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Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

I agree. He's the first Streamer I'd donate some money to.

As long as he has a Griseldaddy Icon, I will sub immediately

Greetings,
Kathal

There is currently no home for her, cause she is in the wrong colours to say it this way. UGx is a colour combination, which doesn't mesh well with the 0 ability (aka the main reason to run her). If you go into Bant, there are way better options (Knight as a utility creature and Gideon, Ally of Zendrika as PW). Other colour combinations have better PW to say it this way.

Greetings,
Kathal

Always when I hear about the BR Grisel Control versions, I have to think immediately about this version: http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/necrotic_ooze_combo_deck_tech_.html

Of course, completely outdated, but as a base it would be interesting to go from it.

Greetings,
Kathal

So, you are passing on the Lantern?

Couldn't pass up the opportunity to make this pun

Either way, since I am and was Mods in different forums I know, what hell of an job this is, though still sad to see you step down.

Greetings,
Kathal

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

Thank you. Yes, my favorite deck in all formats is the pinnacle of interactive.

@Colt - I know. That's what I used to tell people when I played Griselbrand. My best defense vs. decks like Infect and Affinity was honestly just winning on turn 2 or 3. That's mostly how I beat them, at least before board. Some Affinity games after board actually became pretty long and interactive. I hard cast Griselbrand the most often vs. Affinity, at 3 times.

Hard casted the same Griselbrand 3 times against Meerfolk once and finished the game with a hardcast Worldspine Wurm thanks to Manamorphose and the old green splash for Revival...

That was a match I never want to play again...

Greetings,
Kathal

It solely depends on the Control deck. For example, UW Control would rather play Visions, cause of the rather awkward mana curve the deck has and thus wants to hit its silver bullets more reliant. On the other hand, Esper Control might want Opt more, cause the deck is a classic draw and go one.

Greetings,
Kathal

Drawing with Griselbrand and than noticing, that you do not have 7 cards left in the library ^^

Greetings,
Kathal

I tested baby Jace last year after the PT, since he looked rather great in the PT version (so Grixis no Shoal/Soul Spike/Fury version with Emmi). He was decent in there, especially since he bought a ton of time when you were able to flip him.

However, the downside was, he was very clunky and didn't progress you game plan more often than not. Multiple times I just played him on turn 2 (since I had to play him to start looting stuff away), just so that he dies to a simple removal spell (afaik there is no played removal spell which doesn't kill him). To make it even worse was, that the turn 1 Lootings were most of the times really bad with him, cause he would flip on turn 3 pretty consistent, which sounds great, but than you release you just lost your "draw engine".

You can see it with the "recent" developments of the Japanese guys, they switched the Jaces with Collective Brutality (this was pre Death Shadow Jund btw), since it was apparently just better than Jace in that shell.

I tried him in the Shoal version too, but the tax of going into U (life and manabase) combined with the overall problems of that card I went back to the classic BR Shoal version.

The only version, where I would play Jace (if I could find the room/a proper design for it) would be the Necrotic Ooze version. Here the question is, do you want to play G for Grisly Salvage (best cantrip for that deck) or do you want to go into blue for 1 mana cantrips + Jace (+SB cards), which is just nuts in that deck, since it is a combo Midrange deck.

So, tl;dr: I wouldn't play Jace in any version atm but the Ooze version.

Greetings,
Kathal

Quote from ktkenshinx »

Quote from cfusionpm »

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

Jeskai Nahiri beats Esper Control (Ali Aintrazi, former Invitational winner) on camera. Although the match doesn't matter much or have too many Modern implications, I feel that it's a sign that essentially "Counterburn" with 4 PWs can beat a "pure control deck." I should say as pure as it gets right now. I was considering playing an Esper list next FNM that I saw great Control player Guillaume Wafo-Tapa go 5-0 on an online league, but this kind of scares me away.

It played out exactly as my experience was. Long, drawn out, and no time for a game 3. Even Emrakul didn't win the game on the spot.

The following match of Bogles vs Dredge was wonderfully bland as two players play at each other rather than with each other.

What a "healthy" format.

I don't understand posts like this. You don't like control vs. control, you dont like fast matchups, you don't like certain kind of control decks, and you don't seem to like the format. It's just not a very constructive way too discuss an event or Modern. If you really dislike all those aspects, and I really don't mean this in an aggressive way, I'm really not sure this is the format for you or that there is any format which would fit your preferences.

C'mon ktkenshinx don't you enjoy the gripping and insightful commentary cfusionpm provides that is totally not just constant salt and grump over Splinter Twin?

Quote from cfusionpm »

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

Jeskai Nahiri beats Esper Control (Ali Aintrazi, former Invitational winner) on camera. Although the match doesn't matter much or have too many Modern implications, I feel that it's a sign that essentially "Counterburn" with 4 PWs can beat a "pure control deck." I should say as pure as it gets right now. I was considering playing an Esper list next FNM that I saw great Control player Guillaume Wafo-Tapa go 5-0 on an online league, but this kind of scares me away.

It played out exactly as my experience was. Long, drawn out, and no time for a game 3. Even Emrakul didn't win the game on the spot.

The following match of Bogles vs Dredge was wonderfully bland as two players play at each other rather than with each other.

What a "healthy" format.

I don't understand posts like this. You don't like control vs. control, you dont like fast matchups, you don't like certain kind of control decks, and you don't seem to like the format. It's just not a very constructive way too discuss an event or Modern. If you really dislike all those aspects, and I really don't mean this in an aggressive way, I'm really not sure this is the format for you or that there is any format which would fit your preferences.

Death&Taxes: mtgTop8 Quicklinks

What is this post about?
        Despite the recent meta-wide popularity of Death&Taxes (and the BW-Eldrazi variant in particular) the posted results still seem to be sorted under a number of crazy titles. Searching through Hatebear, Flicker, Eldrazi, etc. results to find actual Death&Taxes listings can often be a pain, especially when you just want to compare the top few recent decks in your splash color.
        This list uses google-fu and short-links to type the "Decks must contain following cards"-entries into mtgTop8 so you don't have to.

Search Posted Wins
The links below are sorted from top-to-bottom following wide-to-narrow applicability. You can hover-over the links here and bookmark them to your browser. Favorite and forget it.

 

• Death&Taxes / / Hatebears      (Searches for: GQ, Vial, and ThaliaGT.)
These results are super general and not necessarily D&T. Though, sometimes it's useful for comparing Death&Taxes vs. Hatebears.


• WX-Death&Taxes      (Searches for: Wisp, Vial, and ThaliaGT.)
Finds >95% of all D&T decks (all color variants) while excluding Hatebears decks with decent accuracy (Hatebears tends to not run Wisp).


• WGX-Death&Taxes      (Searches for: Forest, Wisp, Vial, and ThaliaGT.)
Finds white-green D&T lists as long as the pilots packed at least one basic Forest.


• WBX-Death&Taxes      (Searches for: Swamp, Wisp, Vial, and ThaliaGT.)
Finds white-black D&T lists as long as the pilots packed at least one basic Swamp.


• WRX-Death&Taxes      (Searches for: Red, Wisp, Vial, and ThaliaGT.)
Finds white-red D&T lists as long as the pilots packed at least one basic Mountain.


• WUX-Death&Taxes      (Searches for: Island, Wisp, Vial, and ThaliaGT.)
Finds white-blue D&T lists as long as the pilots packed at least one basic Island.


• WXC-Death&Taxes      (Searches for: TKS, Wisp, Vial, and ThaliaGT.)
Finds most Eldrazi D&T lists, even most micro-splashes, since TKS is often the biggest reason to dabble in Eldrazi.


• WCX-Death&Taxes      (Searches for: EzTemple, Wisp, Vial, and ThaliaGT.)
Finds heavily-splashed Eldrazi D&T lists by searching for maindeck Eldrazi Temple; this will often miss Eldrazi micro-splashes.

Why?
        I mostly made this post because I got annoyed manually typing entries into mtgTop8 and figured others might be in the same boat. Some of you may already have your own work-arounds but for everyone else, here it is. The formatting is a little over the top but I wanted to grab everyone's attention to gauge interest. (And maybe selfishly snag some likes in the process; Muwahahaha! <--evil laugh)

Suggestions
If there are some important searches that you feel I missed (or better search cards for a given splash/variant) feel free to PM me a suggestion.

Quote from ktkenshinx »

Happy to see Grixis Delver on stream. The deck has been stuck in the Tier 3 pits for a while now and it will be cool to see more of it. Can't say it's my favorite Ad Nauseam matchup, but hey, can't knock format diversity!

I think the commentator to the side of Matthias Hunt, Ryan Overturf, brought Grixis Delver back to light with his recent success at a large tournament. That was the first I've seen of Grixis Delver in a while. Even our resident FNM Delver player switched from UR back to Grixis.

@billzagoudis - I'm not sure if he realized that he had inevitability since it seemed like he had harder to kill threats left in the deck (Nahiri, not milling out because of Emrakul) or if he was just being ultra conservative.

Quote from MagusZanin666 »

When it comes to Cabal Therapy, I'm more worried about Grixis Delver with Gitaxian Probe, Young Pyromancer and Cabal Therapy + Tasigur/Gurmag Angler. That seems like a recipe for an overnight Tier 1 Deck, if not a Tier .75 one.

Sounds like hyperbole to me.

I think what people often find unfun about Countermagic isn't just that they dont get to play with their creature, but the psychological effect of, "can I play this cool thing? What if he counters it? I reaaaallly want to play it, but if it gets countered..." I don't really know why thats different from removal, maybe its the fact that for a tiny amount of time your creature was actually on the board? Either way it seems like the sentiment "counters aren't fun" is a pretty established thing and I imagine it's going to be a rare occurrence where we see decent countermagic printed, be it new or a reprint.

As much as I love counterspells (and I do, believe me, my first real deck was UB Fae ) it seems like WotC is aiming for a more creature centric game, and considering we're going to be getting our cards from Standard for the foreseeable future I don't hold high ups for more potent countermagic. I expect a world of continuing the tradition of the Thragtusk/Siege Rhino value creature. I hope I'm wrong, I'd like to play a deck with a strong suite of countermagic and I'd REALLY love to play some counter-centric draw-go control or tempo. Seems like decks are going to be more in the Jund-y value-y midrange-y realm to me though.

In any case some counterspells I'd personally like to see,
Circular Logic (I would love a control deck that required GY resource management with Delve and stuff)
Forbid
Miscalculation
Thwart

These embody regimes of countermagic that I like archetypically, Circular Logic requires resource management and is vulnerable to hate, Forbid is a costly recursive hard counter thats negative value, Miscalculation is a flexible generally solid counterspell, and Thwart is a "free" counterspell, even if weak. (maybe Daze is a better example of this though.)

I'm not sure what kind of counterspell is best for Modern, I'm so-so on whether or not I'd want to see Daze reprinted for Modern, I'm wary of "free" counterspells like Daze that can occur so early, but maybe that kind of early counterspell is what Modern countermagic needs to look like? Theres always just Counterspell plain 'ol hard counters, but I doubt they're going to print straight up hard counters that are Modern quality (though I think that Counterspell is of Modern powerlevel, definitely not game breaking), and conditonal countermagic is, to me, more appealing anyways with regards to the way it can influence deck building.

I haven't played anything other than Affinity for a long while so my perspective is skewed, but these are my views for whatever they're worth with regards to counterspells within Modern.

Quote from Kathal »

Why think small scale, Emrakul, Aeons Torn

This is why I like you so much.

Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn is one of my favorite 2 creatures in the game (Griselbrand being the other). There was a moment in Modern before Twin got played so much that I actually felt the meta was somewhat soft to Emrakul (not so many tap down cards like Pestermite, Deceiver Exarch, and Cryptic Command). Fun times.

Anyway to contribute to the thread, Glen-Elendra Archmage.

Quote from Kathal »

@ktkenshinx, I just want to ask you (since you have probably the most knowledge about this). Do get GPT not published (list of top8)? I played against a cool deck in the top 8 of the last GPT but I cannot find the lists online, neither from the whole event (btw. it was not a small one with overall 40+ players (played 6 rounds)). So, do you have any infos about this?

Greetings,
Kathal

Wizards only publishes PTs, GPs, RPTQs, and sometimes other similar higher level events. GPTs, PTQs, ans event like thaat are published at the discretion of the TO, and most generally don't have the time, interest, or resources generally to do so. There is no central, publically accessible location for reporting lists from tournaments, so if it happens at all, it happens on an LGS page or one of 10+ metagame sites.

I've been told it was a fake, but I want to believe it's true. I want to believe so bad.