It is very rare I am in a game wishing for a 3/3 flyer to win me the game regardless of the mana cost. It would get easily removed, perma-blocked by spirit tokens, or eaten by a flashed resto angel. In those situations I have plenty of power on the board, I just can't punch through. I wish we had some weanie with an etb effect that made our dudes unblockable or tapped all the opponents creatures. Similar to how merfolk can islandwalk past an opponents defenses for the win out of nowhere. I have tried many options with some success, but not enough to be awesome.
Like I said, I used avengers when modern first started, and they were great. But there are better beater options now. What I need are more ways to disrupt my opponent so they can't drop their more powerful cards, or a way to get my bears through their defenses for lethal damage. Anafenza may provide that extra punch by making combat math with our vials and flash creatures even more of a headache for our opponents. I hope so.
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My Modern decks: Death and Taxes, Hatebears, Well Oiled Machine, Merfolk, Nyx Wave, Soul Sisters, Stompy, Matyr Proc, Naya Zoo, Robots (I refuse to call it affinity!), Bogles, Kiki Chord
@sheeps comment on having 2 beatdown creatures. Bladesplicer makes that 6 slots, it is not a creature that taxes our opponents.
It's a weird card in the sense that it kind of does. Blade Splicer's threat is allocated in such a way that it takes a lot of resources to effectively deal with sans wrathing the board, essentially taxing the opponent for fully dealing with it. If they deal with the Golem the Splicer remains there to be flickered and generate value. If the Splicer is taken care of we lose almost no board state and retain a 3/3 token. No other threat available to DnT accomplishes that (Well at least popular threat).
Which is why I'm hesitant to ever replace them for any other agro creature.
In another discussion, what are peoples opinions of bringing back Mangara to the mainboard? Still too slow?
@sheeps comment on having 2 beatdown creatures. Bladesplicer makes that 6 slots, it is not a creature that taxes our opponents.
It's a weird card in the sense that it kind of does. Blade Splicer's threat is allocated in such a way that it takes a lot of resources to effectively deal with sans wrathing the board, essentially taxing the opponent for fully dealing with it. If they deal with the Golem the Splicer remains there to be flickered and generate value. If the Splicer is taken care of we lose almost no board state and retain a 3/3 token. No other threat available to DnT accomplishes that (Well at least popular threat).
Which is why I'm hesitant to ever replace them for any other agro creature.
In another discussion, what are peoples opinions of bringing back Mangara to the mainboard? Still too slow?
I don't run splicer as a beater. As pass said, it's difficult to remove, but MOSTLY I have it in there as MAINDECK affinity hate. Being an effective beater too is just icing on the cake :p.
I have seen the light, and the light is Flickerwisp.
Last night I played in a very small (12 people) Modern tourney at my LGS and went 3-1 with the list I posted in #2711, which ran 3 Flickerwisps but otherwise none of the usual flicker package (no Splicers, no Restos, no Finks). (Confession time: last night was the first time in my life that I've cast/Vialed Wisp.) Every turn in every game in every match, I found myself thinking "Gee, I really hope I topdeck a Flickerwisp. I underestimated what Wisp's versatility means. It doesn't mean "Oh, Wisp does a lot of different things, cute," which is what I originally thought. What it means is "Wisp does the best possible thing at every point in the game." It's a charm with 40 different modes.
I flickered blockers. I flickered attackers. I flickered tokens. I flickered my creatures to save them from removal. I flickered my opponent's lands. I flickered my own lands. I flickered my own Wisp to be able to flicker an opponent's lands at end step. I flickered an Ornithopter to turn off metalcraft long enough for me to Path an Etched Champion (didn't matter, got crushed, which I'll come back to). I only played 10 games the whole night, and I've already checked so many things off the list of what Wisp can do. I could have flickered a Thalia just to play a Sword that I only had 3 mana for. I could have flickered a creature that had been stolen by Ashiok. The list goes on and on.
When Sheepz says don't ever play less than 4, listen to him. I wasn't even running Splicers, and Wisp was still the best card in the deck, and it wasn't remotely close.
Of course, now that I'm running 4 Wisps, I might as well run 4 Splicers in the beater slot that had been dedicated to Mirran Crusader. Crusader being completely blanked by Etched Champion both games I played against Affinity made for a frustrating experience. Crusader was there purely to beat and the only time he got into the red zone was during a chump attack, where he was promptly eaten. It's coincidental that Sheepz just posted about how Splicers are main deck Affinity hate for him, but once again, my personal experience has shown me that he's absolutely right about that as well.
I'm immediately making the following changes to my deck:
However, I still strongly recommend you guys give main deck Spellskite of Runes a shot. That card has seriously outperformed my expectations every time.
@sheeps comment on having 2 beatdown creatures. Bladesplicer makes that 6 slots, it is not a creature that taxes our opponents.
It's a weird card in the sense that it kind of does. Blade Splicer's threat is allocated in such a way that it takes a lot of resources to effectively deal with sans wrathing the board, essentially taxing the opponent for fully dealing with it. If they deal with the Golem the Splicer remains there to be flickered and generate value. If the Splicer is taken care of we lose almost no board state and retain a 3/3 token. No other threat available to DnT accomplishes that (Well at least popular threat).
Which is why I'm hesitant to ever replace them for any other agro creature.
In another discussion, what are peoples opinions of bringing back Mangara to the mainboard? Still too slow?
I understand this, but when it comes down to it Thalia, Arbiter, Revoker and so on all do their part in preventing twin from comboing on turn 4. Blade splicer does not. Blade splicer taxes our opponents as much as Captain of the Watch. I'm not saying its a bad card, I'm saying that its job is to be a 3 damage per turn clock with an upside in the fact that it is "difficult" to remove compared to Brimaz or Avenger.
My point is that if you wanted to include kitchen finks & brimaz in the deck and don't know what to cut, it might be better to remove blade splicers than any of the other cards like restoration angel or flickerwisp.
Edit: say the opponent is at 1 life, has 3 lands, 1 fetch and a mana dork in play, pyrotechnics in hand. If we have thalia out we are good, if we have revoker out we are good, if we have arbiter out we are good, if we have blade splicer out we are not good.
As for Mangara, I don't think he brings anything to the deck that would help us with twin/junk that we can't get from another card right now.
As for Dromoka's Command remember that you can fight after first strike dmg hit and it's great vs. Keranos which is their best card vs. us after sideboard in Twin( most good players will side out some or all twins)
Sorry, gotta disagree, good twin players do not and should not side out twin (though keranos should come in and kicks ass vs us). I played and lost to Sam Pardee for this knowledge at the GP. Just remember to bring in your celestial purges.
As stated by myself and others, bladesplicer has other unique attributes that make her more than just a beater. A turn 3 bladesplicer followed by a turn 4 resto + vial wisp just ends games. Going from 4 power to 16 power out of no where is brutal. Your opponents then have to think what part of the "combo" to focus their resources on. The best part is you can do it purely in reaction to your opponents play. If you need to vial in the wisp to instead disrupt their play then resto the wisp to delay further, you can.
I used to play avengers with equipment with no splicers because the splicers just were not good enough with only 4 wisps. Once resto joined the party, I dropped the avenger/equip package and went with restos and splicers and I believe it is a much more flexible and poweful synergy with wisps.
Regarding Mangara, I have always played him since Modern started. Usually 1 maindeck, sometimes 2. Other times 1-2 in the board. I love him. Every time I take him out I miss him. He is like wisp number 5+. He works best in a meta that encourages maindeck spellskite, because then you have a way to protect him. I love hardcasting a turn 3 Mangara, then vialing in a skite to blank the removal! A couple Mangara activations will usually end the game because, like wisp, they always hit your opponent where it will hurt the most.
My Modern decks: Death and Taxes, Hatebears, Well Oiled Machine, Merfolk, Nyx Wave, Soul Sisters, Stompy, Matyr Proc, Naya Zoo, Robots (I refuse to call it affinity!), Bogles, Kiki Chord
I have seen the light, and the light is Flickerwisp.
Last night I played in a very small (12 people) Modern tourney at my LGS and went 3-1 with the list I posted in #2711, which ran 3 Flickerwisps but otherwise none of the usual flicker package (no Splicers, no Restos, no Finks). (Confession time: last night was the first time in my life that I've cast/Vialed Wisp.) Every turn in every game in every match, I found myself thinking "Gee, I really hope I topdeck a Flickerwisp. I underestimated what Wisp's versatility means. It doesn't mean "Oh, Wisp does a lot of different things, cute," which is what I originally thought. What it means is "Wisp does the best possible thing at every point in the game." It's a charm with 40 different modes.
I flickered blockers. I flickered attackers. I flickered tokens. I flickered my creatures to save them from removal. I flickered my opponent's lands. I flickered my own lands. I flickered my own Wisp to be able to flicker an opponent's lands at end step. I flickered an Ornithopter to turn off metalcraft long enough for me to Path an Etched Champion (didn't matter, got crushed, which I'll come back to). I only played 10 games the whole night, and I've already checked so many things off the list of what Wisp can do. I could have flickered a Thalia just to play a Sword that I only had 3 mana for. I could have flickered a creature that had been stolen by Ashiok. The list goes on and on.
When Sheepz says don't ever play less than 4, listen to him. I wasn't even running Splicers, and Wisp was still the best card in the deck, and it wasn't remotely close.
Of course, now that I'm running 4 Wisps, I might as well run 4 Splicers in the beater slot that had been dedicated to Mirran Crusader. Crusader being completely blanked by Etched Champion both games I played against Affinity made for a frustrating experience. Crusader was there purely to beat and the only time he got into the red zone was during a chump attack, where he was promptly eaten. It's coincidental that Sheepz just posted about how Splicers are main deck Affinity hate for him, but once again, my personal experience has shown me that he's absolutely right about that as well.
I'm immediately making the following changes to my deck:
However, I still strongly recommend you guys give main deck Spellskite of Runes a shot. That card has seriously outperformed my expectations every time.
Praise be to wisp! I tell people it's the best card in the deck for a reason hahahaha. I am NEVER sad to sEE it, vial or not. On spellskite, I agree! It does work vs twin Aggro and affinity, HIGHLY relevant right now and would totally off it any day!
Maybe some day we can get a mini wisp at 2 mana! That would be awesome.
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My Modern decks: Death and Taxes, Hatebears, Well Oiled Machine, Merfolk, Nyx Wave, Soul Sisters, Stompy, Matyr Proc, Naya Zoo, Robots (I refuse to call it affinity!), Bogles, Kiki Chord
For WB or mono W? I am IMMEDIATELY swapping to monowhite with dtk's release. Anafrenza is not something I can ignore. But i do currently run WB, since tidehollow is really nice right now.
I've taken out 2 Spirit of the Labyrinth, 1 Serra Avenger, 1 plains and 2 Aven Mindcensors to add in some green cards (Teeg, Pridemage) and the two Anafenza (currently 1 and 1 8 & 1/2 tails). My land count could be off, haven't bothered with the math as of yet. Currently have 9 Legends in the main deck for the Hero's Blade.
Dromoka's command looks like it could be pretty good at stopping Pyroclasm effects while not being useless in other match ups.
Also trying to keep the number of ETB effects down, about a third of the games I play are vs. affinity and they all seem to have 4 wear/tear and 4 torpor orbs in their sideboards. Stony Silence affinity vs. Torpor Orb mono white is a pretty stupid game to watch.
Thoughts? Should I ditch the Teeg and put Mindcensors back in? Anything else? Also note that I'm trying to fit in as many fnm and promo cards as possible.
I've taken out 2 Spirit of the Labyrinth, 1 Serra Avenger, 1 plains and 2 Aven Mindcensors to add in some green cards (Teeg, Pridemage) and the two Anafenza (currently 1 and 1 8 & 1/2 tails). My land count could be off, haven't bothered with the math as of yet. Currently have 9 Legends in the main deck for the Hero's Blade.
Dromoka's command looks like it could be pretty good at stopping Pyroclasm effects while not being useless in other match ups.
Also trying to keep the number of ETB effects down, about a third of the games I play are vs. affinity and they all seem to have 4 wear/tear and 4 torpor orbs in their sideboards. Stony Silence affinity vs. Torpor Orb mono white is a pretty stupid game to watch.
Thoughts? Should I ditch the Teeg and put Mindcensors back in? Anything else? Also note that I'm trying to fit in as many fnm and promo cards as possible.
Cut teeg. He isn't good really. Any match up you'd want him he will get bolted or something. Probably drop to 3 thalia as well. As usual, I'd say cut sword cut serras cut eight and a half tails, and lastly keep it to 4 1 drop creatures. You've been around long enough to guess my opinions here though haha. I figure you'll keep that way, but at the very least, find room for SOME number of restos, preferably 3.
Yah yah I know Trying to keep the deck a little different than what everyone else is playing here knowing that I can always switch to the 4 splicer 4 resto list if I was ever to play at something reasonably large.
Maybe I'll swap teeg for one of the missing Mindcensors.
Edit: I haven't actually played Teeg in one of these decks, I've got one for EDH and I figured I can move him over since he is WG a legend, and is annoying.
Yah yah I know Trying to keep the deck a little different than what everyone else is playing here knowing that I can always switch to the 4 splicer 4 resto list if I was ever to play at something reasonably large.
Maybe I'll swap teeg for one of the missing Mindcensors.
Edit: I haven't actually played Teeg in one of these decks, I've got one for EDH and I figured I can move him over since he is WG a legend, and is annoying.
mmmmm the legendary synergy is a good point. That might make him considerably better. You sure you don't want to jam 2 isamaru in instead of dryads? A legegendary 2/2 for 1 looks good here. I'm currently sitting at 2 isa and 2 judges for my mono white list. i'd put a second hero's blade as well instead of sword.
The legendary is nice but I think I prefer the graveyard hate more than +1 toughness. I don't feel as bbadtrading it away and it's free hate vs. Storm, snapcaster become ommens, gifts ungiven and more.
So with the new Anafenza, I was wondering if it was worth exploring a Black splash for Oona's Blackguard. It does have the downside of not immediately applying pressure but I think once anafenza starts churning out counters, It might be a power house. Any thoughts?
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Like I said, I used avengers when modern first started, and they were great. But there are better beater options now. What I need are more ways to disrupt my opponent so they can't drop their more powerful cards, or a way to get my bears through their defenses for lethal damage. Anafenza may provide that extra punch by making combat math with our vials and flash creatures even more of a headache for our opponents. I hope so.
It's a weird card in the sense that it kind of does. Blade Splicer's threat is allocated in such a way that it takes a lot of resources to effectively deal with sans wrathing the board, essentially taxing the opponent for fully dealing with it. If they deal with the Golem the Splicer remains there to be flickered and generate value. If the Splicer is taken care of we lose almost no board state and retain a 3/3 token. No other threat available to DnT accomplishes that (Well at least popular threat).
Which is why I'm hesitant to ever replace them for any other agro creature.
In another discussion, what are peoples opinions of bringing back Mangara to the mainboard? Still too slow?
Modern: WUBValue Titan UMerfolk WGDeath and Taxes
I don't run splicer as a beater. As pass said, it's difficult to remove, but MOSTLY I have it in there as MAINDECK affinity hate. Being an effective beater too is just icing on the cake :p.
Last night I played in a very small (12 people) Modern tourney at my LGS and went 3-1 with the list I posted in #2711, which ran 3 Flickerwisps but otherwise none of the usual flicker package (no Splicers, no Restos, no Finks). (Confession time: last night was the first time in my life that I've cast/Vialed Wisp.) Every turn in every game in every match, I found myself thinking "Gee, I really hope I topdeck a Flickerwisp. I underestimated what Wisp's versatility means. It doesn't mean "Oh, Wisp does a lot of different things, cute," which is what I originally thought. What it means is "Wisp does the best possible thing at every point in the game." It's a charm with 40 different modes.
I flickered blockers. I flickered attackers. I flickered tokens. I flickered my creatures to save them from removal. I flickered my opponent's lands. I flickered my own lands. I flickered my own Wisp to be able to flicker an opponent's lands at end step. I flickered an Ornithopter to turn off metalcraft long enough for me to Path an Etched Champion (didn't matter, got crushed, which I'll come back to). I only played 10 games the whole night, and I've already checked so many things off the list of what Wisp can do. I could have flickered a Thalia just to play a Sword that I only had 3 mana for. I could have flickered a creature that had been stolen by Ashiok. The list goes on and on.
When Sheepz says don't ever play less than 4, listen to him. I wasn't even running Splicers, and Wisp was still the best card in the deck, and it wasn't remotely close.
Of course, now that I'm running 4 Wisps, I might as well run 4 Splicers in the beater slot that had been dedicated to Mirran Crusader. Crusader being completely blanked by Etched Champion both games I played against Affinity made for a frustrating experience. Crusader was there purely to beat and the only time he got into the red zone was during a chump attack, where he was promptly eaten. It's coincidental that Sheepz just posted about how Splicers are main deck Affinity hate for him, but once again, my personal experience has shown me that he's absolutely right about that as well.
I'm immediately making the following changes to my deck:
-4 Mirran Crusader
-2 Phyrexian Revoker
-1 Sword of War and Peace
-1 Sword of Light and Shadow
+4 Blade Splicer
+3 Restoration Angel
+1 Flickerwisp
However, I still strongly recommend you guys give main deck Spellskite of Runes a shot. That card has seriously outperformed my expectations every time.
I understand this, but when it comes down to it Thalia, Arbiter, Revoker and so on all do their part in preventing twin from comboing on turn 4. Blade splicer does not. Blade splicer taxes our opponents as much as Captain of the Watch. I'm not saying its a bad card, I'm saying that its job is to be a 3 damage per turn clock with an upside in the fact that it is "difficult" to remove compared to Brimaz or Avenger.
My point is that if you wanted to include kitchen finks & brimaz in the deck and don't know what to cut, it might be better to remove blade splicers than any of the other cards like restoration angel or flickerwisp.
Edit: say the opponent is at 1 life, has 3 lands, 1 fetch and a mana dork in play, pyrotechnics in hand. If we have thalia out we are good, if we have revoker out we are good, if we have arbiter out we are good, if we have blade splicer out we are not good.
As for Mangara, I don't think he brings anything to the deck that would help us with twin/junk that we can't get from another card right now.
Sorry, gotta disagree, good twin players do not and should not side out twin (though keranos should come in and kicks ass vs us). I played and lost to Sam Pardee for this knowledge at the GP. Just remember to bring in your celestial purges.
I used to play avengers with equipment with no splicers because the splicers just were not good enough with only 4 wisps. Once resto joined the party, I dropped the avenger/equip package and went with restos and splicers and I believe it is a much more flexible and poweful synergy with wisps.
Regarding Mangara, I have always played him since Modern started. Usually 1 maindeck, sometimes 2. Other times 1-2 in the board. I love him. Every time I take him out I miss him. He is like wisp number 5+. He works best in a meta that encourages maindeck spellskite, because then you have a way to protect him. I love hardcasting a turn 3 Mangara, then vialing in a skite to blank the removal! A couple Mangara activations will usually end the game because, like wisp, they always hit your opponent where it will hurt the most.
Praise be to wisp! I tell people it's the best card in the deck for a reason hahahaha. I am NEVER sad to sEE it, vial or not. On spellskite, I agree! It does work vs twin Aggro and affinity, HIGHLY relevant right now and would totally off it any day!
My decks:
Modern: W Death and Taxes U Merfolk
Duel Commander: WUGJenara, Asura of War
In construction: Legacy: WUGBCounterSlivers
For WB or mono W? I am IMMEDIATELY swapping to monowhite with dtk's release. Anafrenza is not something I can ignore. But i do currently run WB, since tidehollow is really nice right now.
4 Plains
4 Temple Garden
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Tectonic Edge
1 Hero's Blade
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 AEther Vial
4 Path to Exile
4 Dryad Militant
1 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Serra Avenger
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Leonin Arbiter
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Flickerwisp
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Spellskite
2 Dromoka's Command
4 Kor Firewalker
4 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Mirran Crusader
I've taken out 2 Spirit of the Labyrinth, 1 Serra Avenger, 1 plains and 2 Aven Mindcensors to add in some green cards (Teeg, Pridemage) and the two Anafenza (currently 1 and 1 8 & 1/2 tails). My land count could be off, haven't bothered with the math as of yet. Currently have 9 Legends in the main deck for the Hero's Blade.
Dromoka's command looks like it could be pretty good at stopping Pyroclasm effects while not being useless in other match ups.
Also trying to keep the number of ETB effects down, about a third of the games I play are vs. affinity and they all seem to have 4 wear/tear and 4 torpor orbs in their sideboards. Stony Silence affinity vs. Torpor Orb mono white is a pretty stupid game to watch.
Thoughts? Should I ditch the Teeg and put Mindcensors back in? Anything else? Also note that I'm trying to fit in as many fnm and promo cards as possible.
Maybe I'll swap teeg for one of the missing Mindcensors.
Edit: I haven't actually played Teeg in one of these decks, I've got one for EDH and I figured I can move him over since he is WG a legend, and is annoying.
mmmmm the legendary synergy is a good point. That might make him considerably better. You sure you don't want to jam 2 isamaru in instead of dryads? A legegendary 2/2 for 1 looks good here. I'm currently sitting at 2 isa and 2 judges for my mono white list. i'd put a second hero's blade as well instead of sword.