Flooding is fine as long as you draw Leap or Gavony. Dryad Arbor is awkward in a Bolt metagame; I only ran it in Pod momentarily to fetch Viscera Seer off of Pod activations and you can Leap into it which seems pretty bad.
Rhinos and Linvala have been fantastic. I'm considering testing Dark Confidant because now we don't go over 4, only run 4 4-drops, and like drawing cards. It's not fantastic against Burn, but we are rarely life total racing in other matchups.
I played this deck for the first time last night and it felt quite powerful.
I had the following changes vs. cb's latest list:
- 1 Fulminator Mage main deck and the Pontiff in the sideboard
- minus 1 Witness, plus 1 Liliana in the main (I haven't played with Liliana at all before and wanted more chances to have her in play)
- Reveillark over the 4th Souls in the sideboard
Looking forward to playing with it a bit more. EDIT: I went 3-0 against fairly soft competition.
Maindeck fulminator is definitely a consideration. I can't agree with less than 4 Souls in the 75, I board in the fourth copy in a ton of matchups. Glad to hear you like the deck!
The combos themselves is basically a secondary out. The deck plays out more to value town your opponent out of the game. Hence the deck is more resilient to removal compared to Abzan Company lists that are floating around imo.
Evolutionary Leap is also there to be resilient to removal. You can run more combo if you like, but then you're probably also wanting to run Collected Company.
I took the deck to a larger event for the first time, a weekly (rotating format) Sunday series at Face to Face Games Toronto. There were 58 players so we played 6 rounds.
Decklist, report, and ideas for where to go next:
I've been very impressed with Liliana so I kept her at 2, upped the Witness count by 1 and moved the Fulminator from the main deck.
Round 1 - Jund
A favourable match to start the day, I keep Bobs off the table as much as possible and Lingering Souls takes over. Liliana on his side is almost a problem in game 2 but Souls is able to contain her.
2-0, 1-0 Round 2 - affinity
In game 1 my opponent is presenting lethal with a Ravager and I mistap my lands so that I'm not representing Path; he moves in (naturally) and I die with the potential to Chord for Seer, untap and Leap into the combo :(. In game 2 a Thoughtseize comes a turn before I topdeck Stony Silence, and in game 3 I keep a 6-card hand of 2 Chords, 2 Silences, and 2 lands... the resolved Stony Silence basically ends the game in both cases.
2-1, 2-0 Round 3 - merfolk
After a long deck check we are underway with no issues. In game 1 he has a Reejerey as his only lord and I am holding him back with a Finks and a Lingering Souls supported by Township; eventually I Leap into Melira, reset my Finks, and he scoops to the value Leap before I fully assemble a combo. In game 2 he floods out a bit while I recycle a Voice repeatedly with Liliana and overwhelm him with large tokens.
2-0, 3-0 Round 4 - Scapeshift
Not looking forward to this one, especially when I mull to 4 in game 1 and 5 in game 2. Game 2 is closer as I Sin Collect a Cryptic Command and Thoughtseize a Thragtusk, but a Bolt and a Remand buy him enough time to combo me.
0-2, 3-1 Round 5 - Twin
In game 1, Voice makes him play at sorcery speed but he Cliques my Linvala before I can play it; I bluff as best I can but eventually he goes for the combo vs. my one card in hand and I have no answer. Game 2 we are a bit back and forth but I have a resolved Siege Rhino protected by a Forge-Tender attacking past his Exarch; he casts a Blood Moon but I am able to cast a Murderous Redcap through it, and using Forge-Tender to save my Rhino from Electrolyze+Flame Slash preserves the lethal attack. In game 3 I mull to 5 and start with Viscera Seer into Leap. I play around the combo by holding up Abrupt Decay/Dromoka's Command, and eventually the Leap grinds him out as his clock of 2-3 Exarchs can't keep up to Finks, Linvala, Liliana rebuying Spellskite, and Gavony Township. A real coming-out party for Leap and Liliana in tandem.
2-1, 4-1 Round 6 - infect
As the 3 and 4 seeds we are safe to ID, though the people at table 3 and 4 also draw when they are not safe (and my affinity opponent from round 2 ends up drawn into 9th).
ID, 4-1-1, 4th place after the swiss
Top 8 - infect
We get our match anyway: in game 1 we trade punts but his is worse, as I mistime my Chord for Spellskite (and could just have died if he had enough pump spells) but he wastes an Apostle's Blessing which lets me untap and Decay his last infect threat after taking 8 poison. In game 2 a motley crew of removal spells, Thoughtseizes, and blocking with Lingering Souls takes out his infect threats and a Linvala constrains his Hierarch mana and flies in to clock him to death.
2-0 Top 4 - split
I would have been paired against GR Tron, so I was happy to split for 200 credit each.
I really like Liliana and am going to continue with 2 for now. I'm noticing however that the mana is a little awkward to support it, so I may switch one of the Thickets for a Marsh Flats to support the early black. It's also possible that Anafenza may be straining the mana too much; without her I could more comfortably open on Godless Shrine+Overgrown Tomb to cast the GW 2-drops--I would lose some combo potential but as long as the threat is still there I may be okay with it. (I did not combo anyone in this tournament.)
Forge-Tender is an odd one, as against the removal-heavy decks and decks with red sweepers, I tend to shave Chords, so I'm in the weird spot of bringing in a bullet and simultaneously taking out ways to find it. I may add a second Command for this effect?
I want to try a Restoration Angel somehow, and I think the only way is probably to do a 1/1 split with Siege Rhino. I was a big fan of Angel in Pod as a way to set up big sorcery-speed plays (e.g. end-step Angel into Remand, untap play Pod) and reuse the ETBs (it's kind of like a 2nd Pontiff, 2nd Sin Collector, 2nd Rhino). (This also kind of makes me want to play a Thragtusk or Reveillark in the sideboard for the full combo, again as in the good old days.)
There is a modern WMCQ coming up and I'll probably be playing this deck, so I'll try to get in some more games/matches this week (and online).
Nice! I've been running two Dark Confidants and a Twilight Mire over a Razorverge. The mana base did need another black source. I don't stress over casting Anafenza on curve as we don't run 2-3 copies like Collected Company. Dropping her would cut out the chance to kill your opponent on your combo turn, which can matter in some matchups.
Sin Collector is very good, but I ended up cutting it for the other card advantage engine in Dark Confidant. Aven Mindcensor is good against a lot of the same decks Fulminator Mage is, but it's easier to cast and a flying threat. It's definitely worth testing, at least. Dromoka's Command has been pretty good, I've been back and forth on how many copies I want.
A second Scavenging Ooze could go in the board as well... In general, I've found Abzan Company to be a pretty good matchup because they can never grind us out, their combo doesn't win the game the turn they use it while ours usually does, and we have more removal in the 75.
Sure. Though I sideboard differently based on how they play and what I see, I'll generally board out a Leap in some matchups to make room (especially tron and twin). I board out some mana dorks against red decks and usually start from the more expensive creatures after that. If a chord comes out, the wall usually comes out too. Abrupt decays obviously come out against Grixis control.
I've been testing Dark Confidant and doing relatively well. I need to play more to make a conclusion, but he's a backup plan for when they Bolt the Bird as so many people do as a knee-jerk reaction. It's nice when you play the t2 Bob after they kill the dork and they don't have removal for it.
EDIT: Just 3-0'd an 8-man on MTGO, beating Abzan 2-0, Grixis Control 2-0, and RG Tron 2-1. Here's the list I ran with, and I'll explain my card choices a bit below:
Card choices: Dark Confidant was excellent today, being critical in my upset victory over RG Tron. Slaughter Pact gives us an additional piece of removal against Twin and most other decks and lets us be mana hungry, so I was excited to test it out, but I never drew it. Leyline of the Void is a nod to the Living End, Griselbrand combo, and Grixis decks I've been running into a lot lately. It's nice that we have noncreature options because we aren't running Collected Company. I cut a mana dork for a Gavony Township #3 before my previous event, and cut the Gavony for the Slaughter Pact, so I ended up with one less mana source in the deck. This was not totally intentional. The cuts from the sideboard were Abrupt Decay #3 and Dromoka's Command. Both of these are good against Twin, and we added a maindeck card that's good against Twin, but obviously they could go either way.
Round 3: 2-1 vs RG Tron. This match was very difficult as my opponent had turn 3 Tron in all three games. Game 2 was intense, as I had to fight through two Wurmcoil Engines and play very tightly in order to win. At one point, I figured out that I could cast Liliana, Heretical Healer at six life, pass, Chord for Fulminator Mage after he attacked with both Engines, block with Liliana and Fulminator, and sac the Fulminator, leaving him dead on board to my Gavony Township and small army with him at 13 (because I kept blocking with Burrenton Forge-tender and sacrificing it before damage) to win game 2. Game 3 was also exciting as I had two Fulminator Mage but did not hit double black until turn 4, when he already had 2 Urza's Tower as part of his active Tron, with a Expedition Map and Oblivion Stone in play while I was attacking with Burrenton Forge-tender, Voice of Resurgence and Kitchen Finks. I ended up forcing him to Map on his turn by Maging on his fifth upkeep, and then drew Chord of Calling to grab my third Fulminator, taking him off of Tron and hitting him for a bit, then played my Fulminator that was still in my hand to set him back and put him dead on board.
Courser is okay, but I like that the Confidant is a turn 2 play. If you want to go more green, the Courser is great. I'd probably run a fourth Kitchen Finks before the first Courser, though.
I tested kikichord over the past week and found it to be a worse version of this in many ways. It just felt much less powerful and more greedy while trying to do much the same thing. I may not have tested enough, but that was the impression I got.
Worship is and has been in my paper sideboard for the reasons given above. Leyline is super good against Grixis control and Grixis Delver, as well as having other applications. I'd likely pick one or the other as our sideboard can get tight. I also don't like Worship against Ad Nauseam because of Laboratory Maniac, though we can kill it with Abrupt Decay, so it's a risky win condition for them.
Thanks for the kind comments, but most of my primer was, as I say in the primer, ripped off from Torpf's Abzan Company primer, from the format to many of the images and some descriptions.
Awesome idea and primer. Here's my question: the old pod lists played ~7 mana dorks and 2-3 wall of roots. Why aren't you playing that many? We're just as mana-hungry as they were.
This list was great in a metagame full of Pod and Delver, as it crushed both decks pretty reliably. I also was lucky enough to suspect a Pod banning and was up the morning of the ban list announcement with my entire Pod deck in a trade with a bot waiting to pull the trigger, and got full value back. I watched the price of the deck drop from 700+ tix to <300 tix in a few hours.
To answer your comment, I didn't even run 6-7 mana dorks + 2-3 Wall of Roots in my Pod deck that went up to 6 mana in the main and 7 in the board, so I don't see any reason to do that here. The reason people did that was to block better and to play Chord of Calling better, but they were also very prone to flooding in the games in which they did not draw Pod. With our much lower curve, we can certainly get away with only 28-29 mana sources.
Hi all, back with a report from another Sunday Showdown event--my first play with the deck in a while since I skipped the WMCQ due to atrocious prize support (all Origins product).
Decklist and report:
The deck is basically the same as the last time out except some changes to the mana base and -1 Witness, +1 Voice of Resurgence in the main.
There were 36 players this time out, so still 6 rounds but a much smaller and somewhat softer field than the last one--perhaps due to the 3rd WMCQ happening in Montreal the same weekend.
Round 1
My opponent opens on basic Island but reveals himself as playing Amulet Bloom. In game 1 I beat down before much of anything happens. In game 2 I have my opponent dead on board after forcing a chump block from Dragonlord Dromoka (two enormous Voice tokens), but he Hive Mind kills me on his last turn. A Primeval Titan holds me off for a bit until he can Summoner's Pact for Dragonlord Dromoka, and I can't find removal for it.
1-2, 0-1
Round 2
Jund opponent Inquisitions and Thoughtseizes me multiple times after I mull to 5, but I am able to stabilize and get Souls + Leap value thanks to him never attacking with Raging Ravine. In game 2 I'm slowed down by a Leyline of the Void, but eventually I can Pridemage it; in the end I Chord for Linvala to turn off 2 Scavenging Oozes and beat him with fliers.
2-0, 1-1
Round 3
Merfolk opponent does not draw off Spreading Seas or Silvergill Adept in game 1 and makes suspect attacks in game 2 to lose several lords. Game 1 is my only combo win in the tournament.
2-0, 2-1
Round 4
My only good opponent in the swiss is also on merfolk. In game 1 he opens with Mutavault plus Vial but the Vial goes down before he draws a second land; he's too far behind and Anafenza + Souls + Township take him down quickly. In game 2 he draws and plays 3 (!) Threads of Disloyalty, but I eventually get through them and fade a lord to win the race.
2-0, 3-1
Round 5
I expect to be quick comboed after my opponent curves Remand Voice into turn 3 Exarch on the play, but he doesn't have it and Voice tokens + Rhino keep the pressure on for the win. In game 2 I Thoughtseize an Exarch (seeing Anger, Twin, Clique, Spell Snare) and my opponent draws multiple Twins and pretty much nothing else (including no lands) while Forge-Tender keeps Anger from doing anything significant.
2-0, 4-1
Round 6
Affinity opponent and I are safe to ID when the two 10-pointers are both paired down.
ID, 4-1-1, 6th place after the swiss.
An interesting note is that I lost every die roll, so my run through the X-1 bracket was 8 games won on the draw.
Top 8
Unfortunately I get the only bad matchup in the RG Tron player in the top 8. The others were 2 affinity, Twin, merfolk, Abzan Company, and mono-red goblins. :/
In game 1 my clock is not fast enough to beat through a Wurmcoil Engine, and I cannot assemble the combo before Eye finds and casts Emrakul. In game 2 my opponent keeps a one-lander, so I am able to cast turn 3 Siege Rhino rather than prioritizing getting Fulminator Mages down; Fulminator getting him off his second land (once he finds it) and flipping Liliana prompts a concession. In game 3 multiple Fulminators keep him off Tron, but I can't find a clean answer to his 6 lands and Wurmcoil and have to grind through it by Chording for Liliana to Pridemage twice; at the end of all this the game state is my Voice token, zombie token, spirit token, Fulminator, Birds, Stony Silence, Liliana against his 20-something life, 9 lands and no cards in hand--then he topdecked Ugin.
1-2, top 8 for 50 credit (alas)
The deck still feels quite good--I haven't had a chance to test with Dark Confidants as I don't own any in paper and I haven't been playing much online lately, but I'll probably give that a shot.
I originally had a wall of roots mainboard in place of melira, and one of the ones in the side was originally a fulminator. However, when I got to the game store, I saw two infect players and dropped those in. After adding Melira, I figured it couldn't hurt to drop in a Viscera Seer in place of 1 Eternal Witness, so thats how I ended up with the above list.
Round 1
Junk
Game 1-It goes back and forth, stays fairly even for a while. I drop an Archangel of Thune. He doesn't think I have the combo, and taps out on his turn. On mine, Chord of Calling for Spike Feeder, and win. Also, this was the only game the entire night that I had any of the infinite combos
Game 2-2 Tarmogoyf and 2 Scavenging Ooze allow him to take the game early
Game 3- We trade 2 copies of Lingering Souls for the first few turns. I end with a Birds and a Leap out. He plays Tasigur, and starts beating me down. I go to 6 life, and start leaping a bunch after blocks to nerf Tasigur. He plays a Lingering Souls and starts to slowly kill me through that. I drop a Linvala, and slowly kill of tokens when he attacks. He still manages to get me down to one life, but I drop a Liliana and a spike feeder, and start to gain life and reanimate the spike feeder while he stops attacking. After going to time with probably a dozen leaps and stabilizing around 9 life, I gain enough creatures to beat down and win.
2-1, 1-0
Round 2
American Control
Game 1- An early sin collector followed by restoration angel destroy his hand, and the beat down from those 2 kill him easy
Game 2- He drops Rest in Peace, and starts bolting Finks. Then he dropped a Keranos, and the combined value of those two was too much to deal with.
Game 3- We start with 6 minutes on the clock. I easily get a huge number of creatures out, and put him within lethal on my next attack. He Cryptic taps my team for the next 2 turns, while I rebuild my hand with Leap. His next turn brings a Supreme verdict, and I have the final turn, with chord in hand, multiple creatures, and path. He has no cards in hand and is tapped out, at 4 life. The best I could do was Chord for Rhino to put him at 1, and then thanks to time we drew.
1-1-1, 1-0-1
Round 3
Grixis Griselbrand Reanimator
Game 1-Early Linvala locks out his combo, and he had no removal, win with beats
Game 2-Double Sin Collector and Scavenging Ooze easily take the game
2-0, 2-0-1
Round 4
Jund
Game 1- Tarmogoyfs plus Huntmaster and removal lock me out early
Game 2- Olivia Voldaren stops me cold
0-2, 2-1-1
Overall I really like the deck. Some of the interactions you can do with leap are amazing, like the shriekmaw trick. Plus, leap with Finks and Archangel is a brutal combo. I was fine with only the one eternal witness, and will probably eave it that way. the archangel combo seemed easier to pull off, but I dont think this deck should be combo focused in the current meta. There is just too much removal. In general, I will probably drop the extra 2 Meliras and the Seer. I think I might try a grave titan in the maindeck, he seems pretty sweet. Im also considering adding a Thragtusk somewhere in the 75. I like Chalice in the side for burn and delver matchups, and it also helps against bloom titan. After the control matchup, I want to add a Thrun somewhere as well.
I'll be working a lot more on this deck over the next week or so in preparation for Modern States. My testing gauntlet will include:
-Twin (UR, RUG, Grixis in order of expected prevalence/strength)
-Jund/Abzan (GBx midrange)
-Infect
-Affinity
-Merfolk (the main reason I haven't been playing Blue Tron, my other pet deck)
-Tron
-Amulet
-Living End
-Burn/Zoo
-Scapeshift
-Other decks like UW, Company decks, UWR, Bogles
The difficult matchups out of this group are mostly Tron and Scapeshift. I'll be testing a sideboard plan of 3-4x Crumble to Dust with a Stomping Ground to see if it's worth it, considering that it's very close to winning by itself in both of these matchups if it resolves (hitting a Steam Vents or Stomping Ground out of Scapeshift leaves them with only 6 Mountains in the deck, so if we also have a Fulminator Mage, they can't realistically win), but obviously this is very radical. Fulminator is great in our deck either way, so I'll probably try to fit some number in the main to free up sideboard slots.
Grixis Control/Delver are somewhat popular, but given that I've never lost a match to Grixis Control and have an extremely high winrate against Grixis Delver, it is likely not necessary to test the matchup extensively. Twin is popular and can beat us, so I'll be testing it much more.
Jund/Abzan are favorable matchups, though they can always steal games. Olivia Voldaren is a strong card against us, so it's important to have access to Path to Exile.
Infect pretty much scoops to Melira, Sylvok Outcast, so having access to that card in game 1 in addition to our regular removal gives us the trump card in that matchup.
Affinity has trouble winning through Lingering Souls. Postboard, we want access to Stony Silence, which also beats fringe decks like Lantern and has some effect against decks that rely on Pentad Prism. We also beat Lantern game 1 with Exalted and zero-power creatures.
Against Merfolk, we'd like to combo or to kill all of their stuff and attack. Fortunately, our hands can usually do one of these well. Destroy Æther Vial preferentially. I'd like maindeck Fulminators to answer Mutavault and Spreading Seas as well (though destroying your own land is a last resort).
The usual way to beat Amulet is discard, destroying Amulet, and blowing up lands. Fortunately, we can do all three. I've found the matchup to be reasonably good.
Living End has to go off in the first three turns to have a realistic chance of beating us. They aren't winning long games. Postboard, watch out for Leyline of the Void.
Burn and Zoo are grouped together because they only really differ in the number of burn spells. Both matchups are quite good. The red-heavy Zoo decks are weak to Burrenton Forge-tender and Auriok Champion, both of which are much, much better than Kor Firewalker.
Overall, I think this deck is very well positioned. It's fortunate that similar cards are good against our bad matchups, so we can sideboard pretty heavily for those and have plenty of overlap. It's entirely possible we want to maindeck the Stomping Ground if we are playing Crumble to Dust to free up another sideboard slot. This post and expected decks will help to carve the ideal 75. I'm first going to lay out all of the cards I have access to and figure out the best 60 against each of the gauntlet decks, and fit as many of those as possible into the 75.
I've played a few league sets online now with the Dark Confidants and am unsure.
I keep losing to Twin because they always have the combo game 1 (not representative) and then I flood and get ground out by various Jaces postboard. Pretty frustrating as I know it's not a terrible matchup.
Rhinos and Linvala have been fantastic. I'm considering testing Dark Confidant because now we don't go over 4, only run 4 4-drops, and like drawing cards. It's not fantastic against Burn, but we are rarely life total racing in other matchups.
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
I had the following changes vs. cb's latest list:
- 1 Fulminator Mage main deck and the Pontiff in the sideboard
- minus 1 Witness, plus 1 Liliana in the main (I haven't played with Liliana at all before and wanted more chances to have her in play)
- Reveillark over the 4th Souls in the sideboard
Looking forward to playing with it a bit more. EDIT: I went 3-0 against fairly soft competition.
UW UW Gideon Control WU
UWR Loose Control RWU
GR Scapeshift RG
RU Storm UR
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
UW UW Gideon Control WU
UWR Loose Control RWU
GR Scapeshift RG
RU Storm UR
Decklist, report, and ideas for where to go next:
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Razorverge Thicket
2 Gavony Township
Creatures (27)
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Viscera Seer
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Wall of Roots
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Eternal Witness
2 Liliana, Heretical Healer
1 Sin Collector
2 Siege Rhino
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Murderous Redcap
3 Evolutionary Leap
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Chord of Calling
3 Lingering Souls
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Path to Exile
3 Thoughtseize
2 Stony Silence
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dromoka's Command
Round 1 - Jund
A favourable match to start the day, I keep Bobs off the table as much as possible and Lingering Souls takes over. Liliana on his side is almost a problem in game 2 but Souls is able to contain her.
2-0, 1-0
Round 2 - affinity
In game 1 my opponent is presenting lethal with a Ravager and I mistap my lands so that I'm not representing Path; he moves in (naturally) and I die with the potential to Chord for Seer, untap and Leap into the combo :(. In game 2 a Thoughtseize comes a turn before I topdeck Stony Silence, and in game 3 I keep a 6-card hand of 2 Chords, 2 Silences, and 2 lands... the resolved Stony Silence basically ends the game in both cases.
2-1, 2-0
Round 3 - merfolk
After a long deck check we are underway with no issues. In game 1 he has a Reejerey as his only lord and I am holding him back with a Finks and a Lingering Souls supported by Township; eventually I Leap into Melira, reset my Finks, and he scoops to the value Leap before I fully assemble a combo. In game 2 he floods out a bit while I recycle a Voice repeatedly with Liliana and overwhelm him with large tokens.
2-0, 3-0
Round 4 - Scapeshift
Not looking forward to this one, especially when I mull to 4 in game 1 and 5 in game 2. Game 2 is closer as I Sin Collect a Cryptic Command and Thoughtseize a Thragtusk, but a Bolt and a Remand buy him enough time to combo me.
0-2, 3-1
Round 5 - Twin
In game 1, Voice makes him play at sorcery speed but he Cliques my Linvala before I can play it; I bluff as best I can but eventually he goes for the combo vs. my one card in hand and I have no answer. Game 2 we are a bit back and forth but I have a resolved Siege Rhino protected by a Forge-Tender attacking past his Exarch; he casts a Blood Moon but I am able to cast a Murderous Redcap through it, and using Forge-Tender to save my Rhino from Electrolyze+Flame Slash preserves the lethal attack. In game 3 I mull to 5 and start with Viscera Seer into Leap. I play around the combo by holding up Abrupt Decay/Dromoka's Command, and eventually the Leap grinds him out as his clock of 2-3 Exarchs can't keep up to Finks, Linvala, Liliana rebuying Spellskite, and Gavony Township. A real coming-out party for Leap and Liliana in tandem.
2-1, 4-1
Round 6 - infect
As the 3 and 4 seeds we are safe to ID, though the people at table 3 and 4 also draw when they are not safe (and my affinity opponent from round 2 ends up drawn into 9th).
ID, 4-1-1, 4th place after the swiss
Top 8 - infect
We get our match anyway: in game 1 we trade punts but his is worse, as I mistime my Chord for Spellskite (and could just have died if he had enough pump spells) but he wastes an Apostle's Blessing which lets me untap and Decay his last infect threat after taking 8 poison. In game 2 a motley crew of removal spells, Thoughtseizes, and blocking with Lingering Souls takes out his infect threats and a Linvala constrains his Hierarch mana and flies in to clock him to death.
2-0
Top 4 - split
I would have been paired against GR Tron, so I was happy to split for 200 credit each.
I really like Liliana and am going to continue with 2 for now. I'm noticing however that the mana is a little awkward to support it, so I may switch one of the Thickets for a Marsh Flats to support the early black. It's also possible that Anafenza may be straining the mana too much; without her I could more comfortably open on Godless Shrine+Overgrown Tomb to cast the GW 2-drops--I would lose some combo potential but as long as the threat is still there I may be okay with it. (I did not combo anyone in this tournament.)
Forge-Tender is an odd one, as against the removal-heavy decks and decks with red sweepers, I tend to shave Chords, so I'm in the weird spot of bringing in a bullet and simultaneously taking out ways to find it. I may add a second Command for this effect?
I want to try a Restoration Angel somehow, and I think the only way is probably to do a 1/1 split with Siege Rhino. I was a big fan of Angel in Pod as a way to set up big sorcery-speed plays (e.g. end-step Angel into Remand, untap play Pod) and reuse the ETBs (it's kind of like a 2nd Pontiff, 2nd Sin Collector, 2nd Rhino). (This also kind of makes me want to play a Thragtusk or Reveillark in the sideboard for the full combo, again as in the good old days.)
UW UW Gideon Control WU
UWR Loose Control RWU
GR Scapeshift RG
RU Storm UR
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
I hate Woodland Cemetery as it's unfetchable and doesn't help you get double black. An extra fetchland, Overgrown Tomb, Godless Shrine, or Twilight Mire have always performed better for me. I ran a 3rd Gavony Township in my most recent online list, cutting a Noble Hierarch for it.
A second Scavenging Ooze could go in the board as well... In general, I've found Abzan Company to be a pretty good matchup because they can never grind us out, their combo doesn't win the game the turn they use it while ours usually does, and we have more removal in the 75.
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
EDIT: Just 3-0'd an 8-man on MTGO, beating Abzan 2-0, Grixis Control 2-0, and RG Tron 2-1. Here's the list I ran with, and I'll explain my card choices a bit below:
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
2 Gavony Township
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Razorverge Thicket
2 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Twilight Mire
Creatures: 26
3 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Viscera Seer
2 Dark Confidant
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Wall of Roots
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Eternal Witness
1 Liliana, heretical Healer
1 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Siege Rhino
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Murderous Redcap
3 Chord of Calling
3 Evolutionary Leap
3 Lingering Souls
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Thoughtseize
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Path to Exile
2 Stony Silence
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Burrenton Forge-tender
1 Lingering Souls
Card choices: Dark Confidant was excellent today, being critical in my upset victory over RG Tron. Slaughter Pact gives us an additional piece of removal against Twin and most other decks and lets us be mana hungry, so I was excited to test it out, but I never drew it. Leyline of the Void is a nod to the Living End, Griselbrand combo, and Grixis decks I've been running into a lot lately. It's nice that we have noncreature options because we aren't running Collected Company. I cut a mana dork for a Gavony Township #3 before my previous event, and cut the Gavony for the Slaughter Pact, so I ended up with one less mana source in the deck. This was not totally intentional. The cuts from the sideboard were Abrupt Decay #3 and Dromoka's Command. Both of these are good against Twin, and we added a maindeck card that's good against Twin, but obviously they could go either way.
Matches:
Round 1: 2-0 vs Abzan. This was a very easy game 1 where my Kitchen Finks and Liliana, Heretical Healer/Liliana, Defiant Necromancer took over the game. The only critical moment was when he Abrupt Decayed my Liliana in combat and I Abrupt Decayed my Kitchen Finks in response. I outvalued him. I also got a Leap online, and he conceded to me reanimating Eternal Witness.
Game 2 was a bit different. He got an aggressive start with Tarmogoyf and Lingering Souls while I got a Leap. I had a Birds of Paradise and Viscera Seer playing defense and he cast Engineered Explosives on one and popped it. I got Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit and Kitchen Finks off of my Leaps and proceeded to survive with some precise play going to 1 twice and dodging Siege Rhino until I was able to untap with six mana up. I Leapt my Finks several times and wiped his tokens with Orzhov Pontiff, drawing a concession.
Round 2: 2-0 vs Grixis Control. Game 1 he was attacking with Tasigur, the Golden Fang and had Spell Snare for my Evolutionary Leap. I ended up playing carefully and attacking when I could, winning through three Kolaghan's Commands and Snapcaster Mage. The winning play was getting to eight mana and casting Siege Rhino twice after getting him to 3.
Game 2 I kept a one-lander with Thoughseize, Leyline of the Void, Path to Exile, Windswept Heath, Evolutionary Leap, Spellskite, and Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. My opponent kept a one-lander with Thought Scour, Snapcaster Mage, Gurmag Angler, Thoughtseize, Island, and maybe the Flashfreeze or Keranos, God of Storms I saw when I Thoughtseized him. Because of my Leyline of the Void, he was totally out of the game. We each had two lands in play by turn five, and I won with Lingering Souls beats. I never cast a green spell, so his Flashfreeze rotted in his hand.
Round 3: 2-1 vs RG Tron. This match was very difficult as my opponent had turn 3 Tron in all three games. Game 2 was intense, as I had to fight through two Wurmcoil Engines and play very tightly in order to win. At one point, I figured out that I could cast Liliana, Heretical Healer at six life, pass, Chord for Fulminator Mage after he attacked with both Engines, block with Liliana and Fulminator, and sac the Fulminator, leaving him dead on board to my Gavony Township and small army with him at 13 (because I kept blocking with Burrenton Forge-tender and sacrificing it before damage) to win game 2. Game 3 was also exciting as I had two Fulminator Mage but did not hit double black until turn 4, when he already had 2 Urza's Tower as part of his active Tron, with a Expedition Map and Oblivion Stone in play while I was attacking with Burrenton Forge-tender, Voice of Resurgence and Kitchen Finks. I ended up forcing him to Map on his turn by Maging on his fifth upkeep, and then drew Chord of Calling to grab my third Fulminator, taking him off of Tron and hitting him for a bit, then played my Fulminator that was still in my hand to set him back and put him dead on board.
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
Worship is and has been in my paper sideboard for the reasons given above. Leyline is super good against Grixis control and Grixis Delver, as well as having other applications. I'd likely pick one or the other as our sideboard can get tight. I also don't like Worship against Ad Nauseam because of Laboratory Maniac, though we can kill it with Abrupt Decay, so it's a risky win condition for them.
Thanks for the kind comments, but most of my primer was, as I say in the primer, ripped off from Torpf's Abzan Company primer, from the format to many of the images and some descriptions.
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
Melira Pod, by cbgirardo. 4-0 in a Modern Daily on 1/14/2015
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Viscera Seer
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Wall of Roots
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Spike Feeder
2 Siege Rhino
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Restoration Angel
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Body Double
1 Reveillark
1 Sun Titan
4 Birthing Pod
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Chord of Calling
Lands: 23
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
3 Gavony Township
3 Razorverge Thicket
2 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
3 Thoughtseize
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Siege Rhino
1 Sin Collector
1 Voice of Resurgence
This list was great in a metagame full of Pod and Delver, as it crushed both decks pretty reliably. I also was lucky enough to suspect a Pod banning and was up the morning of the ban list announcement with my entire Pod deck in a trade with a bot waiting to pull the trigger, and got full value back. I watched the price of the deck drop from 700+ tix to <300 tix in a few hours.
To answer your comment, I didn't even run 6-7 mana dorks + 2-3 Wall of Roots in my Pod deck that went up to 6 mana in the main and 7 in the board, so I don't see any reason to do that here. The reason people did that was to block better and to play Chord of Calling better, but they were also very prone to flooding in the games in which they did not draw Pod. With our much lower curve, we can certainly get away with only 28-29 mana sources.
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
Decklist and report:
The deck is basically the same as the last time out except some changes to the mana base and -1 Witness, +1 Voice of Resurgence in the main.
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Gavony Township
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Woodland Cemetery
Creatures (27)
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Viscera Seer
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Wall of Roots
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Eternal Witness
2 Liliana, Heretical Healer
1 Sin Collector
2 Siege Rhino
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Murderous Redcap
3 Evolutionary Leap
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Chord of Calling
3 Lingering Souls
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Path to Exile
3 Thoughtseize
2 Stony Silence
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dromoka's Command
There were 36 players this time out, so still 6 rounds but a much smaller and somewhat softer field than the last one--perhaps due to the 3rd WMCQ happening in Montreal the same weekend.
Round 1
My opponent opens on basic Island but reveals himself as playing Amulet Bloom. In game 1 I beat down before much of anything happens. In game 2 I have my opponent dead on board after forcing a chump block from Dragonlord Dromoka (two enormous Voice tokens), but he Hive Mind kills me on his last turn. A Primeval Titan holds me off for a bit until he can Summoner's Pact for Dragonlord Dromoka, and I can't find removal for it.
1-2, 0-1
Round 2
Jund opponent Inquisitions and Thoughtseizes me multiple times after I mull to 5, but I am able to stabilize and get Souls + Leap value thanks to him never attacking with Raging Ravine. In game 2 I'm slowed down by a Leyline of the Void, but eventually I can Pridemage it; in the end I Chord for Linvala to turn off 2 Scavenging Oozes and beat him with fliers.
2-0, 1-1
Round 3
Merfolk opponent does not draw off Spreading Seas or Silvergill Adept in game 1 and makes suspect attacks in game 2 to lose several lords. Game 1 is my only combo win in the tournament.
2-0, 2-1
Round 4
My only good opponent in the swiss is also on merfolk. In game 1 he opens with Mutavault plus Vial but the Vial goes down before he draws a second land; he's too far behind and Anafenza + Souls + Township take him down quickly. In game 2 he draws and plays 3 (!) Threads of Disloyalty, but I eventually get through them and fade a lord to win the race.
2-0, 3-1
Round 5
I expect to be quick comboed after my opponent curves Remand Voice into turn 3 Exarch on the play, but he doesn't have it and Voice tokens + Rhino keep the pressure on for the win. In game 2 I Thoughtseize an Exarch (seeing Anger, Twin, Clique, Spell Snare) and my opponent draws multiple Twins and pretty much nothing else (including no lands) while Forge-Tender keeps Anger from doing anything significant.
2-0, 4-1
Round 6
Affinity opponent and I are safe to ID when the two 10-pointers are both paired down.
ID, 4-1-1, 6th place after the swiss.
An interesting note is that I lost every die roll, so my run through the X-1 bracket was 8 games won on the draw.
Top 8
Unfortunately I get the only bad matchup in the RG Tron player in the top 8. The others were 2 affinity, Twin, merfolk, Abzan Company, and mono-red goblins. :/
In game 1 my clock is not fast enough to beat through a Wurmcoil Engine, and I cannot assemble the combo before Eye finds and casts Emrakul. In game 2 my opponent keeps a one-lander, so I am able to cast turn 3 Siege Rhino rather than prioritizing getting Fulminator Mages down; Fulminator getting him off his second land (once he finds it) and flipping Liliana prompts a concession. In game 3 multiple Fulminators keep him off Tron, but I can't find a clean answer to his 6 lands and Wurmcoil and have to grind through it by Chording for Liliana to Pridemage twice; at the end of all this the game state is my Voice token, zombie token, spirit token, Fulminator, Birds, Stony Silence, Liliana against his 20-something life, 9 lands and no cards in hand--then he topdecked Ugin.
1-2, top 8 for 50 credit (alas)
The deck still feels quite good--I haven't had a chance to test with Dark Confidants as I don't own any in paper and I haven't been playing much online lately, but I'll probably give that a shot.
UW UW Gideon Control WU
UWR Loose Control RWU
GR Scapeshift RG
RU Storm UR
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Godless Shrine
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Woodland Cemetery
2 Gavony Township
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Viscera Seer
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Liliana, Heretical Healer
1 Sin Collector
1 Spike Feeder
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Restoration Angel
2 Siege Rhino
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Shriekmaw
3 Chord of Calling
3 Evolutionary Leap
2 Lingering Souls
1 Path to Exile
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Orzhov Pontiff
3 Path to Exile
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Sin Collector
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Spellskite
I originally had a wall of roots mainboard in place of melira, and one of the ones in the side was originally a fulminator. However, when I got to the game store, I saw two infect players and dropped those in. After adding Melira, I figured it couldn't hurt to drop in a Viscera Seer in place of 1 Eternal Witness, so thats how I ended up with the above list.
Round 1
Junk
Game 1-It goes back and forth, stays fairly even for a while. I drop an Archangel of Thune. He doesn't think I have the combo, and taps out on his turn. On mine, Chord of Calling for Spike Feeder, and win. Also, this was the only game the entire night that I had any of the infinite combos
Game 2-2 Tarmogoyf and 2 Scavenging Ooze allow him to take the game early
Game 3- We trade 2 copies of Lingering Souls for the first few turns. I end with a Birds and a Leap out. He plays Tasigur, and starts beating me down. I go to 6 life, and start leaping a bunch after blocks to nerf Tasigur. He plays a Lingering Souls and starts to slowly kill me through that. I drop a Linvala, and slowly kill of tokens when he attacks. He still manages to get me down to one life, but I drop a Liliana and a spike feeder, and start to gain life and reanimate the spike feeder while he stops attacking. After going to time with probably a dozen leaps and stabilizing around 9 life, I gain enough creatures to beat down and win.
2-1, 1-0
Round 2
American Control
Game 1- An early sin collector followed by restoration angel destroy his hand, and the beat down from those 2 kill him easy
Game 2- He drops Rest in Peace, and starts bolting Finks. Then he dropped a Keranos, and the combined value of those two was too much to deal with.
Game 3- We start with 6 minutes on the clock. I easily get a huge number of creatures out, and put him within lethal on my next attack. He Cryptic taps my team for the next 2 turns, while I rebuild my hand with Leap. His next turn brings a Supreme verdict, and I have the final turn, with chord in hand, multiple creatures, and path. He has no cards in hand and is tapped out, at 4 life. The best I could do was Chord for Rhino to put him at 1, and then thanks to time we drew.
1-1-1, 1-0-1
Round 3
Grixis Griselbrand Reanimator
Game 1-Early Linvala locks out his combo, and he had no removal, win with beats
Game 2-Double Sin Collector and Scavenging Ooze easily take the game
2-0, 2-0-1
Round 4
Jund
Game 1- Tarmogoyfs plus Huntmaster and removal lock me out early
Game 2- Olivia Voldaren stops me cold
0-2, 2-1-1
Overall I really like the deck. Some of the interactions you can do with leap are amazing, like the shriekmaw trick. Plus, leap with Finks and Archangel is a brutal combo. I was fine with only the one eternal witness, and will probably eave it that way. the archangel combo seemed easier to pull off, but I dont think this deck should be combo focused in the current meta. There is just too much removal. In general, I will probably drop the extra 2 Meliras and the Seer. I think I might try a grave titan in the maindeck, he seems pretty sweet. Im also considering adding a Thragtusk somewhere in the 75. I like Chalice in the side for burn and delver matchups, and it also helps against bloom titan. After the control matchup, I want to add a Thrun somewhere as well.
-Twin (UR, RUG, Grixis in order of expected prevalence/strength)
-Jund/Abzan (GBx midrange)
-Infect
-Affinity
-Merfolk (the main reason I haven't been playing Blue Tron, my other pet deck)
-Tron
-Amulet
-Living End
-Burn/Zoo
-Scapeshift
-Other decks like UW, Company decks, UWR, Bogles
The difficult matchups out of this group are mostly Tron and Scapeshift. I'll be testing a sideboard plan of 3-4x Crumble to Dust with a Stomping Ground to see if it's worth it, considering that it's very close to winning by itself in both of these matchups if it resolves (hitting a Steam Vents or Stomping Ground out of Scapeshift leaves them with only 6 Mountains in the deck, so if we also have a Fulminator Mage, they can't realistically win), but obviously this is very radical. Fulminator is great in our deck either way, so I'll probably try to fit some number in the main to free up sideboard slots.
Grixis Control/Delver are somewhat popular, but given that I've never lost a match to Grixis Control and have an extremely high winrate against Grixis Delver, it is likely not necessary to test the matchup extensively. Twin is popular and can beat us, so I'll be testing it much more.
Jund/Abzan are favorable matchups, though they can always steal games. Olivia Voldaren is a strong card against us, so it's important to have access to Path to Exile.
Infect pretty much scoops to Melira, Sylvok Outcast, so having access to that card in game 1 in addition to our regular removal gives us the trump card in that matchup.
Affinity has trouble winning through Lingering Souls. Postboard, we want access to Stony Silence, which also beats fringe decks like Lantern and has some effect against decks that rely on Pentad Prism. We also beat Lantern game 1 with Exalted and zero-power creatures.
Against Merfolk, we'd like to combo or to kill all of their stuff and attack. Fortunately, our hands can usually do one of these well. Destroy Æther Vial preferentially. I'd like maindeck Fulminators to answer Mutavault and Spreading Seas as well (though destroying your own land is a last resort).
The usual way to beat Amulet is discard, destroying Amulet, and blowing up lands. Fortunately, we can do all three. I've found the matchup to be reasonably good.
Living End has to go off in the first three turns to have a realistic chance of beating us. They aren't winning long games. Postboard, watch out for Leyline of the Void.
Burn and Zoo are grouped together because they only really differ in the number of burn spells. Both matchups are quite good. The red-heavy Zoo decks are weak to Burrenton Forge-tender and Auriok Champion, both of which are much, much better than Kor Firewalker.
Overall, I think this deck is very well positioned. It's fortunate that similar cards are good against our bad matchups, so we can sideboard pretty heavily for those and have plenty of overlap. It's entirely possible we want to maindeck the Stomping Ground if we are playing Crumble to Dust to free up another sideboard slot. This post and expected decks will help to carve the ideal 75. I'm first going to lay out all of the cards I have access to and figure out the best 60 against each of the gauntlet decks, and fit as many of those as possible into the 75.
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
I keep losing to Twin because they always have the combo game 1 (not representative) and then I flood and get ground out by various Jaces postboard. Pretty frustrating as I know it's not a terrible matchup.
UW UW Gideon Control WU
UWR Loose Control RWU
GR Scapeshift RG
RU Storm UR