On the train heading home from a GPT right now. Top 8'd, and ended up losing to Scape shift. I got him mixed up with another guy playing Twin, and game one I kept Prison, Prison, Path, Wrath of God, and 3 lands. Then I drew nothing but lands. I literally had Emeria online before I played anything. Game 2 I kept a strong opener with 2 Leylines, but my opponent drew all 4 Cryptics and was able to bounce everything and deal 41 damage to me in 1 turn. Super frustrating.
1x Athreos, God of Passage
4x Castigate
3x Disenchant
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Oblivion Ring
1x Path to Exile
Athreos plays a similar role to Vizkopa Guildmage in paper magic. Playing against WUR Control at the GP he put my opponent to 5 just off of Martyr activations and Squawks chump blocking Geist Angels. 4x Castigate is needed to shore up our weak combo matchup, and 4x Leyline is to fight off heavy discard, which I feel is very effective against this deck when combined with any sort of pressure. Oblivion Ring and Disenchant were put in after the bannings because they're just really good catch all cards. They may be replaced depending on how the meta stabilizes. Although honestly both have been over performing.
And my vote is still for Reanimartyr. Simple, describes the deck, and rolls off the tongue nicely.
I play a fair amount of paper modern (go to at least one big 6 round event a month, hit the local modern night every week i can, etc), and I have literally never played against hatebears. I don't see the reason in worrying about a matchup that is that fringe. Taking a look at some decklists, their singleton Linvala is the only card that really shuts the life gain of this deck down. And we have plenty of ways to get her off the field.
As for control, I've found our control matchups to be excellent. Combo kills don't seem very popular, and we have enough removal to keep Geists and whatnot off the table. What usually happens is that the control player is happy to do nothing as long as we do the same, so just sit back, sculpt your hand, drop a martyr or 2, then all of a sudden you play 3 Ascendants in 1 turn with Emeria online and you win. The only control aspect I've ever had trouble with is discard and decks like 8 rack or pox, but running 4 Leyline of Sanctity really helps that matchup.
For graveyard (or any kind of) hate, I always side in 3 Disenchant and 2 Oblivion Ring game 2 for catchall removal against hate. I've only had one game where my opponent successfully shut me down with multiple peices of grave hate and Pithing Needle on Martyr. You know what happens then? All your Charms become solely kill spells, and suddenly you're running more removal than jund. Kill all their threats and beat down with 1/1's. I closed out that game attacking with 2 Martyrs and a 1/1 Ascendant for 3 a turn and just killing anything he dropped.
@Lagunafly, a tansformative into soul sisters just doesn't seem like like a good idea. All it does is make your bad matchups actually worse by removing your ability to sideboard against them. Now keeping the cards needed to build both together in the same sleeves and scoping out what people are play testing before a tournament, then putting together the version you feel has the best chance is a possibility. But I've always prefered the the Legacy mindset of sticking to the deck you are most comfortable with and know the best.
Man I need some sleep. I just had a whole detailed tournament report written up about playing at GP San Jose, and accidentally deleted it. On my phone, so no Undo button.
Went 5-0, beat WUR Control, Boggles, RG Tron, and Burn. Won 2 boxes of Khans, the deck is even better after the bans. Went to 2 Modern nights locally last week, 4-0'd both. Prisons are way better than Lingering Souls, and 4 Wraths is good.
I may rewrite my report tomorrow after work, but right now it's 1:30 am and I just deleted 40 minutes worth of writing and I'm all booty blasted. I really need a new computer. Decklist is 2 pages back if anyone is curious.
@Mermaids: Aren't four maindeck Wraths just too much?
It's a recent change, because it seemed like I was always trying to find one. My local meta is super aggro heavy though. If it turns out to be too much, I'll go back to 3. Same with Souls/Prison.
I've actually been playing a list very similar to Demannic for the last several weeks, except running mainboard Guildmages and 4 Lingering Souls instead of Ghostly Prison. I actually just ordered a playset of Prisons because Lingering Souls has been the card I've been least satisfied with in the deck. 95%+ percent of the time, the tokens end up just being used as chump blockers to slow down aggressive decks and allow me to dig for removal or gas, something Ghostly Prison would do better, along with being a mainboarded answer to Twin decks. I've had the occasional game where my opponent had done something like stick a Graffdigger's Cage + Pithing Needle naming Martyr, and the Spirit tokens helped me aggro my way to victory, but games where both your life gain and reanimation engines get shut off are extremely rare. I really think Prisons are the better choice here.
Ive got a few friends and regulars at my LGS that run Junk and Jund, so I've gotten a fair bit of games in, and Lingering Souls has never really done much (except give me chump blockers for Goyfs). Charming back a Serra Ascendant on my opponents end step has been a much better way to deal with Liliana. I'm also going to start running Leyline of Sanctity in my board with the ban changes, since that makes Liliana terrible and shuts down targeted discard, greatly improving your BGx matchups.
As for Orzhov Charm, that's sort of the glue that holds the deck together. It's your swiss army knife. I would never run less than 4.
*EDIT*
Updated decklist for anyone who's interested:
Fantastic primer! My local meta is infested if burn and aggro decks, in fact I literally have not played against a deck that wasn't Burn, Delver, Mono G Stompy, Zoo, or Affinity in about 6 weeks, so I was looking to switch up decks. U Tron is pretty bad in a super aggressive meta, Soul Sisters seems a bit boring, but Martyr-proc (I always thought Reanimartyr was a better name) is just my kind of durdlefest.
I've been picking up the cards I need for a W/B build, and I was wondering if anyone had ever tried Icatian Javelineers as a 1 of. Ive been using this guy in various decks since Fallen Empires, he's gotten better and better with time, and he's even followed me all the way to Legacy and Vintage in a few decks. He pops unflipped Delvers, Confidants, Pyromancers, mana dorks, Thalia, etc, and can block/tap to kill something with 2 toughness. And in this deck he's tutorable and a reanimation target since he's a 1 CMC guy. I'm just not sure if the deck needs that sort of finesse since it can just power through most threats.
I've also been messing around with some of the other white reanimation spells like Immortal Servitude and Return to the Ranks as 1 ofs. Servitude didn't do much, but I've managed to get 3 Squadron Hawks and 2 Martyrs back in 1 go with Return to Ranks in a super grindy game.
Awsome! I think it's hilarious that you managed to land in a mirror match at the GP. 4-4 is definitely a respectable finish for for a goofy combo deck like. This. The meta is definitely right for combo decks to squeak in and steal a bunch of wins.
My haul from SCG OAK. Both the Ravages of War and the Mana Crypt are NM or damn close. The Ravages is easily the most pimp card I've ever owned. And it went straight into a deck, I was casting it 20 minutes after I picked it up, which is how it should be
Well, Mental Mistep is banned, so taking that out would be a good place to start. The deck is full of good cards, but they don't seem to work well together. You want Delver as an early threat, because he gets outclassed fairly easily. But you don't have the efficient disruption to protect him, aside from Forces. Playing him after establishing a Countertop lock seeks underwhelming, I every time I mess with lists like this just going all in on control with 4 Jace as the only wah to close out the game seems like the most efficient option.
It may not be the best, but it's sure better than Wrath of God, which is what I swapped out.
1x Athreos, God of Passage
4x Castigate
3x Disenchant
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Oblivion Ring
1x Path to Exile
Athreos plays a similar role to Vizkopa Guildmage in paper magic. Playing against WUR Control at the GP he put my opponent to 5 just off of Martyr activations and Squawks chump blocking Geist Angels. 4x Castigate is needed to shore up our weak combo matchup, and 4x Leyline is to fight off heavy discard, which I feel is very effective against this deck when combined with any sort of pressure. Oblivion Ring and Disenchant were put in after the bannings because they're just really good catch all cards. They may be replaced depending on how the meta stabilizes. Although honestly both have been over performing.
And my vote is still for Reanimartyr. Simple, describes the deck, and rolls off the tongue nicely.
As for control, I've found our control matchups to be excellent. Combo kills don't seem very popular, and we have enough removal to keep Geists and whatnot off the table. What usually happens is that the control player is happy to do nothing as long as we do the same, so just sit back, sculpt your hand, drop a martyr or 2, then all of a sudden you play 3 Ascendants in 1 turn with Emeria online and you win. The only control aspect I've ever had trouble with is discard and decks like 8 rack or pox, but running 4 Leyline of Sanctity really helps that matchup.
For graveyard (or any kind of) hate, I always side in 3 Disenchant and 2 Oblivion Ring game 2 for catchall removal against hate. I've only had one game where my opponent successfully shut me down with multiple peices of grave hate and Pithing Needle on Martyr. You know what happens then? All your Charms become solely kill spells, and suddenly you're running more removal than jund. Kill all their threats and beat down with 1/1's. I closed out that game attacking with 2 Martyrs and a 1/1 Ascendant for 3 a turn and just killing anything he dropped.
@Lagunafly, a tansformative into soul sisters just doesn't seem like like a good idea. All it does is make your bad matchups actually worse by removing your ability to sideboard against them. Now keeping the cards needed to build both together in the same sleeves and scoping out what people are play testing before a tournament, then putting together the version you feel has the best chance is a possibility. But I've always prefered the the Legacy mindset of sticking to the deck you are most comfortable with and know the best.
Went 5-0, beat WUR Control, Boggles, RG Tron, and Burn. Won 2 boxes of Khans, the deck is even better after the bans. Went to 2 Modern nights locally last week, 4-0'd both. Prisons are way better than Lingering Souls, and 4 Wraths is good.
I may rewrite my report tomorrow after work, but right now it's 1:30 am and I just deleted 40 minutes worth of writing and I'm all booty blasted. I really need a new computer. Decklist is 2 pages back if anyone is curious.
It's a recent change, because it seemed like I was always trying to find one. My local meta is super aggro heavy though. If it turns out to be too much, I'll go back to 3. Same with Souls/Prison.
Ive got a few friends and regulars at my LGS that run Junk and Jund, so I've gotten a fair bit of games in, and Lingering Souls has never really done much (except give me chump blockers for Goyfs). Charming back a Serra Ascendant on my opponents end step has been a much better way to deal with Liliana. I'm also going to start running Leyline of Sanctity in my board with the ban changes, since that makes Liliana terrible and shuts down targeted discard, greatly improving your BGx matchups.
As for Orzhov Charm, that's sort of the glue that holds the deck together. It's your swiss army knife. I would never run less than 4.
*EDIT*
Updated decklist for anyone who's interested:
3x Emeria, The Sky Ruin
2x flooded strand
4x Godless Shrine
4x marsh flats
1x mistveil plains
9x snow-covered Plains
1x snow-covered swamp
CREATURES
4x Serra Ascendant
4x Squadron hawk
1x Vizkopa Guildmage
4x martyr of sands
4x Ranger of eos
1x kami of false hope
4x Ghostly prison
INSTANTS & SORCERIES
3x Proclamation of Rebirth
4x Orzhov Charm
3x Path to exile
4x wrath of god
1x path to exile
4x leyline of Sanctity
2x oblivion ring
4x castigate
1x athreos, god of passage
3x disenchant
I've been picking up the cards I need for a W/B build, and I was wondering if anyone had ever tried Icatian Javelineers as a 1 of. Ive been using this guy in various decks since Fallen Empires, he's gotten better and better with time, and he's even followed me all the way to Legacy and Vintage in a few decks. He pops unflipped Delvers, Confidants, Pyromancers, mana dorks, Thalia, etc, and can block/tap to kill something with 2 toughness. And in this deck he's tutorable and a reanimation target since he's a 1 CMC guy. I'm just not sure if the deck needs that sort of finesse since it can just power through most threats.
I've also been messing around with some of the other white reanimation spells like Immortal Servitude and Return to the Ranks as 1 ofs. Servitude didn't do much, but I've managed to get 3 Squadron Hawks and 2 Martyrs back in 1 go with Return to Ranks in a super grindy game.