im interesated in this deck as it looks very fun to play. what really is the big difference between this and kik-chord though? i want to choose one of the decks, but i think they look very similar with creature turors, silver bullets, combo finishers and a potential beat down plan. can someone sell me in on this deck, and is there a consensus which deck is the strongest of the two?
Both decks attempt to ride the line of value midrange vs combo but Kiki is primarily a midrange deck and Saheeli is more of a combo deck.
Kiki has some perks -- many of its spells can be played at instant speed, Restoration Angel is a much better standalone card than Felidar Guardian, and you can (eventually) combo off from a single copy of Chord -- but otherwise it is a worse deck for today's fast and wide-open Modern.
Saheeli is just faster, more proactive, and smoother. It aims to combo out on T3, consistently by T4. Evolution tutors up hate cards faster than Chord. Oath of Nissa is an incredible tool for fixing your mana, smoothing out your draws, and then a great blink target later -- IMO one of the best cantrips in Modern in this shell.
Kiki-Chord can curve out nicely at times, but there are also lots of really clunky hands. These hands might have more mana trouble, or you draw into more of the random one-of hate cards stuffed into the MB which happen to be irrelevant in a current match. Saheeli lists don't have to run as many narrow hate cards because racing with the faster combo provides a better baseline gameplan against unfair decks.
There is a playstyle component -- if you want to play a more midrangey, interactive, instant speed deck you might enjoy Kiki-Chord more. If you're ok with a more all-in sorcery speed / permanent-based gameplan Saheeli will probably take your further in a competitive setting right now.
Kiki Chord is more mana hungry, since in order to succeed at its midrange plan, it needs some high impact creatures like Pia and Kiran or Thragtusk. In addition to that, all of its combo pieces cost 4+ mana (unless you run something like Bounding Krasis), and Chord is also rarely useful before you have at least 3-4 lands in play. That leads to some rather slow draws and makes the deck susceptible to early interaction or fast combo.
Saheeli Evolution is leaner, with a lower mana curve and a faster potential combo. Winning on turn 3 with just 2 lands in play doesn't happen all the time, but you'll do it from time to time (I just recently stole a game this way after mulling to 5). Kiki Chord can never win that quickly and with so few resources. It might be the better deck if the game goes longer, but not every opponent will give you the time for that.
The same goes for sideboard silver bullets, as Shelldell already mentioned. Eldritch Evolution can bring them into play as early as turn 2 with minimal effort, whereas Chord of Calling usually needs another turn or two for the same result. Sure, you don't need to sacrifice a creature to Chord, but speed trumps value if a single hatebear can lock out multiple cards from the opponent.
Managed another 5-0 yesterday, this time without Buglers. I think I'm officially over Buglers, they wiff too often and I don't feel we can afford more RNG in this deck. I switched them for 2 Tireless Trackers to be able to fight better vs UW and to have two cards that are good just on their own.
I decided to compare my four latest 5-0 decks and found the following similarities. Click spoiler if you're interesting
Good job nal2, and nice overview of your changes! You've obviously been successful with your latest list, but could you please comment on it a little? Have the Trackers performed well? I noticed you've cut the Negates from your sideboard - why and how did you like the change? And why the switch back to Worship over Bridge?
Emzed: Only played one league with the trackers and they only hit the board in one game in which they drew me three extra cards. Regarding Negates - I've never really liked counterspells in this deck since we tap out so much but decided to try them for the (bad) UW Control matchup. Ended up not playing against UW Control that particular league so can't really say how they perform in that matchup (although it should be decent I guess).
I switched back to Worship over Bridge after getting my creatures bounced/locked in hand vs Humans one time too many It's also better vs Burn.
maniospas: I think it's an error not to run Kiki-Jiki in this deck. It's a combo piece we can actually tutor for and is also great together with our other ETB creatures. Vs cards like Pithing Needle and Meddling Mage he's particularly important.
I've thought about maindeck Gaddock Teeg before, but ultimately decided against it (seems a little too weak in the matchups where it's ability isn't required). What do you guys think about that? Has anyone tested it?
I beat Bring to Light Scapeshift, Jeskai, and Hollow One, lost to Tron. There aren't many graveyard shenanigans going on around here, so I decided to cut what would have been a second RIP to try out Thalia. I did not draw her against Tron, but she helped give Bring to Light the business. Here's some scattered thoughts from the evening.
-I personally don't like 2 Reflector Mages, but going down to 1 means making small defensive adjustments, so I chose to play 2 Walls. They were fine. I'll run them back.
-I personally prioritize immediate value in game 1s, hence the Rogue Refiner and Bugler in the main. If I wanted to play stuff that didn't provide immediate value, I'd play G/W Devoted Company with Knight of the Reliquary. Refiner is still a respectable clock that you can deploy into sweeper or counter mana. Also can help hit your land drops and dig for combo pieces or sideboard cards. Bugler was respectable but often got significantly worse post board. I played the split just to try them out and would probably run the same split again. Might board out Bugler more often next time.
-Four drops overperformed. I'm going to be incredibly hard-pressed to ever leave either on the sidelines. Sun Titan was also great.
-Tireless Tracker is a very good Magic card.
-I liked my split of mana dorks. If I were to go up to ten, I'm not actually sure if 4th Cobra is better than 3rd Noble. I think it's a lot closer than people realize. There might be a universe where you play ten dorks, 3 Walls (in addition to 3 Voices), and 21 lands. That's a little risky for my liking but I'm pretty sure some configuration exists where it'll work.
-Reveillark pretty much had no text all night, aside from being able to fly against Hollow One. I really missed having Thragtusk in this slot.
-Maybe Reveillark wants us to play an Eternal Witness, but I think the card is worse than all of our other threes by an incredibly large margin.
-I won the die roll against Tron and kept this seven: BoP, land, Cobra, Wall, Kiki, Slime, nonland card I forgot. I think this is an acceptable keep but did not find second land and died horribly. In game 2 he had the Warping Wail to kill my Cat when I tried to combo.
-The highlight of the night was grinding out Jeskai in game 3, where I kept a seven card hand with 2x Saheeli and my first two draw steps were Kiki and the THIRD Saheeli. Opponent even V Cliqued me on turn 4 (My play for turn was Tracker, fetchland, pass), saw those three cards as my hand, and started clocking me. Tracker made three clues and forced a Path to Exile on the next turn, Pia and Kiran saved me from dying a horrible death in the air, Saheeli -2 on a Bird to play two four drops was super relevant, Saheeli -2 on Pia and Kiran to make more tokens as a backup strategy was relevant, and Shalai allowed us to combo safely into removal spell mana and a Grim Lavamancer on board.
-I enjoy trying to grind out blue control decks with medium to medium minus Magic cards; my deck range is literally infinite but this is one of my favorite activities.
-I won the die roll against Tron and kept this seven: BoP, land, Cobra, Wall, Kiki, Slime, nonland card I forgot. I think this is an acceptable keep but did not find second land and died horribly. In game 2 he had the Warping Wail to kill my Cat when I tried to combo.
Did you know what you were facing? Because in the dark, that hand relies heavily on the Bird living (and later on the Cobra too) and is therefore really weak to cheap removal. I would definitely keep it vs Tron though.
I've had similar experiences with Reveillark, it's so awful in matchups where generating value doesn't matter. Also, it's not the kind of 5-drop that gives us a big advantage if we can ramp it out early. There are a handful of matchups where it shines, but overall it clearly underperformed in my testing, despite me really wanting it to be good.
Big upgrade to Reclamation Sage. This kind of flexibility is exactly what we are in the market for - it will usually have a useful mode if we happen to draw it, but at the same time, it can be a problem solver in a number of different matchups. The synergy with our backbone of Evo+Oath+Saheeli+Felidar is excellent, and I expect it to be a great addition to the sideboard, potentially even the maindeck in the right metagame.
-I won the die roll against Tron and kept this seven: BoP, land, Cobra, Wall, Kiki, Slime, nonland card I forgot. I think this is an acceptable keep but did not find second land and died horribly. In game 2 he had the Warping Wail to kill my Cat when I tried to combo.
Did you know what you were facing? Because in the dark, that hand relies heavily on the Bird living (and later on the Cobra too) and is therefore really weak to cheap removal. I would definitely keep it vs Tron though.
I've had similar experiences with Reveillark, it's so awful in matchups where generating value doesn't matter. Also, it's not the kind of 5-drop that gives us a big advantage if we can ramp it out early. There are a handful of matchups where it shines, but overall it clearly underperformed in my testing, despite me really wanting it to be good.
I knew opponent was on Tron, opponent did not know what I was on. I think my seventh card was a Voice of Resurgence.
I think it's only keepable against Tron game 1 on the play. I would 100% ship it on the draw or post sideboard, though I think I would also keep that exact 7 on the play in game 1 against Hollow One, but that one's a lot closer.
I agree. Optimally you have access to Hierarchs, but the deck works fine without them. As maniospas pointed out, red mana is often a bottleneck, which makes a combination of Birds and Cobra attractive anyway. Hierarch has other benefits, but those matter less if your list is combo centric.
MarcWizard: Makes Oath of Nissa worse :/ I think the best replacement is Avacyn's Pilgrim, but that requires a Breeding Pool or Stomping Ground on turn 1 and another shockland (or basic Island/Mountain) on turn 2 if you want to cast Saheeli Rai :/
In other news - I crashed GP Stockholm and dropped at 1-3. It was just not my day and making two crucial misplays didn't help either. I did however manage a 4-2 in the PTQ on Sunday and got 40 Dominaria boosters so that's something.
I will be less active here until Guilds of Ravnica (and Knight of Autumn!) hits Magic Online. Until then - try to find a way to beat UW Control. That deck is rising in popularity and unfortunately our creature based combo deck is pretty fragile to it.
As in it doesn't get picked up by Oath? I guess i'll go with one of your other suggestions then..
Regarding the Terminus/Supreme Verdict match up, I've found 1 or 2 eerie interludes/ghostways out of the board to be exceptional against the deck. Selfless Spirit/Heroic Intervention doesn't cut it against the miracles spell. Its a pity we cant lean on Cavern against the counterspells. Evolution getting countered is also devastating, so I usually board those out for the interludes.
Private Mod Note
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BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
I beat Mardu twice, Enduring Ideal (!!!) twice, BridgeVine, and Boggles. My only loss of the day was to UW Control in the finals. (I had an ID against an unknown deck)
So, UW continues to be the bane of this deck. The standard list feels really good against much of the field, but I continue to bang my head against the brick wall that is UW. Trackers are solid, Reveillark helps, and Archmage was very good (I think I want a second in the board), but I'm still struggling to figure out how to beat UW's combination of counterspells, Terminus, and planeswalkers. I stole game one of the finals with the play and an aggressive draw, but most of the match felt arduous.
A couple of additional thoughts:
Glen Elendra Archmage was my big addition this time around, and it was huge all day. I moved Shalai to the board to make room, and it ended up doing a lot of heavy lifting. I've run it in older lists, and I've always been pleased with how it plays in interactive formats. Game 2, it almost carried me to a match win against UW on its own, but alas, I flooded out as I was about to turn the corner.
Evo into Gearhulk is really good against BridgeVine.
I went with Baloth over Thragtusk primarily for CMC reasons, though I've come to value 4 toughness more than the bonus 3/3.
Shalai is generally fine, and sometimes great. I'm happy to have her against the B/x interactive decks, and she's obviously good against Storm and Burn, but I think Archmage might have stolen her job. It does good work against B/x, and Storm, is surprisingly decent against Burn, and is much better against UW.
@Siefer: regarding the Archmage / Shalai niche, what do you think about Sin Collector? Emzed and Rober Dalentis both have had a lot of success with the card. I haven't gotten a chance to play it yet but am planning to run 2x copies SB at an upcoming PPTQ.
As you noted in the Baloth example, lower CMC is a big deal, and Sin Collector comes down earlier than Glen Elendra Archmage with a more proactive effect that works better with our copy/blink effects. Sin Collector requires Black so it stretches the mana a bit but you're already most of the way there to a 5c manabase (just add an Overgrown Tomb) and Archmage's effective requirement of double blue can sometimes be even tougher than a single black splash. However, Glen Elendra does handle all non-creature spells and can stop a topdecked Terminus where Sin Collector can't stop Teferi or miracle Terminus, so I can see her merit as well.
@Shelldell: I had Sin Collector in my BtL builds, and while good, felt like a nice piece, rather than the anchor that a resolved Archmage is. Nabbing a Cryptic with Sin Collector is good, but forcing them to walk it into an active Archmage is phenomenal. It's also worth noting Archmage is a good Guardian/Lark target.
In my experience, the best cards I've played against UW are Voice, Gaddock Teeg, and Archmage. Cards that limits their tools, and forces them into a narrow play pattern until they're dealt with. It's possible that the best line is to just add another Voice and another Archmage (SB).
An aside about the black splash in general. The biggest issue I've had with the black splash when I've had a 5c manabase, is how much trickier everything else gets. I use a fetch to get Tomb, and that's one less fetch for white, blue, red, or a basic. I've been in situations where I've have to choose between access to black, or the red I need to actually hard cast Kiki-Jiki. This isn't to say the black splash is clearly bad, but I do worry about the trade-offs.
I am not sure about the mana base that this particular list should run. How many fetches do we need ? Can we play some "fast lands" ? how many basics should we run ?
If you're running Cobras you want around 10-11 fetches, ~5 shocks, and 4-5 basics -- I would recommend at least one Plains so you can cast your white spells through Blood Moon or use Path effects to fix your mana a bit. For the flex lands you can run fast lands, Horizon Canopy, or utility lands.
I am not sure about building the sideboard. I am generally a fan of strong hate cards like Stony silence and rest in peace, but i dont know if it is worth it in this list, because we cant find them with oath, buglers or evolution.
In my opinion Stony Silence and Rest in Peace are too powerful and too relevant to the meta not to run. Just play ~2 of each in the board and hope to draw them in your opening hand. We often need those effects asap, turn 2 if possible, so even if we could try to dig our way to them in the mid-late game that might be too slow.
I am guessing that by now you have figured out that i like Militia Bugler as the 3 drop of choice.
Bugler can be a very powerful card when built around, as you've done nicely. Many of us are alternating between hot and cold on him right now. Evo, Saheeli, and Oath are some of our best cards, so having Bugler miss them really lowers the quality of his hits. Once you draw one-too-many Dorks or completely whiff on his ETB a few times you start to have second thoughts. Then, when you're sure that he's bad you look at a nicely synergistic list like yours and it all seems to fit together so well that you're back to giving Bugler another shot.. and the cycle repeats itself. I'm glad he's working for you, though. Who knows where we will end up on Bugler!
Played a PPTQ last Sunday and it did not go very well. Same list from my last post but I played a Thragtusk over the Reveillark. There was one situation where Reveillark would have been better. Went 0-4, with three losses against UW and not a single game win against them. I ate like three or four blind Terminus on turns 4 or sooner throughout the day, so the tempo generated singlehandedly beat me most of the time, in conjunction with a Jace.
I had a few close games but couldn't quite get there. In my first UW game, Thragtusk ate a Remand and then a Cryptic, which would have likely allowed me to resolve Sun Titan on my next turn... but I got draw step VCliqued and the rest of my hand was garbage. My opponent almost 100% just lets Reveillark resolve there since my graveyard was empty. In my second game, my Tracker forced a Jace minus, but stalling at five lands during the ensuing game of chicken with Tracker, Jace, and other cards cost me way too much tempo to recover. I allowed a 4/3 Tracker to trade for VClique so I could resolve Archmage second main and then counter a Path with it, but then he had also set up a Terminus to keep the board clear, followed by a Detention Sphere for my two clues, and I was mostly done for. On my last turn I was able to present combo with Teeg into Cat blinking Oath into Saheeli but got Negated. Would have been nice to have some of those lands earlier.
The one time Reveillark would have been good was because I took a risk and Acidic Slimed my opponent off of his fourth land, not to mention he had played a tapped land for turn. He then plays Plains and casts a Wrath, putting a Slime and a Bugler in the graveyard, and later a Saheeli got put in a DSphere. So a Reveillark would have been nuts.
In another match against UW, I win the die roll and my opponent opens on Search on turn 2. He keeps and Terminuses on 3. He then keeps on 4 and 5, and his land sequencing indicates that he likely is NOT keeping lands with Search, though he doesn't have Cryptic mana available for some reason I forgot. As a result, I make a copy of Wall and Evolution it for Shalai instead of Cat since there is probably no way he doesn't have a Path, plus it's stronger than Pia and Kiran on my board state on the incredibly slight chance he doesn't have a Path. He untaps and casts Wrath of God so I die. Something got Pathed two turns later so I'm almost positive he had it. In game 2 I open on Voice, he Paths it on his turn 2, I go Bugler into Noble, he Terminuses, I play some stuff to follow up but get jammed on mana again and can't attack through his Colonnade in short order.
Bugler was truly awful and I think the card is unplayable unless you cut every non-Reveillark creature with power greater than 2 from your maindeck, like that one MTGO list. It completely whiffed once and only hit Kiki a second time, plus hitting mana creatures is not exactly what was intended. Bugler will probably become another Rogue Refiner, which always replaces itself and pressures planewalkers significantly better. Refiner even trades for Colonnade if you have a Noble in play, which I don't think is irrelevant. Voice of Resurgence made only one token in four rounds; I almost want to go down to two copies to play the Teeg main. I also want to consider a second Stomping Ground if I keep playing Pia and Kiran, because it's way too hard to cast against Field of Ruin, especially in land light situations where you have to fetch a red source.
Getting Bugler to hit somewhat reliably isn't too hard. Hitting actually relevant cards is another topic though. There are a number of matchups where grinding them out just isn't an option, like Storm, Tron, Affinity, Scapeshift, or even Spirits. How many of your 25 Bugler hits actually matter in that case? Probably only 4 Felidars (unless you already have one), 1 Kiki (if you can even cast it at that point), 1 Reflector Mage and maybe 2-3 sideboard cards. Sure, against some decks getting another Lotus Cobra or a chain of Buglers actually matters and will eventually overwhelm them. But in other matchups, the card just feels slow and only occasionally finds you what you need. I've had a number of games where I drew Felidar and Bugler, and realized that my Bugler needed to find exactly that one copy of Kiki to win. If I had played something like Court Hussar instead, I could've hit not only Kiki itself, but also 4 Saheeli and 4 Evolution in addition to that.
Overall, I think Bugler doesn't quite deliver what we need, even if I had high hopes for the card initially. Modern is just too fast and brutal to durdle around.
@Lejoon, I'm curious why you think Glen Elendra isn't up to snuff. It impressed me in the matchup, though I agree it's not enough on its own. The holy grail against UW is getting disruptive cards down underneath the permission (Teeg, Voice, Saheeli off a dork), but Archmage warps the game when it lands.
I dig the idea of shifting mana dork slots toward the 1-drops. I want to be playing Voice, Teeg, or Saheeli on Turn 2 against them. I haven't had a lot of success with single counterspells, though. It feels like they usually have another piece of interaction in hand.
R1 vs Ad Nauseam + Shadow (1-2) Ran into to a rules issue. I combo'd out vs the Ad Naus player with Unlife on the board, putting him at -1 million life, passed the turn. He plays Shadow followed by a spell that gives it haste and trample (not TBR). I Negate the red haste spell but he Pacts my Negate and swings at me for 1 million. I concede, but later find out that there had been a rules update such that Shadow can't be larger than 13/13, which could've won me the match. Ah well. Always call a judge.
R2 vs Burn (2-1) Voice and Rallier bought me time to Evolve into Shalai. Lost to aggressive beats and Eidolon G2. Sin Collector and Worship plus Shalai sealed G3.
R3 vs Mill (2-1) G1 I combo'd out quickly. G2 he Surgical'd my Felidar and eventually milled me out. G3 I disassemble his hand with Sin Collector into Saheeli copying Sin Collector and then combo out a few turns later.
R4 vs Mardu (2-1) G1 we trade resources for a bit and I sneak the combo through when he taps out. G2 the opponent has a double discard opener leading into Pyro and double Reveler chain to finish me off. G3 I pick apart his hand with Sin Collector into Felidar and then combo out a few turns later.
PPTQ Report
R1 vs Bridgevine (0-2) G1 mulled to a 6 with Bird, Voices and Felidar. I curved out but didn't draw anything to blink with Felidar. Died T4 as the opponent had double Bridge in the yard to make 8 zombies with a Vengevine. G2 Mulled to a 5 with Cobra, Voice, RIP, and 2 lands. T2 RIP slowed him down significantly but I flooded for the next 5+ turns until he drew into a Ballista, which cleared a bunch of my board, locked me out of comboing, and took over the game.
R2 vs Jund (2-1) G1 I snuck the combo through at 2 life. G2 I kept a hand with 2 lands but didn't draw any more and died. G3 he had a fist full of Goyfs, BBEs, and Flayers but I curved out with multiple Reflectors and multiple Felidars flickering the Reflectors. My life total started to dip but I drew into Saheeli and combo'd out.
R3 vs Mardu (2-1) This was similar to Friday's Mardu matchup. One of the games his disruption + pressure lines up and I die, but the rest of the games I get down some early value, pick apart his hand with Sin Collector, and then jam the combo until it sticks. Unlike Friday's Mardu player this one kept Blood Moon in and cast it in the middle of G3. I was able to get enough basics and the 2nd or 3rd Dork stuck so this did not effect me.
R4 vs GB Elves (0-2) I knew I was against Elves and needed a combo hand to carry me but the deck didn't cooperate. I mulled to a 5 with acceleration and Felidar G1 but didn't draw into Saheeli or anything else relevant for (a surprisingly generous vs Elves) 5+ turns and died. G2 I mulled to a 4 with 2 lands, Cobra, and Saheeli. Once again I didn't draw into the other half and died.
R5 vs UW Control (2-1) G1 my opponent mulled to 5 while I kept a hand with dorks, double Saheeli, and Evo. He flashed a Snap in end of T2 without a target in an attempt to ambush Saheeli but she was at 4 and I combo'd out T3 or T4. G2 I kept a hand with Voice, Gaddock, Negate, and some other good stuff but he managed to systematically dismantle my defenses and Terminus my board with Kiki + Voice + Elemental. I still had Tracker and Saheeli in hand but he countered Saheeli and took over from there. G3 I stick T2 Voice followed by some ramp and Saheeli. He Opts into Terminus but I have Negate ready. I topdeck Felidar -- he has one Plains open but I just go for it and the combo works out.
R6 vs G Tron (2-0) G1 I accelerate with T2 cobra on the play, follwed by T3 Kiki. He gets Tron online and Karns Kiki. I play Felidar next, followed by a Saheeli to combo out. G2 I keep a hand with Cobra, Stony, Negate, and something else. He cracks Map in response to T2 Stony to get his second Tron land, and then casts Sylvan Scrying to find the final Tron land. With Tron online he taps 8 for 4/4 Walking Ballista but can't activate it further due to Stony, so he starts chipping in. I draw into dorks but use these to chump the Ballista and stay alive. He taps out for Ugin but I have Negate ready. I put down Gaddock and Spellskite on top of the Stony for a nice little hate lock. We both topdeck nervously for a few turns, he puts down an unactivatable O-Stone, and then a few turns later I topdeck Evo to tutor up my missing combo piece.
In the end I missed Top 8 due to breakers but was still reasonably happy with the deck’s performance.
Thoughts and Takeaways:
With overall records of 3-1 and 4-2 the deck felt pretty good.
I won all but a couple games with the combo. The beats plan really takes the back seat right now, as Lejoon said.
I've already explained some of the stuff below on our Discord, but I'll put all of my thoughts down here for completeness.
Plan vs aggressive decks
Aside from UWx Miracles I was expecting mostly aggressive creature-based strategies. Unfortunately there are so many different flavors of aggro these days and Terminus has pressured them all to become increasingly resistant to spot removal and/or non-Terminus sweepers. Worship works against some of these decks but is unreliable vs decks with access to Infect or Brutality, and can also just randomly lose if your creature count gets too low or it gets removed. Fiery Justice is generally good but can be thwarted by Mausoleum Wanderer, (instant speed!) pump effects, Selfless Spirit, graveyard recursion, get delayed by Thalia, snatched by Kitesail. Spot removal like Path can be good at sniping Lords or Meddling Mage but sometimes won't even buy you a whole turn vs the wider swarm decks. And so forth. For this reason I felt like the best strategy was just to build a list that was fast and low to the ground with MB Reflector Mages to try and out-tempo them while jamming the combo.
I settled on 7 Birds, 3 Cobras, and 4 Reflectors to maximize two possible sequences against these aggressive decks: T1 Birds, T2 Reflector, T3 Felidar blink Reflector, T4 combo out or T2 Cobra, T3 Felidar + Saheeli. Because my MB was built in this way I lost many (but not all) of the pre-board games against spell-heavy interactive decks. However, I had a strong enough SB plan to consistently edge out matches against these decks.
Plan for spell-heavy decks
Specifically, running 3x Gaddock Teeg, 3x Sin Collector, and 2x Negate (on top of the 4 MB Voice) created a consistent package of early disruption that allowed me to eventually combo out against decks that previously gave me trouble. Going into the events I wasn't sure if Sin Collector was worth splashing a 5th color for, but now I feel fairly confidant that this was the right call. I admit that the mana was undeniably greedy... there were at least 2 games where I had Kiki stuck in hand. Sometimes I had to twist my curve out in slightly non-ideal ways just to set up my mana. But I never got color screwed badly enough to lose a game -- even against Mardu trying to kill my dorks and landing Blood Moon or UW Miracles tucking my dorks and cracking Field of Ruin -- so for now I'll argue that being just barely short of "too greedy" is the best place to be and I'll stick with the full five colors.
Walking Ballista
On another note, we can just randomly auto-lose to Walking Ballista and it is quickly becoming one of my most feared cards. Simply casting Ballista for 2 allows the opponent to interrupt our combo at instant speed at any time, even if tapped out. A 2/2 Ballista can kill a 4-loyalty Saheeli or blocking Felidar with its psuedo-doublestrike. A highly pumped Ballista can clear our board. I'm glad to have 2 Stony and Spellskite to help with Ballista a bit, and might try to find room for other cards to take care of it. Maybe it's as simple as having 2 Knight of Autumn in the 75 and bringing them in for potential Ballista matches.
Goldfish speed vs. linear decks The common factor in the matches that I lost (GB Elves, 4c Bridgevine) was that I needed to "solitaire" the combo out quickly against other potentially explosive decks but I just couldn't find what I needed and could never hope to present a traditional clock with beats to match theirs. In these scenarios an extra MB tutor would be nice.
The obvious suggestion would be running the 4th Eldritch Evolution. There are a lot of counterspells in the meta right now but this might be the right answer, I'm not sure. I'm probably going to lose G1 against those decks anyways so maybe it I shouldn't worry about it too much.
There's also Chord of Calling per Lejoon's suggestion. Much better vs interactive decks but slower when racing and not as attractive without the Chord-Witness-Resto-Kiki chain available.
Lastly I could go back to a copy of Bring to Light. This is right in the middle as it's usually faster than Chord but not instant speed so it's harder to get through counterspells. It's also worth noting that Meddling Mage naming Kiki also stops Kiki from being cast off BTL.
Moving forward I will be updating the deck with 1-2 Knight of Autumn and one more tutor. Beyond obviously replacing SB Rec Sage with Knight of Autumn I will be looking at Tracker, Shalai, the fourth Voice, and SB Worship as somewhat flexible slots to play around with.
Shalai -- she can win games vs Burn / Storm / Mill if unanswered, but she’s solidly mediocre vs everything else. She seems like she should be ok vs Midrange as a flying protective threat with a great ability but because she lacks an ETB effect and the opponent is highly incentivized to remove her the majority of the time I'm paying 4 mana for her to eat a Push (etc) on resolution and take a big tempo hit. Even if she does stick for a few turns I haven't had a good opportunity to activate her pump ability as I usually have a small board vs interactive decks and/or just generally better things to do with 6 (!) mana than activate her pump. "You have Hexproof" sounds good vs discard but in reality they will still tear your hand up T1/T2 before you can get her down. In a vacuum a flying 3/4 sounds like a reasonable blocker, but in practice aggressive decks like Humans, H Affinity, H1, Bridgevine can all go wider and/or taller, so we’re paying 4 mana to buy ourselves a turn at most. As the cherry on the top her Legendary status makes her impossible to clone, and she awkwardly turns off Spellskite. As a general "role-player" 4-drop P&K Nalaar provides better blocking vs aggro and more guaranteed value vs interaction. With Knight of Autumn arriving to help with Burn it's getting harder to justify space for Shalai in the 75.
Tracker -- Tracker is awesome vs interactive decks but takes too much time and investment to be a good card against aggressive decks outside of some perfect curves like T2 Cobra T3 Tracker -> Fetch crack -> Clue crack. I'm not sure if I want more than 1 Tracker in the main since I board him out so often, but there aren't a lot of value / card-draw 3-drops that sound better. Perhaps Eternal Witness, Carven Caryatid, Sea Gate Oracle, or something totally different like Lyev Skyknight.
Sorry for the wall of text, I have been meaning to make this post for a while but only have mobile right now.
Hey guys, been a while. I came in 27th place at GP Detroit with my Saheeli build. I was 11-2-1 (I am including 1 G3 I couldnt finish because my teammates lost as a win).
We don't always arrive at our destination at 1:30am Saturday morning to compete in a GP main event, but when we do, we top 32- My team, probably
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
4 Oath of Nissa
4 Louts Cobra
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Renegade Rallier
4 Eldritch Evolution
4 Saheeli Rai
1 Reclamation Sage (Soon to be Knight of Autumn)
4 Felidar Guardian
1 Worship
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Restoration Angel
1 Kiki Jiki Mirror Breaker
1 Sun Titan
SB
2 Stony Silence
1 Rest in Peace
1 Path to Exile
1 Fiery Justice
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Inferno Titan
1 Devout Lightcaster
1 Manglehorn
1 Goblin Chainwhirler
1 Izzet Staticastor
1 Auriok Champion
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1 Nahiri, the Harbringer
This deck is insane. Often when you punt professionally, like myself, you win anyway. The only tier 1 deck I don't want to face every round of every tournament is Humans.
Speaking of which, I may or may not have been concerned about the humans matchup. I had 1 evening to test, and several stand up individuals went above and beyond to give me the practice I needed this tournament. Ron and Bobby, here is your mid paragraph internet fame. I know, I know, I go to far. So, anyway, after testing, 1 voice was cut from the main for a cheese win button in worship. That was a mistake. NEVER do that. My maindeck was otherwise stock and has not deviated since Shalai was printed. My sideboard was weird because Team Unified. I had a plan for humans, and like that Eminem song, I'm not afraid. I register my 75 with minutes to spare. I call fetchless storm will be here, and I don't bring a single card for it.
Round 1 Storm
G1- On the Draw
Well, can't say I was surprised. Even kept a fair 4 land, Voice, Rallier, Shalai hand. But hey, I am the best, so I draw a bird off the top. G1 is weird, I hide behind Shalai for 15 minutes and before I can get him he finds his MD unsubstainiate. Ded. this game took at least 15 minutes.
Board plan? Idk man, like 1 card. Get me.
G2- On the Play
Things have not gotten this awkward since that dance in 8th grade. I have a T2, you have a T2. Let's dance. With slow hands. awkward. So, I don't know what happened, the other 2 matches split so its on me. The pivotal turn I elect not to shock myself to set up for the kill the following turn. It would have put me to 11. Just a gut feeling. He proceeds to grapeshot for 11, and hast wipe my board and leave him with a baral and me with nothing. In our current, his darkest timeline, he gets beat to death after. We are boarding for G3 and time is called. IAMTHEBESTpleasekillme
0-0-1
Round 2- Mono G Tron
G1- On the Play
Hey, look. A fair hand! With a voice, Rallier, and Worhip + 4 lands to cast these spells! What could go wrong! T3 Tron. Got me.
Board plan + 2 Stony, 1 Manglehorn, 1 Magus of the moon
- 1 Worship, 1 Shalai, 2 Voice
G2- On the play
So, I know this is reddit. If a G1 natty tron doesn't take us to the red sea, how about a casual t1 map, t2 2nd tron piece, t3 O-stone and relic, t4 Ugin? Tell me about your jimmies. Good thing I can loose boys, she taps out for ugin, honestly a pretty reasonable play. I do the classic play this lotus cobra, play a fetch make 3 mana, play rallier recur fetch make 3 mana, evo cobra into cat, blink rallier get back that fetch, evo rallier get kiki. Had 2 fetches so a relic activation only got one. Tragic story, really.
G3 On the Draw
She has her 1st medium hand and I have my 1st good hand of the day. T3 kills is what we're here for. Turns out T2 Saheeli is a good play. 1 of my teamates pulls through.
1-0-1
Round 3- Mardu Pyro
G1- On the Play
Keep a hand of Oath, cobra, Saheeli, Rec Sage, 3 land. Lets do this. I love the mardu pyro matchup. I want to play it all day, every day, G1 reminds me why and he dies to combo.
G2- On the Draw
His disruption was scripted by Tarantino himself. He topdecks flawlessly. I die with a worship out and an uncastable Auriok champion in hand due to fetching around blood moon.
G3- On the Play
Long story short is we had a couple judge calls this game do to a few mistakes on my opponents part. Relevant because we received a 5 minute time extension. I die on T2 of turns, him having dealt with Auriok champion, Shalai, Rallier, Voice, and Saheeli all on board at once, a worship joining them. I'm the the deciding match for the team. I fail. This is one of Mono Blue turns 2 losses on the day.
I should never lose this matchup. Discussion afterwards leads to taking worship out in the match. I win handily in either G2 or 3 if that worship is a voice and recur it with Rallier shenanigans.
1-1-1
Round 4 Mono G Tron
G1- On the Draw
He Turn 1 relics. Noice. Combo kill you T3 anyway? Good talk. G2.
Board plan + 2 Stony, 1 Manglehorn, 1 Magus of the moon
- 1 Worship, 1 Shalai, 2 Voice
G2- On the Draw
Nothing to see here, T3 kill him again. Salty but nice guy. We talked how the Lion's might be good this year. Looks like a clean double loss on his part. Mono U turns takes down Abzan and we are still alive.
2-1-1
Round 5- Esper Control (Black splash just for Surgical)
G1- On the Play
Goes a little long, which is a game I'm fine playing when my opponent isn't killing me. I dont have it in my notes, but I think he tapped out for Jace. Regardless, I top decked Saheeli with Cat and land in hand, birds and 4 lands in play. Play land, play cat, blink land, play Saheeli. Got 'im.
Board Plan + 1 Magus of the Moon, 1 Tamiyo, 1 Nahiri
- 2 Felidar, 1 Evo
G2- On the draw
We both mull to 6 and keep. My hand is good but not fast. I find my window on T6 when he has 6 lands out, 4 nonbasics to go with a plains and island. I had absorbed most of the resources from his hand. Evo resolves, I get magus. Win the game handily from there. Bringing Magus is usually not correct vs UW, he had 1 B producing land in his deck for surgical and fetched mostly basic G1. Sometimes you just gotta trust your instinct. Teamates get there.
3-1-1
As we are sitting down round 6 my mom contacts me and says she was in a car accident with my brother and sister. Other then her injury and the fact I know no one was killed I am in the dark. This is relevant the rest of the day, particularly round 6 as I am in space with my thoughts and concern. I did not have time to tell my team before we were in round 6 games either.
Round 6- On the Draw
My opponent goes T1 Island Vial. I turn and stare at my teamate until he looks and frowns. I say "It aint Merfolk. Win." It's humans. Long hair, don't care. The deciding moment is him putting meddling mage on felidar guardian, and dying to evo getting cat to get him with kiki.
G3- On the Play
My opener has inferno Titan in it and no targets for freebooter. But 1 land. Keep. The turning point is when I aggressively evo a rallier on board into kiki and pass with nothing else in play. Titan comes down next turn and gets cloned by kiki, wiping everything bu auriok champion from his board. My opponent fails to do anything relevant. I draw restoration angel. I tap all of my mana for titan. You guys see the problem? My teamate did. Aggressively whispering dude play resto didn't snap me out of it. He had to bump my shoulder. I retap and play resto and win. Honestly either play wins that game from that spot, but ya. Better lucky then good. Also teamates. We win the match.
Tell team whatsup with fam. Can't have a punt that professional when it matters.
4-1-1
Round 7- Hardened Scales Affinity
The only other team from back home there, of course. Great players, one of them came in 2nd at an SCG not to long ago. Relevant, we know center will be control and mono blue turns has to face down as foretold living end goryo's vengeance foil kill you.dec. I tell turns he is dead, he agrees. I have to win for us to have a chance and am in the dark. They know what I'm on but not my teamates.
G1- On the draw
He presents lethal the following turn with ravager despite my clutch rec sage on hardened scales. So I untap and combo him from nowhere with a topdecked lotus cobra to power out my pieces.
There is an argument to bring in chainwhirler and staticaster. I like to live life dangerously.
G2- On the Draw
He wisely Ballista's my t1 bird and I don't recover in the face of his pressure.
G3- On the Play (Mull to 6)
Keep a greedy 1 lander with stony and bird. I manage to get stony down. It buy me the time I need to combo even though I miss my 2nd land drop for a turn. Kci falls to UW in center, its up to turns who is in G3. Somehow. On T4 of turns with less then 10 cards in his deck, he finds his last part the waterviel to present lethal. We win.
5-1-1
R8- Bant Spirits, our win and in for day 2 (I am terrified of spirits, its just one of the matchups other Saheeli players dont mind that I cant seem to win)
G1- On the draw
T1 Mausoleum Wanderer. Panic. I get hit down to 10 and am dead to a lord. I look my opponent deep in his eyes, to the point he gets uncomfortable and asks what I'm doing. "Seeing if you have it. You don't." is my reply. I cast Sun titan with a Saheeli in the grave and 1 in play. He doesn't have path despite leaving a white mana untapped all game. Infinite Sun titan's get him.
G2- On the Draw
I haven no notes, just life totals. Mine hit zero. I believe I recall a Coco at the end of my turn to hit me for exactsies.
G3- On the Play (both mull to 6)
Over at seat C turns is falling apart against a great matchup. well, normal Valakut is anyway. That dude is Nayashift. Hot. Anyway, I have a sexy 6 with a cobra and cat. My opponent takes his T2 playing a land and 2nd noble. His Queller shields are down, Path is up. Cobra is in play. I untap and draw Saheeli. I go for it. He dies.
I'm mentally gone and leave the table to call my fam, leaving my team to hand their business. Classless, I know. Turns falls, going to 6-2 day 1. KCI clutches against storm and we are day 2 bound.
We end up going out to dinner with the guys from round 8. Little awkward at 1st, wont lie. Great dudes. Turns out G3 the spirits guy should've swung with hierarch, played a land, dromoka's command fought and killed my cobra. NOW that kids, is a line.
6-1-1
Day 2
Round 9 KCI
G1- On the Draw
My opponent mulls to 6 and plays a T1 spellbomb. I combo kill him T3 before he can do the thing.
G2 On the Draw
He gets me. I have no notes. I am scrub.
G3 On the Play
I keep a 1 lander with Birds, oath, Stony. T1 bird eats lightning, I miss land in my drawstep. Damn. I oath, Miss land. Pass. I'm in trouble. He does stuff. I miss my land again. He does more stuff. Deck, are you really gonna hurt me, are you really gonna make me cry? Land. Stony, go. He doesnt have an answer. After a very long game filled with my hate pieces he answers stony, but fizzles in the face of manglehorn. I untap, talk to teamate, swing manglehorn in a bid to get him to shoot it with aether grid. He does. 2nd main rallier back stony. Next turn rec sage grid. I'm the deciding match, and I get there right before time with combo.
7-1-1
Round 10 UW Control
G1 On the Draw
So this game the voice in my head is screaming not to swing voice and rallier into settle the wreckage. Wrong format, man in my head is my response. I swing, get settled, have a voice token and 2 dorks to go with my saheeli. He flips terminus blind off the top. Fool thinks he is going to live. Notes unclear, combo stuck in ceiling fan. Um. I evo something, apparently Shalai, into cat and kill him. Sure. That's a reasonable conclusion to a game of magic.
Board plan + 1 Tamiyo, 1 Nahiri
- 1 Worship, 1 Rec Sage (Lord Jaraxxus would use his threaten emote here)
G2- On the Draw
I lose a long, grindy game with my opponent at 5. Good battle, great game.
G3
My opponent Mulls to 5 and keeps, scrying bottom. Both my teamates lose. I do include this as a win in my book selfishly, as I like the UW matchup and have yet to lose to a mull to 5. I had a really good hand. only 7 min left, too. Ah, well.
7-2-1
Round 11 Storm
G1- On the Draw
*****.
G2- On the Play
Cobra goes unanswered. He dies to a T3 kiki cat board.
G3- On the Draw
We both keep 1 landers (Triple BoP ftw), he mulls to 6 and bottoms. We both miss our 2nd land for 1 turn, even though he visions. I go for Saheeli after he plays baral. He untaps, misses his 3rd land drop, passes. I draw a fetch. I have and evo, and Cobra. He has 2 open mana. I jam cobra, tapping bird and land. He opts, then unsubstantiates. I say sure, and see the line. -2 Saheeli, target bird, play cobra, play fetch, evo cobra into cat. Unreal. My team pulls through.
8-2-1
Round 12- Humans
G1- On the Draw
Saheeli is in play while I'm at a healthy 11 with a voice and his token that blocked twice. he plays meddling mage, naming felidar guardian. I look at the evolution in my hand, and draw the cobra to evo.
G2- On the Draw
Tough mull to 5 for my opponent. I have a 1 land 7 with bird, oath, staticaster. Game gets awkward, and I evo staticaster into gearhulk to make him sac a dude. I start beating him down with resto after blink gearhulk at the end of his turn next turn cycle. somehwere in here he draws a vial and has it on 2. I draw cat, play cat, he says sure. I make 20 cats and swing with the tokens, he has one in hand. He activates vial, I say sure, image copies gearhulk. Spectators watching this match start whooping and make a little commotion from the sweetness of the play. I say nice, keep gearhulk, saheeli, oath, and resto. He dies the next turn when he cant block resto. Turns ends up drawing with hollow one, although he had what he needed to combo which is sad.
9-2-2
Round 13- Mono G Tron
G1- On the Play
T3 get him. Nothing to it.
Boarding same as Day 1
G2- On the Draw
All I have written down is UGIN in all caps.
G3- On the Play
T3 combo again. Sorry pal. I can feel the Tron gods notice my presence.
I was on fire day 2, calling cards off the top (including my opponents), keeping sketch hands that worked out perfectly, Giving my team lines in decks I have no idea how to pilot, I was liquid magma. 1 round in my way from a pro point, top 16 cash, and bragging to my dudes how jacked my shoulders were from carrying them up this mountain.
Round 14 Mono G Tron
G1 On the Play
T3 kill after mulling to 6. after I'm getting my deck back from being cut after playing cat I knock my dudes sideboard on the floor. Talk about coordination. we call a judge, its cool, but I feel the water hit me and my edge slip.
Board plan as way above
G2 On the Draw
I magus soft lock him t3, with a Felidar Guardian in play and a cobra. He is dead to a lot of cards off the top. Evo, Kiki, Saheeli, titan, you name it, I wanna draw it. But I dont, he plays karn and unlocks himself, I promptly topdeck kiki and survey the board. He is at 4. I can swing out and he can miss blocks and die. Thats my out. I cant combo because of a warping wail in his hand he tried to cast through magus and had to call a judge on himself for. I play kiki and swing, he wins, no joke, because he remembered to activate and block with his token from that land that costs 7 to make a 2/2. Got me.
G3
My 1st truly unkeepable hand, 4 land, 2 Saheeli, Resto. I mull to a reasonable double evo hand and even draw a dork. He warping wails the dork, goes thought knot into thought knot and I die. Its up to my teamates, Turns gets bogles but kci cant overcome grixis shadow.
Tron players, if Saheeli is in your meta, warping wail might be the single card I fear the most. I does everything I don't want happening in the matchup.
9-3-2
The prize payout was to 24. We came in a cucumber cool 27th. Still sweet.
Kiki has some perks -- many of its spells can be played at instant speed, Restoration Angel is a much better standalone card than Felidar Guardian, and you can (eventually) combo off from a single copy of Chord -- but otherwise it is a worse deck for today's fast and wide-open Modern.
Saheeli is just faster, more proactive, and smoother. It aims to combo out on T3, consistently by T4. Evolution tutors up hate cards faster than Chord. Oath of Nissa is an incredible tool for fixing your mana, smoothing out your draws, and then a great blink target later -- IMO one of the best cantrips in Modern in this shell.
Kiki-Chord can curve out nicely at times, but there are also lots of really clunky hands. These hands might have more mana trouble, or you draw into more of the random one-of hate cards stuffed into the MB which happen to be irrelevant in a current match. Saheeli lists don't have to run as many narrow hate cards because racing with the faster combo provides a better baseline gameplan against unfair decks.
There is a playstyle component -- if you want to play a more midrangey, interactive, instant speed deck you might enjoy Kiki-Chord more. If you're ok with a more all-in sorcery speed / permanent-based gameplan Saheeli will probably take your further in a competitive setting right now.
Saheeli Evolution is leaner, with a lower mana curve and a faster potential combo. Winning on turn 3 with just 2 lands in play doesn't happen all the time, but you'll do it from time to time (I just recently stole a game this way after mulling to 5). Kiki Chord can never win that quickly and with so few resources. It might be the better deck if the game goes longer, but not every opponent will give you the time for that.
The same goes for sideboard silver bullets, as Shelldell already mentioned. Eldritch Evolution can bring them into play as early as turn 2 with minimal effort, whereas Chord of Calling usually needs another turn or two for the same result. Sure, you don't need to sacrifice a creature to Chord, but speed trumps value if a single hatebear can lock out multiple cards from the opponent.
I decided to compare my four latest 5-0 decks and found the following similarities. Click spoiler if you're interesting
Same 52 cards Maindeck:
3 Birds of Paradise
3 Felidar Guardian
3 Lotus Cobra
3 Voice of Resurgance
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Reflector Mage
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Acidic Slime
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Reveillark
4 Saheeli Rai
4 Oath of Nissa
3 Eldritch Evolution
4 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
2 Plains
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Island
1 Temple Garden
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Ghost Quarter
Same 9 cards Sideboard:
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Lone Missionary
1 Izzet Staticaster
14th aug:
MD:
+ 3 Militia Bugler
+ 1 Noble Hierarch
+ 1 Lotus Cobra
+ 1 Eternal Witness
+ 1 Magus of the Moon
+ 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner (lol, plz ignore)
SB:
+ 2 Ensnaring Bridge
+ 1 Scavenging Ooze
+ 1 Geist of Saint Traft
+ 1 Reflector Mage
+ 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
18th aug:
MD:
+ 2 Militia Bugler
+ 1 Wall of Omens
+ 1 Eternal Witness
+ 1 Noble Hierarch
+ 1 Reflector Mage
+ 1 Magus of the Moon
+ 1 Reflector Mage
SB:
+ 2 Worship
+ 1 Path to Exile
+ 1 Lightning Helix
+ 1 Geist of Saint Traft
+ 1 Stonehorn Dignitary
7th sept:
MD:
+ 2 Militia Bugler
+ 1 Birds of Paradise
+ 1 Spellskite
+ 1 Wall of Omens
+ 1 Reflector Mage
+ 1 Magus of the Moon
+ 1 Wooded Foothills
SB:
+ 2 Negate
+ 1 Blood Moon
+ 1 Lightning Helix
+ 1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
+ 1 Worship
8th sept:
MD:
+ 2 Tireless Tracker
+ 1 Sun Titan
+ 1 Pia and Kia Nalaar
+ 1 Reflector Mage
+ 1 Wall of Omens
+ 1 Lotus Cobra
SB:
+ 1 Blood Moon
+ 1 Lightning Helix
+ 1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
+ 1 Worship
+ 1 Magus of the Moon
+ 1 Spellskite
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
I switched back to Worship over Bridge after getting my creatures bounced/locked in hand vs Humans one time too many It's also better vs Burn.
maniospas: I think it's an error not to run Kiki-Jiki in this deck. It's a combo piece we can actually tutor for and is also great together with our other ETB creatures. Vs cards like Pithing Needle and Meddling Mage he's particularly important.
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
EDIT: 26 Bugler targets and 1 Reveillark in his list, sweet.
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
4 Bop
2 Noble
3 Lotus Cobra
3 Voice of Resurgence
2 Wall of Omens
1 Rogue Refiner
1 Militia Bugler
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Reflector Mage
3 Felidar Guardian
1 Shalai
1 Pia and Kiran
1 Acidic Slime
1 Reveillark
1 Kiki-Jiki
1 Sun Titan
4 Oath
4 Saheeli
3 Eldritch Evolution
nal's 22 lands
2 Stony Silence
2 Tireless Tracker
1 RIP
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Lightning Helix
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1 Negate
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Worship
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Lone Missionary
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
I beat Bring to Light Scapeshift, Jeskai, and Hollow One, lost to Tron. There aren't many graveyard shenanigans going on around here, so I decided to cut what would have been a second RIP to try out Thalia. I did not draw her against Tron, but she helped give Bring to Light the business. Here's some scattered thoughts from the evening.
-I personally don't like 2 Reflector Mages, but going down to 1 means making small defensive adjustments, so I chose to play 2 Walls. They were fine. I'll run them back.
-I personally prioritize immediate value in game 1s, hence the Rogue Refiner and Bugler in the main. If I wanted to play stuff that didn't provide immediate value, I'd play G/W Devoted Company with Knight of the Reliquary. Refiner is still a respectable clock that you can deploy into sweeper or counter mana. Also can help hit your land drops and dig for combo pieces or sideboard cards. Bugler was respectable but often got significantly worse post board. I played the split just to try them out and would probably run the same split again. Might board out Bugler more often next time.
-Four drops overperformed. I'm going to be incredibly hard-pressed to ever leave either on the sidelines. Sun Titan was also great.
-Tireless Tracker is a very good Magic card.
-I liked my split of mana dorks. If I were to go up to ten, I'm not actually sure if 4th Cobra is better than 3rd Noble. I think it's a lot closer than people realize. There might be a universe where you play ten dorks, 3 Walls (in addition to 3 Voices), and 21 lands. That's a little risky for my liking but I'm pretty sure some configuration exists where it'll work.
-Reveillark pretty much had no text all night, aside from being able to fly against Hollow One. I really missed having Thragtusk in this slot.
-Maybe Reveillark wants us to play an Eternal Witness, but I think the card is worse than all of our other threes by an incredibly large margin.
-I won the die roll against Tron and kept this seven: BoP, land, Cobra, Wall, Kiki, Slime, nonland card I forgot. I think this is an acceptable keep but did not find second land and died horribly. In game 2 he had the Warping Wail to kill my Cat when I tried to combo.
-The highlight of the night was grinding out Jeskai in game 3, where I kept a seven card hand with 2x Saheeli and my first two draw steps were Kiki and the THIRD Saheeli. Opponent even V Cliqued me on turn 4 (My play for turn was Tracker, fetchland, pass), saw those three cards as my hand, and started clocking me. Tracker made three clues and forced a Path to Exile on the next turn, Pia and Kiran saved me from dying a horrible death in the air, Saheeli -2 on a Bird to play two four drops was super relevant, Saheeli -2 on Pia and Kiran to make more tokens as a backup strategy was relevant, and Shalai allowed us to combo safely into removal spell mana and a Grim Lavamancer on board.
-I enjoy trying to grind out blue control decks with medium to medium minus Magic cards; my deck range is literally infinite but this is one of my favorite activities.
Did you know what you were facing? Because in the dark, that hand relies heavily on the Bird living (and later on the Cobra too) and is therefore really weak to cheap removal. I would definitely keep it vs Tron though.
I've had similar experiences with Reveillark, it's so awful in matchups where generating value doesn't matter. Also, it's not the kind of 5-drop that gives us a big advantage if we can ramp it out early. There are a handful of matchups where it shines, but overall it clearly underperformed in my testing, despite me really wanting it to be good.
I knew opponent was on Tron, opponent did not know what I was on. I think my seventh card was a Voice of Resurgence.
I think it's only keepable against Tron game 1 on the play. I would 100% ship it on the draw or post sideboard, though I think I would also keep that exact 7 on the play in game 1 against Hollow One, but that one's a lot closer.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
In other news - I crashed GP Stockholm and dropped at 1-3. It was just not my day and making two crucial misplays didn't help either. I did however manage a 4-2 in the PTQ on Sunday and got 40 Dominaria boosters so that's something.
I will be less active here until Guilds of Ravnica (and Knight of Autumn!) hits Magic Online. Until then - try to find a way to beat UW Control. That deck is rising in popularity and unfortunately our creature based combo deck is pretty fragile to it.
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
Regarding the Terminus/Supreme Verdict match up, I've found 1 or 2 eerie interludes/ghostways out of the board to be exceptional against the deck. Selfless Spirit/Heroic Intervention doesn't cut it against the miracles spell. Its a pity we cant lean on Cavern against the counterspells. Evolution getting countered is also devastating, so I usually board those out for the interludes.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
4 Lotus Cobra
3 Voice of Resurgence
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Reflector Mage
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Felidar Guardian
1 Acidic Slime
1 Reveillark
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Sun Titan
4 Oath of Nissa
4 Saheeli Rai
3 Eldritch Evolution
Lands
1 Breeding Pool
3 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Stony Silence
2 Rest in Peace
2 Worship
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Spellskite
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
I beat Mardu twice, Enduring Ideal (!!!) twice, BridgeVine, and Boggles. My only loss of the day was to UW Control in the finals. (I had an ID against an unknown deck)
So, UW continues to be the bane of this deck. The standard list feels really good against much of the field, but I continue to bang my head against the brick wall that is UW. Trackers are solid, Reveillark helps, and Archmage was very good (I think I want a second in the board), but I'm still struggling to figure out how to beat UW's combination of counterspells, Terminus, and planeswalkers. I stole game one of the finals with the play and an aggressive draw, but most of the match felt arduous.
A couple of additional thoughts:
Glen Elendra Archmage was my big addition this time around, and it was huge all day. I moved Shalai to the board to make room, and it ended up doing a lot of heavy lifting. I've run it in older lists, and I've always been pleased with how it plays in interactive formats. Game 2, it almost carried me to a match win against UW on its own, but alas, I flooded out as I was about to turn the corner.
Evo into Gearhulk is really good against BridgeVine.
I went with Baloth over Thragtusk primarily for CMC reasons, though I've come to value 4 toughness more than the bonus 3/3.
Shalai is generally fine, and sometimes great. I'm happy to have her against the B/x interactive decks, and she's obviously good against Storm and Burn, but I think Archmage might have stolen her job. It does good work against B/x, and Storm, is surprisingly decent against Burn, and is much better against UW.
As you noted in the Baloth example, lower CMC is a big deal, and Sin Collector comes down earlier than Glen Elendra Archmage with a more proactive effect that works better with our copy/blink effects. Sin Collector requires Black so it stretches the mana a bit but you're already most of the way there to a 5c manabase (just add an Overgrown Tomb) and Archmage's effective requirement of double blue can sometimes be even tougher than a single black splash. However, Glen Elendra does handle all non-creature spells and can stop a topdecked Terminus where Sin Collector can't stop Teferi or miracle Terminus, so I can see her merit as well.
In my experience, the best cards I've played against UW are Voice, Gaddock Teeg, and Archmage. Cards that limits their tools, and forces them into a narrow play pattern until they're dealt with. It's possible that the best line is to just add another Voice and another Archmage (SB).
An aside about the black splash in general. The biggest issue I've had with the black splash when I've had a 5c manabase, is how much trickier everything else gets. I use a fetch to get Tomb, and that's one less fetch for white, blue, red, or a basic. I've been in situations where I've have to choose between access to black, or the red I need to actually hard cast Kiki-Jiki. This isn't to say the black splash is clearly bad, but I do worry about the trade-offs.
If you're running Cobras you want around 10-11 fetches, ~5 shocks, and 4-5 basics -- I would recommend at least one Plains so you can cast your white spells through Blood Moon or use Path effects to fix your mana a bit. For the flex lands you can run fast lands, Horizon Canopy, or utility lands.
In my opinion Stony Silence and Rest in Peace are too powerful and too relevant to the meta not to run. Just play ~2 of each in the board and hope to draw them in your opening hand. We often need those effects asap, turn 2 if possible, so even if we could try to dig our way to them in the mid-late game that might be too slow.
Bugler can be a very powerful card when built around, as you've done nicely. Many of us are alternating between hot and cold on him right now. Evo, Saheeli, and Oath are some of our best cards, so having Bugler miss them really lowers the quality of his hits. Once you draw one-too-many Dorks or completely whiff on his ETB a few times you start to have second thoughts. Then, when you're sure that he's bad you look at a nicely synergistic list like yours and it all seems to fit together so well that you're back to giving Bugler another shot.. and the cycle repeats itself. I'm glad he's working for you, though. Who knows where we will end up on Bugler!
I had a few close games but couldn't quite get there. In my first UW game, Thragtusk ate a Remand and then a Cryptic, which would have likely allowed me to resolve Sun Titan on my next turn... but I got draw step VCliqued and the rest of my hand was garbage. My opponent almost 100% just lets Reveillark resolve there since my graveyard was empty. In my second game, my Tracker forced a Jace minus, but stalling at five lands during the ensuing game of chicken with Tracker, Jace, and other cards cost me way too much tempo to recover. I allowed a 4/3 Tracker to trade for VClique so I could resolve Archmage second main and then counter a Path with it, but then he had also set up a Terminus to keep the board clear, followed by a Detention Sphere for my two clues, and I was mostly done for. On my last turn I was able to present combo with Teeg into Cat blinking Oath into Saheeli but got Negated. Would have been nice to have some of those lands earlier.
The one time Reveillark would have been good was because I took a risk and Acidic Slimed my opponent off of his fourth land, not to mention he had played a tapped land for turn. He then plays Plains and casts a Wrath, putting a Slime and a Bugler in the graveyard, and later a Saheeli got put in a DSphere. So a Reveillark would have been nuts.
In another match against UW, I win the die roll and my opponent opens on Search on turn 2. He keeps and Terminuses on 3. He then keeps on 4 and 5, and his land sequencing indicates that he likely is NOT keeping lands with Search, though he doesn't have Cryptic mana available for some reason I forgot. As a result, I make a copy of Wall and Evolution it for Shalai instead of Cat since there is probably no way he doesn't have a Path, plus it's stronger than Pia and Kiran on my board state on the incredibly slight chance he doesn't have a Path. He untaps and casts Wrath of God so I die. Something got Pathed two turns later so I'm almost positive he had it. In game 2 I open on Voice, he Paths it on his turn 2, I go Bugler into Noble, he Terminuses, I play some stuff to follow up but get jammed on mana again and can't attack through his Colonnade in short order.
Bugler was truly awful and I think the card is unplayable unless you cut every non-Reveillark creature with power greater than 2 from your maindeck, like that one MTGO list. It completely whiffed once and only hit Kiki a second time, plus hitting mana creatures is not exactly what was intended. Bugler will probably become another Rogue Refiner, which always replaces itself and pressures planewalkers significantly better. Refiner even trades for Colonnade if you have a Noble in play, which I don't think is irrelevant. Voice of Resurgence made only one token in four rounds; I almost want to go down to two copies to play the Teeg main. I also want to consider a second Stomping Ground if I keep playing Pia and Kiran, because it's way too hard to cast against Field of Ruin, especially in land light situations where you have to fetch a red source.
Overall, I think Bugler doesn't quite deliver what we need, even if I had high hopes for the card initially. Modern is just too fast and brutal to durdle around.
I dig the idea of shifting mana dork slots toward the 1-drops. I want to be playing Voice, Teeg, or Saheeli on Turn 2 against them. I haven't had a lot of success with single counterspells, though. It feels like they usually have another piece of interaction in hand.
Deck List
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Noble Hierarch
3x Lotus Cobra
4x Voice of Resurgence
4x Reflector Mage
2x Tireless Tracker
1x Renegade Rallier
4x Felidar Guardian
1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Non-creature Spells (11)
4x Saheeli Rai
4x Oath of Nissa
3x Eldritch Evolution
1x Breeding Pool
1x Flooded Strand
2x Forest
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Overgrown Tomb
2x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Negate
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
1x Worship
1x Spellskite
3x Gaddock Teeg
3x Sin Collector
1x Reclamation Sage
FNM Report
Ran into to a rules issue. I combo'd out vs the Ad Naus player with Unlife on the board, putting him at -1 million life, passed the turn. He plays Shadow followed by a spell that gives it haste and trample (not TBR). I Negate the red haste spell but he Pacts my Negate and swings at me for 1 million. I concede, but later find out that there had been a rules update such that Shadow can't be larger than 13/13, which could've won me the match. Ah well. Always call a judge.
R2 vs Burn (2-1)
Voice and Rallier bought me time to Evolve into Shalai. Lost to aggressive beats and Eidolon G2. Sin Collector and Worship plus Shalai sealed G3.
R3 vs Mill (2-1)
G1 I combo'd out quickly. G2 he Surgical'd my Felidar and eventually milled me out. G3 I disassemble his hand with Sin Collector into Saheeli copying Sin Collector and then combo out a few turns later.
R4 vs Mardu (2-1)
G1 we trade resources for a bit and I sneak the combo through when he taps out. G2 the opponent has a double discard opener leading into Pyro and double Reveler chain to finish me off. G3 I pick apart his hand with Sin Collector into Felidar and then combo out a few turns later.
PPTQ Report
G1 mulled to a 6 with Bird, Voices and Felidar. I curved out but didn't draw anything to blink with Felidar. Died T4 as the opponent had double Bridge in the yard to make 8 zombies with a Vengevine. G2 Mulled to a 5 with Cobra, Voice, RIP, and 2 lands. T2 RIP slowed him down significantly but I flooded for the next 5+ turns until he drew into a Ballista, which cleared a bunch of my board, locked me out of comboing, and took over the game.
R2 vs Jund (2-1)
G1 I snuck the combo through at 2 life. G2 I kept a hand with 2 lands but didn't draw any more and died. G3 he had a fist full of Goyfs, BBEs, and Flayers but I curved out with multiple Reflectors and multiple Felidars flickering the Reflectors. My life total started to dip but I drew into Saheeli and combo'd out.
R3 vs Mardu (2-1)
This was similar to Friday's Mardu matchup. One of the games his disruption + pressure lines up and I die, but the rest of the games I get down some early value, pick apart his hand with Sin Collector, and then jam the combo until it sticks. Unlike Friday's Mardu player this one kept Blood Moon in and cast it in the middle of G3. I was able to get enough basics and the 2nd or 3rd Dork stuck so this did not effect me.
R4 vs GB Elves (0-2)
I knew I was against Elves and needed a combo hand to carry me but the deck didn't cooperate. I mulled to a 5 with acceleration and Felidar G1 but didn't draw into Saheeli or anything else relevant for (a surprisingly generous vs Elves) 5+ turns and died. G2 I mulled to a 4 with 2 lands, Cobra, and Saheeli. Once again I didn't draw into the other half and died.
R5 vs UW Control (2-1)
G1 my opponent mulled to 5 while I kept a hand with dorks, double Saheeli, and Evo. He flashed a Snap in end of T2 without a target in an attempt to ambush Saheeli but she was at 4 and I combo'd out T3 or T4. G2 I kept a hand with Voice, Gaddock, Negate, and some other good stuff but he managed to systematically dismantle my defenses and Terminus my board with Kiki + Voice + Elemental. I still had Tracker and Saheeli in hand but he countered Saheeli and took over from there. G3 I stick T2 Voice followed by some ramp and Saheeli. He Opts into Terminus but I have Negate ready. I topdeck Felidar -- he has one Plains open but I just go for it and the combo works out.
R6 vs G Tron (2-0)
G1 I accelerate with T2 cobra on the play, follwed by T3 Kiki. He gets Tron online and Karns Kiki. I play Felidar next, followed by a Saheeli to combo out. G2 I keep a hand with Cobra, Stony, Negate, and something else. He cracks Map in response to T2 Stony to get his second Tron land, and then casts Sylvan Scrying to find the final Tron land. With Tron online he taps 8 for 4/4 Walking Ballista but can't activate it further due to Stony, so he starts chipping in. I draw into dorks but use these to chump the Ballista and stay alive. He taps out for Ugin but I have Negate ready. I put down Gaddock and Spellskite on top of the Stony for a nice little hate lock. We both topdeck nervously for a few turns, he puts down an unactivatable O-Stone, and then a few turns later I topdeck Evo to tutor up my missing combo piece.
In the end I missed Top 8 due to breakers but was still reasonably happy with the deck’s performance.
Thoughts and Takeaways:
With overall records of 3-1 and 4-2 the deck felt pretty good.
I won all but a couple games with the combo. The beats plan really takes the back seat right now, as Lejoon said.
I've already explained some of the stuff below on our Discord, but I'll put all of my thoughts down here for completeness.
Plan vs aggressive decks
Aside from UWx Miracles I was expecting mostly aggressive creature-based strategies. Unfortunately there are so many different flavors of aggro these days and Terminus has pressured them all to become increasingly resistant to spot removal and/or non-Terminus sweepers. Worship works against some of these decks but is unreliable vs decks with access to Infect or Brutality, and can also just randomly lose if your creature count gets too low or it gets removed. Fiery Justice is generally good but can be thwarted by Mausoleum Wanderer, (instant speed!) pump effects, Selfless Spirit, graveyard recursion, get delayed by Thalia, snatched by Kitesail. Spot removal like Path can be good at sniping Lords or Meddling Mage but sometimes won't even buy you a whole turn vs the wider swarm decks. And so forth. For this reason I felt like the best strategy was just to build a list that was fast and low to the ground with MB Reflector Mages to try and out-tempo them while jamming the combo.
I settled on 7 Birds, 3 Cobras, and 4 Reflectors to maximize two possible sequences against these aggressive decks: T1 Birds, T2 Reflector, T3 Felidar blink Reflector, T4 combo out or T2 Cobra, T3 Felidar + Saheeli. Because my MB was built in this way I lost many (but not all) of the pre-board games against spell-heavy interactive decks. However, I had a strong enough SB plan to consistently edge out matches against these decks.
Plan for spell-heavy decks
Specifically, running 3x Gaddock Teeg, 3x Sin Collector, and 2x Negate (on top of the 4 MB Voice) created a consistent package of early disruption that allowed me to eventually combo out against decks that previously gave me trouble. Going into the events I wasn't sure if Sin Collector was worth splashing a 5th color for, but now I feel fairly confidant that this was the right call. I admit that the mana was undeniably greedy... there were at least 2 games where I had Kiki stuck in hand. Sometimes I had to twist my curve out in slightly non-ideal ways just to set up my mana. But I never got color screwed badly enough to lose a game -- even against Mardu trying to kill my dorks and landing Blood Moon or UW Miracles tucking my dorks and cracking Field of Ruin -- so for now I'll argue that being just barely short of "too greedy" is the best place to be and I'll stick with the full five colors.
Walking Ballista
On another note, we can just randomly auto-lose to Walking Ballista and it is quickly becoming one of my most feared cards. Simply casting Ballista for 2 allows the opponent to interrupt our combo at instant speed at any time, even if tapped out. A 2/2 Ballista can kill a 4-loyalty Saheeli or blocking Felidar with its psuedo-doublestrike. A highly pumped Ballista can clear our board. I'm glad to have 2 Stony and Spellskite to help with Ballista a bit, and might try to find room for other cards to take care of it. Maybe it's as simple as having 2 Knight of Autumn in the 75 and bringing them in for potential Ballista matches.
Goldfish speed vs. linear decks
The common factor in the matches that I lost (GB Elves, 4c Bridgevine) was that I needed to "solitaire" the combo out quickly against other potentially explosive decks but I just couldn't find what I needed and could never hope to present a traditional clock with beats to match theirs. In these scenarios an extra MB tutor would be nice.
Shalai -- she can win games vs Burn / Storm / Mill if unanswered, but she’s solidly mediocre vs everything else. She seems like she should be ok vs Midrange as a flying protective threat with a great ability but because she lacks an ETB effect and the opponent is highly incentivized to remove her the majority of the time I'm paying 4 mana for her to eat a Push (etc) on resolution and take a big tempo hit. Even if she does stick for a few turns I haven't had a good opportunity to activate her pump ability as I usually have a small board vs interactive decks and/or just generally better things to do with 6 (!) mana than activate her pump. "You have Hexproof" sounds good vs discard but in reality they will still tear your hand up T1/T2 before you can get her down. In a vacuum a flying 3/4 sounds like a reasonable blocker, but in practice aggressive decks like Humans, H Affinity, H1, Bridgevine can all go wider and/or taller, so we’re paying 4 mana to buy ourselves a turn at most. As the cherry on the top her Legendary status makes her impossible to clone, and she awkwardly turns off Spellskite. As a general "role-player" 4-drop P&K Nalaar provides better blocking vs aggro and more guaranteed value vs interaction. With Knight of Autumn arriving to help with Burn it's getting harder to justify space for Shalai in the 75.
Tracker -- Tracker is awesome vs interactive decks but takes too much time and investment to be a good card against aggressive decks outside of some perfect curves like T2 Cobra T3 Tracker -> Fetch crack -> Clue crack. I'm not sure if I want more than 1 Tracker in the main since I board him out so often, but there aren't a lot of value / card-draw 3-drops that sound better. Perhaps Eternal Witness, Carven Caryatid, Sea Gate Oracle, or something totally different like Lyev Skyknight.
Hey guys, been a while. I came in 27th place at GP Detroit with my Saheeli build. I was 11-2-1 (I am including 1 G3 I couldnt finish because my teammates lost as a win).
We don't always arrive at our destination at 1:30am Saturday morning to compete in a GP main event, but when we do, we top 32- My team, probably
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
4 Oath of Nissa
4 Louts Cobra
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Renegade Rallier
4 Eldritch Evolution
4 Saheeli Rai
1 Reclamation Sage (Soon to be Knight of Autumn)
4 Felidar Guardian
1 Worship
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Restoration Angel
1 Kiki Jiki Mirror Breaker
1 Sun Titan
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Hallowed Founatain
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
SB
2 Stony Silence
1 Rest in Peace
1 Path to Exile
1 Fiery Justice
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Inferno Titan
1 Devout Lightcaster
1 Manglehorn
1 Goblin Chainwhirler
1 Izzet Staticastor
1 Auriok Champion
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1 Nahiri, the Harbringer
This deck is insane. Often when you punt professionally, like myself, you win anyway. The only tier 1 deck I don't want to face every round of every tournament is Humans.
Speaking of which, I may or may not have been concerned about the humans matchup. I had 1 evening to test, and several stand up individuals went above and beyond to give me the practice I needed this tournament. Ron and Bobby, here is your mid paragraph internet fame. I know, I know, I go to far. So, anyway, after testing, 1 voice was cut from the main for a cheese win button in worship. That was a mistake. NEVER do that. My maindeck was otherwise stock and has not deviated since Shalai was printed. My sideboard was weird because Team Unified. I had a plan for humans, and like that Eminem song, I'm not afraid. I register my 75 with minutes to spare. I call fetchless storm will be here, and I don't bring a single card for it.
Round 1 Storm
G1- On the Draw
Well, can't say I was surprised. Even kept a fair 4 land, Voice, Rallier, Shalai hand. But hey, I am the best, so I draw a bird off the top. G1 is weird, I hide behind Shalai for 15 minutes and before I can get him he finds his MD unsubstainiate. Ded. this game took at least 15 minutes.
Board plan? Idk man, like 1 card. Get me.
G2- On the Play
Things have not gotten this awkward since that dance in 8th grade. I have a T2, you have a T2. Let's dance. With slow hands. awkward. So, I don't know what happened, the other 2 matches split so its on me. The pivotal turn I elect not to shock myself to set up for the kill the following turn. It would have put me to 11. Just a gut feeling. He proceeds to grapeshot for 11, and hast wipe my board and leave him with a baral and me with nothing. In our current, his darkest timeline, he gets beat to death after. We are boarding for G3 and time is called. IAMTHEBESTpleasekillme
0-0-1
Round 2- Mono G Tron
G1- On the Play
Hey, look. A fair hand! With a voice, Rallier, and Worhip + 4 lands to cast these spells! What could go wrong! T3 Tron. Got me.
Board plan + 2 Stony, 1 Manglehorn, 1 Magus of the moon
- 1 Worship, 1 Shalai, 2 Voice
G2- On the play
So, I know this is reddit. If a G1 natty tron doesn't take us to the red sea, how about a casual t1 map, t2 2nd tron piece, t3 O-stone and relic, t4 Ugin? Tell me about your jimmies. Good thing I can loose boys, she taps out for ugin, honestly a pretty reasonable play. I do the classic play this lotus cobra, play a fetch make 3 mana, play rallier recur fetch make 3 mana, evo cobra into cat, blink rallier get back that fetch, evo rallier get kiki. Had 2 fetches so a relic activation only got one. Tragic story, really.
G3 On the Draw
She has her 1st medium hand and I have my 1st good hand of the day. T3 kills is what we're here for. Turns out T2 Saheeli is a good play. 1 of my teamates pulls through.
1-0-1
Round 3- Mardu Pyro
G1- On the Play
Keep a hand of Oath, cobra, Saheeli, Rec Sage, 3 land. Lets do this. I love the mardu pyro matchup. I want to play it all day, every day, G1 reminds me why and he dies to combo.
Board Plan + 1 Chainwhirler, 1 Nahiri, 1 Tamiyo, 1 Inferno Titan
- 1 Felidar Gaurdian, 1 Evolution, 2 Noble
G2- On the Draw
His disruption was scripted by Tarantino himself. He topdecks flawlessly. I die with a worship out and an uncastable Auriok champion in hand due to fetching around blood moon.
G3- On the Play
Long story short is we had a couple judge calls this game do to a few mistakes on my opponents part. Relevant because we received a 5 minute time extension. I die on T2 of turns, him having dealt with Auriok champion, Shalai, Rallier, Voice, and Saheeli all on board at once, a worship joining them. I'm the the deciding match for the team. I fail. This is one of Mono Blue turns 2 losses on the day.
I should never lose this matchup. Discussion afterwards leads to taking worship out in the match. I win handily in either G2 or 3 if that worship is a voice and recur it with Rallier shenanigans.
1-1-1
Round 4 Mono G Tron
G1- On the Draw
He Turn 1 relics. Noice. Combo kill you T3 anyway? Good talk. G2.
Board plan + 2 Stony, 1 Manglehorn, 1 Magus of the moon
- 1 Worship, 1 Shalai, 2 Voice
G2- On the Draw
Nothing to see here, T3 kill him again. Salty but nice guy. We talked how the Lion's might be good this year. Looks like a clean double loss on his part. Mono U turns takes down Abzan and we are still alive.
2-1-1
Round 5- Esper Control (Black splash just for Surgical)
G1- On the Play
Goes a little long, which is a game I'm fine playing when my opponent isn't killing me. I dont have it in my notes, but I think he tapped out for Jace. Regardless, I top decked Saheeli with Cat and land in hand, birds and 4 lands in play. Play land, play cat, blink land, play Saheeli. Got 'im.
Board Plan + 1 Magus of the Moon, 1 Tamiyo, 1 Nahiri
- 2 Felidar, 1 Evo
G2- On the draw
We both mull to 6 and keep. My hand is good but not fast. I find my window on T6 when he has 6 lands out, 4 nonbasics to go with a plains and island. I had absorbed most of the resources from his hand. Evo resolves, I get magus. Win the game handily from there. Bringing Magus is usually not correct vs UW, he had 1 B producing land in his deck for surgical and fetched mostly basic G1. Sometimes you just gotta trust your instinct. Teamates get there.
3-1-1
As we are sitting down round 6 my mom contacts me and says she was in a car accident with my brother and sister. Other then her injury and the fact I know no one was killed I am in the dark. This is relevant the rest of the day, particularly round 6 as I am in space with my thoughts and concern. I did not have time to tell my team before we were in round 6 games either.
Round 6- On the Draw
My opponent goes T1 Island Vial. I turn and stare at my teamate until he looks and frowns. I say "It aint Merfolk. Win." It's humans. Long hair, don't care. The deciding moment is him putting meddling mage on felidar guardian, and dying to evo getting cat to get him with kiki.
Board Plan + 1 Path, 1 Justice, 1 Gearhulk, 1 Inferno Titan, 1 Auriok Champion, 1 Mangle horn
- 1 Rec Sage, 2 Felidar Guardian, 2 Evolution, 1 Voice
G3- On the Play
My opener has inferno Titan in it and no targets for freebooter. But 1 land. Keep. The turning point is when I aggressively evo a rallier on board into kiki and pass with nothing else in play. Titan comes down next turn and gets cloned by kiki, wiping everything bu auriok champion from his board. My opponent fails to do anything relevant. I draw restoration angel. I tap all of my mana for titan. You guys see the problem? My teamate did. Aggressively whispering dude play resto didn't snap me out of it. He had to bump my shoulder. I retap and play resto and win. Honestly either play wins that game from that spot, but ya. Better lucky then good. Also teamates. We win the match.
Tell team whatsup with fam. Can't have a punt that professional when it matters.
4-1-1
Round 7- Hardened Scales Affinity
The only other team from back home there, of course. Great players, one of them came in 2nd at an SCG not to long ago. Relevant, we know center will be control and mono blue turns has to face down as foretold living end goryo's vengeance foil kill you.dec. I tell turns he is dead, he agrees. I have to win for us to have a chance and am in the dark. They know what I'm on but not my teamates.
G1- On the draw
He presents lethal the following turn with ravager despite my clutch rec sage on hardened scales. So I untap and combo him from nowhere with a topdecked lotus cobra to power out my pieces.
Board Plan + 2 Stony, 1 Manglehorn, 1 Magus, 1 Path, 1 Gearhulk
- 2 Felidar, 1 Evo, 2 Voice, 1 worship
There is an argument to bring in chainwhirler and staticaster. I like to live life dangerously.
G2- On the Draw
He wisely Ballista's my t1 bird and I don't recover in the face of his pressure.
G3- On the Play (Mull to 6)
Keep a greedy 1 lander with stony and bird. I manage to get stony down. It buy me the time I need to combo even though I miss my 2nd land drop for a turn. Kci falls to UW in center, its up to turns who is in G3. Somehow. On T4 of turns with less then 10 cards in his deck, he finds his last part the waterviel to present lethal. We win.
5-1-1
R8- Bant Spirits, our win and in for day 2 (I am terrified of spirits, its just one of the matchups other Saheeli players dont mind that I cant seem to win)
G1- On the draw
T1 Mausoleum Wanderer. Panic. I get hit down to 10 and am dead to a lord. I look my opponent deep in his eyes, to the point he gets uncomfortable and asks what I'm doing. "Seeing if you have it. You don't." is my reply. I cast Sun titan with a Saheeli in the grave and 1 in play. He doesn't have path despite leaving a white mana untapped all game. Infinite Sun titan's get him.
Board Plan + 1 Magus, 1 Auriok Champion, 1 Gearhulk
- 2 voice, 1 Evolution
G2- On the Draw
I haven no notes, just life totals. Mine hit zero. I believe I recall a Coco at the end of my turn to hit me for exactsies.
G3- On the Play (both mull to 6)
Over at seat C turns is falling apart against a great matchup. well, normal Valakut is anyway. That dude is Nayashift. Hot. Anyway, I have a sexy 6 with a cobra and cat. My opponent takes his T2 playing a land and 2nd noble. His Queller shields are down, Path is up. Cobra is in play. I untap and draw Saheeli. I go for it. He dies.
I'm mentally gone and leave the table to call my fam, leaving my team to hand their business. Classless, I know. Turns falls, going to 6-2 day 1. KCI clutches against storm and we are day 2 bound.
We end up going out to dinner with the guys from round 8. Little awkward at 1st, wont lie. Great dudes. Turns out G3 the spirits guy should've swung with hierarch, played a land, dromoka's command fought and killed my cobra. NOW that kids, is a line.
6-1-1
Day 2
Round 9 KCI
G1- On the Draw
My opponent mulls to 6 and plays a T1 spellbomb. I combo kill him T3 before he can do the thing.
Board Plan + 2 Stony Silence, 1 Rest in Peace, 1 Manglehorn, 1 Path
- 3 Voice, 1 Worship, 1 Shalai
G2 On the Draw
He gets me. I have no notes. I am scrub.
G3 On the Play
I keep a 1 lander with Birds, oath, Stony. T1 bird eats lightning, I miss land in my drawstep. Damn. I oath, Miss land. Pass. I'm in trouble. He does stuff. I miss my land again. He does more stuff. Deck, are you really gonna hurt me, are you really gonna make me cry? Land. Stony, go. He doesnt have an answer. After a very long game filled with my hate pieces he answers stony, but fizzles in the face of manglehorn. I untap, talk to teamate, swing manglehorn in a bid to get him to shoot it with aether grid. He does. 2nd main rallier back stony. Next turn rec sage grid. I'm the deciding match, and I get there right before time with combo.
7-1-1
Round 10 UW Control
G1 On the Draw
So this game the voice in my head is screaming not to swing voice and rallier into settle the wreckage. Wrong format, man in my head is my response. I swing, get settled, have a voice token and 2 dorks to go with my saheeli. He flips terminus blind off the top. Fool thinks he is going to live. Notes unclear, combo stuck in ceiling fan. Um. I evo something, apparently Shalai, into cat and kill him. Sure. That's a reasonable conclusion to a game of magic.
Board plan + 1 Tamiyo, 1 Nahiri
- 1 Worship, 1 Rec Sage (Lord Jaraxxus would use his threaten emote here)
G2- On the Draw
I lose a long, grindy game with my opponent at 5. Good battle, great game.
G3
My opponent Mulls to 5 and keeps, scrying bottom. Both my teamates lose. I do include this as a win in my book selfishly, as I like the UW matchup and have yet to lose to a mull to 5. I had a really good hand. only 7 min left, too. Ah, well.
7-2-1
Round 11 Storm
G1- On the Draw
*****.
G2- On the Play
Cobra goes unanswered. He dies to a T3 kiki cat board.
G3- On the Draw
We both keep 1 landers (Triple BoP ftw), he mulls to 6 and bottoms. We both miss our 2nd land for 1 turn, even though he visions. I go for Saheeli after he plays baral. He untaps, misses his 3rd land drop, passes. I draw a fetch. I have and evo, and Cobra. He has 2 open mana. I jam cobra, tapping bird and land. He opts, then unsubstantiates. I say sure, and see the line. -2 Saheeli, target bird, play cobra, play fetch, evo cobra into cat. Unreal. My team pulls through.
8-2-1
Round 12- Humans
G1- On the Draw
Saheeli is in play while I'm at a healthy 11 with a voice and his token that blocked twice. he plays meddling mage, naming felidar guardian. I look at the evolution in my hand, and draw the cobra to evo.
G2- On the Draw
Tough mull to 5 for my opponent. I have a 1 land 7 with bird, oath, staticaster. Game gets awkward, and I evo staticaster into gearhulk to make him sac a dude. I start beating him down with resto after blink gearhulk at the end of his turn next turn cycle. somehwere in here he draws a vial and has it on 2. I draw cat, play cat, he says sure. I make 20 cats and swing with the tokens, he has one in hand. He activates vial, I say sure, image copies gearhulk. Spectators watching this match start whooping and make a little commotion from the sweetness of the play. I say nice, keep gearhulk, saheeli, oath, and resto. He dies the next turn when he cant block resto. Turns ends up drawing with hollow one, although he had what he needed to combo which is sad.
9-2-2
Round 13- Mono G Tron
G1- On the Play
T3 get him. Nothing to it.
Boarding same as Day 1
G2- On the Draw
All I have written down is UGIN in all caps.
G3- On the Play
T3 combo again. Sorry pal. I can feel the Tron gods notice my presence.
I was on fire day 2, calling cards off the top (including my opponents), keeping sketch hands that worked out perfectly, Giving my team lines in decks I have no idea how to pilot, I was liquid magma. 1 round in my way from a pro point, top 16 cash, and bragging to my dudes how jacked my shoulders were from carrying them up this mountain.
Round 14 Mono G Tron
G1 On the Play
T3 kill after mulling to 6. after I'm getting my deck back from being cut after playing cat I knock my dudes sideboard on the floor. Talk about coordination. we call a judge, its cool, but I feel the water hit me and my edge slip.
Board plan as way above
G2 On the Draw
I magus soft lock him t3, with a Felidar Guardian in play and a cobra. He is dead to a lot of cards off the top. Evo, Kiki, Saheeli, titan, you name it, I wanna draw it. But I dont, he plays karn and unlocks himself, I promptly topdeck kiki and survey the board. He is at 4. I can swing out and he can miss blocks and die. Thats my out. I cant combo because of a warping wail in his hand he tried to cast through magus and had to call a judge on himself for. I play kiki and swing, he wins, no joke, because he remembered to activate and block with his token from that land that costs 7 to make a 2/2. Got me.
G3
My 1st truly unkeepable hand, 4 land, 2 Saheeli, Resto. I mull to a reasonable double evo hand and even draw a dork. He warping wails the dork, goes thought knot into thought knot and I die. Its up to my teamates, Turns gets bogles but kci cant overcome grixis shadow.
Tron players, if Saheeli is in your meta, warping wail might be the single card I fear the most. I does everything I don't want happening in the matchup.
9-3-2
The prize payout was to 24. We came in a cucumber cool 27th. Still sweet.