I think shattering spree is definitely great against affinity. I know archbound ravager exists, but ravager is good against all artifact hate unless it's shatterstorm. Tapping 3 red to kill 3 artifacts is just a blowout and if they have ravager forces them to go all in on a single threat, which can then be killed with path to exile or another artifact destruction spell to win the game.
In every other rmatchup i like smash to smithereens more because the 3 damages are too important for our gameplan, but against affinity we need to go in full control mode, and killing 3 or more artifacts instead of just one is a huge deal.
Also volcanic fallout is very very good against affinity.
Zenith is a much better card than chord, mainly because it is a split card between acceleration on turn one (zenith for zero fetches dryad arbor) and a late game bomb.
Unfortunately there is a problem in that it can only tutor green creatures. So you would either have to drop white and play g/b with zenith instead of chords, or play both chords and zeniths in a g/w list. I don't know which route would be better.
I know that shaman is slower than devoted druid combo, but it's still an explosive card. Older builds of the deck, when shaman and vizier or remedies didn't exist, had a hard time winning on turn 4, whereas with shaman in your deck you are almost assured to win turn 4 against no interaction.
Saying that devoted druid is goo against interactive deck is a very big stretch. Yes, they usually spend removal on it, and it produces mana, but it is still "air". An o/2 is not a card you want to have in your deck in an attrition war, and you will basically never be able to combo off against deck like jund, grixis or jeskai.
If you run elvish visionary instead of nettle sentinel, well that's a choice i won't argue with,but there are downsides, namely losing some of the deck best opening hands with heritage druid plus two other one drops.
I absolutely disagree with the fact that every build of elves should run 4 copies of ezuri and chord. In the combo version it is necessary because they are combo pieces, but ezuri is 1)legendary and 2) just a grey ogre when they are killing your stuff and you don't have the mana to activate him. The same goes for chord, which is terribly clunky when youare not able to have a big board and generate lots of mana. In my non combo builds i never run more than 3 ezuri and usually split chords between main and side.
Regarding shaman being good against interaction i think that's just wrong. A card is good against interaction when it's hard to kill or produces card advantage. Collected company, elvish visionary, dwynen's elite, lead the stampede, chameleon colossus, thrun are good cards against interaction. A 3/2 for 2 that maybe shocks the opponent is not.
Actually, both the vizier combo and shaman of the pack help race combo decks. They perform the same role which is making the deck more explosive; it's not true that shaman is good against interactive decks because you need many elves on board for shaman to be good.
The difference is that the gw combo build is even faster, with the possibility of turn 3 wins but has to play some quite bad cards like devoted druid, vizier of remedies, and the full 4 copies of ezuri and chord; the gb build instead, while being slightly slower, has a better card quality (shaman of the pack and elvish visionary are better cards in a vacuum than devoted druid and vizier)and can afford to trim some copies of ezuri and chord.
As a result, i think the gb build is a bit better against interaction (not because shaman is generically good against interaction, but just because you play 3/2s rather than 0/2s and less chords); it's true that often opponents are forced to spend removal on devoted druid, but in the end sometimes you're in topdeck mode and find a useless 0/2 or worse company into 0/2s.
I don't know if the two builds can be merged, and i'm a bit skeptical because it would mean raising the curve significantly, cutting one drops like nettle sentinel or cutting some combo pieces while still playing the combo.
I think if you're gonna play shadow, you must play street wraith, it is too important. Cards to consider cutting are some combinations of young pyromancer, inquisition, forked bolt.
Speaking of forked bolt, i never understood why many lists of mardu play suboptimal burn spells like burst lightning too. The mardu colors have the best removal spells and we play worse lightning bolts? I understand that they can go to the face but i would play more terminates/dreadbore instead of forked bolt/burst lightning without any doubt.
I am on three swiftspears too. They're solid but they get sideboarded out a lot. Maybe we could try the new red snapcaster guy, but the curve would raise up significantly (he's basically a 3 drop).
One thing i'm going to test is playing death's shadow instead of swiftspear... of course the deck must be built in a different way, but did anyone of you try Death shadow in this deck?
I think a card everyone should play is Thraben inspector. It has synergy with everything (sisters, copter, chamber, humans related cards, purphoros....) and draws a card, which is incredible.
I also think running the full 8 sisters is wrong, they are really bad except against few decks where the lifegain is important. I usually run 4 sisters and 2 auriok champion, at least she is very difficult to kill and blocks shadows and gurmag anglers for days.
Regarding simian spirit guide, it's just terrible in this deck. Of course we run birds of paradise because we need to use them more than once. We play extremely expensive threats and we need mana to cast them, which simian spirit guide cannot provide. The only point in favor of simian spirit guide is that it lets you cast a turn two blood moon even if your opponent has a removal spell, or occasionally a turn one blood moon, but this is not enough of a reason to play the ape.
Eldrazi tron should be a favorable matchup. We are faster and they have limited disruption. They can win just if they get tron online quickly and start casting big ballistas or all is dust. Of the cards you listed i dislike chameleon colossus; yes, it can get bigger than all their creatures, but i think you just want to be explosive and company or chord will always be better than a colossus
should be an easy matchup, thay have a painful manabase and a not particularly fast clock. collective brutality can be problematic but we are favored. good cards to bring in can be searing blood and helix, cutting some creatures because they have all the removal
The reason to play skullcrack maindeck over atarka's command, even if you have stomping ground, is that in game one you don't need to fetch for green and you save life.
People often underestimate how bad is to take damage from your lands when playing burn: many game are just decided by topdecking the last burn spell needed, and the life you save can give you an extra turn in a lot of situations.
With that said, running 2 stomping grounds make this plan a bit less effective, because you don't really want to draw it in the first game when you don't have any green spells. In fact i just run a single stomping ground, and you can even be more cautious and put stomping ground in your sideboard together with the green spells.
Basically, versions of the deck with main atarka's command are better against decks that don't pressure your life total, but if you often play against mirror, zoo, affinity, merfolk.... any aggressive deck, having green is a bigger problem than you may think.
If you're not running chalice, faithless looting is the answer to many problems. When i played with it i was always very happy to filter through my deck, getting rid of excess lands, redudant blood moons or planeswalkers, or just useless cards like removal against combo decks. Of course you cannot run 4, because it technically is card disadvantage, but as a 2-3 of is excellent.
I'm playing this deck recently with a good amount of success. I think the best version is human based with the following "core" cards :
-4 norin
-4 champion of the parish
-4 thraben inspector
-4 thalia's lieutenant
-4 genesis chamber
The human base is just very efficient and allows you to have very explosive starts, a feature any deck in modern should have. Even the innocuous looking thraben inspector is fantastic, because he synergizes with every other card in the deck and replaces itself.
Other cards i think you should absolutely play are some number of purphoros, ranger of eos, and life gaining creatures. I actually like 3 ranger of eos, 2 purphoros, 3-4 auriok champion (because with thraben inspector there is no shortage of one drops, and basically she is just a better card than normal soul sisters) and one/two soul warden because sometimes you just need to tutor them with ranger of eos.
The rest of the deck is flex choices : you can play more humans like both thalias, you can play maindeck blood moon with an adjusted manabase, you can play removal. Unfortunately as of now i think removal is too important in modern, so i have 4 bolt and 4 path to exile maindeck.
This is how my list looks overall:
-4 Norin
-4 Champion of the parish
-4 Thraben inspector
-2 Soul warden
-1 Legion loyalist
the manabase could be different but i want to play some blood moons in sideboard so i need a couple windswept heats to reliably get at least one plains
As you may notice,i don't play nahiri because i want to play with ensnaring bridge so no emrakul. And to be honest, I'm not even sure new chandra is worse than nahiri.
Another "weird" choice is faithless looting, but i found it to be almost as good as serum visions in this deck, because often you have dead cards to pitch anyway (extra blood moons, bridges, planeswalkers, or generally cards that are bad in certain matchups e.g. anger of the gods vs tron), and a bit of card disadvantage is good if your plan is hiding behind a bridge. i don't think 4 faithless looting is playable, but 3 could be ok.
Deck feels really smooth and the only numbers i could see changing are between bridges/alliances/angers. Mainly i feel like cutting one bridge for the 4th blessed alliance: when you need bridge, you really need it, but sometimes you are not able to deploy your hand fast enough so 4 bridges may be too many.
Sideboard is always in flux and it's mostly made of white haymakers.
Garnethk is the typical dumb player who thinks he is better than others because he plays control, and control is the only archetype who requires a brain.
Rejoice people, finally duel commander will become a normal format, where you can't just durdle forever or combo kill opponents. Time to dust off my krenko.
In every other rmatchup i like smash to smithereens more because the 3 damages are too important for our gameplan, but against affinity we need to go in full control mode, and killing 3 or more artifacts instead of just one is a huge deal.
Also volcanic fallout is very very good against affinity.
Unfortunately there is a problem in that it can only tutor green creatures. So you would either have to drop white and play g/b with zenith instead of chords, or play both chords and zeniths in a g/w list. I don't know which route would be better.
Saying that devoted druid is goo against interactive deck is a very big stretch. Yes, they usually spend removal on it, and it produces mana, but it is still "air". An o/2 is not a card you want to have in your deck in an attrition war, and you will basically never be able to combo off against deck like jund, grixis or jeskai.
If you run elvish visionary instead of nettle sentinel, well that's a choice i won't argue with,but there are downsides, namely losing some of the deck best opening hands with heritage druid plus two other one drops.
I absolutely disagree with the fact that every build of elves should run 4 copies of ezuri and chord. In the combo version it is necessary because they are combo pieces, but ezuri is 1)legendary and 2) just a grey ogre when they are killing your stuff and you don't have the mana to activate him. The same goes for chord, which is terribly clunky when youare not able to have a big board and generate lots of mana. In my non combo builds i never run more than 3 ezuri and usually split chords between main and side.
Regarding shaman being good against interaction i think that's just wrong. A card is good against interaction when it's hard to kill or produces card advantage. Collected company, elvish visionary, dwynen's elite, lead the stampede, chameleon colossus, thrun are good cards against interaction. A 3/2 for 2 that maybe shocks the opponent is not.
The difference is that the gw combo build is even faster, with the possibility of turn 3 wins but has to play some quite bad cards like devoted druid, vizier of remedies, and the full 4 copies of ezuri and chord; the gb build instead, while being slightly slower, has a better card quality (shaman of the pack and elvish visionary are better cards in a vacuum than devoted druid and vizier)and can afford to trim some copies of ezuri and chord.
As a result, i think the gb build is a bit better against interaction (not because shaman is generically good against interaction, but just because you play 3/2s rather than 0/2s and less chords); it's true that often opponents are forced to spend removal on devoted druid, but in the end sometimes you're in topdeck mode and find a useless 0/2 or worse company into 0/2s.
I don't know if the two builds can be merged, and i'm a bit skeptical because it would mean raising the curve significantly, cutting one drops like nettle sentinel or cutting some combo pieces while still playing the combo.
Speaking of forked bolt, i never understood why many lists of mardu play suboptimal burn spells like burst lightning too. The mardu colors have the best removal spells and we play worse lightning bolts? I understand that they can go to the face but i would play more terminates/dreadbore instead of forked bolt/burst lightning without any doubt.
One thing i'm going to test is playing death's shadow instead of swiftspear... of course the deck must be built in a different way, but did anyone of you try Death shadow in this deck?
I also think running the full 8 sisters is wrong, they are really bad except against few decks where the lifegain is important. I usually run 4 sisters and 2 auriok champion, at least she is very difficult to kill and blocks shadows and gurmag anglers for days.
People often underestimate how bad is to take damage from your lands when playing burn: many game are just decided by topdecking the last burn spell needed, and the life you save can give you an extra turn in a lot of situations.
With that said, running 2 stomping grounds make this plan a bit less effective, because you don't really want to draw it in the first game when you don't have any green spells. In fact i just run a single stomping ground, and you can even be more cautious and put stomping ground in your sideboard together with the green spells.
Basically, versions of the deck with main atarka's command are better against decks that don't pressure your life total, but if you often play against mirror, zoo, affinity, merfolk.... any aggressive deck, having green is a bigger problem than you may think.
-4 norin
-4 champion of the parish
-4 thraben inspector
-4 thalia's lieutenant
-4 genesis chamber
The human base is just very efficient and allows you to have very explosive starts, a feature any deck in modern should have. Even the innocuous looking thraben inspector is fantastic, because he synergizes with every other card in the deck and replaces itself.
Other cards i think you should absolutely play are some number of purphoros, ranger of eos, and life gaining creatures. I actually like 3 ranger of eos, 2 purphoros, 3-4 auriok champion (because with thraben inspector there is no shortage of one drops, and basically she is just a better card than normal soul sisters) and one/two soul warden because sometimes you just need to tutor them with ranger of eos.
The rest of the deck is flex choices : you can play more humans like both thalias, you can play maindeck blood moon with an adjusted manabase, you can play removal. Unfortunately as of now i think removal is too important in modern, so i have 4 bolt and 4 path to exile maindeck.
This is how my list looks overall:
-4 Norin
-4 Champion of the parish
-4 Thraben inspector
-2 Soul warden
-1 Legion loyalist
-4 genesis chamber
-4 thalia's lieutenant
-3 auriok champion
-3 ranger of eos
-2 purphoros
-4 bolt
-4 path
-4 arid mesa
-4 inspiring vantage
-4 cavern of souls
-2 windswept heath
-3 sacred foundry
-2 plains
-2 mountain
the manabase could be different but i want to play some blood moons in sideboard so i need a couple windswept heats to reliably get at least one plains
Instant/sorceries:
4 Lightning bolt
4 molten rain
4 boom/bust
3 blessed alliance
2 faithless looting
2 anger of the gods
Planeswalkers:
3 chandra torch of defiance
2 koth of the hammer
1 ajani vengeant
Lock pieces:
4 Blood Moon
4 Ensnaring bridge
Creatures:
4 simian spirit guide
lands:
4 sacred foundry
4 temple of triumph
4 flagstones of trokair
4 arid mesa
2 windswept heath
2 plains
2 mountain
1 darksteel citadel
As you may notice,i don't play nahiri because i want to play with ensnaring bridge so no emrakul. And to be honest, I'm not even sure new chandra is worse than nahiri.
Another "weird" choice is faithless looting, but i found it to be almost as good as serum visions in this deck, because often you have dead cards to pitch anyway (extra blood moons, bridges, planeswalkers, or generally cards that are bad in certain matchups e.g. anger of the gods vs tron), and a bit of card disadvantage is good if your plan is hiding behind a bridge. i don't think 4 faithless looting is playable, but 3 could be ok.
Deck feels really smooth and the only numbers i could see changing are between bridges/alliances/angers. Mainly i feel like cutting one bridge for the 4th blessed alliance: when you need bridge, you really need it, but sometimes you are not able to deploy your hand fast enough so 4 bridges may be too many.
Sideboard is always in flux and it's mostly made of white haymakers.
Rejoice people, finally duel commander will become a normal format, where you can't just durdle forever or combo kill opponents. Time to dust off my krenko.