It can be better than Blood Moon in some cases purely because Modern is so fast and very loaded on sub 3CMC threats. Shuts down or at least heavily delays decks like Infect, Burn, Elves etc. that are dense on low CMC cards. Landing one on T2 shuts off their T2 play unless they played a dork T1.
However it can hurt us as well. Having 4 mana with Lightning Bolt and Beast Within in hand means you can't cast both so be cautious about it.
I posted this in the Brain in a Jar thread but maybe I'm thinking I should be looking here for ideas first.
What I'm thinking is a Brain deck that has LD in it. For some odd reason instant LD for 1 mana seems crazy powerful to me. The only differences I see is that with Utopia Sprawl and BoP you're able to drop a Blood Moon or LD spell on that critical turn 2. A Brain deck would function a little differently with different choices.
I don't have a decklist going yet but I'm brewing something up! Since most of you guys have already developed a valid LD strategy here, I would like to know what you think about my idea, specifically with Smallpox and Catch/Release. They appeal to me more because they also control the board state, where the typical LD spells destroy lands and that's it. With the added bonus of taking creatures with them, I believe these spells to be more powerful. The problem I see is casting them when you can't find a Brain.
Thoughts??
Interesting idea. With the current core of 4x Utopia, 4x Arbor Elf, 2x Birds of Paradise and virutally no 2 drops, this seems like an interesting idea. Would definitely need to be more orientated around instant and sorceries to get value out of Brain. The fuse mechanic or split cards such as Boom//Bust would allow some nice interactions.
Went 2-2 today with nearly identical list to Fridays. Only difference was 3 Angers in the main instead of Bonfires and Chandra, Torch of Defiance instead of Chandra, Pyromaster. Forgot to add something else to SB instead of Bonfires.
Didn't know what I was up against at first since I saw no Blood Moon's and only Izzet Charm and Cryptic Command in the first game. Boarded in Finks for 2nd game but he boarded in Angers so I sided them back out in game 3. Ancient Grudge was there to deal with Batterskull which won him game 2 after equipping it on Goblin Dark-Dwellers. Overall it felt like a favourable matchup since they have no way of dealing with out fatties. Tapping them down via Cryptic only buys them a turn.
Game 1 he burned me down with Goblin Guide, Lavamancer and other burn spells. Game 2 I never drew any relevant removal. Bolted one of his Swiftspears but even Finks couldn't help against his hand of 2x Swiftspear, Goblin Guide, Rift Bolt and 3x Lava Spike.
I think I was mostly unlucky with the draws. Never saw any Angers or enough early turn threats such as Finks or Baloths to keep up with his burn.
It's tough playing against discard. The worst CMC3 offender you plan on slamming down T2 will get taken away by Thoughtseize/Inqusition. He also played Seeker of the Way which needs to be dealt with asap else it can quickly become a Lightning Helix each turn. List was heavier on white and black so Blood Moon does extra work here. 3rd game I had to mulligan down to 5 which is really unfavourable against discard matchups. Kept a land with Arbor Elf, Lightning Bolt and 3 lands but could never really get going.
Land that Blood Moon asap. Leonin Arbiter taxes our fetching and turns their Ghost Quarters into LD. Postboard bring in Ancient Grudges to deal with Aether Vial. Anger hits most of the creatures except for Loxodon Smiter. Won the 2nd game after attacking with my 2/1 finks into his Smiter which he blocked even though he was on 21. I followed it up with Anger clearing my Finks, Birds and Arbor Elf but also taking away his Finks, Smiter, Aven Mindcensor and Noble Hierarch. Grudge took care of his Vial and Blood Moon took away his mana which bought me enough time to topdeck a Titan.
While I didn't really have the chance to see the new Chandra in action, I don't think she's a good fit. Waiting on my copies of Madcap Experiment to see how that works out.
Thanks for the reports fellas. I'm glad to see you getting good results.
Fish is a tiny part of the meta right now, but when it starts coming up it tends to keep showing up for a little while. It's one of those decks that gets popular for short periods -- usually because it finds an angle between other decks in the meta that hate it out. Choke is generally excellent, but narrow. I like putting cards in my sideboard that are either useful against multiple decks or are tactical nukes against one really bad match-up that I absolutely know will come up (tier one decks like Jund and Affinity). It's a great card in a very blue meta game so if you have Fish, Thing Ascension, maybe Grixis Control then it might be worthwhile. I prefer Engineered Explosives though. Think about it. EE is good against pretty much ALL the aggro decks and hits about half the Fish dorks + Vial too so it can be played in multiple match-ups making it very flexible. It's good against Bogles, Elves, Gobo, Thing, Jund and more. It's even good against Evolution and Eldrazi because it takes out their mana dorks -- not that we really need it against Eldrazi.
EE seems good especially on 2 since we don't really have any 2 drops. Having it on one kills our dorks and Utopia Sprawl but if it hurts our opponent more it's a worthy sacrifice.
I like the two bolts in MB, sometimes it lets you kill that early dork to stall them just enough to follow it up with land destruction.
I sided Thrun out because I find it too expensive with no good effect against them. Regeneration doesn't do much if they have evasion via islandwalk and they don't run creature counters. Hexproof might work against the odd Vapor Snag or Echoing Truth but that's about it.
Against aggressive decks I usually bump up the life gain. Kitchen Finks, Obstinate Baloth, Thragtusk etc. can be enough to put blockers on the field and stall those few turns until Titans show up. With LD spells in our deck we can even destroy lands that they've Spreading Seas'd.
Choke is a nice option but with blue being poorly represented in my local meta, I've been hesitant to add some to my SB.
I have a love/hate relationship with Dismember for the same reasons you mentioned. Though with a lot of life gain I think it isn't as bad here. Having 5 mana allows us to cast Obstinate Baloth and leave 1 mana up for Dismember. Baloth's life gain offsets the life loss.
I like Nissa personally but only as one of. Her +1 can ramp us just like Arbor Elf if the land is Sprawled. Her -3 can bring us back threats like Titan or even Blood Moon if needed. And if she survives 3 turns we can simply ulti her to get draws out of our lands.
I see you sided out Polukranos a lot. It seems useful against Merfolk to deal with their lords since as you've seen it yourself, they can quickly get out of Anger range.
Blood Moon is good against Merfolk but I think we can safely side out at least two copies. They'll be careful with nonbasics in games 2/3.
Game 1: Locked him down with T2 Stone Rain into T3 Stone Rain into T4 Acid-Moss.
Game 2: Had an opening hand with 3 lands but being on the draw I decided to mulligan down to 6. Never saw the third land then and he bolted two of my dorks.
Game 3: This was a close one. Never saw any LD spells. Played Finks T2, he plays Sakura Tribe-Elder and passes. I Sudden Shock his Sakura which was as close to LD as I'd get this game. Got him down to 8 with just Finks. Eventually I landed a Blood Moon followed by Ruric Thar, the Unbowed. He plays Primeval Titan but had to block my Ruric to prevent losing. He bolts my Finks so I kept attacking just for 2. I play second Blood Moon, he Nature's Claims to kill my first Blood Moon, fetches a mountain and gets three Valakut triggers to hit me for 6 and kill my Finks. Second Blood Moon resolves, we pass the turns and I topdecked a Titan when he was on 2 life.
I'd say Titanshift version (he played Through the Breach too) is much harder than pure RG Scapeshift. Blood Moon does a lot of work but Primeval Titan's can be hard to deal with.
Game 1: He mulliganed to 5, never saw the second land.
Game 2: He mulliganed to 6, I landed a T2 Obstinate Baloth followed by a Thragtusk. Ancient Grudge took care of his Aether Vial and Anger took care of his mostly 2 toughness Spirits.
They're hard to predict due to the Draw-Go strategy. Rattlechains together with Aether Vial allows them to do combat tricks or simply hold mana up for removal/counters and then empty their hand EoT. Although their threats all have flying, our creatures are simply too big if we get a couple on board and we have a faster clock. Beware of Nebelgast Herald it can tap down our creatures before combat leaving us with no attack and no defense on their turn.
Game 1: Mulligan to 6. On the draw, he plays Oboro and Cursecatcher. I play Arbor Elf and pass. He plays Cavern and another Cursecatcher. I follow up with T2 Blood Moon, locking him out of blue mana. He managed to get me down to 6 but my sequence of Titan to kill his Lord (vialed in) then attack with Titan and pump for additional +4/+0 was too much to handle.
Game 2: Never had the chance to stop him. Spreading Seas on the forest I had Utopia Sprawl on locked me out of red and when I finally drew a Mountain it was too late.
Game 3: Decided to keep an opening hand with Sudden Shock, Ancient Grudge, Mountain, Kessing Wolf Run, Arbor Elf, Obstinate Baloth and Utopia Sprawl. I knew it was risky but I figured Sudden Shock can deal with a potential lord and Ancient Grudge can deal with Aether Vial. I drew a Stomping Ground the next turn, played Utopia Sprawl on it and passed. He Spreading Seas'd the Stomping Ground and kept pressure on me with a Cursecatcher and a Silvergill Adept. Eventually I get to 5 mana and play a Thragtusk followed by Obstinate Baloth next turn. He made a mistake of not blocking them while I had Kessig Wolf Run to pump Tusk and get him down to 2. He never got a second lord and I topdecked a Titan to seal the win.
Spreading Seas is one of the few cards that can harm us early game. Casting it on the forest enchanted with Utopia Sprawl makes the Sprawl fall off and we can't untap it with Arbor Elf. Cursecatchers are also tricky to play around, especially in multiples. Kill their lords as soon as possible otherwise they get out Anger range. Pack up on lifegain via Finks, Baloth and Thragtusk to buy that extra time.
Opened the new Chandra in prize boosters so I might give her a go next time.
Anger is too hard to cast for the same reason that Molten Rain is too hard to cast. Even you say in this post that the RR is too hard to get early, yet you advocate running Anger....
You have 4x Utopia Sprawl, 8 fetchlands to grab Stomping Ground and 2 Birds. I've rarely had a problem casting Anger.
Just compare the amount of mana you're investing for either spell. To get the same effect from Bonfire you need to spend 7 mana in which case you'd rather be casting a Titan than Bonfire. Relying on that topdeck Bonfire, like M@lcontent pointed out, is just increasing variance which we don't really want.
I'd rather run Mizzium Mortars than Bonfire's if you're afraid of killing your dorks with Anger.
+3 Anger of the Gods (Vastly superior to Bonfire because it always does what you want it to.)
You want it to kill your mana dorks?
I run 4 sprawls which are immune, 1 BoP and 4 Elves, but I almost never play more than one elf at a time. If you know you are going to cast Anger in a given matchup (Elves, CoCo, Eldrazi, Death and Taxes, Goblins, etc.) and are in any way competent then you can play around it. An Elf with a Sprawl on just two lands gives you five mana and that's enough to play everything in the deck but Titan. Play your third land and you are golden. Admittedly that's a pretty amazing mana draw, but it's not that uncommon for this deck. Add to that the fact that usually, when you are casting Anger you are doing so because you are going to lose if you don't then the Elf becomes little more than an additional casting cost for the spell. When gauging this against the unreliability of Bonfire it becomes an absolute no brainer for me. I tested Bonfire and found I was losing games I would have won with Anger way too often.
For example, against Elves you pretty much have to get a Blood Moon down on T2 (they have a surprising number of non-basics) and Anger T3 or you lose. That means you need to see the sweeper in your opening seven or first 2/3 draws. With Bonfire you have to draw it ON T3 or you won't be able to cast it for enough to not die. If you see it in your opening grip then you are pretty much screwed, if you draw it T1 you are screwed. If you draw it on T2 and played a dork T1 then you can cast it for two and kill two or (if they went first) 3 dorks, more if one of the dorks was a Heritage Druid. This last option is fine, but only works out in this exact scenario and if you hit Bonfire with your ninth draw (7+2). If you drew Anger with ANY of those nine cards you can do the same thing.
The only time Bonfire is better is if you get to the midgame a lot in a room full of planeswalkers. This is why I insist on running four Beast Within. If you can't interact with Lilianna of the Veil of Nahiri you are massively hosed. I have lost more than a few games to Jund or Grixis just because they went first and played a T3 Liliana.
I know this is going to sound obnoxious, and I apologise in advance for that, but every time I see a Ponza deck with Bonfires in it make top 8 somewhere I wonder if the pilot could have won if they were better deck builders/players. Then I think the deck archetype must be amazing to do well despite such handicaps. It feels great to topdeck Bonfire at the exact right time and wipe out your oppo and dome them at the same time. I've done it. I laughed in elation. But one of the reasons it feels so good is because we know we got lucky. Like I said, it's obnoxious and arrogant. But good MtG players do their utmost to increase the reliability of their decks. Bonfire embraces variance. Don't be lucky. Be good and the luck will come.
This is probably waaaay more than you were looking for. Sorry for that.
Very well put. I've come to the same conclusion. Bonfire is superb when topdecked but you really don't want it in your opening hand. The mana investment compared to Anger is simply not worth it. It's pretty painful losing a game that you would've won had that Bonfire been an Anger.
Blood Moon is really powerful against Elves. I've been playing them before picking up Ponza and their mana base is extremely greedy. Early Blood Moon along with a sweeper to kill the mana on their dorks is a good tactic.
So after traveling around with to some what lgs. I have 3 first place victories. Two tournies were 4-0 and tonite was 5-0. Not gonna write out a big drawn out report. Worst matchup was against fish, probably because it was a long grindy 3 games. I'm happy with my list. Garruk AND Nissa were boss. In a grindfest with a sultai deck I shut him down with moon but kept drawing lands. I ultimeded Nissa twice
Gratz to three 1st places, not an easy task!
Care to show us your lists? Which Garruk you use I wonder
Jeez so tired writing last night, surprised anyone can read my dribble. Ok green moon 1 is my main deck and I use it all the time. Moon2 is a list i took to a lgs with 4 jund players. Both are good but I like one with gesrhulk
I ran pretty much the same list yesterday and went 2-2. Lost to Bant Eldrazi which is honestly a really favourable matchup for us but got Thought-Knot Seer/Displacer combo'd the first game and had my Blood Moon countered by Stubborn Denial in the 2nd. Played a couple more games afterwards and won 90% of them. Resolving Blood Moon against them is almost auto win. Lost to Jund as well since he was running the new Liliana and Grim Flayers. Liliana took care of my dorks and Grim Flayers with delirium were out of Anger range.
Won against UWR Nahiri where T2 Blood Moon is close to being an auto win and won against Ponza mirror. Mirror comes down to a die roll and whoever lands more fatties after the LD part is over.
Here's the list and my sideboarding choices for each matchup:
Not really sure if I made the correct decisions here. Anger doesn't hit Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher but it does clear up their Noble Hierarchs and Eldrazi Displacers. Finks is obviously there to chump and life gain while Stormbreath Dragon dodges their removal except for Dismember.
Like mentioned I think this is a favourable matchup for us but it depends a lot on us resolving a Blood Moon. This turns off their colorless mana producing lands which makes them unable to cast any Eldrazi except for Displacer which is unable to use it's blink ability.
Lightning Bolt also came in handy to deal with Hierarchs.
They don't run any creatures except for Snapcaster Mages and one off Emrakul as their wincon hence siding out the Bonfires. Grafdigger's Cage turns off their Nahiri and any Snapcaster shenanigans. Stormbreath is obvious with pro white.
Like with Bant Eldrazi, resolving an early Blood Moon is crucial. They don't run many basics so after Blood Moon just focus on destroying their basics to take away their colours. Taking away blue takes care of any counter spells.
He was playing a more creature heavy version with new Liliana and Grim Flayers. Dorks aren't as useful here so it's best to start with Utopia Sprawl in opening hand followed by T2 Blood Moon or Stone Rain. Grim Flayers can be tricky to deal with after they have delirium so deal with them asap. Probably should've left the Baloth in since it's 4 life and a 4/4 beater but figured it wasn't as good against the new Lili.
Pretty obvious choices. Blood Moon goes out as it does nothing. In the end the matchup comes down to a die roll as the person with T2 Stone Rain is likely the one to win.
Chandra could be alright. But I see two problems. First is that we don't run any 2CMC spells so we can't take advantage of her second ability the turn she hits the battlefield. 5 loyalty is almost on par with Nahiri so we can ramp probably ramp the into Titan the following turn. Second is that we also don't want to use the first ability unless we have enough mana to cast that spell which is hard with our curve. We also can't play lands off her. -3 is nice but seems quite expensive to do that for 4 mana.
Tireless Tracker looks good but it's fighting for the 3CMC slot with Blood Moon and Stone Rain which means it delays our plan if we play it, turns on their creature removal and we essentially get timewalked. Stone Rain on the other hand gives us tempo advantange while Blood Moon can pretty much turn off certain decks on it's own.
Friend suggested Goblin Dark-Dwellers but with RR it would move us more into red and we'd also need to up our target count for it's ability. That would then mean switching Acid-Moss for Molten Rain which is also double R. And with Modern being so heavy on nonbasics we could squeeze in some extra damage.
You don't cast Chandra turn 4, we don't have anything to protect her with. I mostly wait so I know I beforehand has a creature or can use her RR ability to cast creature after.
Which means you can't really count her as a 4CMC spell if you're only meant to play her on T4-5. On curve, she just seems like a bad choice. I'd rather see Baloth/Colossus/Thrun or Acid Moss in that spot.
Chandra could be alright. But I see two problems. First is that we don't run any 2CMC spells so we can't take advantage of her second ability the turn she hits the battlefield. 5 loyalty is almost on par with Nahiri so we can ramp probably ramp the into Titan the following turn. Second is that we also don't want to use the first ability unless we have enough mana to cast that spell which is hard with our curve. We also can't play lands off her. -3 is nice but seems quite expensive to do that for 4 mana.
Tireless Tracker looks good but it's fighting for the 3CMC slot with Blood Moon and Stone Rain which means it delays our plan if we play it, turns on their creature removal and we essentially get timewalked. Stone Rain on the other hand gives us tempo advantange while Blood Moon can pretty much turn off certain decks on it's own.
Friend suggested Goblin Dark-Dwellers but with RR it would move us more into red and we'd also need to up our target count for it's ability. That would then mean switching Acid-Moss for Molten Rain which is also double R. And with Modern being so heavy on nonbasics we could squeeze in some extra damage.
Was initially going to test Ruric That, the Unbowed but couldn't get it in time so it'll have to wait until next time.
Nissa feels really good in the deck. We're able to cast her on T3 and either attack for 5 or protect her to ultimate the next turn. Her -3 ability to return Blood Moon or Titans comes in handy as well.
Albeit the metagame today was full of control (3x UWR, Jund, Skred, Mardu etc.) I didn't miss the Bonfires. Every time I saw Anger in it's place it was good.
Went 1-3 on Thursday losing to Abzan, UB Faeries and Affinity and winning against some BR Soulflayer brew.
Faeries are pretty tricky due to discard and counterspells. Seems like a generally unfavourable matchup.
Abzan is 50:50. If you manage an early LD spell followed by a Titan, you're good. If you don't have a quick pay off they can go too wide especially with Lingering Souls. Qasali Pridemage is also problematic since it can get rid of our Utopia Sprawls.
Affinity depends on the die roll. LD won't do that much to them so it's best to bring out the sweepers and artifact hate. Sudden Shock is good against Ravager shenanigans.
I've gotten rid of Bonfires completely and went with 3x Anger of the Gods in MB. I also think we should take advantage of some 2CMC spells. Right now my list (using Harrison Gill's) has none and unless you have T1 dork/Utopia into T2 Stone Rain, you simply don't do anything on the second turn. Perhaps going the way of Burn and go with something like Eidolon of the Great Revel? Or Signal the Clans on their EoT to try and grab a Titan/Colossus/whatever. Magma Jet is removal with added Scry 2 to dig through our library.
However it can hurt us as well. Having 4 mana with Lightning Bolt and Beast Within in hand means you can't cast both so be cautious about it.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
Various LD lists have been posted here but most recently it's the RG Ponza version, yeah. Any other strategies are also more than welcome.
Interesting idea. With the current core of 4x Utopia, 4x Arbor Elf, 2x Birds of Paradise and virutally no 2 drops, this seems like an interesting idea. Would definitely need to be more orientated around instant and sorceries to get value out of Brain. The fuse mechanic or split cards such as Boom//Bust would allow some nice interactions.
Went 2-2 today with nearly identical list to Fridays. Only difference was 3 Angers in the main instead of Bonfires and Chandra, Torch of Defiance instead of Chandra, Pyromaster. Forgot to add something else to SB instead of Bonfires.
4x Arbor Elf
2x Birds of Paradise
3x Inferno Titan
2x Obstinate Baloth
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Thragtusk
1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Stormbreath Dragon
Spells (14):
4x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4x Stone Rain
3x Bonfire of the Damned
2x Lightning Bolt
1x Primal Command
4x Blood Moon
4x Utopia Sprawl
Planeswalkers (2):
1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1x Nissa, Vital Force
Lands (21):
8x Forest
1x Mountain
1x Kessig Wolf Run
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
3x Stomping Ground
1x Dismember
1x Beast Within
1x Stormbreath Dragon
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Sudden Shock
3x Bonfire of the Damned
3x Kitchen Finks
Won 2-0 // On the draw // Blue Moon
In: 2x Grafdigger's Cage, 2x Ancient Grudge, 1x Beast Within, 1x Dismember
Out: 3x Anger of the Gods, 1x Stormbreath Dragon, 1x Blood Moon, 1x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
Didn't know what I was up against at first since I saw no Blood Moon's and only Izzet Charm and Cryptic Command in the first game. Boarded in Finks for 2nd game but he boarded in Angers so I sided them back out in game 3. Ancient Grudge was there to deal with Batterskull which won him game 2 after equipping it on Goblin Dark-Dwellers. Overall it felt like a favourable matchup since they have no way of dealing with out fatties. Tapping them down via Cryptic only buys them a turn.
Lost 0-2 // On the draw // Burn
In: 3x Kitchen Finks, 2x Sudden Shock, 1x Beast Within, 1x Stormbreath Dragon
Out: 4x Blood Moon, 2x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, 1x Stone Rain
Game 1 he burned me down with Goblin Guide, Lavamancer and other burn spells. Game 2 I never drew any relevant removal. Bolted one of his Swiftspears but even Finks couldn't help against his hand of 2x Swiftspear, Goblin Guide, Rift Bolt and 3x Lava Spike.
I think I was mostly unlucky with the draws. Never saw any Angers or enough early turn threats such as Finks or Baloths to keep up with his burn.
Lost 1-2 // On the play // Mardu Control
In: 3x Kitchen Finks, 2x Sudden Shock, 1x Beast Within
Out: 2x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, 1x Stone Rain, 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance, 1x Anger of the Gods, 1x Blood Moon
It's tough playing against discard. The worst CMC3 offender you plan on slamming down T2 will get taken away by Thoughtseize/Inqusition. He also played Seeker of the Way which needs to be dealt with asap else it can quickly become a Lightning Helix each turn. List was heavier on white and black so Blood Moon does extra work here. 3rd game I had to mulligan down to 5 which is really unfavourable against discard matchups. Kept a land with Arbor Elf, Lightning Bolt and 3 lands but could never really get going.
Won 2-0 // On the draw // Hatebears
In: 3x Kitchen Finks, 2x Sudden Shock, 2x Ancient Grudge, 1x Stormbreath Dragon
Out: 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance, 1x Blood Moon, 1x Stone Rain, 1x Inferno Titan, 1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, 1x Chameleon Colossus, 1x Obstinate Baloth, 1x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
Land that Blood Moon asap. Leonin Arbiter taxes our fetching and turns their Ghost Quarters into LD. Postboard bring in Ancient Grudges to deal with Aether Vial. Anger hits most of the creatures except for Loxodon Smiter. Won the 2nd game after attacking with my 2/1 finks into his Smiter which he blocked even though he was on 21. I followed it up with Anger clearing my Finks, Birds and Arbor Elf but also taking away his Finks, Smiter, Aven Mindcensor and Noble Hierarch. Grudge took care of his Vial and Blood Moon took away his mana which bought me enough time to topdeck a Titan.
While I didn't really have the chance to see the new Chandra in action, I don't think she's a good fit. Waiting on my copies of Madcap Experiment to see how that works out.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
EE seems good especially on 2 since we don't really have any 2 drops. Having it on one kills our dorks and Utopia Sprawl but if it hurts our opponent more it's a worthy sacrifice.
I like the two bolts in MB, sometimes it lets you kill that early dork to stall them just enough to follow it up with land destruction.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
Against aggressive decks I usually bump up the life gain. Kitchen Finks, Obstinate Baloth, Thragtusk etc. can be enough to put blockers on the field and stall those few turns until Titans show up. With LD spells in our deck we can even destroy lands that they've Spreading Seas'd.
Choke is a nice option but with blue being poorly represented in my local meta, I've been hesitant to add some to my SB.
I have a love/hate relationship with Dismember for the same reasons you mentioned. Though with a lot of life gain I think it isn't as bad here. Having 5 mana allows us to cast Obstinate Baloth and leave 1 mana up for Dismember. Baloth's life gain offsets the life loss.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
I like Nissa personally but only as one of. Her +1 can ramp us just like Arbor Elf if the land is Sprawled. Her -3 can bring us back threats like Titan or even Blood Moon if needed. And if she survives 3 turns we can simply ulti her to get draws out of our lands.
I see you sided out Polukranos a lot. It seems useful against Merfolk to deal with their lords since as you've seen it yourself, they can quickly get out of Anger range.
Blood Moon is good against Merfolk but I think we can safely side out at least two copies. They'll be careful with nonbasics in games 2/3.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
4x Arbor Elf
2x Birds of Paradise
3x Inferno Titan
2x Obstinate Baloth
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Thragtusk
1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Stormbreath Dragon
Spells (14):
4x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4x Stone Rain
3x Bonfire of the Damned
2x Lightning Bolt
1x Primal Command
4x Blood Moon
4x Utopia Sprawl
Planeswalkers (2):
1x Chandra, Pyromaster
1x Nissa, Vital Force
Lands (21):
8x Forest
1x Mountain
1x Kessig Wolf Run
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
3x Stomping Ground
1x Dismember
1x Beast Within
1x Stormbreath Dragon
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Sudden Shock
3x Anger of the Gods
3x Kitchen Finks
I forgot to swap the Bonfires for Angers main and luckily variance was on my side.
Won 2-0 - RG Titanshift
In: 2x Sudden Shock, 3x Kitchen Finks, 1x Beast Within
Out: 1x Thrun, the Last Troll, 3x Bonfire of the Damned, 1x Chandra, Pyromaster, 1x Chameleon Colossus
Game 1: Locked him down with T2 Stone Rain into T3 Stone Rain into T4 Acid-Moss.
Game 2: Had an opening hand with 3 lands but being on the draw I decided to mulligan down to 6. Never saw the third land then and he bolted two of my dorks.
Game 3: This was a close one. Never saw any LD spells. Played Finks T2, he plays Sakura Tribe-Elder and passes. I Sudden Shock his Sakura which was as close to LD as I'd get this game. Got him down to 8 with just Finks. Eventually I landed a Blood Moon followed by Ruric Thar, the Unbowed. He plays Primeval Titan but had to block my Ruric to prevent losing. He bolts my Finks so I kept attacking just for 2. I play second Blood Moon, he Nature's Claims to kill my first Blood Moon, fetches a mountain and gets three Valakut triggers to hit me for 6 and kill my Finks. Second Blood Moon resolves, we pass the turns and I topdecked a Titan when he was on 2 life.
I'd say Titanshift version (he played Through the Breach too) is much harder than pure RG Scapeshift. Blood Moon does a lot of work but Primeval Titan's can be hard to deal with.
Won 2-0 - UW Spirits
In: 2x Sudden Shock, 2x Ancient Grudge, 3x Anger of the Gods, 1x Stormbreath Dragon
Out: 3x Bonfire of the Damned, 1x Blood Moon, 1x Chameleon Colossus, 1x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, 1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, 1x Thrun, the Last Troll
Game 1: He mulliganed to 5, never saw the second land.
Game 2: He mulliganed to 6, I landed a T2 Obstinate Baloth followed by a Thragtusk. Ancient Grudge took care of his Aether Vial and Anger took care of his mostly 2 toughness Spirits.
They're hard to predict due to the Draw-Go strategy. Rattlechains together with Aether Vial allows them to do combat tricks or simply hold mana up for removal/counters and then empty their hand EoT. Although their threats all have flying, our creatures are simply too big if we get a couple on board and we have a faster clock. Beware of Nebelgast Herald it can tap down our creatures before combat leaving us with no attack and no defense on their turn.
Won 2-1 - Merfolk
In: 3x Anger of the Gods, 2x Sudden Shock, 2x Ancient Grudge, 2x Kitchen Finks
Out: 3x Bonfire of the Damned, 2x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, 1x Blood Moon, 1x Chameleon Colossus, 1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, 1x Thrun, the Last Troll
Game 1: Mulligan to 6. On the draw, he plays Oboro and Cursecatcher. I play Arbor Elf and pass. He plays Cavern and another Cursecatcher. I follow up with T2 Blood Moon, locking him out of blue mana. He managed to get me down to 6 but my sequence of Titan to kill his Lord (vialed in) then attack with Titan and pump for additional +4/+0 was too much to handle.
Game 2: Never had the chance to stop him. Spreading Seas on the forest I had Utopia Sprawl on locked me out of red and when I finally drew a Mountain it was too late.
Game 3: Decided to keep an opening hand with Sudden Shock, Ancient Grudge, Mountain, Kessing Wolf Run, Arbor Elf, Obstinate Baloth and Utopia Sprawl. I knew it was risky but I figured Sudden Shock can deal with a potential lord and Ancient Grudge can deal with Aether Vial. I drew a Stomping Ground the next turn, played Utopia Sprawl on it and passed. He Spreading Seas'd the Stomping Ground and kept pressure on me with a Cursecatcher and a Silvergill Adept. Eventually I get to 5 mana and play a Thragtusk followed by Obstinate Baloth next turn. He made a mistake of not blocking them while I had Kessig Wolf Run to pump Tusk and get him down to 2. He never got a second lord and I topdecked a Titan to seal the win.
Spreading Seas is one of the few cards that can harm us early game. Casting it on the forest enchanted with Utopia Sprawl makes the Sprawl fall off and we can't untap it with Arbor Elf. Cursecatchers are also tricky to play around, especially in multiples. Kill their lords as soon as possible otherwise they get out Anger range. Pack up on lifegain via Finks, Baloth and Thragtusk to buy that extra time.
Opened the new Chandra in prize boosters so I might give her a go next time.
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Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
You have 4x Utopia Sprawl, 8 fetchlands to grab Stomping Ground and 2 Birds. I've rarely had a problem casting Anger.
Just compare the amount of mana you're investing for either spell. To get the same effect from Bonfire you need to spend 7 mana in which case you'd rather be casting a Titan than Bonfire. Relying on that topdeck Bonfire, like M@lcontent pointed out, is just increasing variance which we don't really want.
I'd rather run Mizzium Mortars than Bonfire's if you're afraid of killing your dorks with Anger.
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Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
Very well put. I've come to the same conclusion. Bonfire is superb when topdecked but you really don't want it in your opening hand. The mana investment compared to Anger is simply not worth it. It's pretty painful losing a game that you would've won had that Bonfire been an Anger.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
I ran pretty much the same list yesterday and went 2-2. Lost to Bant Eldrazi which is honestly a really favourable matchup for us but got Thought-Knot Seer/Displacer combo'd the first game and had my Blood Moon countered by Stubborn Denial in the 2nd. Played a couple more games afterwards and won 90% of them. Resolving Blood Moon against them is almost auto win. Lost to Jund as well since he was running the new Liliana and Grim Flayers. Liliana took care of my dorks and Grim Flayers with delirium were out of Anger range.
Won against UWR Nahiri where T2 Blood Moon is close to being an auto win and won against Ponza mirror. Mirror comes down to a die roll and whoever lands more fatties after the LD part is over.
Here's the list and my sideboarding choices for each matchup:
4x Arbor Elf
2x Birds of Paradise
3x Inferno Titan
2x Obstinate Baloth
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Thragtusk
1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Stormbreath Dragon
Spells (14):
4x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4x Stone Rain
3x Bonfire of the Damned
2x Lightning Bolt
1x Primal Command
4x Blood Moon
4x Utopia Sprawl
Planeswalkers (2):
1x Chandra, Pyromaster
1x Nissa, Vital Force
Lands (21):
8x Forest
1x Mountain
1x Kessig Wolf Run
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
3x Stomping Ground
1x Dismember
1x Beast Within
1x Stormbreath Dragon
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Sudden Shock
3x Anger of the Gods
3x Kitchen Finks
0-2 - Bant Eldrazi
In: 3x Anger of the Gods, 3x Kitchen Finks, 1x Stormbreath Dragon
Out: 1x Chandra, Pyromaster, 2x Obstinate Baloth, 3x Bonfire of the Damned, 1x Chameleon Colossus
Not really sure if I made the correct decisions here. Anger doesn't hit Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher but it does clear up their Noble Hierarchs and Eldrazi Displacers. Finks is obviously there to chump and life gain while Stormbreath Dragon dodges their removal except for Dismember.
Like mentioned I think this is a favourable matchup for us but it depends a lot on us resolving a Blood Moon. This turns off their colorless mana producing lands which makes them unable to cast any Eldrazi except for Displacer which is unable to use it's blink ability.
Lightning Bolt also came in handy to deal with Hierarchs.
2-1 - UWR Nahiri
In: 3x Kitchen Finks, 2x Grafdigger's Cage, 2x Sudden Shock, 1x Stormbreath Dragon
Out: 3x Bonfire of the Damned, 2x Obstinate Baloth, 1x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, 1x Chandra, Pyromaster, 1x Chameleon Colossus
They don't run any creatures except for Snapcaster Mages and one off Emrakul as their wincon hence siding out the Bonfires. Grafdigger's Cage turns off their Nahiri and any Snapcaster shenanigans. Stormbreath is obvious with pro white.
Like with Bant Eldrazi, resolving an early Blood Moon is crucial. They don't run many basics so after Blood Moon just focus on destroying their basics to take away their colours. Taking away blue takes care of any counter spells.
0-2 - Jund
In: 3x Kitchen Finks, 2x Sudden Shock
Out: 2x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, 1x Obstinate Baloth, 1x Chandra, Pyromaster, 1x Stormbreath Dragon
He was playing a more creature heavy version with new Liliana and Grim Flayers. Dorks aren't as useful here so it's best to start with Utopia Sprawl in opening hand followed by T2 Blood Moon or Stone Rain. Grim Flayers can be tricky to deal with after they have delirium so deal with them asap. Probably should've left the Baloth in since it's 4 life and a 4/4 beater but figured it wasn't as good against the new Lili.
2-0 - RG Ponza
In: 3x Kitchen Finks, 2x Sudden Shock, 1x Stormbreath Dragon
Out: 4x Blood Moon, 2x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
Pretty obvious choices. Blood Moon goes out as it does nothing. In the end the matchup comes down to a die roll as the person with T2 Stone Rain is likely the one to win.
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Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
Which means you can't really count her as a 4CMC spell if you're only meant to play her on T4-5. On curve, she just seems like a bad choice. I'd rather see Baloth/Colossus/Thrun or Acid Moss in that spot.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
Great
Chandra could be alright. But I see two problems. First is that we don't run any 2CMC spells so we can't take advantage of her second ability the turn she hits the battlefield. 5 loyalty is almost on par with Nahiri so we can ramp probably ramp the into Titan the following turn. Second is that we also don't want to use the first ability unless we have enough mana to cast that spell which is hard with our curve. We also can't play lands off her. -3 is nice but seems quite expensive to do that for 4 mana.
Tireless Tracker looks good but it's fighting for the 3CMC slot with Blood Moon and Stone Rain which means it delays our plan if we play it, turns on their creature removal and we essentially get timewalked. Stone Rain on the other hand gives us tempo advantange while Blood Moon can pretty much turn off certain decks on it's own.
Friend suggested Goblin Dark-Dwellers but with RR it would move us more into red and we'd also need to up our target count for it's ability. That would then mean switching Acid-Moss for Molten Rain which is also double R. And with Modern being so heavy on nonbasics we could squeeze in some extra damage.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
4 Arbor Elf
2 Birds of Paradise
1 Chameleon Colossus
4 Inferno Titan
2 Obstinate Baloth
2 Stormbreath Dragon
Instants (2):
2 Beast Within
Sorceries (12):
3 Anger of the Gods
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 Primal Command
4 Stone Rain
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Nissa, Vital Force
Enchantments (8):
4 Blood Moon
4 Utopia Sprawl
Lands (21):
9 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Dismember
1 Firespout
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Mizzium Mortars
2 Sudden Shock
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Trinisphere
Was initially going to test Ruric That, the Unbowed but couldn't get it in time so it'll have to wait until next time.
Nissa feels really good in the deck. We're able to cast her on T3 and either attack for 5 or protect her to ultimate the next turn. Her -3 ability to return Blood Moon or Titans comes in handy as well.
Albeit the metagame today was full of control (3x UWR, Jund, Skred, Mardu etc.) I didn't miss the Bonfires. Every time I saw Anger in it's place it was good.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
Faeries are pretty tricky due to discard and counterspells. Seems like a generally unfavourable matchup.
Abzan is 50:50. If you manage an early LD spell followed by a Titan, you're good. If you don't have a quick pay off they can go too wide especially with Lingering Souls. Qasali Pridemage is also problematic since it can get rid of our Utopia Sprawls.
Affinity depends on the die roll. LD won't do that much to them so it's best to bring out the sweepers and artifact hate. Sudden Shock is good against Ravager shenanigans.
I've gotten rid of Bonfires completely and went with 3x Anger of the Gods in MB. I also think we should take advantage of some 2CMC spells. Right now my list (using Harrison Gill's) has none and unless you have T1 dork/Utopia into T2 Stone Rain, you simply don't do anything on the second turn. Perhaps going the way of Burn and go with something like Eidolon of the Great Revel? Or Signal the Clans on their EoT to try and grab a Titan/Colossus/whatever. Magma Jet is removal with added Scry 2 to dig through our library.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW