Thanks for the reply @racing089! Flaying tendrils/pyroclasm is a great suggestion and it should help against a few other decks as well (elves, devoted druid decks, etc).
I haven't had a chance to play this as much as I would like before bringing it to a mid-sized tournament this weekend but I think I'll go with this deck since my other options lose too badly to Jeskai. I haven't kept too much up to date with the meta in the last few months, am I missing anything obvious? Any tune-ups you'd suggest?
My main worries:
Too many colorless lands (2) to play prism effectively?
Not enough to deal with affinity?
Adding the red means I go down to two Islands which makes me worse against moon. Is splashing red for crumbles worth it?
I'm also new here but I've been following along lately and just took my first swing at the deck yesterday. It's a blast to play and turns out to be quite similar to your list minus cranes and plus main deck IoK and Thoughtseize.
Few questions for you:
Relic over spellbomb. Why?
One opal and 22 land. Enough?
Two bridge and four Whir to find them and yet still a Damnation... Bridges aren't enough?
Darksteel citadels over GQ, I was starting with them but got theoretically scared of Tron. Do you have a tough time there?
For everyone: is it normal to board out the combo in the face of stony silence? What about prisms and such? I've played a total of four matches and already played against it twice (beat it once due to bridge and torper orb) but it seems really rough.
Oh wow, we arrived at similar lists. Thanks for mentioning that. I tried Glen elendra and didn't like it, I never wanted it except against living end where I was winning anyways.
I love the inferno titan, the hierarch, and the queller too
Hey guys, I've been playing chord for a while now and I've been having reasonable success in smaller events. I switched from the black splash to the blue a month ago and the deck is much more fun and possibly more powerful. Now I'm going to take it to GP vancouver and I'm curious what you think of this build. I've gone a little bit astray from the norm:
A few cards still seem a little dubious to me: murderous redcap over P&K (i want ftk), obstinate baloth over something like reflector mage or huntmaster, and keranos over revillark. But so far they've been decent. I'm also wondering about the mana base, i have as many blue cards as red yet i still have a mountain. Thoughts?
Things that work really well are the single evo, the magus, and the tireless tracker.
Affinity is a tough matchup, about 40/60 against in my experience. The games you win involve killing the overseer with path and forcing a ravager sac then flickerwisp the target at some point. Resto angel blocks most stuff too and hopefully can blink an equipped guy with the help of the wisp. Post board I have 2 stony, 2 growth, 2 revoker, 2 Sunlance, 2 forgetender. And then it gets much easier.
I thought merfolk and soul sisters both had a good twin matchup. It runs islands and can't beat a auroik champion. Bogles I agree is a problem. I think infect gets much better too which is another problem. Magus of the moat is great in those two matchups, pretty close to an instant win.
I think an ideal side for eldrazi would be leyline of sanctity, stony silence, mirran crusader, stony silence, and wheel of sun and moon.
Siding that many cards means you don't have anything left in your main deck
Also, they likely won't be playing the processors any more so they will only be playing expedition map as their only artifact. Leyline might be decent against them depending on how many discard spells they end up running (though I'm still not a huge fan, you have to have it in your opener and it blocks 5-7 cards from their deck for 3-4 cards in yours).
Mirran crusader isn't great either as they don't actually have black permenants. The best I can think of is the 8th land destruction card and Painter's Servant as has already been mentioned.
Edit: actually, I was wondering whether Karma would be a good card vs them. It would hurt us too but they should be taking more from it and be lower. I also take it back, Leyline is better than what I was thinking, TKS makes it 9-11 discard spells.
We are in serious trouble if the eldrazi deck gets very popular. TKS and matter reshaper are very good against us as are lingering souls and pretty much everything else that deck plays. Hopefully it's found to be worse than tron. If it isn't big then I'm finally going to cut my one of dismember in mono white. It's been there since the beginning but it doesn't have enough decks it's good against any more. In this world phyrexian revoker gets much more main deckable as the top decks will be tron, infect, burn and affinity (good vs 3 of 4)
If the eldrazi deck does get popular then I guess sculler and Bob are the best ways to fight it. It's possible we should go up to 24 land in that build so we can play 4 ghost quarter and 4 tectonic edge. This gives a ton of extra power to Bob as you can play two "spells" more easily.
Mangara is also a card I could see being decent, maybe out of the side?
Few thoughts:
I've played against the Bw eldrazi deck three matches now and I've won each time. But each match I've come away feeling like I got lucky. The only card I've brought in is Stony Silence, if anyone isn't bringing that card in I suggest you start. The matchup is not in our favor but it's not awful. Dryad militant can be a detriment by exile our own paths.
Just because Stony Silence comes in does not mean you must cut vial. The matches where Silence comes in are ones where if it lands you are very close to winning already. The only times I side out a vial is in extreme attrition matches where drawing two basically loses you the game. Eg, Jund, grixis. Kommand is very good vs vial.
Painter's Servant is such sweet tech against the eldrazi deck. I wish it was more applicable.
I've been running 23 land with 10 colourless lands in mono white and it's been good over the last 25 matches. No regrets so far. Currently my hardest matchups are affinity and bogles despite having hate cards for them. Not sure if I should be devoting more hate towards them since my record vs the field is very good. If you had to name your two hardest matchups, what would they be?
Skite doesn't just protect your creatures it is also a tax in certain matchups. Vs bogles and infect it stops pump spells. Vs affinity is stops ravager. It forces ad nauseam to not have used their echoing truth. It stops the twin combo.
They can still burn you out with shaman of the pack through magus of the moat but I suppose it's pretty decent. Other options are Sundance, phyrexian revoker, and worship. Though to be fair worship has the same failing but it's more relevant vs more decks.
@HugeElfBoy: I'm ZippiestBard online. Recent changes to my deck are based around adding another land and going a little more top heavy, so far it's worked out very well. (leagues 5-0,3-2,4-1)
Kytheon has recently been performing completely amazing, I even got to save it from an infect damage with eiganjo. And once he is flipped infect has a very hard time.
The new eldrazi looks sweet and since I'm now running more land and 10 colourless it seems viable. (bu dum tish) But I also agree with what SpiderSpace was saying, is it really better than resto? To do a flickerwisp or resto impersonation it needs a vial and 3 mana up. The bonus is the repeatable part which is helpful in the super late game when your opponent has no removal. Resto is also good there beating in the air and resistant to removal. I'm going to start with one and see how it goes.
Aven mindcensor is probably the best tool vs tron and scapeshift. I cut mine a long while ago and have not faced much scapeshift at all. Vs tron is helps to have stony silence. Never draw vs them as you won't be able to drop a Thalia or arbiter before you have to pop a gq main phase to stop turn three tron.
For my WB experiment I'm going to cut the vault and einganjo castle for two shambling vaults and see if that helps my issues. I may have to go down to 6 colourless sources and at that point I'm worried about not having enough tax.
I haven't had a chance to play this as much as I would like before bringing it to a mid-sized tournament this weekend but I think I'll go with this deck since my other options lose too badly to Jeskai. I haven't kept too much up to date with the meta in the last few months, am I missing anything obvious? Any tune-ups you'd suggest?
My main worries:
3 Mox Opal
4 Mishra's Bauble
1 Welding Jar
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
4 Thopter Foundry
3 Sword of the Meek
3 Pentad Prism
1 Talisman of Dominance
2 Ensnaring Bridge
Other (15):
3 Fatal Push
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Collective Brutality
4 Whir of Invention
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Steam Vents
2 Spire of Industry
1 Drowned Catacomb
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Academy Ruins
1 Inventors' Fair
2 Thoughtseize
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Damnation
3 Crumble to Dust
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Collective Brutality
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Welding Jar
1 Pithing Needle
I'm also new here but I've been following along lately and just took my first swing at the deck yesterday. It's a blast to play and turns out to be quite similar to your list minus cranes and plus main deck IoK and Thoughtseize.
Few questions for you:
Relic over spellbomb. Why?
One opal and 22 land. Enough?
Two bridge and four Whir to find them and yet still a Damnation... Bridges aren't enough?
Darksteel citadels over GQ, I was starting with them but got theoretically scared of Tron. Do you have a tough time there?
For everyone: is it normal to board out the combo in the face of stony silence? What about prisms and such? I've played a total of four matches and already played against it twice (beat it once due to bridge and torper orb) but it seems really rough.
I love the inferno titan, the hierarch, and the queller too
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Wall of Roots
2 Wall of Omens
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Renegade Rallier
2 Eternal Witness
1 Bounding Krasis
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Murderous Redcap
3 Restoration Angel
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Keranos, God of Storms
4 Path to Exile
4 Chord of Calling
1 Eldritch Evolution
Lands(23)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Raging Ravine
1 Stirring Wildwood
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Thragtusk
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Lightning Helix
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Unified Will
A few cards still seem a little dubious to me: murderous redcap over P&K (i want ftk), obstinate baloth over something like reflector mage or huntmaster, and keranos over revillark. But so far they've been decent. I'm also wondering about the mana base, i have as many blue cards as red yet i still have a mountain. Thoughts?
Things that work really well are the single evo, the magus, and the tireless tracker.
Also, they likely won't be playing the processors any more so they will only be playing expedition map as their only artifact. Leyline might be decent against them depending on how many discard spells they end up running (though I'm still not a huge fan, you have to have it in your opener and it blocks 5-7 cards from their deck for 3-4 cards in yours).
Mirran crusader isn't great either as they don't actually have black permenants. The best I can think of is the 8th land destruction card and Painter's Servant as has already been mentioned.
Edit: actually, I was wondering whether Karma would be a good card vs them. It would hurt us too but they should be taking more from it and be lower. I also take it back, Leyline is better than what I was thinking, TKS makes it 9-11 discard spells.
If the eldrazi deck does get popular then I guess sculler and Bob are the best ways to fight it. It's possible we should go up to 24 land in that build so we can play 4 ghost quarter and 4 tectonic edge. This gives a ton of extra power to Bob as you can play two "spells" more easily.
Mangara is also a card I could see being decent, maybe out of the side?
I've played against the Bw eldrazi deck three matches now and I've won each time. But each match I've come away feeling like I got lucky. The only card I've brought in is Stony Silence, if anyone isn't bringing that card in I suggest you start. The matchup is not in our favor but it's not awful. Dryad militant can be a detriment by exile our own paths.
Just because Stony Silence comes in does not mean you must cut vial. The matches where Silence comes in are ones where if it lands you are very close to winning already. The only times I side out a vial is in extreme attrition matches where drawing two basically loses you the game. Eg, Jund, grixis. Kommand is very good vs vial.
Painter's Servant is such sweet tech against the eldrazi deck. I wish it was more applicable.
I've been running 23 land with 10 colourless lands in mono white and it's been good over the last 25 matches. No regrets so far. Currently my hardest matchups are affinity and bogles despite having hate cards for them. Not sure if I should be devoting more hate towards them since my record vs the field is very good. If you had to name your two hardest matchups, what would they be?
Kytheon has recently been performing completely amazing, I even got to save it from an infect damage with eiganjo. And once he is flipped infect has a very hard time.
The new eldrazi looks sweet and since I'm now running more land and 10 colourless it seems viable. (bu dum tish) But I also agree with what SpiderSpace was saying, is it really better than resto? To do a flickerwisp or resto impersonation it needs a vial and 3 mana up. The bonus is the repeatable part which is helpful in the super late game when your opponent has no removal. Resto is also good there beating in the air and resistant to removal. I'm going to start with one and see how it goes.
I also just want to link my match history again as there are over 120 matches of data now and single deck matchups percents are coming soon. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E2UXlaGenrzFmH6vBGljv6xsa-HWBL13eWICWn4Y-JY/edit?usp=docslist_api
For my WB experiment I'm going to cut the vault and einganjo castle for two shambling vaults and see if that helps my issues. I may have to go down to 6 colourless sources and at that point I'm worried about not having enough tax.