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  • posted a message on [Primer] Blue Moon: UR Blood Moon/Shackles Control
    Hey guys/gals. I'm quite new to the Blue Moon shell, but I've put in a decent bit of time playing Jeskai so I feel like I know my way around a Snapcaster Mage decently well. Just wanted to share a write-up from Modern at my LGS tonight that I also posted on the ModernMagic subreddit. Let me know if you have any critiques or advice you'd like to share. I personally feel like Snapcaster - Bolt decks are in a pretty good spot right now in Modern, so I'm eager to try different shells/packages.

    Thanks!
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    https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/796123#paper



    Match 1 - Candace on Affinity

    Game 1 - I keep a slow opener and get beaten down by a solid affinity draw. I only show an Island and a Sulfur Falls before I scoop, so she's not sure what I'm on.

    (Sideboard: +2 Anger, +2 Ceremonious Rejection, +1 Izzet Staticaster, +1 Explosives; -4 Remand, -1 Clique, -1 Pull from Tomorrow)

    Game 2 - I trade Bolts and Izzet Charm for her creatures and keep my life total fairly high early. She lands a Rest in Peace at one point. I Breach in and Emrakul while she has 7 permanents. She sac's everything except an Ornithopter and chump blocks, leaving an empty board. I end up beating down with Snapcaster over several turns and activate Loothouse multiple times until I'm able to Breach in another Emrakul for the win.

    Game 3 - I cast all 4 Serum Visions in the first few turns this game. She went for the win with a Cranial Plating equip on Inkmoth, but I have the Bolt for it. She floats a mana from the Inkmoth and equips to Vault Skirge to gain a bunch of life. I Breach in an Emrakul, but she has another Ornithopter to chump. The game lasts quite a while longer, but basically boils down to me Loothousing each turn until I Breach Emrakul two more times.

    1-0 (2-1 in games)

    Match 2 - Sherman on GW Bogles

    Game 1 - Keep a reasonable opener on the play with Snapcaster, Electrolyze, Blood Moon, Spell Snare, and 2 lands. I open with a basic Island, he opens with a Gladecover Scout. I pass with 2 mana up, and he jams a Spiritdancer. After thinking for a bit, I let it resolve. He then attacks with the Scout, and I flash in Snapcaster to block. I untap, draw into my third land, and Electrolyze the Spiritdancer. He passes without playing a threat, and I stick a Blood Moon; he doesn't cast another spell. I win game 1 Snapcasters and Bolts without having to show the combo.

    (Sideboard: +2 Negate, +1 Explosives, +2 Anger, +1 Blood Moon; -2 Electrolyze, -1 Pull from Tomorrow, -1 Bolt, -2 Remand)

    Game 2 - Opponent starts on a Bogle, then follows up with just a second Bogle on turn 2. On his turn 3, he plays a Spider Umbra on one Bogle which resolves, then plays a Rancor which I Negate. On the next turn I flash in a Snapcaster to block his naked Bogle. Can't remember turn 4, but turn 5 brings a Breached Emrakul that wipes his board. The game ends from Snapcaster beats a couple turns later.

    2-0 (4-1 in games)

    Match 3 - Grant on UR Gifts Storm

    Game 1 - I spend the first few turns Bolting cost reducers, then stick a Blood Moon while he has no basic Islands. He makes a significant mistake this game when he casts a Manamorphose to make blue mana, then follows up with a Desparate Ritual but forgets that he doesn't have a cost reducer in play so it consumes his only blue. 4R and an Annihilator 6 trigger later ends the game.

    (Sideboard: +2 Negate, +1 Dispel, +1 Disdainful Stroke, +1 Anger; -2 Blood Moon, -2 Electrolyze, -1 Pull)

    Game 2 - Game starts with cantrips, cost reducers, and Bolts on cost reducers. On turn 5, he has an Electromancer and a Baral against my Cryptic mana. He casts a Past in Flames with 2 cards in hand and only an Opt and a Manamorphose in the yard with which to draw. I assume he's not holding Gifts, let the PiF resolve, then Cryptic to counter Manamorphose/bounce Electromancer. He casts a Sleight of Hand from his hand, but fizzles after not finding a Storm payoff or Gifts. I untap and Breach him for the win.

    3-0 (6-1 in games)

    Match 4 - James on Jeskai Geist

    Game 1 - He's not sure what kind of UR deck I'm on for most of this game as we trade bolts to the face for a while. Loothouse puts in serious work here over several turns. I eventually start trying to Snap-Bolt him on his end step to draw out mana and counters. Once his resources are fairly well depleted, I Breach him for the win.

    (Sideboard: +2 Negate, +1 Dispel, +1 Blood Moon, + 1 Disdainful Stroke; -2 Remand, -2 Electrolyze, -1 Izzet Charm)

    Game 2 - Keep a land heavy hand with a Blood Moon, so I have a game plan. I draw into my Clique, so the plan is to Clique him at the end of his turn to take/bait a counter, the Moon him. He casts his own Clique in response to mine and snags my Blood Moon.

    My hand is basically all lands and a Disdainful Stroke when my Clique resolves, so I target myself to try to find action. I find a Bolt for his Clique, swing once, then he Bolts my Clique. We spend several turns just building up lands, and at some point along the way he flashes in a Spell Queller to start chipping away at me. It whittles me down to 11 and I decide to make a play to remove the Spell Queller.

    I go for a Snap Bolt, he Dispels. I go for a second Snap Bolt, he Negates, I Cryptic to counter+ bounce Snapcaster, he Spell Quellers Cryptic which resolves, I Bolt Queller, he Paths my Snap, Queller dies, I recast Cryptic to counter + draw, and he Mana Leaks to save his Queller. I untap with Disdainful Stroke and Spell Snare, and draw into a Serum Visions. I draw one half of the combo and scry the other half to the top. He hits me down to 5 and passes, and I draw the second half of the combo. I jam the Breach, he Cryptics, I Disdainful Stroke, and he decides to go for Snap-Dispel instead of Spell Queller and I'm able to seal with game with Spell Snare on the Snapcaster.

    4-0 (8-1 in games)
    Posted in: Control
  • posted a message on [Deck] UBx Mill
    Hi, everyone. First time posting here. Just wanted to share an event report from my first night of playing with Fraying Sanity. It's been a while since I've dusted off the old Glimpses, but seeing some people here having success with Fraying Sanity made me eager to try it out. First off, here's the 75 I ran with:



    Round 1 - Kelvin on Budget Mono-U Mill
    Game 1 - Wow, the mill mirror to start (and I'm the only one of us running fetch lands...). I start with a fetch land, he leads on basic Island Hedron Crab. I fetch at the end of his turn, and he hits me with double Archive Trap. I have a slow start and he goes Mind Sculpt, Evolving Wilds for double landfall triggers, and double Tome Scour for the win.
    Sideboarding: -2 Mesmeric Orb, -2 Crypt Incursion, -2 Ensnaring Bridge; +2 Leyline of Sanctity, +2 Dispel, +1 Negate, +1 Collective Brutality.
    Game 2 - I lead with Inquisition to take a Mana Leak; he leads on Crab. I collective Brutality to kill his crab and make him discard a second Mana Leak. At this point I know he's holding 2 Fraying Sanity. I end up milling a Sanity and nabbing it with Extirpate to strip one out of his hand. I assemble double sanity and eventually draw into a Breaking for the win.
    Game 3 - I open with Leyline of Sanctity and I'm pretty sure his deck just didn't have a single out to it. Pretty much a non-game.
    1-0 (2-1 games)

    Round 2 - James on Scapeshift
    Game 1 - I open on Swamp - Inquisition and see Scapeshift, double Search for Tomorrow, Farseek, STE, and two lands. I take a Search. He suspends a Search and I Glimpse him on turn 2. He plays STE and cracks it, and I Archive Trap him. He plays a turn 4 or 5 Primeval Titan which I follow up with an Ensnaring Bridge. Shortly after that I mill the rest of his mountains and he can't win.
    Sideboarding: -3 Fatal Push; +1 Negate, +2 Leyline of Sanctity
    Game 2 - My opening hand is 2 lands, 3 Archive Traps, and I can't remember what else. He fetches on turn 2 and gets hit for 39. I untap and Glimpse him on my turn 2 to leave him with 1 card in his library. Whole game took about a minute and a half.
    2-0 (4-1 games)

    Round 3 - James on UR Gifts Storm
    Game 1 - I have a timely Fatal Push for his turn 2 Baral that slows him down for a bit. I hit with with an Archive Trap after he fetches a basic Mountain and mill both of his basic Islands. This lets me Ghost Quarter him to take him off of Gifts mana for a turn and get there with Glimpse and Breaking.
    Sideboarding: -3 Ensnaring Bridge, -2 Crypt Incursion, -1 Inquisition, -1 Path; +2 Dispel, +1 Negate, +1 Engineered Explosives, +2 Leyline of Sanctity, +1 Collective Brutality
    Game 2 - I open with Leyline , he opens with Serum Visions. I don't play around his sideboard Blood Moon, though, and I'm left with 1 Island and a bunch of Mountains. He eventually casts a big Empty that I'm able to sweep up with Explosives, but he ends up just playing all 4 Goblin Electromancers and beating down with an army of 2/2's.
    Sideboarding: -1 Mesmeric Orb; +1 Damnation
    Game 3 - This was a heck of a game. I start doing my mill thing, he plays a Baral, and I kill it. He eventually gets down to around half of his deck milled and I draw an Extirpate. I choose to Extirpate his Past in Flames instead of his Gifts, which I'm almost positive is the correct choice (which seems obvious in hindsight, but I tanked for a decent bit about it in the game). He eventually sticks a Baral that I can't remove while I have 3 lands in play and a hand that consists of Damnation and Archive Trap. He goes through a bunch of rituals and casts Gifts; since he doesn't have Past in Flames anymore, I just give him more rituals and put card draw spells in his yard. He then goes through those rituals and casts a second Gifts. This was my worst misplay of the night, IMO. For some reason I don't think to Archive Trap him in response to this Gifts and just let him search again. I give him more rituals and he ends up making 18 Goblins. My outs at this point are untapped land for Damnation or Explosives. I topdeck Explosives. Once the goblins are cleared, I'm able to stick a Fraying Sanity and eventually finish him off with a Breaking.
    3-0 (6-2 games)

    Round 4 - Candice on Affinity
    Game 1 - She has a turn 2 Ravager that I attempt to Path on her end step; she just moves its counter to an Ornithopter and starts pecking away with Inkmoth/Ornithopter/Signal Pest beats for a few turns. I end up extracting her Ravagers and her Platings, but I eventually lose to the 2 Infect a turn.
    Sideboarding: -3 Archive Trap, -2 Fraying Sanity, -1 Inquisition; +2 Disenchant, +1 Fragmentize, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Damnation, +1 Crypt Incursion
    Game 2 - I open on Inquisition and see a hand of 2 lands, 3 Vault Skirge, Ornithopter, Master of Etherium. I have an Engineered Explosives in hand for the Skirges so I take the Master. I lead with some mill spells to give her time to deploy all 3 Skirges. I eventually assemble double Fraying Sanity, but I'm once again being poked down by Inkmoth Nexus. I eventually get down to just a few life and 9 poison and topdeck a Glimpse for 40 and the win.
    Game 3 - She opens with a couple of Ornithopers; I open with an Inquisition that has to take a Blood Moon. She plays a Steel Overseer on turn 2 that is met with a Fatal Push. I believe I fetch-shocked to cast this Fatal Push. I remember thinking at the time that I shouldn't be shocking against Affinity, but I didn't it anyways for some reason. We got through a couple of slow turns where all she has are Ornithopters and Springleaf Drums. During this time, I land a Fraying Sanity. She then plays and equips a Cranial Plating, making a 7-power Ornithopter while I'm at 14. Her board at this point was double Ornithoper, Plating, double Spring Leaf, Mountain, double Darksteel Citadel, Spire of Industry. I go to 7. On my turn, I have 3 mana available with Breaking, Path, and Crypt Incursion in hand. She only had a few creatures in her graveyard at the time, so I took the high-risk/high-reward line of Breaking + hold up Path. This milled an additional 16 cards but left me dead to a topdecked creature, Glimmervoid, Spire, or Mox Opal. If I could dodge this one draw step, I'd be able to Crypt Incursion for a massive amount of life the next turn and get several more draw steps. Sadly she drew a Vault Skirge and was able to attack with both Ornithopters for exact lethal after the Path. I'm not sure if that line was correct or not, but I still think I had a better shot of winning the game this way instead of just delaying the inevitable for a turn.
    3-1 (7-4 games)

    Overall, I was very impressed with Fraying Sanity. I milled more cards tonight with Fraying Sanity than I've ever milled with Mind Funeral. This was also the first time I've run a list with 4x Breaking, and I was impressed there, as well. One benefit of Sanity was that topdecked mill spells late in the game were essentially instant kills, so I appreciated having a higher density of mill spells.

    Regarding my play, I think it was a mistake to more board in Murderous Cut against Affinity, and I'm pretty upset with myself for not Archive Trapping in response to the Gift Storm player's second Gifts in a turn. I'm also not super pleased with my sideboard in general, but that's to be expected when you just throw the deck together a few minutes for a tournament. Anyways, I've droned on long enough.

    TL;DR: Fraying Sanity is great. Mill is fun.





    Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
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