WotC are forcing previous mono colour planeswalkers into multi colours to make room for the Gatewatch. See Ajani, Sorin, Garruk, Tamiyo etc. When Elspeth comes back I'll reckon she'll be multi colour too.
Intro
Legends of Adrada is a set based on a 2 year D&D campaign I started and finished, and as such is meant to evoke that D&D adventure and Legendary Allies feel. You may have seen this on Reddit, but I wanted more feedback.
The set is basically finished after many months of limited play testing and almost a year of design.
There are a few typos here and there, but mostly looking for general design feedback.
Packs contain 10 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare and 1 Legend in the 15th card slot (ala Innistrad/Timespiral)
More detail on design aspirations and the set:
Our design goal was Dungeons and Dragons meets Innistrad draft and Legends. So expect Dungeons and Dragons tropes and spells (bless, feather fall, magic missile!) an expansive draft environment and sweet legends. We wanted the power level and complexity to be higher than a normal set, but below Modern Masters. NWO was observed and then deliberately overstepped, similar to Modern Masters. Though we know where to tone it back if we wanted to.
It contains:
101 commons printed thrice
76 uncommons printed twice
50 rares printed once
50 legends printed once
555 card cube (plus loads of tokens and full art lands)
We prepare each booster with 10 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare and 1 legend. The 1 legend per pack is meant to emulate an extra sheet, and helps emphasize the Legendary sub-theme of the set.
Mechanics
There are 3 mechanics in the set, one returning, one returning and tweaked, and one original:
Evoke: Evoke is here to represent all the fantastical creatures you can summon in Dungeons and Dragons, and is just one of our favourite mechanics of all time. We have a twist with evokable enchantments.
Allies: We had Allies in the set before Battle for Zendikar was announced (thanks for stealing our thunder Wizards!) They represent all the adventurers and heroes in the world. Many of which "Assist" each other on attack triggers.
Shadowcast: This is our original mechanic, it's a storm/delve/domain monstrosity that encourages multi color and crazy combo nonsense. It went through many iterations but we are very happy were ended up developmentally, in gameplay and deck construction.
Legends: Since there would a be a Legend in every pack, we couldn't have them all be powerful rares. Our aim was to give them all either unique/interesting/flavourful abilities that make them worthy of being legends but only make some of them first picks. We believe we have succeeded here as many of them are picked late in the draft either because they're abilities are powerful only in very narrow decks, aren't actually that strong in limited or because of their colour commitments.
Multicolour: Like Legends this is a Gold set, with the addition of hybrid to smooth things out as well as to help shadowcast.
Strongholds: In the rare PDF there are 5 mono colour "strongholds" that use the planeswalker rules. They aren't planeswalkers, they just borrow the same abilities. Planeswalker design began life as a design by Garfield during Ravnica to represent a building that gave you benefit but could be under siege, and was appropriated to make planeswalkers. This brings it back. You have a fortress and doing so gives you certain benefits so long as you can stop the other jerks from burning it down. Getting a city/structure/fort and keeping it protected is a pretty big part of mid-high levels in a lot of DnD campaigns. And they each represent a place my D&D players went to to Forge Alliances for their big end quest.
Draft strategies
Each 2 color pair has an archetype, each of which also have opportunities to branch out into a tri-colour wedge or arc, some have more than one archetype hiding, as well as many other quirky build around cards at all rarities.
Look out for the common creatures with hybrid activations that hint at those.
So far the environment seems pretty deep, as we haven't really finished exploring it to be honest. However here are some of the known draftable competitive decks with their likely splash colours:
UW(b/r) Value Control
UB(w/r) Evasive Beats
BR Suicide Aggro
RG(w/u) Big Monsters and Allies
GW(r/u) Tokens and Allies
WB(g/r) Tokens and Sacrifice
UR(b/w) Tempo
BG(u/r) Midrange Grind
RW(g) Aggro Allies
GU(r/w) Evoke Ramp
UB(g/r) Shadowcast Combo
UWr Artifact Value Town
UR(b/g) Bonfire Combo
Finally
The art is incredible, and all credited!
Enjoy! And let me hear your thoughts please
Known Errors in the PDFs, please check here before you post a grammar/rule typo!
Commons:
Aether Soul: Is now "Elemental Avatar", was "Beast Avatar"
Dazed: Dazed is a slight joke, I wanted to print a card called "Daze" because it is a "cantrip" in D&D, that was used a lot in our campaign. Of course I couldn't because "Daze" is already a magic card. I couldn't reprint Daze (card is ridiculous and it doesn't "cantrip"!). So I made a new card, called it Dazed, and gave it Daze's artwork to make fun of the fact. We are aware we wouldn't be able to do that in a real WotC set
Uncommons:
True Resurrection: Name spelling typo "Ressurrection"
Rares:
Draconify: Enchants non-Dragon then enchanted creature becomes a Dragon, so aura would fall off. Erased "becomes a Dragon" clause.
Legends:
Peepums: Typo in rules text "a 0/6 plants"
Thanks guys, basically the idea behind the deck is to (unlike conventional nicfit) function on between 2-8 mana.
SFM is one of the best plays you can make off of the two lands you fetch from a veteran explorer. But it's also just a great turn 2 play. This deck is easily capable of getting to 5 mana, so it doesn't have to rely on SFM surviving. Infact she makes a great sacrificial creature for therapy.
The idea is that a lot of the spells have flexible mana costs, so rather than drawing silly expensive spells like the other nic fit decks you can function without your ramp.
Gsun is the ultimate flexible spell getting disruption and beat sticks all the way up he curve.
Batterskull is a 2 mana play with SFM, 5 mana play by itself and in the late game is an 8 mana recurable creature.
The equipments are also very flexible as a mana sink.
Pernicious deed costs too much mana in my opinion, and means you can't run amazing low CMC cards like DRS, SFM, equipments and sylvan library (an amazing card that just wins the miracles match)
So with all the X/1 creature decks, we run toxic deluge. On 1, the only creature in the deck it kills is veteran explorer (lol) and dryad arbor (you don't want that card in the matchups deluge is good in anyway). So it's a 3 mana plague wind basically. Elves, pyro delver, death and taxes, TNN, empty the warrens. Etc
The reason why we don't run golgari charm (though maybe one would be good, need to test!) is that sometimes we want to kill bigger creatures, and that's ok. Flipped delvers, swift spears, even goyfs. These decks usually try to kill our small creatures, so they aren't usually in play.
Our Gameplan against treasure cruise decks is to basically ignore it, our cards are superior, use therapy to make sure they resolve and let then draw as many weak cards as they like. Lightning bolt doesn't mean much against a deck with siege rhino, jitte, BSK, fire and ice, scooze and no thoughtsieze or dark confidant.
We focus on card impact, and board superiority.
I've made changes, you need one aerial dominating creature, and I've switched the spider to Sigarda
I'll post an updated list later. But there's some thoughts behind it
This is a list I've been developing independently since Cruise was printed. Really happy to see some other people are on something similar.
I've found it has good game against a lot of the metagame and I've been doing well in local events, I'm just waiting for a bigger one to really put it to the test (my ultimate goal is GP Kyoto).
The deck crushes creature decks, Delver, D&T, Tribal (though without teeg, elves can get you) etc.
It's favourable against Miracles, thanks to Decay, SFM, Teeg, Pithing Needles and Sylvan Library.
It does not care about RIP (comfortably beat RIP miracles multiple times)
It has game against combo, thanks to therapy, teegs and other hate cards out the side.
Of course no deck answers everything, it's weak to decks that can go over the top, fortunately Humility can usually save us there. Decks that severely outgrind you (lands). As well as super fast combo, but that's true of any non-FoW deck.
The main issue is we don't have brainstorm etc, so we have consistency issues, and despite having game against a lot of the popular decks in the format, sometimes you just don't draw what you want. The Zeniths and Library's, Mystics and tutors are there to help, but it's still its main weakness. Not that that has stopped me from playing Junk midrange before >:)
I've sideboard notes and understand all my card choices so feel free to ask.
Hopefully in a couple of weeks I can bring you a tournament report with a significant number of rounds, for now I can just say I'm winning a lot, and am very excited
Avatar, against jund you should take out all the discard for threats. So you shouldn't have ever seen that hand in the first place. You also pretty much always want GB in your opening hand.
Yah I said they have to remove it at least. I meant that it has broad applications as a card, and along with other disruption it can be effective against ascendancy, especially if you have other permanent based hinderance.
So I've been testing a while with a list that's essentially Jain_Mor's list (I'd pay you a drink if I knew you ;)).
I'm not yet sold on whether boarding in KotR or Lingering Souls. Souls is always sweet when you do T3 Liliana, discard but on the other hand Kinight feels sometimes like running 8 goyfs.
I've also found that spirit tokens can be weak sometimes, blocking Cliques is fine but racing with goyfs and knights seem to be superior to me. OTHO Souls can provide card advantage and "grindiness" when they can manage your board. Elspeth, KE is nice but needs a bit more white mana in this build.
Haha thanks Avatar! I was running KotR for a long time, and switched for the GP because KotR is like running 8 goyfs. Problem is, you already have 4 that dominate the ground, souls help you dominate the sky and with garruk you can combo kill.
However, I don't know how ascendacy is affecting the format. You may want more golgari charms in the sideboard, potentially making souls weaker etc
Ive moved onto to legacy now for GP Kyoto, so any opinions I'd give won't be current, so hence my speculation instead glad you're enjoying the deck, it's soooo sweet. GrindGrindGrind
@Avatar, Thanks!! and I'm not sure why you would want to cut Garruk, he is an extremely powerful card and is great in nearly every matchup, courser isn't high impacting enough for me I don't think. If you going to exchange cards then exchange souls for courser, they serve a more similar role, of course if you do that, start playing GBrock instead
Funny, I don't like epic rhino for modern, but I will be trying him for legacy! Simply because I can GSun for him, he has immediate impact in life totals and easily tramples past true name annoyances
Every morning I wake up with both fingers crossed, 1 that they've spoiled the charm and the other that it's good!
Though, the fact they are doing last by a while, is making me raise my expectations more and more! Aahhh!
Honestly the way I have beaten 8-rack most often is turn 1 land, turn 2 treetop, turn 3 land and attack with treetop, attack for another 6 turns while you sand bag cards.
Other options are wins off of bob and a goyf. Or the hands that have decays and engineered explosives etc
Side out all your discard and lilianas if it wasn't already obvious
Report – Kobe
The Modern season ended with GP Kobe, and I doubt many of you watched it because of time difference and NicoNico not being a user friendly service
For me it was odd to say the least. 2270 players, I came 589th (5-3-1) putting me in the top 25%, though of course only the top 10% make day two. In fact a friend of mine, Ken Sawada made his second GP top8 with scapeshift, so congratulations to him, he is a far better player than me!
I was jet lagged after arriving from England the night before, and sadly did hardly any testing while I was at holiday at home. Now, enough excuses
Anyways, my list: I was expecting a lot of affinity, Junk and blood moon like decks, and with souls doing so well in other tournaments, despite it being a known quantity, me and my playtest buddy agreed that souls might be best for the tournament. My reasoning being I already dominate the ground, I want to dominate the skies too. I’ve been playing the card for years now and felt comfortable switching the day before.
I wanted to max out on my most powerful cards, goyf, bob, lili and souls, and I wanted to see Garruk cause he is insane, so two of him. The card that got the bumb was scavenging ooze, because to be honest I’m always sad to see him before turn 4, kind of like garruk, so one got moved to the board because some matches you know you want him early. I was at 24 lands, because that’s fine, though to be safer I knew 1 tec edge should be a Twilight Mire, but cutting Knight I wanted the 4 Edges badly. The Misty is a hand over form my Knight build, but I kept it as getting a forest is one of the best ways of beating blood moon (swamp is much easier to find)
So having changed from knight to souls lets see what I played and how I did:
Round 1, Tron -.- 1-2.
G1: 6 land hand, 5 land hand, 4 land hand keep I guess. Was actually an ok game after I drew bob but he assembled tron quickly and I didn’t have much pressure.
-2 Pact, -3 Decay, -1 souls, -1 scooze
+2 Stony, +2 Fulminator, +2 Censor, +1 Unravel
G2: T1 Treetop, T2 Stony Silence, T3 Souls, T4 Garruk Flashback Souls, T4 swing for 22, why can’t every game be like this?
G3: Mulligan to 5 because of hands that didn’t interact, I thoughtsieze he has 2 wurmcoils and tron -.- I bob doesn’t draw me path or unravel and his second karn seals the deal (I seized another)
Round 2, Tron -.- 1-2.
G1: I have him at 3 life, 4 souls in play, he has a platinum angel but I have path, no man lands however. He draws the pyroclasm, I’m at 8, and that’s it. SO close, here is where knight would have no died and I would have won.
G2: Sieze into Bob and Mind Censor! Stony soon follows
G3: I have a choice on turn 3, fulmintator mage one of his 2 tron pieces or play liliana, I haven’t seized him so I don’t know what he has, I play fulminator because I’m scared I guess. He just kept playing tron lands afterwards, another fulminator doesn’t help and I get all is dusted later and that’s it.
So.. a good start, now I have to win every match
Round 3, GBRw Pod 1-1 (lethal on board no cards in opponents hand) -.-
-3 IoK, -3 Decay, -4 Liliana (he was playing strangleroot geist)
+2 Cage, +2 Censor, +1 GCharm, +2 Drown +2 Baloth, +1 Scooze
He is playing Junk pod but with Kikijiki as well basically.
My opponent played consistently slow and wouldn’t communicate anything with me (even in Japanese), but I couldn’t see the clock from where I was. I got up to look after game 2 to find, to my horror, we only have 10 minutes left for the third game (I wish I had checked after game 1 and called a judge but its always hard to tell after game 1 :/). I inform my opponent of this. I play well (imho) and have board advantage, time for the round was then called only in Japanese I believe, my opponent didn’t say anything, and here I misplayed: I got a dice out and began recording the turns out of a sense of duty I guess. I should have just left it to my opponent as I was winning, so much regret. A judge comes over later when its turn 4, after a series of complex attacks and a lot of trading I have him at 4 life, pass to his turn, he plays a land passes back and my 2 souls and 2 treetop village are easily lethal against his 2 birds of paradise. I’m at a healthy 11. Except it is turn 6 and my silent opponent notes down a draw on the white slip, knocking us both out of contention, needless to say I was not happy and had to concentrate hard on not saying anything inappropriate.
Round 4, Esper Gifts TRON 2-1
-4 Decay, -2 Pact, -2 Souls
+2 Stony, +1 Cage, +2 Mindcensor, +2 Fulminator, +1 Scooze
This was a great round, I was still angry but my opponent was a really nice guy and the match was a really fun. After game 2 I noticed the guy sitting to my left was my silent opponent from the last round -.- I didn’t say anything, I was having fun now. His opponent was a J-friend of mine that I hadn’t seen for months because I stopped playing standard (Theros, boo) so me, him and my opponent had a small conversation without awkwardly sullen silent man, morale victory!
G3: Have my opponent at 3 with souls and a scooze, with stirring wildwood in play he has nothing relevant in hand, I pass and genuinely wish him good luck, he draws for the turn, his eyes widen “It is a good card!” I chuckle, and he taps out for elesh norn, wrathing my board O_o, it was awesome! I draw for my turn “It is a good card!”, path to exile, swing with wildwood. Seriously fun match, thanks opp!
Round 5, Mirror 1-2
He was on the play, and it made the biggest of differences, as you must know. We both had good hands each of the games really, though it looked like he had more experience in the mirror than me. GG to my opponent really.
-7 Discard
+2 Fulminator, +2 Baloth, +1 Scooze, +1 GCharm, +1 Drown
Round 6, Mirror 2-0
Seems like my opponent has less experience in the mirror than me, though a nice guy and good fun.
Round 7, GW Worship (Yes lol) 2-0
G1: I have lethal on board and he attacks his smiter into my liliana, I can block with my 4/5, but I don’t really want to risk anything, I don’t need liliana to win next turn, but I do need my goyf with my treetop so I can swing past his sylvan caryatid with my souls army. My liliana dies and then he taps out for Worship haha, he actually started laughing, really pleased with the situation. I’m guessing he had been trying to achieve this all day. He looked at me like I would concede, I don’t know why, he must know I have more lilianas. I play a garruk and start defending; I then later draw my maelstrom pulse, ultimate garruk and swing for 24.
-2 Decay, -3 IoK
+1 Unravel, +1 GCharm, +2 Baloth, +1 Scooze
Round 8, Merfolk 2-1
Really really close games. Souls did work (though maybe Knight would have too), but in the end it was 2 timely slaughter pacts and the boarded in golgari charm to answer his master of waves that did the trick.
-1 TS, -2 IoK, -2 Liliana -2 Garruk
+1 GCharm, +1 Unravel, +2 Drown, +2 Baloth, +1 Scooze
Round 9, Junk Creature Midrange 2-0
Basically our deck but with smite instead of liliana, and no knight, but he did have noble hierarch. Game 2 drown in sorrows on his last 2 spirits a hierarch and his stirring wildwood after it had blocked and killed my scooze was sweeeet.
So 3 tron decks, 2 mirror matches, 2 pseudo mirror matches, one pod and one merfolk, it was a weird day. The lack of diversity I faced is almost comical
I liked my sideboard, and I really liked my main deck. Even though I faced tron multiple times, Knight would have only mattered significantly in one game I believe. I feel I made the right choice, since souls felt more relevant in the other matches I played and against the decks that were extremely common in that tournament. That being said, if you have seen the top 8, it looks like Knight would have performed better there. Overall perhaps my mulliganing assessments weren’t up to scratch in the first matches, my lack of judge call in the 3rd, and then I guess mulligan assement, a small misplay with a land and a GG by opponent lead to my 3rd loss. Nonetheless, fun was had
It’s been a good run, we were tier 1 by the end And I’ve enjoyed playing the deck, I always will with junk (ABZAN) and have had some good success in my local city scene.
Next April there is Legacy GP in Kyoto, so you’ll be seeing me in the Legacy forums, playing this monstrosity
Nice Mastodon, I also agree, nearly all times I've cast knight I've been glad it wasnt souls but I feel you've missed a few pro/cons and misrepresented others
Knight
Pros
Will be the biggest creature in play
Pressures combo
Doesn't die to lightning bolt (you don't cast it with less then two lands usually unless you cast discard first)
Plays the same Gameplan as Tarmogoyf and scooze
Fetches land destruction/graveyard hate/life gain/man lands
It can ramp
Rogue card (opponents have not likely played against it in this shell)
Cons
Dies to doomblade etc
Can get out tempo' by blue decks, tapped down, bounced or chumped with snapcaster etc
Makes the mana base worse
Can't block fliers until two turns later
Plays the same Gameplan as Tarmogoyf and scooze
Prone to some graveyard hate
Souls
Pros
Trades with x/1s favourably
Can buy you time
Fly for damage
Synergy with Liliana
Easy on the mana base
Makes multiple bodies
Mostly negates spot removal
Great against both of liliana's abilities
Cons
Provides minimal pressure and huge tempo loss against combo
It's a known quantity
Prone to -x effects and I've seen electrolyze played more now
Slightly prone to graveyard hate
Doesn't wall an offense of creatures, only buys time
Makes the grafdigger's cage you want in your sideboard a nonbo
I think the real main thing is that souls adds something new to the deck, where as knight is usually just additional Tarmogoyfs and scoozes.
People have read my other posts know I like the consistency, so I like knowing that im going to win the game by swinging with a big creature, which means I can fill my sideboard with -x/-x plague wind effects to answer the problems that souls answer (as well souls it's self) while having a better game against combo and control.
The hit you take is in the mana and I guess not being able to attack from different angles
I'm mostly playing dismember because I have 1 Japanese promo version of it and it looks amazing!
But really, I think it's just a necessary evil. It kills the creatures in the early game that you don't want to path. It eases your mana requirements, against twin casting it off any colour is awesome when they tap down your land. You can decide how you pay for it, and it's just a one of. And playing 2 paths means you can save them for the end game and use your other removal first.
And when I said lingering rock I meant GBwithSouls. Ajundi, Jund with souls, won't be a deck while Deathrite shaman is banned. Damn I miss that card
I think the lingering rock decks shy away from it because they want a minimal W splash, for the knight builds they go all in, I think it's too powerful to turn down. That said I did find myself not wanting to use it in the early game.
I'm currently at
2 path
1 dismember
1 pact
4 decay
3 Lili
1 pulse
I also have
1 unravel the aether
1 golgari charm
1 Drown in sorrows
1 night of the soul's betrayl
1 Engineered Explosives
In the side
If anything I think I'd cut the pact for a dark blast, 3 mana is a lot :/
Intro
Legends of Adrada is a set based on a 2 year D&D campaign I started and finished, and as such is meant to evoke that D&D adventure and Legendary Allies feel. You may have seen this on Reddit, but I wanted more feedback.
The set is basically finished after many months of limited play testing and almost a year of design.
There are a few typos here and there, but mostly looking for general design feedback.
PDFs:
Commmons
Uncommmons
Rares
Legends
Full art basics & Tokens
Packs contain 10 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare and 1 Legend in the 15th card slot (ala Innistrad/Timespiral)
More detail on design aspirations and the set:
It contains:
101 commons printed thrice
76 uncommons printed twice
50 rares printed once
50 legends printed once
555 card cube (plus loads of tokens and full art lands)
We prepare each booster with 10 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare and 1 legend. The 1 legend per pack is meant to emulate an extra sheet, and helps emphasize the Legendary sub-theme of the set.
Evoke: Evoke is here to represent all the fantastical creatures you can summon in Dungeons and Dragons, and is just one of our favourite mechanics of all time. We have a twist with evokable enchantments.
Allies: We had Allies in the set before Battle for Zendikar was announced (thanks for stealing our thunder Wizards!) They represent all the adventurers and heroes in the world. Many of which "Assist" each other on attack triggers.
Shadowcast: This is our original mechanic, it's a storm/delve/domain monstrosity that encourages multi color and crazy combo nonsense. It went through many iterations but we are very happy were ended up developmentally, in gameplay and deck construction.
Legends: Since there would a be a Legend in every pack, we couldn't have them all be powerful rares. Our aim was to give them all either unique/interesting/flavourful abilities that make them worthy of being legends but only make some of them first picks. We believe we have succeeded here as many of them are picked late in the draft either because they're abilities are powerful only in very narrow decks, aren't actually that strong in limited or because of their colour commitments.
Multicolour: Like Legends this is a Gold set, with the addition of hybrid to smooth things out as well as to help shadowcast.
Strongholds: In the rare PDF there are 5 mono colour "strongholds" that use the planeswalker rules. They aren't planeswalkers, they just borrow the same abilities. Planeswalker design began life as a design by Garfield during Ravnica to represent a building that gave you benefit but could be under siege, and was appropriated to make planeswalkers. This brings it back. You have a fortress and doing so gives you certain benefits so long as you can stop the other jerks from burning it down. Getting a city/structure/fort and keeping it protected is a pretty big part of mid-high levels in a lot of DnD campaigns. And they each represent a place my D&D players went to to Forge Alliances for their big end quest.
Look out for the common creatures with hybrid activations that hint at those.
So far the environment seems pretty deep, as we haven't really finished exploring it to be honest. However here are some of the known draftable competitive decks with their likely splash colours:
UW(b/r) Value Control
UB(w/r) Evasive Beats
BR Suicide Aggro
RG(w/u) Big Monsters and Allies
GW(r/u) Tokens and Allies
WB(g/r) Tokens and Sacrifice
UR(b/w) Tempo
BG(u/r) Midrange Grind
RW(g) Aggro Allies
GU(r/w) Evoke Ramp
UB(g/r) Shadowcast Combo
UWr Artifact Value Town
UR(b/g) Bonfire Combo
The art is incredible, and all credited!
Enjoy! And let me hear your thoughts please
Known Errors in the PDFs, please check here before you post a grammar/rule typo!
Commons:
Aether Soul: Is now "Elemental Avatar", was "Beast Avatar"
Dazed: Dazed is a slight joke, I wanted to print a card called "Daze" because it is a "cantrip" in D&D, that was used a lot in our campaign. Of course I couldn't because "Daze" is already a magic card. I couldn't reprint Daze (card is ridiculous and it doesn't "cantrip"!). So I made a new card, called it Dazed, and gave it Daze's artwork to make fun of the fact. We are aware we wouldn't be able to do that in a real WotC set
Uncommons:
True Resurrection: Name spelling typo "Ressurrection"
Rares:
Draconify: Enchants non-Dragon then enchanted creature becomes a Dragon, so aura would fall off. Erased "becomes a Dragon" clause.
Legends:
Peepums: Typo in rules text "a 0/6 plants"
SFM is one of the best plays you can make off of the two lands you fetch from a veteran explorer. But it's also just a great turn 2 play. This deck is easily capable of getting to 5 mana, so it doesn't have to rely on SFM surviving. Infact she makes a great sacrificial creature for therapy.
The idea is that a lot of the spells have flexible mana costs, so rather than drawing silly expensive spells like the other nic fit decks you can function without your ramp.
Gsun is the ultimate flexible spell getting disruption and beat sticks all the way up he curve.
Batterskull is a 2 mana play with SFM, 5 mana play by itself and in the late game is an 8 mana recurable creature.
The equipments are also very flexible as a mana sink.
Pernicious deed costs too much mana in my opinion, and means you can't run amazing low CMC cards like DRS, SFM, equipments and sylvan library (an amazing card that just wins the miracles match)
So with all the X/1 creature decks, we run toxic deluge. On 1, the only creature in the deck it kills is veteran explorer (lol) and dryad arbor (you don't want that card in the matchups deluge is good in anyway). So it's a 3 mana plague wind basically. Elves, pyro delver, death and taxes, TNN, empty the warrens. Etc
The reason why we don't run golgari charm (though maybe one would be good, need to test!) is that sometimes we want to kill bigger creatures, and that's ok. Flipped delvers, swift spears, even goyfs. These decks usually try to kill our small creatures, so they aren't usually in play.
Our Gameplan against treasure cruise decks is to basically ignore it, our cards are superior, use therapy to make sure they resolve and let then draw as many weak cards as they like. Lightning bolt doesn't mean much against a deck with siege rhino, jitte, BSK, fire and ice, scooze and no thoughtsieze or dark confidant.
We focus on card impact, and board superiority.
I've made changes, you need one aerial dominating creature, and I've switched the spider to Sigarda
I'll post an updated list later. But there's some thoughts behind it
I've found it has good game against a lot of the metagame and I've been doing well in local events, I'm just waiting for a bigger one to really put it to the test (my ultimate goal is GP Kyoto).
The deck crushes creature decks, Delver, D&T, Tribal (though without teeg, elves can get you) etc.
It's favourable against Miracles, thanks to Decay, SFM, Teeg, Pithing Needles and Sylvan Library.
It does not care about RIP (comfortably beat RIP miracles multiple times)
It has game against combo, thanks to therapy, teegs and other hate cards out the side.
Of course no deck answers everything, it's weak to decks that can go over the top, fortunately Humility can usually save us there. Decks that severely outgrind you (lands). As well as super fast combo, but that's true of any non-FoW deck.
The main issue is we don't have brainstorm etc, so we have consistency issues, and despite having game against a lot of the popular decks in the format, sometimes you just don't draw what you want. The Zeniths and Library's, Mystics and tutors are there to help, but it's still its main weakness. Not that that has stopped me from playing Junk midrange before >:)
4 Verd Catacombs
3 Windswept Heath
2 Marsh flats
2 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Plains
2 Bayou
2 Savanah
1 Scrubland
2 Phyrexian Tower
1 Volraths Stronghold
Threats
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Greensun's Zenith
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Veteran Explorer
1 Scooze
1 Teeg
1 Eternal Witness
1 Penumbra Spider
1 Siege Rhino
1 Thragtusk
4 SFM
1 Jitte
1 Sword of F&I
1 Batterskull
4 Cabal therapy
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Toxic Deluge
2 Sylvan Library
2 Duress
1 Teeg
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Pithing Needle
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Sword of L&S
2 Deed
1 Humility
I've sideboard notes and understand all my card choices so feel free to ask.
Hopefully in a couple of weeks I can bring you a tournament report with a significant number of rounds, for now I can just say I'm winning a lot, and am very excited
Practice and better luck next time
Also your FNM is 5 round modern? So lucky
Haha thanks Avatar! I was running KotR for a long time, and switched for the GP because KotR is like running 8 goyfs. Problem is, you already have 4 that dominate the ground, souls help you dominate the sky and with garruk you can combo kill.
However, I don't know how ascendacy is affecting the format. You may want more golgari charms in the sideboard, potentially making souls weaker etc
Ive moved onto to legacy now for GP Kyoto, so any opinions I'd give won't be current, so hence my speculation instead
Funny, I don't like epic rhino for modern, but I will be trying him for legacy! Simply because I can GSun for him, he has immediate impact in life totals and easily tramples past true name annoyances
Every morning I wake up with both fingers crossed, 1 that they've spoiled the charm and the other that it's good!
Though, the fact they are doing last by a while, is making me raise my expectations more and more! Aahhh!
Other options are wins off of bob and a goyf. Or the hands that have decays and engineered explosives etc
Side out all your discard and lilianas if it wasn't already obvious
The Modern season ended with GP Kobe, and I doubt many of you watched it because of time difference and NicoNico not being a user friendly service
For me it was odd to say the least. 2270 players, I came 589th (5-3-1) putting me in the top 25%, though of course only the top 10% make day two. In fact a friend of mine, Ken Sawada made his second GP top8 with scapeshift, so congratulations to him, he is a far better player than me!
I was jet lagged after arriving from England the night before, and sadly did hardly any testing while I was at holiday at home. Now, enough excuses
Anyways, my list: I was expecting a lot of affinity, Junk and blood moon like decks, and with souls doing so well in other tournaments, despite it being a known quantity, me and my playtest buddy agreed that souls might be best for the tournament. My reasoning being I already dominate the ground, I want to dominate the skies too. I’ve been playing the card for years now and felt comfortable switching the day before.
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Path to Exile
2 Slaughter Pact
4 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Lingering Souls
4 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Treetop Village
1 Stirring Wildwood
4 Tectonic Edge
2 Stony Silence
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Unravel the Aether
1 Golgari Charm
2 Drown in Sorrows
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Scavenging Ooze
I wanted to max out on my most powerful cards, goyf, bob, lili and souls, and I wanted to see Garruk cause he is insane, so two of him. The card that got the bumb was scavenging ooze, because to be honest I’m always sad to see him before turn 4, kind of like garruk, so one got moved to the board because some matches you know you want him early. I was at 24 lands, because that’s fine, though to be safer I knew 1 tec edge should be a Twilight Mire, but cutting Knight I wanted the 4 Edges badly. The Misty is a hand over form my Knight build, but I kept it as getting a forest is one of the best ways of beating blood moon (swamp is much easier to find)
So having changed from knight to souls lets see what I played and how I did:
Round 1, Tron -.- 1-2.
G1: 6 land hand, 5 land hand, 4 land hand keep I guess. Was actually an ok game after I drew bob but he assembled tron quickly and I didn’t have much pressure.
-2 Pact, -3 Decay, -1 souls, -1 scooze
+2 Stony, +2 Fulminator, +2 Censor, +1 Unravel
G2: T1 Treetop, T2 Stony Silence, T3 Souls, T4 Garruk Flashback Souls, T4 swing for 22, why can’t every game be like this?
G3: Mulligan to 5 because of hands that didn’t interact, I thoughtsieze he has 2 wurmcoils and tron -.- I bob doesn’t draw me path or unravel and his second karn seals the deal (I seized another)
G2: Sieze into Bob and Mind Censor! Stony soon follows
G3: I have a choice on turn 3, fulmintator mage one of his 2 tron pieces or play liliana, I haven’t seized him so I don’t know what he has, I play fulminator because I’m scared I guess. He just kept playing tron lands afterwards, another fulminator doesn’t help and I get all is dusted later and that’s it.
Round 3, GBRw Pod 1-1 (lethal on board no cards in opponents hand) -.-
+2 Cage, +2 Censor, +1 GCharm, +2 Drown +2 Baloth, +1 Scooze
He is playing Junk pod but with Kikijiki as well basically.
My opponent played consistently slow and wouldn’t communicate anything with me (even in Japanese), but I couldn’t see the clock from where I was. I got up to look after game 2 to find, to my horror, we only have 10 minutes left for the third game (I wish I had checked after game 1 and called a judge but its always hard to tell after game 1 :/). I inform my opponent of this. I play well (imho) and have board advantage, time for the round was then called only in Japanese I believe, my opponent didn’t say anything, and here I misplayed: I got a dice out and began recording the turns out of a sense of duty I guess. I should have just left it to my opponent as I was winning, so much regret. A judge comes over later when its turn 4, after a series of complex attacks and a lot of trading I have him at 4 life, pass to his turn, he plays a land passes back and my 2 souls and 2 treetop village are easily lethal against his 2 birds of paradise. I’m at a healthy 11. Except it is turn 6 and my silent opponent notes down a draw on the white slip, knocking us both out of contention, needless to say I was not happy and had to concentrate hard on not saying anything inappropriate.
+2 Stony, +1 Cage, +2 Mindcensor, +2 Fulminator, +1 Scooze
This was a great round, I was still angry but my opponent was a really nice guy and the match was a really fun. After game 2 I noticed the guy sitting to my left was my silent opponent from the last round -.- I didn’t say anything, I was having fun now. His opponent was a J-friend of mine that I hadn’t seen for months because I stopped playing standard (Theros, boo) so me, him and my opponent had a small conversation without awkwardly sullen silent man, morale victory!
G3: Have my opponent at 3 with souls and a scooze, with stirring wildwood in play he has nothing relevant in hand, I pass and genuinely wish him good luck, he draws for the turn, his eyes widen “It is a good card!” I chuckle, and he taps out for elesh norn, wrathing my board O_o, it was awesome! I draw for my turn “It is a good card!”, path to exile, swing with wildwood. Seriously fun match, thanks opp!
-7 Discard
+2 Fulminator, +2 Baloth, +1 Scooze, +1 GCharm, +1 Drown
-2 Decay, -3 IoK
+1 Unravel, +1 GCharm, +2 Baloth, +1 Scooze
-1 TS, -2 IoK, -2 Liliana -2 Garruk
+1 GCharm, +1 Unravel, +2 Drown, +2 Baloth, +1 Scooze
So 3 tron decks, 2 mirror matches, 2 pseudo mirror matches, one pod and one merfolk, it was a weird day. The lack of diversity I faced is almost comical
I liked my sideboard, and I really liked my main deck. Even though I faced tron multiple times, Knight would have only mattered significantly in one game I believe. I feel I made the right choice, since souls felt more relevant in the other matches I played and against the decks that were extremely common in that tournament. That being said, if you have seen the top 8, it looks like Knight would have performed better there. Overall perhaps my mulliganing assessments weren’t up to scratch in the first matches, my lack of judge call in the 3rd, and then I guess mulligan assement, a small misplay with a land and a GG by opponent lead to my 3rd loss. Nonetheless, fun was had
It’s been a good run, we were tier 1 by the end
Next April there is Legacy GP in Kyoto, so you’ll be seeing me in the Legacy forums, playing this monstrosity
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Lingering Souls
4 Thoughtsieze
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sylvan Library
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
3 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Savanah
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Plains
3 Wasteland
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Duress
1 Lingering Souls
1 Sword of Fire & Ice
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Pithing Needle
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Engineered Plague
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Humility
2 Rest in Peace
2 Helm of Obedience
Knight
Pros
Will be the biggest creature in play
Pressures combo
Doesn't die to lightning bolt (you don't cast it with less then two lands usually unless you cast discard first)
Plays the same Gameplan as Tarmogoyf and scooze
Fetches land destruction/graveyard hate/life gain/man lands
It can ramp
Rogue card (opponents have not likely played against it in this shell)
Cons
Dies to doomblade etc
Can get out tempo' by blue decks, tapped down, bounced or chumped with snapcaster etc
Makes the mana base worse
Can't block fliers until two turns later
Plays the same Gameplan as Tarmogoyf and scooze
Prone to some graveyard hate
Souls
Pros
Trades with x/1s favourably
Can buy you time
Fly for damage
Synergy with Liliana
Easy on the mana base
Makes multiple bodies
Mostly negates spot removal
Great against both of liliana's abilities
Cons
Provides minimal pressure and huge tempo loss against combo
It's a known quantity
Prone to -x effects and I've seen electrolyze played more now
Slightly prone to graveyard hate
Doesn't wall an offense of creatures, only buys time
Makes the grafdigger's cage you want in your sideboard a nonbo
I think the real main thing is that souls adds something new to the deck, where as knight is usually just additional Tarmogoyfs and scoozes.
People have read my other posts know I like the consistency, so I like knowing that im going to win the game by swinging with a big creature, which means I can fill my sideboard with -x/-x plague wind effects to answer the problems that souls answer (as well souls it's self) while having a better game against combo and control.
The hit you take is in the mana and I guess not being able to attack from different angles
But really, I think it's just a necessary evil. It kills the creatures in the early game that you don't want to path. It eases your mana requirements, against twin casting it off any colour is awesome when they tap down your land. You can decide how you pay for it, and it's just a one of. And playing 2 paths means you can save them for the end game and use your other removal first.
And when I said lingering rock I meant GBwithSouls. Ajundi, Jund with souls, won't be a deck while Deathrite shaman is banned. Damn I miss that card
I'm currently at
2 path
1 dismember
1 pact
4 decay
3 Lili
1 pulse
I also have
1 unravel the aether
1 golgari charm
1 Drown in sorrows
1 night of the soul's betrayl
1 Engineered Explosives
In the side
If anything I think I'd cut the pact for a dark blast, 3 mana is a lot :/