MTG Salvation

A small question, do you know how much longer we have to live with this "problem" (I know, for what this is). I found a work around for those pesky Latin characters I need, but it gets annoying from time to time (I know).

You don't need to add me on the byepass list, I just wanted to know, if there is a solution coming any time soon or not.

Greetings,
Kathal

Cause Causal and EDH. In both player bases this card sees a ton of play. Furthermore, it had "only" three printruns which where all rather small ones. And some Control decks uses it as super-secret tech against Tron

Greetings,
Kathal

No. The ability of Myr Moonvessel is no mana ability (otherwise it would work).

Greetings,
Kathal

I will update the primer (regarding the Shoal version) in the next few days. I didn't had enough time, to implement everything from the last few GPs. Furthermore, I will talk a little bit about some "new" techs, but this will take some days as well (really busy atm).

Greetings,
Kathal

Quote from MTG-Fan »

No Bloom Titan? No Lantern Control? What happened to these "breakout" decks?

Lantern/Top Control needs a ton of practice and experience to play well. It is not possible to learn those in less than a week (srsly, the deck is incredible hard to pilot well).

Amulet Bloom got hated out, due to the high amount of Fulminator Mages, Ghost Quarters and Blood Moons (although Moons are declining).

They are the main reasons, why those decks either didn't show up, or didn't do well.

Greetings,
Kathal

So, 2 Merfolk decks are top 8, which cards will spike? I bet on Aether Vial and the Lords. Another big candidate could be Cosi's Trickster.

Edit says: Oh, I forgot about Wanderwine Hub.

Greetings,
Kathal

Quote from ktkenshinx »

What an awesome T8 and T16. Day 2 is a bit Twin-heavy, but it's not that bad when you realize it's split between at least two different kinds of Twin decks (regular UR and Grixis).

Abzan COMPLETELY absent from Day 2 (Abzan Liege and Abzan Company don't count). Grixis Control is a huge success story, because that's looking like the top-tier, traditional control deck that most players have missed in Modern for years. Linear decks continue to be strong, such as Suicide Shadow, Amulet Bloom, and Griselbrand, but they are neither top-tier nor consistent enough to indicate format unhealth.

Overall a very exciting GP.

I think, they lumped the traditional Junk version with the Little Kid Junk together under "Abzan Midrange".

Edit says: the little Kid Junk is listed under "Abzan Aggro", so 6 traditional Junk lists are day 2.

Greetings,
Kathal

Top 16: http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpcop15/top-16-decklists-2015-06-21

Greetings,
Kathal

Regarding both Amulet Bloom and Griselbrand, the people know now, how the deck works, so they know how to play against those decks (which is huge). Furthermore, many people were overreacting and slammed hate in their SBs for those decks (looking at Blood Moon). Also, many people who picked up Griselbrand/Amulet Bloom have not enough experience with those decks, which also influences the outcome of those decks.

However, I agree with you, that neither Amulet Bloom nor Griselbrand are Tier 1 decks, more like 1.5, where both can be hated out in one way or another (Blood Moon, several Ghost Quarters for Bloom, and RiP, Cage for Griselbrand combined with a fast clock).

And yeah, I'm happy to see Grixis Control doing so well, they got great tools in the last few sets. So now people can stop complaining about having no control deck in Modern.

Greetings,
Kathal

Round 4 is missing

Edit says: nvm, you weren't done writing

@All, in the last few decks many people were playing this deck (and had results ofc), some of them had pretty interesting ideas, both in the SBs and in the Maindeck. Here is a list with the most impressive ones:

MD:
(from Pomegrant) the third Desperate Ritual (flex spot)
Necrotic Ooze (flex spot)
2 Fury of the Hordes (flex spot + 1 Tormenting Voice)
1 Graven Cairns (no idea why)
1 Molten Slagheap (that one is actually interesting, since it allows you to play the draw-go approach better MD against the counter decks, but probably to slow)
1 Dragonskull Summit (should was in the third Blackcleave slot, but I don't like it that much, since we have rather many non Swamps/Mountains in the Temples)

SB;
(from Pomegrant) Laboratory Maniac (as an out against infinity life/easier way to win against Soul Sister, he wrote about it earlier in the thread)
Necrotic Ooze (to be able to play around Needle and is great in the Mirror (it gets abilities from all the graveyards)
(again Pomegrant) Firespout (it is better than Pyroclasm against Elves and is G (relevant for Shoal), but might be to slow otherwise)
Horobi's Whisper (vs hatebears, can be used multiple times because of Splice)
Sickening Shoal (more Shoals in the SB, is good against Infect and hatebears, but our B count is not that high enough to support it that easy (and we don't want to pitch a Griselbrand/Goryo's)).
Kolaghan's Command (no idea, what this is doing here)

Greetings,
Kathal

What I can build:

Goryo's Vengeance - the Shoal version
Jeskai/RUG/4c (Counter-Cat) Delver
Eternal Ruse (either RUG or Bant)
Ritual Gifts
A bunch of no-name combo decks

Furthermore, I can build nearly any storm version (ANT, TES, DDFT, Tin Fins, SPI) in Legacy, because they share so many cards.

Greetings,
Kathal

The difference between RUG and Counter-Cat regarding Mandrills is, that you don't base around your deck around it to be able to cast on turn 2 and/or refill your grave in a fast manner again (no playset Thought Scour, Probes and co). You can play 2 without a problem, because 2 Delve cards always "free" to play but you will not be able to cast them on turn 2 (ofc, fetch, serum, probe, into fetch could make it happen), but a good amount of times on turn 3 (which is still fast enough for only 1 mana).

I run 2 at the moment, and I feel, this is the prefect number.

@All, guys, test Simic Charm in this deck, it is awesome as a 1 of. It helps against the Goyf/Tasigur/Siege Rhino battles with Nacatl and is overall a great card.

Greetings,
Kathal

You can't think this way. Most of the Legacy decks play Gyofs AND Duals, or Snapcasters AND Forces. You can't just buy one half and don't buy the other half, since the deck will be garbage. That's why Legacy is more expansive than Modern (besides the Lands on the reserved list).

@I think, that CoCo will hit the 20 Euro/Dollar mark with the end of the year. People love value and creatures, and CoCo does both. I also think, that the preferred CoCo Creatures will increase in price (Knight of the Reliquary, Smite, Witness,...).

Greetings,
Kathal

In my opinion, Ugin is a major player in standard (what I have seen) and in Modern he only sees play in RG Tron and in some fringe decks. His price is definitely driven by standard (the opposite is true for Kolaghan's Command), so I would trade him for fetches. Ugin will drop in price, when he stops to see standard play (but not that much, since the Causal guys love Planeswalker) and Fetchlands will only increase in price.

Greetings,
Kathal

Things which does beat the deck:

1. Losing to itself due to bad draws
2. Early and massive interaction (like 2 Discard spells, Discard + counters, Graveyard hate + Discard/Counters) combined with a fast clock (early Delver, turn 2 Angler, Wild Nacatl into another 2 drop into hate (when we didn't kill them till that moment))

That's it. So just a Cage/Leyline is "useless", since we can either kill them via Through the Breach or find a answerer first and than kill them. I won against countless Rest in Peaces, Cages, Relics and Leyline of the Void simply because I had more than enough time to find the right half of the combo. Just something like this doesn't stop us. That's why RUG Delver with Shoals is one of the hardest match-ups (besides Infect and Affinity), since it has free counter spells in Shoal, a fast clock and a Negate for only U.

Greetings,
Kathal