UW control matchup, well the Timely Reinforcements counterplay we already established. I think exquisite firecraft has won enough games for me with a significant blue presence in my area that if you see it enough, throw in two. You'll be glad you did. Your ideal starting hand contains two creatures so you can force removal and reduce their countermagic options, particularly post board where dispel is likely going to be a factor. Finally, board in path to exile, two copies or three. The common UW control sb will bring in cheap counters like dispel and 1-2 baneslayer angel/lyra dawnbringer. They will most likely tap out for it, given that it easily can win a game. Board out searing blaze, bring in firecraft and path.
Spirits: I see this a lot, people wanting to control the board. Spirits has no lifelink creatures, no lifegain, and rattlechains doesn't stop searing blaze from hitting the face. Race. You are faster. The only creatures worth taking the time to kill are hierarch and baby thalia. Spell Queller is annoying, sure, but it also sits in the same spot on the curve as CoCo. Either let them CoCo and respond with damage, or let a critical mass build up and suspend a rift bolt or two to force the matter. Queller is one of those cards that players often misuse because they reeeaaaally want that exile effect when sometimes you just want to plant it. Board out eidolon on the draw, higher-cost burn like helix, skullcrack or skewer on the play in some combination. Eidolon is still a fine turn two play going first. If your opponent is forced to rely on aether vial, they'll never really be able to swarm the board. Their curve is a bit too high. I'd bring in searing blood from the side, path only if you don't have blood.
I think twenty lands makes sense now with the ability to mitigate flood with a playset of canyons. I think a build running less, like my most recent one, could stick to nineteen. On a related note, I am just really underwhelmed by grim lavamancer and did not miss him at all. It is a usable card in the humans matchup, but beyond that there's just no tiered deck where I'm excited to draw it. It's okay in the mirror, but I'd prefer searing blood.
@conquistador, I had a chance to win the urza matchup. The chances were there. Game three I actually had two draw steps between a normal draw and a cracked relic of progenitus to bolt the final three life out of him. I did not see that. So quite literally, another moment where a playset of canyons can mean the difference between winning and losing.
I ordered four canyons but only two reached me. The refund kicked in, but with hogaak I didn't know how much modern I would play to justify buying. Now I'm thinking a bit differently. The matches went like this...
R1: vs burn (W2-1)
Lost the die roll and had to mulligan in every single game. Still, though, a skullcracked helix let me get there game one. Game two he had the searing blaze early to turn the corner on my swiftspear and just got there a bit faster. Game three my mull had a great draw, two lands, skullcrack, goblin guide, swiftspear, searing blaze on the play. I rolled over him pretty hard there.
R2: vs BR prison (W2-1)
This one was weird. I kept a slow hand game one that let him not only play chalice on one, but chalice on two while I couldn't quite get there. Game two I am on the play and go swiftspear into eidolon. He got stuck on two lands and had to double ritual into karn the great creator to grab an ensnaring bridge, hoping to stop my creatures but losing four in the progress. I finished with a couple burn spells. Game three he went for a turn one chalice with SSG, turn two brutality, fully escalated, but discarded two blood moons to get there. He then played rabblemaster, but I had a good anti-chalice hand of double eidolon, couple rift bolts and skewers etc that I got there. Again, he got stuck on two lands for a turn or two.
R3: vs Grixis Urza (L2-1)
I don't know anything about the deck. I haven't played modern in two months. It showed. Let's move on
R4: vs UW Control (W2-0)
Game one I get a guide into turn two double swiftspear and he never drew a board wipe. It was quick. Game two was a little weird. He did resolve a timely reinforcements while I had an eidolon out from my second turn on the draw. I was able to use a goblin guide to force blocks though and keep the spirit out there. He tries to oust his last token, which I thought was a setup for a second timely (I have skullcrack at this point) to restock on tokens. I didn't know oust gained you life and he didn't mention his life total until he went to play another spell. It was rather disjointed play where I went "wait oust gains life?" We did walk it back before it was too late so I could stop his oust lifegain. He countered the skullcrack, but I had another in play. THen he played narset and activated it, which revealed his sb'ed lyra dawnbringer. Disappointed in having to tuck away his best out, he was able to hold things off and resolvea teferi, but I attack him down to 4 and finish with exquisite firecraft.
R5: vs GW Devoted combo (W2-1)
At this point its 11p.m. I'm burnt out and couldn't tell you much other than the first two games went fairly long. Game 1 he is unable to combo because I got him to two life with an eidolon in play. He had to draw a tutor to get vizier without dying to a trigger, it didn't happen. Game 2 I screw up and could have won, punted at the last moment. Game 3 I am on the play with turn 1 guide into turn 2 searing blaze on his opening hierarch. He kept a land light hand hoping for hierarch to help but guide didn't give him one. I won in like four turns and he had to play defense the whole time.
4-1 finish, third place out of I think twenty-nine. It got me a Cavern of Souls. My only big takeaway from the list is that I want to swap one vantage and one fetch with two canyons. I had outs in round three but couldn't draw a final burn spell.
I'd still anticipate four pieces of graveyard hate to anticipate a brief resurgence of dredge plus the usual phoenix shenanigans. I am playing in a $1K this weekend celebrating a new store (with a notoriously generous owner, hell yeah). I will post results, a list, and general thoughts on Sunday. That being said...
This is going to be ******* bonkers. Hogaak warped the metagame to arguably its narrowest ever the past couple weeks. Now, though? It is wide open, and I am very curious to see what happens. Jund and UW were actually very reasonable choices lately, same with humans. I am expecting more dredge and particularly tron to try to take advantage of lowered gy disruption and increased fair decks, respectively. Along with reasonable jund and uw matchups already, burn could be rather strong in this meta. My predictions of ranking, more or less:
phoenix
tron
humans
uw
dredge
jund
burn
misc.
Partly though that is based on knowing my local meta. and to be sure, I like that setup.
Searing Blood deals three damage and slows your opponent down. It's a tempo card, and a good one at that, in the mirror. The leyline adds the following text to every noncreature spell "this deals two damage to you." It speeds up your clock more than blood slows them down, or hell even firewalker. It also has applications against midrange decks, and versatility is key with sideboard cards.
Also, comically enough, it stops hogaak from using altar to deck you out. On turn three, on the play, they would have to target you 17 times with altar to win.
I think I am over grim lavamancer for now. I'd been running a singleton in the main, but it really is only good against humans turn 1 and not as good against anything else. I think with the canyons, I am going back to twenty lands, knowing four canyons can mitigate the occasional flood.
I had one canyon, and already witnessed the benefit. I should have the other three in the mail today. Yes, the card is good and you will want at least three
I do want to test cindervines, though not as enchantment removal. I like having that weaker, yet asymmetrical eidolon effect on board. SB probably looking like this for now, as I prepare for SCG Pittsburgh:
Those cindervines slots used to be exquisite firecraft, which I liked against UW and blue Shadow variants. Considering that the plan against counterspell decks often consists of just enough early pressure to force responses while waiting to overload with countermagic in one big turn, the idea of cindervines doing 3-4 damage in the face of counters, paths, and cantrips could do well. The fact that it hits detention sphere is a nice bonus.
As is almost always the case when someone says "this more expensive card gives us reach" my answer is that I would rather just draw another bolt. Redundancy is one of burn's biggest strengths, diluting it is just...just bad.
Combo players never think "nah, that's enough card draw" until it starts to dilute their combo pieces. Storm will run a playset because it benefits them to be able to draw even one more card. The opportunity cost of running more than a couple basic lands is real. Plus, hell in the case of storm they were running shivan reef anyways in fetchless builds, so the damage taken is similar anyways.
Pittsburgh's SCG team open is the first big event for modern post-horizons release, and I can guarantee these things will be seeing a lot of play in every deck based in enemy color pairs.
Burn isn't a deck that can mull for Stony Silence and afford to sit around for five turns. The only benefit to this is an increase in tron, which is already a good matchup. However, most other combo decks that I like facing are critical mass decks like storm and scapeshift. Those don't benefit from the rule either. Personally? I think this mulligan rule is just a push to allow WOTC to ban a whole bunch of stuff in eternal formats.
Yeah, that deck looks super sweet. Have a sb? I imagine you'd need some out to Chalice of the Void. Really like some of the spicy tech cards (GM).
It's not any good. First, sixteen lands and shard volley is bad. Seal of Fire is a terrible burn card. I'm willing to bet that deck was goldfished and never played against any actual opponents. BR burn is a pet project that has virtually no high-level results, and there is a good reason for that. It isn't as good as standard Boros.
See I have no problem with being an ********, that's why I'm kinda glad this forum is going away. Censorship, politics, the people behind the scenes are just the worst about these sorta things.
Went 2-3 in a Saturday tournament, some things of note:
1. Tron is still a good matchup. I keep hearing tron players say they are doing well against burn, so I question their opponents' ability.
2. Don't play Magic competitively while hung over. I punted my first match, as I do every time I go out on a Friday night then try to sling spells Saturday.
3. I lost 2-1 to jund where game one featured taking my opponent's life to two only to not see an instant-speed burn spell (goblin guide got discarded by instant-speed Kcommand, as did swiftspear the following turn). Quite literally, a game where a sunbaked canyon would have won the match.
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Spirits: I see this a lot, people wanting to control the board. Spirits has no lifelink creatures, no lifegain, and rattlechains doesn't stop searing blaze from hitting the face. Race. You are faster. The only creatures worth taking the time to kill are hierarch and baby thalia. Spell Queller is annoying, sure, but it also sits in the same spot on the curve as CoCo. Either let them CoCo and respond with damage, or let a critical mass build up and suspend a rift bolt or two to force the matter. Queller is one of those cards that players often misuse because they reeeaaaally want that exile effect when sometimes you just want to plant it. Board out eidolon on the draw, higher-cost burn like helix, skullcrack or skewer on the play in some combination. Eidolon is still a fine turn two play going first. If your opponent is forced to rely on aether vial, they'll never really be able to swarm the board. Their curve is a bit too high. I'd bring in searing blood from the side, path only if you don't have blood.
@conquistador, I had a chance to win the urza matchup. The chances were there. Game three I actually had two draw steps between a normal draw and a cracked relic of progenitus to bolt the final three life out of him. I did not see that. So quite literally, another moment where a playset of canyons can mean the difference between winning and losing.
The List
I ordered four canyons but only two reached me. The refund kicked in, but with hogaak I didn't know how much modern I would play to justify buying. Now I'm thinking a bit differently. The matches went like this...
R1: vs burn (W2-1)
Lost the die roll and had to mulligan in every single game. Still, though, a skullcracked helix let me get there game one. Game two he had the searing blaze early to turn the corner on my swiftspear and just got there a bit faster. Game three my mull had a great draw, two lands, skullcrack, goblin guide, swiftspear, searing blaze on the play. I rolled over him pretty hard there.
R2: vs BR prison (W2-1)
This one was weird. I kept a slow hand game one that let him not only play chalice on one, but chalice on two while I couldn't quite get there. Game two I am on the play and go swiftspear into eidolon. He got stuck on two lands and had to double ritual into karn the great creator to grab an ensnaring bridge, hoping to stop my creatures but losing four in the progress. I finished with a couple burn spells. Game three he went for a turn one chalice with SSG, turn two brutality, fully escalated, but discarded two blood moons to get there. He then played rabblemaster, but I had a good anti-chalice hand of double eidolon, couple rift bolts and skewers etc that I got there. Again, he got stuck on two lands for a turn or two.
R3: vs Grixis Urza (L2-1)
I don't know anything about the deck. I haven't played modern in two months. It showed. Let's move on
R4: vs UW Control (W2-0)
Game one I get a guide into turn two double swiftspear and he never drew a board wipe. It was quick. Game two was a little weird. He did resolve a timely reinforcements while I had an eidolon out from my second turn on the draw. I was able to use a goblin guide to force blocks though and keep the spirit out there. He tries to oust his last token, which I thought was a setup for a second timely (I have skullcrack at this point) to restock on tokens. I didn't know oust gained you life and he didn't mention his life total until he went to play another spell. It was rather disjointed play where I went "wait oust gains life?" We did walk it back before it was too late so I could stop his oust lifegain. He countered the skullcrack, but I had another in play. THen he played narset and activated it, which revealed his sb'ed lyra dawnbringer. Disappointed in having to tuck away his best out, he was able to hold things off and resolvea teferi, but I attack him down to 4 and finish with exquisite firecraft.
R5: vs GW Devoted combo (W2-1)
At this point its 11p.m. I'm burnt out and couldn't tell you much other than the first two games went fairly long. Game 1 he is unable to combo because I got him to two life with an eidolon in play. He had to draw a tutor to get vizier without dying to a trigger, it didn't happen. Game 2 I screw up and could have won, punted at the last moment. Game 3 I am on the play with turn 1 guide into turn 2 searing blaze on his opening hierarch. He kept a land light hand hoping for hierarch to help but guide didn't give him one. I won in like four turns and he had to play defense the whole time.
4-1 finish, third place out of I think twenty-nine. It got me a Cavern of Souls. My only big takeaway from the list is that I want to swap one vantage and one fetch with two canyons. I had outs in round three but couldn't draw a final burn spell.
This is going to be ******* bonkers. Hogaak warped the metagame to arguably its narrowest ever the past couple weeks. Now, though? It is wide open, and I am very curious to see what happens. Jund and UW were actually very reasonable choices lately, same with humans. I am expecting more dredge and particularly tron to try to take advantage of lowered gy disruption and increased fair decks, respectively. Along with reasonable jund and uw matchups already, burn could be rather strong in this meta. My predictions of ranking, more or less:
phoenix
tron
humans
uw
dredge
jund
burn
misc.
Partly though that is based on knowing my local meta. and to be sure, I like that setup.
Also, comically enough, it stops hogaak from using altar to deck you out. On turn three, on the play, they would have to target you 17 times with altar to win.
2 Ravenous Trap
2 RiP
1 Relic
3 Path
2 Searing Blood
2 cindervines
2 smash
1 Stony Silence
Those cindervines slots used to be exquisite firecraft, which I liked against UW and blue Shadow variants. Considering that the plan against counterspell decks often consists of just enough early pressure to force responses while waiting to overload with countermagic in one big turn, the idea of cindervines doing 3-4 damage in the face of counters, paths, and cantrips could do well. The fact that it hits detention sphere is a nice bonus.
Pittsburgh's SCG team open is the first big event for modern post-horizons release, and I can guarantee these things will be seeing a lot of play in every deck based in enemy color pairs.
It's not any good. First, sixteen lands and shard volley is bad. Seal of Fire is a terrible burn card. I'm willing to bet that deck was goldfished and never played against any actual opponents. BR burn is a pet project that has virtually no high-level results, and there is a good reason for that. It isn't as good as standard Boros.
See I have no problem with being an ********, that's why I'm kinda glad this forum is going away. Censorship, politics, the people behind the scenes are just the worst about these sorta things.
1. Tron is still a good matchup. I keep hearing tron players say they are doing well against burn, so I question their opponents' ability.
2. Don't play Magic competitively while hung over. I punted my first match, as I do every time I go out on a Friday night then try to sling spells Saturday.
3. I lost 2-1 to jund where game one featured taking my opponent's life to two only to not see an instant-speed burn spell (goblin guide got discarded by instant-speed Kcommand, as did swiftspear the following turn). Quite literally, a game where a sunbaked canyon would have won the match.