As tempting as Thalia's Lieutenant sounds I think its a trap for all Ally users. Not only does it NOT gain triggers from Akoum battlesinger and Kabira evangel protection, it does not provide any ETB effects at all if we needed life gain from ondu cleric or a pivotal moment if we needed to trigger protection from Kabira evangel. As I explained in my previous post to you, metallic mimic synergizes well with allies as it not only BUFFS incoming allies, it IS an ally.
Like hardened scales, I think Lieutenant is a trap in terms of crafting for allies. The reason I think many people get side tracked/tempted with Thalia's Lt. is because Humans tribal tries to do something similar in regards to counters, but nothing else. Allies is not a one trick pony deck where all we want is +1/1 counters, we want ETB effects. Thats our niche.
100% agree. The triggers are what make the deck work.
Yes. It's definitely been awhile. To be completely honest I have not touched my ally deck since I retired the deck to move on to other decks. The whole irony is there isn't a deck that interest me other than Tron. Now I'm back where I left off.
Regarding burn, Ondu cleric is a double-or-nothing card. If they leave him alone, it will cost them the game. Ondu would be better used in vial builds to flash in. For more aggressive build without vial, lantern scout would be more heavily emphasised.
Other cards to consider:
Kor firewalker
Spellskite
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Dromoka's command
Chalice may hurt your deck. But give it a try with proxy first before investing. It's bonkers now for the price.
The last time I fought burn with success is with vials. After that the only other time I fought what is close to burn is burning zoo. Lost that match.
Traditional burn likely relies on their threats to bring your life down below 5 and finish you off from there. Their reach is there but timing the protection or countermeasures can give a chance to counterswing. Once our creatures are out of bolt range, they will have a tough time to deal with our board.
I agree, I wouldn't run Chalice. Ondu Cleric really hasn't been as good for me as I was hoping. Lantern Scout and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben have been great in the matchup. I feel like it's important to hold Lantern Scouts for at least 4 or so points of life gained, there's no value in just throwing it out there. They generally have to answer our creatures, which runs them low on actual damage to go for our face with. Their own creatures are very easily outclassed if they decide not to remove our creatures. Be aggressive, the matchup is still a race imo. If you start fearing to die and keep back blockers too soon, you're playing around hands with so much burn that they'll be able to remove your creatures or your life points either way. Often you just have to hope they don't have it all :/
Thanks for the suggestions! Almost all of those cards have been tested at some point, but it's been a while...
Lightning Bolt was a 4 of main for me once (before Collected Company was printed), later a 1-2 of in the Sideboard and I've now cut it entirely for two reasons:
a) Almost every creature that dies to Bolt ends up being irrelevant. If I am looking to bring in interaction from the SB I'd rather bring in Dismember since I can only imagine using additional removal against creature combo decks and Bolt basically never kills Knight of the Reliquary
b) The Red mana is actually super awkward to cast. Most of our decks run about 5-6 fetchlands with 1-2 red producing lands making it extremely inconsistent.
Aether Vial does indeed lower the threat density which is about the only reason I'm even looking at testing a list without it. I don't know how much you've played with it, but every hand feels better with a T1 Aether Vial. It adds so much explosiveness to the deck and instant speed Kabira Evangel triggers are one of the strongest things the deck has to offer (especially if your opponent has no idea what your deck does)
Selfless Spirit should be in my SB, as said in the last post. I'll try and find a pair.
Qasali Pridemage should also be there. I used to run it, seem to have been using it for legacy and it'll go right back in now that you've reminded me
Repel the Abominable sounds very meh. I can't think of a situation I would ever have wanted a 2 mana 1-sided fog effect yet, I really don't think we need it in creature matchups. I can see it being a blow out vs combo but I don't know if leaving up 2 mana every turn is a viable strategy in this deck. The way I tend to beat combo is by racing.
I may not have stated this clearly in my last post, the "No Vial" list is solely a first draft to test exactly that.
My actual list remains more or less the same (except some SB changes)
(meaning SB is not final, plus it's obviously very meta dependant)
First a question: Against what do you side in the Jwari Shapeshifter and Reckless Bushwhacker? I'd guess against uninteractive decks you want to go under, like Ad Nauseam?
Exactly. It makes the deck faster. You need something to replace Path to Exile in matches where you want to just race. Not sure if these are the best cards for it, I generally just want to make as many Akoum Battlesinger as possible, but yeah...
Second a suggestion: I've seen some lists run Selfless Spirit, even in the Mainboard as a 2-3-of (e.g. in SaffronOlive's list from december). Not sure if it'd be worth it to go away from Vials, but if you could make room for them (maybe in the Sideboard in place of something?) it could improve the matchup against Jund/Junk (Vial it in in response to Damnation could be cool).
It's a good card. At doing exactly one thing: Protecting against sweepers. Otherwise it's fairly bad in this deck imo. Yes, it can be used to save an ally, but at that point it might as well just be another ally to replace the one that died. However if you happen to just play it not to blank removal with it'll just be worse than the ally it could be since it won't trigger its friends. But it could and probably should find its way into my sideboard, primarily for sweeper heavier decks than BGx (I think they run about 1 Damnation in the board) like UW Control/Esper. I'll try and find a pair and see what they can do
What concerns me about Vials is the increasing popularity of Engineered Explosives. Keeping a one-lander because you have a Vial can then turn out to be quite dangerous. Guess it depends on the meta.
Yes, keeping 1 Land Vial has always been risky. You just can't on the draw in many matchups/in the dark because of the amount of Inquisition of Kozilek / Thoughtseize being played. I don't however feel that cutting Vials would improve our game against Engineered Explosives. The card is ridiculous against us already and if I'm not playing Aether Vials, i'll be playing some other 1 or 2 drop it could take out instead. Of course, Selfless Spirit could shine here. I really haven't seen EE that much locally though, just out of a Bant Eldrazi player and an UWR sideboard.
We've had the Vial/no Vial discussion before and never really reached a conclusive decision as to what's better. I personally have always supported them since I feel it adds a lot to the deck in terms of mana acceleration/fixing/instant speed/uncounterability...but I'm not saying it's definitely correct. I've even boarded them out before (no idea if it was correct. Merfolk does it a fair bit. So there's an argument towards not running them). I should try a list without again, it's been a long time. Not playing Vial makes Reckless Bushwhacker actually good imo, however I then just lower the amount of 1-drop cards to activate Surge with making it worse again. I've seen people try and remedy this by playing Beastcaster Savant but I really don't see the point since the Surge trigger will be more or less wasted if the only creature that would gain Haste from it is now tapped...I'll find a few friends to play some games with various lists if I can. First draft looks something like this:
btw, @Salad_Thunder, congrats on the great result with the deck. I'm intrigued about Captain's Claws in your list. I tried it out and I absolutely hated it, but maybe I'm missing out? Also would like to hear how 19 lands feels. I'm closer to going up to 21 than down to 19 personally. I feel like Collected Company has to be uncastable in many games with such a low land count? It happens a fair amount to me on 20 lands...
It's been a very long time since I've contributed to this thread. Mostly since I haven't played the deck, or the format, much lately. However I've been able to pick Modern back up again in the last 2 or 3 weeks and got some games in with this again.
Took it to weekly twice, 2-2d with 14 people and 4-0d with 16 people. Was good fun. Here's my list:
The Metallic Mimics are recent additions I wanted to try out and they worked really well. I wouldn't play 4, perhaps 3 is worth looking at, but they felt really solid. The strength of the deck is still really matchup dependant, the night I 4-0d I played against Bant Company, Abzan Company, Death and Taxes and Burn. Creature decks are usually strongly favored since your creatures get bigger than theirs and they can't block half the time. The night I went 2-2 I beat Burn and Merfolk and lost to Bant Company and Jund. Jund being removal.deck makes it really hard for us and the Bant Company match was extremely unlucky. I do think the matchup is good, but there's nothing like dying with 4 Collected Company in hand and 3 lands in play some time around turn 15 in Game 2 and then mulling to 4 before you see a land in G3 :/
My sideboard is built with regards to my local metagame which is slow to adapt to the global metagame so I haven't seen much Death's Shadow etc. running around. I assume the matchup won't be great with the amount of discard/removal we'll be up against.
But the deck is still fun and surprisingly competitive!
I still want to give the Hardened Scales list another go, not sure how it'll perform. I really don't like the idea of playing Winding Constrictor though.
Any comments/questions/suggestions are welcome as always, let's get this thread alive again!
I don't think that a 3-color PW is playable in this deck and the abilities don't seem that great for an aggro deck.
Completely agree. The only planeswalker that is possible viable in this deck is Gideon, Ally of Zendikar because he does everything our deck could want. Either he's an indestructible 5/5 Ally for 4 mana or he makes a 2/2 Ally every turn, giving us consistent bodies and triggers. Still mostly sideboard playable. Tamiyo just doesn't fit, even though I have to agree it's a very nice card
Playing against Jund is really tough.
My "Vialess" Ally Deck run only Collected Company and Lead the Stampede and the hole rest are Allies. I got a bit more creatures as my Opponent got answers against me. The "Refuel" Cards are always my rescue's against heavy removal Decks. That works really well ( i won with 2-1 but it was very fast and very close) .
My Sideboardoption was to board the good old Path to Exile and Ondu Cleric .
I'm not sure if Gideon, Ally of Zendikar would be a valued option if you played against Jund, he is tough but he can removed like . What did you think?
Yes, CoCo is amazing against Jund. Lead the Stampede obviously just as much. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in my fairly large experience playing vs. Jund is amazing. I don't think I've ever lost a game where I've played him (sample size is about 5-10). Most run 1 Maelstrom Pulse that could kill it...or 2 Bolts could too, but I can't see them ever not casting their bolts before T4 since we'll be spamming creatures. Path to Exile is definitely good against Jund, but why board in Ondu Cleric? They're clearly not the beatdown in the matchup. You are. Don't see why I'd want to gain life over just having a bigger body...
You can't compare Eerie Interlude to Boros Charm (costs less mana but requires 2 colors) or Brave the Elements (it's not a mono-white deck) since it not only blanks removal/wrath but can also provide multiple ally etb triggers.
I consider testing 2x in the mainboard over Lead the Stampede.
Adaptive Automaton also provides an ally trigger as well as a static buff, well worth it in my opinion.
Yeah, but Interlude gives you triggers on the next End step. There's only 8 creatures where those triggers aren't 100% irrelevant in my deck...
xxDSJJxx, only just saw your Edit...didn't notice it at first as it's quite a bit up the page now...nevertheless:
MB looks solid I think. Definitely should have the 4th Windswept Heath over the Wooded Foothills now you've cut the Mountain since Heath gets every single target while Foothills can't get basic plains...
SB obviously still brewing for all of us and meta dependant...so I'll just ask:
Normally I'll just smash head in regardless of 1/1 chump blockers. It's a risky strategy, but there are times the 1/1 will come back to haunt you (pun intended) if you just let it stay there. But really, it depends on what deck you face and the application of strategy will differ.
Cloudshift is barely ever better than just an additional Ally creature in my experience...Eerie Interlude the same...it saves us from wraths though, but we can barely ever afford to leave 3 mana open anyways...a SB card at max for me...
Jwari Shapeshifter is a 2 drop I've had good success with personally and isn't yet in your list, maybe you could try that. I board them out against removal heavy decks, but having an additional copy of your best ally (Battlesinger whenever possible) is sick. You obviously know how good Battlesinger is especially in multiples and this for me acts like copies 5 and 6...
Yes, he's blue. I run Vial, Coco, 4 Cavern, 4 Encampment, 1 Reflecting Pool and 2 Druids that can get him into play. Never a problem...
I think that to include Kalastria Healer is a great way to face against most matchups and also playing one/two rally the ancestors would surprise some decks.
This is a beatdown deck. Kalastria Healer does a worse job than our other 2 drops at what we're trying to accomplish and Rally the Ancestors gives the deck a combo finish after our creatures have already died...which is neat, but not where we're taking this. If we want a similar effect, it's permanent recursion out of the sideboard for grindy matchups, cards like Return to the Ranks.
@xxDSJJxx: Too much to quote everything I think. Thanks for the continuous input.
I'm still very happy with the main deck removal I'm running (4 Path). Lead the Stampede has good and bad matchups, as you said, so I think if I'm to run it, it'll be a sideboard thing. Still actually haven't tried a Return to the Ranks in the board because for some reason I don't have one and the store doesn't have one and I've never really bothered to order one...but should be a good SB card too.
And I do agree with you that Captain's Claws doesn't cut it in modern. It's been my opinion since the first few testing games...
Also agree with most matchup analysis...a few comments:
I've actually just played Dredge for two events (4-0, 3-1) and it feels very powerful. I ran a Gargadon/Bridge list, no Vengevine/Bloodghast rubbish...I dunno, it felt really strong...
I've played Elves 3 times (win, win, draw). Kabira Evangel usually ends the game on the spot. I have never lost to them being faster than me, but have won by being faster a few times. I think the only game I lost was in the draw. G1, took 43 minutes, saw 26 cards from my library and no Evangels or I would have won. Combat every turn was math whether he could activate Ezuri, Renegade Leader twice or three times...kept swinging back with lifelink and he'd just regenerate blockers...he eventually got enough mana to overrun I think 4 times and won. (G2 I attacked for 18 T3 and won T4 for a draw). So from my experience it's not faster than us. This is a matchup where I think I really profit from running Path main for those Ezuris/Warcallers...
Also got some testing done against the Bant Eldrazi list that popped up all over SCG lately...It's like 80-20 in our favour pre sideboard. We're just so much faster than them and by the time they put out Smasher/Seer we have 4/5s or 5/5s or bigger...Post board they get Timely Reinforcements and Engineered Explosives which can tilt the matchup, but overall I still think we're favoured even though we have to board out our best card (Evangel)...
I have a very decent win rate vs. Jund...I think it's like 60-70% in 10+ matches...Their game plan is to just grind out a card advantage plan with lots of 1 for 1 trading going on. You have a good amount of tricks (Vial, Ally Encampment) to effectively counter some of their cards and something like Collected Company is a beating for them. And we have the added benefit of playing a deck that can just nut draw and go under pretty much anything...SB threats like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar are amazing too. I've never seen them beat the card...
Tron is bad, yes. It got worse now that they're all playing Kozilek's Return...it used to be literally play/draw decided. Because you have a very good chance of killing them on T4 on the play up to which point they barely interact, if at all. But you have barely any chance of beating O-Stone/Ugin on the draw...
The problem is it's hard to hate out. I don't think Crumble to Dust is for us. If we're on the play we want to spend that T4 ending the game, on the draw we've probably just lost our board and it won't matter anyway...I've tried Stony Silence which can do a great job against them. But whenever I have it they just have 0 Eggs or Stones or Maps and just go natural tron, Karn, Ugin every time...Tron is the only deck other than UW Control I have a negative win rate against.
Infect/Grishoalbrand really don't seem to be popular here. I imagine Infect is a pretty bad matchup...as long as they don't stumble and the infected they're relying on has evasion, so Nexus/Agent, they'll just be faster than us.
Grishotlbrand similar, all we can hope is that they lose to themselves because they are quite inconsistent. And our matchup isn't especially bad, I mean we provide a very solid clock against combo...
Creature decks are basically always favourable. Colourless Creatures less so. I've never lost a game to Death & Taxes where they haven't gone T3 Splicer and flickered it at least twice...that matchup is good. A lot of their cards just don't matter...We barely get taxed by Leonin Arbiter since we only run 4 fetches and can just crack one on T1 if we have it...only helps their Paths/GQs...Thalia isn't good against a deck with 28 creatures...Dryad Militant, Judge's Familiar, Aven Mindcensor follow the same train of thought. A lot of their cards are just bad in the matchup.
Mill I have no clue. Assuming they run Crypt Incursion and Ensnaring Bridge (as lists I've seen lately do) we'll likely lose. If they're straight up milling us we'll just be faster.
Round 1: 2-1 vs. Jund
Game 1 I take a mulligan to 6 and keep a good hand. He has Decay for my Blademaster and Pulse for double Battlesinger. But I get him low quickly. We both run out of resources, I eventually draw another Battlesinger and with him at 2 it's lethal. Game 2 I mull to 6 again. He has good answers for all my threats and I eventually get Kolaghan's Commanded with Evangel, Battlesinger, Path in hand. I decide I need both my creatures to win. He then slams Kalitas and starts taking over the game. Perhaps my decision was wrong. Regardless, I have a final turn to draw Collected and hit a Battlesinger + anything to swing for lethal. I actually draw CoCo, but no Battlesinger. Game 3 I get under him. hard. I win T4 through Bolt, Goyf, Scooze.
Round 2: 0-2 vs. Mono White Death and Taxes (guy ends up winning)
This is the game I feel I should have won. This matchup is far better than the one vs. Jund which is even-ish...basically they have to have T3 Blade Splicer followed by multiple Flicker effects for the following turns, because nothing they play matters other than lots of First striking Golems. Saw his list later. It's 3 Blade Splicer, 4 Flickerwisp, 2 Restoration Angel. Both games he had T3 Splicer, G1 he had 3 flicker effects, G2 he had 4. Meanwhile on my side: 0 Collected Company, 0 Akoum Battlesinger, 0 Path to Exile to remove the Splicers in both games. Ah well...
Round 3: 0-2 vs. RG Tron
Well, I lost the die roll (3rd time this tournament lol) and on the draw the matchup is pretty bad. I mull to 5 G1 and keep a hand that's ok, but unlikely to kill him on T3 or T4. Turns out he kept Tower, Tower, Mine, Power Plant, Karn, Ugin, Ulamog...yeah...not winning that.
G2 I mull to 6 and keep a 1 land hand that wins on T4 guaranteed with a 2nd land on the scry, T2 or T3 draw. Regardless of their T3 play of Karn or Wurmcoil or whatever...yeah, didn't draw the land.
Round 4: 2-0 vs. Naya Zoo
Creature decks. Easy really. Not much to talk about...your creatures grow bigger, they often can't block, you have instant speed tricks with Vial and Coco and they don't...
Round 5: 2-0 vs. Eldrazi Taxes
G1 I had 1 land and 2 Vials. All game. Still happy with it though, he was a friend of mine and drew 8 or 9 lands instead which was definitely worse. I mean, I won with 3 Coco and Path in hand that I couldn't cast but still less dead cards than all his excess lands.
G2 we both started fairly slowly. Twice that game he vialled in a hand disruption creature on my draw step and both times I responded with CoCo. The second time after just drawing it. Was pretty lucky that game. Ended the game the second time that happened with 2 Battlesingers and a Clone of them in play and +6/+0 across 6 or 7 creatures...
You need at least two Prized Amalgam to go infinite. One has to be in the Yard while the other returns. You can however return the same Amalgam multiple times if you have triggered him that many times before the beginning of the end step since the triggers are still there even if Amalgam has returned once. This way you can accumulate a lot of triggers for the next end step with another Amalgam in the yard which then can also trigger the first one again.
Just don't forget it has to see the return of a creature while being in the yard and don't mix up which Amalgam got how many triggers.
@ Parmaha
can you please link to Magus' list?
You can't return Amalgam multiple times per turn. If you return one and then sacrifice it with the other triggers still on the stack, it won't come back again in the same turn since it will have changed zones and thus become a new object. It would need new triggers to return again.
What you can however do with multiple Amalgams is to let all but on of them enter the battlefield, then with the last one's trigger(s) still on the stack, sacrifice all the other ones. The last one entering the battlefield will then trigger all the others to come back in the next end step, where you can do the same trick again. So with multiple Amalgams and a few bridges and a sac outlet you can quickly amass lots of zombies.
UW Control:
Yeah, UW these days should be less bad. Them running Thopter/Sword is better for us than them running more sweepers and more removal. I was very much thinking of the deck back in the Eldrazi era of a month or so ago.
Gideon:
You're right, 2 total copies of Gideon/Colossus should be enough. I run 1 Gideon 0 Colossus personally...
Field:
The generally played hate cards here would be Rest in Peace which shuts off Thopter/Sword, Melira Combo and Grishoalbrand while also being very good against the Snapcaster/Tasigur/GDD/Goyf decks or Stony Silence which shuts off Affinity, Tron and Thopter/Sword (and your vial :/)
Torpor Orb:
I see. I've lost to Torpor Orb a few times, it's not really a common card though. Unless you know your local players to bring them in, you shouldn't board in hate specifically for them unless you see them in G2...
Draw Spells:
Assuming 28 creatures, Lead the Stampede hits 2.33 on average. Gambit hits 2 every time. The card quality from Lead will always be better. You'll have 3 mana in play so won't necessarily want lands. Lead the Stampede will give you 2.33 creatures, Gambit 2 random cards. I think that's enough of an edge to make Lead better than the Proliferate makes Gambit. So it's Lead the Stampede for me. I'd evaluate it differently in a Scales build with 20+ creatures that get counters though...although, there I'd probably run Inspiring Call anyways.
Round 1: 2-1 vs. Grixis Delver
Feels favourable. They have cards like Remand that do basically nothing...Their Bolts/Terminates and Snapcaster-Bolts etc. are good in the matchup, but all our creatures just keep coming. It's still quite close though, you need to get ahead and stay ahead which is fairly doable since we tend to curve out low. Another important thing is that their mana base is very painful. They usually take 6+ damage from lands in the early turns which accelerates our clock even more.
Round 2: 1-2 vs. Grixis Midrange (if you've heard of Blue Jund, this is it)
The one I lost. Different approach to the archetype. Zero countermagic, 4 Ancestral Visions, 2 Serum Visions, a few Thing in the Ice and Tasigur, the Golden Fang and literally everything else is removal (Bolt, Terminate, K-Command, ...) or removal on a stick (Snapcaster, Dark-Dwellers). I won the game where I was on the play and always slightly ahead and lost the game on the draw always slightly behind. Then got stomped G3. This list also boarded in multiple copies of Anger of the Gods and Damnation. Seems fairly hard to beat. You're looking for some tricks with Vial/Encampment and CoCo to keep up with the card-advantage...
Round 3: 2-0 vs. Grixis Control
Back to the Counterspells deck with less removal. G1 Vial was huge, G2 I just got underneath him.
I sideboarded +2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, +1 Rest in Peace, -2 Jwari Shapeshifter, -1 Expedition Envoy every time. Often slightly lowered my curve on the play and slightly raised it on the draw post board too.
Had a very awkward overall draw rate tonight. Didn't see Vial in any of the first 10 hands I got a look at (6 games with 4 mulligans). Saw 2 only tonight, both in the last round. Possibly the best card in this matchup, would definitely have helped further. Drew only 2 CoCo too tonight. One got countered (Dispel, never seen anyone board in Dispel vs. me, but I guess it worked for him there so fair play...) and one hit only 1 creature...
On the other hand, drew around 15 Freeblades, literally 1 mana goyf in this deck...except better.
I'm currently cutting on 3-drops to lower the curve 1 by 1....will probably keep going.
1-2 for today's event. By far the unluckiest event day. I have many occasions that I could not draw into the cards I need. That has easily cost me games which I should have won.
G1: Merfolk (2-1)
I have a feeling that this MU is getting me complacent. I made a lot of mistakes here and it's thankfully a top-deck Kabira Evangel that I won the third game. I should be more careful, but guess I'm really tired today. Nevertheless, I cannot be complacent.
G2: Grishoalbrand (1-2)
I was expecting this MU to be an auto-lose like RG Tron. Then I made it to the third game, even after mulling to 4 cards. I mulled to 4 cards as well on the third game, but I didn't draw a Path to Exile in time. Path actually saved me in game 2. Rest in Peace also didn't make an appearance. I boarded in Wear / Tear thinking he would bring in Torpor orb. Nonetheless, it was a dead draw. This game really showed the second sign unluckiness as I couldn't draw ally cards consistently. I won the 2nd game via 4 damage from Boros Charm
G3: UW control (0-2)
This MU is SUPPOSED TO BE A CAKEWALK! I have 4 Aether vials, 4 cavern of souls to hate out control decks on mainboard... I just didn't draw into any of them. None. Even in game 2. My opponent drew her playset of paths, while I didn't draw any of the 8 hates. When I eventually drew the card, the board situation is too late to be saved.
I can't comment much for this week's events because of the horrible draws I get in most of the games. All I can summarise is that Boros charm is a good finisher against problematic MUs, giving the extra reach. The only thing is that the mana base may change a little for colour-fixing. But in most cases, I think it is a solid 2-off inclusion that gives other utility and protection.
The most underwhelming card among the 75 so far is Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. Most MUs don't need him, and the MUs that require him will mash him up with my other sideboard pieces. I noticed the lack of combo hate, so I've decided to drop 1 Gideon for 1 Suppression Field to hate out the major combo decks seeing play. In general, my Mainboard is strong enough to take down most games. The sideboard may be re-tuned to hate out certain MUs to give a more comprehensive winning consistency.
Re: UW:
UW Control is in my extensive experience the single worst matchup. Granted, I played it mostly during the Eldrazi era, where they had 5 main deck sweepers and 4 Path got complemented by D-Sphere and Condemn...I'll keep saying it, the nature of our decks makes us very, very bad against Wrath of God effects. I've played this matchup 10+ times and won 10-20% of the games.
Re: Specific cards: Gideon, Ally of Zendikar comes in solely against Jund, Abzan, Mardu, that kind of deck for me. And i strongly believe it's our best SB card for those matchups. I've played the matchups plenty of times. Never lost after casting this. Suppression Field will hurt you too, beware. You have 6 Fetch lands and 4 Vials. Plus, what "Major combo decks" are you fighting with it? The biggest combo decks in the meta are Scapeshift, Abzan Coco, Kiki Chord and Infect. It's a dead card against 2 and you can do much better against the creature decks (Path for example) Boros Charm is a card I can't justify main decking. My creature count is at 28 and I will never go lower...Vial/CoCo help the strategy MUCH more and it's really far behind Path in a competition for the last few slots...
Why do you expect Torpor Orb out of Grishoalbrand's Sideboard? I've barely ever seen it there. Go check their forums or mtgtop8...there's an average of 0.1 copies in the sideboard apparently.
100% agree. The triggers are what make the deck work.
It's been really good. I've only played 2, might try 3. It just works...
I agree, I wouldn't run Chalice. Ondu Cleric really hasn't been as good for me as I was hoping. Lantern Scout and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben have been great in the matchup. I feel like it's important to hold Lantern Scouts for at least 4 or so points of life gained, there's no value in just throwing it out there. They generally have to answer our creatures, which runs them low on actual damage to go for our face with. Their own creatures are very easily outclassed if they decide not to remove our creatures. Be aggressive, the matchup is still a race imo. If you start fearing to die and keep back blockers too soon, you're playing around hands with so much burn that they'll be able to remove your creatures or your life points either way. Often you just have to hope they don't have it all :/
Lightning Bolt was a 4 of main for me once (before Collected Company was printed), later a 1-2 of in the Sideboard and I've now cut it entirely for two reasons:
a) Almost every creature that dies to Bolt ends up being irrelevant. If I am looking to bring in interaction from the SB I'd rather bring in Dismember since I can only imagine using additional removal against creature combo decks and Bolt basically never kills Knight of the Reliquary
b) The Red mana is actually super awkward to cast. Most of our decks run about 5-6 fetchlands with 1-2 red producing lands making it extremely inconsistent.
Thalia's Lieutenant is a card I tried a fair bit and eventually dismissed because it's not an ally and doesn't trigger ally effects. If I play it, it'll be in a Hardened Scales and Champion of the Parish. Jwari Shapeshifter is essentially Akoum Battlesinger #5-6 or Kazandu Blademaster #5-6 making it really, really good. The decks only broken draws always include multiple copies of Akoum Battlesinger or a Jwari Shapeshifter copying one.
Oran-Rief Survivalist is decent. That's about it. Again, I'd definitely play 4 in a Hardened Scales list.
Aether Vial does indeed lower the threat density which is about the only reason I'm even looking at testing a list without it. I don't know how much you've played with it, but every hand feels better with a T1 Aether Vial. It adds so much explosiveness to the deck and instant speed Kabira Evangel triggers are one of the strongest things the deck has to offer (especially if your opponent has no idea what your deck does)
Selfless Spirit should be in my SB, as said in the last post. I'll try and find a pair.
Qasali Pridemage should also be there. I used to run it, seem to have been using it for legacy and it'll go right back in now that you've reminded me
Repel the Abominable sounds very meh. I can't think of a situation I would ever have wanted a 2 mana 1-sided fog effect yet, I really don't think we need it in creature matchups. I can see it being a blow out vs combo but I don't know if leaving up 2 mana every turn is a viable strategy in this deck. The way I tend to beat combo is by racing.
I may not have stated this clearly in my last post, the "No Vial" list is solely a first draft to test exactly that.
My actual list remains more or less the same (except some SB changes)
(meaning SB is not final, plus it's obviously very meta dependant)
4 Hada Freeblade
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Kazandu Blademaster
4 Akoum Battlesinger
2 Jwari Shapeshifter
2 Metallic Mimic
2 Harabaz Druid
4 Kabira Evangel
1 Firemantle Mage
1 Lantern Scout
Non-Creatures (12)
4 Aether Vial
4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ally Encampment
1 Reflecting Pool
4 Windswept Heath
1 Arid Mesa
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
1 Forest
2 Plains
1 Mutavault
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Selfless Spirit
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Lantern Scout
2 Stony Silence
1 Dismember
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Rest in Peace
1 Jwari Shapeshifter
Exactly. It makes the deck faster. You need something to replace Path to Exile in matches where you want to just race. Not sure if these are the best cards for it, I generally just want to make as many Akoum Battlesinger as possible, but yeah...
It's a good card. At doing exactly one thing: Protecting against sweepers. Otherwise it's fairly bad in this deck imo. Yes, it can be used to save an ally, but at that point it might as well just be another ally to replace the one that died. However if you happen to just play it not to blank removal with it'll just be worse than the ally it could be since it won't trigger its friends. But it could and probably should find its way into my sideboard, primarily for sweeper heavier decks than BGx (I think they run about 1 Damnation in the board) like UW Control/Esper. I'll try and find a pair and see what they can do
Yes, keeping 1 Land Vial has always been risky. You just can't on the draw in many matchups/in the dark because of the amount of Inquisition of Kozilek / Thoughtseize being played. I don't however feel that cutting Vials would improve our game against Engineered Explosives. The card is ridiculous against us already and if I'm not playing Aether Vials, i'll be playing some other 1 or 2 drop it could take out instead. Of course, Selfless Spirit could shine here. I really haven't seen EE that much locally though, just out of a Bant Eldrazi player and an UWR sideboard.
We've had the Vial/no Vial discussion before and never really reached a conclusive decision as to what's better. I personally have always supported them since I feel it adds a lot to the deck in terms of mana acceleration/fixing/instant speed/uncounterability...but I'm not saying it's definitely correct. I've even boarded them out before (no idea if it was correct. Merfolk does it a fair bit. So there's an argument towards not running them). I should try a list without again, it's been a long time. Not playing Vial makes Reckless Bushwhacker actually good imo, however I then just lower the amount of 1-drop cards to activate Surge with making it worse again. I've seen people try and remedy this by playing Beastcaster Savant but I really don't see the point since the Surge trigger will be more or less wasted if the only creature that would gain Haste from it is now tapped...I'll find a few friends to play some games with various lists if I can. First draft looks something like this:
4 Hada Freeblade
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Akoum Battlesinger
4 Kazandu Blademaster
2 Jwari Shapeshifter
2 Harabaz Druid
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
4 Kabira Evangel
1 Firemantle Mage
1 Lantern Scout
4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company
Lands (22)
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ally Encampment
1 Reflecting Pool
4 Windswept Heath
2 Arid Mesa
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Plains
1 Forest
2 Mutavualt
btw, @Salad_Thunder, congrats on the great result with the deck. I'm intrigued about Captain's Claws in your list. I tried it out and I absolutely hated it, but maybe I'm missing out? Also would like to hear how 19 lands feels. I'm closer to going up to 21 than down to 19 personally. I feel like Collected Company has to be uncastable in many games with such a low land count? It happens a fair amount to me on 20 lands...
Took it to weekly twice, 2-2d with 14 people and 4-0d with 16 people. Was good fun. Here's my list:
4 Hada Freeblade
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Akoum Battlesinger
4 Kazandu Blademaster
2 Harabaz Druid
2 Metallic Mimic
2 Jwari Shapeshifter
4 Kabira Evangel
1 Firemantle Mage
1 Lantern Scout
Non-Creatures (12)
4 Aether Vial
4 Collected Company
4 Path to Exile
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ally Encampment
1 Reflecting Pool
4 Windswept Heath
1 Arid Mesa
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
1 Forest
2 Plains
1 Mutavault
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Lead the Stampede
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Lantern Scout
1 Wear // Tear
2 Stony Silence
2 Rest in Peace
1 Jwari Shapeshifter
1 Reckless Bushwhacker
1 Dismember
The Metallic Mimics are recent additions I wanted to try out and they worked really well. I wouldn't play 4, perhaps 3 is worth looking at, but they felt really solid. The strength of the deck is still really matchup dependant, the night I 4-0d I played against Bant Company, Abzan Company, Death and Taxes and Burn. Creature decks are usually strongly favored since your creatures get bigger than theirs and they can't block half the time. The night I went 2-2 I beat Burn and Merfolk and lost to Bant Company and Jund. Jund being removal.deck makes it really hard for us and the Bant Company match was extremely unlucky. I do think the matchup is good, but there's nothing like dying with 4 Collected Company in hand and 3 lands in play some time around turn 15 in Game 2 and then mulling to 4 before you see a land in G3 :/
My sideboard is built with regards to my local metagame which is slow to adapt to the global metagame so I haven't seen much Death's Shadow etc. running around. I assume the matchup won't be great with the amount of discard/removal we'll be up against.
But the deck is still fun and surprisingly competitive!
I still want to give the Hardened Scales list another go, not sure how it'll perform. I really don't like the idea of playing Winding Constrictor though.
Any comments/questions/suggestions are welcome as always, let's get this thread alive again!
Completely agree. The only planeswalker that is possible viable in this deck is Gideon, Ally of Zendikar because he does everything our deck could want. Either he's an indestructible 5/5 Ally for 4 mana or he makes a 2/2 Ally every turn, giving us consistent bodies and triggers. Still mostly sideboard playable. Tamiyo just doesn't fit, even though I have to agree it's a very nice card
Yes, CoCo is amazing against Jund. Lead the Stampede obviously just as much. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in my fairly large experience playing vs. Jund is amazing. I don't think I've ever lost a game where I've played him (sample size is about 5-10). Most run 1 Maelstrom Pulse that could kill it...or 2 Bolts could too, but I can't see them ever not casting their bolts before T4 since we'll be spamming creatures.
Path to Exile is definitely good against Jund, but why board in Ondu Cleric? They're clearly not the beatdown in the matchup. You are. Don't see why I'd want to gain life over just having a bigger body...
Yeah, but Interlude gives you triggers on the next End step. There's only 8 creatures where those triggers aren't 100% irrelevant in my deck...
MB looks solid I think. Definitely should have the 4th Windswept Heath over the Wooded Foothills now you've cut the Mountain since Heath gets every single target while Foothills can't get basic plains...
SB obviously still brewing for all of us and meta dependant...so I'll just ask:
Why Pithing Needle?
Why Chameleon Colossus over 2nd Gideon, Ally of Zendikar?
Removal? (Don't you just lose to Abzan CoCo with only 2 removal spells in the 75? Might not be prevalent near you...)
Cheers
Haha, reminds me of my Druid, triple Battlesinger, Shapeshifter draw that lost to Timely Reinforcements into Engineered Explosives...feels bad man
Cloudshift is barely ever better than just an additional Ally creature in my experience...Eerie Interlude the same...it saves us from wraths though, but we can barely ever afford to leave 3 mana open anyways...a SB card at max for me...
Adaptive Automaton is a solid enough 3 drop that I have contemplated running too. But I want to keep the curve way down. It can't really replace any 1- or 2drops and 3 is basically full of Kabira Evangel / Lantern Scout / Firemantle Mage
Yes, he's blue. I run Vial, Coco, 4 Cavern, 4 Encampment, 1 Reflecting Pool and 2 Druids that can get him into play. Never a problem...
This is a beatdown deck. Kalastria Healer does a worse job than our other 2 drops at what we're trying to accomplish and Rally the Ancestors gives the deck a combo finish after our creatures have already died...which is neat, but not where we're taking this. If we want a similar effect, it's permanent recursion out of the sideboard for grindy matchups, cards like Return to the Ranks.
@xxDSJJxx: Too much to quote everything I think. Thanks for the continuous input.
I'm still very happy with the main deck removal I'm running (4 Path). Lead the Stampede has good and bad matchups, as you said, so I think if I'm to run it, it'll be a sideboard thing. Still actually haven't tried a Return to the Ranks in the board because for some reason I don't have one and the store doesn't have one and I've never really bothered to order one...but should be a good SB card too.
And I do agree with you that Captain's Claws doesn't cut it in modern. It's been my opinion since the first few testing games...
Also agree with most matchup analysis...a few comments:
I've actually just played Dredge for two events (4-0, 3-1) and it feels very powerful. I ran a Gargadon/Bridge list, no Vengevine/Bloodghast rubbish...I dunno, it felt really strong...
I've played Elves 3 times (win, win, draw). Kabira Evangel usually ends the game on the spot. I have never lost to them being faster than me, but have won by being faster a few times. I think the only game I lost was in the draw. G1, took 43 minutes, saw 26 cards from my library and no Evangels or I would have won. Combat every turn was math whether he could activate Ezuri, Renegade Leader twice or three times...kept swinging back with lifelink and he'd just regenerate blockers...he eventually got enough mana to overrun I think 4 times and won. (G2 I attacked for 18 T3 and won T4 for a draw). So from my experience it's not faster than us. This is a matchup where I think I really profit from running Path main for those Ezuris/Warcallers...
Also got some testing done against the Bant Eldrazi list that popped up all over SCG lately...It's like 80-20 in our favour pre sideboard. We're just so much faster than them and by the time they put out Smasher/Seer we have 4/5s or 5/5s or bigger...Post board they get Timely Reinforcements and Engineered Explosives which can tilt the matchup, but overall I still think we're favoured even though we have to board out our best card (Evangel)...
Tron is bad, yes. It got worse now that they're all playing Kozilek's Return...it used to be literally play/draw decided. Because you have a very good chance of killing them on T4 on the play up to which point they barely interact, if at all. But you have barely any chance of beating O-Stone/Ugin on the draw...
The problem is it's hard to hate out. I don't think Crumble to Dust is for us. If we're on the play we want to spend that T4 ending the game, on the draw we've probably just lost our board and it won't matter anyway...I've tried Stony Silence which can do a great job against them. But whenever I have it they just have 0 Eggs or Stones or Maps and just go natural tron, Karn, Ugin every time...Tron is the only deck other than UW Control I have a negative win rate against.
Infect/Grishoalbrand really don't seem to be popular here. I imagine Infect is a pretty bad matchup...as long as they don't stumble and the infected they're relying on has evasion, so Nexus/Agent, they'll just be faster than us.
Grishotlbrand similar, all we can hope is that they lose to themselves because they are quite inconsistent. And our matchup isn't especially bad, I mean we provide a very solid clock against combo...
Creature decks are basically always favourable. Colourless Creatures less so. I've never lost a game to Death & Taxes where they haven't gone T3 Splicer and flickered it at least twice...that matchup is good. A lot of their cards just don't matter...We barely get taxed by Leonin Arbiter since we only run 4 fetches and can just crack one on T1 if we have it...only helps their Paths/GQs...Thalia isn't good against a deck with 28 creatures...Dryad Militant, Judge's Familiar, Aven Mindcensor follow the same train of thought. A lot of their cards are just bad in the matchup.
Mill I have no clue. Assuming they run Crypt Incursion and Ensnaring Bridge (as lists I've seen lately do) we'll likely lose. If they're straight up milling us we'll just be faster.
Went 3-2. Could have easily been 4-1 and Top4, but sometimes you just aren't lucky.
List:
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Hada Freeblade
4 Akoum Battlesinger
4 Kazandu Blademaster
2 Jwari Shapeshifter
2 Harabaz Druid
4 Kabira Evangel
2 Firemantle Mage
2 Lantern Scout
Non-Creatures (12)
4 Aether Vial
4 Collected Company
4 Path to Exile
4 Ally Encampment
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Reflecting Pool
4 Windswept Heath
2 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Forest
2 Plains
1 Mutavault
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Stony Silence
1 Rest in Peace
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Wear // Tear
1 Jwari Shapeshifter
2 Lantern Scout
1 Firemantle Mage
1 Reckless Bushwhacker
1 Boros Charm
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Qasali Pridemage
Round 1: 2-1 vs. Jund
Game 1 I take a mulligan to 6 and keep a good hand. He has Decay for my Blademaster and Pulse for double Battlesinger. But I get him low quickly. We both run out of resources, I eventually draw another Battlesinger and with him at 2 it's lethal. Game 2 I mull to 6 again. He has good answers for all my threats and I eventually get Kolaghan's Commanded with Evangel, Battlesinger, Path in hand. I decide I need both my creatures to win. He then slams Kalitas and starts taking over the game. Perhaps my decision was wrong. Regardless, I have a final turn to draw Collected and hit a Battlesinger + anything to swing for lethal. I actually draw CoCo, but no Battlesinger. Game 3 I get under him. hard. I win T4 through Bolt, Goyf, Scooze.
Round 2: 0-2 vs. Mono White Death and Taxes (guy ends up winning)
This is the game I feel I should have won. This matchup is far better than the one vs. Jund which is even-ish...basically they have to have T3 Blade Splicer followed by multiple Flicker effects for the following turns, because nothing they play matters other than lots of First striking Golems. Saw his list later. It's 3 Blade Splicer, 4 Flickerwisp, 2 Restoration Angel. Both games he had T3 Splicer, G1 he had 3 flicker effects, G2 he had 4. Meanwhile on my side: 0 Collected Company, 0 Akoum Battlesinger, 0 Path to Exile to remove the Splicers in both games. Ah well...
Round 3: 0-2 vs. RG Tron
Well, I lost the die roll (3rd time this tournament lol) and on the draw the matchup is pretty bad. I mull to 5 G1 and keep a hand that's ok, but unlikely to kill him on T3 or T4. Turns out he kept Tower, Tower, Mine, Power Plant, Karn, Ugin, Ulamog...yeah...not winning that.
G2 I mull to 6 and keep a 1 land hand that wins on T4 guaranteed with a 2nd land on the scry, T2 or T3 draw. Regardless of their T3 play of Karn or Wurmcoil or whatever...yeah, didn't draw the land.
Round 4: 2-0 vs. Naya Zoo
Creature decks. Easy really. Not much to talk about...your creatures grow bigger, they often can't block, you have instant speed tricks with Vial and Coco and they don't...
Round 5: 2-0 vs. Eldrazi Taxes
G1 I had 1 land and 2 Vials. All game. Still happy with it though, he was a friend of mine and drew 8 or 9 lands instead which was definitely worse. I mean, I won with 3 Coco and Path in hand that I couldn't cast but still less dead cards than all his excess lands.
G2 we both started fairly slowly. Twice that game he vialled in a hand disruption creature on my draw step and both times I responded with CoCo. The second time after just drawing it. Was pretty lucky that game. Ended the game the second time that happened with 2 Battlesingers and a Clone of them in play and +6/+0 across 6 or 7 creatures...
You can't return Amalgam multiple times per turn. If you return one and then sacrifice it with the other triggers still on the stack, it won't come back again in the same turn since it will have changed zones and thus become a new object. It would need new triggers to return again.
What you can however do with multiple Amalgams is to let all but on of them enter the battlefield, then with the last one's trigger(s) still on the stack, sacrifice all the other ones. The last one entering the battlefield will then trigger all the others to come back in the next end step, where you can do the same trick again. So with multiple Amalgams and a few bridges and a sac outlet you can quickly amass lots of zombies.
Magus' list:
http://i.imgur.com/jx1Udiu.jpg
Yeah, UW these days should be less bad. Them running Thopter/Sword is better for us than them running more sweepers and more removal. I was very much thinking of the deck back in the Eldrazi era of a month or so ago.
Gideon:
You're right, 2 total copies of Gideon/Colossus should be enough. I run 1 Gideon 0 Colossus personally...
Field:
The generally played hate cards here would be Rest in Peace which shuts off Thopter/Sword, Melira Combo and Grishoalbrand while also being very good against the Snapcaster/Tasigur/GDD/Goyf decks or Stony Silence which shuts off Affinity, Tron and Thopter/Sword (and your vial :/)
Torpor Orb:
I see. I've lost to Torpor Orb a few times, it's not really a common card though. Unless you know your local players to bring them in, you shouldn't board in hate specifically for them unless you see them in G2...
Draw Spells:
Assuming 28 creatures, Lead the Stampede hits 2.33 on average. Gambit hits 2 every time. The card quality from Lead will always be better. You'll have 3 mana in play so won't necessarily want lands. Lead the Stampede will give you 2.33 creatures, Gambit 2 random cards. I think that's enough of an edge to make Lead better than the Proliferate makes Gambit. So it's Lead the Stampede for me. I'd evaluate it differently in a Scales build with 20+ creatures that get counters though...although, there I'd probably run Inspiring Call anyways.
List:
4 Hada Freeblade
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Akoum Battlesinger
4 Kazandu Blademaster
2 Jwari Shapeshifter
2 Harabaz Druid
4 Kabira Evangel
2 Lantern Scout
2 Firemantle Mage
Non-Creatures (12)
4 Aether Vial
4 Collected Company
4 Path to Exile
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ally Encampment
1 Reflecting Pool
4 Windswept Heath
2 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Plains
1 Forest
1 Mutavault
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Jwari Shapeshifter
1 Firemantle Mage
2 Lantern Scout
2 Boros Charm
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Wear // Tear
1 Ancient Grudge
Round 1: 2-1 vs. Grixis Delver
Feels favourable. They have cards like Remand that do basically nothing...Their Bolts/Terminates and Snapcaster-Bolts etc. are good in the matchup, but all our creatures just keep coming. It's still quite close though, you need to get ahead and stay ahead which is fairly doable since we tend to curve out low. Another important thing is that their mana base is very painful. They usually take 6+ damage from lands in the early turns which accelerates our clock even more.
Round 2: 1-2 vs. Grixis Midrange (if you've heard of Blue Jund, this is it)
The one I lost. Different approach to the archetype. Zero countermagic, 4 Ancestral Visions, 2 Serum Visions, a few Thing in the Ice and Tasigur, the Golden Fang and literally everything else is removal (Bolt, Terminate, K-Command, ...) or removal on a stick (Snapcaster, Dark-Dwellers). I won the game where I was on the play and always slightly ahead and lost the game on the draw always slightly behind. Then got stomped G3. This list also boarded in multiple copies of Anger of the Gods and Damnation. Seems fairly hard to beat. You're looking for some tricks with Vial/Encampment and CoCo to keep up with the card-advantage...
Round 3: 2-0 vs. Grixis Control
Back to the Counterspells deck with less removal. G1 Vial was huge, G2 I just got underneath him.
I sideboarded +2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, +1 Rest in Peace, -2 Jwari Shapeshifter, -1 Expedition Envoy every time. Often slightly lowered my curve on the play and slightly raised it on the draw post board too.
Had a very awkward overall draw rate tonight. Didn't see Vial in any of the first 10 hands I got a look at (6 games with 4 mulligans). Saw 2 only tonight, both in the last round. Possibly the best card in this matchup, would definitely have helped further. Drew only 2 CoCo too tonight. One got countered (Dispel, never seen anyone board in Dispel vs. me, but I guess it worked for him there so fair play...) and one hit only 1 creature...
On the other hand, drew around 15 Freeblades, literally 1 mana goyf in this deck...except better.
I'm currently cutting on 3-drops to lower the curve 1 by 1....will probably keep going.
Re: UW:
UW Control is in my extensive experience the single worst matchup. Granted, I played it mostly during the Eldrazi era, where they had 5 main deck sweepers and 4 Path got complemented by D-Sphere and Condemn...I'll keep saying it, the nature of our decks makes us very, very bad against Wrath of God effects. I've played this matchup 10+ times and won 10-20% of the games.
Re: Specific cards:
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar comes in solely against Jund, Abzan, Mardu, that kind of deck for me. And i strongly believe it's our best SB card for those matchups. I've played the matchups plenty of times. Never lost after casting this.
Suppression Field will hurt you too, beware. You have 6 Fetch lands and 4 Vials. Plus, what "Major combo decks" are you fighting with it? The biggest combo decks in the meta are Scapeshift, Abzan Coco, Kiki Chord and Infect. It's a dead card against 2 and you can do much better against the creature decks (Path for example)
Boros Charm is a card I can't justify main decking. My creature count is at 28 and I will never go lower...Vial/CoCo help the strategy MUCH more and it's really far behind Path in a competition for the last few slots...
Why do you expect Torpor Orb out of Grishoalbrand's Sideboard? I've barely ever seen it there. Go check their forums or mtgtop8...there's an average of 0.1 copies in the sideboard apparently.