Important to note that their list skimped on Kataki in the board, I just noticed. Might have had something to do with them not doing even better at the GP? (Hard to say at such a massive event) But, I also am going to play around with this list, and am making room for a Kataki in the board. Maybe in place of second Tireless Tracker. (I also don't love 4 'Seize in the main, but I'm willing to give it a shot before I start monkeying with it further.)
So either they thought that their matchup was decent enough without Kataki or they just gave up on this particular matchup hoping to dodge it.
This is undoubtedly true, but someone did ask Lukas on twitter if he regretted not having Kataki in the board for the GP and he said he did. I'll definitely be keeping a Kataki in my list even while testing out his mainboard. Their list seems aggressively slanted to beat Grixis Shadow, which is smart considering all the hype surrounding the deck leading up to the tournament (which was justified. We saw the deck on camera practically every round of the GP and most of the top pros were on it.)
I personally believe the Traverse deck has a fair-to-good matchup against shadow decks already, and don't want to gear my sideboard so strongly against them that I lose points against common aggro strategies like Affinity and Burn, etc. I think I definitely want to find room for Kataki and Flaying Tendrils and perhaps even a singleton Kitchen Finks.
How do you guys feel about the lack of boardwipes in the 75? That seems very difficult to overcome, in my opinion.
Uncomfortable. I've found myself boarding in Flaying Tendrils a lot and would be very uneasy without at least one in the board. I guess the assumption was that the Grixis Shadow decks would keep the creature strategies in check?
From this list, I think I'd leave the main deck as it is and make the following changes to the sideboard:
-1 Tireless Tracker
-1 Nihil Spellbomb or Grafdigger's Cage
-1 Big Game Hunter
You may want to switch your paths to 4 and pushes to 2, Mirron Crusader is popping up ALL over mtgo, along with a ton of Eldrazi and Grixis delve creatures. Trust me, go the 4/2
I'm also on the Traverse version of abzan, and I've been trying out the list from the GP as well. With 2 Brutalities in the MB, the extra TS shouldn't be much of an issue. I've been wanting to MB a pulse, and run 4 thoughtseize since I put the original list together last week, so this version feels great to me. The only real change I've made is dropping the bog for an Eternal Witness, since I feel like it's better in more matchups than the bog. I am running a very similar SB w/ a couple of changes, here is my current sb:
On my choices:
Kambal - Still hoses storm, while being relevant in more matchups. Playing this guy against burn ALWAYS gains you 2 life. They can't skullcrack his trigger, since he'll just trigger in response... I haven't played him against Grixis Shadow yet, but his trigger should be pretty relevant there too, especially if they're on the Ari Lax version w/ 4 Sleight of Hand. I used to run him in Mardu Nahiri and he was great there.
Garruk Relentless - Honestly I've just slotted him in to test out since I traded my gideon away yesterday, but the more I think about him the more I like him. I haven't had the chance to test him yet, but he's easier to cast and makes a 2/2 every turn as well. If he flips, he can sac a souls token or something else to tutor through RIP, and make 1/1 deathtouchers. He does die to bolt, but that card is played less and less these days so it feels like the best time to test him in modern since he was printed.
Lost Legacy - This card is great, and honestly not played enough imo. Beats a ton of combo decks before they can go off (ad naus, storm - usually empty the warrens, scapeshift, etc).
Look at the card. Now back to Jace. Now back to that card, now back to Jace! Sadly, it isn't Jace, but if it stopped being a junk rare and became relevant, it could act like it's Jace. Crack some Worldwake. What do you have? You have a Jace, the card you wish this card could be like. Look again. THE CARD IS NOW A $75 BILL. Anything possible when you play Magic with Jace and not junk rares. This is probably spam.
You may want to switch your paths to 4 and pushes to 2, Mirron Crusader is popping up ALL over mtgo, along with a ton of Eldrazi and Grixis delve creatures. Trust me, go the 4/2
Mirran Crusader might be another reason to throw Condemn back into sideboard.
Took my list to FNM tonight and ended up in 1st place after going 3-0.
R1 Affinity - Not much to say here, g1 I had an early delirium w/ a t3 traverse + cast flayer while he was stuck on 1 land and I closed out the game pretty quickly from there. G2 I IoK him and realize he had boarded in a wear/tear for my stony silence. Nice to see dead cards in my opponent's hand
R2 GW Tron - Wasn't looking forward to this matchup, but g1 I got insanely lucky and managed to win with a durdly hand while he couldn't find tron and drew 2x World breakers, 2x Ulamog, Ugin, Kozilek, and a couple of other expensive spells. Eventually my t2 flayer closed out the game despite struggling to find delirium. G2 he kept a 5 card hand w/ no tron lands and never got off the ground while I play t2 flayer > t3 goyf and end the game ASAP.
R3 Burn - G1 is fairly typical of a gbx vs burn matchup, where I managed to race him to 0 with a big ole goyf. G2 He plays t1 Swiftspear > t2 Guide Guide > t3 path my goyf + bolt + swing. I lost that game. G3 I have 2 lands, an IoK, Goyf, Kambal, and some other stuff in my opener. He gets me to around 8 before I stick kambal on the table and he acts as a forcefield while I bash in and finish him off. Kambal is so good in this matchup, being guaranteed 2+ life through skullcrack is fantastic; tack on the -2 life and it's hard to lose the race w/ goyf.
Taking this to a "Modern Challenger" event tomorrow, and I'm feeling pretty confident.
small note: I ended up purchasing a prerelease promo gideon for my sb over the garruk, so he never got any real testing in. Might be worth it over the 2nd tireless tracker if they're playing RIP though, considering the low land count in the deck. Gonna need some extra testing on it though.
A couple of things I'd like to discuss moving forward, and gather some opinions on: 4 Lily veil vs 3/1 split with Last Hope - I'm having a tough time figuring out which way to go here, putting Last Hope in the MB does free up a SB slot, and give use some extra diversity in our answers/threats/grind potential.
MB Traverse vs Bog(20th Land) vs 10th Creature Flex Spot - I'm currently running an Eternal Witness here, and while she does often have a pretty great impact, the double green can be a bit tough sometimes. Traversing for her to regrow a Liliana/removal spell does feel pretty good though.
SB Surgical vs Nihil spellbomb - Which matchups does one shine over the other? Spellbomb does help us reach delirium while hitting graveyards, but surgical just feels so much more flexible overall imo.
Bog in the SB if not in the main? I'm running Lost Legacy here where bog would be in the SB if I decided to run it, but tbh I think I like LL more.
Look at the card. Now back to Jace. Now back to that card, now back to Jace! Sadly, it isn't Jace, but if it stopped being a junk rare and became relevant, it could act like it's Jace. Crack some Worldwake. What do you have? You have a Jace, the card you wish this card could be like. Look again. THE CARD IS NOW A $75 BILL. Anything possible when you play Magic with Jace and not junk rares. This is probably spam.
Pizz, I've been testing junk a LOT on mtgo. I accidentally had a 4th LOTV instead of the Last Hope, and honestly, LOTV is just miles better. This meta is also just really great with her, too. LOTV is hitting way more in the meta
Grixis Shadow
Eldrazi Tron
Burn
Dredge
Counters Company
Titan Shift
UR Storm
Jund Shadow
Abzan
Humans Counter
Living End
Jeskai Control
LOTV is bad against dredge, counters company, Humans, Living End.
Hope is bad against Grixis, Eldrazi Tron, Dredge, Titan Shift, UR Storm, Jund Shadow, Humans Counter, Living End, so so against Jeskai
She's way better off in the SB right now. I think the meta is better off edicting 4/4s and 5/5s than killing 1/1 creatures with Hope.
Took my list to FNM tonight and ended up in 1st place after going 3-0.
R1 Affinity - Not much to say here, g1 I had an early delirium w/ a t3 traverse + cast flayer while he was stuck on 1 land and I closed out the game pretty quickly from there. G2 I IoK him and realize he had boarded in a wear/tear for my stony silence. Nice to see dead cards in my opponent's hand
R2 GW Tron - Wasn't looking forward to this matchup, but g1 I got insanely lucky and managed to win with a durdly hand while he couldn't find tron and drew 2x World breakers, 2x Ulamog, Ugin, Kozilek, and a couple of other expensive spells. Eventually my t2 flayer closed out the game despite struggling to find delirium. G2 he kept a 5 card hand w/ no tron lands and never got off the ground while I play t2 flayer > t3 goyf and end the game ASAP.
R3 Burn - G1 is fairly typical of a gbx vs burn matchup, where I managed to race him to 0 with a big ole goyf. G2 He plays t1 Swiftspear > t2 Guide Guide > t3 path my goyf + bolt + swing. I lost that game. G3 I have 2 lands, an IoK, Goyf, Kambal, and some other stuff in my opener. He gets me to around 8 before I stick kambal on the table and he acts as a forcefield while I bash in and finish him off. Kambal is so good in this matchup, being guaranteed 2+ life through skullcrack is fantastic; tack on the -2 life and it's hard to lose the race w/ goyf.
Taking this to a "Modern Challenger" event tomorrow, and I'm feeling pretty confident.
small note: I ended up purchasing a prerelease promo gideon for my sb over the garruk, so he never got any real testing in. Might be worth it over the 2nd tireless tracker if they're playing RIP though, considering the low land count in the deck. Gonna need some extra testing on it though.
A couple of things I'd like to discuss moving forward, and gather some opinions on: 4 Lily veil vs 3/1 split with Last Hope - I'm having a tough time figuring out which way to go here, putting Last Hope in the MB does free up a SB slot, and give use some extra diversity in our answers/threats/grind potential.
MB Traverse vs Bog(20th Land) vs 10th Creature Flex Spot - I'm currently running an Eternal Witness here, and while she does often have a pretty great impact, the double green can be a bit tough sometimes. Traversing for her to regrow a Liliana/removal spell does feel pretty good though.
SB Surgical vs Nihil spellbomb - Which matchups does one shine over the other? Spellbomb does help us reach delirium while hitting graveyards, but surgical just feels so much more flexible overall imo.
Bog in the SB if not in the main? I'm running Lost Legacy here where bog would be in the SB if I decided to run it, but tbh I think I like LL more.
A) Im currently on a 3/1 split with Liliana and Im torn. I posted this before, but she is a very polarizing card. When shes good, shes REALLY GOOD and just wins the game. But when shes bad... oh man does she literally do nothing. I wouldnt hate cutting her main for the 4th souls, a flex like Maelstrom Pulse, or a 4th Lilly. Spsiegel made a pretty good post about her matchup analysis as well.
B) This is my current manabase.
Lands (19)
2 Blooming Marsh
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Forest
1 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
1 Treetop Village
4 Verdant Catacombs
Ive liked how its performed so far so aint touching it.
C) The merit behind Surgical is you can Bauble, draw on your opponents upkeep and cast it on your opponents turn. That being said, it is so low impact. Im much more in the camp of spellbomb since it exiles the whole yard (relevent vs dredge, delve, storm, etc.) If you watch Jadine Klomparens match at the last SCG event, she drew a Surgical and it was SOOO bad vs dredge. If it were a spellbomb, she definitely had a better shot at winning the game. Its also way better vs the mirror too. But at the end of the day, its personal preference.
The same thing it always is, myself. I played my budget delirium list in a competitive league for the first time last night and went 5-0. The deck is completely inferior to the non-budget version, but apparently making less mistakes was worth more than Liliana and Fulminator Mage. I'm not going to lie and say that this is the best deck in modern, but I'm still losing games to my own play more than I'm losing them to my choice of deck, and I'm not looking to ditch B/G/x until that stops being true.
Look at the card. Now back to Jace. Now back to that card, now back to Jace! Sadly, it isn't Jace, but if it stopped being a junk rare and became relevant, it could act like it's Jace. Crack some Worldwake. What do you have? You have a Jace, the card you wish this card could be like. Look again. THE CARD IS NOW A $75 BILL. Anything possible when you play Magic with Jace and not junk rares. This is probably spam.
How do you guys feel about the lack of boardwipes in the 75? That seems very difficult to overcome, in my opinion.
This is undoubtedly true, but someone did ask Lukas on twitter if he regretted not having Kataki in the board for the GP and he said he did. I'll definitely be keeping a Kataki in my list even while testing out his mainboard. Their list seems aggressively slanted to beat Grixis Shadow, which is smart considering all the hype surrounding the deck leading up to the tournament (which was justified. We saw the deck on camera practically every round of the GP and most of the top pros were on it.)
I personally believe the Traverse deck has a fair-to-good matchup against shadow decks already, and don't want to gear my sideboard so strongly against them that I lose points against common aggro strategies like Affinity and Burn, etc. I think I definitely want to find room for Kataki and Flaying Tendrils and perhaps even a singleton Kitchen Finks.
Uncomfortable. I've found myself boarding in Flaying Tendrils a lot and would be very uneasy without at least one in the board. I guess the assumption was that the Grixis Shadow decks would keep the creature strategies in check?
From this list, I think I'd leave the main deck as it is and make the following changes to the sideboard:
-1 Tireless Tracker
-1 Nihil Spellbomb or Grafdigger's Cage
-1 Big Game Hunter
+1 Kataki, War's Wage
+2 Flaying Tendrils
I settled on the exact same inclusions to the SB. I'm excited to test this version of the list out.
EDIT: For the people playing along at home, that would bring the list to:
4 Grim Flayer
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
Spells:31
4 Mishra's Bauble
3 Fatal Push
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Path to Exile
4 Thoughtseize
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Collective Brutality
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Lingering Souls
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Blooming Marsh
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Forest
1 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Shriekmaw
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Collective Brutality
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Lingering Souls
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Kataki, War's Edge
1 Shriekmaw
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Garruk Relentless
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Collective Brutality
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Lost Legacy
On my choices:
Kambal - Still hoses storm, while being relevant in more matchups. Playing this guy against burn ALWAYS gains you 2 life. They can't skullcrack his trigger, since he'll just trigger in response... I haven't played him against Grixis Shadow yet, but his trigger should be pretty relevant there too, especially if they're on the Ari Lax version w/ 4 Sleight of Hand. I used to run him in Mardu Nahiri and he was great there.
Garruk Relentless - Honestly I've just slotted him in to test out since I traded my gideon away yesterday, but the more I think about him the more I like him. I haven't had the chance to test him yet, but he's easier to cast and makes a 2/2 every turn as well. If he flips, he can sac a souls token or something else to tutor through RIP, and make 1/1 deathtouchers. He does die to bolt, but that card is played less and less these days so it feels like the best time to test him in modern since he was printed.
Lost Legacy - This card is great, and honestly not played enough imo. Beats a ton of combo decks before they can go off (ad naus, storm - usually empty the warrens, scapeshift, etc).
URURxUR
UWUWxUW
Mirran Crusader might be another reason to throw Condemn back into sideboard.
Also what do think about Driven//Despair? May try it as a one of.
It's good against Coco, Chord of Calling, Nahiri, living end, dredge, etc.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
R1 Affinity - Not much to say here, g1 I had an early delirium w/ a t3 traverse + cast flayer while he was stuck on 1 land and I closed out the game pretty quickly from there. G2 I IoK him and realize he had boarded in a wear/tear for my stony silence. Nice to see dead cards in my opponent's hand
R2 GW Tron - Wasn't looking forward to this matchup, but g1 I got insanely lucky and managed to win with a durdly hand while he couldn't find tron and drew 2x World breakers, 2x Ulamog, Ugin, Kozilek, and a couple of other expensive spells. Eventually my t2 flayer closed out the game despite struggling to find delirium. G2 he kept a 5 card hand w/ no tron lands and never got off the ground while I play t2 flayer > t3 goyf and end the game ASAP.
R3 Burn - G1 is fairly typical of a gbx vs burn matchup, where I managed to race him to 0 with a big ole goyf. G2 He plays t1 Swiftspear > t2 Guide Guide > t3 path my goyf + bolt + swing. I lost that game. G3 I have 2 lands, an IoK, Goyf, Kambal, and some other stuff in my opener. He gets me to around 8 before I stick kambal on the table and he acts as a forcefield while I bash in and finish him off. Kambal is so good in this matchup, being guaranteed 2+ life through skullcrack is fantastic; tack on the -2 life and it's hard to lose the race w/ goyf.
Taking this to a "Modern Challenger" event tomorrow, and I'm feeling pretty confident.
small note: I ended up purchasing a prerelease promo gideon for my sb over the garruk, so he never got any real testing in. Might be worth it over the 2nd tireless tracker if they're playing RIP though, considering the low land count in the deck. Gonna need some extra testing on it though.
A couple of things I'd like to discuss moving forward, and gather some opinions on:
4 Lily veil vs 3/1 split with Last Hope - I'm having a tough time figuring out which way to go here, putting Last Hope in the MB does free up a SB slot, and give use some extra diversity in our answers/threats/grind potential.
MB Traverse vs Bog(20th Land) vs 10th Creature Flex Spot - I'm currently running an Eternal Witness here, and while she does often have a pretty great impact, the double green can be a bit tough sometimes. Traversing for her to regrow a Liliana/removal spell does feel pretty good though.
SB Surgical vs Nihil spellbomb - Which matchups does one shine over the other? Spellbomb does help us reach delirium while hitting graveyards, but surgical just feels so much more flexible overall imo.
Bog in the SB if not in the main? I'm running Lost Legacy here where bog would be in the SB if I decided to run it, but tbh I think I like LL more.
URURxUR
UWUWxUW
Not great. You're better off playing cage with it hitting more decks and sticking around.
Grixis Shadow
Eldrazi Tron
Burn
Dredge
Counters Company
Titan Shift
UR Storm
Jund Shadow
Abzan
Humans Counter
Living End
Jeskai Control
LOTV is bad against dredge, counters company, Humans, Living End.
Hope is bad against Grixis, Eldrazi Tron, Dredge, Titan Shift, UR Storm, Jund Shadow, Humans Counter, Living End, so so against Jeskai
She's way better off in the SB right now. I think the meta is better off edicting 4/4s and 5/5s than killing 1/1 creatures with Hope.
A) Im currently on a 3/1 split with Liliana and Im torn. I posted this before, but she is a very polarizing card. When shes good, shes REALLY GOOD and just wins the game. But when shes bad... oh man does she literally do nothing. I wouldnt hate cutting her main for the 4th souls, a flex like Maelstrom Pulse, or a 4th Lilly. Spsiegel made a pretty good post about her matchup analysis as well.
B) This is my current manabase.
Lands (19)
2 Blooming Marsh
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Forest
1 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
1 Treetop Village
4 Verdant Catacombs
Ive liked how its performed so far so aint touching it.
C) The merit behind Surgical is you can Bauble, draw on your opponents upkeep and cast it on your opponents turn. That being said, it is so low impact. Im much more in the camp of spellbomb since it exiles the whole yard (relevent vs dredge, delve, storm, etc.) If you watch Jadine Klomparens match at the last SCG event, she drew a Surgical and it was SOOO bad vs dredge. If it were a spellbomb, she definitely had a better shot at winning the game. Its also way better vs the mirror too. But at the end of the day, its personal preference.
Are we knowingly playing a bad and inferior interactive deck instead of just playing Grixis Death Shadow? What's holding you guys back?
The same thing it always is, myself. I played my budget delirium list in a competitive league for the first time last night and went 5-0. The deck is completely inferior to the non-budget version, but apparently making less mistakes was worth more than Liliana and Fulminator Mage. I'm not going to lie and say that this is the best deck in modern, but I'm still losing games to my own play more than I'm losing them to my choice of deck, and I'm not looking to ditch B/G/x until that stops being true.
The only thing is cage hurts us with lingering souls and kitchen finks. Hallowed Moonlight wouldn't.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Another 5-0 list today, notably only two lotv
URURxUR
UWUWxUW
It's DeFish! Nice, they published your 5-0 with the budget list. Congrats!