You can go look at the Pinned threads about how a deck becomes tier whatever. I'm on my phone so I don't know exactly where it is. However yes it is based on how much it is played and it's record which includes both online and paper results.
Edit: You also shouldn't being saying that those are our decks strengths. You basically just called the deck out as jank and can't win vs anyone knowledgeable.
If I thought it was truly jank, I wouldn't be on the deck.
I said the deck is one that's unfamiliar, from top to bottom, game plan down to the wording or specific interactions. Just because it's unfamiliar doesn't mean its janky. Living End just plays on a different axis than a lot of modern decks; curve gets thrown out the window, we've got 3 mana sometimes instant speed "board wipes", we play cards on upkeep, we're likely the best (and most underrated) land destruction deck in modern and these factors among others makes it unfamiliar and uncomfortable to even modern enthusiasts.
My local meta had people playing modern for quite some time but no constant living end presence. It wasn't until I got around to playing it to the point of being a one trick pony, and giving everyone their reps that they became super familiar with how to tackle our deck, from acceptable keeps down to specific interactions like the ones I went through with Zombiesleeve with the various Ravager scenarios. They're probably so practiced on it they could respond to plays in their sleep; for them, it's automatic. There's no second guessing themselves or taking a not so very educated guess on the optimal play for them.
I'm not trying to call you out but you should think much better of the deck and your own skill. You put time and effort into this deck like the rest of us. The deck is stronger with the new cards and the current meta going around.
First off, I do think the deck is strong and practiced enough to show that it is. What I won't do, is sugarcoat the reality of the situation. Strength of a deck is derived from more than just powerlevel of cards and if you can't get pass that, then this is just a pointless conversation.
And frankly, i'm not even sold that we're better in this current meta. Blue based shadow decks seems to be the latest flavor that basically plays like a grixis delver deck on steroids and burn is positioned well as a result and both those decks are not exactly a walk in the park. Tier 1.5/2 decks are littered with iffy matchups like storm, non-control variants of scapeshift, and the latest vizier company deck that provides extra layers of protection for their combo if played alongside the viscera seer combo package. Yeah we get new and (arguably) better cyclers but they don't inherently solve the matchups against the aforementioned decks and with more people jumping on the deck, it turns into scenarios where my personal situation gets amplified and more players now get the opportunity to grind out reps on the deck in practice scenarios and become comfortable with the matchup.
The concept is nothing too out of the ordinary. It's not like a 5 card combo that has nothing else going on. Pretty much everyone who has played modern for atleast 3 months knows about Living End.
That is absolutely not the case at all. 2 of my opponents slammed G-cage against me at a WMCQ and that should say it all.
Sorry for the rant but playing a deck because it's "under the radar" and "confusing to your opponent" and not because it's a decent deck is just the wrong approach imo.
Players like Kevin Mackie, Zac Elsik, or Justin Cohen would like a word.
Slamming a cage is the wrong move against LE but so is countering the cascade card thinking it will stop the trigger. The people that do this is because they haven't read the cards correctly or at all. So yes you will get those games with people but as soon as you keep doing what you doing they learn that they were wrong and make the correction. However you can find that with many other decks that are in tier.
This deck has many strengths outside of just being unfamiliar or misunderstand, many of which you have said in your post. Like I posted before I went 4-0 at my local store. Everyone I played against knows how the deck plays and brought in the right tools to deal with it. I was still able to push through the hate. The new cyclers helped push my power level just a little bit more. Now instead of putting 9 to 12 power on the board by T3 I can jam 12+ power (Not taking in account Street Wraith). The creatures are just bigger or can get bigger with a lot of players can't deal with and ticks our kill clock up. I didn't get any free wins because of misplays or lack of knowledge.
The problem with not having anyone know about your deck is that you can't help improve on your deck. You limit yourself just to your ideas and not someone else that could bring in something fresh and new to the table that can help push the deck just a bit over some of those iffy match ups.
I believe that you aren't giving the deck or the pilot's skill as much credit as they deserve. I do understand where you are coming from but my experience with this deck and what I have seen is different from yours. We aren't going to see eye to eye on this argument so I'm just going to leave it at that.
I can sort of see both sides of the argument.. when I first put together the deck, someone thought I had a Jund deck because of the lands, a Combo Elves player had about 20+ power and swings at me - which I just outburst in response wiping out his army and bring in an army of my own, he scooped - easy win. Although after some time, people in our LGS became familiar with how Living End worked, the easy days are gone.. it became more challenging. Some decks here like Eldrazi Tron have chalice in the main which makes life hard, if they put it down at 0 in game one I hope for a Beast Within or lose easily. After all those experiences, I think it's better to have the new strong cards from Amonkhet and prepare a good sideboard for the meta, rather than hope to surprise people = easy win because my deck is "unfamiliar" to them.
The problem with not having anyone know about your deck is that you can't help improve on your deck. You limit yourself just to your ideas and not someone else that could bring in something fresh and new to the table that can help push the deck just a bit over some of those iffy match ups.
Do not be mistaken, I very much discuss and and put in my reps with living end against my playgroup that happens to not be short on all around solid players that frequently change decks. I reach out to fellow peers like I do here as well as some who are not with as much experience if not more with the deck than me. I've dug deep into the modern cardpool looking for lesser known answers and testing those, i've put up my 4-0's at local modern events against a very practiced field that I shouldn't be playing living end to begin with. I've done and am continuing to do my homework.
This deck has many strengths outside of just being unfamiliar or misunderstand, many of which you have said in your post.
Yes but those strengths derive a part of its power from the unfamiliarity of the strategy or gameplan. Land destruction is strong, land destruction against a metagame not used to land destruction is even stronger.
I believe that you aren't giving the deck or the pilot's skill as much credit as they deserve.
I give credit for tight and technical plays as would any player and also strive for those in every game I play with the deck, but I also have to acknowledge the outside metagame factors that inevitably make up a share of our successes, knowledge and experience are too powerful of factors to simply hand wave away.
The 5C pilot commented on the MTGGoldfish article that the 5-0 list that's been publicized was an earlier version and has since evolved a bit. He mentions switching over to Ardent Plea and adding Winged Shepherd(!) for the flying beats.
I can see the philosophy: if the goal is to win with the combo then stuffing the deck with one mana cyclers should make for a very consistent experience. The basic argument that if you're taking the time to Beast Within or Fulminator Mage you're losing win percentage compared to just pushing for the LE seems plausible, though it's always a little sketchy to totally abandon plan B like that. Personally I would want a couple of Archfiends in there to clean out the opponent's board post-LE at least.
Ehh faith of the devoted isn't a totally crazy idea. I've considered it here at my LGS where there are a couple of ensnaring bridge decks. Either that or Chandra, torch of defiance as an alternate non combat damage win con. Kind of like Chandra more because she is less mana intensive in terms of activation cost and she doesn't get abrupt decay'ed or natural state'ed.
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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'!"
Ehh faith of the devoted isn't a totally crazy idea. I've considered it here at my LGS where there are a couple of ensnaring bridge decks. Either that or Chandra, torch of defiance as an alternate non combat damage win con. Kind of like Chandra more because she is less mana intensive in terms of activation cost and she doesn't get abrupt decay'ed or natural state'ed.
I took the 5-color list for a spin through some friendly modern leagues online. First time ever playing the deck was a 3-2. Second time around was 5-0, 10-1 in games. Matched up against Jeskai control (2-0), Bant Eldrazi (2-0), Elves (2-0), UR Storm (2-0), and UW Control (2-1).
I tweaked the decklist a little bit from what was posted:
The lands are a little bit of a budget choice. Eight painlands is definitely too much, I just didn't want to drop the tickets to fill out my playset of Gemstone Mines (I have two from back from before it spiked in value). Everything else I put in there by my own free will. Yes, even the Winged Shepherd.
Some thoughts after playing with the deck:
Winged Shepherd is not the greatest cycler ever, but it is a legitimate choice. Evasive damage is evasive damage. Two Shepherds and a Curator make a two turn flying clock.
The explosive power of using only one-mana cyclers is real. You are almost always bringing back a two turn clock if you LE early and a one turn clock if you LE late (i.e. turn four). A one turn clock on turn three is doable (two Horrors), and a two-turn clock on turn two is also possible (2 SSG, Ceredon, Curator/Horror). You can also do stuff like powering through a Scavenging Ooze by massive cycling EOT followed by untapping, more cycling, and LE. Archfiend is such a bomb I think you play two, but more would tend to clog things up. Even two could occasionally be awkward.
The deck is amazingly consistent. You are only doing one thing, but you're just about always doing it by turn three and sometimes by turn two. The only real way for things to go wrong is for Living End to wind up in your hand. The one game I lost to UW saw him one-for-one remove the dudes from my first living end, counter the second, and then the third was in my hand along with my cascaders. I almost want the fourth LE in the side for the control matchups.
I like Faerie Macabre over the Leylines for graveyard fights. Obviously less powerful, but you can cycle into it and it hits by surprise.
The one Beast Within was very handy, often as an end of turn land destruction spell to bait out a counter. I also like the psychological impact of always having an out to whatever random stuff you run into, even if it's a bit irrational. I'm not sure if a second one would be too many.
Ardent Plea is solid. You can always cast it, and the exalted trigger can randomly be relevant when you have a single evasive guy or your opponent has removal for almost all of your creatures.
I also felt more comfortable than I expected jamming some Wear // Tear post board and mostly hoping to dodge hate. They're unlikely to have more than four devastating hate cards, and cycling gives us a decent chance at finding our outs. The deck also puts so much pressure on them that they almost have to have the hate in the opening hand for it to be effective.
If we keep these type of results up who knows how far we'll go*
Still not a fan of the moon tech but even the the top decks seem split on it. About a quarter have it main, quarter in the board and half not at all.
Top 2 at my LGS. Only lost to Tron in some really long games where i didn't draw right and he drew double early relic and beat me in the long game with wurmcoils.
Fnm report.
Round 1- faeries 2-1
Game one got him tapped out early and jammed an early LE which one me game one. Game two I mulled to 6 and kept a hand with2 cyclers and lands. My opponent was able to establish a pretty good board state. Not being able to jam an LE before turn 5 pretty much wrapped this game up.
Game 3- started off strong cycling creatures, waiting for the right time to strike. Blew up 2 of his lands with F mage, before the 3rd was countered. Waited for him to attack with mutavault, and cast a spell the same turn being me the best time to cast violent outburst. Redirected his negate with ricochet trap letting a lethal living end resolve and with me the game and match.
Round two- Jeskai Nahiri 2-1
Game one was pretty standard. Cycle on 1 and 2, also hitting 2 street wraiths. Opponent countered violent outburst, ha! After I explained to him that he should counter LE not the cascade spells. We go to game two and he does just that counters my. Game 3 two F mages keep him off white and I'm able to cycle and combo him out. Winning yet again with ricochet trap.
Round 3- Gifts Storm 2-0
Game one I got really lucky and cycled into 3/4 of my faerie macabre stopped him dead in his tracks for going off. Topped the cascade card gave him one more turn to put something together, he scoops. Game two he managed to get hit me with a grapeshot for 5 and then emptied for 6. Not killing me I topped violent outburst and he couldn't close it out. Giving me the match.
Round 4- Counters Company 2-0
Game one F mage strikes again! Keeps him off lands and eventually I was able to combo off, had to win on the second LE. Game two was a breeze. Was hardly no interaction.
All in all what I took away from this FNM was F Mage is really good for keeping your opponent behind you. Also against decks that have counters ricochet trap is an all star.
Hey, guys. I really need your advise. Recetly i changed kari-zev expertise with 4th demonic dread and i felt that it was a right move. But suddenly our meta has bacome full of remands and now my living ends are usually in my hand and i can not play it (suspend is pretty slow and crazy). So, what do you think about having in main deck 8 cascade spells as well as 1 copy of expertise (for example, instead of 1 beast within)?
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'!"
Hey, guys. I really need your advise. Recetly i changed kari-zev expertise with 4th demonic dread and i felt that it was a right move. But suddenly our meta has bacome full of remands and now my living ends are usually in my hand and i can not play it (suspend is pretty slow and crazy). So, what do you think about having in main deck 8 cascade spells as well as 1 copy of expertise (for example, instead of 1 beast within)?
Against control are you suspending a copy as soon as you can? Then you force them to have two counterspells the same turn.
Hey everyone, some of you may or may not remember me, but I was really active here for a period starting maybe 3 years ago and continuing until last year, when I took a brief hiatus from M:tG to play hearthstone a little more seriously. Anyway, I'm playing a modern tournament for the first time in forever today and wanted to check in and see if there are any big changes that have happened--and hopefully be active here again going forward.
Alright, here's a write up of the Modern tournament I went to today. It was a pretty poor showing in attendance, so we had only 3 rounds, and one of the kids I played was running essentially an amonkhet intro deck. But the other two rounds were interesting, so I have summaries here. This was my list:
Notable sideboard elements: leyline of the void, ingot chewer, and avalanche riders.
Round 2: Dredge
Game 1--I mulled to 5, he mulled to 4. Turns out that Dredge really struggles when it has only one land in play, gets two blown up, and can't draw a dredger. I hardcast and activate raging ravine until he dies.
Game 2--I mulligan until I hit leyline of the void. He concedes as soon as it enters play.
Round 3: Lantern control
Game 1--I lock him out of land mana and get the living end off. He has to use his millers to dig for the bridge. On the turn before I lethal him, he gets a chance at 5 top cards, finding the bridge on the last one and playing it thanks to three opals. At this point, I'm locked out and slowly lose.
Game2--Same as game 1, except he has surgical extractions now.
I'm going to be adding the fourth horror and 2 archfiends, probably at the expense of the shriekmaw and jungle weaver. I do still really like kolaghan's command in the deck and will stick with it.
Honestly, seems like a bad plan. The key is not to have tons of cascaders to jam, but to know how to play so that they cannot use them well. Use your land destruction to reduce their blue sources, force them to hold up mana they should be spending, set up turns where you cast multiple must-counters. Learning how to get living ends onto the stack successfully through countermagic is the most important skill in this deck and you will just need to learn it. I wish there were a nicer answer to give you but that's it.
So living end managed to get to the finals but only a single list in top 32, some pretty decent representation all around with the exception of grixis death shadow apparently the flavor of the month.
Not sure what to make of Chris' list, seems to relegate the LD in favor of mass cycling plan. I suppose it makes sense to combat the speed of the format with all the DS decks running around but it does also takes away the bite of living end aganst midrange decks or tron. I'd actually be interested to see what decks he faced throughout the weekend because I was under the impression that grixis death shadow is inherently really strong against us.
Also seems a bit surprising because dredge seems to be having an off week (presumably because everyone brought grave hate), only a single list in the top 32 definitely seems to suggest people were ready for it in the SB.
Also thank you Kappa, I agree with you.
GWU Eldrazi
BRG Living End
WBG JunkFit
If I thought it was truly jank, I wouldn't be on the deck.
I said the deck is one that's unfamiliar, from top to bottom, game plan down to the wording or specific interactions. Just because it's unfamiliar doesn't mean its janky. Living End just plays on a different axis than a lot of modern decks; curve gets thrown out the window, we've got 3 mana sometimes instant speed "board wipes", we play cards on upkeep, we're likely the best (and most underrated) land destruction deck in modern and these factors among others makes it unfamiliar and uncomfortable to even modern enthusiasts.
My local meta had people playing modern for quite some time but no constant living end presence. It wasn't until I got around to playing it to the point of being a one trick pony, and giving everyone their reps that they became super familiar with how to tackle our deck, from acceptable keeps down to specific interactions like the ones I went through with Zombiesleeve with the various Ravager scenarios. They're probably so practiced on it they could respond to plays in their sleep; for them, it's automatic. There's no second guessing themselves or taking a not so very educated guess on the optimal play for them.
First off, I do think the deck is strong and practiced enough to show that it is. What I won't do, is sugarcoat the reality of the situation. Strength of a deck is derived from more than just powerlevel of cards and if you can't get pass that, then this is just a pointless conversation.
And frankly, i'm not even sold that we're better in this current meta. Blue based shadow decks seems to be the latest flavor that basically plays like a grixis delver deck on steroids and burn is positioned well as a result and both those decks are not exactly a walk in the park. Tier 1.5/2 decks are littered with iffy matchups like storm, non-control variants of scapeshift, and the latest vizier company deck that provides extra layers of protection for their combo if played alongside the viscera seer combo package. Yeah we get new and (arguably) better cyclers but they don't inherently solve the matchups against the aforementioned decks and with more people jumping on the deck, it turns into scenarios where my personal situation gets amplified and more players now get the opportunity to grind out reps on the deck in practice scenarios and become comfortable with the matchup.
That is absolutely not the case at all. 2 of my opponents slammed G-cage against me at a WMCQ and that should say it all.
Players like Kevin Mackie, Zac Elsik, or Justin Cohen would like a word.
This deck has many strengths outside of just being unfamiliar or misunderstand, many of which you have said in your post. Like I posted before I went 4-0 at my local store. Everyone I played against knows how the deck plays and brought in the right tools to deal with it. I was still able to push through the hate. The new cyclers helped push my power level just a little bit more. Now instead of putting 9 to 12 power on the board by T3 I can jam 12+ power (Not taking in account Street Wraith). The creatures are just bigger or can get bigger with a lot of players can't deal with and ticks our kill clock up. I didn't get any free wins because of misplays or lack of knowledge.
The problem with not having anyone know about your deck is that you can't help improve on your deck. You limit yourself just to your ideas and not someone else that could bring in something fresh and new to the table that can help push the deck just a bit over some of those iffy match ups.
I believe that you aren't giving the deck or the pilot's skill as much credit as they deserve. I do understand where you are coming from but my experience with this deck and what I have seen is different from yours. We aren't going to see eye to eye on this argument so I'm just going to leave it at that.
GWU Eldrazi
BRG Living End
WBG JunkFit
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
Do not be mistaken, I very much discuss and and put in my reps with living end against my playgroup that happens to not be short on all around solid players that frequently change decks. I reach out to fellow peers like I do here as well as some who are not with as much experience if not more with the deck than me. I've dug deep into the modern cardpool looking for lesser known answers and testing those, i've put up my 4-0's at local modern events against a very practiced field that I shouldn't be playing living end to begin with. I've done and am continuing to do my homework.
Yes but those strengths derive a part of its power from the unfamiliarity of the strategy or gameplan. Land destruction is strong, land destruction against a metagame not used to land destruction is even stronger.
I give credit for tight and technical plays as would any player and also strive for those in every game I play with the deck, but I also have to acknowledge the outside metagame factors that inevitably make up a share of our successes, knowledge and experience are too powerful of factors to simply hand wave away.
I can see the philosophy: if the goal is to win with the combo then stuffing the deck with one mana cyclers should make for a very consistent experience. The basic argument that if you're taking the time to Beast Within or Fulminator Mage you're losing win percentage compared to just pushing for the LE seems plausible, though it's always a little sketchy to totally abandon plan B like that. Personally I would want a couple of Archfiends in there to clean out the opponent's board post-LE at least.
http://media-dominaria.cursecdn.com/attachments/163/670/636323302907845634.jpg
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
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'!"
Well usually people aren't bringing in Abrupt Decay or Natural State in against us.
RGTron
UGInfect
URStorm
WUBRAd Nauseam
BRGrishoalbrand
URGScapeshift
WBGAbzan Company
WUBRGAmulet Titan
BRGLiving End
WGBogles
I tweaked the decklist a little bit from what was posted:
4 Mana Confluence
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Gemstone Mine
3 Reflecting Pool
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Violent Outburst
4 Ardent Plea
1 Demonic Dread
3 Living End
4 Curator of Mysteries
4 Horror of the Broken Lands
4 Monstrous Carabid
4 Desert Cerodon
4 Winged Shepherd
2 Archfiend of Ifnir
1 Beast Within
3 Gemstone Caverns
4 Wear // Tear
4 Faerie Macabre
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Lost Legacy
The lands are a little bit of a budget choice. Eight painlands is definitely too much, I just didn't want to drop the tickets to fill out my playset of Gemstone Mines (I have two from back from before it spiked in value). Everything else I put in there by my own free will. Yes, even the Winged Shepherd.
Some thoughts after playing with the deck:
Winged Shepherd is not the greatest cycler ever, but it is a legitimate choice. Evasive damage is evasive damage. Two Shepherds and a Curator make a two turn flying clock.
The explosive power of using only one-mana cyclers is real. You are almost always bringing back a two turn clock if you LE early and a one turn clock if you LE late (i.e. turn four). A one turn clock on turn three is doable (two Horrors), and a two-turn clock on turn two is also possible (2 SSG, Ceredon, Curator/Horror). You can also do stuff like powering through a Scavenging Ooze by massive cycling EOT followed by untapping, more cycling, and LE. Archfiend is such a bomb I think you play two, but more would tend to clog things up. Even two could occasionally be awkward.
The deck is amazingly consistent. You are only doing one thing, but you're just about always doing it by turn three and sometimes by turn two. The only real way for things to go wrong is for Living End to wind up in your hand. The one game I lost to UW saw him one-for-one remove the dudes from my first living end, counter the second, and then the third was in my hand along with my cascaders. I almost want the fourth LE in the side for the control matchups.
I like Faerie Macabre over the Leylines for graveyard fights. Obviously less powerful, but you can cycle into it and it hits by surprise.
The one Beast Within was very handy, often as an end of turn land destruction spell to bait out a counter. I also like the psychological impact of always having an out to whatever random stuff you run into, even if it's a bit irrational. I'm not sure if a second one would be too many.
Ardent Plea is solid. You can always cast it, and the exalted trigger can randomly be relevant when you have a single evasive guy or your opponent has removal for almost all of your creatures.
I also felt more comfortable than I expected jamming some Wear // Tear post board and mostly hoping to dodge hate. They're unlikely to have more than four devastating hate cards, and cycling gives us a decent chance at finding our outs. The deck also puts so much pressure on them that they almost have to have the hate in the opening hand for it to be effective.
Overall, I'm having a good time playing it.
Still not a fan of the moon tech but even the the top decks seem split on it. About a quarter have it main, quarter in the board and half not at all.
Top 2 at my LGS. Only lost to Tron in some really long games where i didn't draw right and he drew double early relic and beat me in the long game with wurmcoils.
Round 1- faeries 2-1
Game one got him tapped out early and jammed an early LE which one me game one. Game two I mulled to 6 and kept a hand with2 cyclers and lands. My opponent was able to establish a pretty good board state. Not being able to jam an LE before turn 5 pretty much wrapped this game up.
Game 3- started off strong cycling creatures, waiting for the right time to strike. Blew up 2 of his lands with F mage, before the 3rd was countered. Waited for him to attack with mutavault, and cast a spell the same turn being me the best time to cast violent outburst. Redirected his negate with ricochet trap letting a lethal living end resolve and with me the game and match.
Round two- Jeskai Nahiri 2-1
Game one was pretty standard. Cycle on 1 and 2, also hitting 2 street wraiths. Opponent countered violent outburst, ha! After I explained to him that he should counter LE not the cascade spells. We go to game two and he does just that counters my. Game 3 two F mages keep him off white and I'm able to cycle and combo him out. Winning yet again with ricochet trap.
Round 3- Gifts Storm 2-0
Game one I got really lucky and cycled into 3/4 of my faerie macabre stopped him dead in his tracks for going off. Topped the cascade card gave him one more turn to put something together, he scoops. Game two he managed to get hit me with a grapeshot for 5 and then emptied for 6. Not killing me I topped violent outburst and he couldn't close it out. Giving me the match.
Round 4- Counters Company 2-0
Game one F mage strikes again! Keeps him off lands and eventually I was able to combo off, had to win on the second LE. Game two was a breeze. Was hardly no interaction.
All in all what I took away from this FNM was F Mage is really good for keeping your opponent behind you. Also against decks that have counters ricochet trap is an all star.
// Living End
//Lands:
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Mountain
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
//Creatures:
4 Architects of Will
4 Desert Cerodon
4 Horror of the Broken Lands
3 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
4 Monstrous Carabid
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Fulminator Mage
//Spells:
3 Demonic Dread
3 Living End
4 Violent Outburst
1 Beast Within
//Sideboard:
2 Beast Within
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Pulse of Murasa
1 Krosan Grip
2 Ricochet Trap
3 Ingot Chewer
2 Shriekmaw
2 Dead // Gone
WRBurnRW
URGifts StormRU
RGoblinsR
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'!"
Against control are you suspending a copy as soon as you can? Then you force them to have two counterspells the same turn.
2 swamp
1 mountain
1 overgrown tomb
1 stomping ground
1 godless shrine
2 bloodstained mire
1 wooded foothills
4 blackcleave cliffs
4 copperline gorge
4 street wraith
2 simian spirit guide
4 monstrous carabid
4 deadshot minotaur
3 horror of the broken lands
1 jungle weaver
1 shriekmaw
2 pale recluse
4 violent outburst
3 beast within
3 demonic dread
3 fulminator mage
1 kolaghan's command
1 faerie macabre
3 living end
Notable sideboard elements: leyline of the void, ingot chewer, and avalanche riders.
Round 2: Dredge
Game 1--I mulled to 5, he mulled to 4. Turns out that Dredge really struggles when it has only one land in play, gets two blown up, and can't draw a dredger. I hardcast and activate raging ravine until he dies.
Game 2--I mulligan until I hit leyline of the void. He concedes as soon as it enters play.
Round 3: Lantern control
Game 1--I lock him out of land mana and get the living end off. He has to use his millers to dig for the bridge. On the turn before I lethal him, he gets a chance at 5 top cards, finding the bridge on the last one and playing it thanks to three opals. At this point, I'm locked out and slowly lose.
Game2--Same as game 1, except he has surgical extractions now.
I'm going to be adding the fourth horror and 2 archfiends, probably at the expense of the shriekmaw and jungle weaver. I do still really like kolaghan's command in the deck and will stick with it.
So living end managed to get to the finals but only a single list in top 32, some pretty decent representation all around with the exception of grixis death shadow apparently the flavor of the month.
Not sure what to make of Chris' list, seems to relegate the LD in favor of mass cycling plan. I suppose it makes sense to combat the speed of the format with all the DS decks running around but it does also takes away the bite of living end aganst midrange decks or tron. I'd actually be interested to see what decks he faced throughout the weekend because I was under the impression that grixis death shadow is inherently really strong against us.
Also seems a bit surprising because dredge seems to be having an off week (presumably because everyone brought grave hate), only a single list in the top 32 definitely seems to suggest people were ready for it in the SB.