Hey I don't know if anyone saw UltraSuperBob playing against Seth on his stream, but he had Eidolon down and didn't attack with it and instead kept taking damage - which I think lost him the game. He could have attacked with Eidolon and eventually Seth would have blocked so he would have lost it and then been able to cast his hand freely.
Its at 1 hour 40 minutes ish in the replay video for Modern Dragons that recently went up.
Yeah that's a good point. I got rolled by Hardened Scales by the guy that ended up 3rd and I think Whirler would help there too.
Grid has been a huge thorn for control players. We all know they want to play draw-go magic and do their casting on your turn, but with Grid it disrupts that whole strategy. 4 mana for an EOT Opt and playing with Grid and Blood Moon down makes their life hard. When I've seen Grid in MUs I have gotten it down early and seen Eidolon, Rabble resolve without any sort of fear - so I may be a little biased. I know its dead after they hit land 6 or 7.... but having that time to set-up pressure and add annoying locks, really closes out their ability to get to the late game firmly on two feet.
I liked it and wouldn't want to cut it, but would also be comfortable adding a Boil even though I know Boil's dead in a lot of MUs.
Hey I don't know if anyone saw the GP Prague breakdown of Day 2. I wanted to post it for a discussion about how hard to meta-game a tournament. I'm thinking about playing in one the 2nd weekend in September, so yeah. Check attachments.
At the PPTQ I did well in, I had to beat U/W control twice, and it was basically 3 out of the top 8. Then the next day at the same store, SCG IQ, it was 2 out of the top 8. I recently saw the data from GP Prague, and I'm going to assume that at least in paper, there's going to be a lot of U/W.
So how do I game this? I am a 4 Eidolon fan, and I've also been on the 1x card to stick it to control. I've selected Defense Grid as my weapon of choice, but completely love Boil as well. My question is - how hard do I customize my deck assuming I'll see 2/3 U/W in 7/8 matches. Do I go Grid and Boil? Do I go down Avaricious Dragon for StormyB? Does B just stay in the board? Do I go x2 Boil? Dump the Grid and add Stormy B to the board? Do I add some Scabbies? Jund, Mardu and Affinity also have a strong presence there, so I was thinking leaning on a Dragon resolution helps there as well. Or do I go 1x Molten and 1x Boil? I know Molten's instant speed, but y'all catch my drift.
So how hard do you metagame and if its U/W you see, what customizations do you prioritize into the deck to win that MU?
I love the 3-4 Angers in the main, but after some thought I decided not to make the switch. I think Russ and I are on the same page with this, and it's because I would rather win game 1 vs control than game 1 in matchups where Anger is a factor. I find bringing in 5 sweepers total in games 2/3 is more than enough to win 2 in a row, while things tend to get worse for us against control post-board. If I stopped running into as much control I would gladly make the switch, I just prefer to keep dead cards vs control at a minimum in the main.
Yeah I'm going to echo the same feeling. I thought that's why we run Bridge too. I know Anger takes away Bloodghast, Flamewake, Venge etc., but how much do they matter if you're behind a Bridge and hellbent? Okay so additional Angers are pseudo additional copies of Bridge - sure. I've never been a big fan of Angering to stay empty handed when I have a goblin brigade building - so maybe its not an additional copy of Bridge. I like how Suns and Slag present options. I want more options maindeck, and more pinpointed strategy G2/G3.
As far as Sarkhan. Russ I'm often on the same page as you, but I'm def on board with Sarkhan and Avaricious.
Last night in the 4-0 Monday Night Magic shreadfest that I boogied down with I locked up the board against Delver - got Avaricious down and it did work. Being behind a Bridge and getting THREE cards a turn - Thanks Chandra - was AWESOME.
Then against Lantern, Sarkhan was his worst nightmare. I mean you obviously know how that went. LanternGuy had me draw trash, I dumped it via Sarkhan, found Abrade, blew his lock apart, found chalice, locked him out.
Even against Burn Sarkhan worked as a gain 6 life b/c he ate a spike and a bolt.
Anecdotal - I agree, but it felt really good. I understand the "Impact the Game Now" theme going on here, but just going up to 4 w/ no rummage or ramp still feels like I'm significantly impacting the board. Let me untap with this, and there will be MAJOR problems. Sarkhan into Koth or Chandra or PnK or shoot Rabble or Dragon feels great. Or how about they bolt and attack Sarkhan down on their turn and you follow up with one the above 4-drops.
I'm not making the case that this is a must have in the stock list or anything like that. I'm just providing my anecdotal experiences for the OGs to vet. I'm certainly down with 2x Sarkhan and 1x Avaricious at the moment.
FNM. I'm on vacation, so why not? 33 players. I've never been to this store, and I recognize nobody. I cut my Scab-clans before I showed up, and my walk around the room made me confident in my decision. 4 rounds and a top 8 for a M19 box. Let's get to it!
Twas an awesome read man - thanks for taking the time to post it, and sorry things didn't pan out as perfectly as they could have.
You know your right... you know I had them in hand during sideboarding too like.... ehhh? lol. Painful lessons I have learned. The trigger thing cause of CotV and now the kill the creature thing cause of a miss fired Blood Moon and Boil... hell yeah I'll side them out now. hell yeah.
Haha!! glad you enjoyed it Russ. I know reading your comments, along with everyone else's, has helped me become a much better magic player. It makes me sincerely proud to bring some spotlight to the deck and the crew. I know we all invest a lot of energy and time in the deck and the community and its great when it pays off. It feels great knowing we all share in each other's success.
I'm catching up on some of the posts from the weekend and keep seeing there's no nut draw.... Chandra Rabble [Or Moon] Chalice SSG Mountain Ritual Ritual on the play has got to be the nuts.... you Turn 1 a Chandra with Chalice on 1 back up, protecting the Rabble in hand from discard, and stealing their turn 1, then you drop Rabble turn 2 after putting Chandra up to 6 - wooo weee. On the draw its not as nice, they could have a Bird down and you go to Blood Moon, or they Snare a Ritual - yuck. I understand what people mean when they say "there's no nut draws" but I've thought about it for a while and think the above scenario is as close as it gets to the nuts - Chandra and Chalice on one with another prison piece, moon, rabs, bridge, is a hot board state.
Ray! You noticed!! Yay! OF COURSE you know your name was on my DCI sheet man I love it. It feels great to bring pride to you and the crew here - I've been dying to put some smiles on faces as a way to pay homage to the strategy and whole crew up in here.
Enough of the *****s and giggles - lets get down to it.
Ya'll know the business.
Round 1 - Burn - Rolled him 1-2 I ripped 2-0 post board. I LOVED being done with my sideboarding in 30 seconds. I know the match-up and know what I need, Sweltering Suns >> Bridge in the match-up. One thing I was thinking during this particular burn match up is how good is Chandra here? Sometimes she's a flat out, gain 5-7 life. My opponent was ignoring her - like a good Burn player likely would. She drew me into so many answers though, I don't know if that's the right line for them. I had a hand that was powering out an early T3 Chandra with a Chalice on 1, post boarding. It didn't feel great. He probably will keep a hand with Rev looking to pop the Chalice. Well I drew moon and kept him off colors on T3 and then rolled Chandra - won the match with Chalice on 1 Chalice on 2 and 1 life. HOT.
Round 2 - Bogles - 2-0 - what do I say here? This is a buy. We all know it, right Russ? Hah. Reading your post about knowing he's on Bogles, and he tried to snake the Draw. He knew what you were on - eat or be eaten.
Round 3 - and so it begins - U/W 2-1. I'm at the top tables now, 2-0, ya'll know how it go. I'm looking around and all I see is... T-PAIN.... everywhere! Teferi.com at this tournament. So it begins. I'm playing a player that was really invested in magic, years past but recently returned. I jank him on a BM game 1. Game 2 he goes to work with the Dynamic Duo, Jace and Pain and I don't need to spend too much time with him fatesealing all my rituals and lands to my hand. Game 3 grindfest. We're going back and forth, he counters, bounces my perms, life is a mess, but I'm feeding enough fodder to defend my spellskite and Chandra in the face of the Dyanmic Duo. He's got Jace up and up and T-Pain up and up on Loyalty, I have Chandra on 7, it goes to his turn. I know the line, its clear af and I hate U/W - I never want to walk in your shoes - but clearly he should have JTMS bounce Skite and tick Pain down on Chandra.. it goes to his main... "Brainstorm" I want to laugh my face off and say WHAT ARE YOU DOING BRO?! He must be Crypting Chandra - nope - I can untap? upkeep? draw? - yup - holy hell - I grab the Chandra emblem - DUH - and get to work. There's a crowd now, Ritual, Chandra trigger on the stack targeting, Jace, I need fresh draws, cast Blood Moon off the RIT, Chandra, bye Jace. He ults T-Pain, draws JUNK but gets my land on his draw, he's eating up my board now and I have the emblem. 1 Chalice was in the yard - he's at 9. Ya'll know the outs here, but he's got Collonade, so there's limited time. I get a Rabble, resolves, he eats it, and Serums to get me down to 2 lands. Chalice off the top - I always here people talk about "Oh slam that ***** ya da da da" and never knew what it meant until then. I slammed that Chalice on 0 so friggin hard, Chandra trigger (don't forget to touch homeplate!) targeting you - high fives for the fans.
Round 4, yup, U/W 2-1. I get smoked in game 1. He got Pain down and so the story went. Game 2, I slapped him so fast he had whiplash. Chalice on 1. Rabble... Rabble. He Purges one. I rip 2 Rituals into one card in hand.... he does one of those NO HAZORET! right before I announced what I was casting - so I'm empty and swinging with Haz, 2 tokens and Rabble. He can't answer the board. I steal Game 2. Game 3 I think he punted a little. He fetched in response to my T1 Moon to get a plains, then he Disenchanted it on his turn, and missed Blue for a while, which enabled me to get my permanents down and apply pressure.
In one of the two U/B MUs I had an opponent opt for 4 at the end of my turn cause I had Defense Grid down. It was disruptive early game, which typically helped me put must answer permanents on the field.
So I could ID the next two Rounds and still be the 1 Seed in the Top 8 cause my breakers were so good - so I took it. Got lunch, came back, got STORMED TF OUT. He's a strong player and I was hoping if I didn't win he did - but we got paired and I'm sorry Mountainfolk, I'm going to come clean, I did it again. I opted to eff up his lands instead of kill Baral. Blood Moon to all mountains or Abrade Baral on my turn 2. I went Moon and lost G2 because of it, which cost me the match. Moon ruined him game 1 though. I had Moon and Rabble and he couldn't do much b/c he did have manamorphose, so I was probably drunk off the most recent data, and not remembering when I Boiled them to 1 land instead of killing Baral and lost. So that's a word to the wise for the new comers. The allure of ruining a Storm player's mana base is a fool's errand, don't be on it, kill the dork.
It was tight. I enjoyed the tournament a lot, the deck felt good/great. I won G1 against Storm on a mull 5 on the Play. Mulliganed a lot throughout the day. If I won I would have played U/W again, then Burn in the finals would have been awesome.
I went back the next day for an IQ and got polished by Hardened Scales, Beat down Elves and I hate to say it, but even Humans got me. I changed 1 Ballista for Stormbreath. I wanted to cause problems for control, and anticipated seeing a lot of the same meta again. I went down Spree for Abrade.
Ray, you'll notice I committed the 3 Abrade, 1 Spree sin hah. I thought about Spree for a while, and while it is GGs in a few match-ups I love Abrade. I'll be more committed to my plan and running 0 Spree 2 Abrade.
Big takeaway from the weekend. Sarkhan is a savage. Untapping with him on 4 feels OPPRESSIVE. I love the rummage ability. I felt when I had Sarkhan down I couldn't lose. Over time playing the deck you learn "Oh if i can just get to X its GGs" really well. Sarkhan and Chandra help you get there, which is sick. Is it Koth's time to go? I can't say that, I can comfortably say I'm certainly thinking about -1 Chandra +1 Sarkhan.
I also was mana screwed when I lost - I never felt overpowered or outmatched, I lost because I didn't hit lands early when I needed to. I would see gas, but not enough mana to really stay established on the board. I was thinking if we do the Sarkhan Chandra thing, I'd love to try adding a land, like a 4th Ruins, to have more consistent keeps on 7. 2 lands, broken mana and a lock piece sincerely wet my chops, but one land, lotta gas and locks, can be heart breaking. And I know we all find ourselves in that spot - Do I keep a hand that's one land away from either being lights out on T2 and T3, or do I keep this hand, not hit land 2, and don't play magic this game. When Sarkhan was down, I had no fear. I hit my land drops, found my threats, applied locks and pressure, it felt awesome.
Ray, whatever I can do to help with Top8, I'll be glad to. I proudly registered Pyro Prison, and had your name under it. I attached the proof. I'll be on the list hardcore online, but might switch up for the LGSs in my area. Unknown people now tell me they'll fetch basics when they play me - feels good man. I wish you all success.
I got dinged last night chaps. 1-2. I told myself going in to the night I would report results good or bad. I have seen a lot of people who are doing well with the deck posting about it and I wonder how often we post bad results. I also told myself learn something. So yeah I love when Ray starts with quotes... I'm going to tip my cap to the finance community [Russ!] and use a wall street adage for this post
Bears make money, bulls make money, but pigs get slaughtered.
I don't know how often any of you catch flak or hate for being the Blood Moon deck. I know I've read previously that folks have experienced hostility, and I get it too, online and in paper [I forget who posted it but someone was once like "I went outside to hit my weed pen and I heard people hating on my Blood Moon deck and it made me feel less than good." Hah. I remember thinking, why you corny postin' bout ya bud business haha, but on a more serious note, I felt it too]. I'm newer to modern... I played in Stronghold and Tempest when I was just a wee Rev, but grew away from the game. I remember wrecking my neighborhood Magic circuit, and loving it. I knew I had that spike sort of mentality when I wouldn't let my little brothers use their lands if they forgot to untap them at the beginning of their turn. They held me to the same standards hey hey easy easy. But to bring it back, coming into the game I didn't realize how many troll-type, salty-type cats there can honestly be. Its cool though, it adds to the sweet nectar of victory of course, whatever, you can try to rules lawyer me about the type of die we roll before the match, fine, we'll use a 3,000 sided die because it has the highest chance of producing random results, jesus are you serious!? I've naively dove into the most competitive scenes possible and experienced stuff I couldn't spout from my craftiest nozzle.
I thought people would just be like oh cool deck good match, thanks for playing, have a nice day, shake hands, here's a few tips, high fives.... Then... I lost a match... and felt the salt... then I lost on Turn 2... then I met Karn... and Ugin... and Griselbrand... and Grapeshot... and Mox Opal... and was like whoa there's broken things happening everywhere - cool. I want to do my own broken thing. I want to punish all these greedy decks that do broken things. How can I do that?
Greedy mana base - Blood Moon. Cheap obese creates - Bridge. Insanely low average CMC - Chalice. These tools are amazing. They punish the hell out of so many decks. You spent $500 on your mana base and for $80 I turned it to $5.00. So I heard chatter last night and maybe I'm not a calloused vet like some folks are. Honestly if I turn 1 Blood Moon someone on the Play and they have all fetches and scoop after I drop Chandra 5 turns later - I feel a little bad. But breh, that's what I signed up for. If I could play a card that says "YOU LOSE!" on turn 1 every game, yes, I would play it, and you likely would too. We are all doing broken things, and the mountainfolk around here, are Punishers. We're not here to draw our deck, or cast 50 spells, or play a bunch of creatures, we're here to punish your broken strategy.
And so that's what I told them. Someone was saying something like oh that's a wack deck or something and I said your just salty cause I'm the Punisher. That's it. IDK the genesis of all this greed, probably just a fall out of competitive spirit, but it is what it is. People talk about fair, unfair, w/e. Its all out there. You can play what you want. But I'm going to play Pyro Prison, because I bet with all likelihood that you're doing something greedy that I can punish you for.
On the data side, I lost my 2 matches because I dropped a game where I kept a hand with 1 land - that's all. I beat Jeskai Control Round 1 2-0, Chandra T1 and Moon T1. Lost to Spirits 1-2, couldn't cast my hand to get behind Bridge. Lost to Jund 1-2 couldn't cast my hand to get behind Bridge, he showed 2 Decays after, so I was smoked either way.
I kept strong hands in all my games but 2. I've made the "I'm not keeping a one-lander" rule, and broken it so many times, with success, that I have to revisit it [Turn 1 Chandra, uptick into Chalice or uptick to Ritual into a Moon is the nuts isn't it?]. I think its about having 2 or more mana guaranteed on T2 and what's mana on T3 look like? I've learned that a lot of magic is, damn I'm one land away, but I think in our deck its so crucial to have broken mana early. I'm going to start taking a harder look at T2 and T3 mana when I fan open.
Sorry for the long winded social post, but I hope that next time someone throws salt your Blood Moon way you recognize they fear The Punisher.
What sort of match-ups does Sarkhan come out? Does he? I was thinking maybe against aggro zoo style, but then he helps you find the bridge or sweeper you need. I'm in with 2, almost had to buy a foil for like $35 - forget that - but I got my 2. Anyway, I'm writing up some sideboard stuff and that general question came to mind...
I love Slagging for the win - even more when the OP reads it and then begins the typical scoop em' up starting with all 17ish mountains they have sitting on the field.
I like the Abrade-Slag swap. Abrade is certainly one of my favorite cards, but I guess I can let one go for a Slag type effect. I think I'm going to add an Anger in the board instead of a Slag to respect the 4/3's with Haste. The four Abrades seems a bit much in the moment - there's certainly better options. I'm thinking about switching my main Sweltering to a Slag instead b/c we now have Sarkhan to help filter, so maybe the additional 3 burn to the face is more value than a cycle. I'm going to be working with the following 75 heading in to a very densely packed MTG weekend.
Its at 1 hour 40 minutes ish in the replay video for Modern Dragons that recently went up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3FjZroP2pw
Its cool to see the match from the other side. I'd love to hear someone's thoughts.
Grid has been a huge thorn for control players. We all know they want to play draw-go magic and do their casting on your turn, but with Grid it disrupts that whole strategy. 4 mana for an EOT Opt and playing with Grid and Blood Moon down makes their life hard. When I've seen Grid in MUs I have gotten it down early and seen Eidolon, Rabble resolve without any sort of fear - so I may be a little biased. I know its dead after they hit land 6 or 7.... but having that time to set-up pressure and add annoying locks, really closes out their ability to get to the late game firmly on two feet.
I liked it and wouldn't want to cut it, but would also be comfortable adding a Boil even though I know Boil's dead in a lot of MUs.
At the PPTQ I did well in, I had to beat U/W control twice, and it was basically 3 out of the top 8. Then the next day at the same store, SCG IQ, it was 2 out of the top 8. I recently saw the data from GP Prague, and I'm going to assume that at least in paper, there's going to be a lot of U/W.
So how do I game this? I am a 4 Eidolon fan, and I've also been on the 1x card to stick it to control. I've selected Defense Grid as my weapon of choice, but completely love Boil as well. My question is - how hard do I customize my deck assuming I'll see 2/3 U/W in 7/8 matches. Do I go Grid and Boil? Do I go down Avaricious Dragon for StormyB? Does B just stay in the board? Do I go x2 Boil? Dump the Grid and add Stormy B to the board? Do I add some Scabbies? Jund, Mardu and Affinity also have a strong presence there, so I was thinking leaning on a Dragon resolution helps there as well. Or do I go 1x Molten and 1x Boil? I know Molten's instant speed, but y'all catch my drift.
So how hard do you metagame and if its U/W you see, what customizations do you prioritize into the deck to win that MU?
Yeah I'm going to echo the same feeling. I thought that's why we run Bridge too. I know Anger takes away Bloodghast, Flamewake, Venge etc., but how much do they matter if you're behind a Bridge and hellbent? Okay so additional Angers are pseudo additional copies of Bridge - sure. I've never been a big fan of Angering to stay empty handed when I have a goblin brigade building - so maybe its not an additional copy of Bridge. I like how Suns and Slag present options. I want more options maindeck, and more pinpointed strategy G2/G3.
As far as Sarkhan. Russ I'm often on the same page as you, but I'm def on board with Sarkhan and Avaricious.
Last night in the 4-0 Monday Night Magic shreadfest that I boogied down with I locked up the board against Delver - got Avaricious down and it did work. Being behind a Bridge and getting THREE cards a turn - Thanks Chandra - was AWESOME.
Then against Lantern, Sarkhan was his worst nightmare. I mean you obviously know how that went. LanternGuy had me draw trash, I dumped it via Sarkhan, found Abrade, blew his lock apart, found chalice, locked him out.
Even against Burn Sarkhan worked as a gain 6 life b/c he ate a spike and a bolt.
Anecdotal - I agree, but it felt really good. I understand the "Impact the Game Now" theme going on here, but just going up to 4 w/ no rummage or ramp still feels like I'm significantly impacting the board. Let me untap with this, and there will be MAJOR problems. Sarkhan into Koth or Chandra or PnK or shoot Rabble or Dragon feels great. Or how about they bolt and attack Sarkhan down on their turn and you follow up with one the above 4-drops.
I'm not making the case that this is a must have in the stock list or anything like that. I'm just providing my anecdotal experiences for the OGs to vet. I'm certainly down with 2x Sarkhan and 1x Avaricious at the moment.
Twas an awesome read man - thanks for taking the time to post it, and sorry things didn't pan out as perfectly as they could have.
Ray! You noticed!! Yay! OF COURSE you know your name was on my DCI sheet man I love it. It feels great to bring pride to you and the crew here - I've been dying to put some smiles on faces as a way to pay homage to the strategy and whole crew up in here.
Enough of the *****s and giggles - lets get down to it.
Ya'll know the business.
Round 1 - Burn - Rolled him 1-2 I ripped 2-0 post board. I LOVED being done with my sideboarding in 30 seconds. I know the match-up and know what I need, Sweltering Suns >> Bridge in the match-up. One thing I was thinking during this particular burn match up is how good is Chandra here? Sometimes she's a flat out, gain 5-7 life. My opponent was ignoring her - like a good Burn player likely would. She drew me into so many answers though, I don't know if that's the right line for them. I had a hand that was powering out an early T3 Chandra with a Chalice on 1, post boarding. It didn't feel great. He probably will keep a hand with Rev looking to pop the Chalice. Well I drew moon and kept him off colors on T3 and then rolled Chandra - won the match with Chalice on 1 Chalice on 2 and 1 life. HOT.
Round 2 - Bogles - 2-0 - what do I say here? This is a buy. We all know it, right Russ? Hah. Reading your post about knowing he's on Bogles, and he tried to snake the Draw. He knew what you were on - eat or be eaten.
Round 3 - and so it begins - U/W 2-1. I'm at the top tables now, 2-0, ya'll know how it go. I'm looking around and all I see is... T-PAIN.... everywhere! Teferi.com at this tournament. So it begins. I'm playing a player that was really invested in magic, years past but recently returned. I jank him on a BM game 1. Game 2 he goes to work with the Dynamic Duo, Jace and Pain and I don't need to spend too much time with him fatesealing all my rituals and lands to my hand. Game 3 grindfest. We're going back and forth, he counters, bounces my perms, life is a mess, but I'm feeding enough fodder to defend my spellskite and Chandra in the face of the Dyanmic Duo. He's got Jace up and up and T-Pain up and up on Loyalty, I have Chandra on 7, it goes to his turn. I know the line, its clear af and I hate U/W - I never want to walk in your shoes - but clearly he should have JTMS bounce Skite and tick Pain down on Chandra.. it goes to his main... "Brainstorm" I want to laugh my face off and say WHAT ARE YOU DOING BRO?! He must be Crypting Chandra - nope - I can untap? upkeep? draw? - yup - holy hell - I grab the Chandra emblem - DUH - and get to work. There's a crowd now, Ritual, Chandra trigger on the stack targeting, Jace, I need fresh draws, cast Blood Moon off the RIT, Chandra, bye Jace. He ults T-Pain, draws JUNK but gets my land on his draw, he's eating up my board now and I have the emblem. 1 Chalice was in the yard - he's at 9. Ya'll know the outs here, but he's got Collonade, so there's limited time. I get a Rabble, resolves, he eats it, and Serums to get me down to 2 lands. Chalice off the top - I always here people talk about "Oh slam that ***** ya da da da" and never knew what it meant until then. I slammed that Chalice on 0 so friggin hard, Chandra trigger (don't forget to touch homeplate!) targeting you - high fives for the fans.
Round 4, yup, U/W 2-1. I get smoked in game 1. He got Pain down and so the story went. Game 2, I slapped him so fast he had whiplash. Chalice on 1. Rabble... Rabble. He Purges one. I rip 2 Rituals into one card in hand.... he does one of those NO HAZORET! right before I announced what I was casting - so I'm empty and swinging with Haz, 2 tokens and Rabble. He can't answer the board. I steal Game 2. Game 3 I think he punted a little. He fetched in response to my T1 Moon to get a plains, then he Disenchanted it on his turn, and missed Blue for a while, which enabled me to get my permanents down and apply pressure.
In one of the two U/B MUs I had an opponent opt for 4 at the end of my turn cause I had Defense Grid down. It was disruptive early game, which typically helped me put must answer permanents on the field.
So I could ID the next two Rounds and still be the 1 Seed in the Top 8 cause my breakers were so good - so I took it. Got lunch, came back, got STORMED TF OUT. He's a strong player and I was hoping if I didn't win he did - but we got paired and I'm sorry Mountainfolk, I'm going to come clean, I did it again. I opted to eff up his lands instead of kill Baral. Blood Moon to all mountains or Abrade Baral on my turn 2. I went Moon and lost G2 because of it, which cost me the match. Moon ruined him game 1 though. I had Moon and Rabble and he couldn't do much b/c he did have manamorphose, so I was probably drunk off the most recent data, and not remembering when I Boiled them to 1 land instead of killing Baral and lost. So that's a word to the wise for the new comers. The allure of ruining a Storm player's mana base is a fool's errand, don't be on it, kill the dork.
It was tight. I enjoyed the tournament a lot, the deck felt good/great. I won G1 against Storm on a mull 5 on the Play. Mulliganed a lot throughout the day. If I won I would have played U/W again, then Burn in the finals would have been awesome.
I went back the next day for an IQ and got polished by Hardened Scales, Beat down Elves and I hate to say it, but even Humans got me. I changed 1 Ballista for Stormbreath. I wanted to cause problems for control, and anticipated seeing a lot of the same meta again. I went down Spree for Abrade.
Ray, you'll notice I committed the 3 Abrade, 1 Spree sin hah. I thought about Spree for a while, and while it is GGs in a few match-ups I love Abrade. I'll be more committed to my plan and running 0 Spree 2 Abrade.
Big takeaway from the weekend. Sarkhan is a savage. Untapping with him on 4 feels OPPRESSIVE. I love the rummage ability. I felt when I had Sarkhan down I couldn't lose. Over time playing the deck you learn "Oh if i can just get to X its GGs" really well. Sarkhan and Chandra help you get there, which is sick. Is it Koth's time to go? I can't say that, I can comfortably say I'm certainly thinking about -1 Chandra +1 Sarkhan.
I also was mana screwed when I lost - I never felt overpowered or outmatched, I lost because I didn't hit lands early when I needed to. I would see gas, but not enough mana to really stay established on the board. I was thinking if we do the Sarkhan Chandra thing, I'd love to try adding a land, like a 4th Ruins, to have more consistent keeps on 7. 2 lands, broken mana and a lock piece sincerely wet my chops, but one land, lotta gas and locks, can be heart breaking. And I know we all find ourselves in that spot - Do I keep a hand that's one land away from either being lights out on T2 and T3, or do I keep this hand, not hit land 2, and don't play magic this game. When Sarkhan was down, I had no fear. I hit my land drops, found my threats, applied locks and pressure, it felt awesome.
Ray, whatever I can do to help with Top8, I'll be glad to. I proudly registered Pyro Prison, and had your name under it. I attached the proof. I'll be on the list hardcore online, but might switch up for the LGSs in my area. Unknown people now tell me they'll fetch basics when they play me - feels good man. I wish you all success.
Bears make money, bulls make money, but pigs get slaughtered.
I don't know how often any of you catch flak or hate for being the Blood Moon deck. I know I've read previously that folks have experienced hostility, and I get it too, online and in paper [I forget who posted it but someone was once like "I went outside to hit my weed pen and I heard people hating on my Blood Moon deck and it made me feel less than good." Hah. I remember thinking, why you corny postin' bout ya bud business haha, but on a more serious note, I felt it too]. I'm newer to modern... I played in Stronghold and Tempest when I was just a wee Rev, but grew away from the game. I remember wrecking my neighborhood Magic circuit, and loving it. I knew I had that spike sort of mentality when I wouldn't let my little brothers use their lands if they forgot to untap them at the beginning of their turn. They held me to the same standards hey hey easy easy. But to bring it back, coming into the game I didn't realize how many troll-type, salty-type cats there can honestly be. Its cool though, it adds to the sweet nectar of victory of course, whatever, you can try to rules lawyer me about the type of die we roll before the match, fine, we'll use a 3,000 sided die because it has the highest chance of producing random results, jesus are you serious!? I've naively dove into the most competitive scenes possible and experienced stuff I couldn't spout from my craftiest nozzle.
I thought people would just be like oh cool deck good match, thanks for playing, have a nice day, shake hands, here's a few tips, high fives.... Then... I lost a match... and felt the salt... then I lost on Turn 2... then I met Karn... and Ugin... and Griselbrand... and Grapeshot... and Mox Opal... and was like whoa there's broken things happening everywhere - cool. I want to do my own broken thing. I want to punish all these greedy decks that do broken things. How can I do that?
Greedy mana base - Blood Moon. Cheap obese creates - Bridge. Insanely low average CMC - Chalice. These tools are amazing. They punish the hell out of so many decks. You spent $500 on your mana base and for $80 I turned it to $5.00. So I heard chatter last night and maybe I'm not a calloused vet like some folks are. Honestly if I turn 1 Blood Moon someone on the Play and they have all fetches and scoop after I drop Chandra 5 turns later - I feel a little bad. But breh, that's what I signed up for. If I could play a card that says "YOU LOSE!" on turn 1 every game, yes, I would play it, and you likely would too. We are all doing broken things, and the mountainfolk around here, are Punishers. We're not here to draw our deck, or cast 50 spells, or play a bunch of creatures, we're here to punish your broken strategy.
And so that's what I told them. Someone was saying something like oh that's a wack deck or something and I said your just salty cause I'm the Punisher. That's it. IDK the genesis of all this greed, probably just a fall out of competitive spirit, but it is what it is. People talk about fair, unfair, w/e. Its all out there. You can play what you want. But I'm going to play Pyro Prison, because I bet with all likelihood that you're doing something greedy that I can punish you for.
On the data side, I lost my 2 matches because I dropped a game where I kept a hand with 1 land - that's all. I beat Jeskai Control Round 1 2-0, Chandra T1 and Moon T1. Lost to Spirits 1-2, couldn't cast my hand to get behind Bridge. Lost to Jund 1-2 couldn't cast my hand to get behind Bridge, he showed 2 Decays after, so I was smoked either way.
I kept strong hands in all my games but 2. I've made the "I'm not keeping a one-lander" rule, and broken it so many times, with success, that I have to revisit it [Turn 1 Chandra, uptick into Chalice or uptick to Ritual into a Moon is the nuts isn't it?]. I think its about having 2 or more mana guaranteed on T2 and what's mana on T3 look like? I've learned that a lot of magic is, damn I'm one land away, but I think in our deck its so crucial to have broken mana early. I'm going to start taking a harder look at T2 and T3 mana when I fan open.
Sorry for the long winded social post, but I hope that next time someone throws salt your Blood Moon way you recognize they fear The Punisher.
I like the Abrade-Slag swap. Abrade is certainly one of my favorite cards, but I guess I can let one go for a Slag type effect. I think I'm going to add an Anger in the board instead of a Slag to respect the 4/3's with Haste. The four Abrades seems a bit much in the moment - there's certainly better options. I'm thinking about switching my main Sweltering to a Slag instead b/c we now have Sarkhan to help filter, so maybe the additional 3 burn to the face is more value than a cycle. I'm going to be working with the following 75 heading in to a very densely packed MTG weekend.
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Blood Moon
Creatures (7)
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Walking Ballista
Planeswalkers (7)
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Sarkhan, Fireblood
1 Koth of the Hammer
Mana Accelerators (9)
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Desperate Ritual
1 Pyretic Ritual
2 Abrade
1 Sweltering Suns
1 Slagstorm
Lands (21)
9 Mountains
5 Snow-covered Mountains
3 Gemstone Caverns
3 Ramunap Ruins
1 Scavenger Grounds
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Damping Matrix
3 Eidolon of the Great Revel
1 Torpor Orb
1 Spellskite
1 Hazoret the Fervent
1 Defense Grid
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Shattering Spree
1 Tormod's Crypt