Tombstalker is cute but I dont’t know why the flying is relevant. Usually the problem with lingering souls is that they chump Block 4 times, not that they’re going over the top of a Gurmag Angler.
Flying is relevant against affinity for sure, but that’s more of a sideboard problem IMO.
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First of all, Flooded Strand does not fetch for Blood Crypt, which is not that problematic as you play 2 Steam Vents, but it can be a problem when you need BB for LtLH. Scalding Tarn is just better, but Strands are okay (budget I guess?).
Yeah, forgot to mention that. No Tarns for me, unfortunately It doesn't hurt too bad though.
I really don't like Devour Flesh, the card is really bad and is not a substitute for LotV at all. The card doesn't do anything against half the decks you listed and I wouldn't play it. Instead, I would go for 4 Serum Visions. I only play 1 Kommand in the main deck, because I find it kinda clunky and in your case it is not particularty good against most of the decks you regularly play against at FNM. That leaves you with 1 more flex slot, which could be TBR, Bolt or whatever floats your boat.
These are the cards I'm having the most trouble deciding, to be honest. Going down to 1 Kommand makes sense, and my choice of fun-of is TBR, which I'll probably do. As for Devour Flesh, I think I have to try and see what happens with at least a 1-of in the SB We'll see.
Stubborn Denial is really good against most of the decks you mentioned (especially burn, mill, storm etc.), and I would never leave the house without access to the full playset (in my case 2+2). The card is just too good. Hope that helps!
I know it's quite good, but a lot of times it just sits dead in your hand. 4 may be too much, but 3 makes a lot sense.
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BUR Grixis Death's Shadow RBW Mardu Pyromancer GBR Gx Tron
Anyone have any idea in how to deal with humans decks?
Faced one in the mkm series BArcelona that shutted down my possibilities to get into top 8 (was 5-1, faced him in the 7th round).
Maybe it's time to get in bolts again? maybe another form of massive removal in the side? Currently playing 2x Kozilek's Return in the side, but Humans get out of the 2 damage really fast...
Played against humans a few months ago and the match feels unwinnable.
Thalia makes sweepers slower, most of their creatures are non-fetch push-proof. Reflector mage is a pain in the ass and the new Meddling Mage + Freebooter plan can lock you out of the game entirely. I am not even sure if adding more maindeck bolts and Damnation on the sideboard is a good idea because the deck has so many ways to disrupt your gameplan;
It's a matchup that feels realy, REALLY bad for Grixis. Perhaps it's better for the 5 color jund version.
Anyone have any idea in how to deal with humans decks?
Faced one in the mkm series BArcelona that shutted down my possibilities to get into top 8 (was 5-1, faced him in the 7th round).
Maybe it's time to get in bolts again? maybe another form of massive removal in the side? Currently playing 2x Kozilek's Return in the side, but Humans get out of the 2 damage really fast...
Played against humans a few months ago and the match feels unwinnable.
Thalia makes sweepers slower, most of their creatures are non-fetch push-proof. Reflector mage is a pain in the ass and the new Meddling Mage + Freebooter plan can lock you out of the game entirely. I am not even sure if adding more maindeck bolts and Damnation on the sideboard is a good idea because the deck has so many ways to disrupt your gameplan;
It's a matchup that feels realy, REALLY bad for Grixis. Perhaps it's better for the 5 color jund version.
It's better but still not good. Right now my plan is Lingering Souls to buy time and hope to draw Temur Battle Rage. A big problem is that none of the sweepers are that great against them because of Thalia's Lieutenant.
Anyone have any idea in how to deal with humans decks?
Faced one in the mkm series BArcelona that shutted down my possibilities to get into top 8 (was 5-1, faced him in the 7th round).
Maybe it's time to get in bolts again? maybe another form of massive removal in the side? Currently playing 2x Kozilek's Return in the side, but Humans get out of the 2 damage really fast...
Played against humans a few months ago and the match feels unwinnable.
Thalia makes sweepers slower, most of their creatures are non-fetch push-proof. Reflector mage is a pain in the ass and the new Meddling Mage + Freebooter plan can lock you out of the game entirely. I am not even sure if adding more maindeck bolts and Damnation on the sideboard is a good idea because the deck has so many ways to disrupt your gameplan;
It's a matchup that feels realy, REALLY bad for Grixis. Perhaps it's better for the 5 color jund version.
It's better but still not good. Right now my plan is Lingering Souls to buy time and hope to draw Temur Battle Rage. A big problem is that none of the sweepers are that great against them because of Thalia's Lieutenant.
Funny fact: Humans players on reddit says that the matchup against non-shadow BGx decks are bad matchups.
Such an irony, since DS decks replaced them at the Midrange axis hahahaha
Yeah, I expect an uptick of things like Grandpa Jund, Abzan, and Uxy control since they all pretty handily beat humans. Probably also some more Blood Moon decks, since that's a reasonable angle to attack them on, as long as you don't get too far behind and they don't draw Vial. Maybe UR Breach's stock is going up? Then, barring some unforseen shock*, we'll probably see the metagame react to that by moving toward more Valakut, Tron, and maybe Amulet decks to go over the top. Which then makes the faster combo decks like Storm look better, etc.
*There will probably be an unforseen shock. Humans itself was one.
Stock Grixis lists get better as people move towards midrange/control decks. Stock 5 color lists get worse, but they can adapt by MDing Lingering Souls or something. If instead we see more Blood Moons out of _good_ decks, Death's Shadow gets worse. If the shift to big mana decks happens as a reaction to the midrange shift, then 5 color looks really good. If the shift to fast combo happens as a response to THAT, then both shadow decks look pretty good.
But it's really hard to predict metagame swings with any amount of certainty, especially past the first step. And those swings will only really happen at the GP/Open day 2 level and above - most people still mostly just play whatever modern decks they have, and swings here are harder to predict. So unless something really drastic happens, I'm content to stick to shadow builds and tweak a few slots while riding the metagame waves.
I don't know about you guys, but there's so many Tron decks here that even entertaining the thought of playing Abzan or Jund is completely idiotic. Might be different outside of Europe, I don't know.
I'm a little split on what seems like a good grixis deck looks like in this meta or expected meta. I know what the decklists look like, but do you all have a good consensus on what the 75 should look like?
1) How many Fatal Push and how many Terminate and Lightning Bolt in the maindeck? How many in the sideboard?
2) Do you play Opt? If yes, how many pieces? How many number of lands do you prefer?
3) 4 or 3 Street Wraith?
4) Do you play Temur Battle Rage? How many pieces?
5) Young Pyromancer? How many of those?
6) Liliana Of The Veil? How many of those?
7) Sweepers? What kind of?
8) What question would you like to exist, so that you can answer it yourself- and of course if you'd like, answer it yourself!
1) Right now it's 3 bolt, 3 push, 2 terminate, 2 dismember. I might change it next saturday.
2) I tried opt a lot of times and, although I liked it, I am not sure if we really want it. As Spooly mentioned in his article, Turbo Xerox is not always a good thing in modern. I'd rather have a business card instead.
3) As much as I think that it's better to run the full playset, I always tend to run 3 Wraiths unless I have a reason not to do so.
4) 2 Maindeck. The card wins me many games.
5) I haven't tested this boy yet.
6) Used to run 1 LTV main and 2 TLH side. Now I run 1 TLH main, 1 side and I am not sure whether I still want LTV. That's more of a meta call and a gameplay perspective.
7) Always run 2 Kozilek's Return and 2 Engineered Explosives.
Went to an 8 man today. 3-0
2-1 vs. Affinity, where TBR won me one game, lost the other with infect damage and the last one i was locked bya chalice for 1, but Tombstalker + Explosives for 0 followed by double bolt won the game.
2-0 Vs Counters Company, not much to say on this one. The Matchup just feels highly favourable
2-0 vs. Abzan Reliquary, just had to make sure that neither Ramunap Excavator or Azusa were played or remained on the battlefield. Again, Tombstalker won me the game.
Flying REALLY helps when you are on a stalemate on the ground.
By the way, has anyone tested Pia and Kiran Nalaar yet?
By the way, has anyone tested Pia and Kiran Nalaar yet?
I've been advocating 2 P&K in the SB for months - well before people started trying Young Pyromancer. It allows you to fight Lingering Souls, trumps midrange matchups against opponents that don't have Lingering Souls, is a threat that doesn't rely on the GY vs. UWx control (which will typically have RiP) and also demands a sweeper on its own, allows you to block Etched Champion and random dinky fliers vs. Affinity, etc. The card is great in GDS and criminally underplayed.
You see better 2 pia and kira in he side that 3 lingering and 1 godless? To play against humans and creature decks sometimes I feel that 18 lands are too few to play more midrange / control. The idea of Pia I like but I feel that we would have to go up to 19 lands.
Guys, I'll have a 60-man tournament tomorrow and I'd really appreciate some ideas on which cards I should play on either maindeck or sideboard. I am going with grixis this time.
Here is the last event's metagame
1 4c Humans
1 8Rack
2 Abzan Midrange
1 Abzan Company
2 Ad Nauseam
3 Affinity
1 Bant Blink
2 Bant Reliquary
4 Big Red
1 Boros Burn
3 Burn
1 BW Eldrazi
2 BW Pox
2 Deathshadow
1 Dredge
1 Eldrazi Tron
1 GW Company
1 GW Hatebears
1 GW Tron
2 Infect
4 Jeskai
3 Jund Midrange
1 Kiki Chord
1 Kiki Nahiri
1 Living End
1 Mardu
2 Merfolk
1 Mill
1 Mono Green
2 Mono White Prison
1 RG Ponza
1 RG Valakut
1 RW Nahiri
1 Skred And Taxes
2 UR Storm
2 UW Control
1 "Vengevine"
The meta feels kinda unfavored for GDS but since it's the deck I have I'll play it.
Also, is JDS/5 Color better against blood moon decks ?
1) How many Fatal Push and how many Terminate and Lightning Bolt in the maindeck? How many in the sideboard?
2) Do you play Opt? If yes, how many pieces? How many number of lands do you prefer?
3) 4 or 3 Street Wraith?
4) Do you play Temur Battle Rage? How many pieces?
5) Young Pyromancer? How many of those?
6) Liliana Of The Veil? How many of those?
7) Sweepers? What kind of?
8) What question would you like to exist, so that you can answer it yourself- and of course if you'd like, answer it yourself!
1) 4 Push, 1 Bolt and 2 Terminates. 0 Copies of any in the SB. I'm just about to trim to 3 Pushes and add 1 more Bolt(3 Push and 2 Bolt conf.) because Bolt is an absurd Magic card and it's very flexible along Snap+ it kills GDS hosers and checks bad matchups like Elves,D and T, etc.
2&3) I'm playing 3 Street Wraith and 1 Sleight along 18 lands. 19 lands flooded me a lot but they ensure you hit your land drops without looking for them agressively via cantripping. I think what Spooly said is somewhat true, being full Turbo Xerox is risky in Modern. I think 19 lands is correct, and 18 could be too. Below 18 you are just playing kind of a different game(not saying it's bad, it's just different, you are less controlish). Street Wraith should be 4 of, but my meta is too agressive and it SB them out in almost every matchup, so i wanted to be kind of preboarded vs my projected field. To mitigate the loss of Wraith and 19th land, i play Sleight which is better at helping you hit land drops(also i think Sleight is the better 1 of and Opt is the better 2 of, if that makes any sense).
4) 1 TBR MB. Not sure if it's any good in the MB, i just know that you SHOULD play at least 1 in your 75.
5)YP is seen in several 5-0´s and succesful lists, but i'm not sure it's good. The times i've tested it, it counteracts against your gameplan of agressively disrupting and then presenting clocks. I think that's how you win most games anyways, especially the bad ones. Against decks you want to play Control, you rarely want to control the board in the ground, you might be better off with a good sweeper and closing the game fast afterwards. I wouldn't play this card unloess there's a crapload of control and midrange in the projected metagame.
6) This card is much better since it's more powerful and fits your gameplan smoother. It's bad when you want it alongside counterspells and Snapcaster, but overall it's too powerful to pass on, and it acts as an alternative win con. Ii'm almost sure the right grindy package is 2 LOTV and 0-1 Last hope.
7) 2 KReturns for me. Anger if the meta is very swung towards GY strategies like CoCo and Dredge.
1) How many Fatal Push and how many Terminate and Lightning Bolt in the maindeck? How many in the sideboard?
2) Do you play Opt? If yes, how many pieces? How many number of lands do you prefer?
3) 4 or 3 Street Wraith?
4) Do you play Temur Battle Rage? How many pieces?
5) Young Pyromancer? How many of those?
6) Liliana Of The Veil? How many of those?
7) Sweepers? What kind of?
8) What question would you like to exist, so that you can answer it yourself- and of course if you'd like, answer it yourself!
1) I'm at 4 fatal push 1 bolt and one terminate. None in the SB. I think terminate is too slow in my meta (humans, combo, merfolk, few Eldrazi Tron)
2) 2 opt 18 lands. Because of that I'm shaving a kolaghan's command to make room for the 2nd Opt
3) 4 or 3 Street Wraith? 3 Wraith. I've learned to be a bit more patient and carefull with my life total. The card can be a dead draw later on. There's enough aggressive decks around to shave one. Temur battle rage helps you for the faster clock.
4) Do you play Temur Battle Rage? 1 MB one SB. The card helps you win unwinnable games.
5) Young Pyromancer? How many of those? 3 SB. Great against control and the mirror, and all white matchup with Rest in Peace
6) Liliana Of The Veil? How many of those? 0 I'm on the last hope plan ( AKA budget plan)
7) Sweepers? What kind of? 2 kozileks return, best sweeper against affinity, one of DS worst matchup.
8) What question would you like to exist, so that you can answer it yourself- and of course if you'd like, answer it yourself!
By the way, has anyone tested Pia and Kiran Nalaar yet?
I've been advocating 2 P&K in the SB for months - well before people started trying Young Pyromancer. It allows you to fight Lingering Souls, trumps midrange matchups against opponents that don't have Lingering Souls, is a threat that doesn't rely on the GY vs. UWx control (which will typically have RiP) and also demands a sweeper on its own, allows you to block Etched Champion and random dinky fliers vs. Affinity, etc. The card is great in GDS and criminally underplayed.
Also, it requires RR and 4 mana total. Can we reliably have this kind of mana total?
I didn't have much of a problem in the 19 land manabase with 3 red sources. You only bring it in against matchups that go long, and maybe against affinity where you have a million ways to slow them down and you highly value the colorless tokens.
You see better 2 pia and kira in he side that 3 lingering and 1 godless? To play against humans and creature decks sometimes I feel that 18 lands are too few to play more midrange / control. The idea of Pia I like but I feel that we would have to go up to 19 lands.
Splashing Lingering Souls would be better at fighting most of the battles that you want to fight with P&K, but it takes an extra SB slot due to the land (or destabilizes your manabase by replacing a land with a Shrine MD), and sometimes you'll mill your one white source with Thought Scour.
I'm not too fond of the 18 land lists with 2 Opts on top of the usual 12 cantrips anyway. Too much air. I prefer 19 lands.
While a bit clunky, i kinda like Engineered Explosives against Humans as most of their important stuff has a cmc of 2 or 3.
EE against Thalia sounds reeeeeal awkward. If you're going to pay 5 mana to take out their 2 drops, at that point Damnation starts looking a lot more attractive.
By the way, has anyone tested Pia and Kiran Nalaar yet?
I've been advocating 2 P&K in the SB for months - well before people started trying Young Pyromancer. It allows you to fight Lingering Souls, trumps midrange matchups against opponents that don't have Lingering Souls, is a threat that doesn't rely on the GY vs. UWx control (which will typically have RiP) and also demands a sweeper on its own, allows you to block Etched Champion and random dinky fliers vs. Affinity, etc. The card is great in GDS and criminally underplayed.
Also, it requires RR and 4 mana total. Can we reliably have this kind of mana total?
I didn't have much of a problem in the 19 land manabase with 3 red sources. You only bring it in against matchups that go long, and maybe against affinity where you have a million ways to slow them down and you highly value the colorless tokens.
You see better 2 pia and kira in he side that 3 lingering and 1 godless? To play against humans and creature decks sometimes I feel that 18 lands are too few to play more midrange / control. The idea of Pia I like but I feel that we would have to go up to 19 lands.
Splashing Lingering Souls would be better at fighting most of the battles that you want to fight with P&K, but it takes an extra SB slot due to the land (or destabilizes your manabase by replacing a land with a Shrine MD), and sometimes you'll mill your one white source with Thought Scour.
I'm not too fond of the 18 land lists with 2 Opts on top of the usual 12 cantrips anyway. Too much air. I prefer 19 lands.
While a bit clunky, i kinda like Engineered Explosives against Humans as most of their important stuff has a cmc of 2 or 3.
EE against Thalia sounds reeeeeal awkward. If you're going to pay 5 mana to take out their 2 drops, at that point Damnation starts looking a lot more attractive.
Gonna try 2 P&K Nalaar on my sideboard today.
I agree with you that 19 lands and fewer cantrips seems like the best choice for GDS atm. I've been testing with 10 cantrips and more removals/Lilianas.
Flying is relevant against affinity for sure, but that’s more of a sideboard problem IMO.
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Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!
Yeah, forgot to mention that. No Tarns for me, unfortunately It doesn't hurt too bad though.
These are the cards I'm having the most trouble deciding, to be honest. Going down to 1 Kommand makes sense, and my choice of fun-of is TBR, which I'll probably do. As for Devour Flesh, I think I have to try and see what happens with at least a 1-of in the SB We'll see.
I know it's quite good, but a lot of times it just sits dead in your hand. 4 may be too much, but 3 makes a lot sense.
Grixis Death's Shadow
RBW
Mardu Pyromancer
GBR
Gx Tron
Played against humans a few months ago and the match feels unwinnable.
Thalia makes sweepers slower, most of their creatures are non-fetch push-proof. Reflector mage is a pain in the ass and the new Meddling Mage + Freebooter plan can lock you out of the game entirely. I am not even sure if adding more maindeck bolts and Damnation on the sideboard is a good idea because the deck has so many ways to disrupt your gameplan;
It's a matchup that feels realy, REALLY bad for Grixis. Perhaps it's better for the 5 color jund version.
It's better but still not good. Right now my plan is Lingering Souls to buy time and hope to draw Temur Battle Rage. A big problem is that none of the sweepers are that great against them because of Thalia's Lieutenant.
Funny fact: Humans players on reddit says that the matchup against non-shadow BGx decks are bad matchups.
Such an irony, since DS decks replaced them at the Midrange axis hahahaha
*There will probably be an unforseen shock. Humans itself was one.
But it's really hard to predict metagame swings with any amount of certainty, especially past the first step. And those swings will only really happen at the GP/Open day 2 level and above - most people still mostly just play whatever modern decks they have, and swings here are harder to predict. So unless something really drastic happens, I'm content to stick to shadow builds and tweak a few slots while riding the metagame waves.
Humans feels like a bye, I wouldn't even bother.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
1) Right now it's 3 bolt, 3 push, 2 terminate, 2 dismember. I might change it next saturday.
2) I tried opt a lot of times and, although I liked it, I am not sure if we really want it. As Spooly mentioned in his article, Turbo Xerox is not always a good thing in modern. I'd rather have a business card instead.
3) As much as I think that it's better to run the full playset, I always tend to run 3 Wraiths unless I have a reason not to do so.
4) 2 Maindeck. The card wins me many games.
5) I haven't tested this boy yet.
6) Used to run 1 LTV main and 2 TLH side. Now I run 1 TLH main, 1 side and I am not sure whether I still want LTV. That's more of a meta call and a gameplay perspective.
7) Always run 2 Kozilek's Return and 2 Engineered Explosives.
Went to an 8 man today. 3-0
2-1 vs. Affinity, where TBR won me one game, lost the other with infect damage and the last one i was locked bya chalice for 1, but Tombstalker + Explosives for 0 followed by double bolt won the game.
2-0 Vs Counters Company, not much to say on this one. The Matchup just feels highly favourable
2-0 vs. Abzan Reliquary, just had to make sure that neither Ramunap Excavator or Azusa were played or remained on the battlefield. Again, Tombstalker won me the game.
Flying REALLY helps when you are on a stalemate on the ground.
By the way, has anyone tested Pia and Kiran Nalaar yet?
I've been advocating 2 P&K in the SB for months - well before people started trying Young Pyromancer. It allows you to fight Lingering Souls, trumps midrange matchups against opponents that don't have Lingering Souls, is a threat that doesn't rely on the GY vs. UWx control (which will typically have RiP) and also demands a sweeper on its own, allows you to block Etched Champion and random dinky fliers vs. Affinity, etc. The card is great in GDS and criminally underplayed.
Here is the last event's metagame
1 4c Humans
1 8Rack
2 Abzan Midrange
1 Abzan Company
2 Ad Nauseam
3 Affinity
1 Bant Blink
2 Bant Reliquary
4 Big Red
1 Boros Burn
3 Burn
1 BW Eldrazi
2 BW Pox
2 Deathshadow
1 Dredge
1 Eldrazi Tron
1 GW Company
1 GW Hatebears
1 GW Tron
2 Infect
4 Jeskai
3 Jund Midrange
1 Kiki Chord
1 Kiki Nahiri
1 Living End
1 Mardu
2 Merfolk
1 Mill
1 Mono Green
2 Mono White Prison
1 RG Ponza
1 RG Valakut
1 RW Nahiri
1 Skred And Taxes
2 UR Storm
2 UW Control
1 "Vengevine"
The meta feels kinda unfavored for GDS but since it's the deck I have I'll play it.
Also, is JDS/5 Color better against blood moon decks ?
1) 4 Push, 1 Bolt and 2 Terminates. 0 Copies of any in the SB. I'm just about to trim to 3 Pushes and add 1 more Bolt(3 Push and 2 Bolt conf.) because Bolt is an absurd Magic card and it's very flexible along Snap+ it kills GDS hosers and checks bad matchups like Elves,D and T, etc.
2&3) I'm playing 3 Street Wraith and 1 Sleight along 18 lands. 19 lands flooded me a lot but they ensure you hit your land drops without looking for them agressively via cantripping. I think what Spooly said is somewhat true, being full Turbo Xerox is risky in Modern. I think 19 lands is correct, and 18 could be too. Below 18 you are just playing kind of a different game(not saying it's bad, it's just different, you are less controlish). Street Wraith should be 4 of, but my meta is too agressive and it SB them out in almost every matchup, so i wanted to be kind of preboarded vs my projected field. To mitigate the loss of Wraith and 19th land, i play Sleight which is better at helping you hit land drops(also i think Sleight is the better 1 of and Opt is the better 2 of, if that makes any sense).
4) 1 TBR MB. Not sure if it's any good in the MB, i just know that you SHOULD play at least 1 in your 75.
5)YP is seen in several 5-0´s and succesful lists, but i'm not sure it's good. The times i've tested it, it counteracts against your gameplan of agressively disrupting and then presenting clocks. I think that's how you win most games anyways, especially the bad ones. Against decks you want to play Control, you rarely want to control the board in the ground, you might be better off with a good sweeper and closing the game fast afterwards. I wouldn't play this card unloess there's a crapload of control and midrange in the projected metagame.
6) This card is much better since it's more powerful and fits your gameplan smoother. It's bad when you want it alongside counterspells and Snapcaster, but overall it's too powerful to pass on, and it acts as an alternative win con. Ii'm almost sure the right grindy package is 2 LOTV and 0-1 Last hope.
7) 2 KReturns for me. Anger if the meta is very swung towards GY strategies like CoCo and Dredge.
1) I'm at 4 fatal push 1 bolt and one terminate. None in the SB. I think terminate is too slow in my meta (humans, combo, merfolk, few Eldrazi Tron)
2) 2 opt 18 lands. Because of that I'm shaving a kolaghan's command to make room for the 2nd Opt
3) 4 or 3 Street Wraith? 3 Wraith. I've learned to be a bit more patient and carefull with my life total. The card can be a dead draw later on. There's enough aggressive decks around to shave one. Temur battle rage helps you for the faster clock.
4) Do you play Temur Battle Rage? 1 MB one SB. The card helps you win unwinnable games.
5) Young Pyromancer? How many of those? 3 SB. Great against control and the mirror, and all white matchup with Rest in Peace
6) Liliana Of The Veil? How many of those? 0 I'm on the last hope plan ( AKA budget plan)
7) Sweepers? What kind of? 2 kozileks return, best sweeper against affinity, one of DS worst matchup.
8) What question would you like to exist, so that you can answer it yourself- and of course if you'd like, answer it yourself!
I didn't have much of a problem in the 19 land manabase with 3 red sources. You only bring it in against matchups that go long, and maybe against affinity where you have a million ways to slow them down and you highly value the colorless tokens.
Splashing Lingering Souls would be better at fighting most of the battles that you want to fight with P&K, but it takes an extra SB slot due to the land (or destabilizes your manabase by replacing a land with a Shrine MD), and sometimes you'll mill your one white source with Thought Scour.
I'm not too fond of the 18 land lists with 2 Opts on top of the usual 12 cantrips anyway. Too much air. I prefer 19 lands.
EE against Thalia sounds reeeeeal awkward. If you're going to pay 5 mana to take out their 2 drops, at that point Damnation starts looking a lot more attractive.
Gonna try 2 P&K Nalaar on my sideboard today.
I agree with you that 19 lands and fewer cantrips seems like the best choice for GDS atm. I've been testing with 10 cantrips and more removals/Lilianas.