MTG Salvation

Quote from Nyzzeh »

3:00 OMG why not electrolyze face + scapeshift and gg??

He's got 4 Mountains in play and 1 in hand, so he's only got 5 left in his deck. Scapeshift at that point is only for 15.

Has anybody tried out Trinket Mage in Scapeshift? I couldn't find anything, but it seems like it might be very flexible. In the main I would suggest:

Engineered Explosives To buy some time or handle random troublesome permanents.
Expedition Map to pickup a Boseiju, Who Shelters All against other blue decks while also building up your lands for Scapeshift.
Wayfarer's Bauble to accelerate out a scapeshift

Not to mention the sideboard cards Pithing Needle, Relic of Progenitus, and Grafdigger's Cage. Plus he provides a body to stall the board a bit. I know he's at odds with all the blue instants, but mage definitely seems very flexible.

in order to add a card you have to cut a card

what are you cutting?

what does this slow tutor do for your bad match ups? is this better than gifts ungiven or dig through time?

I gotta say, I liked the trinket mage idea. I'll give it a thought, although if no one plays it it's probably because it's not good enough.

probably have to cut counter magic to make trinket mage tutoring viable, but really the deck needs its cantrips more than tool box. eating into the cantrip is only slowing it down.

Well the problem is, pyroclasm and bolt are terrible vs UWR decks unless they're playing geist.

I don't think there's a good 1 mana card vs all those decks. The closest one is piracy charm.

Quote from Muten Yoshi »

In which meta would you recommend playing scapeshift?

When there is a lot of Pod and BGx.

Rickster, daily event videos were awesome thanks!

Quote from Muten Yoshi »

since we are either way highly favored against UWR control.

One of the reasons why scapeshift is favored vs UWR is that you have more filtering and less dead cards. But once you start cutting cantrips/utility cards for creature removal then you lower your win %. I'm not sure how to quantify that change but you will notice it when you draw lightning bolt vs a turn 1 colonnade.

I got absolutely mudstomped on Modern Monday at my local by burn and some R/B deck involving lots of discard and Grim Lavamancer/Shrieking Affliction (like a rakdos version of 8rack). My locals tend to be 8-12 people and are unsanctioned so 15 proxies are allowed, so it's a crapshoot what you'll play against any given week. Any play/sideboard advice as to how to not feel like we just can't win against these types of decks? I'm running kind of a blended version of the standard RUG deck with 4x bolt and 2 izzet charm in the main, side is largely tuned for combo and pod (torpor orb, swerve, nature's claim, spell snare) with some alternate wincons because we have players with extirpate/memoricide effects (batterskull, avenger of zendikar, keranos) and a copy of wheel of the sun and moon because we have a soul sisters player and sometimes I need a 3rd scapeshift for 8+ to kill him.

Obstinate baloth should be pretty strong vs burn rack.

Quote from Unmitigated »

I got absolutely mudstomped on Modern Monday at my local by burn and some R/B deck involving lots of discard and Grim Lavamancer/Shrieking Affliction (like a rakdos version of 8rack). My locals tend to be 8-12 people and are unsanctioned so 15 proxies are allowed, so it's a crapshoot what you'll play against any given week. Any play/sideboard advice as to how to not feel like we just can't win against these types of decks? I'm running kind of a blended version of the standard RUG deck with 4x bolt and 2 izzet charm in the main, side is largely tuned for combo and pod (torpor orb, swerve, nature's claim, spell snare) with some alternate wincons because we have players with extirpate/memoricide effects (batterskull, avenger of zendikar, keranos) and a copy of wheel of the sun and moon because we have a soul sisters player and sometimes I need a 3rd scapeshift for 8+ to kill him.

its an out of the box suggestion u could use 1 darksteel citadel in the deck, fetch it with sylvan scrying, then use ur sideboard nature's claims against burn by using them on your own darksteel citadel to gain 4 life. (which obviously u can't destroy citadel so use it over and over)

You can't really play more than 4 fetches.

As someone who cannot afford Vendilion Cliques for the Sideboard, and thus have no experience with playing them, can anyone explain to me how/when to use them and get the most use out of them? Any tips or strategies, etc. (A link to a post/thread is fine.)

Are they necessary, or could I make do with something else? And what would that something else be?

Thanks.

(Most Lists run 3 Forests and 2 Misty, whereas I'm running 2 Forests and 3 Misty, am I crazy or is it just a preference thing? :S)

Since Delver/Pyromancer and Cruise Burn decks are insanely popular on MTGO, I'm playing a list with 2 Pyroclasm + 2 Electrolyze MD, replacing the Bolts. Bolt is okay against these too, by Pyroclasm/Electolyze are just better CA. Although not as good in combination with Snapcaster (because you lose the Mage's body), Pyroclasm is still a decent flashback target. I'm also playing a Volcanic Fallout in the SB.

Clique is for

liliana decks
Control decks
Slaughter games decks

And you can bring it in vs delver decks

I've been testing and the meta is just not very welcoming for scapeshift, which makes me sad.

I still like Cryptic, but I do side it out against fast decks, including Delver and even Twin (eating a Dispel after casting Cryptic is backbreaking).

Edit: Oh, I'm also playing the full set of Obstinate Baloths in the SB. It's obviously at its best against discard and Jund decks, but it's also pretty good against these Burn, Tresure Burn and Delver decks (I'm actually winning way more games against Delver with Baloth rather than with Scapeshift).

I have been a Jund player for over a year, but I am looking for a new deck because I feel like Jund isn't good these days. My meta is all Delver, Pod, Burn, and Affinity. Would Scapeshift with Pyroclasms, Obstinate Baloths, and Creeping Corrosions in the sideboard be good in my meta?

Command is the MVP for me against many aggro decks, not counting burn. The tap draw is godly. When I removed SCM I missed so much the cryptic into cryptic into snapcryptic!
But I agree command is bad against burn and delver. When I said cryptic shouldn't be played as less than a 4-of, KTK had not been released yet.

Quote from philipneri »

I have been a Jund player for over a year, but I am looking for a new deck because I feel like Jund isn't good these days. My meta is all Delver, Pod, Burn, and Affinity. Would Scapeshift with Pyroclasms, Obstinate Baloths, and Creeping Corrosions in the sideboard be good in my meta?

Nope. But this will only last till next ban list update. You can start practicing with the deck now till then. The meta will dramatically change then.