I think part of Liliana's issue is that in Jund, they can cast all their cards and play all their lands, so being hellbent is not an issue.
We often have no-value herders stuck in hand, or removal we do want to save, or multiple fat expensive Eldrazi we just don't have the lands for yet.
Liliana -no cards in hand plan works a lot better with man lands too, cuz you're threatening them with Raging Ravine/Stirring Wildwood, but they have to discard their removal and your land isn't a creature-target yet.
This has been a ~30 page thread where most of those ideas were discussed and tried already.
If you want to try U/B chat with the ~90 page B/x eldrazi thread, they're still trying all sorts of different colors out.
I know a few of them are running U/B with Ashiok.
We can't and don't want to run BWUC Eldrazi.
I don't want to dedicate too much in the 75 to it, but I have an awful win rate vs. that deck, like 1-5 in matches.
We just durdle too much early game and their creature get in for a lot.
Strangler processing Rift bolt is great tech, but very rare.
Between vaults/shambling vent, I stil just can't seem to stabilize as everything is expensive.
Even TKS who rips out a nice card, will eventually block a guide/swift spear, and die.
Yeah it's a 2-for-1 but they're just back to bolting the face plan and we have no blockers again.
Do you think we should cut the Timely Reinforcements/Rest for the Way alltogether for more sweepers for aggro decks? I get that timely is good in random aggro sometimes, but its only temporary life if we can't find a way to deal with their threats, or can start activating repeatable lifegain (vault/shambling).
I don't see any Eldrazi Displacer being run, why is that? Seems like it interacts favorably with many of our creatures. Is it simply because it doesn't pass the bolt test?
It only does anything with Strangler and TKS.
It doesn't really do anything on its own, & yes it dies to bolt when its cast getting no value.
Its mana intensive in a deck that already has a good top end.
Potentially blanks removal, or stops opposing creatures from attacking or whatever, but if I was behind I wouldn't really want this card, unless I just had like ~6 mana at that point.
Hello,
I played in the ATL classic today and I did not play a Celestial Colonnade. It is actually supposed to be a Celestial Purge. I plan to do a small write-up in the next couple of days, but if you have any questions, feel free to let me know.
Hey!
Congrats on the 13th place finish.
Looks like that was an aggressive field, at least in the top 16.
Others have said it was pretty diverse among the other ~160 players.
Any cards you would want to immediately change seeing that the meta is quite aggressive?...
Or was it not really that bad on the way up there?
There was an SCG (Modern) Classic Tournament with OGW & Post Bans, here's the results: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=97989 TL;DR No Tron in Top 16. Tons of Aggro. Merfolk, Burn, Zoo, Affinity.
Temur Delver got 1st, Jund got 2nd.
Still a small-ish tournament however, take results for what you will.
Reality Smasher must have done some decent blocking and some decent finishing of games to help carry this list to 13th in this aggro meta.
Sideboard looks pretty standard I guess, except for random Celestial Colonnade. I guess that was to hedge against any UWr Control decks that might've been present, and he can activate it after getting their blue mana with Sower, or maybe he didn't have a 15th card and just grabbed anything to fill the slot. It was actually Celestial Purge.
Not sure Eldrazi Displacer did anything for him, no idea. Flaying Tendrils was his sweeper of choice. It looks like it did some work here, costing only 3 instead of 4 like Damnation or Languish.
I think we should consider using Flaying Tendrils as the primary sweeper. It really does kill most of these aggro decks.
Unless there are 2 Merfolk lords out.
Costing only 3, you can cast it @ 4 mana vs Cursecatcher.
The zoo decks were fast Zoo. Nacatl/Kird Ape/Experiment one/Burning Tree Emmissary. Sure Nacatl/Ape/Tarmogoyf can potentially survive Tendrils, but I don't think you get to 4 mana for big sweepers, especially on the draw.
Affinity. One of the lists is running only 1 Etched champion, but up to 3 Master of Etherium.
Either way, good lord look at all the aggro. Even in my very similar BW version, I'm considering mainboard sweepers or Timely Reinforcements.
Also, no matter how much I try to hedge against burn, I found that I'm like 1-5 vs. burn in matches.
I don't understand how Blood Moon doesn't hose this deck.
You can cast Blight Herder, Sower, & Relic with all mountains, that's about it. The decks that play blood moon are agressive, you need your removal online. Affinity, Delver-tempo, shape Anew Combo, Grixis Delve.
If you don't run fetches you can't reliably get basics to play around it. Colorless mana is completely hosed by Blood Moon as there's no way to get Wastes, and nobody is really gonna map on a Wastes, or bother running Wastes in the deck.
If your opponent plays blood moon, and you don't already have basics on the table, or fetches out ready to get basics, you can play Expedition Map to find a basic, then try to Disenchant the Blood Moon, but that's really the only line I see.
With all that being said, I really do miss my 2 Shambling Vents, after reading Beatox's report. I might cut a Ghost quarter for one or something. Tapped was never that big of an issue, with only 2 tapped lands.
The landbase seems a bit wonky though. I thought I wouldn't need the fetches but maybe I'll end up ordering a couple. I'm seriously considering removing the Bojuka though, it just hurts more than it helps me most of the time, or maybe I just have bad luck.
I also think I might be to low on spot removal, but I have no idea what to cut for it. I like the singleton All is Dust since it's easy to cast and can get me out of some very rough spots, especially in a deck that sometimes deliberately falls behind on the first few turns.
Any obvious flaws/possible improvements?
I don't want to be that guy, but I'll refer back to my deck for something that's been really consistent.
I used to have a few tapped lands & no fetches.
I kept losing games to Blood Moon & Kiki-Chord's/Collected Zoo's Magus of the Moon. Fetches + Maps have made blood WAY less of a problem. A real issue is Affinity with Blood Moon. You will lose if they Blood Moon + have a good draw and you don't have Stony Silence on the table.
Fetches also make Rest for the Weary more reliable, if you're running that. I switch to Timely reinforcements which can help in random aggro mathcups or any redX deck w/ creatures.
Personally I went down to 2x Oblivion Sower. I found that I often play catchup in this deck because we have a bunch of slow tapout cards, that require specific setup & sequencing with an awkward mana base. Oblivion Sower sat in my hand making my opening 7 real bad in many cases.
This deck usually isn't the one with the good hand. Your opponent usually has that. Modern is mostly linear now, so your opponent is gonna have like HAND(Land, land, threat, threat, threat, removal, other) or (land, land, land, Serum Visions, Removal, discard/removal, Combo Piece). You want your deck to be able to stumble through turns 1-4 in your bad draws by setting up for Herder/Strangler turns, or Lingering souls turns. Your great draws are way less frequent because (EYE, Ugin, Temple, Herder)...still requires an early process.
With 3 eye, you'll get plenty of Eye + Temple = turn 2 TKS. That opening happens fairly frequently, but it doesn't win the game the way your linear opponent's decks will.
If you're looking for simple spot removal swap, try:
-1 or -2 Oblivion Sower
+1 Go for the Throat or +1 Doom Blade.
Although you have All is Dust, which synergizes with less spot removal and more ramp.
I've also found the Oblivion Ring pretty consistent to help exile if you're short on process effects. It happens to hit Finks/Voice as Path #5 where exile does matter. Hits Cranial Plating, Tsagur, Ensnaring Bridge, Blood Moon too. ANTI-synergy with All is Dust.
5 discard +3 TKS = 8 discard effects. I never liked to go above 7, even in Jund/Abzan. Drop a IoK or Thoughtseize if you're looking for another cut.
Sideboard looks solid.
I diversify my answers up a bit to keep opponent guessing, but that's a preference.
What are the Ratchet Bombs for?
I've also updated my list. This is more traditional list we're used to, but I'm lowering the number of Sowers.
With midrange almost gone, and Delver/Kiki-Chord/Abzan Coco as the only things I've honestly seen come take its place, Sower is needed less as a ground blocker and Newlamog-mana generator.
Sower is a card that makes me mulligan in this already (somewhat) inconsistent deck. Using cards like Map/Relic/Claws you're spending your turns setting up, but you don't affect the board.
Blight Herder is still the best card to me, and I want to rely on consistently processing for him to win the game.
Lingering Souls is the other best card.
I win most my games with those 2 cards, and way less of tutoring/casting Ulamog.
This format has certainly sped up (post bans/OGW) and I've been accommodating to keep up with it...Valuing early removal and faster more consistent plays.
Living the Turn 3/4 Sower dream isn't something I care much about now. For me, this has simply become my new Abzan grindy deck.
Sure it lacks card advantage or many manlands, but it attacks from a lot of angles, many 2-for-1's, & has game against combo & aggro. The innevitable Ulamog doesn't hurt too much except when you draw him.
I've started seeing more and more Delver decks, and they just get free wins if your hand is even slightly clunky.
They also get free wins from Blood Moon.
Kiki-Chord decks also have a Magus of the Moon they're tutoring for now. Yeah you can kill it, but there's are all reasons I've started pushing the manabase towards Fetchlands.
Trying out the 1 Tendo Ice Bridge over 1 Caves of Koilos, as I think it will pretty often be enabled by Urborg to keep its counter, and I really value the life Caves of Koilos gives away.
Seems like some others are starting to see the value in Matter Reshaper.
I'm really starting to like him.
I went down -1 Bojuka Bog. It's got nice utility and has enabled some plays but added +1 Scrabbling Claws to accomodate for processing.
No mainboard Sweepers for me. If I fell that far behind, I don't want to rely on drawing an expensive 7 drop (even if it's more like a 4/5/6 cost) to recover. If I fell behind it's probably because my hand is filled with Sowers/Ulamog/Non-process Blight Herders.
Somebody else mentioned trying Oblivion Ring and I honestly support it. It's just a universal removal spell that kill random Blood Moon/creatures/Ensnaring Bridge.
I would really like to get a consistent sideboarding guide going. Everyone's running slightly different 75's, that's cool, but our sideboards are similar and I'm always curious when to side in wierd cards like Surgical, or how many disenchants/stony silence and what do you take it more importantly?
Is there any merit in running 2 All is Dust? What decks would a second copy in the SB come in against?
You want board wipes vs.
Boggles (EDIT: Forgot this one)
Small Zoo
Big Zoo
Kiki-Chord
Merfolk
Abzan Collected Company (Persist Combo)
Elves
Infect...I mean if you're not dead yet, and you didn't have the spot removal. Affinity...but All is Dust is just the worst card in the deck vs. them. Junk/Abzan/Jund. Technically board wipes are good here, but we're already at a good matchup there. Plus, manlands are pretty big threats so you rely on your GQ's. Delver? I've played against this deck way more now that Twin's gone. Board Wipes are too slow vs. Delver generally, but sometimes they use Young Pyromancer...so you need a wipe. The delver matchup is quite difficult. They play blood moons, molten rain, & Crumble to Dust in main/side. They can keep countering our removal/stranglers. They can bolt 1/2 Lingering souls so your block isn't lethal.
Ended up dropping Reality Smasher. He sure is great at closing games, but what I usually found was that he was too slow vs. aggro matches, and we're already good at killing other midrange/control decks.
Went 2/2/2 on Eye/Urborg/Map plan. Honestly I hate casting map, it's slow and boring, but it makes the deck more consistent.
I like Matter reshaper. He's proactive and gives us something to do early on if we don't have anything processed yet.
He beats well, he blocks well. No value if he get's Path'd, but hey, you get a land and that was their Path they wont have for your next guy.
Try out as a 2-3 split between him and Strangler.
I just had issues consistently getting Strangler online when I wanted it.
Went down to 3 Sower. Was often doing nothing, or sitting in my hand being expensive. I'll go up to 4 if I can squeeze in 1 Scrabbling Claw to help exile opponent's cracked fetchlands for a future Sower.
You'll notice this list has 3 tapped lands. I don't really map for Bojuka bog, but it's been nice to have in hand to process when I want it. Turn 1 discard is not really the goal anymore. It's more like T1-T3 setup Relic/discard/& Souls. T2/T3/4 TKS.
2 Shambling Vents, 1 Vault of the Archangel, & 3 Timely Reinforcement. Also, 1 less Sower. This deck is built to handle aggro. Infect can still be an issue, but lingering souls tokens can block them all day.
Scapeshift is actually kinda hard for this deck. We don't run Tectonic Edge, so keeping their land count down is hard. I try to aggro them quickly and discard/TKS their Scapeshift/Bring to Light, or their card draw. Get your life total above 18. They have trouble killing Blight Herder and TKS cuz 4/5 or 4/4 is difficult for red. TL;DR Discard their combo piece, aggro them, stay above 18, get to Ulamog and win.
Now that Twin's gone, stupid uninteractive decks like Storm are coming back..gross. You can discard their Ascension or put them in topdeck mode. TKS exiles stuff which is very relevant. Disrupt and establish a clock. Gams 2 & 3 they board inot Empty the Warrens and it's unwinnable for us unless we have a sweeper in hand, or their hand sucks.
Haven't gotten a chance to play against Kiki-Chord yet.
Infect is still rough. Even with sideboard slots and lots of removal and blockers. If your hand is clunky (it often is) they will just jam all their spells and kill you. If you kil their Glistener Elf/Blighted Agent, their Inkmoth will win while you're tapped out.
I certainly miss playing against Twin.
1x Warping Wail in sideboard has helped for matches like this.
1x Aven Mindcensor might be neat sideboard tech too. She can stop fetches, GQ's, and Paths in many patchups. Hurts Tron and Scapeshift, can block vs. Affinity.
I don't know what/how many sweepers to run in th side. I want something for Merfolk/Elves/Abzan Coco/Affinity, but All is Dust usually is too slow, and does nothing vs. affinity. Engineered Explosives might be the pick, haven't tested. Zoo can be hard as well.
EDIT: For sweepers, what about Black Sun's Zenith? On 3 mana it still kills a bunch of elves and affinity/infect. We can cast it for 5mana (3BB) and -3/-3 everything but still keep our TKS alive (as a 1/1 but still). At 4 mana it doesn't kill all of Zoo's creatures, but does make them unthreatening.
Not sure if it's better then Flaying Tendrils, because Kiki-Chord runs Finks & Voice.
Also, thoughts on 1 MB Oblivion Ring? I dont know what to cut yet, maybe the Dismember. It's certainly slower, but having a nice universal removal that can hit Cranial Plating/Wurmcoil/Karn/Finks/Merfolk/Pyromancer's Ascension/Random Delver Creatures.
Interesting. Mostly been playing on Xmage, not sure if that trigger is working correctly, or if I just haven't seen very many lands exiled for other reasons.
I initially though this was right, but now i'm thinking cutting "crappy cards" like scrabbling claws isn't what we want to do. We want to exile as many lands as we can from our opponent's graveyard to make oblivion sower better. I wouldn't be comfortable relying only on relics and bog to do that.
EDIT: Oblivion Sower works differently.
Between TKS, Path, and Relic, there's plenty of often used and good cards that allow for processing.
I've played with Expedition map. I never really wanted it. It was slow vs. the fast decks, didn't do anything vs. midrange decks, and is a lame topdeck down the line in our midrangey deck. I really don't think we need 25 lands + 2-3 maps. That's like half the deck devoted to mana.
With cheap cards like Souls, Discard, Matter Reshaper, and TKS, we don't have to get to 5/6//7/10 mana, there should be things to do when you're sitting at 3-4 mana.
About Reality Smasher, He's fine on defense vs. Path to Exile & Terminate, those cards see a lot of play. He's worse vs. Dismember I suppose, but then your opponent is 2-for-1'ing them selves which could be terrible. This guy is very powerful threat in any kind of slower game. Don't knock till you've tried. Although it might just be fine to -2 Smasher , +1 Sower & Strangler or something.
You want more consistency? Change the Reality Smashers and Matter Reshapers into Sowers & Stranglers.
But I found Strangler's blanked a lot, or didn't have enough processing to be relevant when I wanted them.
And Sower was often just dead in my hand if I had a clunky draw. It's also pretty underwhelming if you're losing.
Matter Reshaper is a CHEAP proactive threat you can throw onto an empty board. He's also a decent blocker vs. the aggro decks. Reality Smasher is amazing. He's great vs midrange or control(is that a thing?) and he's not bad vs. aggro if they're not flying, and you can afford to cast him (CMC = 5). TKS is perfect as a 3-of, I do not recommend changing that.
Both of these are also cards you can tutor with Eye of Ugin + lands + Scion Token sac's and then cast with whatever mana you had left on the next turn, for when you just can't afford Ulamog but NEED a board presence, or NEED to do 2 things in one turn.
Not sure why people are playing Expedition Map, I don't think it's necessary unless you're going much heavier drop route.
At this version, deck is a midrange grinder with game vs. the whole field, still terrible vs. Tron.
Midrange Deck that has powerful High end mid game cards and innevtiable Ulamog or Kozilek if you need counters + Card Draw.
I like this Processing version so far, because processing is easy and natural (TKS, Relic, Path, Sower, Bojuka), you're also not so reliant on it that you have to play crappy cards like Scrabbling Claw.
We'll get lumped in with those decks when people make comparisons. Oh well.
Not sure how are our matchup does vs. them.
Chalice on 1 is horrific for us. Discard, Relics, Path's all die.
I also expect metagame to respond, and RW Land destruction or Ensnaring Bridge decks to attack the Eldrazi.
Also gonna be a lot of death's Shadow decks coming to an FNM near you.
We often have no-value herders stuck in hand, or removal we do want to save, or multiple fat expensive Eldrazi we just don't have the lands for yet.
Liliana -no cards in hand plan works a lot better with man lands too, cuz you're threatening them with Raging Ravine/Stirring Wildwood, but they have to discard their removal and your land isn't a creature-target yet.
This has been a ~30 page thread where most of those ideas were discussed and tried already.
If you want to try U/B chat with the ~90 page B/x eldrazi thread, they're still trying all sorts of different colors out.
I know a few of them are running U/B with Ashiok.
We can't and don't want to run BWUC Eldrazi.
I don't want to dedicate too much in the 75 to it, but I have an awful win rate vs. that deck, like 1-5 in matches.
We just durdle too much early game and their creature get in for a lot.
Strangler processing Rift bolt is great tech, but very rare.
Between vaults/shambling vent, I stil just can't seem to stabilize as everything is expensive.
Even TKS who rips out a nice card, will eventually block a guide/swift spear, and die.
Yeah it's a 2-for-1 but they're just back to bolting the face plan and we have no blockers again.
Do you think we should cut the Timely Reinforcements/Rest for the Way alltogether for more sweepers for aggro decks? I get that timely is good in random aggro sometimes, but its only temporary life if we can't find a way to deal with their threats, or can start activating repeatable lifegain (vault/shambling).
It only does anything with Strangler and TKS.
It doesn't really do anything on its own, & yes it dies to bolt when its cast getting no value.
Its mana intensive in a deck that already has a good top end.
Potentially blanks removal, or stops opposing creatures from attacking or whatever, but if I was behind I wouldn't really want this card, unless I just had like ~6 mana at that point.
Hey!
Congrats on the 13th place finish.
Looks like that was an aggressive field, at least in the top 16.
Others have said it was pretty diverse among the other ~160 players.
Any cards you would want to immediately change seeing that the meta is quite aggressive?...
Or was it not really that bad on the way up there?
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=97989
TL;DR No Tron in Top 16. Tons of Aggro. Merfolk, Burn, Zoo, Affinity.
Temur Delver got 1st, Jund got 2nd.
Still a small-ish tournament however, take results for what you will.
BW Eldrazi made it to 13th place. List is below.
Decklist http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=97989
4 Blight Herder
2 Oblivion Sower
2 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Wasteland Strangler
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Spells (18)
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Dismember
1 Go for the Throat
4 Path to Exile
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lingering Souls
2 Thoughtseize
1 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Ghost Quarter
3 Godless Shrine
3 Marsh Flats
1 Shambling Vent
1 Vault of the Archangel
3 Eye of Ugin
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Spellskite
1 Eldrazi Displacer
2 Stony Silence
2 Disenchant
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Flaying Tendrils
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 All Is Dust
1 Celestial Purge
Seems pretty standard to many of the BW lists.
Full 4 TKS
Only 2 Oblivion Sower
+2 Reality Smasher
0 Matter Reshaper
3 Lingering Souls
Reality Smasher must have done some decent blocking and some decent finishing of games to help carry this list to 13th in this aggro meta.
Sideboard looks pretty standard I guess,
except for random Celestial Colonnade. I guess that was to hedge against any UWr Control decks that might've been present, and he can activate it after getting their blue mana with Sower, or maybe he didn't have a 15th card and just grabbed anything to fill the slot.It was actually Celestial Purge.Not sure Eldrazi Displacer did anything for him, no idea.
Flaying Tendrils was his sweeper of choice. It looks like it did some work here, costing only 3 instead of 4 like Damnation or Languish.
I think we should consider using Flaying Tendrils as the primary sweeper. It really does kill most of these aggro decks.
Unless there are 2 Merfolk lords out.
Costing only 3, you can cast it @ 4 mana vs Cursecatcher.
The zoo decks were fast Zoo. Nacatl/Kird Ape/Experiment one/Burning Tree Emmissary. Sure Nacatl/Ape/Tarmogoyf can potentially survive Tendrils, but I don't think you get to 4 mana for big sweepers, especially on the draw.
Affinity. One of the lists is running only 1 Etched champion, but up to 3 Master of Etherium.
Either way, good lord look at all the aggro. Even in my very similar BW version, I'm considering mainboard sweepers or Timely Reinforcements.
Also, no matter how much I try to hedge against burn, I found that I'm like 1-5 vs. burn in matches.
You can cast Blight Herder, Sower, & Relic with all mountains, that's about it. The decks that play blood moon are agressive, you need your removal online. Affinity, Delver-tempo, shape Anew Combo, Grixis Delve.
If you don't run fetches you can't reliably get basics to play around it. Colorless mana is completely hosed by Blood Moon as there's no way to get Wastes, and nobody is really gonna map on a Wastes, or bother running Wastes in the deck.
If your opponent plays blood moon, and you don't already have basics on the table, or fetches out ready to get basics, you can play Expedition Map to find a basic, then try to Disenchant the Blood Moon, but that's really the only line I see.
With all that being said, I really do miss my 2 Shambling Vents, after reading Beatox's report. I might cut a Ghost quarter for one or something. Tapped was never that big of an issue, with only 2 tapped lands.
I don't want to be that guy, but I'll refer back to my deck for something that's been really consistent.
4x Blight Herder
2x Matter Reshaper
2x Oblivion Sower
3x Thought-Knot Seer
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4x Wasteland Strangler
Other Spells (14)
4x Path to Exile
1x Go for the Throat
1x Oblivion Ring
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Thoughtseize
4x Lingering Souls
Artifact (6)
2x Expedition Map
4x Relic of Progenitus
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Caves of Koilos
4x Eldrazi Temple
2x Eye of Ugin
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Godless Shrine
4x Marsh Flats
2x Plains
1x Swamp
2x Tendo Ice Bridge
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Damnation
2x Disenchant
1x Dismember
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Languish
2x Memoricide
2x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Timely Reinforcements
I used to have a few tapped lands & no fetches.
I kept losing games to Blood Moon & Kiki-Chord's/Collected Zoo's Magus of the Moon. Fetches + Maps have made blood WAY less of a problem. A real issue is Affinity with Blood Moon. You will lose if they Blood Moon + have a good draw and you don't have Stony Silence on the table.
Fetches also make Rest for the Weary more reliable, if you're running that. I switch to Timely reinforcements which can help in random aggro mathcups or any redX deck w/ creatures.
Personally I went down to 2x Oblivion Sower. I found that I often play catchup in this deck because we have a bunch of slow tapout cards, that require specific setup & sequencing with an awkward mana base. Oblivion Sower sat in my hand making my opening 7 real bad in many cases.
This deck usually isn't the one with the good hand. Your opponent usually has that. Modern is mostly linear now, so your opponent is gonna have like HAND(Land, land, threat, threat, threat, removal, other) or (land, land, land, Serum Visions, Removal, discard/removal, Combo Piece). You want your deck to be able to stumble through turns 1-4 in your bad draws by setting up for Herder/Strangler turns, or Lingering souls turns. Your great draws are way less frequent because (EYE, Ugin, Temple, Herder)...still requires an early process.
With 3 eye, you'll get plenty of Eye + Temple = turn 2 TKS. That opening happens fairly frequently, but it doesn't win the game the way your linear opponent's decks will.
If you're looking for simple spot removal swap, try:
-1 or -2 Oblivion Sower
+1 Go for the Throat or +1 Doom Blade.
Although you have All is Dust, which synergizes with less spot removal and more ramp.
I've also found the Oblivion Ring pretty consistent to help exile if you're short on process effects. It happens to hit Finks/Voice as Path #5 where exile does matter. Hits Cranial Plating, Tsagur, Ensnaring Bridge, Blood Moon too. ANTI-synergy with All is Dust.
5 discard +3 TKS = 8 discard effects. I never liked to go above 7, even in Jund/Abzan. Drop a IoK or Thoughtseize if you're looking for another cut.
Sideboard looks solid.
I diversify my answers up a bit to keep opponent guessing, but that's a preference.
What are the Ratchet Bombs for?
With midrange almost gone, and Delver/Kiki-Chord/Abzan Coco as the only things I've honestly seen come take its place, Sower is needed less as a ground blocker and Newlamog-mana generator.
Sower is a card that makes me mulligan in this already (somewhat) inconsistent deck. Using cards like Map/Relic/Claws you're spending your turns setting up, but you don't affect the board.
Blight Herder is still the best card to me, and I want to rely on consistently processing for him to win the game.
Lingering Souls is the other best card.
I win most my games with those 2 cards, and way less of tutoring/casting Ulamog.
This format has certainly sped up (post bans/OGW) and I've been accommodating to keep up with it...Valuing early removal and faster more consistent plays.
Living the Turn 3/4 Sower dream isn't something I care much about now. For me, this has simply become my new Abzan grindy deck.
Sure it lacks card advantage or many manlands, but it attacks from a lot of angles, many 2-for-1's, & has game against combo & aggro. The innevitable Ulamog doesn't hurt too much except when you draw him.
I've started seeing more and more Delver decks, and they just get free wins if your hand is even slightly clunky.
They also get free wins from Blood Moon.
Kiki-Chord decks also have a Magus of the Moon they're tutoring for now. Yeah you can kill it, but there's are all reasons I've started pushing the manabase towards Fetchlands.
4x Blight Herder
2x Matter Reshaper
2x Oblivion Sower
3x Thought-Knot Seer
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4x Wasteland Strangler
Instant (5)
4x Path to Exile
1x Slaughter Pact
Sorcery (8)
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Lingering Souls
1x Thoughtseize
Artifact (7)
2x Expedition Map
4x Relic of Progenitus
1x Scrabbling Claws
3x Caves of Koilos
4x Eldrazi Temple
2x Eye of Ugin
2x Ghost Quarter
2x Godless Shrine
3x Marsh Flats
2x Plains
1x Shambling Vent
1x Swamp
1x Tendo Ice Bridge
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of the Archangel
2x Disenchant
1x Dismember
1x Duress
1x Ghost Quarter
2x Languish
1x Memoricide
2x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Timely Reinforcements
Trying out the 1 Tendo Ice Bridge over 1 Caves of Koilos, as I think it will pretty often be enabled by Urborg to keep its counter, and I really value the life Caves of Koilos gives away.
Seems like some others are starting to see the value in Matter Reshaper.
I'm really starting to like him.
I went down -1 Bojuka Bog. It's got nice utility and has enabled some plays but added +1 Scrabbling Claws to accomodate for processing.
No mainboard Sweepers for me. If I fell that far behind, I don't want to rely on drawing an expensive 7 drop (even if it's more like a 4/5/6 cost) to recover. If I fell behind it's probably because my hand is filled with Sowers/Ulamog/Non-process Blight Herders.
Somebody else mentioned trying Oblivion Ring and I honestly support it. It's just a universal removal spell that kill random Blood Moon/creatures/Ensnaring Bridge.
I would really like to get a consistent sideboarding guide going. Everyone's running slightly different 75's, that's cool, but our sideboards are similar and I'm always curious when to side in wierd cards like Surgical, or how many disenchants/stony silence and what do you take it more importantly?
You want board wipes vs.
Boggles (EDIT: Forgot this one)
Small Zoo
Big Zoo
Kiki-Chord
Merfolk
Abzan Collected Company (Persist Combo)
Elves
Infect...I mean if you're not dead yet, and you didn't have the spot removal.
Affinity...but All is Dust is just the worst card in the deck vs. them.
Junk/Abzan/Jund. Technically board wipes are good here, but we're already at a good matchup there. Plus, manlands are pretty big threats so you rely on your GQ's.
Delver? I've played against this deck way more now that Twin's gone. Board Wipes are too slow vs. Delver generally, but sometimes they use Young Pyromancer...so you need a wipe. The delver matchup is quite difficult. They play blood moons, molten rain, & Crumble to Dust in main/side. They can keep countering our removal/stranglers. They can bolt 1/2 Lingering souls so your block isn't lethal.
4x Blight Herder
2x Matter Reshaper
3x Oblivion Sower
3x Thought-Knot Seer
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
3x Wasteland Strangler
Spells (20)
4x Path to Exile
1x Slaughter Pact
1x Dismember
4x Relic of Progenitus
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Thoughtseize
4x Lingering Souls
2x Expedition Map
1x Bojuka Bog
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Eldrazi Temple
2x Eye of Ugin
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Godless Shrine
2x Plains
2x Shambling Vent
1x Swamp
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Warping Wail
2x Disenchant
1x Black Sun's Zenith (Previously Doom Blade)
1x Flaying Tendrils
1x Ghost Quarter
2x Spellskite
2x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Timely Reinforcements
Ended up dropping Reality Smasher. He sure is great at closing games, but what I usually found was that he was too slow vs. aggro matches, and we're already good at killing other midrange/control decks.
Went 2/2/2 on Eye/Urborg/Map plan. Honestly I hate casting map, it's slow and boring, but it makes the deck more consistent.
I like Matter reshaper. He's proactive and gives us something to do early on if we don't have anything processed yet.
He beats well, he blocks well. No value if he get's Path'd, but hey, you get a land and that was their Path they wont have for your next guy.
Try out as a 2-3 split between him and Strangler.
I just had issues consistently getting Strangler online when I wanted it.
Went down to 3 Sower. Was often doing nothing, or sitting in my hand being expensive. I'll go up to 4 if I can squeeze in 1 Scrabbling Claw to help exile opponent's cracked fetchlands for a future Sower.
You'll notice this list has 3 tapped lands. I don't really map for Bojuka bog, but it's been nice to have in hand to process when I want it. Turn 1 discard is not really the goal anymore. It's more like T1-T3 setup Relic/discard/& Souls. T2/T3/4 TKS.
2 Shambling Vents, 1 Vault of the Archangel, & 3 Timely Reinforcement. Also, 1 less Sower. This deck is built to handle aggro. Infect can still be an issue, but lingering souls tokens can block them all day.
Scapeshift is actually kinda hard for this deck. We don't run Tectonic Edge, so keeping their land count down is hard. I try to aggro them quickly and discard/TKS their Scapeshift/Bring to Light, or their card draw. Get your life total above 18. They have trouble killing Blight Herder and TKS cuz 4/5 or 4/4 is difficult for red. TL;DR Discard their combo piece, aggro them, stay above 18, get to Ulamog and win.
Now that Twin's gone, stupid uninteractive decks like Storm are coming back..gross. You can discard their Ascension or put them in topdeck mode. TKS exiles stuff which is very relevant. Disrupt and establish a clock. Gams 2 & 3 they board inot Empty the Warrens and it's unwinnable for us unless we have a sweeper in hand, or their hand sucks.
Haven't gotten a chance to play against Kiki-Chord yet.
Infect is still rough. Even with sideboard slots and lots of removal and blockers. If your hand is clunky (it often is) they will just jam all their spells and kill you. If you kil their Glistener Elf/Blighted Agent, their Inkmoth will win while you're tapped out.
I certainly miss playing against Twin.
1x Warping Wail in sideboard has helped for matches like this.
1x Aven Mindcensor might be neat sideboard tech too. She can stop fetches, GQ's, and Paths in many patchups. Hurts Tron and Scapeshift, can block vs. Affinity.
I don't know what/how many sweepers to run in th side. I want something for Merfolk/Elves/Abzan Coco/Affinity, but All is Dust usually is too slow, and does nothing vs. affinity. Engineered Explosives might be the pick, haven't tested. Zoo can be hard as well.
EDIT: For sweepers, what about Black Sun's Zenith? On 3 mana it still kills a bunch of elves and affinity/infect. We can cast it for 5mana (3BB) and -3/-3 everything but still keep our TKS alive (as a 1/1 but still). At 4 mana it doesn't kill all of Zoo's creatures, but does make them unthreatening.
Not sure if it's better then Flaying Tendrils, because Kiki-Chord runs Finks & Voice.
Also, thoughts on 1 MB Oblivion Ring? I dont know what to cut yet, maybe the Dismember. It's certainly slower, but having a nice universal removal that can hit Cranial Plating/Wurmcoil/Karn/Finks/Merfolk/Pyromancer's Ascension/Random Delver Creatures.
Thanks for pointing that out.
EDIT: Oblivion Sower works differently.
Between TKS, Path, and Relic, there's plenty of often used and good cards that allow for processing.
I've played with Expedition map. I never really wanted it. It was slow vs. the fast decks, didn't do anything vs. midrange decks, and is a lame topdeck down the line in our midrangey deck. I really don't think we need 25 lands + 2-3 maps. That's like half the deck devoted to mana.
With cheap cards like Souls, Discard, Matter Reshaper, and TKS, we don't have to get to 5/6//7/10 mana, there should be things to do when you're sitting at 3-4 mana.
About Reality Smasher, He's fine on defense vs. Path to Exile & Terminate, those cards see a lot of play. He's worse vs. Dismember I suppose, but then your opponent is 2-for-1'ing them selves which could be terrible. This guy is very powerful threat in any kind of slower game. Don't knock till you've tried. Although it might just be fine to -2 Smasher , +1 Sower & Strangler or something.
4x Blight Herder
1x Kozilek, the Great Distortion
2x Matter Reshaper
2x Oblivion Sower
2x Reality Smasher
3x Thought-Knot Seer
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
2x Wasteland Strangler
Spells (18)
4x Path to Exile
2x Slaughter Pact
4x Relic of Progenitus
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Lingering Souls
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Cavern of Souls
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Eldrazi Temple
3x Eye of Ugin
2x Ghost Quarter
2x Godless Shrine
2x Plains
2x Shambling Vent
1x Swamp
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Celestial Purge
2x Disenchant
1x Dismember
1x Flaying Tendrils
1x Ghost Quarter
2x Spellskite
2x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Timely Reinforcements
You want more consistency? Change the Reality Smashers and Matter Reshapers into Sowers & Stranglers.
But I found Strangler's blanked a lot, or didn't have enough processing to be relevant when I wanted them.
And Sower was often just dead in my hand if I had a clunky draw. It's also pretty underwhelming if you're losing.
Matter Reshaper is a CHEAP proactive threat you can throw onto an empty board. He's also a decent blocker vs. the aggro decks.
Reality Smasher is amazing. He's great vs midrange or control(is that a thing?) and he's not bad vs. aggro if they're not flying, and you can afford to cast him (CMC = 5).
TKS is perfect as a 3-of, I do not recommend changing that.
Both of these are also cards you can tutor with Eye of Ugin + lands + Scion Token sac's and then cast with whatever mana you had left on the next turn, for when you just can't afford Ulamog but NEED a board presence, or NEED to do 2 things in one turn.
Not sure why people are playing Expedition Map, I don't think it's necessary unless you're going much heavier drop route.
At this version, deck is a midrange grinder with game vs. the whole field, still terrible vs. Tron.
Midrange Deck that has powerful High end mid game cards and innevtiable Ulamog or Kozilek if you need counters + Card Draw.
I like this Processing version so far, because processing is easy and natural (TKS, Relic, Path, Sower, Bojuka), you're also not so reliant on it that you have to play crappy cards like Scrabbling Claw.