglass. If your opponent allows it to resolve, or allows you to name a card, it is too late to change their mind.
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He said OK to the Cascade trigger. He was like, "Is there anything in your graveyard?" before I started resolving the trigger, so that is what I'm referencing in my report. It did seem very odd that I would cascade with nothing on the battlefield or in my graveyard. Totally legal (and in fact NECESSARY) to allow your opponent to respond to the cascade trigger. And sometimes you get a snap Remand, to which I say 'Remand resolves' as fast as I can. He did end up casting Stubborn Denial once I went to resolve Living End, which I paid for with an SSG if you read that far.
I should have worded it as "I responded to my Living End with cycling," which is done very often to prevent drawing into a Living End. I'm sure you knew that tech, and my wording was just not clear.
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I will try Kessig Wolf Run after seeing that victory you got with it, never thought about using it. Same for Boil instead of a third Blood Moon.
Ken, if I may ask, how do you feel about your 1-ofs sideboard? For sure we draw a lot of cards, but do you feel the risk of not drawing your unique piece outweighs the number of options? I really have some trouble having 1-ofs unless they're split with the MB or have another near-similar card in the SB (Blood Moon / Boil, Ingot Chewer/ Krosan Grip, Lost Legacy / Slaughter Games).For this reason, kodieyost's kind of sideboard seems safer to me. Your experience on the subject may bring some new light on the matter.
Thanks in advance for your answers, I'll keep prepping for the GP!
There's a fine balance here. It's true that preparing in the way you would for a standard tournament (significant sideboarding changes, even changing decks entirely, or "pre-boarding") would be really detrimental. At the same time, you absolutely should be lightly tuning your deck to what you expect to see more of. Moving to Blood Moons in the board is a really good example of this. Decks getting greedier is a large scale meta shift, and attacking that idea allows you to attack much of the meta at once. And it's true that you might just not run into any examples of the variety of deck you hedged for. But not changing at all out of a conviction that "Modern is just too wide open" is likely to get you left behind.
It's a principle I picked up from Ari Lax. Essentially, you play 1-ofs to get a bump in the matchups where drawing it basically wins you the game, without the huge downside of drawing a dead card coming up often. A great example is Shriekmaw. It's great in about 25% of your matchups (think Humans, CoCo, Eldrazi), fine to good in 50% of your matchups (Storm, Jund/Junk decks with Scooze and Gofys, Burn with 14 creatures, Delver, etc), and actively bad in 25% of matchups (Scapeshift, Affinity, Ad Nauseum, etc). You should draw it consistently across all matchups, but since in our deck we often have a pretty full grip and various cards to use, having a dead card is something we can work around. But when it's great, it basically wins you the game.
Of course, that is more my defense for playing singleton mainboard copies of Shriekmaw, Archfiend and Kolaghan's Command, because the sideboard is more redundant than it looks.
- Anger of the Gods is just an 8th Turn 3 wrath effect
- Boil is my 4th piece of anti-Blue tech. And since blue decks generally play a reactive game, I have plenty of time to draw into it.
- Fulminator Mage obviously pairs with the 3 in the main, plus Blood Moon
- Gnaw to the Bone is a random one, I'll admit, but I didn't want to completely punt the Burn matchup after removing my Leylines. Though I will say that Burn feels like a race to me now, so I don't want to be spending 3 mana on a Brindle Boar. If I'm spending 3 mana of life, it better get me 8+
- Krosan Grip goes with my Beast Within's and Ingot Chewers, while having a slightly wider application
- Slaughter Games is a 1-of because there aren't many decks that you can beat with a single card, though Ad Nauseum is one of them.
- Shriekmaw explained above
The other thing to keep in mind is that none of my 1-ofs are the only silver bullet in my deck, save Slaughter Games. They are nice to draw, and improve a matchup, but generally the deck does what it does.
Hope that helps!
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When I see Dredge and Storm are running rampant, I’m more inclined to play Affinity so there’s less overlap. Keep in mind, for every Pro who says you can’t metagame an Open, there’s another one who slipped a well-times techy SB card into the MB and dominated the tourney with it.
Many non-Pros change decks and modify lists based on the recent articles and results, so if you understand the way most people will react to the info — you gain a major edge in the event.
I personally keep a core 50-55 cards static in my list, leaving me 5-10 cards that would definitely swing a MU if I run into it. On average we are going to see about 1/2 of our deck. This deck rewards a pair of singleton tech cards more than it punishes it, because the likelihood of you having it is approximately equal to not having it. Our deck also tends to end the game with cards in hand by nature, so an irrelevant 1-of tech card isn’t really that detrimental to our game plan.
I’ve certainly registered a list with 8 Singleton pieces of interaction in the SB before, and I’ve registered 8 Leyline 4 chewer 3 Shriekmaw before too. It depends on the broad meta you expect. Sure, people will “play what they want to play”. By round 8, most of the decks that aren’t broadly viable will be weeded out. You see an overabundance of burn and affinity at the top tables in the first 6-8 rounds, then the decks with stronger gameplans start eliminating them. It’s an art, not a science, but it definitely helps
Edit: sniped on the philosophy of Singleton haha. @gruul no humans isn’t the typical cakewalk
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There's 7-8 Thalia/Meddling Mage in Humans decks, so yeah, not a cakewalk.
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I still need help with the Storm MU if someone finds the time to write up some general tips, tricks, reactions, targets, sideboarding tech, various lines of play, etc. Anything would help. I got in a few games today against the deck on Cockatrice and ended up winning. I had a blast doing it too. A double Faerie Macabre that exiled three Rituals (Pyretic and Desperate) and a Manamorphose in response to Past in Flames completely screwed my opponent up while he was going off and slowed him down so much that I ended up coming back even though I was stuck on one land for what seemed like eternity. Later a Ricochet Trap redirected a Remand that was supposed to win him the game, and two Horror of the Broken Lands won it the next turn by getting buffed and messing up his combat math. I'm getting better at the MU, but I'm in no way confident about it.
I have some observations I wanted to share with y'all. I'm really having fun with this deck and want to talk about it with someone.
I've been playing 3x Faeries main and another in the side ever since I picked the deck back up. As of yesterday I've moved the last Faerie to the main deck and I haven't regretted it once. That card is such an all-star. And when it's not relevant it makes sideboarding much easier. I love it.
Do we really not care at all about Kari Zev's Expertise anymore? I haven't seen ANY lists running it lately, but I think about running it myself all the time. Living End is just magnetically drawn to my hand. Whether it's online or on paper, I always seem to draw an absurd and disproportional amount of Living Ends. Why don't we like this card? We've been talking about 1-of's and how they don't really bother us too much if they're dead. But even if there's no LE in hand to cast off Kari Zev's, we can always steal some fat creature of our opponent's for a turn (assuming, of course, they have 'some fat creature').
I've been trying out a singleton Kolaghan's Command per a number of people's recommendations, but it just hasn't been doing much for me. I usually end up siding it out. I'm not convinced about it yet. Still, I need more reps with it. If it doesn't start performing I might have to replace it with a Kari Zev's or some other super-secret secret tech.
I'm so scared to run Kessig Wolf Run. We just don't run many lands and it's crucial that we get the early colors we need. I fear it will screw me over more than it will push game-winning damage through. Can someone ease my reservations about this card?
I've gone down to 7 cascade spells and it feels right. The deck almost never ran 8 back when I first started "playing" it years ago. I do however think about adding the 4th LE sometimes. 3 can go very quickly sometimes.
That's all I have for now. What a great deck.
Thanks in advance for any help on that Storm MU.
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EDH:
BRGKARRTHUS, TYRANT OF JUNDGRB
You would likely not run a singleton of anything if it was narrow enough to help you against only one deck. In honesty there are not many cards that even fit that description except the most narrow of bullet cards. I would however run a card that is slightly worse against against dredge, like Faerie Macabre over Ravenous trap, if i felt that card had slightly better game against another match up like storm. I'll often have 4-5 cards in my sideboard that are singletons that all work against the same deck knowing that 2-3 of them can be applied to match up A, and another 2-3 against match up B, and so on.
A sideboard card does not always have to be a crazy blowout hoser like boil if stone rain is enough and the stone rain works against other lists (not a case, just an example.)
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Shriekmaw is a much better answer. No need to get too techy.
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I'll answer the second half first. Kari Zev's Expertise is too cute for my taste. It's like a horrible Demonic Dread because you need the LE in hand and a target. You usually have LE in hand thanks to a Remand, and Remand decks often do not play creatures that you can target at sorcery speed. No thanks.
Kolaghan's Command not performing for you means you have drawn it against Affinity, which is one of our more lopsided matchups. You can also bolt a hatebear and smash a Vial, or even just get back a Street Wraith to draw another card. Keep trying it and you'll find a way to love it.
Wolf Run has been an absolute all-star for me. It is subpar in games where your opponent doesn't interfere with your combo, but in those games it often doesn't matter that you drew a colorless land. However, it completely shines when you see a Rest In Peace, or are forced to cast a Grey Ogre (and if you are like me, you play 11 of them). I've beaten plenty of opponents trying to sit back on counterspells by making my Faerie Macabre into a huge trampling dragon. And when they tap out to deal with your vanilla creature, then you can combo them out, or just cast another creature and beat face. I beat Rest In Peace twice at the SCG Classic, once by just casting stuff as the other with a Simian Spirit Guide attacking as a 6/2. And if yo read my tournament report on the previous page, you'll see how a top decked Wolf Run was what sped my clock up one turn and allowed me to steal a game facing down an Emrakul the Promised End.
Finally, the Storm matchup. You seem to know it fairly well already, but the key is to do your best to cut them off Blue sources and sandbag Faeries for the turn they are going to go off. I side in Shriekmaw as the cleanest answer to their mana dorks, and aggressively kill lands with Fulminator and Beast Within. Your best case scenario is to be able to go off on turn two with a Simian Spirit Guide and two creatures in the yard after they tap out for a Baral/Electromancer. From their you have a 3 turn clock that you can hopefully back up with land kill an Faeries.
Othersideboard options are the Leylines, white being the best because it turns off Gifts. If you are light on answers, you can bring in Anger of the Gods. You can try Jund Charm as well. And Gnaw to the Bone can make their Grapeshot miss killing you. Once they blow their load, they are usually done. And of course, Lobotomy effects like Lost Legacy and Slaughter Games naming Grapeshot can often win the game as they may side out Empty the Warrens vs us.
If you've seen my list from the SCG tourney, my sideboard plan for Storm would have been:
+ 1 Fulminator
+ 1 Shriekmaw
+ 1 Gnaw to the Bone
+ 1 Slaughter Games
- 1 Archfiend
- 1 Kolaghan's Command
- 2 Monstrous Carabid
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Should I be heavily unfavoured? How does Living End sideboard against UWR Geist? What cards in my list are impactful?
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Shriekmaw is great for mage and thalia, but a card that says "nonblack" is a bit weak against black 1/2s that tear up your hand. Again, I wasn't suggesting it as a serious competitive tech, just for really small and predictable metas.
Have you played Raging Ravine in your deck? I have found that it does many of the same things as Wolf Run but is still colored mana. If you're scared by the color source dilution, that may be a good option.
As a 3-color deck, that much hate for lands would certainly be difficult for you to deal with. I'm not sure how a deck with 4 Avanlanche Riders would side for you, honestly because that is quite a deck change from my own, but my usual board strategy involves Blood Moon and Ricochet Trap.
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Freebooter is not a huge issue. We have 7 cascade spells, so we're somewhere like 70% or so to draw a second. It's the delayed casting with the clock humans can put on us that can be devastating.
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Also, played Living End tonight to my first 2-2 finish in almost six months (extremely livid). I’ve had 6 months of 3-1, 3-0-1 or 4-0 Against strong opponents, most of them SCG grinders, tonight I lost to two opponents who didn’t even know their own deck, let alone mine.
R1 play against what should’ve been a roll over, opponent playing Affinity but has never played modern before in his life. G1 I crush it away, G2 I played loosely into his last two cards BOTH being spell pierce. EOT Cascade, untap Cascade, both got the pierce. G3 I never found a third mana source in 9 cycles and 4 draw steps.
0-1
R2 Against Burn, on the play, G1 he has me at 2, I Cascade and put triple horror, carabid, fulminator into play and then untap, double cycle, GG. G2 he’s stuck on 1 land and is never in the game truly.
1-1
R3 Against Grixis Deaths shadow, he’s new to the deck, I get a quick 2-0 because he takes my Beast Within over a Cascade Spell t2. G2 he took the Cascade spell but I had two.
2-1
R4 Against Grixis Deaths shadow, I steamroll him G1 and played around everything. Started with Two grove in play, he wasn’t in it. G2 I keep a hand that looked great at first, then I realized I have a blooming marsh and not a R source, so my triple ceradon hand is actually garbage because my 4th blackcleave is in my buddy’s Jund deck tonight. Stuck on 2 non-R land (forest + marsh) until he already had 2 street wraith and a shadow in GY, an angler in play, and I’m just not in the game. He thought scout and milled a rakdos charm g2, so I knew that was coming. G3 he had rakdos charm, Snapcaster rakdos charm, surgical, Snapcaster surgical, and I still almost had him deaf to a Fulminator Mage until he topdecked a Tasigur to plug it away.
I had decided I don’t like Ricochet Trap against Deaths shadow, they have a max of 4 stubs and that’s not even guaranteed at this point - not to mention 6-8 discard spells. Not to mention all 3 games in R4 I opened a 7 with Living End and then mulled to a 6 with a Living End, so nothing too great about that either. That’s tonigts beats!!
I went to 3rd faerie last week but the 3rd copy felt loose today, I’m going to swap for a 2nd archfiend Friday and see how it plays. Affinity and Kiki decks are both huge players in the FNM meta, I want to knock those off the board if possible.
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Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
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Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!