So, I've been playtesting this for the last couple of days on MTGO, and I'm starting to see a surprising pattern. In ten games matches (8-2 record) I have only won with the combo itself once. The deck is performing admirably as a Rakdos control deck, but the combo just does not seem to be the thing that is winning me the game. Emptying the opponent's hand and rolling over them with GDD and/or Chandra has a much better win ratio. Granted, Pact has given me some good card advantage in the games that I have played it and had it blasted with an Anguished Unmaking or the like, but the combo itself doesn't seem to be carrying the deck. I'm not sure what to do with this information, but I just wanted to share it.
Yeah, you don't need the combo to win, but there are times where nothing else does win and it pulls you out of a hole. Demonic Pact is such a strong card that pros were adding Disperse to their deck to make it playable. Harmless Offering, while it can't sometimes be used for a tempo boost, is much better with Pact. Also, a lot of the time, even if you don't clear the way with discard, they just won't draw their answer to Pact and you just get free wins where they are never really have a chance. 40% of the meta right now is Bant Company and even with 4 maindeck Dromoka's Commands and Spell Quellers with Negate out of the board, I've been rolling over them.
Went 3-2 on competitive standard league with the above deck.
I was testing around grixis and BR versions and while BR is more consistent, getting out-tempoed with dromoka's command was really frustrating. So I decided to test Oath of Chandra. Volcanic Hammer was a card so I guess it is somewhat acceptable. The reason for 1 maindeck Infinite Obliteration is a silver bullet for Emrakul, the Promised End.
R1 Bant Human Company 2-0
The matchup just feels like I can't lose. G1 I killed all his stuff and he had only 1 Dromoka's Command while I had Oath of Chandra as a buffer. G2 He was stuck on 2 Dromoka's Commands while I was just picking off his creatures and winning the game with Ob Nixilis and Chandra.
R2 Esper Starfield of Nyx 1-2
I wasn't expecting to meet this deck. I think the matchup is winnable but a little bit of a uphill battle. G1 I kept a hand with transgress seeing a hand with 2 transgress of his own and my hand was shredded..(He got Demonic Pact and Read the Bones) I tried to win with Ob Nixilis ult, but he drew a Anguished Unmaking when Ob Nixilis was on 8 counters
G2 I beat him to death with Kalitas and Chandra. G3 I duress and GDD-Duress him but he just top-decked all his stuff while my planeswalkers got negated. I eventually died to a top-decked Sorin.
R3 Monoblue Prison 1-2
I think G1 is definitely favored to ourside, but G2-3 could be difficult due to counterspells.
I should've won G1, but I got Day's Undoing after fetching Pact with Dark Petition and the Undoing didn't gave me the pact. G2 I baited out the negates with Pact and won with Ob Nixilis Ult + Chandra's 0 ability draining 14 life in one shot. G3 After one Day's Undoing, he just had every counterspell in his hand. He sided-in creatures with the New 5 mana Delver and Thing in the Ices, which I don't think was a good idea since didn't have enough slots to side-out so I needed to leave some removals in. After stabilizing the boat with Kalitas + removals making Zombies, I eventually died to my own pact after getting my chandra negated. Without Negate, I could have used Chandra's 0 ability to find Harmless Offering.(My hand was like 5-6 cards)
R4 Esper Starfield 2-1 (technically 2-0)
Really...? two in a league..?
G1 I drew my discards and Comboed him out. G2 After some grindy matchup He tapped out and I could combo him out but misclicked while pay mana and gave a mountain to him :(.
G3 He mulliganed to Oblivion and conceded... He was a nice guy saying justice is served after the mulligans
R5 BG Aggro-Delirium 2-0
I was a little worried with Emrakul but he actually didn't had it in the deck. G1 He basically has 0 ways to get rid of Pact barring discards and so many dead cards in removal, so after some heavy discarding, I just gave Pact after using Draw and Discard mode.
G2 Killed off all his creatures. He had 2 Whispers of Emrakul which could be problematic but I just discarded them with Pact. It would've been problematic if he just fired them off without waiting delirium.
I think the creature deck match ups are good enough so I can loosen up more slots for control and synergy decks, so I might do:
Maindeck: -1 Oath of Chandra +1 Grasp of Darkness (Felt a little soft to creature lands, though rending volley in the SB can take care of Shambling Vents)
SB: -1 Kolaghan's Command -1 Infinite Obliteration -1 Grasp of Darkness +1 Duress +1 Transgress the Mind +1 Read the Bones
After having a few too many games where I flood out and die needing 1 more removal to win and also finding I need an out to Lumbering Falls, I have cut 2 mountains and 1 swamp for 2 Blighted Fen and 1 Cinder Barrens. This will hurt the mana slightly, but it is still much better than most decks in standard.
I havent had time yet to do my normal brewing/drafting after rotation, however the lands were something I was just kinda tossing in knowing there were surely better choices. I really like the inclusion of Blighted Fen, I think thats a great choice and will be very helpful. Hedges against things like a flipped Westvale Abbey as well if they flip right at 5 creatures to try and race the combo.
4-1 on MTGO competetive standard league with the above deck.
Won against Wr Humans, BW Angel Control, BG Delirium, UR eldrazi control, and lost against Bant Company.
Against Bant, G1 after stabilizing the board and emptying my opponent's hand, I died to my own pact not drawing Harmless Offering, won G2 easily, lost G3 even after my opponent mulliganed to 2 and I duressed a Collected Company seeing a lackluster hand but he drew collected company into double Tireless Trackers and a negate to stop my Languish (died from just two attacks lol)
I tried Hanweir Garrison to get people who side out their removal and/or when it feels rough to win with combo [somewhat like Goblin Rabblemaster in previous BRx control decks]. He does draw a lot of attention against slow decks and also can be used as semi-brickwall against Humans.
My best game was against BW control where I won through a Liliana Ult and getting Anguished Unmaking a Demonic Pact that was activated only once, and a active Ob Nixilis, and Archangel Avacyn. I slowed the zombie horde and Avacyn down with Languish, and checked Ob Nixilis with double Demonic Pacts (drew 3 Demonic Pacts total) I was even stuck on 4 lands for like 2-3 turns even with all the card draw from the Pacts...
I really like the deck but I'm not sure whether I need the third color for just Painful Truth and Radiant Flames. I guess If this deck comes out as a competitive tier, Mardu would be the best choice due to Nahiri, the Harbinger.
Nice finish. Trimming draw spells does make finding Offering a little harder. I think 4 Read the Bones is a solid number I wouldn't change. Even though Tormenting Voice isn't the best, it does help keep a wider selection of hands and dig you towards what you need while fitting nicely into the curve. They both not only help find pact and offering, but Read is card advantage and they do a great job at smoothing your draws.
Sometimes a command will get your pact, but I don't think playing a subpar removal spell like Oath of Chandra helps those matchups. Instant speed removal that kills more than 3 toughness is a big deal right now.
As for your mana, right now basics are a lot better than normal. The deck hardly needs 18 red sources although going up to 20 black does make sense. The tradeoff is Cinder Barrens can throw off your curve when the rest of your mana works very well. With all the card draw, I keep getting flooded with only 24 lands so for this specific deck, I think that's the right number. Unless you have delirium cards, Cinder Barrens will always be better than Evolving Wilds here.
1 copy of Cinder Barrens has been fine so far so I'm going to try cutting 1 more mountain for the 2nd giving a 19th black source while retaining 12 basics.
If the main target is Bant CoCo, GW tokens, and Humans, I always felt the Second Read the Bones is too slow. I even feel the first Read the Bone is quite dicey on the draw.
For my test games, the only time I lose to Bant CoCo or GW tokens were when they blow up my pact immediately I land it. And Oath of Chandra itself is serviceable removal due to all the 3 toughness creatures. One of the cute fact is that it doesn't get prevented by Dromoka's Command is not irrelevant(though the +1/+1 counter would thwart it enough).
Technically Cinder Barrens is better than Evolving Wilds, but Evolving Wilds helps the Smoldering Marsh math. It makes total of 16 basics counting Evolving Wilds. Though I guess mana screw wouldn't be that frequent even if I go down a little bit on evolving wilds. I just wanted to play it safe for now. I might add a blighted fen or two in the end. I can get behind going down to 25 lands and adding a Read the Bones or Tormenting Voice, but I think that's about the limit I take. I think it's matter of preference if you hate land stops more than land flood.
So has everyone pretty much dropped Kozilek's Return? In my original list I jammed KR and Languish mainboard as I was worried about all the creatures running about, and I figured at worst case I'd have expensive spot removal, and best case I'd have chained sweepers. Looking at it with a bit more thought it looks like we can probably run a bit more traditional on the removal packages and only maindeck Languish.
Another question I've had is what is the best method for removal, mainly black or mainly red? What have been the all-star removals in yalls opinion. Lately I'm leaning more towards a much heavier black build with Red only for Harmless Offering, GDD, Tormenting Voice, and Kolaghan's Command, which while seems like a decent bit of red, is pretty light on mana requirements by being slower or 1 symbol. This frees me up to make 100% sure I have the early early discard as well as a T2 Grasp of Darkness if needed.
Some other thoughts/questions I've had:
- Creatureless vs just GDD or low creature count? I'm a fan of blanking removal, but GDD just seems too good to me in this deck. Some other options could be Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Thunderbreak Regent, maybe a few others, but I feel like they would be either SB tech or weaken the deck'd combo element.
- # of Creature vs Player burn? I was planning on using the player burn as my backup wincon, but do I have time? The Tormenting Voice + Fiery Temper package is sweet and a huge deal, but is it worth it in this deck? One method I was looking at was running the full playset of both Fiery Impulse and Galvanic Bombardment, which combined with ample sweepers makes my matchup against creature decks like 90%+ lol, however if the combo fails, I just run out of gas and die. On the other hand, its hard to get good player burn, we have Exquisite Firecraft, Fiery Temper, Collective Defiance, Demonic Pact, but is it enough burn/fast enough when we also have to stay alive from faster decks like Mono-W Humans, Spirits, and Bant CoCo?
- Has anyone thought of any other good utility lands to run? Mage-Ring Network seems like a possibility, as well as some of the other utility lands, specifically Blighted Gorge, which I think is pretty underrated.
I did lose in the top 4 because I boarded out Galvanic Bombardment instead of Grasp of Darkness vs Owen's build of Temur Emerge. I had duressed the Negate the turn before as I had 2. My opponent topdecked Den Protector and was able to morph it with 4 mana up. I Had 3 Grasp, Dark Petition, and Duress and was 1 mana short of casting Petition, Removal, Duress, and Offering. Also, while there have definitely been times Galvanic Bombardment was better than Fiery Impulse, I am starting to think that Impulse is the more consistent card with so many 3 toughness 2 drops and tormenting voice and duress enabling early spell mastery.
How are you planning to reliably win vs emrakul? Opponent can simply wait till your Demonic Pact, mindslaver you and select 'You lose the game' option.
Yeah, this happens sometimes, but I've still been beating the emrakul decks post board. You often win turn 7 so they have to get to it relatively quickly. Post board, the emrakul decks lives become much harder. Upping the number of maindeck transgress and maybe even an infinite obliteration may be necessary depending on how the meta shakes out.
SaffronOlive just did an Against the Odds with Harmless Offering. He did do Grixis, and I feel like he unnecessarily made the deck worse than it should be, however figured I'd post it so folks can take a look.
There's a Grixis Pact list at GP Portland that had 1 loss through the swiss, went into the top 8 as the #1 Seed and lost to what looked like just awkward draws against Bant. Maybe Oath of Chandra is more reasonable than I thought, but I don't agree with Oath of Jace over Read the Bones or Disperse. With Emrakul being as popular as he is right now, I wouldn't mind access to Summary Dismissal. None of his cards can kill anything with 5 toughness. He did really well, I'm just not sure how with this list.
Imo most of the Oath were protection for pact against Dromo Command. If your meta has less Bant Coco, definitely replaces some of those for better spells.
I know why he played them, but I have been beating Bant Coco without any Oaths. There have been times where I lost a game I might have won with oaths, but there have been others where I won a game with Fiery Impulse I would have lost with Oath of Chandra. Oath of Jace is better than Tormenting Voice, but a lot worse than Read the Bones and if I'm running Read the Bones, I'd rather pair it with Tormenting Voice due to curve considerations.
I've finally gotten some testing in and have been switching around numbers so much that I dont even really have a solid list to post yet, however my findings are as follows:
Playing a deck that primarily runs heavier discard than most of yalls, and tons of burn as well (backup plan).
Bant CoCo - pretty easy unless they get their nut draw, its basically a race in which i have more removal and discard.
D-Command - this card is not scary to me at all. It essentially says, "keep target opponent from losing the game, buy yourself 2-3 more turns". If they remove my Pact, what do I care, now I dont lose to it. Rakdos Control was still one of the best matchups against GW Tokens and Bant CoCo with all of the removal and discard, so we just go with the backup plan.
Elder Deep Fiend - most of my discard was originally geared towards instants/sorceries. EDF I've found to be quite annoying, and while he doesnt directly win the game right away, it can sometimes make me stumble enough to lose some. This is the card I hate to see more than anything atm.
Big momma Emmy - Mindslaver CAN kill you, but i havent had it happen yet. Discard + not as many in their maindeck + hate cards make this a pretty easy get around.
Most of my decks focus on discard for any threats, Languish and Impulse to take care of creatures, some faceburn and GDD as a backup, and a playset of both pact+HO. I dont run any extra enchantments. I dont worry too terribly much about protecting the combo except by discard. My goal is to keep myself alive and burn them out while at the same time taking a turn here or there to run Pact out, which I count toward my burn out package. If the combo kills them first, great, if the burn gets there, great.
I have lost a few games to Emrakul now, but I've been winning the post board games vs them. LSV did a video with the GP list. Chris Bothelo was in the chat during LSV's stream and made some commentary about the list.
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Standard: Jeskai Control
Modern: UW Spirits
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Yeah, you don't need the combo to win, but there are times where nothing else does win and it pulls you out of a hole. Demonic Pact is such a strong card that pros were adding Disperse to their deck to make it playable. Harmless Offering, while it can't sometimes be used for a tempo boost, is much better with Pact. Also, a lot of the time, even if you don't clear the way with discard, they just won't draw their answer to Pact and you just get free wins where they are never really have a chance. 40% of the meta right now is Bant Company and even with 4 maindeck Dromoka's Commands and Spell Quellers with Negate out of the board, I've been rolling over them.
Modern: UW Spirits
2 Fiery Impulse
2 Transgress the Mind
1 Ultimate Price
1 Grasp of Darkness
4 Oath of Chandra
2 Tormenting Voice
3 Read the Bones
1 Infinite Obliteration
2 Ruinous Path
3 Harmless Offering
4 Demonic Pact
2 Languish
3 Dark Petition
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Foreboding Ruins
4 Smoldering Marsh
6 Mountain
8 Swamp
1 Duress
2 Rending Volley
1 Transgress the Mind
2 Grasp of Darkness
1 Oath of Liliana
1 Virulent Plague
1 Infinite Obliteration
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Kalitas, Traiter of Ghet
1 Languish
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
Went 3-2 on competitive standard league with the above deck.
I was testing around grixis and BR versions and while BR is more consistent, getting out-tempoed with dromoka's command was really frustrating. So I decided to test Oath of Chandra. Volcanic Hammer was a card so I guess it is somewhat acceptable. The reason for 1 maindeck Infinite Obliteration is a silver bullet for Emrakul, the Promised End.
R1 Bant Human Company 2-0
The matchup just feels like I can't lose. G1 I killed all his stuff and he had only 1 Dromoka's Command while I had Oath of Chandra as a buffer. G2 He was stuck on 2 Dromoka's Commands while I was just picking off his creatures and winning the game with Ob Nixilis and Chandra.
R2 Esper Starfield of Nyx 1-2
I wasn't expecting to meet this deck. I think the matchup is winnable but a little bit of a uphill battle. G1 I kept a hand with transgress seeing a hand with 2 transgress of his own and my hand was shredded..(He got Demonic Pact and Read the Bones) I tried to win with Ob Nixilis ult, but he drew a Anguished Unmaking when Ob Nixilis was on 8 counters
G2 I beat him to death with Kalitas and Chandra. G3 I duress and GDD-Duress him but he just top-decked all his stuff while my planeswalkers got negated. I eventually died to a top-decked Sorin.
R3 Monoblue Prison 1-2
I think G1 is definitely favored to ourside, but G2-3 could be difficult due to counterspells.
I should've won G1, but I got Day's Undoing after fetching Pact with Dark Petition and the Undoing didn't gave me the pact. G2 I baited out the negates with Pact and won with Ob Nixilis Ult + Chandra's 0 ability draining 14 life in one shot. G3 After one Day's Undoing, he just had every counterspell in his hand. He sided-in creatures with the New 5 mana Delver and Thing in the Ices, which I don't think was a good idea since didn't have enough slots to side-out so I needed to leave some removals in. After stabilizing the boat with Kalitas + removals making Zombies, I eventually died to my own pact after getting my chandra negated. Without Negate, I could have used Chandra's 0 ability to find Harmless Offering.(My hand was like 5-6 cards)
R4 Esper Starfield 2-1 (technically 2-0)
Really...? two in a league..?
G1 I drew my discards and Comboed him out. G2 After some grindy matchup He tapped out and I could combo him out but misclicked while pay mana and gave a mountain to him :(.
G3 He mulliganed to Oblivion and conceded... He was a nice guy saying justice is served after the mulligans
R5 BG Aggro-Delirium 2-0
I was a little worried with Emrakul but he actually didn't had it in the deck. G1 He basically has 0 ways to get rid of Pact barring discards and so many dead cards in removal, so after some heavy discarding, I just gave Pact after using Draw and Discard mode.
G2 Killed off all his creatures. He had 2 Whispers of Emrakul which could be problematic but I just discarded them with Pact. It would've been problematic if he just fired them off without waiting delirium.
I think the creature deck match ups are good enough so I can loosen up more slots for control and synergy decks, so I might do:
Maindeck: -1 Oath of Chandra +1 Grasp of Darkness (Felt a little soft to creature lands, though rending volley in the SB can take care of Shambling Vents)
SB: -1 Kolaghan's Command -1 Infinite Obliteration -1 Grasp of Darkness +1 Duress +1 Transgress the Mind +1 Read the Bones
Modern: UW Spirits
8 Swamp
4 Foreboding Ruins
4 Smoldering Marsh
2 Cinder Barrens
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Duress
2 Fiery Impulse
3 Oath of Chandra
2 Grasp of Darkness
1 Ultimate Price
2 Transgress the Mind
2 Tormenting Voice
3 Read the Bones
2 Ruinous Path
1 Infinite Obliteration
2 Languish
3 Dark Petition
3 Harmless Offering
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
1 Transgress the Mind
1 Languish
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
1 Infinite Obliteration
4 Hanweir Garrison
2 Rending Volley
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Virulent Plague
1 Duress
4-1 on MTGO competetive standard league with the above deck.
Won against Wr Humans, BW Angel Control, BG Delirium, UR eldrazi control, and lost against Bant Company.
Against Bant, G1 after stabilizing the board and emptying my opponent's hand, I died to my own pact not drawing Harmless Offering, won G2 easily, lost G3 even after my opponent mulliganed to 2 and I duressed a Collected Company seeing a lackluster hand but he drew collected company into double Tireless Trackers and a negate to stop my Languish (died from just two attacks lol)
I tried Hanweir Garrison to get people who side out their removal and/or when it feels rough to win with combo [somewhat like Goblin Rabblemaster in previous BRx control decks]. He does draw a lot of attention against slow decks and also can be used as semi-brickwall against Humans.
My best game was against BW control where I won through a Liliana Ult and getting Anguished Unmaking a Demonic Pact that was activated only once, and a active Ob Nixilis, and Archangel Avacyn. I slowed the zombie horde and Avacyn down with Languish, and checked Ob Nixilis with double Demonic Pacts (drew 3 Demonic Pacts total) I was even stuck on 4 lands for like 2-3 turns even with all the card draw from the Pacts...
I really like the deck but I'm not sure whether I need the third color for just Painful Truth and Radiant Flames. I guess If this deck comes out as a competitive tier, Mardu would be the best choice due to Nahiri, the Harbinger.
Sometimes a command will get your pact, but I don't think playing a subpar removal spell like Oath of Chandra helps those matchups. Instant speed removal that kills more than 3 toughness is a big deal right now.
As for your mana, right now basics are a lot better than normal. The deck hardly needs 18 red sources although going up to 20 black does make sense. The tradeoff is Cinder Barrens can throw off your curve when the rest of your mana works very well. With all the card draw, I keep getting flooded with only 24 lands so for this specific deck, I think that's the right number. Unless you have delirium cards, Cinder Barrens will always be better than Evolving Wilds here.
1 copy of Cinder Barrens has been fine so far so I'm going to try cutting 1 more mountain for the 2nd giving a 19th black source while retaining 12 basics.
Modern: UW Spirits
For my test games, the only time I lose to Bant CoCo or GW tokens were when they blow up my pact immediately I land it. And Oath of Chandra itself is serviceable removal due to all the 3 toughness creatures. One of the cute fact is that it doesn't get prevented by Dromoka's Command is not irrelevant(though the +1/+1 counter would thwart it enough).
Technically Cinder Barrens is better than Evolving Wilds, but Evolving Wilds helps the Smoldering Marsh math. It makes total of 16 basics counting Evolving Wilds. Though I guess mana screw wouldn't be that frequent even if I go down a little bit on evolving wilds. I just wanted to play it safe for now. I might add a blighted fen or two in the end. I can get behind going down to 25 lands and adding a Read the Bones or Tormenting Voice, but I think that's about the limit I take. I think it's matter of preference if you hate land stops more than land flood.
Another question I've had is what is the best method for removal, mainly black or mainly red? What have been the all-star removals in yalls opinion. Lately I'm leaning more towards a much heavier black build with Red only for Harmless Offering, GDD, Tormenting Voice, and Kolaghan's Command, which while seems like a decent bit of red, is pretty light on mana requirements by being slower or 1 symbol. This frees me up to make 100% sure I have the early early discard as well as a T2 Grasp of Darkness if needed.
Some other thoughts/questions I've had:
- Creatureless vs just GDD or low creature count? I'm a fan of blanking removal, but GDD just seems too good to me in this deck. Some other options could be Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Thunderbreak Regent, maybe a few others, but I feel like they would be either SB tech or weaken the deck'd combo element.
- # of Creature vs Player burn? I was planning on using the player burn as my backup wincon, but do I have time? The Tormenting Voice + Fiery Temper package is sweet and a huge deal, but is it worth it in this deck? One method I was looking at was running the full playset of both Fiery Impulse and Galvanic Bombardment, which combined with ample sweepers makes my matchup against creature decks like 90%+ lol, however if the combo fails, I just run out of gas and die. On the other hand, its hard to get good player burn, we have Exquisite Firecraft, Fiery Temper, Collective Defiance, Demonic Pact, but is it enough burn/fast enough when we also have to stay alive from faster decks like Mono-W Humans, Spirits, and Bant CoCo?
- Has anyone thought of any other good utility lands to run? Mage-Ring Network seems like a possibility, as well as some of the other utility lands, specifically Blighted Gorge, which I think is pretty underrated.
Modern: UW Spirits
Modern: UW Spirits
6 swamps
6 mountains
4 foreboding ruins
4 smoldering marsh
4 evolving wilds
creatures
4 tree of perdition
2 goblin dark dwellers
1 thermo alchemist
4 triskaidekaphobia
3 demonic pact
sorceries/instants
2 duress
3 harmless offerings
2 dark petition
2 collective brutality
4 galvanic bombardment
2 grasp of darkness
2 incendiary flow
4 exquisite firecraft
1 ruinous path
deck I am planning on bringing to FNM. sideboard will be more draw/discard against non-creature decks vs removal
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/against-the-odds-harmless-pact-standard
3 Dark Petition
2 Harmless Offering
3 Languish
3 Radiant Flames
3 Anticipate
1 Clash of Wills
2 Disperse
1 Fiery Impulse
2 Grasp of Darkness
1 Silumgar's Command
4 Demonic Pact
4 Oath of Chandra
3 Oath of Jace
2 Foreboding Ruins
2 Evolving Wilds
1 Island
1 Mountain
4 Shivan Reef
4 Smoldering Marsh
3 Sunken Hollow
6 Swamp
1 Clash of Wills
1 Dark Petition
1 Harmless Offering
1 Languish
1 Summary Dismissal
1 Infinite Obliteration
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 Transgress the Mind
3 Negate
2 Dispel
Modern: UW Spirits
Modern: UW Spirits
Playing a deck that primarily runs heavier discard than most of yalls, and tons of burn as well (backup plan).
Bant CoCo - pretty easy unless they get their nut draw, its basically a race in which i have more removal and discard.
D-Command - this card is not scary to me at all. It essentially says, "keep target opponent from losing the game, buy yourself 2-3 more turns". If they remove my Pact, what do I care, now I dont lose to it. Rakdos Control was still one of the best matchups against GW Tokens and Bant CoCo with all of the removal and discard, so we just go with the backup plan.
Elder Deep Fiend - most of my discard was originally geared towards instants/sorceries. EDF I've found to be quite annoying, and while he doesnt directly win the game right away, it can sometimes make me stumble enough to lose some. This is the card I hate to see more than anything atm.
Big momma Emmy - Mindslaver CAN kill you, but i havent had it happen yet. Discard + not as many in their maindeck + hate cards make this a pretty easy get around.
Most of my decks focus on discard for any threats, Languish and Impulse to take care of creatures, some faceburn and GDD as a backup, and a playset of both pact+HO. I dont run any extra enchantments. I dont worry too terribly much about protecting the combo except by discard. My goal is to keep myself alive and burn them out while at the same time taking a turn here or there to run Pact out, which I count toward my burn out package. If the combo kills them first, great, if the burn gets there, great.
Modern: UW Spirits