Yes, you often take out Izzet Charm 99% of the time due to it being bad. It's okay against Twin, but they just board in 3x Counterflux and 2x Swan Song and that stops that counter war.
I value Clique a lot because even though the chances of eating removal are high. It's better than having two land searches and no card draw in your hand.
It's either a cycle land for me or a Thoughtseize/Peek against my opponent.
Side boarding is so easy against every deck.
Afinnity
- 4x Remand
+ 2x Ancient Grudge
+ 2x Anger of the Gods
That's the only deck you need to worry about that's really aggro. Pod and Delver aren't aggro decks, but Mid Range/Tempo decks.
If I know I'm going to get Surgical Extracted after I got Thoughtseize, on game 3 if it goes that far. I will board out one Scapeshift. Usually, Against Twin - I can just out value them because they have more dead draws than us. Them hitting us with 1/4 isn't that bad.
On the first topic: For me, I play this deck more reactive than most. In the end, it's a combo deck, yes, but I play way more controlly than most. Most of my competitive magic experience is from Legacy and Vintage U/X deck. Clique became my favorite card since it was released over 6 years ago.
I took out a Search for a single copy of Vendilion Clique. The reasoning is 1-ofs save you when you draw it. This deck has enough draw like a Legacy deck, so I always seem to draw it early.
I understand untapping on turn 3 with Cryptic Command, but I don't always draw my Cyptics' for some reason. I've had 4 games where I've won where I only saw two Cryptics total - weird.
My defense for V. Clique is she's almost a Thoughtseize and if all else fails, she trades with a X/3 creature or gets one attack in to reduce the amount of lands you need to finish them off.
Against America Control list, you don't always have the chance to combo. Out of the 4 games against Ameriaca control, I was only able to combo 2/4. The other two wins were from Snappy + Bolt/Electroylze aggro with counter back up or Snappy/Clique and tons of counters. I mean they will shock themselves at least once, so you only need to 15-17 damage in reality. That's not a lot when no one blocks your Snapcaster Mages'.
@PlayingvsJund: Losing to Jund, happens, God draws and 4 discard spells will make you lose very fast.
Winning against Jund is rather easy if you are on the play or get lucky.
The games I 2-0 Jund; I went first and your hands needs to consist of 1/2 ramp spells, 3 lands and 2/3 other spells. You will always resolve a ramp spell and draw spell before they Thoughtseize you.
If they are smart, the Jund player will not pick your ramp spell, but they will take out Remand or Telling Time.
If they play a Comes into play tapped land on turn 1. You got the game.
You will have 4/5 lands on turn 2 once they resolved a single spell or a BoB. If you are a smart, you will mulligan to 6 if your hand is not reactive to stop a turn 2 BoB.
How viable is Vendilion Clique in the main deck as a 1-of or 2-of in a midrange/combo meta?
My meta consist of Delver/X, America-Flash control, Twin, Jund, Pod and some Affinity.
Lightning Bolt is good in aggro metas, but there is no aggro in Portland. I took those out in replace of Cliques'.
From playing 75 or so games; I've learned that 4-of Search for Tomorrow is bad, drawing more than two is usually bad. I cut it down to 3x Search for Tomorrow and 1-of Vendilion Clique
After so many games, I know exactly how to beat Jund now. I've only lost 3/12 games of Modern to Jund due to clutch discard spells and landing the god draw.
If you don't know what I'm talking about - it consists of Turn 1 Inquisition/Thoughtseize, Turn 2 Bob, Turn 3, Goyf + Inquisition/Thoughtseize.
On their turn 4, I have 3 lands, no hand and they have at least 5-7 power with a full grip.
Have you ever talked to anyone who's played with me? This applies to you as well Donald.
I only lost my games because I got 4v1'd honestly, and everyone left Galspanic or whoever alone to win because they couldn't deal with my threats. I don't count those as real losses.
I went to a major event, a GP, and those mono-blue decks were too slow to stop turn 3 Jin with counter back up.
When Oloro is your general, anything can be a win condition.
That was the main combo, but so was Armageddon + Threat. I never really cared if I got 4v1'd, but if you did that just means your decks can't be me 1v1, so you need help - what is worst? Depending on help to beat a single player or making a good deck where everyone needs to stop you before you win super early?
Fun is subjective, I stop caring about people's feeling when I play when I started playing Legacy when I was 17.
If totally lock down doesn't work, play Jin/Consecrated Sphinx is in motion for next game. Change out 15 cards, done, it's a Re-animator now.
Ask Galspanic, Kraus911 and Phil how easy it is to take me out of the game without help.
@Cryogen; My deck only runs 34 lands with 9 mana rocks. I dislike the mulligan rule and partial pars rule because a lot of people cheat to get turn 1 Sol Ring around my area. I made the deck low cmc enough where I am able to keep 2 landers and sometimes 1 landers with Sol Ring or Mana Vault or Mana Crypt. If your deck has to mulligan too many times, your deck is already showing it's weakness in the player's deck bulding skills.
I've flipped Erayo on turn 2 and dropped 6 permanents on turn 1 with Edric among other absurd starts. Even in my most recent game in my playgroup it was 4v1 and I'm the only one that made a 4th land drop. It's not the type of deck I like to play but I'm quite familiar with how to build decks with fast clocks that can fight through hate. If I were building such a deck however I would not bother with Humility + Night of Soul's Betrayal as I would rather just win (and I really love Humility).
I have seen your decks and you're definitely a good deckbuilder I'm just surprised you bother with that combo if you're trying to make your deck as effective as possible.
That's fairly impressive, Erayo flipped on turn 1, I've only had it flipped on turn 2 with a BoB in play after I've played 3 mana Rocks off a Mana Crypt. Edric decks can just out right beat you as early as turn 2 if you don't play Force of Will, Daze or any Free counter. I use to play Foil in my Reanimator decks to enable to turn 2 Jin, Sundering Titan and Griselbrand when it's legal.
Humility is a meta all, it goes in all my white decks as a back up for my main combos do not work. Sometimes, I just lose to getting Strip Mine, Wasteland'd, and Rack and Ruin on turn 3. It really buys me at least two turns to build my hand for when it gets destroyed via Nature's Claim and Krosan Grip.
I got lazy, so I just play Reanimator now, it's a timmy deck that wins off tutors and draw spells. Successful, but rather boring after a while. I took a break from EDH for a while, so I need to make my money back I've sunken into EDH off Modern.
Yes, I can very vocal about my play style. If you don't like it, you can get out of America. Just don't play with me, I'm not like the other 90% of the people on this site who make fake lives on MtgSalvation.
Doesn't that just beat crappy decks that run creatures?
And seem unfun?
It looks like the deck that gets targetted esrly game, and then neutured, but that no one wants to kill off cause they dont want yo be the one that makes you watch while everyone else plays, while you sulk.
Then you draw in something good after a while and you realize two of the other players kept counters for your *****.
Have you ever talked to anyone who's played with me? This applies to you as well Donald.
I only lost my games because I got 4v1'd honestly, and everyone left Galspanic or whoever alone to win because they couldn't deal with my threats. I don't count those as real losses.
I went to a major event, a GP, and those mono-blue decks were too slow to stop turn 3 Jin with counter back up.
When Oloro is your general, anything can be a win condition.
That was the main combo, but so was Armageddon + Threat. I never really cared if I got 4v1'd, but if you did that just means your decks can't be me 1v1, so you need help - what is worst? Depending on help to beat a single player or making a good deck where everyone needs to stop you before you win super early?
Fun is subjective, I stop caring about people's feeling when I play when I started playing Legacy when I was 17.
If totally lock down doesn't work, play Jin/Consecrated Sphinx is in motion for next game. Change out 15 cards, done, it's a Re-animator now.
Ask Galspanic, Kraus911 and Phil how easy it is to take me out of the game without help.
@Cryogen; My deck only runs 34 lands with 9 mana rocks. I dislike the mulligan rule and partial pars rule because a lot of people cheat to get turn 1 Sol Ring around my area. I made the deck low cmc enough where I am able to keep 2 landers and sometimes 1 landers with Sol Ring or Mana Vault or Mana Crypt. If your deck has to mulligan too many times, your deck is already showing it's weakness in the player's deck bulding skills.
not playing bolts is legit, this boltless snapcaster deck is not a fluke
repeal deals with hate cards much better than bolt (blood moon, spellskite, leyline of sanctity, tuned halo)
bolt does very little if your opponent is at 4-17 and 22-35 life, where as serum visions digs you towards your answers
I don't think the mtg mint team has written articles on this build of scapeshift, but it is nice to have very few dead cards in your deck
I like Tian's list better honestly, he plays like I would. I might try his version out this week, his list seems more control like. Park's seems more Midrange.
What a small world, two Brazilians took top 8 in the same tournament. There aren't that many Brazilians pros out there.
Scapeshift begun the format usually playing bolt, park's deviation from this won him a GP. I think you really shouldn't try to argue for this, sure in your meta it might be great but in the general meta scapeshift may not need it.
Why isn't this in the scapeshift thread?
Park's list is great, my list are almost identical, but I wanted to see if Bolts would be better. So far, they've been better than Search for Tomorrows.
He's a pro for a reason, and I felt that no one was prepared for his deck. I saw everyone's sideboard - no Slaughter Games for Jund, no Sowing Salts, barely any Shadow of Doubts or Mindcensor Aven.
Those Dark Confidants lost me a game. I didn't have Bolt in my initial build, and the Jund player threw 5/9 discard spells on game 2 and 2 Fulminator Mages. I don't like putting my decks to chance, that's why I play blue in all my format.
I can swap out the cards for Kiki-Twin combo or America control anytime I want.
I feel like I should be playing Tarmo-Twin over Scapeshift, it's almost the same cards except for $20 staples, and Goyfs.
If you look at modern, if you don't destroy those turn 1/2 plays you've already lost the game. If Jund gets any cards with discard and land destruction on game 2 & 3 it's really hard to beat.
I've played enough legacy to know this.
Turn 2 BoB in Legacy must be dealt with just like in all competitive formats.
I will take my variant to Portland Modern States, and see how I do. I've been top 3'n every time I've played so, those are pretty good results for an old Legacy combo/Control player returning the competitive scene.
@Lord Seth: No one plays Tron over here. It's all Delver, Jund, Twin, Various Pod combos or Random U/x control. The meta isn't aggro at all, it's mostly Midrange-control/Combo (Twin/Pod) or Aggro-Control, so Delver.
I personally can't relate to the "pimp" mentality. I readily trade off foils for regular versions of cards, because what really matters to me is how a card plays, now how it looks. I can appreciate the aesthetics of a nice foil, but some things actually don't look good in foil, and in any case, function > appearance for me.
That said, whenever possible I do try to replace white-bordered cards with black borders, though I don't imagine ever doing that with my revised/unlimited dual lands.
Why don't people know to use self control?
You guys spend so much money and time in this format for no reason. Foils means nothing honestly, why have a foil Bob when you have up to three copies? What makes more sense in the end?
Does no one play this game to not lose money?
How much have people poured into EDH with no profit off it?
What happens if you want to leave and quit magic forever? You've already spent $2000 on foils for your two decks, good job.
In the end, cards are replaceable, but time is not. The time you've spent into EDH can put into more relevant hobbies and activities.
Remember, it's still a game where you just put money into - Modern will at least even you out in your investment.
Is your Zur deck as fun as mine Cryogen? Can you lock the game up as early as turn 3 via Humility/Night combo backed with Force of Will or Flusterstorm?
Magic has basic economy rules to it. Take one apart to make two to potentially make profit when the cards all spike is a good call.
I started off with no cards, and slowly invested in my Sharuum deck. I started off with $200 for duals and random cards like Force, and Jace.
Now, it's worth $3000. I was able to trade away my foils for an upwards of 8x the price I got them at. That's what I call profit.
Example: I got foil Shocks for less than $15, traded it away for $50-$75. Why can't all EDH players just learn to let go their cards when it's smart.
Repeat this vicious cycle, and your collection will blow up. Example #2: I invested in 8 Dark Confidants for $115 before Modern was released. Now I have 12 Bob's, 3 foils (Ravnica English, Judge Promo and Germany Ravniva) for the price of only $150 for the foil copies.
If players stop hoarding, they will actually see profit in magic. Until this happens, you will always just throw money down the drain like most EDH players do.
At the same time, I still have all my EDH cards and two modern decks that will not get banned out.
Twin Combo and RUG Scaepshift wont see the ban hammer anytine soon. They have Jund to worry about :).
Bolt is not a staple for synergy-based decks. RG Tron doesn't play it, for example. Neither does Storm, at least not in the main, because your opponent probably has no hatebears in Game 1. Affinity doesn't need it when it has Galvanic Blast.
Park's deck is a little different from the Scapeshift decks before it. He plays Serum Visions over Lightning Bolt and Telling Time over Peer Through Depths. Now as to why he did that, I don't know (since I don't play Scapeshift), but you should probably ask the people who do. If you thought it was weird, well, take comfort in the fact that before that, people were indeed playing Bolts. Some of them still do now.
What I do know about Scapeshift is that it hits for either 18 or 36 damage (18 if you Scape with 7 lands, 36 with 8 lands), so there shouldn't be a problem with "finishing the opponent off" unless they're playing Soul Sisters or something.
That's my issue is I'm playing a deck where people are playing it bad. I've never missed on the combo kill.
Lets say in Game 2, you just lose to a random Blood Moon or Magus. That wouldn't had happen if you ran 3x Bolt. Killing their Magus unlocks you to win the game.
The comfort of winning game 1 without telling your opponents your strategy is great. I won my first games on the first two rounds with even casting Scapeshift. I threw my opponent off on sideboard, so I essentially got a free round 1 & 2 wins that way.
I'm not worried about not winning with the combo, but I've seen people mess up and play the wrong land and not play around their opponent having 2 Batterskull triggers messing up their math for the combo kill.
You know how many games I've won off Snapcaster + Bolt plan? Too many to count. I want to play a deck that win off tempo, but have a back up combo.
Anytime, I can swap out some cards to play Twin one week and Scapeshift another week.
In my area, Portland, Oregon - every Red deck plays a Bolt variant. Affinity plays Galvanic Blast which is superior to Bolt only in one deck in Modern.
Lightning Bolt is ran in every R/U/X Delver, Twin, Jund, and America Control list I've faced.
If your deck loses to Delver, Zoo, and Affinity game 2 post sideboard - you are playing a losing deck. Your changes to beat Aggro decks with Anger of the Gods, Threads, Batterskull, and Ancient Grudge against Pod are fairly high.
I'm going to try to convince people to play 3-4x Lightning Bolts' in their deck because if flat out destroys Delver and can stop Twin combo if they use Kiki or Pestermite to try to go infinite.
I'm fairly new to Modern, but I'm not a new player. I've been playing for approximately nine years with experience with casual formats like Commander, and competitive formats like Legacy, Vintage and Standard.
I've always wondered this quesiton, "Isn't a Lightning Bolt a staple in all Red/X decks in every format?"
It makes me wonder why didn't Park's list who won GP Minneapolis recently not include Lightning Bolt at least a 3-of not a 4-of in Delver heavy metas'.
I brought my modern deck to a few tournaments in my area, and I've had great results with it. My list isn't totally different, but I play 3xLightning Bolt and 2x Courser of Kruphix as a meta call. The meta in Portland, Oregon is all Delver, U/R/x, and Pod.
The small bit of life gain really helps out against an essentially all aggro-control meta.
I've won plenty of games off stalling with Cryptic Command, and Bolt + Snapcaster Mage. I've seen plenty of Modern games before I jumped into the format to test if I would enjoy it.
I see many problems with RUG Scapeshift's list - They can't finish an opponent off if Scapeshift doesn't finish them off.
I would like an open discussion on this topic of Lightning Bolt in Scapeshift.
I have all the staples for both Splinter Twin, Scapeshift, And Jund.
What is more reliable vs hate?
Pros of Twin
Can win randomly if they mess up
8 counters main
Scapeshift
Wins at 7+ lands
8 counters main
Jund
Goyf wins after triple discard spells
I value Clique a lot because even though the chances of eating removal are high. It's better than having two land searches and no card draw in your hand.
It's either a cycle land for me or a Thoughtseize/Peek against my opponent.
Side boarding is so easy against every deck.
Afinnity
- 4x Remand
+ 2x Ancient Grudge
+ 2x Anger of the Gods
That's the only deck you need to worry about that's really aggro. Pod and Delver aren't aggro decks, but Mid Range/Tempo decks.
If I know I'm going to get Surgical Extracted after I got Thoughtseize, on game 3 if it goes that far. I will board out one Scapeshift. Usually, Against Twin - I can just out value them because they have more dead draws than us. Them hitting us with 1/4 isn't that bad.
I took out a Search for a single copy of Vendilion Clique. The reasoning is 1-ofs save you when you draw it. This deck has enough draw like a Legacy deck, so I always seem to draw it early.
I understand untapping on turn 3 with Cryptic Command, but I don't always draw my Cyptics' for some reason. I've had 4 games where I've won where I only saw two Cryptics total - weird.
My defense for V. Clique is she's almost a Thoughtseize and if all else fails, she trades with a X/3 creature or gets one attack in to reduce the amount of lands you need to finish them off.
Against America Control list, you don't always have the chance to combo. Out of the 4 games against Ameriaca control, I was only able to combo 2/4. The other two wins were from Snappy + Bolt/Electroylze aggro with counter back up or Snappy/Clique and tons of counters. I mean they will shock themselves at least once, so you only need to 15-17 damage in reality. That's not a lot when no one blocks your Snapcaster Mages'.
@PlayingvsJund: Losing to Jund, happens, God draws and 4 discard spells will make you lose very fast.
Winning against Jund is rather easy if you are on the play or get lucky.
The games I 2-0 Jund; I went first and your hands needs to consist of 1/2 ramp spells, 3 lands and 2/3 other spells. You will always resolve a ramp spell and draw spell before they Thoughtseize you.
If they are smart, the Jund player will not pick your ramp spell, but they will take out Remand or Telling Time.
If they play a Comes into play tapped land on turn 1. You got the game.
You will have 4/5 lands on turn 2 once they resolved a single spell or a BoB. If you are a smart, you will mulligan to 6 if your hand is not reactive to stop a turn 2 BoB.
How viable is Vendilion Clique in the main deck as a 1-of or 2-of in a midrange/combo meta?
My meta consist of Delver/X, America-Flash control, Twin, Jund, Pod and some Affinity.
Lightning Bolt is good in aggro metas, but there is no aggro in Portland. I took those out in replace of Cliques'.
From playing 75 or so games; I've learned that 4-of Search for Tomorrow is bad, drawing more than two is usually bad. I cut it down to 3x Search for Tomorrow and 1-of Vendilion Clique
After so many games, I know exactly how to beat Jund now. I've only lost 3/12 games of Modern to Jund due to clutch discard spells and landing the god draw.
If you don't know what I'm talking about - it consists of Turn 1 Inquisition/Thoughtseize, Turn 2 Bob, Turn 3, Goyf + Inquisition/Thoughtseize.
On their turn 4, I have 3 lands, no hand and they have at least 5-7 power with a full grip.
That's fairly impressive, Erayo flipped on turn 1, I've only had it flipped on turn 2 with a BoB in play after I've played 3 mana Rocks off a Mana Crypt. Edric decks can just out right beat you as early as turn 2 if you don't play Force of Will, Daze or any Free counter. I use to play Foil in my Reanimator decks to enable to turn 2 Jin, Sundering Titan and Griselbrand when it's legal.
Humility is a meta all, it goes in all my white decks as a back up for my main combos do not work. Sometimes, I just lose to getting Strip Mine, Wasteland'd, and Rack and Ruin on turn 3. It really buys me at least two turns to build my hand for when it gets destroyed via Nature's Claim and Krosan Grip.
I got lazy, so I just play Reanimator now, it's a timmy deck that wins off tutors and draw spells. Successful, but rather boring after a while. I took a break from EDH for a while, so I need to make my money back I've sunken into EDH off Modern.
Yes, I can very vocal about my play style. If you don't like it, you can get out of America. Just don't play with me, I'm not like the other 90% of the people on this site who make fake lives on MtgSalvation.
Have you ever talked to anyone who's played with me? This applies to you as well Donald.
I only lost my games because I got 4v1'd honestly, and everyone left Galspanic or whoever alone to win because they couldn't deal with my threats. I don't count those as real losses.
I went to a major event, a GP, and those mono-blue decks were too slow to stop turn 3 Jin with counter back up.
When Oloro is your general, anything can be a win condition.
That was the main combo, but so was Armageddon + Threat. I never really cared if I got 4v1'd, but if you did that just means your decks can't be me 1v1, so you need help - what is worst? Depending on help to beat a single player or making a good deck where everyone needs to stop you before you win super early?
Fun is subjective, I stop caring about people's feeling when I play when I started playing Legacy when I was 17.
If totally lock down doesn't work, play Jin/Consecrated Sphinx is in motion for next game. Change out 15 cards, done, it's a Re-animator now.
Ask Galspanic, Kraus911 and Phil how easy it is to take me out of the game without help.
@Cryogen; My deck only runs 34 lands with 9 mana rocks. I dislike the mulligan rule and partial pars rule because a lot of people cheat to get turn 1 Sol Ring around my area. I made the deck low cmc enough where I am able to keep 2 landers and sometimes 1 landers with Sol Ring or Mana Vault or Mana Crypt. If your deck has to mulligan too many times, your deck is already showing it's weakness in the player's deck bulding skills.
I like Tian's list better honestly, he plays like I would. I might try his version out this week, his list seems more control like. Park's seems more Midrange.
What a small world, two Brazilians took top 8 in the same tournament. There aren't that many Brazilians pros out there.
My sidebord is geared for Delver, Jund, Twin and Pod.
2x Anger of the Gods
1x Batterskull
1x Engineered Explosive
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Spellskite
2x Swan Song
2x Vendilion Clique
As you can see the meta is very Midrange-Control heavy. Every deck I play is either U/x or B/x. They all run Cryptic or Thoughtseize.
Park's list is great, my list are almost identical, but I wanted to see if Bolts would be better. So far, they've been better than Search for Tomorrows.
He's a pro for a reason, and I felt that no one was prepared for his deck. I saw everyone's sideboard - no Slaughter Games for Jund, no Sowing Salts, barely any Shadow of Doubts or Mindcensor Aven.
Those Dark Confidants lost me a game. I didn't have Bolt in my initial build, and the Jund player threw 5/9 discard spells on game 2 and 2 Fulminator Mages. I don't like putting my decks to chance, that's why I play blue in all my format.
I can swap out the cards for Kiki-Twin combo or America control anytime I want.
I feel like I should be playing Tarmo-Twin over Scapeshift, it's almost the same cards except for $20 staples, and Goyfs.
If you look at modern, if you don't destroy those turn 1/2 plays you've already lost the game. If Jund gets any cards with discard and land destruction on game 2 & 3 it's really hard to beat.
I've played enough legacy to know this.
Turn 2 BoB in Legacy must be dealt with just like in all competitive formats.
I will take my variant to Portland Modern States, and see how I do. I've been top 3'n every time I've played so, those are pretty good results for an old Legacy combo/Control player returning the competitive scene.
@Lord Seth: No one plays Tron over here. It's all Delver, Jund, Twin, Various Pod combos or Random U/x control. The meta isn't aggro at all, it's mostly Midrange-control/Combo (Twin/Pod) or Aggro-Control, so Delver.
Why don't people know to use self control?
You guys spend so much money and time in this format for no reason. Foils means nothing honestly, why have a foil Bob when you have up to three copies? What makes more sense in the end?
Does no one play this game to not lose money?
How much have people poured into EDH with no profit off it?
What happens if you want to leave and quit magic forever? You've already spent $2000 on foils for your two decks, good job.
In the end, cards are replaceable, but time is not. The time you've spent into EDH can put into more relevant hobbies and activities.
Remember, it's still a game where you just put money into - Modern will at least even you out in your investment.
Is your Zur deck as fun as mine Cryogen? Can you lock the game up as early as turn 3 via Humility/Night combo backed with Force of Will or Flusterstorm?
I started off with no cards, and slowly invested in my Sharuum deck. I started off with $200 for duals and random cards like Force, and Jace.
Now, it's worth $3000. I was able to trade away my foils for an upwards of 8x the price I got them at. That's what I call profit.
Example: I got foil Shocks for less than $15, traded it away for $50-$75. Why can't all EDH players just learn to let go their cards when it's smart.
Repeat this vicious cycle, and your collection will blow up.
Example #2: I invested in 8 Dark Confidants for $115 before Modern was released. Now I have 12 Bob's, 3 foils (Ravnica English, Judge Promo and Germany Ravniva) for the price of only $150 for the foil copies.
If players stop hoarding, they will actually see profit in magic. Until this happens, you will always just throw money down the drain like most EDH players do.
At the same time, I still have all my EDH cards and two modern decks that will not get banned out.
Twin Combo and RUG Scaepshift wont see the ban hammer anytine soon. They have Jund to worry about :).
That's my issue is I'm playing a deck where people are playing it bad. I've never missed on the combo kill.
Lets say in Game 2, you just lose to a random Blood Moon or Magus. That wouldn't had happen if you ran 3x Bolt. Killing their Magus unlocks you to win the game.
The comfort of winning game 1 without telling your opponents your strategy is great. I won my first games on the first two rounds with even casting Scapeshift. I threw my opponent off on sideboard, so I essentially got a free round 1 & 2 wins that way.
I'm not worried about not winning with the combo, but I've seen people mess up and play the wrong land and not play around their opponent having 2 Batterskull triggers messing up their math for the combo kill.
You know how many games I've won off Snapcaster + Bolt plan? Too many to count. I want to play a deck that win off tempo, but have a back up combo.
Anytime, I can swap out some cards to play Twin one week and Scapeshift another week.
In my area, Portland, Oregon - every Red deck plays a Bolt variant. Affinity plays Galvanic Blast which is superior to Bolt only in one deck in Modern.
Lightning Bolt is ran in every R/U/X Delver, Twin, Jund, and America Control list I've faced.
If your deck loses to Delver, Zoo, and Affinity game 2 post sideboard - you are playing a losing deck. Your changes to beat Aggro decks with Anger of the Gods, Threads, Batterskull, and Ancient Grudge against Pod are fairly high.
I'm going to try to convince people to play 3-4x Lightning Bolts' in their deck because if flat out destroys Delver and can stop Twin combo if they use Kiki or Pestermite to try to go infinite.
I beat 3 Delver players with Anger of the Gods, and Snapcaster + Bolt. They Blood Moon'd me, and I beat them down...interesting right?
Sideboard turns into a tempo-twin strategy.
I've always wondered this quesiton, "Isn't a Lightning Bolt a staple in all Red/X decks in every format?"
It makes me wonder why didn't Park's list who won GP Minneapolis recently not include Lightning Bolt at least a 3-of not a 4-of in Delver heavy metas'.
I brought my modern deck to a few tournaments in my area, and I've had great results with it. My list isn't totally different, but I play 3xLightning Bolt and 2x Courser of Kruphix as a meta call. The meta in Portland, Oregon is all Delver, U/R/x, and Pod.
The small bit of life gain really helps out against an essentially all aggro-control meta.
I've won plenty of games off stalling with Cryptic Command, and Bolt + Snapcaster Mage. I've seen plenty of Modern games before I jumped into the format to test if I would enjoy it.
I see many problems with RUG Scapeshift's list - They can't finish an opponent off if Scapeshift doesn't finish them off.
I would like an open discussion on this topic of Lightning Bolt in Scapeshift.