So after several months of inactivity (both on forum and in Modern) I brought Dredge to a PPTQ today. I don't remember my exact sideboarding but I'll attempt to include those as accurately as I can. I don't typically write down how I sideboard, I usually just bring a pre-written sideboard guide with me. I do need to update for my current 75 and current metagame.
Round 1 vs Titanshift 1-2
Game 1: They curved out into a early Scapeshift. Despair was nice, but I didn't have enough creatures to empty their hand so they just discard excess junk and 18'ed me.
Game 2: I beat them down fairly easily aided by the fact they couldn't find any ramp spells. They were a mana off of Hour of Promise which have brought them back into the game. They nuked my yard once with Relic, but I was able to rebuild fast enough that it wasn't too relevant.
Game 3: I valiantly fought through 2 Anger of the Gods, but was unable to rebuild after Anger number 3 followed by a Relic Nuke & Prime Time the following turn.
SB +3 Thoughtseize +2 Brutality +1 Driven/Despair -2 Neonate -1 Dakmor -1 Loam -1 Conflag -1 Narco
Round 2 vs Grixis Shadow 2-1
Game 1: They keep 6, I go to 4 keeping 2x lands, Looting, Amalgam. They Cycle 4 Street Wraiths turn 1, fetch -> shock -> Inquisition. I scoop in response to conceal information. (They told me part way through game 2 that their hand was a ton of discard spells but no threats, I still feel scooping to conceal was the right decision)
Game 2: I have an ok start with Turn 1 Neonate. They Thoughtseize me seeing a hand of Dredger, Amalgam, Haunted Dead, and Lands. They take the Dredger as I already have a larger one in yard from Neonate (I activated in response to Seize, should have let it resolve first). I build up a decent board and kill them as they try to dig for an answer.
Game 3: I Lightning Axe their turn 2 Tasigur, force them to blow up their Nihl Spell Bomb early, Amalgam survives Flaying Tendrils and I just beat their face.
SB +2 Lightning Axe -1 Dakmor -1 Neonate-> G3 +2 Claim -1 Ghast -1 Conflag (unsure if bringing in Claim was right, was worried about Leyline)
Round 3 vs Affinity 2-1
Game 1: My start is fast, theirs is not. I Conflag away their creatures forcing them to dump everything onto Ravager who is easily ignored. Despair pushes past their blockers.
Game 2: I have a decent opening hand. They have a turn 2 Rest in Peace. I did not side in my Nature's Claim. Anemic beats do not get there and I die with 3 Prized Amalgams in hand.
Game 3: A lot of back and forth board stall. I let them hit me a handful of times with Inkmoth hoping they're go all in on it and get blown out by my Claim. Eventually I just Ghost Quarter it away. Of note, this game I had some mana issues. I spent most of the game holding up Nature's Claim with my only source of Green & Black being a Gemstone Mine. Eventually I am able to establish a superior board, force them into unfavorable trades, and while they do land a RIP it is way too late to have any impact. I Claim away their Ravager which gives me a 2 turn clock on an open board and a hellbent opponent.
SB +1 Darkblast +2 Grudge + 2 Axe -2 Neonate -1 Ghast -1 Thug -1 Dakmor G3 -2 Axe +2 Claim
Round 4 vs Merfolk 1-2
Game 1: I have a decent hand which relies heavily on following up a Cathartic with Loam. My opponent has turns 2 and 3 Spreading Seas essentially double sinkholing me. This cuts my off my turn 3 Loam meaning I can't return my Ghasts. I just play Draw Go trying to find lands for Conflag and gather info on their list.
Game 2: I have a super fast start ending turn 2 with Bloodghast, Haunted Dead + Spirit, and Prized Amalgam in play. My opponent takes damage in chunks and dies.
Game 3: I don't find a Dredger until turn 3 off of Driven. I pop my 2 Neonates, but the Dredges are pretty mediocre. We trade attacks for a bit. Eventually the entire game hinges on a Conflagrate which would wipe their board but they have a Delay for it and I lose after getting my creatures bounced with Harbinger. While I did have Despair in the graveyard, I did not have the mana to Loam, Conflag, and Despair in the same turn.
SB +2 Ancient Grudge +1 Driven/Despair -1 Ghast -1 Neo -1 Dakmor
Round 5 vs Jeskai Control
Game 1: I have a moderate start, they aren't able to find enough removal for my creatures. They tap out to deal with my attackers and I Conflag them for exact lethal in my second mainphase
Game 2: I have a decent start with T2 Narcomoeba, Haunted Dead + Spirit. I attempt to go for Despair which meets Spell Queller which makes my attacks unfavorable. I do get off Despair a few turns they clear my board a bit with Paths and Snaps and are then in topdeck mode. I have set up lethal when they draw a Cryptic they scryed top the turn before. They tap down by blockers, letting them swing for exact lethal. In hindsight, I probably should have been a bit more liberal blocking with Narco.
Game 3: Start with Conflag for 0 on turn 2, turn 3 dump my hand and burn them for 4 setting up Dredgers. I build a board, they clear my board with spot removal. I build again. They snapcaster + removal. I build a third time! They Supreme Verdict. A fourth attempt is made! Which finally succeeds. I get to have fun casting Thugs and using them to reset Narcomoebas which trigger my Amalgams for a few turns before they get Pathed and Snap+Celestial Purge.
Round 6 vs ???
I see that at 3-2 I am 18th place and there's a clean cut to top 8 so I scoop to my opponent who is going for Planeswalker Points and I go do my grocery shopping.
My 2 biggest take aways were that I forgot just how much Dredge mulligans and that Driven/Despair is an amazing card.
Giving your creatures Menace is huge and much more powerful than I originally thought. The discard aspect is nice, but only really important in certain matchups like Combo and Control. The Menace makes a world of difference against board stalls and I feel its the more valuable text in most games. I never sideboarded the card out, and brought the second copy in for everything but Affinity and Shadow.
All of my fun'ofs were useful at varying points of the tournament except for Darkblast. The only match up I played where it was good, was against Affinity and even there they had Ravagers and Overseers so it was pretty meh. I did have to mulligan at least 1 otherwise keepable hand due to Ghost Quarter being the only land, but it felt worth it being able to kill Inkmoth and there was a decent amount of Tron decks in the room, both Eldrazi and Ramp. It was also relevant after getting my yard nuked by Relic, killing Salvage and getting me a Dredger immediately in the yard.
I feel I won the match ups I was supposed to and lost the ones I was supposed to. It was a decent metagame spread, I think Jeskai Control was the most represented. There was one other person on Dredge that I noticed, otherwise I didn't see too many duplicate decks.
Man its been awhile since I posted.
I'm getting ready for the Open, main deck is stock. I've been going 3-1 pretty consistently at my LGS since the ban.
Sideboard right now is:
I really want to fit a Bojuka Bog in here for the mirror but I'm not sure what to cut. I'm thinking either the 3rd Brutality or 2nd Darkblast. The deck is already pretty good vs small creature decks so I think Darkblast is the safer cut.
Thoughts?
To respond to questions on RIP, I go with the "Thoughtseize it on turn 1-2" Plan. I don't bring in Decays.
So now that we've seen the list for Blessed Vs Cursed I'll be keeping a close eye on the new cards with Madness and Delirium. Who knows, we might get something fun printed for us instead of yet more graveyard hate.
So this isn't going to be a popular opinion, but here goes:
To date, our big bad meta matches are: Tron (all flavors), Amulet Bloom (Amulet of Vigor will probably get banned; what will replace it?), and Merfolk. I would say burn is 50/50 and better post board. There
Personally I expect Summer Bloom to be the card to get banned in Amulet decks if it does get a hit. As for what is going to replace it, B/X Eldrazi is the biggest contender. While its still uncertain whether it is a truly competitive deck, its power is not to be underestimated.
For the ramp decks I'm honestly not really sure what we can do against them. They can all survive Blood Moons and unless we splash Red for Crumble to Dust we really don't have a good answer to Ramp decks in general. Ghost Quarters help but considering the mana requirements of BW Tokens I'm not sure how many we can afford to run.
Hour of Reckoning and other Wrath effects are good against Merfolk, its just a matter of who can rebuild faster.
I think I've mentioned several times that I prefer the evoke creatures over Nature's Claims as while I do lose out on them not being Instants, they are much harder to counter which I feel is more important.
Brought the deck to a 3-1 finish at this month's Legacy FNM which got me 4th place in standing.
Round 1: Enchantress; Turn 2 RIP both games. I had removal for it in game 2 but they had Enlightened Tutor to fetch a backup copy.
0-2
Round 2: UB Mill; What happens when a Mill deck fights a self-mill deck? I get out Iona on Black and overwhelm them with zombies. I went Black over Blue because I saw Reanimate, Unearth, and Haunting Echoes.
2-0
Round 3: Belcher; They fizzled game 1, Belched me out game 2, game 3 they made 8 goblins on turn 1 and I outraced them. It was closer than I'd have liked as I just didn't hit any Bridges which would have ended the game faster.
2-1
Round 4: Lands; Game 1 they had Tabernacle + Glacial Chasm and while I waited there was never a turn where they didn't have Chasm up. Game 2 I made a horde of zombies and a large GGT on turn 2 forcing them to have Chasm. They didn't. Game 3 I made a horde of zombies and a larger GGT forcing them to draw Chasm. They did. I dredged through the rest of my deck getting Ashen Rider out to kill their Chasm and swing with a personal record number of zombie tokens, 17, which matched the size of my Troll.
2-1
6-4 overall.
As you can, apart from the UB Mill deck it was a fairly rough night for me.
Other decks that were there that night were Miracles, BUG, Grixis, Elves, and a Stasis-Restore Balance brew. Other decks that show up often are RUG Delver, Aggro Loam, TES, and D&T.
I've been running the same main deck for a while, 3 Thug, 3 Breakthrough, 3 Putrid Imp, 1 DR, 1 Iona, 1 Darkblast, 4 of everything else.
The sideboard I went with was:
The Lotus Petal I ran because I couldn't figure out a 15th card I wanted to run so I just went, "eh, it can cast me an extra spell on turn 1/2." I brought it in against Enchantress and Belcher hoping to get a bit more speed but never drew it.
Any suggestions on what I should run as the last card?
I'm thinking maybe a second Ashen Rider but I'm honestly not sure what I want in that spot.
No, you have to hold priority and crack LED in response.
You cannot ask if your opponent would has a response to the Careful Study before you crack the LED.
You go: "Careful Study, retaining priority crack LED for *insert color here* in response. Careful Study on the stack 3 mana floating, do you have a response to my Careful Study?"
The guy in the video should not have been allowed to crack the LED because both players already passed priority which means the Careful Study resolves right then.
So SCG has up 2 articles on BW Tokens today including one about BW tokens splashing Red for Blood Moon for those interested.
Personally the only thing that really interested me was Worship as a 1 of in the sideboard. Its 4 mana which is a lot in Modern but it does have its applications.
So I brought BW tokens to a small FNM only 12 players
Round 1 vs Abzan CoCo
Not really anything to say here. Both games were fairly straight forward. Play a bunch of token makers and anthems. Beat face. Just overwhelmed them with tokens. I actually forced them to use Orzhov Pontiff defensively game 2 in order to save his board from Zealous Persecution and this left me free to push harder with the token makers.
1-0
Round 2 vs Elemental Tribal
Game 1 I thoughtseize turn 1 and take their mana dork. I IoK turn 2 and take their other dork. They don't draw a third land.
Game 2 Goes fairly back and forth though I never really feel too pressured. I have out a bitterblossom and 2 virtues so every token I make is a 3/3. I get to Timely for full value and drop 3 3/3s into play. I path their blocker and attack for more than lethal.
2-0
Round 3 vs Green Devotion
Game 1 They had a turn 3 Prime Time into turn 4 Wolfrun for 6 dmg.
Game 2 More or less the same. They flood the board and I don't draw my Hour of Reckoning to save me from Craterhoof.
2-1
Round 4 vs UR Pyromancer
Game 1 Very pack and forth. I have a bunch of pressure from Virtue and token generators. They manage to fog for 2 turns with Cryptic before I manage to take the game
Game 2 The only token maker I draw is Bitterblossom and I get overwhelmed by double Young Pyromancer
Game 3 Opening 7 is 5 lands, 2 Lingering. 6 is 5 cards I really want but the only land is a Windbrisk. 5 is 1 land but if I curve out I'm fine and I don't really want to risk 4 cards. I don't draw the second land until turn 4 and I'm not in the game at all which sucks because both game 1 and 2 were really close and well played by both of us. Its depressing for a match between two skilled players to just end because of mana screw.
2-2
I get 5th place just outside of cashing. I probably should have offered to draw with my round 4 opponent as I would have locked top 4 I just didn't check standings to see if I could.
I tested 1 Shambling Vents over the 4th Windbrisk and honestly I didn't notice a difference. I never activated Vents as I was either casting stuff or just never drew it.
There was at least 1 other person on Green Devotion which I feel is a horrible match up in that they can go over the top really quickly. I'm not really sure what a good card for this match up would be but it seems to be popular at my LGS.
On the topic of Shambling Vents, I managed to open one in a prize pack so I'm going to test it out on Friday instead of my fourth Windbrisk Heights. I figure both ETB tapped so that downside is the same. Vents gives me fixing if I need it and is a creature that evades sorcery speed removal versus Heights which is a pseudo-impulse with timing restrictions on when you can cast the grabbed card.
Experiment Eight 5UG
Legendary Creature - Shark Octopus
Trample UG: Tap target creature an opponent controls t: ~ Fights target creature. If that creature is tapped prevent all damage that would be dealt to ~ by it.
7/7
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, the Simic go and do something stupid.
Its pretty meta dependent. I like a 2:2 split between the main deck and sideboard for an unknown meta. If you expect more Burn and Zoo 3:1 might be right. Keep in mind that the tokens don't have flying. I often wind up casting it as just a life gain spell against Burn lists to force them to use Atarka's Command as a Skullcrack rather than a pump spell.
Its still viable for small tournaments but not really for anything major like a SCG Open or GP. Typically you just replaced the LEDS with Tireless Tribe, Gitaxian Probe, or Street Wraith
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Arid Mesa
3 Copperline Gorge
2 Dakmor Salvage
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Mountain
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Bloodghast
3 Golgari Thug
1 Haunted Dead
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Narcomoeba
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Conflagrate
1 Darkblast
1 Driven / Despair
4 Faithless Looting
3 Life from the Loam
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Collective Brutality
1 Darkblast
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Driven/Despair
2 Lightning Axe
2 Nature's Claim
3 Thoughtseize
Round 1 vs Titanshift 1-2
Game 1: They curved out into a early Scapeshift. Despair was nice, but I didn't have enough creatures to empty their hand so they just discard excess junk and 18'ed me.
Game 2: I beat them down fairly easily aided by the fact they couldn't find any ramp spells. They were a mana off of Hour of Promise which have brought them back into the game. They nuked my yard once with Relic, but I was able to rebuild fast enough that it wasn't too relevant.
Game 3: I valiantly fought through 2 Anger of the Gods, but was unable to rebuild after Anger number 3 followed by a Relic Nuke & Prime Time the following turn.
SB +3 Thoughtseize +2 Brutality +1 Driven/Despair -2 Neonate -1 Dakmor -1 Loam -1 Conflag -1 Narco
Round 2 vs Grixis Shadow 2-1
Game 1: They keep 6, I go to 4 keeping 2x lands, Looting, Amalgam. They Cycle 4 Street Wraiths turn 1, fetch -> shock -> Inquisition. I scoop in response to conceal information. (They told me part way through game 2 that their hand was a ton of discard spells but no threats, I still feel scooping to conceal was the right decision)
Game 2: I have an ok start with Turn 1 Neonate. They Thoughtseize me seeing a hand of Dredger, Amalgam, Haunted Dead, and Lands. They take the Dredger as I already have a larger one in yard from Neonate (I activated in response to Seize, should have let it resolve first). I build up a decent board and kill them as they try to dig for an answer.
Game 3: I Lightning Axe their turn 2 Tasigur, force them to blow up their Nihl Spell Bomb early, Amalgam survives Flaying Tendrils and I just beat their face.
SB +2 Lightning Axe -1 Dakmor -1 Neonate-> G3 +2 Claim -1 Ghast -1 Conflag (unsure if bringing in Claim was right, was worried about Leyline)
Round 3 vs Affinity 2-1
Game 1: My start is fast, theirs is not. I Conflag away their creatures forcing them to dump everything onto Ravager who is easily ignored. Despair pushes past their blockers.
Game 2: I have a decent opening hand. They have a turn 2 Rest in Peace. I did not side in my Nature's Claim. Anemic beats do not get there and I die with 3 Prized Amalgams in hand.
Game 3: A lot of back and forth board stall. I let them hit me a handful of times with Inkmoth hoping they're go all in on it and get blown out by my Claim. Eventually I just Ghost Quarter it away. Of note, this game I had some mana issues. I spent most of the game holding up Nature's Claim with my only source of Green & Black being a Gemstone Mine. Eventually I am able to establish a superior board, force them into unfavorable trades, and while they do land a RIP it is way too late to have any impact. I Claim away their Ravager which gives me a 2 turn clock on an open board and a hellbent opponent.
SB +1 Darkblast +2 Grudge + 2 Axe -2 Neonate -1 Ghast -1 Thug -1 Dakmor G3 -2 Axe +2 Claim
Round 4 vs Merfolk 1-2
Game 1: I have a decent hand which relies heavily on following up a Cathartic with Loam. My opponent has turns 2 and 3 Spreading Seas essentially double sinkholing me. This cuts my off my turn 3 Loam meaning I can't return my Ghasts. I just play Draw Go trying to find lands for Conflag and gather info on their list.
Game 2: I have a super fast start ending turn 2 with Bloodghast, Haunted Dead + Spirit, and Prized Amalgam in play. My opponent takes damage in chunks and dies.
Game 3: I don't find a Dredger until turn 3 off of Driven. I pop my 2 Neonates, but the Dredges are pretty mediocre. We trade attacks for a bit. Eventually the entire game hinges on a Conflagrate which would wipe their board but they have a Delay for it and I lose after getting my creatures bounced with Harbinger. While I did have Despair in the graveyard, I did not have the mana to Loam, Conflag, and Despair in the same turn.
SB +2 Ancient Grudge +1 Driven/Despair -1 Ghast -1 Neo -1 Dakmor
Round 5 vs Jeskai Control
Game 1: I have a moderate start, they aren't able to find enough removal for my creatures. They tap out to deal with my attackers and I Conflag them for exact lethal in my second mainphase
Game 2: I have a decent start with T2 Narcomoeba, Haunted Dead + Spirit. I attempt to go for Despair which meets Spell Queller which makes my attacks unfavorable. I do get off Despair a few turns they clear my board a bit with Paths and Snaps and are then in topdeck mode. I have set up lethal when they draw a Cryptic they scryed top the turn before. They tap down by blockers, letting them swing for exact lethal. In hindsight, I probably should have been a bit more liberal blocking with Narco.
Game 3: Start with Conflag for 0 on turn 2, turn 3 dump my hand and burn them for 4 setting up Dredgers. I build a board, they clear my board with spot removal. I build again. They snapcaster + removal. I build a third time! They Supreme Verdict. A fourth attempt is made! Which finally succeeds. I get to have fun casting Thugs and using them to reset Narcomoebas which trigger my Amalgams for a few turns before they get Pathed and Snap+Celestial Purge.
SB +3 Thoughtseize + 1 Driven/Despair -2 Conflag -1 Darkblast -1 Dakmor
Round 6 vs ???
I see that at 3-2 I am 18th place and there's a clean cut to top 8 so I scoop to my opponent who is going for Planeswalker Points and I go do my grocery shopping.
My 2 biggest take aways were that I forgot just how much Dredge mulligans and that Driven/Despair is an amazing card.
Giving your creatures Menace is huge and much more powerful than I originally thought. The discard aspect is nice, but only really important in certain matchups like Combo and Control. The Menace makes a world of difference against board stalls and I feel its the more valuable text in most games. I never sideboarded the card out, and brought the second copy in for everything but Affinity and Shadow.
All of my fun'ofs were useful at varying points of the tournament except for Darkblast. The only match up I played where it was good, was against Affinity and even there they had Ravagers and Overseers so it was pretty meh. I did have to mulligan at least 1 otherwise keepable hand due to Ghost Quarter being the only land, but it felt worth it being able to kill Inkmoth and there was a decent amount of Tron decks in the room, both Eldrazi and Ramp. It was also relevant after getting my yard nuked by Relic, killing Salvage and getting me a Dredger immediately in the yard.
I feel I won the match ups I was supposed to and lost the ones I was supposed to. It was a decent metagame spread, I think Jeskai Control was the most represented. There was one other person on Dredge that I noticed, otherwise I didn't see too many duplicate decks.
I'm getting ready for the Open, main deck is stock. I've been going 3-1 pretty consistently at my LGS since the ban.
Sideboard right now is:
2x Ancient Grudge
3x Collective Brutality
2x Darkblast
1x Gnaw to the Bone
2x Lightning Axe
3x Thoughtseize
I really want to fit a Bojuka Bog in here for the mirror but I'm not sure what to cut. I'm thinking either the 3rd Brutality or 2nd Darkblast. The deck is already pretty good vs small creature decks so I think Darkblast is the safer cut.
Thoughts?
To respond to questions on RIP, I go with the "Thoughtseize it on turn 1-2" Plan. I don't bring in Decays.
Natural State - can only hit cmc 3 or less. won't give 4 life.
Nature's Claim - can hit any artifact or enchantment. will give 4 life.
The main drawback with State is that it can't hit Leyline. The 4 life from Claim usually doesn't matter but there are certainly games where it does.
So, which is better? State or Claim? Thoughts?
Personally I expect Summer Bloom to be the card to get banned in Amulet decks if it does get a hit. As for what is going to replace it, B/X Eldrazi is the biggest contender. While its still uncertain whether it is a truly competitive deck, its power is not to be underestimated.
For the ramp decks I'm honestly not really sure what we can do against them. They can all survive Blood Moons and unless we splash Red for Crumble to Dust we really don't have a good answer to Ramp decks in general. Ghost Quarters help but considering the mana requirements of BW Tokens I'm not sure how many we can afford to run.
Hour of Reckoning and other Wrath effects are good against Merfolk, its just a matter of who can rebuild faster.
I'll think about Pithing Needle though.
Round 1: Enchantress; Turn 2 RIP both games. I had removal for it in game 2 but they had Enlightened Tutor to fetch a backup copy.
0-2
Round 2: UB Mill; What happens when a Mill deck fights a self-mill deck? I get out Iona on Black and overwhelm them with zombies. I went Black over Blue because I saw Reanimate, Unearth, and Haunting Echoes.
2-0
Round 3: Belcher; They fizzled game 1, Belched me out game 2, game 3 they made 8 goblins on turn 1 and I outraced them. It was closer than I'd have liked as I just didn't hit any Bridges which would have ended the game faster.
2-1
Round 4: Lands; Game 1 they had Tabernacle + Glacial Chasm and while I waited there was never a turn where they didn't have Chasm up. Game 2 I made a horde of zombies and a large GGT on turn 2 forcing them to have Chasm. They didn't. Game 3 I made a horde of zombies and a larger GGT forcing them to draw Chasm. They did. I dredged through the rest of my deck getting Ashen Rider out to kill their Chasm and swing with a personal record number of zombie tokens, 17, which matched the size of my Troll.
2-1
6-4 overall.
As you can, apart from the UB Mill deck it was a fairly rough night for me.
Other decks that were there that night were Miracles, BUG, Grixis, Elves, and a Stasis-Restore Balance brew. Other decks that show up often are RUG Delver, Aggro Loam, TES, and D&T.
I've been running the same main deck for a while, 3 Thug, 3 Breakthrough, 3 Putrid Imp, 1 DR, 1 Iona, 1 Darkblast, 4 of everything else.
The sideboard I went with was:
3 Firestorm
2 Ingot Chewer
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Wispmare
1 Dread Return
1 Elesh Norn
1 Ashen Rider
1 Lotus Petal
The Lotus Petal I ran because I couldn't figure out a 15th card I wanted to run so I just went, "eh, it can cast me an extra spell on turn 1/2." I brought it in against Enchantress and Belcher hoping to get a bit more speed but never drew it.
Any suggestions on what I should run as the last card?
I'm thinking maybe a second Ashen Rider but I'm honestly not sure what I want in that spot.
You cannot ask if your opponent would has a response to the Careful Study before you crack the LED.
You go: "Careful Study, retaining priority crack LED for *insert color here* in response. Careful Study on the stack 3 mana floating, do you have a response to my Careful Study?"
The guy in the video should not have been allowed to crack the LED because both players already passed priority which means the Careful Study resolves right then.
Personally the only thing that really interested me was Worship as a 1 of in the sideboard. Its 4 mana which is a lot in Modern but it does have its applications.
Round 1 vs Abzan CoCo
Not really anything to say here. Both games were fairly straight forward. Play a bunch of token makers and anthems. Beat face. Just overwhelmed them with tokens. I actually forced them to use Orzhov Pontiff defensively game 2 in order to save his board from Zealous Persecution and this left me free to push harder with the token makers.
1-0
Round 2 vs Elemental Tribal
Game 1 I thoughtseize turn 1 and take their mana dork. I IoK turn 2 and take their other dork. They don't draw a third land.
Game 2 Goes fairly back and forth though I never really feel too pressured. I have out a bitterblossom and 2 virtues so every token I make is a 3/3. I get to Timely for full value and drop 3 3/3s into play. I path their blocker and attack for more than lethal.
2-0
Round 3 vs Green Devotion
Game 1 They had a turn 3 Prime Time into turn 4 Wolfrun for 6 dmg.
Game 2 More or less the same. They flood the board and I don't draw my Hour of Reckoning to save me from Craterhoof.
2-1
Round 4 vs UR Pyromancer
Game 1 Very pack and forth. I have a bunch of pressure from Virtue and token generators. They manage to fog for 2 turns with Cryptic before I manage to take the game
Game 2 The only token maker I draw is Bitterblossom and I get overwhelmed by double Young Pyromancer
Game 3 Opening 7 is 5 lands, 2 Lingering. 6 is 5 cards I really want but the only land is a Windbrisk. 5 is 1 land but if I curve out I'm fine and I don't really want to risk 4 cards. I don't draw the second land until turn 4 and I'm not in the game at all which sucks because both game 1 and 2 were really close and well played by both of us. Its depressing for a match between two skilled players to just end because of mana screw.
2-2
I get 5th place just outside of cashing. I probably should have offered to draw with my round 4 opponent as I would have locked top 4 I just didn't check standings to see if I could.
I tested 1 Shambling Vents over the 4th Windbrisk and honestly I didn't notice a difference. I never activated Vents as I was either casting stuff or just never drew it.
There was at least 1 other person on Green Devotion which I feel is a horrible match up in that they can go over the top really quickly. I'm not really sure what a good card for this match up would be but it seems to be popular at my LGS.
I'll let you guys know if I notice a difference.
Legendary Creature - Shark Octopus
Trample
UG: Tap target creature an opponent controls
t: ~ Fights target creature. If that creature is tapped prevent all damage that would be dealt to ~ by it.
7/7
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, the Simic go and do something stupid.
Next: A non-traditional elemental