Blood Moon can win games against an unsuspecting Jund player. And even if he knows you're running Moon, sometimes he draws hands without fetches / basics in situations when he can't afford to mull anymore. As a jund player, I always fear blood moon, to the extent that I make sure I fetch around it.
Was jamming a few games against my buddy's UW Spirits today, and it felt pretty rough. Mausoleum Wanderer + Selfless Spirit + Queller is quite a tax on removal and he was able to outpace my board control. Especially on the draw, I felt pretty unfavoured there.
Between Hardened Scales and Dredge, these cards are the mainstay of my board at the moment: 4 Leylines, 2 Angers, 2 Grudges. Take a sledgehammer to the matchups.
ancillary question: is it worth it to board in the leylines v hardened scales as well? From what I see, it turns off Ravager, Worker and Hangarback (which is particularly irritating).
With the Dredge menace rising, I'm moving to 4 leylines and 2 angers in the board. Probably gonna try swapping the 3 Confidants for Flayers as well, given that I'm trying out Vital Force. Bob seems too painful with that sideboard, and Flayer can dump unwanted leyline copies into the yard as well.
Not to mention a 4 Flayer jund list made top 8 in a Japanese GP one or two months ago. Gotta be some merit in that.
I would wanna try Nissa in this situation (do you just plus 1 once, then ultimate immediately?), it may be worth a shot as well. Maybe jam an additional copy of Duress into the side.
Yeah the problem against UW is you want to pressure and end before terminus comes down, but there's a risk of overextending into one at the same time. Some have taken to playing Spell Snare again which makes the matchup even worse.
Thanks y'all, seems like Control is a slog by nature.
I've been struggling against Azorius and Jeskai Control
Azorius - I can't clock fast enough between counters and oust and they eventually takeover with Jace. I killed 2 Jaces and 1 Teferi today then the 3rd Jace buried me. Terminus annihilated me even with my playing around it, leaving 1 or 2 creatures in hand to rebuild.
Jeskai - helix and bolt eat bobs and early scoozes. I still find this slightly easier than Azorius, given I can attack the manabase with Fulminator. But overall I still feel like a dog.
Thrun is really unplayable now, Hazoret gets pathed, Huntmaster is middling..... do I really need to Choke em out?
I also hate how cleanly and efficiently Snap trades with BBE
Tips for the control matchups please.
*** I'm running 4 BBEs and single Mountain so I'm insulated against FoR
Against burn, what you need is a clock. Goyf is usually your best bet until/unless RIP is cast. Without a clock, I've resolved full-mode Brutalities before and still lost. Definitely look for a clock in your starting hands.
I'll take out the basic mountain for TTV for my modern event tomorrow and report back.
Against burn, it felt super good to be able to fetch without shocking for that innocuous, much-maligned mountain to cast Bolt early though. Even I was surprised, I had thought that its usefulness ended with the Field of Ruin interaction.
EE v Damnation would be meta dependent. There's a rash of GR Eldrazi popping up in my area recently and I can only handle so many turn 2 TKS. I don't see any Bogles locally as well. YMMV.
EE can blow up random irritating enchantments as well.
Had good results again with the 24 land, 12x 1 CMC spell list. Second 3-0 result in a row.
Beat Affinity 2-0 in both rounds 1 and 2, and Burn 2-1 in round 3.
At this juncture, having early access to cheap kill spells / discard feels integral. I'm quite reluctant to want to move back to the clunkier 25 land builds.
Damnation overperformed for me from the sideboard, wiping out the Affinity players' boards in both post-board games in both rounds. I 4 for 1'ed him on turn 4 despite being on the draw, at 4 life. 2 of those creatures were Etched Champions. Then landed Ooze next turn to lock up the game.
I think that with 6x 1CMC removal, 3x 2CMC removal, Kommand and Pulses backed by Liliana, we don't need Anger in the board to kill little critters. Therefore I used Damnation in its place in view of Eldrazi and Etched Champion. It's a good O ***** button.
Reid needed that Lavaman or Anger real bad. He had two terminates, but those Mantises and Phantasmals were a real PITA. Rosum played to his outs and drew really well though - that turn when he had only a Phantasmal Image left in hand, he untaps and puts vial to 3, proceeds to rip Mantis off the top, and instantly goes in for 6.
Deck ran smooth as butter today. Went 3-0 in FNM in three straight 2-0 games.
Beat Lantern, Ponza, Bant Spirits
I was on the 24 land, 12 1-drop list and I gotta say having an abundance of 1 mana spells felt really good, especially when I got to double spell on turn 3, early and often.
Having the additional push and terminate solves a lot of problems.
Two grudges and an additional Pulse from the side made Lantern easy despite cutting to a single Kommand in the main.
I hope/wish it's an aberration but somehow I know it isn't.
We need more tools to be printed in upcoming sets.
ancillary question: is it worth it to board in the leylines v hardened scales as well? From what I see, it turns off Ravager, Worker and Hangarback (which is particularly irritating).
With the Dredge menace rising, I'm moving to 4 leylines and 2 angers in the board. Probably gonna try swapping the 3 Confidants for Flayers as well, given that I'm trying out Vital Force. Bob seems too painful with that sideboard, and Flayer can dump unwanted leyline copies into the yard as well.
Not to mention a 4 Flayer jund list made top 8 in a Japanese GP one or two months ago. Gotta be some merit in that.
I would wanna try Nissa in this situation (do you just plus 1 once, then ultimate immediately?), it may be worth a shot as well. Maybe jam an additional copy of Duress into the side.
Yeah the problem against UW is you want to pressure and end before terminus comes down, but there's a risk of overextending into one at the same time. Some have taken to playing Spell Snare again which makes the matchup even worse.
Thanks y'all, seems like Control is a slog by nature.
Azorius - I can't clock fast enough between counters and oust and they eventually takeover with Jace. I killed 2 Jaces and 1 Teferi today then the 3rd Jace buried me. Terminus annihilated me even with my playing around it, leaving 1 or 2 creatures in hand to rebuild.
Jeskai - helix and bolt eat bobs and early scoozes. I still find this slightly easier than Azorius, given I can attack the manabase with Fulminator. But overall I still feel like a dog.
Thrun is really unplayable now, Hazoret gets pathed, Huntmaster is middling..... do I really need to Choke em out?
I also hate how cleanly and efficiently Snap trades with BBE
Tips for the control matchups please.
*** I'm running 4 BBEs and single Mountain so I'm insulated against FoR
I'm on 2 terminate right now alongside a Damnation. Anger doesn't cut it sometimes and double red can be a problem.
Against burn, it felt super good to be able to fetch without shocking for that innocuous, much-maligned mountain to cast Bolt early though. Even I was surprised, I had thought that its usefulness ended with the Field of Ruin interaction.
EE v Damnation would be meta dependent. There's a rash of GR Eldrazi popping up in my area recently and I can only handle so many turn 2 TKS. I don't see any Bogles locally as well. YMMV.
EE can blow up random irritating enchantments as well.
Beat Affinity 2-0 in both rounds 1 and 2, and Burn 2-1 in round 3.
At this juncture, having early access to cheap kill spells / discard feels integral. I'm quite reluctant to want to move back to the clunkier 25 land builds.
Damnation overperformed for me from the sideboard, wiping out the Affinity players' boards in both post-board games in both rounds. I 4 for 1'ed him on turn 4 despite being on the draw, at 4 life. 2 of those creatures were Etched Champions. Then landed Ooze next turn to lock up the game.
I think that with 6x 1CMC removal, 3x 2CMC removal, Kommand and Pulses backed by Liliana, we don't need Anger in the board to kill little critters. Therefore I used Damnation in its place in view of Eldrazi and Etched Champion. It's a good O ***** button.
Beat Lantern, Ponza, Bant Spirits
I was on the 24 land, 12 1-drop list and I gotta say having an abundance of 1 mana spells felt really good, especially when I got to double spell on turn 3, early and often.
Having the additional push and terminate solves a lot of problems.
Two grudges and an additional Pulse from the side made Lantern easy despite cutting to a single Kommand in the main.
Sweepers in the side are now more appealing IMO.