I was using her last night and I'm very pleased with the card draw results. While she isn't right off the bat contributing to devotion, abrupt decay on a stick was useful multiple occasions and late game destroying reduntant arbor elves and Utopia sprawls and extra copies of nykthos or other dead draws was more than useful. She's in the same space as tireless tracker when you get down to it. But unlike tracker she eats anything for the card draw effect, not just land drops.
I have been playing Hydroid Krasis for a bit...it’s surprisingly powerful. I may think this simply because my favorite two cards in green Devotion are Garruk Wildspeaker and Kimora, Master of the Depths...but the two of them and card draw is tough for many opponents to beat.
I am going to try out Time Warp too. As many on here know; my lists tend to run a lot of Walkers...and it is just a good fit with Garruk, Kiera, and friends
I’ll let you know how it goes tonight.
Also...Two BIG announcements that could effect us:
1. Do we think the new London Mulligan will be good for us? I certainly do (as getting a 1-drop in our opening hand is huge for us).
2. Do we think the Modern product being announced this Wednesday will (a) have new cards for Modern not in standard and (b) if so...did they think about Devotion or big Mana when they developed the nee, higher power cards?
Exciting time to play Modern! The next two months are chock full of Modern and they just announced the next Mythic Championship is Modern!
I was using her last night and I'm very pleased with the card draw results. While she isn't right off the bat contributing to devotion, abrupt decay on a stick was useful multiple occasions and late game destroying reduntant arbor elves and Utopia sprawls and extra copies of nykthos or other dead draws was more than useful. She's in the same space as tireless tracker when you get down to it. But unlike tracker she eats anything for the card draw effect, not just land drops.
I was using her last night and I'm very pleased with the card draw results. While she isn't right off the bat contributing to devotion, abrupt decay on a stick was useful multiple occasions and late game destroying reduntant arbor elves and Utopia sprawls and extra copies of nykthos or other dead draws was more than useful. She's in the same space as tireless tracker when you get down to it. But unlike tracker she eats anything for the card draw effect, not just land drops.
4-CMC is a good number for us too. I too liked Vraska Golgari Queen. My only issue with her was when I players her early I didn’t always have something to pitch. I think you could build around her though to mitigate this (maybe with Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, etc.). You could make a pretty darn good Golgari Superfriends deck just going up the curve of Nissa VOZ, Garruk, Vraska GQ, Ob Nixilis, 6-drop Vraska :).
______
Playing with Time Warp makes me want to play with Venser, the Sojourner and Eternal Witness (I’m a sucker for infinite combos :). Having that and the potential to make creatures unblockable seems fair.
I have been playing Hydroid Krasis for a bit...it’s surprisingly powerful. I may think this simply because my favorite two cards in green Devotion are Garruk Wildspeaker and Kimora, Master of the Depths...but the two of them and card draw is tough for many opponents to beat.
I am going to try out Time Warp too. As many on here know; my lists tend to run a lot of Walkers...and it is just a good fit with Garruk, Kiera, and friends
I’ll let you know how it goes tonight.
Also...Two BIG announcements that could effect us:
1. Do we think the new London Mulligan will be good for us? I certainly do (as getting a 1-drop in our opening hand is huge for us).
2. Do we think the Modern product being announced this Wednesday will (a) have new cards for Modern not in standard and (b) if so...did they think about Devotion or big Mana when they developed the nee, higher power cards?
Exciting time to play Modern! The next two months are chock full of Modern and they just announced the next Mythic Championship is Modern!
Yea Hydroid Krasis is good for pretty much any deck that can cast it. I just don't have the money to shell out for it right now, so I'll just wait till after it drops out of standard to revisit going blue.
1. London Mulligan: Probably better, but not specifically better for us than it is better for other decks. Might let us run a single BoP or Oath less than usual if we can more consistently get a t1 ramp.
2. I'm hoping that the Modern announcement is for a reprint set that is not meant to be drafted, since that type of set created a ton of worthless reprints and skimped on reprints of cards that were actually used in modern. I'm expecting a Challenger Series type product of pre-built constructed-playable decks.
I do not believe they are printing new Modern-legal cards that are not standard-legal. I don't think this is a good idea, and it would artificially raise the price of these new cards because this type of non-set product usually have limited print runs. If they print new cards that end up being staples, it'll force people to buy these new cards, which I can totally see WotC doing. These new limited run staples will immediately need reprints and we'll exacerbate the reprint problem that we are trying to solve.
If they do make new cards, I doubt they'd have Devotion specifically in mind when designing new cards, but I can see something for Ramp strategies in general, since Primetime decks are fairly common, with a few different archetypes floating around.
I'm not sure Hydroid Krassis would be good for traditional Green Devotion. It could be good against other value decks, like midrange and control, but mediocre when you're going against other fast linear decks.
You want to be casting that card for at least x=4, so it's expensive.
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LEGACY: Soldier Stompy WW // Blue Stompy UU // Fit Variants BGRW // Sol Land Brews BGRUWC MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
I'm not sure Hydroid Krassis would be good for traditional Green Devotion. It could be good against other value decks, like midrange and control, but mediocre when you're going against other fast linear decks.
You want to be casting that card for at least x=4, so it's expensive.
Yeah...I tend to play somewhat "combo-style" overwhelming decks (that revolve heavily around Garruk and Kiora untapping as it just seems like one of the most broken things we can do)...so card draw is VERY important to my style decks. I'll outline more of my results with Krasis shortly. Thus far, however, I've found it to be a strong card.
I saw Uegjo's 5-0 and thought this deck looked like a fun choice for CFB's 2K last weekend.
I diversified the fetch lands a bit but otherwise did not mess wit the 75.
Round 1 v. Mono-Red Phoenix
Game 1: I lose pretty quickly to double prowess creatures and 3x Manamorphose into turn 4 hard-cast Phoenix.
Game 2: Similar to above, double prowess creature into 2x Manamorphose into Looting and bring back 2x Phoenix on turn 3. 0-2.
0-1
Round 2 v. Humans
Game 1: Opponent goes aggro with humans and follows up with Malcontents. I start to crawl back with a Primal Command but an attack followed by a Phantasmal Image on Malcontents ends it.
Game 2: I ramp into Wurmcoil with a Kessig Wolf Run out and that is enough.
Game 3: He keeps an odd hand where the first play is turn 3 Mantis Rider, followed by turn 4 Mantis Rider. Since opponent hasn't played anything else, I highly suspect next turn will be: Mantis Rider/Phantasmal Image on Mantis Rider, attack for 9, you lose. I need to do something big this turn, so I do: Time Warp into Hornet Queen to stabilize. Despite Phantasmal Image on my Queen twice, Ballista cleans up and closes it out with Wurmcoil backup. 2-1.
1-1
Round 3 v. Mardu Control
Game 1: The control player's heavy creature removal deck just doesn't line up with my powerful spells and gives me all the time I need to top-deck Tooth and Nail for the win.
Game 2: I have a pretty aggro start with ramp into Primeval Titan and I am careful not to attack with too much into Settle mana. I eventually close it pretty quick with a Garruk overrun when opponent is tapped low. 2-0.
2-1
Round 4 v. G Tron
Game 1: I play the control deck with Eternal Command chain, stopping Tron and really anything relevant. Winning is academic.
Game 2: Like above but better: I have Crumble to Dust and Eternal Witness to stop Tron forever. I have Ancient Grudge as well to tag a small Ballista and an Oblivion Stone. I think I eventually win with Kessig. Opponent had several opportunities to tutor up Ghost Quarter and deal with my suited up lands, but never did so. Either way, I was pretty far ahead and opponent was low on mana the whole game. 2-0.
3-1
Round 5 v. Eldrazi Tron
Game 1: Opponent mulls to 5 and I sort of get to steal this one as the ELdrazi player puts up a good fight on 5. But I get enough time to do the powerful things.
Game 2: This one is long with dueling Wurmcoils stalling things out. But the stall favors me and I think I closed it out with hard-cast Emrakul. 2-0.
4-1
Round 6 v. Mono-Red Phoenix
Game 1: The Phoenix player spends a lot of cards to put me low with prowess creatures, but I chain Primal Commands to stabilize. Despite seeing almost half the deck, opponent does not get a Phoenix in the yard for several turns and I eventually take the win.
Game 2: You can watch this match at 5:39 from CFB's twitch. I think I won in the side boarding phase. I take 4 damage to play a turn 2 Trinisphere which just shuts the opponent dow. Opponent brings in questionable cards: Blood Moon, Surgical, and Eidolon. 2-0.
5-1
Round 7 v. Hollow One
Game 1: Opponent threatens a very quick clock, but I untapped with Birds, Kiora's Follower, and Overgrowth to steal a win with Tooth and Nail on turn 4.
Game 2: I like my hand with Baloth and ramp, but the opponent has the turn 3 kill with double Hollow Ones and other support. I don't think I am ever winning against that start.
Game 3: I keep a questionable hand of Emrakul, Sprawl, Kiora's Follower, and Overgrowth plus lands. I have the ramp and hope for some payoff or a roadblock. He turn 1 Thoguhtseizes the Overgrowth. I develop good mana, but draw running lands and die to all the big creatures. 1-2.
5-2
I lost my win-and-in but still prized at 13th place. My games basically had three flavors: 1 Stabilize with Hornet Queen or Wurmcoil and slowly build to game wining spells 2 Race with a quick game winning spell 3 Out-value opponents with Primal Command and Time Warp loops. The deck struggles against the super aggro decks, but it is nice to steal games versus the uninteractive decks with Tooth and Nail. Seems to play circles around other big mana decks and non-blue control decks.
Hey @aedrew, glad to heard you had some success with my list. I agree with your analysis that super aggro is our roughest matchup, with GDS and Humans being the worst.
The situation occurred several times against Red Phoenix and Hollow One where I was facing one or more attackers for 4+ damage where I really wished I had a creature I could play for 2 or 3 mana that would either trade or at least get some ETB value and then chump to help me buy a few turns. For instance, I'd have Obstinate Baloth in hand, which seemed perfect, but at 4 mana was just a little too slow.
The card that comes to mind is Kitchen Finks, as I could gain some life and chump two attacks, hopefully getting to 5+ mana to start to stabilize.
I would look to replace Ooze and Tracker, even though both are good cards. Tracker has been great for me, but not for the aggro matchups that seem prevelent. Ooze I am starting to like less and less. Its versatility is great, but the graveyard hate and life gain can be too slow and it takes a while to get it out of bolt range against the red decks. I could also see moving Walking Ballista to the sideboard and maybe cutting Dragonlord Atarka as Ballista serves a similar function.
That being said, I am still new to the deck and would give it more reps before making major changes.
I saw Uegjo's 5-0 and thought this deck looked like a fun choice for CFB's 2K last weekend.
I diversified the fetch lands a bit but otherwise did not mess wit the 75.
Round 1 v. Mono-Red Phoenix
Game 1: I lose pretty quickly to double prowess creatures and 3x Manamorphose into turn 4 hard-cast Phoenix.
Game 2: Similar to above, double prowess creature into 2x Manamorphose into Looting and bring back 2x Phoenix on turn 3. 0-2.
0-1
Round 2 v. Humans
Game 1: Opponent goes aggro with humans and follows up with Malcontents. I start to crawl back with a Primal Command but an attack followed by a Phantasmal Image on Malcontents ends it.
Game 2: I ramp into Wurmcoil with a Kessig Wolf Run out and that is enough.
Game 3: He keeps an odd hand where the first play is turn 3 Mantis Rider, followed by turn 4 Mantis Rider. Since opponent hasn't played anything else, I highly suspect next turn will be: Mantis Rider/Phantasmal Image on Mantis Rider, attack for 9, you lose. I need to do something big this turn, so I do: Time Warp into Hornet Queen to stabilize. Despite Phantasmal Image on my Queen twice, Ballista cleans up and closes it out with Wurmcoil backup. 2-1.
1-1
Round 3 v. Mardu Control
Game 1: The control player's heavy creature removal deck just doesn't line up with my powerful spells and gives me all the time I need to top-deck Tooth and Nail for the win.
Game 2: I have a pretty aggro start with ramp into Primeval Titan and I am careful not to attack with too much into Settle mana. I eventually close it pretty quick with a Garruk overrun when opponent is tapped low. 2-0.
2-1
Round 4 v. G Tron
Game 1: I play the control deck with Eternal Command chain, stopping Tron and really anything relevant. Winning is academic.
Game 2: Like above but better: I have Crumble to Dust and Eternal Witness to stop Tron forever. I have Ancient Grudge as well to tag a small Ballista and an Oblivion Stone. I think I eventually win with Kessig. Opponent had several opportunities to tutor up Ghost Quarter and deal with my suited up lands, but never did so. Either way, I was pretty far ahead and opponent was low on mana the whole game. 2-0.
3-1
Round 5 v. Eldrazi Tron
Game 1: Opponent mulls to 5 and I sort of get to steal this one as the ELdrazi player puts up a good fight on 5. But I get enough time to do the powerful things.
Game 2: This one is long with dueling Wurmcoils stalling things out. But the stall favors me and I think I closed it out with hard-cast Emrakul. 2-0.
4-1
Round 6 v. Mono-Red Phoenix
Game 1: The Phoenix player spends a lot of cards to put me low with prowess creatures, but I chain Primal Commands to stabilize. Despite seeing almost half the deck, opponent does not get a Phoenix in the yard for several turns and I eventually take the win.
Game 2: You can watch this match at 5:39 from CFB's twitch. I think I won in the side boarding phase. I take 4 damage to play a turn 2 Trinisphere which just shuts the opponent dow. Opponent brings in questionable cards: Blood Moon, Surgical, and Eidolon. 2-0.
5-1
Round 7 v. Hollow One
Game 1: Opponent threatens a very quick clock, but I untapped with Birds, Kiora's Follower, and Overgrowth to steal a win with Tooth and Nail on turn 4.
Game 2: I like my hand with Baloth and ramp, but the opponent has the turn 3 kill with double Hollow Ones and other support. I don't think I am ever winning against that start.
Game 3: I keep a questionable hand of Emrakul, Sprawl, Kiora's Follower, and Overgrowth plus lands. I have the ramp and hope for some payoff or a roadblock. He turn 1 Thoguhtseizes the Overgrowth. I develop good mana, but draw running lands and die to all the big creatures. 1-2.
5-2
I lost my win-and-in but still prized at 13th place. My games basically had three flavors: 1 Stabilize with Hornet Queen or Wurmcoil and slowly build to game wining spells 2 Race with a quick game winning spell 3 Out-value opponents with Primal Command and Time Warp loops. The deck struggles against the super aggro decks, but it is nice to steal games versus the uninteractive decks with Tooth and Nail. Seems to play circles around other big mana decks and non-blue control decks.
What a great outline of each game! Thanks for posting this!
I think with the new Modern Horizons product, it's reasonable that they could print something like Wild Growth into Modern. That would be sick.
I actually brought this up with my brother today. I honestly think we could be one of those "fringe" decks they may have looked at. At minimum they would likely have thought of ramp to some extent. I would be surprised if we didn't get at least one playable tool in this set.
Growth obviously is least likely; but it would be fun to run a set of Alpha ones :). The other two could easily be in there without breaking anything.
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Congrats Uegjo!
With the additions to the Primer today will be your current list as the Tooth and Nail example. Keep up the great play!
Let us know anytime you 5-0 so we can post it! This goes for everyone
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I’ll be testing out the London mulligan (to see if combo versions become better and if we can cut on bird) over the next few weeks.
I do think we are one of the decks they would likely give a card to in Modern Hoizons...so testing may be in vain prior to release...but at least we can look at playing one less one drop, if combo gets better, etc.
Thanks for the kind words and good luck with the primer CurdBros!
Great input aedrew. Have never been a fan of finks myself but maybe I should give it a try. Just seems so low impact as it doesn't line up against H1, anglers, shadows and goifs. While the scooze is mediocre at best vs phoenix it's so versatile that I'd be reluctant to cutting it. Dechs like dredge, H1 and living end needs some GY hate and I think scooze is our best option given the amount of green we make.
Have been looking around for an early defensive creature, even considered hornets nest (although not blocking flying is an issue). But yeah, maybe finks is just the best option for us.
Thanks for the kind words and good luck with the primer CurdBros!
Great input aedrew. Have never been a fan of finks myself but maybe I should give it a try. Just seems so low impact as it doesn't line up against H1, anglers, shadows and goifs. While the scooze is mediocre at best vs phoenix it's so versatile that I'd be reluctant to cutting it. Dechs like dredge, H1 and living end needs some GY hate and I think scooze is our best option given the amount of green we make.
Have been looking around for an early defensive creature, even considered hornets nest (although not blocking flying is an issue). But yeah, maybe finks is just the best option for us.
Thanks! Your portion will be up tomorrow afternoon (with approximately 40% of the primer changing!)
Hornets Nest is a cool idea.
I hadn’t thought about how good Primal Command was right now...this weekend I played:
Sideboard is just what I came up with on the fly and would change with more play.
This is more of what I think of as “Green Control”. I love playing things like Titan builds and Combo builds...and this is the other side of decks I’m comfortable playing.
I always try to figure out how we can take advantage of Devotion (for me it’s generally card draw and mana sinks)...but Devotion requires us to fill the board with permanents. The only ways i know to do that are either get Devotion built up super fast to “go off” by turn four; or you make the game go as long as you can so the Devotion can get built up and used. This is more of the latter style.
The only questions I’ve had after the weekend of play is:
1. Elvish Visionary ca. Coiling Oracle - I nearly always have the blue; so Oracle May be worth it. Started testing it today in place of Visionary.
2. Do I need more than 1 copy of Eternal Witness - I don’t love it by itself; but it is good with Command. May just run one copy.
The only questions I’ve had after the weekend of play is:
1. Elvish Visionary ca. Coiling Oracle - I nearly always have the blue; so Oracle May be worth it. Started testing it today in place of Visionary.
2. Do I need more than 1 copy of Eternal Witness - I don’t love it by itself; but it is good with Command. May just run one copy.
1. If you almost always have blue, then it's worth testing. At 21 lands, the extra landdrop won't proc all that often, and rarely you'll blow up Nykthos, but if there's no other drawback, then it might be the better card.
2. I've been running a G/r Eternal-Command list using 3 Eternal Witness for a few months now with poor results. Too often I draw it early and have nothing to return with it except a fetchland, which usually isn't great. I'm not often in a position where chaining E.Wit + Primal Command is a great play because I usually need to search for a game-ending threat, not keep their boardstate down. I think I will drop down to 2 copies. 1 might be correct.
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I was using her last night and I'm very pleased with the card draw results. While she isn't right off the bat contributing to devotion, abrupt decay on a stick was useful multiple occasions and late game destroying reduntant arbor elves and Utopia sprawls and extra copies of nykthos or other dead draws was more than useful. She's in the same space as tireless tracker when you get down to it. But unlike tracker she eats anything for the card draw effect, not just land drops.
Final three sections to follow.
I have been playing Hydroid Krasis for a bit...it’s surprisingly powerful. I may think this simply because my favorite two cards in green Devotion are Garruk Wildspeaker and Kimora, Master of the Depths...but the two of them and card draw is tough for many opponents to beat.
I am going to try out Time Warp too. As many on here know; my lists tend to run a lot of Walkers...and it is just a good fit with Garruk, Kiera, and friends
I’ll let you know how it goes tonight.
Also...Two BIG announcements that could effect us:
1. Do we think the new London Mulligan will be good for us? I certainly do (as getting a 1-drop in our opening hand is huge for us).
2. Do we think the Modern product being announced this Wednesday will (a) have new cards for Modern not in standard and (b) if so...did they think about Devotion or big Mana when they developed the nee, higher power cards?
Exciting time to play Modern! The next two months are chock full of Modern and they just announced the next Mythic Championship is Modern!
4-CMC is a good number for us too. I too liked Vraska Golgari Queen. My only issue with her was when I players her early I didn’t always have something to pitch. I think you could build around her though to mitigate this (maybe with Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, etc.). You could make a pretty darn good Golgari Superfriends deck just going up the curve of Nissa VOZ, Garruk, Vraska GQ, Ob Nixilis, 6-drop Vraska :).
______
Playing with Time Warp makes me want to play with Venser, the Sojourner and Eternal Witness (I’m a sucker for infinite combos :). Having that and the potential to make creatures unblockable seems fair.
Yea Hydroid Krasis is good for pretty much any deck that can cast it. I just don't have the money to shell out for it right now, so I'll just wait till after it drops out of standard to revisit going blue.
1. London Mulligan: Probably better, but not specifically better for us than it is better for other decks. Might let us run a single BoP or Oath less than usual if we can more consistently get a t1 ramp.
2. I'm hoping that the Modern announcement is for a reprint set that is not meant to be drafted, since that type of set created a ton of worthless reprints and skimped on reprints of cards that were actually used in modern. I'm expecting a Challenger Series type product of pre-built constructed-playable decks.
I do not believe they are printing new Modern-legal cards that are not standard-legal. I don't think this is a good idea, and it would artificially raise the price of these new cards because this type of non-set product usually have limited print runs. If they print new cards that end up being staples, it'll force people to buy these new cards, which I can totally see WotC doing. These new limited run staples will immediately need reprints and we'll exacerbate the reprint problem that we are trying to solve.
If they do make new cards, I doubt they'd have Devotion specifically in mind when designing new cards, but I can see something for Ramp strategies in general, since Primetime decks are fairly common, with a few different archetypes floating around.
You want to be casting that card for at least x=4, so it's expensive.
MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
Yeah...I tend to play somewhat "combo-style" overwhelming decks (that revolve heavily around Garruk and Kiora untapping as it just seems like one of the most broken things we can do)...so card draw is VERY important to my style decks. I'll outline more of my results with Krasis shortly. Thus far, however, I've found it to be a strong card.
I diversified the fetch lands a bit but otherwise did not mess wit the 75.
Round 1 v. Mono-Red Phoenix
Game 1: I lose pretty quickly to double prowess creatures and 3x Manamorphose into turn 4 hard-cast Phoenix.
Game 2: Similar to above, double prowess creature into 2x Manamorphose into Looting and bring back 2x Phoenix on turn 3. 0-2.
0-1
Round 2 v. Humans
Game 1: Opponent goes aggro with humans and follows up with Malcontents. I start to crawl back with a Primal Command but an attack followed by a Phantasmal Image on Malcontents ends it.
Game 2: I ramp into Wurmcoil with a Kessig Wolf Run out and that is enough.
Game 3: He keeps an odd hand where the first play is turn 3 Mantis Rider, followed by turn 4 Mantis Rider. Since opponent hasn't played anything else, I highly suspect next turn will be: Mantis Rider/Phantasmal Image on Mantis Rider, attack for 9, you lose. I need to do something big this turn, so I do: Time Warp into Hornet Queen to stabilize. Despite Phantasmal Image on my Queen twice, Ballista cleans up and closes it out with Wurmcoil backup. 2-1.
1-1
Round 3 v. Mardu Control
Game 1: The control player's heavy creature removal deck just doesn't line up with my powerful spells and gives me all the time I need to top-deck Tooth and Nail for the win.
Game 2: I have a pretty aggro start with ramp into Primeval Titan and I am careful not to attack with too much into Settle mana. I eventually close it pretty quick with a Garruk overrun when opponent is tapped low. 2-0.
2-1
Round 4 v. G Tron
Game 1: I play the control deck with Eternal Command chain, stopping Tron and really anything relevant. Winning is academic.
Game 2: Like above but better: I have Crumble to Dust and Eternal Witness to stop Tron forever. I have Ancient Grudge as well to tag a small Ballista and an Oblivion Stone. I think I eventually win with Kessig. Opponent had several opportunities to tutor up Ghost Quarter and deal with my suited up lands, but never did so. Either way, I was pretty far ahead and opponent was low on mana the whole game. 2-0.
3-1
Round 5 v. Eldrazi Tron
Game 1: Opponent mulls to 5 and I sort of get to steal this one as the ELdrazi player puts up a good fight on 5. But I get enough time to do the powerful things.
Game 2: This one is long with dueling Wurmcoils stalling things out. But the stall favors me and I think I closed it out with hard-cast Emrakul. 2-0.
4-1
Round 6 v. Mono-Red Phoenix
Game 1: The Phoenix player spends a lot of cards to put me low with prowess creatures, but I chain Primal Commands to stabilize. Despite seeing almost half the deck, opponent does not get a Phoenix in the yard for several turns and I eventually take the win.
Game 2: You can watch this match at 5:39 from CFB's twitch. I think I won in the side boarding phase. I take 4 damage to play a turn 2 Trinisphere which just shuts the opponent dow. Opponent brings in questionable cards: Blood Moon, Surgical, and Eidolon. 2-0.
5-1
Round 7 v. Hollow One
Game 1: Opponent threatens a very quick clock, but I untapped with Birds, Kiora's Follower, and Overgrowth to steal a win with Tooth and Nail on turn 4.
Game 2: I like my hand with Baloth and ramp, but the opponent has the turn 3 kill with double Hollow Ones and other support. I don't think I am ever winning against that start.
Game 3: I keep a questionable hand of Emrakul, Sprawl, Kiora's Follower, and Overgrowth plus lands. I have the ramp and hope for some payoff or a roadblock. He turn 1 Thoguhtseizes the Overgrowth. I develop good mana, but draw running lands and die to all the big creatures. 1-2.
5-2
I lost my win-and-in but still prized at 13th place. My games basically had three flavors: 1 Stabilize with Hornet Queen or Wurmcoil and slowly build to game wining spells 2 Race with a quick game winning spell 3 Out-value opponents with Primal Command and Time Warp loops. The deck struggles against the super aggro decks, but it is nice to steal games versus the uninteractive decks with Tooth and Nail. Seems to play circles around other big mana decks and non-blue control decks.
Thoughts on the 75, would you make any changes?
The situation occurred several times against Red Phoenix and Hollow One where I was facing one or more attackers for 4+ damage where I really wished I had a creature I could play for 2 or 3 mana that would either trade or at least get some ETB value and then chump to help me buy a few turns. For instance, I'd have Obstinate Baloth in hand, which seemed perfect, but at 4 mana was just a little too slow.
The card that comes to mind is Kitchen Finks, as I could gain some life and chump two attacks, hopefully getting to 5+ mana to start to stabilize.
I would look to replace Ooze and Tracker, even though both are good cards. Tracker has been great for me, but not for the aggro matchups that seem prevelent. Ooze I am starting to like less and less. Its versatility is great, but the graveyard hate and life gain can be too slow and it takes a while to get it out of bolt range against the red decks. I could also see moving Walking Ballista to the sideboard and maybe cutting Dragonlord Atarka as Ballista serves a similar function.
That being said, I am still new to the deck and would give it more reps before making major changes.
What a great outline of each game! Thanks for posting this!
I actually brought this up with my brother today. I honestly think we could be one of those "fringe" decks they may have looked at. At minimum they would likely have thought of ramp to some extent. I would be surprised if we didn't get at least one playable tool in this set.
Wild Growth
Wall of Blossoms
Fierce Empath
Growth obviously is least likely; but it would be fun to run a set of Alpha ones :). The other two could easily be in there without breaking anything.
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Congrats Uegjo!
With the additions to the Primer today will be your current list as the Tooth and Nail example. Keep up the great play!
Let us know anytime you 5-0 so we can post it! This goes for everyone
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I’ll be testing out the London mulligan (to see if combo versions become better and if we can cut on bird) over the next few weeks.
I do think we are one of the decks they would likely give a card to in Modern Hoizons...so testing may be in vain prior to release...but at least we can look at playing one less one drop, if combo gets better, etc.
Great input aedrew. Have never been a fan of finks myself but maybe I should give it a try. Just seems so low impact as it doesn't line up against H1, anglers, shadows and goifs. While the scooze is mediocre at best vs phoenix it's so versatile that I'd be reluctant to cutting it. Dechs like dredge, H1 and living end needs some GY hate and I think scooze is our best option given the amount of green we make.
Have been looking around for an early defensive creature, even considered hornets nest (although not blocking flying is an issue). But yeah, maybe finks is just the best option for us.
Thanks! Your portion will be up tomorrow afternoon (with approximately 40% of the primer changing!)
Hornets Nest is a cool idea.
I hadn’t thought about how good Primal Command was right now...this weekend I played:
4x Arbor Elf
3x Birds of Paradise
3x Coiling Oracle
2x Eternal Witness
1x Tireless Tracker
2x Acidic Slime
3x Walking Ballista
Enchantment (9)
3x Oath of Nissa
4x Utopia Sprawl
2x Lignify
3x Garruk Wildspeaker
3x Kiora, Master of the Depths
2x Vivien Reid
1x Karn Liberated
Instant/Sorcery (3)
3x Primal Command
Land (21)
9x Fetch Land
3x Breeding Pool
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
5x Forest
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Spreading Seas
2x Spellskite
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Hydroid Krasis
2x Carnage Tyrant
2x Trinisphere
1x Thragtusk
Sideboard is just what I came up with on the fly and would change with more play.
This is more of what I think of as “Green Control”. I love playing things like Titan builds and Combo builds...and this is the other side of decks I’m comfortable playing.
I always try to figure out how we can take advantage of Devotion (for me it’s generally card draw and mana sinks)...but Devotion requires us to fill the board with permanents. The only ways i know to do that are either get Devotion built up super fast to “go off” by turn four; or you make the game go as long as you can so the Devotion can get built up and used. This is more of the latter style.
The only questions I’ve had after the weekend of play is:
1. Elvish Visionary ca. Coiling Oracle - I nearly always have the blue; so Oracle May be worth it. Started testing it today in place of Visionary.
2. Do I need more than 1 copy of Eternal Witness - I don’t love it by itself; but it is good with Command. May just run one copy.
***will provide game info tomorrow***
1. If you almost always have blue, then it's worth testing. At 21 lands, the extra landdrop won't proc all that often, and rarely you'll blow up Nykthos, but if there's no other drawback, then it might be the better card.
2. I've been running a G/r Eternal-Command list using 3 Eternal Witness for a few months now with poor results. Too often I draw it early and have nothing to return with it except a fetchland, which usually isn't great. I'm not often in a position where chaining E.Wit + Primal Command is a great play because I usually need to search for a game-ending threat, not keep their boardstate down. I think I will drop down to 2 copies. 1 might be correct.