RE: Raver
Glad to hear about the Leylines looking positive. I have yet to encounter a MU that warrants their use yet. I keep getting pitted against Fish, Affinity, U/W Control, and Zoo at my current LGS :/
On the flip side; I've had a chance to test with Dead // Gone quite a bit as a result of my match ups.
It feels like Dead // Gone is very much competing for the same SB slots as Shriekmaw.
~Versus Zoo it hit Guides, small E1s, BTE, and Bushwhackers. It missed Kird Apes and Nacatls. Shriekmaw hits all of those but obviously a turn slower and not at instant speed :/
~Versus Fish it hit solo lords and basically the whole crew except Master of Waves. Felt bad drawing it later in the game when they had a couple of lords on board. Was able to "Gone" one of their lords however Shriekmaw would have been just as good if not better in that scenario. Random brownie point(s) for Shriek is that it can't get Cursecatcher taxed and kills Master of Waves in that MU.
~Versus Affinity it hit pretty much everything except Master of Etheriums and Etched Champions. Shriek obviously is a dead card against Affinity. However Affinity is a double edged sword unlike other creature match ups where if we "shock" an early threat we don't care about our opponent getting it back on the LE rebound because a Goblin Guide looks silly facing down a 6/4 Desert Cerodon but a Vault Skirge that comes back and picks up a Cranial Plating is a bit more tricky. Make for awkward situations which left me wondering if Dead // Gone was even worth bringing in against that MU in the first place...
These are just some notes from this past week's testing and obviously illustrate limited testing due to a small sample size. Figured I'd share some of my findings/impressions on the new dead // gone tech.
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Standard // nRG Aggro
Modern // Burn (main) and Living End (secondary) now Jund.
For fun check out my janky combo primer: Turn 3 Grixis Combo
"Can't beat em' Jund em'!"
Burn is tough. Maybe LE's worst MU and unfortunately every large tournament is filled with Burn. I played in the last SCG Indy Modern Open and played against Burn in 3 of the first 4 rounds...luckily I was not on LE that day.
Burn at large (like Open sized tournaments) events is a coin flip, the deck itself is in the process of changing to adapt to the new meta and people will always have anti-burn cards ready. The historically low conversion rates of that deck suggests that it is possible to avoid them if we get a few wins in early.
I feel there's also slight differences in regional meta, for some reason in our area players favor blue based control decks or blue combo decks like storm. It definitely was the case when Jeskai nahiri was a deck that showed up a lot on the north east but not out in the west coast.
I believe WoTC's new policy is to make sure that every color can enjoy the exciting gameplay mechanic of making undercosted dudes and then turning them sideways. Clearly the future of magic.
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I'm off to my first GP next weekend in Copenhagen and would like to get some feedback on my Sideboard and Sideboard plan.
(Feedback on the deck itself is great too if you see obvious changes.)
GW Company Evolution / Abzan Evolution
+4 Leyline of the Void, +1 Shriekmaw +1 Anger of the Gods
-2 Simian Spirit Guide -2 Archfiend of Ifnir -2 Desert Cerodon
Elves
+1 Anger of the Gods, +2 Brindle Boar, +1 Shriekmaw
-4 Fulminator Mage
Knightfall
+1 Anger of the Gods, +2 Blood Moon +1 Shriekmaw
-2 Simian Spirit Guide, -1 Archfiend of Ifnir, -1 Desert Cerodon
Your maindeck is looking strong. In regard to your 3x Faerie and 3x Archfiend, you could stand to lose a copy of each, IMO. This would allow you to pick up a fourth Carabid and a third SSG...or even toss that pair of Moons into the main, if you're feeling frisky.
As far as your sideboard goes, it's hard to argue with any of the choices individually, but as a whole it seems that the inclusion of 4x Leyline has the rest of your board stretched a little thin. For instance, 2x Brindle Boar isn't likely to turn around the matchups you'd bring him in against (and as an Elves player, I don't fear you siding him in much at all).
In my opinion, you need to cut either Boars or Traps in order to buff the numbers of other sideboard options (unless you move Blood Moon to the main, freeing up slots). I'd like to see 2 more Shriekmaws, and 1-2 more Boars if you're keeping them around. In short, commit more fully to a slightly narrower field of options.
I've been playing this at local tournaments ... have done ye olde 4-0-1 a couple of times now. I've been trying to get more testing in but still unsure what the right couple of "flex" slots should be in the deck ... Here's what I like as the shell:
What do you guys feel is strongest in those last 6 slots?
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Standard : BR Zombies Modern :
- Playing : Burn | Living End | Bant Eldrazi
- In Queue : ???
- Building : Death's Shadow |
- Sidelined : RUG Scapeshift | Lantern Control | GR Tron | Ad Nauseam | UWR Control | Dredge | Eldrazi Tron | UB Whir Tezzerator
I've been playing this at local tournaments ... have done ye olde 4-0-1 a couple of times now. I've been trying to get more testing in but still unsure what the right couple of "flex" slots should be in the deck ... Here's what I like as the shell:
What do you guys feel is strongest in those last 6 slots?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Standard : BR Zombies Modern :
- Playing : Burn | Living End | Bant Eldrazi
- In Queue : ???
- Building : Death's Shadow |
- Sidelined : RUG Scapeshift | Lantern Control | GR Tron | Ad Nauseam | UWR Control | Dredge | Eldrazi Tron | UB Whir Tezzerator
Your maindeck is looking strong. In regard to your 3x Faerie and 3x Archfiend, you could stand to lose a copy of each, IMO. This would allow you to pick up a fourth Carabid and a third SSG...or even toss that pair of Moons into the main, if you're feeling frisky.
As far as your sideboard goes, it's hard to argue with any of the choices individually, but as a whole it seems that the inclusion of 4x Leyline has the rest of your board stretched a little thin. For instance, 2x Brindle Boar isn't likely to turn around the matchups you'd bring him in against (and as an Elves player, I don't fear you siding him in much at all).
In my opinion, you need to cut either Boars or Traps in order to buff the numbers of other sideboard options (unless you move Blood Moon to the main, freeing up slots). I'd like to see 2 more Shriekmaws, and 1-2 more Boars if you're keeping them around. In short, commit more fully to a slightly narrower field of options.
My chances would be:
+2 Blood Moon, -1 Faerie, -1 Archfiend (main)
+2 Shriekmaw, +1 Boar, -1 Trap (side)
Take it or leave it, but good luck either way!
This is great advice. I played last night and really felt I needed a bit more access to land, so maybe one Archfiend for a SSG would be a wise trade.
Here's my logic behind 3 Faeries - it's our best tool to mess with combat math or provide a blowout with Archfiend. Primarily I want to remove Arcbound and Viscera from mainboard play. But if I'm playing someone without sac outlets I hold them up and when they let a horror through or return a bunch of chump blockers I have a good chance of wrecking their board.
I could see cutting the Traps and going more in on the suspend LE plan against blue. In that case I go up a SM and up a Boar.
If you're running verdants as your main fetch, you might as well play spike feeder which doesn't get completely blown out by anti-lifegain cards.
I did a bit of research on this to understand why people go one over the other. Obviously the Spike Feeder advantage is the ability to mess with combat math, but most of the time you are playing you are playing against Burn, right? So to effectively cast him T3 and still be doing what this deck needs to be doing with cyclers you need to fetch or at a minimum shock 2 turns. Even assuming you naturally draw a Gx shock land T1 or T2 and fetch a basic forest T3 your still probably 2 damage deeper than if you could have fetched basics both T2-T3.
I prefer Brindle Boar against burn. Unless I'm running White Leyline (usually when discard heavy match-ups and/or storm is more prevalent).
If I'm able to get a good enough Gnaw to the Bone off, then burn was slow and I would have won anyway. Pulse has been scientifically proven to get hit by skullcrack 97.56% percent of the time (by scientifically proven I mean my tilt induce rantings have determined). I've never tried spike feeder.
RW Blaze Commando Soldier Swarm BW Edgewalker Clerics i.e. All the prevention R Ogre Menial (Fallen Feromancer) Tunnelin' Infectors GB Shaman of the Pack Elves URReclusive Artificer Artifact Control GBCatacomb Sifter Sac-Attack
Tiny Leader Decks
WU Geist of Saint Traft WKembha's Cats WRG Marath Slide Control
Tried out the deck with the new creatures today, and the new guys are so strong... 6 power of Cerodon instead of the 3 power of Minotaur, the 4/4 Horror that gets given +2/+1 until end of turn with each cycling.. and even Faerie Macabres pump him up. Ifnir feels slow in some games, but there are situation where he is amazing.
And in regards to Burn. I also prefer to use Boar against them... well, Gnaw can certainly gain more life, but most of time in Game two - my yard has almost no creature because I needed to cascade into LE, or the opponent emptied my yard with a spellbomb.
I did a bit of research on this to understand why people go one over the other. Obviously the Spike Feeder advantage is the ability to mess with combat math, but most of the time you are playing you are playing against Burn, right? So to effectively cast him T3 and still be doing what this deck needs to be doing with cyclers you need to fetch or at a minimum shock 2 turns. Even assuming you naturally draw a Gx shock land T1 or T2 and fetch a basic forest T3 your still probably 2 damage deeper than if you could have fetched basics both T2-T3.
I'm keen to hear your thoughts though.
Fastlands can usually provide the additional sources of life loss free mana and you're running 4 on top of verdants meaning life loss can be kept to a minimum.
Additionally, spike feeder is better than boar because of burns anti-life gain cards because spike feeder's life gain is incremental as oppose to all at once meaning if they have atarka's command/skullcrack, they can't have a complete blow out against a spike feeder (you will at the very least gain 2 life if dropped on T3).
That said, i'm not sold on any life gain cards living end has access to at the moment because of how it plays out on tempo and their access to life gain hate. It's why i'm testing leylines because they don't interfere with our need to relieve board pressure asap against burn due to mana/time constraints as well as having use in other matchups that aren't exactly favorable to us like storm.
This is great advice. I played last night and really felt I needed a bit more access to land, so maybe one Archfiend for a SSG would be a wise trade.
Here's my logic behind 3 Faeries - it's our best tool to mess with combat math or provide a blowout with Archfiend. Primarily I want to remove Arcbound and Viscera from mainboard play. But if I'm playing someone without sac outlets I hold them up and when they let a horror through or return a bunch of chump blockers I have a good chance of wrecking their board.
I could see cutting the Traps and going more in on the suspend LE plan against blue. In that case I go up a SM and up a Boar.
Thanks for the feedback!
You're welcome. Last night, I played a four-round tourney that made me wish for maindeck Faeries for the first time in a long time (more on this later). I hear your case for them loud and clear. Would you generally sub them out if you're bringing in Leylines, or is that a situational decision?
Cutting Traps seems like the best route for you, I agree. -1 Archfiend and +1 SSG seems right on as well.
2-2 last night--still first in my league, but the gap is closing. Tough matchups on the whole.
Round 1 vs Lantern Control: Yikes. He locked me out with an early Ensnaring Bridge; after he laid down a duplicate and Ghoulcaller's Bell milled one of my two Beast Within, I scooped. Game 2 I went off, putting a Wraith, a Horror, and two Cerodons onto the field during his T3 end step, with a Chewer in hand in case he laid down a bridge. Win. Game 3 I kept a hand with 4 one-mana cyclers, two lands, and a Violent Outburst. Perhaps I should have mulliganed more aggressively for hate, but I didn't, and my topdecks and cycling draws just added more fuel to the yard. Couldn't find Beast Within, Chewer, or Faerie (to cripple Academy Ruins recursion) until it was too late. The 65 (!) power I put on the board stood around stupidly, trapped on a bridge, as I was milled out. 1-2
Round 2 vs Dredge: Game 1 was quick and dirty as I overran him through a board comprised predominantly of Bloodghasts who are too cool to block. Game 2 was insane. It was so long and grindy that he had to stop Dredging for fear of the self-mill. I went wide enough early enough to threaten lethal unless he held back his Imps, so for a while the only damage getting through was a pair of Narcomebas. Faerie Macabre saved my bacon by exiling his sideboarded Gnaw to the Bone. After all that chipping away, he attacked with a swarm of dudes for exactly lethal, with enough blockers left behind in case something went awry. Beast Within on my own land for an extra blocker prevented lethal, and a pair of Dread the following turn got my boys through for the win. 2-0
Round 3 vs Abzan Company: Not much to say here; both games, he played a T1 Viscera Seer and assembled an infinite combo right about on curve. Once more I found myself wishing for maindeck Faeries and/or sideboarded Leylines. Nothing like wiping the board and reanimating an army that can swing for lethal, only for the enemy to sac his crew for Scry value and win the following turn via infinite everything. Oh well. 0-2
Round 4 vs Amulet Titan: Finally, a favorable matchup! I got screwed pretty hard Game 1 via draws. Kept a three-lander with Dread, Horror, Carabid, and Archfiend, only for my next five draws to yield two more Cascade spells and all three Living Ends. He got Titan out on T4 and it was over shortly thereafter. Game 2, a T2 SSG into Blood Moon stole the game. Game 3 was a more traditional matchup, with him comboing off on T4, then me Cascading in response to attacks. He still had gas in the tank via another Titan on T5, but my board state was too strong, and I won after a few rounds of swinging. 2-1.
So...time to acquire some Leylines? I need them for monoblack Devotion anyway.
Thanks guys for the recent activity on the thread. I've been reading carefully all the posts and congrats on the results. Looking forward for your next tournament Raver also
I've been configurating my deck and here's what I came up with against tier 1 and 2 decks :
I'm still unsure about having 2 Architects of Will and 1 Pale Recluse... I'm somtimes thinking about having 3 SSG and cutting the landcycler, but I like having 2 landcyclers (like Twisted Abomination also). I find these cards to be my sweet spot.
Whenever I had Brindle Boar I lost anyways because +4 (+2 with Eidolon) just wasn't good enough hence I have been looking for other options.
I think if the burn dude gets to remove your stuff it's over anyway and you really need lots of cyclers vs Burn. That's why I wanted to test Gnaw.
Or you just try to race them and maybe board in a few Chewers and Shriekmaws (Eidolon!) for Street Wraith.
The only thing that really does some work might be Leyline...
Street Wraith definitely comes out vs Burn. I usually board in 4 boar and my remaining shriekmaw (I run one maindeck). Usually it's a fulminator that comes out unless they have some splash shenanigans, sometimes it's a beast within.
RW Blaze Commando Soldier Swarm BW Edgewalker Clerics i.e. All the prevention R Ogre Menial (Fallen Feromancer) Tunnelin' Infectors GB Shaman of the Pack Elves URReclusive Artificer Artifact Control GBCatacomb Sifter Sac-Attack
Tiny Leader Decks
WU Geist of Saint Traft WKembha's Cats WRG Marath Slide Control
Against burn I cascade into it instead. Honestly more cute than anything else. Old tech, now that more people know how skullcrack interacts with protection. Getting two out fast has won me a fair many games though. I do need to update my sideboard.
Avalanche Rider can happen twice and buys a turn blocking instead of pushing our clock to cascade forward. I find if I'm on the Fulminator Mage path that I can wait longer to go off in order to go off bigger.
I never liked Avalanche Riders in LE. If I want a LD in certain matchup, I'm not so worried about blocking... Also, getting to 4 is not that easy in the first turns (hitting 4 mana in turn 4, for example, when you need to break the tron asap).
Regarding unconventional techs against Burn:
-Playing 4 Leylines you have around 61% of hitting one in your hand, with 1 mulligan to 6 included. (roughly ~70 if you go down to 5 cards). They can still win if they run a lot of creatures. Takes 4 SB slots if you want to max the chances of having one in your main hand.
-Taking out the LE for 3 Kor Firewalker gives you good chances of cascading into at least one (about 80% after seeing 10 cards), but hinders the main gameplan and may be too late vs Burn. At least, a couple of Firewalkers is a nice clock, and only takes 3 SB slots.
-Platinum Emperion+Mapcap Experiment takes 6 slots and has according to previous math you get: 57.81% good (you can get your PE on turn 3), 25.42% neutral (you draw neither), 12.97% crappy (you can still combo, but with some dead cards in hand) and 3.8% bad hands (you can't cheat a PE).Is slower, but it's a wincon that doesn't use the GY and some decks can't deal with it.
I believe WoTC's new policy is to make sure that every color can enjoy the exciting gameplay mechanic of making undercosted dudes and then turning them sideways. Clearly the future of magic.
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Glad to hear about the Leylines looking positive. I have yet to encounter a MU that warrants their use yet. I keep getting pitted against Fish, Affinity, U/W Control, and Zoo at my current LGS :/
On the flip side; I've had a chance to test with Dead // Gone quite a bit as a result of my match ups.
It feels like Dead // Gone is very much competing for the same SB slots as Shriekmaw.
~Versus Zoo it hit Guides, small E1s, BTE, and Bushwhackers. It missed Kird Apes and Nacatls.
Shriekmaw hits all of those but obviously a turn slower and not at instant speed :/
~Versus Fish it hit solo lords and basically the whole crew except Master of Waves. Felt bad drawing it later in the game when they had a couple of lords on board. Was able to "Gone" one of their lords however Shriekmaw would have been just as good if not better in that scenario. Random brownie point(s) for Shriek is that it can't get Cursecatcher taxed and kills Master of Waves in that MU.
~Versus Affinity it hit pretty much everything except Master of Etheriums and Etched Champions. Shriek obviously is a dead card against Affinity. However Affinity is a double edged sword unlike other creature match ups where if we "shock" an early threat we don't care about our opponent getting it back on the LE rebound because a Goblin Guide looks silly facing down a 6/4 Desert Cerodon but a Vault Skirge that comes back and picks up a Cranial Plating is a bit more tricky. Make for awkward situations which left me wondering if Dead // Gone was even worth bringing in against that MU in the first place...
These are just some notes from this past week's testing and obviously illustrate limited testing due to a small sample size. Figured I'd share some of my findings/impressions on the new dead // gone tech.
Modern // Burn (main) and Living End (secondary) now Jund.
For fun check out my janky combo primer: Turn 3 Grixis Combo
"Can't beat em' Jund em'!"
Burn at large (like Open sized tournaments) events is a coin flip, the deck itself is in the process of changing to adapt to the new meta and people will always have anti-burn cards ready. The historically low conversion rates of that deck suggests that it is possible to avoid them if we get a few wins in early.
I feel there's also slight differences in regional meta, for some reason in our area players favor blue based control decks or blue combo decks like storm. It definitely was the case when Jeskai nahiri was a deck that showed up a lot on the north east but not out in the west coast.
(Feedback on the deck itself is great too if you see obvious changes.)
Here's the list:
3 Archfiend of Ifnir
3 Beast Within
4 Desert Cerodon
3 Faerie Macabre
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Horror of the Broken Lands
3 Monstrous Carabid
2 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
Spells:
3 Living End
4 Demonic Dread
4 Violent Outburst
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
1 Blooming Marsh
1 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Blood Moon
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Brindle Boar
3 Ingot Chewer
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Ricochet Trap
1 Shriekmaw
As it's a GP, I have no idea what the Meta is going to be so I'm going to plan for the Top 16ish Decks right now.
Most Recent Tiered List
Affinity
+3 Ingot Chewer (+2 Blood Moon?)
-3 Desert Cerodon (-2 ?)
Eldrazi Tron
+2 Ingot Chewer, +2 Blood Moon
-3 Faerie Macabre, -1 Monstrous Carabid
Gifts Storm
+4 Leyline of the Void, +1 Anger of the Gods
-2 Simian Spirit Guide, -1 Demonic Dread -2 Beast Within
Burn
+2 Brindle Boar, +1 Shriekmaw +1 Anger of the Gods
-4 Street Wraith
BGx Death's Shadow
+2 Blood Moon +1 Shriekmaw
-2 Simian Spirit Guide -1 Archfiend of Ifnir
GW Company Evolution / Abzan Evolution
+4 Leyline of the Void, +1 Shriekmaw +1 Anger of the Gods
-2 Simian Spirit Guide -2 Archfiend of Ifnir -2 Desert Cerodon
Elves
+1 Anger of the Gods, +2 Brindle Boar, +1 Shriekmaw
-4 Fulminator Mage
Knightfall
+1 Anger of the Gods, +2 Blood Moon +1 Shriekmaw
-2 Simian Spirit Guide, -1 Archfiend of Ifnir, -1 Desert Cerodon
UW Control
+2 Ricochet trap, (+2 Blood Moon?)
-2 Desert Cerodon, (-2 Demonic Dread)
Dredge
+4 Leyline of the Void, +1 Anger of the Gods
-3 Beast Within, -2 Fulminator Mage
Titanshift
+1 Shriekmaw, +2 Ignot Chewer
-1 Demonic Dread, -2 Faerie Macabre
Death & Taxes
+1 Anger of the Gods, +2 Ingot Chewer, +1 Shriekmaw
-2 Simian Spirit Guide, -2 Desert Cerodon
UBx Shadow
+2 Blood Moon +2 Ricochet Trap
-3 Archfiend of Ifnir -1 Desert Cerodon
Merfolk
+1 Anger of the Gods, +1 Shriekmaw, +2 Ingot Chewer +2 Ricochet Trap
-4 Fulminator Mage, -2 Desert Cerodon
Ad Nauseum
+3 Ingot Chewer,
-2 Demonic Dream, -1 Faerie Macabre
Bant Eldrazi
+2 Blood Moon, +1 Shriekmaw
-2 Simian Spirit Guide, -1 Archfiend of Ifnir
As far as your sideboard goes, it's hard to argue with any of the choices individually, but as a whole it seems that the inclusion of 4x Leyline has the rest of your board stretched a little thin. For instance, 2x Brindle Boar isn't likely to turn around the matchups you'd bring him in against (and as an Elves player, I don't fear you siding him in much at all).
In my opinion, you need to cut either Boars or Traps in order to buff the numbers of other sideboard options (unless you move Blood Moon to the main, freeing up slots). I'd like to see 2 more Shriekmaws, and 1-2 more Boars if you're keeping them around. In short, commit more fully to a slightly narrower field of options.
My chances would be:
+2 Blood Moon, -1 Faerie, -1 Archfiend (main)
+2 Shriekmaw, +1 Boar, -1 Trap (side)
Take it or leave it, but good luck either way!
2 Archfiend of Ifnir
2 Faerie Macabre
4 Desert Cerodon
4 Horror of the Broken Lands
4 Monstrous Carabid
4 Street Wraith
3 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Living End
3 Demonic Dread
4 Violent Outburst
Land (18)
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blooming Marsh
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
So for the remaining 6 maindeck slots, there are two configurations I've been playing with but am not super happy with either one ...
4 Fulminator Mage
1 Demonic Dread OR Kari Zev's Expertise
1 Land (4th grove in my case)
4 Architects of Will
2 Twisted Abomination
What do you guys feel is strongest in those last 6 slots?
Modern :
- Playing : Burn | Living End | Bant Eldrazi
- In Queue : ???
- Building : Death's Shadow |
- Sidelined : RUG Scapeshift | Lantern Control | GR Tron | Ad Nauseam | UWR Control | Dredge | Eldrazi Tron | UB Whir Tezzerator
EDH : Active Decks
BUGrimgrin Tribal ZombiesBU | WGRUril, the MiststalkerWGR | XKozilek, Butcher of TruthX
My Trade List
2 Archfiend of Ifnir
2 Faerie Macabre
4 Desert Cerodon
4 Horror of the Broken Lands
4 Monstrous Carabid
4 Street Wraith
3 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Living End
3 Demonic Dread
4 Violent Outburst
Land (18)
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blooming Marsh
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
So for the remaining 6 maindeck slots, there are two configurations I've been playing with but am not super happy with either one ...
4 Fulminator Mage
1 Demonic Dread OR Kari Zev's Expertise
1 Land (4th grove in my case)
4 Architects of Will
2 Twisted Abomination
What do you guys feel is strongest in those last 6 slots?
Modern :
- Playing : Burn | Living End | Bant Eldrazi
- In Queue : ???
- Building : Death's Shadow |
- Sidelined : RUG Scapeshift | Lantern Control | GR Tron | Ad Nauseam | UWR Control | Dredge | Eldrazi Tron | UB Whir Tezzerator
EDH : Active Decks
BUGrimgrin Tribal ZombiesBU | WGRUril, the MiststalkerWGR | XKozilek, Butcher of TruthX
My Trade List
This is great advice. I played last night and really felt I needed a bit more access to land, so maybe one Archfiend for a SSG would be a wise trade.
Here's my logic behind 3 Faeries - it's our best tool to mess with combat math or provide a blowout with Archfiend. Primarily I want to remove Arcbound and Viscera from mainboard play. But if I'm playing someone without sac outlets I hold them up and when they let a horror through or return a bunch of chump blockers I have a good chance of wrecking their board.
I could see cutting the Traps and going more in on the suspend LE plan against blue. In that case I go up a SM and up a Boar.
Thanks for the feedback!
I did a bit of research on this to understand why people go one over the other. Obviously the Spike Feeder advantage is the ability to mess with combat math, but most of the time you are playing you are playing against Burn, right? So to effectively cast him T3 and still be doing what this deck needs to be doing with cyclers you need to fetch or at a minimum shock 2 turns. Even assuming you naturally draw a Gx shock land T1 or T2 and fetch a basic forest T3 your still probably 2 damage deeper than if you could have fetched basics both T2-T3.
I'm keen to hear your thoughts though.
If I'm able to get a good enough Gnaw to the Bone off, then burn was slow and I would have won anyway. Pulse has been scientifically proven to get hit by skullcrack 97.56% percent of the time (by scientifically proven I mean my tilt induce rantings have determined). I've never tried spike feeder.
EDH DECKS:
GBCatacomb Sifter Sac-Attack
And in regards to Burn. I also prefer to use Boar against them... well, Gnaw can certainly gain more life, but most of time in Game two - my yard has almost no creature because I needed to cascade into LE, or the opponent emptied my yard with a spellbomb.
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Fastlands can usually provide the additional sources of life loss free mana and you're running 4 on top of verdants meaning life loss can be kept to a minimum.
Additionally, spike feeder is better than boar because of burns anti-life gain cards because spike feeder's life gain is incremental as oppose to all at once meaning if they have atarka's command/skullcrack, they can't have a complete blow out against a spike feeder (you will at the very least gain 2 life if dropped on T3).
That said, i'm not sold on any life gain cards living end has access to at the moment because of how it plays out on tempo and their access to life gain hate. It's why i'm testing leylines because they don't interfere with our need to relieve board pressure asap against burn due to mana/time constraints as well as having use in other matchups that aren't exactly favorable to us like storm.
You're welcome. Last night, I played a four-round tourney that made me wish for maindeck Faeries for the first time in a long time (more on this later). I hear your case for them loud and clear. Would you generally sub them out if you're bringing in Leylines, or is that a situational decision?
Cutting Traps seems like the best route for you, I agree. -1 Archfiend and +1 SSG seems right on as well.
2-2 last night--still first in my league, but the gap is closing. Tough matchups on the whole.
Round 1 vs Lantern Control: Yikes. He locked me out with an early Ensnaring Bridge; after he laid down a duplicate and Ghoulcaller's Bell milled one of my two Beast Within, I scooped. Game 2 I went off, putting a Wraith, a Horror, and two Cerodons onto the field during his T3 end step, with a Chewer in hand in case he laid down a bridge. Win. Game 3 I kept a hand with 4 one-mana cyclers, two lands, and a Violent Outburst. Perhaps I should have mulliganed more aggressively for hate, but I didn't, and my topdecks and cycling draws just added more fuel to the yard. Couldn't find Beast Within, Chewer, or Faerie (to cripple Academy Ruins recursion) until it was too late. The 65 (!) power I put on the board stood around stupidly, trapped on a bridge, as I was milled out. 1-2
Round 2 vs Dredge: Game 1 was quick and dirty as I overran him through a board comprised predominantly of Bloodghasts who are too cool to block. Game 2 was insane. It was so long and grindy that he had to stop Dredging for fear of the self-mill. I went wide enough early enough to threaten lethal unless he held back his Imps, so for a while the only damage getting through was a pair of Narcomebas. Faerie Macabre saved my bacon by exiling his sideboarded Gnaw to the Bone. After all that chipping away, he attacked with a swarm of dudes for exactly lethal, with enough blockers left behind in case something went awry. Beast Within on my own land for an extra blocker prevented lethal, and a pair of Dread the following turn got my boys through for the win. 2-0
Round 3 vs Abzan Company: Not much to say here; both games, he played a T1 Viscera Seer and assembled an infinite combo right about on curve. Once more I found myself wishing for maindeck Faeries and/or sideboarded Leylines. Nothing like wiping the board and reanimating an army that can swing for lethal, only for the enemy to sac his crew for Scry value and win the following turn via infinite everything. Oh well. 0-2
Round 4 vs Amulet Titan: Finally, a favorable matchup! I got screwed pretty hard Game 1 via draws. Kept a three-lander with Dread, Horror, Carabid, and Archfiend, only for my next five draws to yield two more Cascade spells and all three Living Ends. He got Titan out on T4 and it was over shortly thereafter. Game 2, a T2 SSG into Blood Moon stole the game. Game 3 was a more traditional matchup, with him comboing off on T4, then me Cascading in response to attacks. He still had gas in the tank via another Titan on T5, but my board state was too strong, and I won after a few rounds of swinging. 2-1.
So...time to acquire some Leylines? I need them for monoblack Devotion anyway.
I've been configurating my deck and here's what I came up with against tier 1 and 2 decks :
4 Desert Cerodon
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Horror of the Broken Lands
4 Monstrous Carabid
4 Street Wraith
2 Archfiend of Ifnir
2 Architects of Will
2 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Pale Recluse
Spells (15)
4 Violent Outburst
3 Demonic Dread
3 Beast Within
3 Living End
1 Kari Zev's Expertise
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Copperline Gorge
1 Blooming Marsh
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Blood Crypt
1 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Swamp
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
4 Brindle Boar
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Avalanche Riders
2 Ingot Chewer
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Shriekmaw
I'm still unsure about having 2 Architects of Will and 1 Pale Recluse... I'm somtimes thinking about having 3 SSG and cutting the landcycler, but I like having 2 landcyclers (like Twisted Abomination also). I find these cards to be my sweet spot.
1 Kari Zev's Expertise is great and so good. I'm also comfortable with the manabase, although I see that 3 Groves of the Burnwillow : I prefer having 3 fastlands (Copperline Gorge and Blooming Marsh).
What do you guys think about it? Also, I'm opened to discuss the sideboard.
Thanks !
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
Street Wraith definitely comes out vs Burn. I usually board in 4 boar and my remaining shriekmaw (I run one maindeck). Usually it's a fulminator that comes out unless they have some splash shenanigans, sometimes it's a beast within.
// 28 Creature
2 Archfiend of Ifnir
4 Horror of the Broken Lands
4 Monstrous Carabid
4 Street Wraith
3 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Desert Cerodon
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Shriekmaw
2 Deadshot Minotaur
1 Faerie Macabre
// 1 Enchantment
1 Blood Moon
// 7 Instant
4 Violent Outburst
3 Beast Within
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
1 Forest
// 6 Sorcery
3 Living End
3 Demonic Dread
3 Ingot Chewer
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Shriekmaw
4 Brindle Boar
1 Fulminator Mage
2 Blood Moon
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Lost Legacy
^ This is my current list. If I had Grove of the Burnwillows, I would have at least two of them in there.
EDH DECKS:
GBCatacomb Sifter Sac-Attack
I feel I win most games off the back of LD.
2x Archfiend of Ifnir
2x Avalanche Riders
4x Deadshot Minotaur
4x Desert Cerodon
4x Fulminator Mage
4x Horror of the Broken Lands
4x Monstrous Carabid
2x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Street Wraith
Spells(11)
1x Beast Within
4x Violent Outburst
3x Demonic Dread
3x Living End
2x Blood Crypt
1x City of Brass
4x Copperline Gorge
2x Forest
2x Karplusan Forest
1x Kessig Wolf Run
2x Llanowar Wastes
3x Sulfurous Springs
2x Swamp
1x Beast Within
4x Faerie Macabre
4x Ingot Chewer
3x Kor Firewalker
3x Ricochet Trap
Why Kor Firewalker ?
Also, Why do you prefer Avalanche Riders to more copies of Beast Within (which is cheaper and more versatile) ?
Against burn I cascade into it instead. Honestly more cute than anything else. Old tech, now that more people know how skullcrack interacts with protection. Getting two out fast has won me a fair many games though. I do need to update my sideboard.
Avalanche Rider can happen twice and buys a turn blocking instead of pushing our clock to cascade forward. I find if I'm on the Fulminator Mage path that I can wait longer to go off in order to go off bigger.
Regarding unconventional techs against Burn:
-Playing 4 Leylines you have around 61% of hitting one in your hand, with 1 mulligan to 6 included. (roughly ~70 if you go down to 5 cards). They can still win if they run a lot of creatures. Takes 4 SB slots if you want to max the chances of having one in your main hand.
-Taking out the LE for 3 Kor Firewalker gives you good chances of cascading into at least one (about 80% after seeing 10 cards), but hinders the main gameplan and may be too late vs Burn. At least, a couple of Firewalkers is a nice clock, and only takes 3 SB slots.
-Platinum Emperion+Mapcap Experiment takes 6 slots and has according to previous math you get: 57.81% good (you can get your PE on turn 3), 25.42% neutral (you draw neither), 12.97% crappy (you can still combo, but with some dead cards in hand) and 3.8% bad hands (you can't cheat a PE).Is slower, but it's a wincon that doesn't use the GY and some decks can't deal with it.