GB, with a scarland thrinax and a stomping ground.
4 Green Sun's Zenith, 1 Dryad Arbor, 1 Birds of Paradise, 1 <2 drop persist creature, can't remember the name>, 1 Scarland Thrinax.
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
Then a full compliment of Meliras, Viscera Seers, Kitchen Finks, and Murderous Redcaps.
And I think 3 Blasting Stations.
It is not that the deck performed particularly poorly. I just felt that the outlook was negative, and that many wins came from my opponents being unfamiliar with the deck. There is no quick recovery because you need 3 combo pieces. If you are digging for one piece and one of the 2 you have already gets removed, suddenly you are looking for 2 again.
That is unfortunate. What kind of decks were you testing against? Honestly, I have not been playing against much that was heavy on spot removal. RDW, and possibly some Jund variants may give me more trouble than Zoo and 12post.
Speaking of which, I got in some 12post matches today. It is looking like a good match up pre-board, winning roughly 70% of games and drawing about half of the games not won outright. Since both decks are basically racing to get there first, paying life for fetch and shock lands does not really hurt the deck. Its not easy to win via beats due to Glimmerpost, so the best route is to aggressively go for the combo. Duress and Thoughtseize are best played turn 1-2... Either drawn mid game should be saved until you are ready to combo.
Juniper Order Ranger also works like Melira, except he comes down at least one turn too late. We're supposed to be a fast deck; Murderous Redcap is already pushing it.
I played against some Jund during the night and found it to be a tougher match up than 12post and Zoo. Only winning 4 of 6 games probably had something to do with the amount of spot removal they run. Maelstrom Pulse and Putrefy can hit Blasting Station and Aether Vial, which obviously has a strong impact on how the deck plays. Jund is definitely a deck that we will have to prepare for. Withstand Death and Vines of Vastwood are the first thoughts that come to mind. The build I played against ran Rise // Fall as well as Thoughtseize and Duress. It kind of made me want to run the card for Fall myself.
How does wall of roots or devoted druid interact with melira? Do you get the counters or not? I'm in the process of trying out the vial-less versions and was wondering how that worked.
Asking out a girl is like trying to cast a first turn Necropotence. Sometimes the other player will have the Force of Will to say no. You shouldn't let that stop you from trying it.
How does wall of roots or devoted druid interact with melira? Do you get the counters or not? I'm in the process of trying out the vial-less versions and was wondering how that worked.
Nope. Melira prevents counters from being placed on permanents, so if it is part of a cost, you can't pay it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"If you don't wear your seatbelt, the police will shoot you in the head."
- To my youngest sister when she was 6.
Everyone knows that good luck and good game are such insincere terms that any man who does not connect his right hook with the offender's jaw on the very utterance of such a phrase is no man I would consider as such.
“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.” - Jack Layton, RIP
So I've been testing my RUG build I posted and I find that I'm just too easily disrupted. I'm concerned that sometimes this deck just doesn't DO anything. It just plays some bad persist guys and then fails. I'm going to try straight G/B with like one Blood Crypt for Scarland Thrinax. I'm hoping it works but it keeps seeming less likely for me
Bad Persist guys? Remember to play Kitchen Finks. Against RDW and Zoo, some of our worse match-ups, it blocks like a pro and gains life. If you manage to get it and Melira out at the same time, the prick won't die. (Besides, other decks play Kitchen Finks to soften their aggro match-ups.)
As someone who plays jund primarily, melira decks are just an auto-win for me. It's not just he spot removal, but the hand diaruption and the fact that once fire + grove is online, melira combo just can't win.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find me online - I'm on Cockatrice * Tag - Badd B - Or on MTGO - Tag - Cbus05
If I could somehow get Living End off, I would probably win games with it as well. With the maindeck discard I am running, Surgical Extraction would probably fit the bill. Permanently getting rid of Punishing Fire, or any other removal seems pretty good.
EDIT: Played against some burn style RDW tonight. It looks like a pretty even match up. Creatures with persist, specifically Kitchen Finks, can certainly go the distance with this deck. So long as you arent paying too much life with fetch and shock lands, they typically run out of steam before getting to lethal damage. The sac outlets provide an excellent way to avoid taking damage from Searing Blaze as well. Thoughtseize hurts more than it helps here, so I would probably ditch it for something else after game 1.
Got some matches in against Elves, and found it to be a much tougher match up than I originally thought. I either have to get the nuts draw, or they have to get a bad hand for me to win. I had intended for my build to completely ignore creatures, but Elves just comes down too fast for me to do that. I had planned on running Deathmark or something similar in my board. Even a Pyroclasm would ruin the deck. I dont really think Elves is going to be a huge contender at tournaments, but its still a threat that we should be looking out for. This is the first time I felt desperate to be running the Punishing Fire combo. I had given some thought to making changes to my build for it in the past, and if I did my deck would look something like this:
On a side note: Duress is pretty much a dead draw vs Elves.
EDIT: I plan on continuing testing with my current build before giving Punishing Fire a try. Goblins, Boros, MWC and Doran are on my list of things to test still. I think Living End will probably be close to an auto win, but maybe I should consider testing against that as well.
In a creature-heavy Modern Meta, would it be wise to run Distress Instead? Since Duress can't hit creatures, and my main issue is zoo (I'm glaring at Tarmogoyf) Then couldn't I get away with running it over Duress?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[W]FREE STONEFORGE MYSTIC and JACE THE MINDSCULPTOR[/W]
4 Green Sun's Zenith, 1 Dryad Arbor, 1 Birds of Paradise, 1 <2 drop persist creature, can't remember the name>, 1 Scarland Thrinax.
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
Then a full compliment of Meliras, Viscera Seers, Kitchen Finks, and Murderous Redcaps.
And I think 3 Blasting Stations.
It is not that the deck performed particularly poorly. I just felt that the outlook was negative, and that many wins came from my opponents being unfamiliar with the deck. There is no quick recovery because you need 3 combo pieces. If you are digging for one piece and one of the 2 you have already gets removed, suddenly you are looking for 2 again.
Ux Whirza
Rb Goblins
Legacy
U Urza Stompy
Duel Commander
Sai, Master Thopterist
Speaking of which, I got in some 12post matches today. It is looking like a good match up pre-board, winning roughly 70% of games and drawing about half of the games not won outright. Since both decks are basically racing to get there first, paying life for fetch and shock lands does not really hurt the deck. Its not easy to win via beats due to Glimmerpost, so the best route is to aggressively go for the combo. Duress and Thoughtseize are best played turn 1-2... Either drawn mid game should be saved until you are ready to combo.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
I also updated the OP to include a few more cards and updated my deck list.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
I played against some Jund during the night and found it to be a tougher match up than 12post and Zoo. Only winning 4 of 6 games probably had something to do with the amount of spot removal they run. Maelstrom Pulse and Putrefy can hit Blasting Station and Aether Vial, which obviously has a strong impact on how the deck plays. Jund is definitely a deck that we will have to prepare for. Withstand Death and Vines of Vastwood are the first thoughts that come to mind. The build I played against ran Rise // Fall as well as Thoughtseize and Duress. It kind of made me want to run the card for Fall myself.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
Nope. Melira prevents counters from being placed on permanents, so if it is part of a cost, you can't pay it.
- To my youngest sister when she was 6.
Wall of Roots gets -0/-1 counters, not -1/-1, so it is still useful, though it still gets the counters.
Standard
BWGRock RampBWG
Modern
UBRGLiving EndUBRG
Legacy
BWGJunkbladeBWG
My Sales Thread
I WANT YOUR SORINS
“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.” - Jack Layton, RIP
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
Honestly, i have no clue. The only combo a well built jund deck has a hard time with is living end. I just think it's a bad matchup.
EDIT: Played against some burn style RDW tonight. It looks like a pretty even match up. Creatures with persist, specifically Kitchen Finks, can certainly go the distance with this deck. So long as you arent paying too much life with fetch and shock lands, they typically run out of steam before getting to lethal damage. The sac outlets provide an excellent way to avoid taking damage from Searing Blaze as well. Thoughtseize hurts more than it helps here, so I would probably ditch it for something else after game 1.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
4x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4x Kitchen Finks
3x Murderous Redcap
3x Viscera Seer
2x Safehold Elite
1x Scarland Thrinax
1x Dimir House Guard
Other Spells: 19
4x Thoughtseize
3x Aether Vial
3x Duress
3x Blasting Station
3x Green Sun's Zenith
3x Punishing Fire
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Twilight Mire
3x Overgrown Tomb
3x Grove of the Burnwillows
2x Marsh Flats
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Stomping Ground
1x Dryad Arbor
2x Swamp
2x Forest
On a side note: Duress is pretty much a dead draw vs Elves.
EDIT: I plan on continuing testing with my current build before giving Punishing Fire a try. Goblins, Boros, MWC and Doran are on my list of things to test still. I think Living End will probably be close to an auto win, but maybe I should consider testing against that as well.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
In a creature-heavy Modern Meta, would it be wise to run Distress Instead? Since Duress can't hit creatures, and my main issue is zoo (I'm glaring at Tarmogoyf) Then couldn't I get away with running it over Duress?
[W]FREE STONEFORGE MYSTIC and JACE THE MINDSCULPTOR[/W]
Please Visit my Alterations Page!
My Alters Sales Thread
Want a FREE Playset of Foil Baneslayer Angels?!?: