I will be attending my first large Modern tournament in a few weeks. I usually only play legacy and Run a Junk deck that I love. I am considering "Modernizing" that deck and came up with this. (Duals -> Shocks, Swords ->Paths, Wastelands->Tec Edges).
I did notice that a lot of the current Junk builds that are doing well do not run Path to Exile and Knight of the Reliquarys.
My question is, is that a meta choice, or is there a larger reason those cards aren't included? Is giving the basic land from a Path too much of a drawback?
Also I am going into a totally unknown meta and really do not know which cards to include in my sideboard. Could you make some suggestions for a sideboard and also include what to put in and/or take out for each of the largest decks I should see. I had checked the primer but the sideboard/matchups do not seem to be updated yet.
+1 abrupt decay
+1 lili
^That's my opinion, might be wrong.
For the path, i dont know... I find them REALLY handy with little drawback most of the time.
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Playing modern: all BGx, storm, burn, green eldrazi, dredge.
I will be attending my first large Modern tournament in a few weeks. I usually only play legacy and Run a Junk deck that I love. I am considering "Modernizing" that deck and came up with this. (Duals -> Shocks, Swords ->Paths, Wastelands->Tec Edges).
I did notice that a lot of the current Junk builds that are doing well do not run Path to Exile and Knight of the Reliquarys.
My question is, is that a meta choice, or is there a larger reason those cards aren't included? Is giving the basic land from a Path too much of a drawback?
Also I am going into a totally unknown meta and really do not know which cards to include in my sideboard. Could you make some suggestions for a sideboard and also include what to put in and/or take out for each of the largest decks I should see. I had checked the primer but the sideboard/matchups do not seem to be updated yet.
Any help is incredibly appreciated!
Most successful lists run path to exile in some number. I would definitely recommend playing some, there's a lot of decks in the meta where path is really helpful against.
As for KotR, most junk lists don't. I do, personally, but's that mainly because I really enjoy playing the card. I could care less if it's really optimal or not. KotR is definitely viable, though. Also, keep in mind that tec edge is not the wasteland of the format. The format doesn't actually have a decent substitute to wasteland. Tec edge is closest thing we have, but it plays out a lot differently. That said, you may want to play with your deck some before deciding to play 4 tec edges. Not saying 4 is the wrong number, just saying it's not as good as wasteland is in legacy, so it doesn't automatically have to be a 4-of.
Most people play 4 lili's. If you like 3, that's fine, just saying: a 4th is usually the best choice.
I don't know how familiar you are with modern, but counterspells are really bad in this format. Things rarely ever actually get countered. That said Loxodon Smiter is usually just a 4/4 for 3. Even if he gets put into play for free, the deck that put it into play for free can probably deal with it. The whole "GOTCHA!" thing with smiter just doesn't work out well enough to actually make him good, despite contrary belief.
I will be attending my first large Modern tournament in a few weeks. I usually only play legacy and Run a Junk deck that I love. I am considering "Modernizing" that deck and came up with this. (Duals -> Shocks, Swords ->Paths, Wastelands->Tec Edges).
I did notice that a lot of the current Junk builds that are doing well do not run Path to Exile and Knight of the Reliquarys.
My question is, is that a meta choice, or is there a larger reason those cards aren't included? Is giving the basic land from a Path too much of a drawback?
Also I am going into a totally unknown meta and really do not know which cards to include in my sideboard. Could you make some suggestions for a sideboard and also include what to put in and/or take out for each of the largest decks I should see. I had checked the primer but the sideboard/matchups do not seem to be updated yet.
The problem with paths is that they don't take out manadorks efficiently, which Junds counterpart lightning bolt, is very good at doing. This is only a problem during turn 1 and 2 usually, after that you're usually more than happy that the path is what it is and not a bolt. Another reason why many prefer to go without path is that they prefer to go BGw, which mean that they only have white for sideboard and lingering souls(which they can ditch to liliana). If you want to run paths you should adjust the manabase slightly, by playing one less tectonic edge. This isn't as bad as it sounds, as the path is able to deal with the manland you'd have used the tec edge on anyway most of the time. Path has a little less synergy with Scavenging Ooze and Tarmogoyf than other removal though, so there are many arguments both for and against it. The matchup against living end and tron becomes quite good with the paths in, and if you have dismember as an alternative it becomes really painful. If you have 2 Bobs out and get 2 dismembers from him, you're likely unable to cast them for less than 2-3 mana, while if you get 2 path you're in really good shape.
For a completely open meta here's my recommendations for sideboard:
3 Stony Silence - side in all 3 against affinity and tron, 2 against pod decks
3 Fulminator Mage - Side in against Tron, Scapeshift, UWR, Living End and pretty much any deck that runs manlands and is 3 colour when on the play. I tend to only side in 1-2 when on the draw against decks like mirror or jund. Also when I expect bloodmoon they can be ok.
2 Nihil Spellbomb - Now this is a narrow sideboard card, but you will get a very good matchup against Living end post board with this card. You need it early though, so running less than 2 isn't that helpful. I also side in 1 against melira-pod, but not sure if that's really needed post board. If you side it in, then be careful if you side in stony silence to not own yourself with it.
1Thrun, the Last Troll - In against any deck that runs counters, like UWR, Splinter Twin, Scapeshift. I also take him in against removal heavy decks like mirror and jund, and also against hatebears where I need good replacements for Liliana and he does a good job here.
1-2 Zealous Persecution or Infest/Drown in Sorrow - If you run junk and not BGw then I think Zealous Persecution is what you want here. While it doesnt really wipe the board completely against affinity, it often wins you the game all the same and it rarely becomes a dead draw like infest can be when you're ahead and just want to close out the game. Obviously the card can be nuts with Lingering Souls. If you run BGw then you're probably better of with Infest/Drown in Sorry(born of the gods). Side in against Affinity, Soul Sisters, Splinter Twin, BW tokens, Delver/young pyromancer, bogle, infect, pod (any deck with birds or hierarchs), Merfolk, Junk, Ajundi, Jund(not that good but better than thoughtseize and IoK).
2 Torpor Orb side in vs splinter twin and pod. Both these are tier 1 decks that usually see a lot of play, especially splinter twin right now.
1 Spellskite side in against splinter twin, bogle, infect. I have considered him against affinity as he blocks etched champion and makes arcbound unable to give his counters to his own artifacts when he dies, but bad synergy with my own stony silence, and they tend to side in their own spellskites, which makes the arcbound trick a bit less backbreaking.
1 Engineered Explosives I run one more zealous persecution in this spot now as they often are good in the same matchups and this card can be very slow and akward. Side in against Tokens, bogle, infect, soul sisters and non-creature decks.
1 Batterskull side in against Hatebears, Jund, Burn, Junk, decks that might run bloodmoon
What you side out obviously depends on what you have in, but there's usually a bunch of cards that don't really do a lot in the matchup. Like Scavenging Ooze and Abrupt decay go out against Tron. Some number of IoK or thoughtseize usually go out depending on the deck you're up against, especially in the mirrors and games that get drawn out. I take out IoK against pod as the card I want to take is the birthing pod. Maelstrom pulse goes out against decks like splinter twin where it's too slow.
Hey what do you guys think of the new Born of the Gods card Spirit of the Labyrinth for side against UWR? I think this card is very worth discussion, since it hoses down a number of cards while being mindful of the fact that it does not shut down Bob.
Hey what do you guys think of the new Born of the Gods card Spirit of the Labyrinth for side against UWR? I think this card is very worth discussion, since it hoses down a number of cards while being mindful of the fact that it does not shut down Bob.
I love it, but the 1 thougness makes it VERY vulnerable. And god knows they love electrolyze and the likes.
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Playing modern: all BGx, storm, burn, green eldrazi, dredge.
Hey what do you guys think of the new Born of the Gods card Spirit of the Labyrinth for side against UWR? I think this card is very worth discussion, since it hoses down a number of cards while being mindful of the fact that it does not shut down Bob.
I love it, but the 1 thougness makes it VERY vulnerable. And god knows they love electrolyze and the likes.
Good point, Kazog.
I don't think Spirit of the Labyrinth will be good for our deck. There are decks that it hurts a bit, but we have more relevant hate cards for those decks. Here's all the things I can think of:
-Against any blue deck, it turns off cantrips
-Stops thoughtcast in affinity
-Turns off baubles/cantrips against tron
-blanks Sphinx's rev and a couple other cards in UWR
Not a long list of things. In legacy, that first point makes it 9001% more playable since legacy has so many cantrips and draw spells, but in modern, I feel bad for the few people who play with serum visions. Against tron, we have more relevant hate cards. It's a good beater, but still kind of on the fence about it for tron. For UWR, it could definitely slow them down, but like kazog mentioned, they're going to go after it. However, I do believe the ruling is that if they kill it with electrolyze, they still won't get to draw a card for electrolyze...the problem is, according to the wording on the card, they can still draw at least one card on each turn, meaning theirs and ours. That means things like remand, cryptic command, and electrolyze aren't even turned off as long as it's the first card they've drawn on your turn. It hits Thirst for Knowledge pretty hard, but not a lot decks are playing that. Again, in legacy it's a huge deal because it automatically stops Brainstorm which is a 4-of in any blue deck.
I do like it, but I don't think it's worth playing for us even though bob gets around it. There's just not enough card draw in modern to make it worthwhile.
Sad thing it does not have flash
A cheaper if not better nothion thief.
In the end, nothing for us so far in BotG?
Drown in sorrow. It's a strict upgrade to infest. I mean, infest is a sideboard card at best, but I plan on replacing my infests with drown in sorrows when they come out.
The spirit would probably not be playable in this deck even as 3/3. I'd still prefer voice, tarmogoyf, bob and scavenging ooze to it as the ability in modern really doesn't do a lot. The tron filters will have to be used in our turn, so that's sort of nice, but only slows them down a bit and it dies to pyroclasm and oblvion stone, so I'd actually say that the card is decent/ok at best in the matchup just because it's a decent beater. Against UWR it blanks serum vision, but they usually play that turn 1 and later they have a gazillion ways of dealing with it before they play the visions if they need. It will probably be ok sideboard for standard and might even be maindeckable in white hatebears that run vials. At least 1 in sideboard seems good.
The best cards from the set so far from a modern perspective seem to be Drown in sorrow, Bile Blight, Searing Blood, Fanatic of Xenagos, Kiora's Follower and Brimaz, King of Oreskos. Both drown in sorrow and searing blood are sideboard cards that probably will see play in modern, while Brimaz seems good in soldier decks and possibly tokens. Bile blight would be exactly the removal spell that I dreamed of if it had cost B instead of BB, as path is really the only questionable card in the deck right now. At BB I think dismember still is better. Possibly a good sideboard card against tokens and merfolk though. Kiora's follower looks good for combo-decks, while the Fanatic is pretty close to Loxodon Smiter in power level. I don't think any of the cards will make a huge impact on any decks really and in general I'd say the set looks fairly bad from a modern perspective. Might be some of the gods are playable, but I really dislike cards that are mediocre on their own, so doubt I'll ever play any of them.
This is merely just speculation, but I wonder if they'll ever print a disfigure that does -3/-3 instead of 2. If lightning bolt can deal 3 damage, why can't black have something like that?
We will probably get it, but it will be sorcery speed heh. I could easily see them printing 1B card that gives -4/-4 though, which I think is good enough. I'm sure they tested -3/-3 for B for bile blight first and found that it was too good in the current standard together with cards like Hero's Downfall, Abrupt Decay and Dreadbore. That it hits every creature with the same name sort of feels like they want to make up for it not being just B. I will at least keep on hoping.
In theory I think lightning bolt would still be better as the reach it provides is just so incredible. As long as you have one card in your hand, your opponent will do whatever he/she can to stay above 3 life, which can be a huge edge. I'm sure a lot of jund players wouldn't mind playing both bolt and a -3/-3 for B though, so might be they also have jund/ajundi in mind when they don't print it. I imagine how annoying it must be when they have 1 card in hand and a mana up and you can't attack with a 3/4 flier like resto angel when they have spirit out. When they have bolt you at least get sort of a 2 for 1, but with -3/-3 you don't even trade with the spirit. I guess combat tricks can't become too good as it just gets too hard to play around them.
Ive been experimenting with Junk lists that run Garruk wildspeaker with lingering souls for a win condition. I also add in kitchen finks not only for the life but because if it dies I comes back, being a more resilient body that can stay up for garruk's ultimate. Here is my list:
I last played this deck, without sideboarding just to test the maindeck, against my friends gauntlet of good decks. I first played his RUG/huntmaster deck. he plays this deck very well and takes excellent advantage of huntmaster flips by playing aether vialand cryptic command. I managed to grind this game out 2-1 with lingering souls and scooze. I really missed playing lightning bolt (I used to play jund but am switching things up for now) to take out his huntmaster when its a 2/2. the discard worked really well for me and I was always happy to see path to exile as removal. the manlands also did lots of work for me when I was hellbent.
the second deck he played against me was a 4c junk gifts which I also managed to take down 2-1. the one game I lost was because Im still experimenting on when to mulligan so I decided to take a 1 land hand being on the draw with DRS and discard. anyways I ended up drawing 5 nonland cards before I drew a land and ended up loosing to a huge exalted KotR. the games I did win I pathed his elesh norn to later win the game. kitchen finks does a lot for gaining me life and I like the 2 maindeck and would consider 3...? but not really too sure yet. scooze had been doing a good job of keeping his GY empty of creatures to reanimate while getting big making winning easier. I think I garruk'd him for the win on one game, either way I felt like my mainboard had all the answers for what he was playing and I always felt comfortable and not threatened a majority of the time.
the third series in which I, again, took 2-1 was against his stock affinity list. path, decay, lingering souls, and decay seemed to be a good maindeck combination im not that eager to side in stony silence for this match up. I didn't mind taking damage early because kitchen finks and scooze would give me the right amount of cushion I needed to stabilize. decay would always take out his cranial plating and path had not drawbacks, considering he only ran 1 basic. once I landed some big goyfs, scooze, or even a finks and attacked he had to chump block with his ornithopters, overseers, and signal pests. I only run 2 lilis so she cleans out his hand pretty quickly and once I played a couple of removal spells she took care of the rest of his board. in my original list I didn't play vault of the archangel because I didn't have any, instead I ran gavony township which was really irrelevant in every game I saw play in. I imagine if I had the vault coupled with souls tokens I would have had less trouble taking out his swarms of creatures no matter their power.
in this match up I kinda felt lucky I consistently had the right removal because he had some fast starts but again it I managed to remove the right creatures and cast my own at the right time to turn the tide my way.
on trice ive had good results against the mono B devotion deck because of the amount of removal I run and the fact that they pretty much play one spell per turn for the first 3-5 turns. path did good to remove his obliterators and decay pretty much took care of everything else. again in this matchup I felt like the souls tokens coupled with vault of the archangel would be enormous to take out his obliterators.
all in all im still testing out how garruk plays. if I have maybe 1-2 creatures on board with a lingering souls and garruk in hand im pretty comfortable I can ultimate and win (play souls, next turn play garruk +1ing him to flashback souls the same turn, then ultimate with 4 flying 4/4 tramplers on top of anything else I have in play usually takes a good chunk of their life if not for the win). im also happy with only playing 2 liliana of the veil, I guess because I only own 2 ive been content making due, I don't have any problem going to 3 if I can get my hands on another one. im not sure how the 1 disfigure will play because I ran a 3rd IoK in its place during the playtesting. I think I would be ok, maybe replace it with the 3rd IoK, 3rd kitchen finks, 3rd liliana (if I can aquire one), or maybe some random dismember/other removal?
im happy with 3 lingering souls, I don't want too many because EE would just be devastating, and I don't want to rely too heavily on it.
please feel free to ask any questions, or comments. im in the mind set that garruk wildspeaker is a good card to play and am doing all the testing I can for some results. I should be playing in a modern tourney tomorrow so ill give some more feedback with how the sideboard plays.
the one sleeper card I think is sudden spoiling which I would side in against UWR, Jund, zoo, and other creature decks, hopefully taking out their fatty.
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sig by DarkNightCavalier
CURRENTLY PLAYING Legacy: BWG Junk Modern: BGR Jund BUG BUG URW American Control BWG Junk BWR Dega midrange GWR Naya Zoo EDH: BWG Teneb, the Harvester Pauper EDH: WG Sigil Captain Standard:
Well I used to play standard...
Wait. Why do you want to play Sudden Spoiling? It's a good card, but it doesn't take out any fatties unless you have blockers...which you may, but...I don't know, just seems conditional. Infest is probably what you're looking for.
Anyway, I like the list, but let us know how you do in the actual event.
As usual, the only change I recommend is having 4 LotV's instead of 2, but everything else seems to be there, so I guess we'll see how it plays out.
Hey guys, I don't usually play modern at all but I'm testing a few different decks for GP richmond coming up in a few months. Basically because I don't like modern and most of the combo decks I like to play like Storm, Ascension, and Eggs got nerfed real hard, I decided to just jam all the best fair cards in the format and see what happens. I have this list of Junk I'd like critiqued:
So this list is clearly more in the BGx tradition than a real Junk list, but because of Elspeth and Path in the main I consider it more of a significant splash. White also has some of the best sideboard cards available in the format. Tarmogoyf/Bob/DRS/Lili/Decay/Thoughtseize is the best core, so I clearly had to skew the deck towards that. My other changes can be explained as follows:
1) Path to Exile over black removal. This is easily explained, the tempo in this deck is significant and playing DRS into Bob, Path your DRS/Delver/etc. is backbreaking for the opponent. The ramp is less significant in this format than in Legacy for example, some decks barely run any basics, and because of that I think this card is just stellar. Compared to Jund's Bolts or straight BG's GffT/Dismember Path hits a wider variety of targets, most importantly Tron's Wurmcoil Engine and occasional Ulamog.
2) All 4 Abrupt Decay. Decay is just nuts, it's the best removal spell I can think of. Whatever it doesn't hit, Path is likely to. It hoses noncreature threats like opposing Liliana, Pyromancer, Cranial Plating, Swords, but most importantly it's an uncounterable answer to Twin, which is clearly one of the top tier decks going into this format. Playing less than 4 doesn't seem right to me, although I do sideboard some out against more fringe combo decks like Griselbrand, Tron, Scapeshift etc.
3) Elspeth. This card is criminally underused in the format as it is. She's the third best walker ever printed, and the first one's banned so I'm playing #2 and #3 She basically wins you the game on an empty or favorable board state against any non-combo deck and she's at least a reasonable clock against combo if you have sufficient disruption, unlike the various Garruks people have run in the past. The most important part of this card decision was breaking the mirror wide open. Their only answer in the 75 is usually Maelstrom Pulse. BGx mirrors come down to large board stalls where one person is trying to find enough removal to let their Goyfs break through, usually through Confidant advantage. Elspeth simply lets a Goyf bounce overhead for a giant chunk of damage, and even if they remove the threats you can easily protect her with Souls and tokens until you win.
Now, my problems with the deck in testing have been these: 1) The mana base. One of my strengths as a player is coming up with good mana bases, but this one seems a little off. You want as many lands untapped as possible, minimal life payment, double B, W, and G (for Ooze as well as Goyf+Decay and similar situations) and some amount of utility from your land drops. To this end, I'm playing the two W filters to help cast Elspeth, a full suite of basics to fight Blood Moon, and minimal shocklands for fetching only. I might cut Treetop Village completely for a second Wildwood and a Gavony Township. But the main issue is your reliance on the shock-fetch interaction for colored mana early, which results in a lot of points taken especially combined with Thoughtseize.
2) Over-reliance on the graveyard. Between DRS, Goyf, and Ooze the graveyard is stretched very thin. You often have to decide between a large Goyf and a large Ooze, or which cards to eat with DRS for maximum utility, etc. I don't think there's much that can be done about this to fill the graveyard more quickly. Perhaps 3 Ooze is too much; if there was another lifegain utility creature that I could play I'd cut the ooze for one-of. Finks is too slow against the main decks and applies no pressure to combo. Baneslayer or Batterskull are too high on the curve for Bob. Smiter and Wilt-Leaf Liege are too vanilla as far as beaters go. Maybe I expect too much, haha.
3) Weak to being out-valued. UWr Control absolutely walks all over you, they have too many cantrips and value cards in Snapcaster and Rev/Verdict. Pod eats you alive if you can't disrupt them early enough, and even the beatdown plan is strong against you. Jund has removal for your main threats so it comes down to who draws more Bobs, walkers, and utility lands. Again, this is maybe a concern with the state of midrange in the format in general versus this specific list, but it makes the deck feel weaker when you simply lose to your opponents superior draw with inferior cards. I wish there was a more consistent way of generating real card advantage in this deck. I considered a singleton Sword of Light and Shadow, recurring Bobs/Goyfs but it has anti-synergy with Ooze and Deathrite.
4) The sideboard is a rough draft at best. I just brewed this up myself with no input from my magic playing group, and it's obvious White has really strong sideboard cards, but I dunno which of these are necessary or useful. Mindcensor is good against Tron, but is it efficient enough or is there better hate? I ideally would want more discard against combo, but I feel like the slots are tight. The big fatties postboard help mirrorbreak in midrange matchups, and Baneslayer rocks most aggro decks alongside Batterskull.
Thanks for reading my giant wall of text, and any comments or critiques are appreciated.
Oh, I thought he was talking about playing a spell that is countering a spell with counters on it as it comes into play, but I see you guys were just discussing whether he was flashing a creature with flash in order to flash a flashback or just flashing a creature with flash but not needing flash in order to flashback a spell without flash.
Please feel free to ask any questions, or comments. im in the mind set that garruk wildspeaker is a good card to play and am doing all the testing I can for some results. I should be playing in a modern tourney tomorrow so ill give some more feedback with how the sideboard plays.
the one sleeper card I think is sudden spoiling which I would side in against UWR, Jund, zoo, and other creature decks, hopefully taking out their fatty.
I agree on wildspeaker being a good card at the moment and I prefer him clearly over Elspeth as he usually provides a two turn clock and works amazingly well with treetops and tectonic edges in addition to being easy to cast with a manabase that runs 3 treetops. I currently have swapped out 1 Mealstrom pulse from my list which I posted a few pages back and put in Garruk instead. Your sideboard needs a serious workover. Rest in peace do not go in the same deck as goyf, ooze, drs and lingering souls. I also wrote a bit about this a page or two back.
1) Path to Exile over black removal. This is easily explained, the tempo in this deck is significant and playing DRS into Bob, Path your DRS/Delver/etc. is backbreaking for the opponent. The ramp is less significant in this format than in Legacy for example, some decks barely run any basics, and because of that I think this card is just stellar. Compared to Jund's Bolts or straight BG's GffT/Dismember Path hits a wider variety of targets, most importantly Tron's Wurmcoil Engine and occasional Ulamog.
I agree in some part here, but the ramp can very significant in this format as well. Have to be very careful with what decks you do a turn 1 path against. Delver is probably one of the few cases where it's probably worth it, as they have counters later and the deck is really bad at coming back from an early disadvantage.
2) All 4 Abrupt Decay. Decay is just nuts, it's the best removal spell I can think of. Whatever it doesn't hit, Path is likely to. It hoses noncreature threats like opposing Liliana, Pyromancer, Cranial Plating, Swords, but most importantly it's an uncounterable answer to Twin, which is clearly one of the top tier decks going into this format. Playing less than 4 doesn't seem right to me, although I do sideboard some out against more fringe combo decks like Griselbrand, Tron, Scapeshift etc.
Abrupt is quite bad against Tron, Living End and mediocre against Melira-pod. It is fantastic against splinter twin of course, but the matchup against twin is good to begin with, while tron, pod and living end are hard, so I'd say 3 is the max here. I run 2 and been happy with that.
3) Elspeth. This card is criminally underused in the format as it is. She's the third best walker ever printed, and the first one's banned so I'm playing #2 and #3 She basically wins you the game on an empty or favorable board state against any non-combo deck and she's at least a reasonable clock against combo if you have sufficient disruption, unlike the various Garruks people have run in the past. The most important part of this card decision was breaking the mirror wide open. Their only answer in the 75 is usually Maelstrom Pulse. BGx mirrors come down to large board stalls where one person is trying to find enough removal to let their Goyfs break through, usually through Confidant advantage. Elspeth simply lets a Goyf bounce overhead for a giant chunk of damage, and even if they remove the threats you can easily protect her with Souls and tokens until you win.
I played with 2 Elspeth for a long while, then cut down to 1 and then eventually cut her completely. She won me a bucketloads of games, but the consistency of the deck is just on another level without her. The manabase is just too shaky and you generally will either have to shock yourself one extra time to play her, or you will have to ignore that there's a possibility that you can draw her in the next couple of turns and just hope you get a white source after you draw her. Treetop is easily the best manland for this deck and it gives you a lot of green sources, which just makes Garruk, Wildspeaker a very reliable turn 3/4 that basically just costs 2 mana.
Now, my problems with the deck in testing have been these: 1) The mana base. One of my strengths as a player is coming up with good mana bases, but this one seems a little off. You want as many lands untapped as possible, minimal life payment, double B, W, and G (for Ooze as well as Goyf+Decay and similar situations) and some amount of utility from your land drops. To this end, I'm playing the two W filters to help cast Elspeth, a full suite of basics to fight Blood Moon, and minimal shocklands for fetching only. I might cut Treetop Village completely for a second Wildwood and a Gavony Township. But the main issue is your reliance on the shock-fetch interaction for colored mana early, which results in a lot of points taken especially combined with Thoughtseize.
In my experience you want tectonic edge 9/10 times instead of gavony or vault. Modern is crawling with manlands and shaky manabases and gavony in a pod deck is just so much better than it is in this, that you want the tec-edge to get rid of it. Tron is also a tier 1 deck, and if you run 3-4 tec edge in main you will have a huge edge in the matchup. Against UWR control you will win most of the time as you shut of their main win condition, and mirrors are very often decided by manlands. If you get rid of Elspeth, which usually shines in the same matches as the tec-edge, you get access to both better manlands (can play at least 1 less stirring wildwood) and you can play 3 tectonic edge, which is just incredible in this deck, as it denies your opponent mana, but fuels DRS so you usually make tectonic into two lands that can provide any mana you need. You also don't need to run fetid heath and wooded bastion, which can make for awkward starting hands.
2) Over-reliance on the graveyard. Between DRS, Goyf, and Ooze the graveyard is stretched very thin. You often have to decide between a large Goyf and a large Ooze, or which cards to eat with DRS for maximum utility, etc. I don't think there's much that can be done about this to fill the graveyard more quickly. Perhaps 3 Ooze is too much; if there was another lifegain utility creature that I could play I'd cut the ooze for one-of. Finks is too slow against the main decks and applies no pressure to combo. Baneslayer or Batterskull are too high on the curve for Bob. Smiter and Wilt-Leaf Liege are too vanilla as far as beaters go. Maybe I expect too much, haha.
Finks is not too slow really, it can come down turn 2 if you're on the play, dodging counters and your opponents removal be inadequate to deal with it efficiently. It's very strong against opposing Liliana's, though Lingering Souls is even better here. The lifegain is extremely relevant in this deck. It's very good against tron, living end and jund to name some important decks. Scavenging ooze will be good in many of the same matchups though, but oozes are very weak in multiples. I thus only run 2 to really cut the chances of having two out at the same time. Personally I'd swap 1 ooze with voice of resurgence. With the right manabase you can still run 3 treetop 1 stirring wildwood and 3 tectonic edge and still have an 88% chance to play it on turn 2, which is pretty much the same odds as being able to play Liliana on turn 3. Personally I also swap a Bob for a voice so I can play two. Against decks with counters you will pretty much win if they don't have a spellsnare for it on turn 2 and you have anything decent to follow it up with.
3) Weak to being out-valued. UWr Control absolutely walks all over you, they have too many cantrips and value cards in Snapcaster and Rev/Verdict. Pod eats you alive if you can't disrupt them early enough, and even the beatdown plan is strong against you. Jund has removal for your main threats so it comes down to who draws more Bobs, walkers, and utility lands. Again, this is maybe a concern with the state of midrange in the format in general versus this specific list, but it makes the deck feel weaker when you simply lose to your opponents superior draw with inferior cards. I wish there was a more consistent way of generating real card advantage in this deck. I considered a singleton Sword of Light and Shadow, recurring Bobs/Goyfs but it has anti-synergy with Ooze and Deathrite.
The control matchups are very skill intensive, but if you run 3 tectonic edge and use your hand disruption on the right cards, the matchup becomes incredibly good. When I started playing the list I lost my first two matches against UWR control, but I'm something like 10-1 in my last 5 matches against them. Elspeth's don't do a lot here as by the time you have mana to cast her, they will be on the counter train and will counter any useful cards you play. If you run voices it could be able to come down, as they will usually path it on their own turn if they can, which allows you to accelerate out Elspeth before cryptics. I only run two voices though, so I ended up siding her out as she'll mostly be too slow. The tectonic edges are really the key to the matchup as you can play around their cryptics by using it in it in your combat phase. If they see the tectonic edge, they will usually be forced to use the cryptic at the beginning of combat step, allowing you to activate treetop afterwards (if they do something you will get priority again, if they don't do anything you don't get to activate treetop before declare attackers, at which point it's too late). They won't get to counter you in any case, which means you can power out Liliana or something you don't want countered.
4) The sideboard is a rough draft at best. I just brewed this up myself with no input from my magic playing group, and it's obvious White has really strong sideboard cards, but I dunno which of these are necessary or useful. Mindcensor is good against Tron, but is it efficient enough or is there better hate? I ideally would want more discard against combo, but I feel like the slots are tight. The big fatties postboard help mirrorbreak in midrange matchups, and Baneslayer rocks most aggro decks alongside Batterskull.
I wrote some stuff on sideboard two pages back or so, whatever you do, don't go anywhere without at least 3 stony silence in the sideboard.
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I did notice that a lot of the current Junk builds that are doing well do not run Path to Exile and Knight of the Reliquarys.
My question is, is that a meta choice, or is there a larger reason those cards aren't included? Is giving the basic land from a Path too much of a drawback?
Also I am going into a totally unknown meta and really do not know which cards to include in my sideboard. Could you make some suggestions for a sideboard and also include what to put in and/or take out for each of the largest decks I should see. I had checked the primer but the sideboard/matchups do not seem to be updated yet.
Any help is incredibly appreciated!
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Loxodon Smiter
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Dismember
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Thoughtseize
1 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple Garden
4 Treetop Village
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Woodland Cemetery
-1 smiter
-1 dismember
+1 abrupt decay
+1 lili
^That's my opinion, might be wrong.
For the path, i dont know... I find them REALLY handy with little drawback most of the time.
Most successful lists run path to exile in some number. I would definitely recommend playing some, there's a lot of decks in the meta where path is really helpful against.
As for KotR, most junk lists don't. I do, personally, but's that mainly because I really enjoy playing the card. I could care less if it's really optimal or not. KotR is definitely viable, though. Also, keep in mind that tec edge is not the wasteland of the format. The format doesn't actually have a decent substitute to wasteland. Tec edge is closest thing we have, but it plays out a lot differently. That said, you may want to play with your deck some before deciding to play 4 tec edges. Not saying 4 is the wrong number, just saying it's not as good as wasteland is in legacy, so it doesn't automatically have to be a 4-of.
Most people play 4 lili's. If you like 3, that's fine, just saying: a 4th is usually the best choice.
I don't know how familiar you are with modern, but counterspells are really bad in this format. Things rarely ever actually get countered. That said Loxodon Smiter is usually just a 4/4 for 3. Even if he gets put into play for free, the deck that put it into play for free can probably deal with it. The whole "GOTCHA!" thing with smiter just doesn't work out well enough to actually make him good, despite contrary belief.
Modern Junk Primer
Legacy ANT Primer
L1 Judge
The problem with paths is that they don't take out manadorks efficiently, which Junds counterpart lightning bolt, is very good at doing. This is only a problem during turn 1 and 2 usually, after that you're usually more than happy that the path is what it is and not a bolt. Another reason why many prefer to go without path is that they prefer to go BGw, which mean that they only have white for sideboard and lingering souls(which they can ditch to liliana). If you want to run paths you should adjust the manabase slightly, by playing one less tectonic edge. This isn't as bad as it sounds, as the path is able to deal with the manland you'd have used the tec edge on anyway most of the time. Path has a little less synergy with Scavenging Ooze and Tarmogoyf than other removal though, so there are many arguments both for and against it. The matchup against living end and tron becomes quite good with the paths in, and if you have dismember as an alternative it becomes really painful. If you have 2 Bobs out and get 2 dismembers from him, you're likely unable to cast them for less than 2-3 mana, while if you get 2 path you're in really good shape.
For a completely open meta here's my recommendations for sideboard:
3 Stony Silence - side in all 3 against affinity and tron, 2 against pod decks
3 Fulminator Mage - Side in against Tron, Scapeshift, UWR, Living End and pretty much any deck that runs manlands and is 3 colour when on the play. I tend to only side in 1-2 when on the draw against decks like mirror or jund. Also when I expect bloodmoon they can be ok.
2 Nihil Spellbomb - Now this is a narrow sideboard card, but you will get a very good matchup against Living end post board with this card. You need it early though, so running less than 2 isn't that helpful. I also side in 1 against melira-pod, but not sure if that's really needed post board. If you side it in, then be careful if you side in stony silence to not own yourself with it.
1Thrun, the Last Troll - In against any deck that runs counters, like UWR, Splinter Twin, Scapeshift. I also take him in against removal heavy decks like mirror and jund, and also against hatebears where I need good replacements for Liliana and he does a good job here.
1-2 Zealous Persecution or Infest/Drown in Sorrow - If you run junk and not BGw then I think Zealous Persecution is what you want here. While it doesnt really wipe the board completely against affinity, it often wins you the game all the same and it rarely becomes a dead draw like infest can be when you're ahead and just want to close out the game. Obviously the card can be nuts with Lingering Souls. If you run BGw then you're probably better of with Infest/Drown in Sorry(born of the gods). Side in against Affinity, Soul Sisters, Splinter Twin, BW tokens, Delver/young pyromancer, bogle, infect, pod (any deck with birds or hierarchs), Merfolk, Junk, Ajundi, Jund(not that good but better than thoughtseize and IoK).
2 Torpor Orb side in vs splinter twin and pod. Both these are tier 1 decks that usually see a lot of play, especially splinter twin right now.
1 Spellskite side in against splinter twin, bogle, infect. I have considered him against affinity as he blocks etched champion and makes arcbound unable to give his counters to his own artifacts when he dies, but bad synergy with my own stony silence, and they tend to side in their own spellskites, which makes the arcbound trick a bit less backbreaking.
1 Engineered Explosives I run one more zealous persecution in this spot now as they often are good in the same matchups and this card can be very slow and akward. Side in against Tokens, bogle, infect, soul sisters and non-creature decks.
1 Batterskull side in against Hatebears, Jund, Burn, Junk, decks that might run bloodmoon
What you side out obviously depends on what you have in, but there's usually a bunch of cards that don't really do a lot in the matchup. Like Scavenging Ooze and Abrupt decay go out against Tron. Some number of IoK or thoughtseize usually go out depending on the deck you're up against, especially in the mirrors and games that get drawn out. I take out IoK against pod as the card I want to take is the birthing pod. Maelstrom pulse goes out against decks like splinter twin where it's too slow.
BWGJunkBWG
BRGJundBRG
B1Eldrazi ShopsB1
UAzami, Lady of ScrollsU
BGMeren of Clan Nel TothBG
BUWJenara, Asura of WarBUW
GURAnimar, Soul of ElementsGUR
I love it, but the 1 thougness makes it VERY vulnerable. And god knows they love electrolyze and the likes.
Good point, Kazog.
I don't think Spirit of the Labyrinth will be good for our deck. There are decks that it hurts a bit, but we have more relevant hate cards for those decks. Here's all the things I can think of:
-Against any blue deck, it turns off cantrips
-Stops thoughtcast in affinity
-Turns off baubles/cantrips against tron
-blanks Sphinx's rev and a couple other cards in UWR
Not a long list of things. In legacy, that first point makes it 9001% more playable since legacy has so many cantrips and draw spells, but in modern, I feel bad for the few people who play with serum visions. Against tron, we have more relevant hate cards. It's a good beater, but still kind of on the fence about it for tron. For UWR, it could definitely slow them down, but like kazog mentioned, they're going to go after it. However, I do believe the ruling is that if they kill it with electrolyze, they still won't get to draw a card for electrolyze...the problem is, according to the wording on the card, they can still draw at least one card on each turn, meaning theirs and ours. That means things like remand, cryptic command, and electrolyze aren't even turned off as long as it's the first card they've drawn on your turn. It hits Thirst for Knowledge pretty hard, but not a lot decks are playing that. Again, in legacy it's a huge deal because it automatically stops Brainstorm which is a 4-of in any blue deck.
I do like it, but I don't think it's worth playing for us even though bob gets around it. There's just not enough card draw in modern to make it worthwhile.
Modern Junk Primer
Legacy ANT Primer
L1 Judge
A cheaper if not better nothion thief.
In the end, nothing for us so far in BotG?
Drown in sorrow. It's a strict upgrade to infest. I mean, infest is a sideboard card at best, but I plan on replacing my infests with drown in sorrows when they come out.
Modern Junk Primer
Legacy ANT Primer
L1 Judge
The best cards from the set so far from a modern perspective seem to be Drown in sorrow, Bile Blight, Searing Blood, Fanatic of Xenagos, Kiora's Follower and Brimaz, King of Oreskos. Both drown in sorrow and searing blood are sideboard cards that probably will see play in modern, while Brimaz seems good in soldier decks and possibly tokens. Bile blight would be exactly the removal spell that I dreamed of if it had cost B instead of BB, as path is really the only questionable card in the deck right now. At BB I think dismember still is better. Possibly a good sideboard card against tokens and merfolk though. Kiora's follower looks good for combo-decks, while the Fanatic is pretty close to Loxodon Smiter in power level. I don't think any of the cards will make a huge impact on any decks really and in general I'd say the set looks fairly bad from a modern perspective. Might be some of the gods are playable, but I really dislike cards that are mediocre on their own, so doubt I'll ever play any of them.
Modern Junk Primer
Legacy ANT Primer
L1 Judge
In theory I think lightning bolt would still be better as the reach it provides is just so incredible. As long as you have one card in your hand, your opponent will do whatever he/she can to stay above 3 life, which can be a huge edge. I'm sure a lot of jund players wouldn't mind playing both bolt and a -3/-3 for B though, so might be they also have jund/ajundi in mind when they don't print it. I imagine how annoying it must be when they have 1 card in hand and a mana up and you can't attack with a 3/4 flier like resto angel when they have spirit out. When they have bolt you at least get sort of a 2 for 1, but with -3/-3 you don't even trade with the spirit. I guess combat tricks can't become too good as it just gets too hard to play around them.
1 vault of the archangel
1 plains
2 swamp
2 forest
4 verdant catacombs
4 marsh flats
2 stirring wildwood
3 treetop village
1 temple garden
2 overgrown tomb
1 godless shrine
creatures: 18
4 deathrite shaman
4 tarmogoyf
4 dark confidant
2 scavenging ooze
2 kitchen finks
1 disfigure
2 inquisition of kozilek
3 thoughtseize
4 path to exile
3 abrupt decay
1 maelstrom pulse
3 lingering souls
2 liliana of the veil
2 garruk wildspeaker
2 pithing needle
2 grafdigger's cage
1 oxidize
1 thoughtseize
1 torpor orb
1 stony silence
1 rest in peace
1 sudden spoiling
1 kitchen finks
1 eternal witness
1 sorin, lord of innistrad
1 thrun, the last troll
I last played this deck, without sideboarding just to test the maindeck, against my friends gauntlet of good decks. I first played his RUG/huntmaster deck. he plays this deck very well and takes excellent advantage of huntmaster flips by playing aether vial and cryptic command. I managed to grind this game out 2-1 with lingering souls and scooze. I really missed playing lightning bolt (I used to play jund but am switching things up for now) to take out his huntmaster when its a 2/2. the discard worked really well for me and I was always happy to see path to exile as removal. the manlands also did lots of work for me when I was hellbent.
the second deck he played against me was a 4c junk gifts which I also managed to take down 2-1. the one game I lost was because Im still experimenting on when to mulligan so I decided to take a 1 land hand being on the draw with DRS and discard. anyways I ended up drawing 5 nonland cards before I drew a land and ended up loosing to a huge exalted KotR. the games I did win I pathed his elesh norn to later win the game. kitchen finks does a lot for gaining me life and I like the 2 maindeck and would consider 3...? but not really too sure yet. scooze had been doing a good job of keeping his GY empty of creatures to reanimate while getting big making winning easier. I think I garruk'd him for the win on one game, either way I felt like my mainboard had all the answers for what he was playing and I always felt comfortable and not threatened a majority of the time.
the third series in which I, again, took 2-1 was against his stock affinity list. path, decay, lingering souls, and decay seemed to be a good maindeck combination im not that eager to side in stony silence for this match up. I didn't mind taking damage early because kitchen finks and scooze would give me the right amount of cushion I needed to stabilize. decay would always take out his cranial plating and path had not drawbacks, considering he only ran 1 basic. once I landed some big goyfs, scooze, or even a finks and attacked he had to chump block with his ornithopters, overseers, and signal pests. I only run 2 lilis so she cleans out his hand pretty quickly and once I played a couple of removal spells she took care of the rest of his board. in my original list I didn't play vault of the archangel because I didn't have any, instead I ran gavony township which was really irrelevant in every game I saw play in. I imagine if I had the vault coupled with souls tokens I would have had less trouble taking out his swarms of creatures no matter their power.
in this match up I kinda felt lucky I consistently had the right removal because he had some fast starts but again it I managed to remove the right creatures and cast my own at the right time to turn the tide my way.
on trice ive had good results against the mono B devotion deck because of the amount of removal I run and the fact that they pretty much play one spell per turn for the first 3-5 turns. path did good to remove his obliterators and decay pretty much took care of everything else. again in this matchup I felt like the souls tokens coupled with vault of the archangel would be enormous to take out his obliterators.
all in all im still testing out how garruk plays. if I have maybe 1-2 creatures on board with a lingering souls and garruk in hand im pretty comfortable I can ultimate and win (play souls, next turn play garruk +1ing him to flashback souls the same turn, then ultimate with 4 flying 4/4 tramplers on top of anything else I have in play usually takes a good chunk of their life if not for the win). im also happy with only playing 2 liliana of the veil, I guess because I only own 2 ive been content making due, I don't have any problem going to 3 if I can get my hands on another one. im not sure how the 1 disfigure will play because I ran a 3rd IoK in its place during the playtesting. I think I would be ok, maybe replace it with the 3rd IoK, 3rd kitchen finks, 3rd liliana (if I can aquire one), or maybe some random dismember/other removal?
im happy with 3 lingering souls, I don't want too many because EE would just be devastating, and I don't want to rely too heavily on it.
please feel free to ask any questions, or comments. im in the mind set that garruk wildspeaker is a good card to play and am doing all the testing I can for some results. I should be playing in a modern tourney tomorrow so ill give some more feedback with how the sideboard plays.
the one sleeper card I think is sudden spoiling which I would side in against UWR, Jund, zoo, and other creature decks, hopefully taking out their fatty.
CURRENTLY PLAYING
Legacy:
BWG Junk
Modern:
BGR Jund
BUG BUG
URW American Control
BWG Junk
BWR Dega midrange
GWR Naya Zoo
EDH:
BWG Teneb, the Harvester
Pauper EDH:
WG Sigil Captain
Standard:
Well I used to play standard...
El_snoope's haves and wants list
Anyway, I like the list, but let us know how you do in the actual event.
As usual, the only change I recommend is having 4 LotV's instead of 2, but everything else seems to be there, so I guess we'll see how it plays out.
Modern Junk Primer
Legacy ANT Primer
L1 Judge
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Thoughtseize
4 Path to Exile
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Lingering Souls
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
2 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Forest
2 Treetop Village
2 Woodland Cemetery
2 Stirring Wildwood
1 Fetid Heath
1 Wooded Bastion
3 Aven Mindcensor
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Batterskull
1 Baneslayer Angel
So this list is clearly more in the BGx tradition than a real Junk list, but because of Elspeth and Path in the main I consider it more of a significant splash. White also has some of the best sideboard cards available in the format. Tarmogoyf/Bob/DRS/Lili/Decay/Thoughtseize is the best core, so I clearly had to skew the deck towards that. My other changes can be explained as follows:
1) Path to Exile over black removal. This is easily explained, the tempo in this deck is significant and playing DRS into Bob, Path your DRS/Delver/etc. is backbreaking for the opponent. The ramp is less significant in this format than in Legacy for example, some decks barely run any basics, and because of that I think this card is just stellar. Compared to Jund's Bolts or straight BG's GffT/Dismember Path hits a wider variety of targets, most importantly Tron's Wurmcoil Engine and occasional Ulamog.
2) All 4 Abrupt Decay. Decay is just nuts, it's the best removal spell I can think of. Whatever it doesn't hit, Path is likely to. It hoses noncreature threats like opposing Liliana, Pyromancer, Cranial Plating, Swords, but most importantly it's an uncounterable answer to Twin, which is clearly one of the top tier decks going into this format. Playing less than 4 doesn't seem right to me, although I do sideboard some out against more fringe combo decks like Griselbrand, Tron, Scapeshift etc.
3) Elspeth. This card is criminally underused in the format as it is. She's the third best walker ever printed, and the first one's banned so I'm playing #2 and #3 She basically wins you the game on an empty or favorable board state against any non-combo deck and she's at least a reasonable clock against combo if you have sufficient disruption, unlike the various Garruks people have run in the past. The most important part of this card decision was breaking the mirror wide open. Their only answer in the 75 is usually Maelstrom Pulse. BGx mirrors come down to large board stalls where one person is trying to find enough removal to let their Goyfs break through, usually through Confidant advantage. Elspeth simply lets a Goyf bounce overhead for a giant chunk of damage, and even if they remove the threats you can easily protect her with Souls and tokens until you win.
Now, my problems with the deck in testing have been these:
1) The mana base. One of my strengths as a player is coming up with good mana bases, but this one seems a little off. You want as many lands untapped as possible, minimal life payment, double B, W, and G (for Ooze as well as Goyf+Decay and similar situations) and some amount of utility from your land drops. To this end, I'm playing the two W filters to help cast Elspeth, a full suite of basics to fight Blood Moon, and minimal shocklands for fetching only. I might cut Treetop Village completely for a second Wildwood and a Gavony Township. But the main issue is your reliance on the shock-fetch interaction for colored mana early, which results in a lot of points taken especially combined with Thoughtseize.
2) Over-reliance on the graveyard. Between DRS, Goyf, and Ooze the graveyard is stretched very thin. You often have to decide between a large Goyf and a large Ooze, or which cards to eat with DRS for maximum utility, etc. I don't think there's much that can be done about this to fill the graveyard more quickly. Perhaps 3 Ooze is too much; if there was another lifegain utility creature that I could play I'd cut the ooze for one-of. Finks is too slow against the main decks and applies no pressure to combo. Baneslayer or Batterskull are too high on the curve for Bob. Smiter and Wilt-Leaf Liege are too vanilla as far as beaters go. Maybe I expect too much, haha.
3) Weak to being out-valued. UWr Control absolutely walks all over you, they have too many cantrips and value cards in Snapcaster and Rev/Verdict. Pod eats you alive if you can't disrupt them early enough, and even the beatdown plan is strong against you. Jund has removal for your main threats so it comes down to who draws more Bobs, walkers, and utility lands. Again, this is maybe a concern with the state of midrange in the format in general versus this specific list, but it makes the deck feel weaker when you simply lose to your opponents superior draw with inferior cards. I wish there was a more consistent way of generating real card advantage in this deck. I considered a singleton Sword of Light and Shadow, recurring Bobs/Goyfs but it has anti-synergy with Ooze and Deathrite.
4) The sideboard is a rough draft at best. I just brewed this up myself with no input from my magic playing group, and it's obvious White has really strong sideboard cards, but I dunno which of these are necessary or useful. Mindcensor is good against Tron, but is it efficient enough or is there better hate? I ideally would want more discard against combo, but I feel like the slots are tight. The big fatties postboard help mirrorbreak in midrange matchups, and Baneslayer rocks most aggro decks alongside Batterskull.
Thanks for reading my giant wall of text, and any comments or critiques are appreciated.
-regarding Snapcaster Mage.
I agree on wildspeaker being a good card at the moment and I prefer him clearly over Elspeth as he usually provides a two turn clock and works amazingly well with treetops and tectonic edges in addition to being easy to cast with a manabase that runs 3 treetops. I currently have swapped out 1 Mealstrom pulse from my list which I posted a few pages back and put in Garruk instead. Your sideboard needs a serious workover. Rest in peace do not go in the same deck as goyf, ooze, drs and lingering souls. I also wrote a bit about this a page or two back.
I agree in some part here, but the ramp can very significant in this format as well. Have to be very careful with what decks you do a turn 1 path against. Delver is probably one of the few cases where it's probably worth it, as they have counters later and the deck is really bad at coming back from an early disadvantage.
Abrupt is quite bad against Tron, Living End and mediocre against Melira-pod. It is fantastic against splinter twin of course, but the matchup against twin is good to begin with, while tron, pod and living end are hard, so I'd say 3 is the max here. I run 2 and been happy with that.
I played with 2 Elspeth for a long while, then cut down to 1 and then eventually cut her completely. She won me a bucketloads of games, but the consistency of the deck is just on another level without her. The manabase is just too shaky and you generally will either have to shock yourself one extra time to play her, or you will have to ignore that there's a possibility that you can draw her in the next couple of turns and just hope you get a white source after you draw her. Treetop is easily the best manland for this deck and it gives you a lot of green sources, which just makes Garruk, Wildspeaker a very reliable turn 3/4 that basically just costs 2 mana.
In my experience you want tectonic edge 9/10 times instead of gavony or vault. Modern is crawling with manlands and shaky manabases and gavony in a pod deck is just so much better than it is in this, that you want the tec-edge to get rid of it. Tron is also a tier 1 deck, and if you run 3-4 tec edge in main you will have a huge edge in the matchup. Against UWR control you will win most of the time as you shut of their main win condition, and mirrors are very often decided by manlands. If you get rid of Elspeth, which usually shines in the same matches as the tec-edge, you get access to both better manlands (can play at least 1 less stirring wildwood) and you can play 3 tectonic edge, which is just incredible in this deck, as it denies your opponent mana, but fuels DRS so you usually make tectonic into two lands that can provide any mana you need. You also don't need to run fetid heath and wooded bastion, which can make for awkward starting hands.
Finks is not too slow really, it can come down turn 2 if you're on the play, dodging counters and your opponents removal be inadequate to deal with it efficiently. It's very strong against opposing Liliana's, though Lingering Souls is even better here. The lifegain is extremely relevant in this deck. It's very good against tron, living end and jund to name some important decks. Scavenging ooze will be good in many of the same matchups though, but oozes are very weak in multiples. I thus only run 2 to really cut the chances of having two out at the same time. Personally I'd swap 1 ooze with voice of resurgence. With the right manabase you can still run 3 treetop 1 stirring wildwood and 3 tectonic edge and still have an 88% chance to play it on turn 2, which is pretty much the same odds as being able to play Liliana on turn 3. Personally I also swap a Bob for a voice so I can play two. Against decks with counters you will pretty much win if they don't have a spellsnare for it on turn 2 and you have anything decent to follow it up with.
The control matchups are very skill intensive, but if you run 3 tectonic edge and use your hand disruption on the right cards, the matchup becomes incredibly good. When I started playing the list I lost my first two matches against UWR control, but I'm something like 10-1 in my last 5 matches against them. Elspeth's don't do a lot here as by the time you have mana to cast her, they will be on the counter train and will counter any useful cards you play. If you run voices it could be able to come down, as they will usually path it on their own turn if they can, which allows you to accelerate out Elspeth before cryptics. I only run two voices though, so I ended up siding her out as she'll mostly be too slow. The tectonic edges are really the key to the matchup as you can play around their cryptics by using it in it in your combat phase. If they see the tectonic edge, they will usually be forced to use the cryptic at the beginning of combat step, allowing you to activate treetop afterwards (if they do something you will get priority again, if they don't do anything you don't get to activate treetop before declare attackers, at which point it's too late). They won't get to counter you in any case, which means you can power out Liliana or something you don't want countered.
I wrote some stuff on sideboard two pages back or so, whatever you do, don't go anywhere without at least 3 stony silence in the sideboard.