Wow fantastic and detailed response, thank you very much! You mention in your article that you no longer think the deck is one of the best things you can be doing. What is your take on what the best decks (or strategies in general) are right now?
Wow fantastic and detailed response, thank you very much! You mention in your article that you no longer think the deck is one of the best things you can be doing. What is your take on what the best decks (or strategies in general) are right now?
I guess Humans? Modern seems pretty balanced to me right now. Six months ago, I firmly believed CES was the best-positioned deck in the format; that's just not how I feel anymore. I still think it's great, though.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
That said, I actually tried trimming a land two weeks ago for a few days, since I wanted to test a second Smuggler's Copter again. I quickly discovered that:
1) We don't want a second Copter.
2) All 23 of our lands are better than any spell we could possibly include over one.
3) Mulligans become more punishing with even one fewer land in the deck.
That quote is pretty old. How come that your new list from the article plays 2 Copter and 22 Lands? - Just wondering the Change of Heart.
Two cards have changed since my last update to the deck, most notably Smuggler’s Copter doubling up over a Blinkmoth Nexus. Both creatures-to-be fly, but Copter pulls extra weight against decks that gum up the board. I’ve wondered since introducing Zhalfirin Void about the possibility of cutting the 23rd land from Colorless, but until recently, wanted nothing in its place; since implementing it, though, I’ve almost always been happy to have the second Copter. As I prefer being strapped for mana anyway, I don’t mind waiting a little longer to find lands.
The benefits of Copter are also more important in this metagame, as it's better positioned in more matchups (Humans, Hollow, Shadow, etc.).
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
I just picked up this deck - huge shout out to you Jordan for your work on this deck and putting out great content about it.
My local metagame is overrun with UW and Bant spirits - do you have any tips on SBing and navigating the matchup? I assume the plan is somewhat similar to the one versus humans/counters company. Thanks!
I got back into Modern late last year after a while away, and after falling in love with tempo decks in cube drafts, decided to play UR and then RUG Delver. After moving to a place where I play Modern every week, I feel okay getting into a second deck for some variety. I'm a longtime Modern Nexus reader, and have followed the development of this deck for a long time.
My local place is infested with Burn players. Seems like a deck full of Thoughtseizing creatures, Chalice of the Void, and painless lands would be solid against Burn, yes?
And how are you all finding Humans? I've read the articles, but I'm looking for more perspectives.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Yeah, Burn is a fine matchup. Chalice does tons of work, and they can't really deal with a Thought-Knot Seer. Humans on the other hand is horrendous. Still looking for ways to compete against it.
Burn is easy....if they not draw bridge from Side. This is now our Problem because they use 2 after succes of humans. Bridge = you loose if not thought knot fast enough. Same vs. UW, this Uw was easy but now they use mirakles too because of humans and this can be devastation against us. Lost in weekend in semifinals against 3 times opt into terminus. I was sure to be in Finals vs. UW but times Change and this deck is not a free win anymore in this meta
This is the same as Jordan's list as I don't disagree with him on much. I can't let go of the 23rd land though. I tried and just couldn't draw enough lands to do anything a lot of the time. I'm trying an endbringer because I haven't yet and because I suspect bridge will be present a lot and don't want to auto lose to it against burn and the like. Plus, I'm just not impressed with Matter Reshaper anymore and just didn't want to have 3. I don't know what else is better in the one of slot but I've been trying endbringer out. Having a lot of issues with tron so I cut a grounds for a 4th quarter. Sideboard reflects that too with the 2nd spyglass. Having trouble with terminus online as well so I need extra help against control so spyglass stays. I think this is plenty of removal for humans and the like. Is Turn 1 chalice worth keeping against tron on the draw? I know it can destroy them if they keep a hand full of cantrips and the like but that's hardly the case for me in my experiences against them. They seem to always have it by turn 4 on the play with or without the chalice.
Maybe endless one is better as a one of? I don't think so. I think endbringer has a lot more random upside but I'm just not feeling matter reshaper anymore and maybe it's just skewed cuz of all the tron, combo, and UW control I'm playing but that's probably a lot more of the meta now than it once was so I feel like reshaper needs to be something else right now. Atleast just the 3rd one.
EO is awesome against linear decks and miserable against interactive ones. If you want to beat up on Tron and combo, play EO. Bringer very hard to cast and underwhelming. 4 Bomb side as Bridge insurance.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Back-to-back 4-1 finishes with the deck in online Leagues. Loss in the first League came against Hardened Scales Affinity - their Throne of Geth or whatever it's called screwed up my Chalice and from there it was tough. I punted game 2 which didn't help. In the second League I lost to Through the Breach. Seems miserable. I used TKS to take a Breach and basically leave him hellbent, but then he cast Cathartic Reunion and ended up with Breach + fatty. :/
Yeah I think I'm just reaching with the endbringer since I don't have much time to test before the open. I think I'm gonna take the endbringer and reshapers for 2 endless one and a spatial contortion. I think I want one more removal spell mainboard.
Opponent received a game loss for tardiness then they won on the play and i won on the play game 3 on the back of turn one endless one for 2 and another endless one for 4. Copter won me the game because he actually titaned me to wipe my board but with scourge and copter he had no way to stop the copter from coming in the air for exactsies.
Round 2: Jeskai Control 1-2
I just can't beat control with any regularity anymore. Guess I just suck, might go for cavern of souls just because I can't figure out what to do when my spells get countered every turn. Teferi is a beating.
Round 3: U/W Control 1-2
Same as previous game. I just don't know how to beat control anymore. I can aggressively mulligan to Eternal scourge and relic but this match i had to mulligan to 4 and just bricked every draw step afterwards.
Round 4: RG Titanshift 2-0
Game 1 I just had the perfect curve. Mimic, Seer, Smasher. That's that. Game 2, I had 3 Seers in a row starting turn 2.
Round 5: Jeskai Tempo? 2-0
This was a jeskai deck that stopped at Cryptic Command. No Teferis or Jaces but it did have colonnades. Had two eternal scourges both games and opponent just ran out of resources trying to stop them.
Round 6: Gifts Storm 2-0
This was against the Starcitygames writer Emma Handy. The name sounded familiar but I didn't know what from until I saw her playing storm. Then I remembered her primer. Either way, Storm is almost a free win with this deck and I noticed she was frustrated enough after the match that she posted on twitter about colorless eldrazi haha.
Round 7: Humans 1-2
Game 1 he mulliganed to 5 and just couldn't keep up with my curve. Game 2 I can't remember what happened actually but I lost. Game 3 I had him under control but kept drawing dismembers at 4 life and couldn't get the last kill spell to make a lethal attack. I had two copters which was lethal but he topdecked the mantis rider and threatened lethal so i had to block with one to save me and it was over after that.
Round 8: Jund 0-2
I had started to get a headache before the humans match and by this point it was throbbing. I misplayed badly since I couldn't pay attention and honestly don't remember much from this match. I swung all in for lethal at one point and he revealed the bolt he'd been holding on to for awhile to unsummon my scourge through a chalice and then killed me on the crackback game 1.
All in all I had a lot of fun. I feel good about the decision to put in the endless ones and I never had issues with the extra removal spell mainboard. I just need to figure out how to beat control. I get the idea of baiting counterspells but if I can only cast one spell a turn and they have a counter for every turn I don't know what to do. Control has gotten so much power from teferi and terminus just makes it worse. I know a lot of people don't have any issues with control even still but I suck so I'm gonna think about getting caverns so I can have the free win against control again. Either way though, even if I'm unable to get decent results with this deck, eldrazi are my favorite creatures in magic since I started and I'll always feel an urge to sleeve these bad boys up.
4-1
4-1
0-3 (not really sure what happened here, lost every match 1-2)
4-1
5-0
4-1
I’m pretty happy with the maindeck, but the sideboard has a few flex slots. Currently trying out Karn, and he shined against UW control, but haven’t used him otherwise.
I beat spirits on friday, but i agree we have now another hard match. After loosing 0:4 with red prison and 0:4 with green stompy i was frightened playing merfolk, so i took my strongest deck and played 3:1 beating mardu, burn, spirits and loosing affinity. Now i can try merfolk, lol
This has been the case forever. Spirits is just more popular now.
I finally got Magic Online and am 4 leagues in with the deck. Have yet to 5-0. My records are 3-2, 3-2, 3-2, 4-1. Here are my matches for anyone curious:
League 2: 3-2
1. Hardened Scales 1-2 L/W/L
2. UW Control 1-2 L/W/L
3. UR Wizards (Hoogland) 2-0
4. RUG Delver 2-0
5. Ad Nauseam 2-0
League 3: 3-2
1. Counters Company 2-0
2. Jund 2-1 L/W/W
3. Jund 2-1 W/L/W
4. Tron 1-2 W/L/L
5. Affinity 1-2 L/W/L
League 4: 4-1
1. Burn 2-1 L/W/W
2. Tron 2-1 L/W/W
3. Elves 2-1 L/W/W
4. Eldrazi Tron 2-0
5. Hollow One 1-2 L/W/L
Have no idea how to beat Hardened Scales yet; that was my first match ever against the deck. BW Planeswalkers is pretty close to unbeatable. Would like to find a better SB plan for Hollow One.
Threw some games along the way to learning the interface (accidentally passing priority through my entire turn, trying to Ghost/Surgical Tron in draw only to miss the stop and have him Wurm me, etc.). But it's been amazing playing against opponents of such high calibre! They blow my LGS and Cockatrice (lol) out of the water.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Yeah, Hardened Scales is really tough. Went 4-1 last night with my one loss being to HS in 3. All my losses lately have come against Humans (although I did finally manage to beat it twice), Spirits, Hardened Scales, Elves. Not sure how to begin to fix it. Has anyone tried running All Is Dust? Won’t help against HS and might be too slow, but just curious.
I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Just wanted to say thanks Jordan for the control guide on the nexus. I'll study the thing as much as I can and just keep practicing. I've got some good control players at my lgs and I'll just force them to jam games with me haha. I don't really want to waste money on caverns anyways haha
Just put this deck together last week and played my first games at Monday Modern with it last night. Went 2-2 and it felt great.
Round 1: Mardu Pyromancer, win 2-0. Was on the draw with Caverns into Temple for a turn 1 Chalice, which slowed down the interaction until he hit Kolaghan's Command with it. Then crushed with Seer and Smoosher for a win on turn 4 or 5. Game 2 was largely the same.
Round 2: KCI, lose 0-2. This was against a very good player on a deck he's been on for a year now. I almost got there game 1, but game 2 I got chumped by Thopter Foundry and eventually he went off. May have misplayed by Serum Powdering a hand with my 1-of Surgical Extraction, and never saw Relic. Maybe I ought to have mulled to it? I went to 6 and had plenty of pressure and 4 Relics left in the deck, but maybe that's not good enough.
Round 3: Tooth and Nail, win 2-0. This was against Rob Leva, original builder of 8-Rack. Absolutely crushed this deck with an early Dismember each game followed by Scourge, Seer, Smoosher. Over in about 4 turns each. Felt great.
Round 4: Jeskai, lose 0-2. This was against another very good player whom I've crushed on my previous deck. I had read Jordan's article on the control matchups and tried to keep it all in mind, but it's one thing to say that Teferi isn't a big deal because of your Reality Smashers, and another to actually draw and resolve it. Game 2, I Powdered 3 hands away and mulled to 4, keeping 2 lands, Relic, and a Scourge. Probably not enough.
Deck felt great and the games I lost felt like a more experienced pilot could've found winning lines.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
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Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
My local metagame is overrun with UW and Bant spirits - do you have any tips on SBing and navigating the matchup? I assume the plan is somewhat similar to the one versus humans/counters company. Thanks!
My local place is infested with Burn players. Seems like a deck full of Thoughtseizing creatures, Chalice of the Void, and painless lands would be solid against Burn, yes?
And how are you all finding Humans? I've read the articles, but I'm looking for more perspectives.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
4 Eldrazi Mimic
2 Smuggler's Copter
4 Eternal Scourge
2 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
1 Endbringer
4 Simian Spirit Guide
Noncreature Spells: 12
4 Serum Powder
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Dismember
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Zhalfirin Void
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Mutavault
2 Gemstone Caverns
2 Wastes
1 Scavenger Grounds
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Spatial Contortion
2 Gut Shot
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Gemstone Caverns
This is the same as Jordan's list as I don't disagree with him on much. I can't let go of the 23rd land though. I tried and just couldn't draw enough lands to do anything a lot of the time. I'm trying an endbringer because I haven't yet and because I suspect bridge will be present a lot and don't want to auto lose to it against burn and the like. Plus, I'm just not impressed with Matter Reshaper anymore and just didn't want to have 3. I don't know what else is better in the one of slot but I've been trying endbringer out. Having a lot of issues with tron so I cut a grounds for a 4th quarter. Sideboard reflects that too with the 2nd spyglass. Having trouble with terminus online as well so I need extra help against control so spyglass stays. I think this is plenty of removal for humans and the like. Is Turn 1 chalice worth keeping against tron on the draw? I know it can destroy them if they keep a hand full of cantrips and the like but that's hardly the case for me in my experiences against them. They seem to always have it by turn 4 on the play with or without the chalice.
Maybe endless one is better as a one of? I don't think so. I think endbringer has a lot more random upside but I'm just not feeling matter reshaper anymore and maybe it's just skewed cuz of all the tron, combo, and UW control I'm playing but that's probably a lot more of the meta now than it once was so I feel like reshaper needs to be something else right now. Atleast just the 3rd one.
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/123384
I'm digging the maindeck Relic and the 2 Karns in the SB.
Tempo
Modern
Eldrazi and Staxes
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
DnT
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
Round 1: RG Titanshift 2-1
Opponent received a game loss for tardiness then they won on the play and i won on the play game 3 on the back of turn one endless one for 2 and another endless one for 4. Copter won me the game because he actually titaned me to wipe my board but with scourge and copter he had no way to stop the copter from coming in the air for exactsies.
Round 2: Jeskai Control 1-2
I just can't beat control with any regularity anymore. Guess I just suck, might go for cavern of souls just because I can't figure out what to do when my spells get countered every turn. Teferi is a beating.
Round 3: U/W Control 1-2
Same as previous game. I just don't know how to beat control anymore. I can aggressively mulligan to Eternal scourge and relic but this match i had to mulligan to 4 and just bricked every draw step afterwards.
Round 4: RG Titanshift 2-0
Game 1 I just had the perfect curve. Mimic, Seer, Smasher. That's that. Game 2, I had 3 Seers in a row starting turn 2.
Round 5: Jeskai Tempo? 2-0
This was a jeskai deck that stopped at Cryptic Command. No Teferis or Jaces but it did have colonnades. Had two eternal scourges both games and opponent just ran out of resources trying to stop them.
Round 6: Gifts Storm 2-0
This was against the Starcitygames writer Emma Handy. The name sounded familiar but I didn't know what from until I saw her playing storm. Then I remembered her primer. Either way, Storm is almost a free win with this deck and I noticed she was frustrated enough after the match that she posted on twitter about colorless eldrazi haha.
Round 7: Humans 1-2
Game 1 he mulliganed to 5 and just couldn't keep up with my curve. Game 2 I can't remember what happened actually but I lost. Game 3 I had him under control but kept drawing dismembers at 4 life and couldn't get the last kill spell to make a lethal attack. I had two copters which was lethal but he topdecked the mantis rider and threatened lethal so i had to block with one to save me and it was over after that.
Round 8: Jund 0-2
I had started to get a headache before the humans match and by this point it was throbbing. I misplayed badly since I couldn't pay attention and honestly don't remember much from this match. I swung all in for lethal at one point and he revealed the bolt he'd been holding on to for awhile to unsummon my scourge through a chalice and then killed me on the crackback game 1.
All in all I had a lot of fun. I feel good about the decision to put in the endless ones and I never had issues with the extra removal spell mainboard. I just need to figure out how to beat control. I get the idea of baiting counterspells but if I can only cast one spell a turn and they have a counter for every turn I don't know what to do. Control has gotten so much power from teferi and terminus just makes it worse. I know a lot of people don't have any issues with control even still but I suck so I'm gonna think about getting caverns so I can have the free win against control again. Either way though, even if I'm unable to get decent results with this deck, eldrazi are my favorite creatures in magic since I started and I'll always feel an urge to sleeve these bad boys up.
4-1
4-1
0-3 (not really sure what happened here, lost every match 1-2)
4-1
5-0
4-1
I’m pretty happy with the maindeck, but the sideboard has a few flex slots. Currently trying out Karn, and he shined against UW control, but haven’t used him otherwise.
I finally got Magic Online and am 4 leagues in with the deck. Have yet to 5-0. My records are 3-2, 3-2, 3-2, 4-1. Here are my matches for anyone curious:
League 1: 3-2
1. Humans 0-2
2. Storm 2-1 L/W/W
3. BW Planeswalkers 0-2
4. Bogles 2-0
5. UR Moon (Thing/Gearhulk) 2-0 W/L/W
League 2: 3-2
1. Hardened Scales 1-2 L/W/L
2. UW Control 1-2 L/W/L
3. UR Wizards (Hoogland) 2-0
4. RUG Delver 2-0
5. Ad Nauseam 2-0
League 3: 3-2
1. Counters Company 2-0
2. Jund 2-1 L/W/W
3. Jund 2-1 W/L/W
4. Tron 1-2 W/L/L
5. Affinity 1-2 L/W/L
League 4: 4-1
1. Burn 2-1 L/W/W
2. Tron 2-1 L/W/W
3. Elves 2-1 L/W/W
4. Eldrazi Tron 2-0
5. Hollow One 1-2 L/W/L
Have no idea how to beat Hardened Scales yet; that was my first match ever against the deck. BW Planeswalkers is pretty close to unbeatable. Would like to find a better SB plan for Hollow One.
Threw some games along the way to learning the interface (accidentally passing priority through my entire turn, trying to Ghost/Surgical Tron in draw only to miss the stop and have him Wurm me, etc.). But it's been amazing playing against opponents of such high calibre! They blow my LGS and Cockatrice (lol) out of the water.
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
That RUG Delver player streams, as I'm sure you know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDJglEHjut0
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Round 1: Mardu Pyromancer, win 2-0. Was on the draw with Caverns into Temple for a turn 1 Chalice, which slowed down the interaction until he hit Kolaghan's Command with it. Then crushed with Seer and Smoosher for a win on turn 4 or 5. Game 2 was largely the same.
Round 2: KCI, lose 0-2. This was against a very good player on a deck he's been on for a year now. I almost got there game 1, but game 2 I got chumped by Thopter Foundry and eventually he went off. May have misplayed by Serum Powdering a hand with my 1-of Surgical Extraction, and never saw Relic. Maybe I ought to have mulled to it? I went to 6 and had plenty of pressure and 4 Relics left in the deck, but maybe that's not good enough.
Round 3: Tooth and Nail, win 2-0. This was against Rob Leva, original builder of 8-Rack. Absolutely crushed this deck with an early Dismember each game followed by Scourge, Seer, Smoosher. Over in about 4 turns each. Felt great.
Round 4: Jeskai, lose 0-2. This was against another very good player whom I've crushed on my previous deck. I had read Jordan's article on the control matchups and tried to keep it all in mind, but it's one thing to say that Teferi isn't a big deal because of your Reality Smashers, and another to actually draw and resolve it. Game 2, I Powdered 3 hands away and mulled to 4, keeping 2 lands, Relic, and a Scourge. Probably not enough.
Deck felt great and the games I lost felt like a more experienced pilot could've found winning lines.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered