1. Whats your sideboard plan against jund?
2. Also what do you think of abrade? I am starting to like 1-2 copies in the board against jund(can pick off all their non gofy creatures) and kill the artifact hate(grif+spellbomb) that they bring in.
3. Starting to not like chalice as much anymore since my meta is filled with jund and grixis shadow seems to have disappeared.
For Jund add some leylines or blood moons, whichever you have. then bontu's. cut some fast mana and looting
Abrade seems OK but I really want my SB cards to be haymakers. I'd rather play lightning axe as a hatebear killer/discard outlet and shattering spree/EE/Shatterstorm
Chalice is meta dependent. YOu are right shadows and lantern and friends seem to be declining. I'm testing a non-chalice list today.
Still a newbie to the deck, but I'd imagine tossing the bontu's and a through the breach would be optimal. Since they're more likely to kill you with the inkmoth, and bontu's is sorcery. Then 2nd breach is just redundant.
After maybe goryo's the borb for blocker. Then if no griselbrand use through the breach on worldspine.
1. Discard breach and bontu
2. If they attack with overseer, ambush it with vengeance
3 If they pump with overseer then take 3 psn counter and go to your turn to flashback faithless looting to search for a land or griselbrand. Since they pumped, next turn they will have lethal on both overseer and blinkmoth. I think they would attack with both then you can vengeance your borb to ambush the overseer and hopefully get a land of of the 3 draws(faithless+draw step) to shoot down inkmoth.
4. Then go for breach onto wurm and try to kill in 3 turns.
I feel like when you run running 10 fetches, you are making your main gameplan a lot worse. Every point of life really matters in this deck.
@18 life- you can activate griselbrand 5 times with a single shoal+wurm. Almost 100% kill.
@15 life- you can activate it 4 times with a single+wurm. Very high kill rate.
Played in a 47 person Modern for Staples today. (Been in a real slump lately.)
Round 1 vs. Mardu Reveler. I mull 2 zero land hands and keep. He plays 3 Inquisition of Kozilek and 3 Thoughtseize to go with a Young Pyromancer (and 1 of those discard) on turn 3. I have nothing to play. Didn't draw Night's Whisper to get some cards back. In the next game, I just literally draw nothing except a Shoal and he gets Hazoret the Fervent and swings me a bunch of times to kill me. This guy made some questionable plays the next round, including losing 3 1/1 Elementals and a Reveler to a Goyf and Scooze attacking for no reason. I feel like my tiebreakers are to ***** today. Literally the furthest from being an even match today. 0-2.
Round 2 vs. Enchantress. Yes, I get to play against a friend from our local shop who has always done well vs. me. In the first game, turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity (essentially) shuts me down and I dick around with draw spells, trying to find a Wurm. I don't find it and some Ghostly Prison/Sphere of Safety effects are out. I've had enough. In the next game, he only gets 1 Ghostly Prison so I get Worldspine Wurm and Griselbrand on his EoT to pay 4 mana on my turn to kill him. In the next game, he does Arbor Elf. I do EE, smelling a double White. I kill it right away because of my hand, just needing Goryo's Vengeance, so I Cathartic Reunion, discarding Griselbrand and find not 1, but 2 Goryo's Vengeance. When it rains it pours. He shows me 2 Leyline of Sanctity in hand. He unluckily drew them during the game! 2-1.
Round 3 vs. Affinity. In the first game, he goes for the Infect kill, but he needs to make it to his turn 4. I went to the discard and put Griselbrand and killed him a turn before lethal with Goryo's Vengeance while at 6 Infect. In the next game, I'm not going to lie but I got super lucky getting an Ornithopter, a Vault Skirge, a Signal Pest, and a fresh Steel Overseer by exiling SSG to do Anger of the Gods. He rebuilds and I dick around with draw spells, but find Griselbrand in time and end up getting Borborygmos Enraged right away, so no need to chain Shoals, but just do it once. 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Burn. My tournament comes to an abrupt end. He plays a million dudes and even though I get a bunch of lands and do a Nourishing Shoal, I don't find anything. I finally find a Griselbrand, but he does Skullcrack in response to kill me. In the next game, I am just missing Griselbrand. I can't find him in time and may have done a mistake by discarding a Chalice of the Void during the late game. He ended up doing 4 Two Mana burn spells, including 2 Skillcrack, to kill me. Still, I didn't really draw a win-con and I had only 3 lands at the time. I ended up drawing 5 lands in the next 6 draws. He ended up losing the next round to the mirror, a guy who ended up winning the whole tournament. I can't be mad because this guy just won a big Legacy Staples tournament locally and has had super poor luck in 4 other matches against me (including 2 D and T vs. Bogles; terrible for D and T). 0-2.
Round 5 vs. E Tron. I get a good matchup while out of contention. I NEVER get to play against E Tron anymore, so I'll take what I can get. I think this was the highlight of the day for me. She gets not much but Relics of Progenitus and MAtter Reshaper while I draw and discard 2 Goryo's Vengeance and some lands. I get to 4 mana and SSG Through the Breach Griselbrand and win. In the next game, she does Thought-Knot Seer on turn 3, but I don't have the win-con yet, just multiples of 2. I get Wurm next turn and I just need land or mana source to Breach him the following turn. I do and win pretty easily with 5/5 Trample Wurms. Some people get all the luck with the matchups, eh? 2-0.
Round 6 vs. 5 Color Tribal Zoo. This looks like the new list with the Mantis Rider. He swings me and swings me to 3 life. I have nothing. He goes for Lightning Bolt on his turn because he thinks I'm dead, but I do Nourishing Shoal in response, draw Faithless Looting into the win next turn. Got prettttty lucky there. In the next game, I get there with a turn 4 Splice/Through the Breach Griselbrand. I couldn't play around a potential Disdainful Stroke that I thought he had, but he didn't. Then I draw a land to Breach a Borborygmos Enraged the next turn. He told me he punted the first game because he could have done Tribal Flames for lethal and responded to the Shoal with Bolt to win. 2-0.
I finish 4-2, which was 12th I think. It's pretty mediocre, but as poorly as I've been doing recently, I will take it. I actually feel some confidence at not prizing. Sad, isn't it? (just a few months ago, I'd be sad to not win 1st)
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
1. Discard breach and bontu
2. If they attack with overseer, ambush it with vengeance
3 If they pump with overseer then take 3 psn counter and go to your turn to flashback faithless looting to search for a land or griselbrand. Since they pumped, next turn they will have lethal on both overseer and blinkmoth. I think they would attack with both then you can vengeance your borb to ambush the overseer and hopefully get a land of of the 3 draws(faithless+draw step) to shoot down inkmoth.
4. Then go for breach onto wurm and try to kill in 3 turns.
I think this is the right play here. Be defensive with your borborygmos and try to clear the way for a multi turn Wurm win
Played in a Modern 5K today - 32 people, 5 rounds.
Round 1 vs. NO OPPONENT. Guy shows up, so they pair him to me. He's on Grixis Shadow. I assume he'll have good lucky. He gets stuck on 1 land and on turn 4 I draw another Goryo's Vengeance (other was discarded) to get Borborygmos Enraged for game. In the next one, I got Blood Moon discarded, then Countersqualled when I had 1 mana open. He draws a Death's Shadow after that and kills me with it. I go for a Through the Breach when I'm about to die, but he has Countersquall again. In the final game, I got SSG into Chalice of the Void on 1. He feels stumped, but gets a basic Swamp when I turn 3 Blood Moon him. We play draw go. I am waiting for a Through the Breach to win the game. He keeps getting discard countered so he can power out a Gurmag Angler, which puts me on a clock. I draw 3 Goryo's Vengeance and a Faithless Looting that I can't win with since I have Chalice on 1. I am about to go to the discard step and discard Griselbrand when a Collective Brutality puts me at 6 cards. I can't go to the discard step on time, can't loot or it's countered, and don't find a Through the Breach to win. I also could have found a Cathartic Reunion, but admittedly I sided 1 out, down to 2 and had cast 1 already. Rough loss. 1-2.
Round 2 vs. Esper Goryo's Vengeance. In the first game, we come off slow, but he does Collective Brutality to nab my Goryo's Vengeance before I can do it on turn 3. I draw another and win. In the next game, it is easy to just go to the discard step with 2 Goryo's Vengeance and Pact of Negation in hand. Griselbrand is waiting for me to draw a 2nd land to get him back. My opponent stalls on 1 land too. I find it and hope that he doesn't have double Surgical Extraction. He doesn't even have 1 and it's elementary from there. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Humans. I've played this deck now 5-6 times and this was my first loss. We both mull to 5. In the first game, he does Kitesail Freebooter to nab a Goryo's Vengeance, but I top deck another and win on the spot. In the next game, he Meddling Mage, naming Goryo's Vengeance the turn before I can do it. Then he names Anger of the Gods and it's my next draw. My next 2 draws are also Goryo's Vengeance and he wins. In the final game, a Kitesail Freebooter nabs an Engineered Explosives, which would have been sweeeet a game ago, and he does triple Sin Collector to take everything I have. If I draw Engineered Explosives, the 2nd Anger of the Gods, or 2 Bontu's Last Reckoning, I probably win after clearing his board. I draw Anger of the Gods that I scryed last turn, but he uses the last card Vialed in on 3 to Sin Collector the now drawn Anger of the Gods. I flashback Faithless Looting, but there's no out at this point. 1-2.
Round 4 vs. Hollow One. Not much to see. He had a 1/2 dude and I Goryo's Vengeanced on turn 3 to win easily. In the next game, a Burning Inquiry put 2 lands of mine in the GY, so I couldn't have an automatic turn 4 Through the Breach Wurm or Griselbrand. But I top deck a SSG after using a Shoal and Borborygmos Enraged to live the turn before and swing 15 while he's at 14. 2-0.
Round 5 vs. Zoo. A friend from the car. I Through the Breach Wurm on turn 3 and he doesn't have Path to Exile, surprisingly. In the next game, I just get a lot of removal and barely eek it out with a Wurm again. 2-0.
I go 3-2, so 7-4 for the 2 days. Did mediocre both days, with both terrible draws for me or terrible draws for my opponent. Would have rather 0-X on 1 day and top 8ed the next, but that's what happens. I'm really starting to doubt my ability to play Magic the last few months. Kind of disenchanted with Modern when I only draw better than my opponent in 50% of the matches, so I can only win 50% of the matches or slightly more.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
7-4 ain't bad, but it seems like you are going through some variance period. sorry to hear FCG.
You said this is the first time you've lost to humans. how bad do you think that matchup is? I personally think it's definitively bad and I'd expect to be at least 35/65. Maybe I'm doing something wrong
FYI this is what I played on the weekend in the Modern Challenge. Deck still feels good. I tested Leylines to counteract the Jundy/Stormy online meta. I cut the blood moons because they are more substitutes in that they are for similar matchups. It's been a while since I played 0 chalice but it may be right given that matchups like GDS and Lantern are dwindling. Not sure if that's right. I still like Grave Titan. Got to cast it vs. Logan Nettle's UB midrange and it won the game by itself (probably would've won the game by itself Breached as well. hastey 6/6 that leaves 8 power is pretty cool). I feel like I'm skimping too much for control matchups, as both Blood Moon and Chalice both were good vs. UWx, whereas Leyline does nothing in that matchup. May add a third Pact, or leave in a single chalice, or something. Still a work in progress in the new BBE/Jace world but I feel good about the archetype thus far.
Yeah, I like dropping chalice for leyline in the current meta. I think. I'll have to try out grave Titan, sounds fun. I also was intrigued by the rabblemaster in the board of a recent 5:0 list. I think I still like Moon for control, Jund and all the greedy 4c nonsense people are trying now. I also still don't love csthsrtic and probably put a brutality main, but that's just my preference.
What matchup are the Rabblemasters going to help in? Midrange/creature decks are still going to have those and brickwall the Rabblemaster. We are generally faster vs. combo and we have things to bring in already for those (leyline/moon/chalice/brutality). Vs. control we are already favored and have the pacts/brutality/chalice/moon package. I could be missing the point but Rabblemasters seem unnecessary.
Have to agree. Rabblemaster doesn't seem particularly helpful? I love the idea of grave titan since that has long been one of my favorite cards, but even there I feel like it is a bit reaching. Typically I fall back to Emrakul, but I can certainly see an argument for an "earlier" threat that is still a good breach target. Either way I think additional creatures need to be high impact and preferably worthy of putting into play with Breach. Titan fits that, rabblemaster doesn't.
7-4 ain't bad, but it seems like you are going through some variance period. sorry to hear FCG.
You said this is the first time you've lost to humans. how bad do you think that matchup is? I personally think it's definitively bad and I'd expect to be at least 35/65. Maybe I'm doing something wrong
It's all just personal experience. I've played a lot vs. Infect in the past and it felt like less than a 10% matchup. But a lot of that is the draws that I personally have faced. I do not expect that matchup to be less than 10% for most players.
When I played vs. Affinity in the past, I would never draw HATE, but I would draw quick hands, so the matchup was around 50/50. I have drawn nearly at least 1 hate card every SBed game against Affinity in recent times, so it has also felt a lot easier. I personally believe the matchup is probably 40/60, but most people may have it at 35/65.
With regards to Humans, as you can see, I've only had limited experience. 6 matches is not enough to really know. But I have always drawn multiple pieces of hate cards, so it's hard to shut down EE, Anger, AND Bontu's. Any of those resolving can easily wipe their board and they are left with no chance unless they have us low and draw Mantis Riders. The odd part for me is that I've had only TWO possible turn 2s in the past 3 months (I have played other decks too though) and both got blown up by losing the die roll and Kitesail Freebooter. After the last match where I got owned, I can easily see it being closer to what you said at 35/65. My estimate (butt guess) would be around 40/60, but players who usually draw well against them can do better, lol.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
There is a hand I'm always on the edge about mulling or keeping. Do anyone keep one draw effct(faithless, night's whisper, and reunion) and +2/3 lands+not combo cards(vengeance, griselbrand, or breach)?
Assuming it is game 1 and you don't know what you are up against.
For me, I generally mull if the draw effect is not faithless.
There is a hand I'm always on the edge about mulling or keeping. Do anyone keep one draw effct(faithless, night's whisper, and reunion) and +2/3 lands+not combo cards(vengeance, griselbrand, or breach)?
Assuming it is game 1 and you don't know what you are up against.
For me, I generally mull if the draw effect is not faithless.
I'm unclear on what the actual hand is, so if you could give us some examples that would help.
Generally speaking on the draw I'm less inclined to mulligan because discard to hand size is a real discard outlet. I'm assuming the "not combo cards" are rits and manamorphose and shoals (there aren't that many non land, non draw, non combo cards in the deck anyway). If a hand is like Whispers, 3 lands, shoal, shoal, ritual, then that's not keepable in my eyes.
Has anyone considered Mox Amber in Grishoalbrand? I looked back in this thread and it doesn’t appear that anyone has brought it up as potential synergy with the deck.
Clearly it doesn’t do anything until we’re already starting to combo off and we have either Gris or Borbo in play, but once we start drawing cards with Gris every Mox Amber we hit is an extra B, R, or G potentially. I’m not sure what it would replace in the 60/75 but free mana, conditional or not, should always be looked at closely.
The argument is there that SSG is just better which it very well could be but I still think this card needs to be tested in this deck to see if it adds anything to our gameplan. Any thoughts on numbers? What it would replace?
Has anyone considered Mox Amber in Grishoalbrand? I looked back in this thread and it doesn’t appear that anyone has brought it up as potential synergy with the deck.
Clearly it doesn’t do anything until we’re already starting to combo off and we have either Gris or Borbo in play, but once we start drawing cards with Gris every Mox Amber we hit is an extra B, R, or G potentially. I’m not sure what it would replace in the 60/75 but free mana, conditional or not, should always be looked at closely.
The argument is there that SSG is just better which it very well could be but I still think this card needs to be tested in this deck to see if it adds anything to our gameplan. Any thoughts on numbers? What it would replace?
I'm planning on maybe playing it as a one-of. As you said, SSG has infinitely more utility (grey ogre, Breaching ahead of schedule, mana during combo turn). I don't feel that start-up mana during combo turns is a constraint often enough for me so I'm not optimistic.
hello guys , i would like to ask if thoughtseize is worth as 2 of in our sideboard
does the 2 life loss is too much that will ruin our combo as the life with the griselbrand is maths at is best or brutallity is enough to take the cards we dont need from our opponents hand ?
Generally Brutailty has much wider application (especially BUrn) and should take most of the things that you care about taking. Life loss is obviously very significant with how linear and proactive Modern is. I haven't encountered a matchup where THoughtseize specifically would be a matchup breaking card.
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2. Also what do you think of abrade? I am starting to like 1-2 copies in the board against jund(can pick off all their non gofy creatures) and kill the artifact hate(grif+spellbomb) that they bring in.
3. Starting to not like chalice as much anymore since my meta is filled with jund and grixis shadow seems to have disappeared.
Abrade seems OK but I really want my SB cards to be haymakers. I'd rather play lightning axe as a hatebear killer/discard outlet and shattering spree/EE/Shatterstorm
Chalice is meta dependent. YOu are right shadows and lantern and friends seem to be declining. I'm testing a non-chalice list today.
After maybe goryo's the borb for blocker. Then if no griselbrand use through the breach on worldspine.
1. Discard breach and bontu
2. If they attack with overseer, ambush it with vengeance
3 If they pump with overseer then take 3 psn counter and go to your turn to flashback faithless looting to search for a land or griselbrand. Since they pumped, next turn they will have lethal on both overseer and blinkmoth. I think they would attack with both then you can vengeance your borb to ambush the overseer and hopefully get a land of of the 3 draws(faithless+draw step) to shoot down inkmoth.
4. Then go for breach onto wurm and try to kill in 3 turns.
@18 life- you can activate griselbrand 5 times with a single shoal+wurm. Almost 100% kill.
@15 life- you can activate it 4 times with a single+wurm. Very high kill rate.
I prefer 4 fetch and a single dual to search.
Round 1 vs. Mardu Reveler. I mull 2 zero land hands and keep. He plays 3 Inquisition of Kozilek and 3 Thoughtseize to go with a Young Pyromancer (and 1 of those discard) on turn 3. I have nothing to play. Didn't draw Night's Whisper to get some cards back. In the next game, I just literally draw nothing except a Shoal and he gets Hazoret the Fervent and swings me a bunch of times to kill me. This guy made some questionable plays the next round, including losing 3 1/1 Elementals and a Reveler to a Goyf and Scooze attacking for no reason. I feel like my tiebreakers are to ***** today. Literally the furthest from being an even match today. 0-2.
Round 2 vs. Enchantress. Yes, I get to play against a friend from our local shop who has always done well vs. me. In the first game, turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity (essentially) shuts me down and I dick around with draw spells, trying to find a Wurm. I don't find it and some Ghostly Prison/Sphere of Safety effects are out. I've had enough. In the next game, he only gets 1 Ghostly Prison so I get Worldspine Wurm and Griselbrand on his EoT to pay 4 mana on my turn to kill him. In the next game, he does Arbor Elf. I do EE, smelling a double White. I kill it right away because of my hand, just needing Goryo's Vengeance, so I Cathartic Reunion, discarding Griselbrand and find not 1, but 2 Goryo's Vengeance. When it rains it pours. He shows me 2 Leyline of Sanctity in hand. He unluckily drew them during the game! 2-1.
Round 3 vs. Affinity. In the first game, he goes for the Infect kill, but he needs to make it to his turn 4. I went to the discard and put Griselbrand and killed him a turn before lethal with Goryo's Vengeance while at 6 Infect. In the next game, I'm not going to lie but I got super lucky getting an Ornithopter, a Vault Skirge, a Signal Pest, and a fresh Steel Overseer by exiling SSG to do Anger of the Gods. He rebuilds and I dick around with draw spells, but find Griselbrand in time and end up getting Borborygmos Enraged right away, so no need to chain Shoals, but just do it once. 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Burn. My tournament comes to an abrupt end. He plays a million dudes and even though I get a bunch of lands and do a Nourishing Shoal, I don't find anything. I finally find a Griselbrand, but he does Skullcrack in response to kill me. In the next game, I am just missing Griselbrand. I can't find him in time and may have done a mistake by discarding a Chalice of the Void during the late game. He ended up doing 4 Two Mana burn spells, including 2 Skillcrack, to kill me. Still, I didn't really draw a win-con and I had only 3 lands at the time. I ended up drawing 5 lands in the next 6 draws. He ended up losing the next round to the mirror, a guy who ended up winning the whole tournament. I can't be mad because this guy just won a big Legacy Staples tournament locally and has had super poor luck in 4 other matches against me (including 2 D and T vs. Bogles; terrible for D and T). 0-2.
Round 5 vs. E Tron. I get a good matchup while out of contention. I NEVER get to play against E Tron anymore, so I'll take what I can get. I think this was the highlight of the day for me. She gets not much but Relics of Progenitus and MAtter Reshaper while I draw and discard 2 Goryo's Vengeance and some lands. I get to 4 mana and SSG Through the Breach Griselbrand and win. In the next game, she does Thought-Knot Seer on turn 3, but I don't have the win-con yet, just multiples of 2. I get Wurm next turn and I just need land or mana source to Breach him the following turn. I do and win pretty easily with 5/5 Trample Wurms. Some people get all the luck with the matchups, eh? 2-0.
Round 6 vs. 5 Color Tribal Zoo. This looks like the new list with the Mantis Rider. He swings me and swings me to 3 life. I have nothing. He goes for Lightning Bolt on his turn because he thinks I'm dead, but I do Nourishing Shoal in response, draw Faithless Looting into the win next turn. Got prettttty lucky there. In the next game, I get there with a turn 4 Splice/Through the Breach Griselbrand. I couldn't play around a potential Disdainful Stroke that I thought he had, but he didn't. Then I draw a land to Breach a Borborygmos Enraged the next turn. He told me he punted the first game because he could have done Tribal Flames for lethal and responded to the Shoal with Bolt to win. 2-0.
I finish 4-2, which was 12th I think. It's pretty mediocre, but as poorly as I've been doing recently, I will take it. I actually feel some confidence at not prizing. Sad, isn't it? (just a few months ago, I'd be sad to not win 1st)
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I think this is the right play here. Be defensive with your borborygmos and try to clear the way for a multi turn Wurm win
Round 1 vs. NO OPPONENT. Guy shows up, so they pair him to me. He's on Grixis Shadow. I assume he'll have good lucky. He gets stuck on 1 land and on turn 4 I draw another Goryo's Vengeance (other was discarded) to get Borborygmos Enraged for game. In the next one, I got Blood Moon discarded, then Countersqualled when I had 1 mana open. He draws a Death's Shadow after that and kills me with it. I go for a Through the Breach when I'm about to die, but he has Countersquall again. In the final game, I got SSG into Chalice of the Void on 1. He feels stumped, but gets a basic Swamp when I turn 3 Blood Moon him. We play draw go. I am waiting for a Through the Breach to win the game. He keeps getting discard countered so he can power out a Gurmag Angler, which puts me on a clock. I draw 3 Goryo's Vengeance and a Faithless Looting that I can't win with since I have Chalice on 1. I am about to go to the discard step and discard Griselbrand when a Collective Brutality puts me at 6 cards. I can't go to the discard step on time, can't loot or it's countered, and don't find a Through the Breach to win. I also could have found a Cathartic Reunion, but admittedly I sided 1 out, down to 2 and had cast 1 already. Rough loss. 1-2.
Round 2 vs. Esper Goryo's Vengeance. In the first game, we come off slow, but he does Collective Brutality to nab my Goryo's Vengeance before I can do it on turn 3. I draw another and win. In the next game, it is easy to just go to the discard step with 2 Goryo's Vengeance and Pact of Negation in hand. Griselbrand is waiting for me to draw a 2nd land to get him back. My opponent stalls on 1 land too. I find it and hope that he doesn't have double Surgical Extraction. He doesn't even have 1 and it's elementary from there. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Humans. I've played this deck now 5-6 times and this was my first loss. We both mull to 5. In the first game, he does Kitesail Freebooter to nab a Goryo's Vengeance, but I top deck another and win on the spot. In the next game, he Meddling Mage, naming Goryo's Vengeance the turn before I can do it. Then he names Anger of the Gods and it's my next draw. My next 2 draws are also Goryo's Vengeance and he wins. In the final game, a Kitesail Freebooter nabs an Engineered Explosives, which would have been sweeeet a game ago, and he does triple Sin Collector to take everything I have. If I draw Engineered Explosives, the 2nd Anger of the Gods, or 2 Bontu's Last Reckoning, I probably win after clearing his board. I draw Anger of the Gods that I scryed last turn, but he uses the last card Vialed in on 3 to Sin Collector the now drawn Anger of the Gods. I flashback Faithless Looting, but there's no out at this point. 1-2.
Round 4 vs. Hollow One. Not much to see. He had a 1/2 dude and I Goryo's Vengeanced on turn 3 to win easily. In the next game, a Burning Inquiry put 2 lands of mine in the GY, so I couldn't have an automatic turn 4 Through the Breach Wurm or Griselbrand. But I top deck a SSG after using a Shoal and Borborygmos Enraged to live the turn before and swing 15 while he's at 14. 2-0.
Round 5 vs. Zoo. A friend from the car. I Through the Breach Wurm on turn 3 and he doesn't have Path to Exile, surprisingly. In the next game, I just get a lot of removal and barely eek it out with a Wurm again. 2-0.
I go 3-2, so 7-4 for the 2 days. Did mediocre both days, with both terrible draws for me or terrible draws for my opponent. Would have rather 0-X on 1 day and top 8ed the next, but that's what happens. I'm really starting to doubt my ability to play Magic the last few months. Kind of disenchanted with Modern when I only draw better than my opponent in 50% of the matches, so I can only win 50% of the matches or slightly more.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)You said this is the first time you've lost to humans. how bad do you think that matchup is? I personally think it's definitively bad and I'd expect to be at least 35/65. Maybe I'm doing something wrong
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/982238#online
It's all just personal experience. I've played a lot vs. Infect in the past and it felt like less than a 10% matchup. But a lot of that is the draws that I personally have faced. I do not expect that matchup to be less than 10% for most players.
When I played vs. Affinity in the past, I would never draw HATE, but I would draw quick hands, so the matchup was around 50/50. I have drawn nearly at least 1 hate card every SBed game against Affinity in recent times, so it has also felt a lot easier. I personally believe the matchup is probably 40/60, but most people may have it at 35/65.
With regards to Humans, as you can see, I've only had limited experience. 6 matches is not enough to really know. But I have always drawn multiple pieces of hate cards, so it's hard to shut down EE, Anger, AND Bontu's. Any of those resolving can easily wipe their board and they are left with no chance unless they have us low and draw Mantis Riders. The odd part for me is that I've had only TWO possible turn 2s in the past 3 months (I have played other decks too though) and both got blown up by losing the die roll and Kitesail Freebooter. After the last match where I got owned, I can easily see it being closer to what you said at 35/65. My estimate (butt guess) would be around 40/60, but players who usually draw well against them can do better, lol.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Assuming it is game 1 and you don't know what you are up against.
For me, I generally mull if the draw effect is not faithless.
Generally speaking on the draw I'm less inclined to mulligan because discard to hand size is a real discard outlet. I'm assuming the "not combo cards" are rits and manamorphose and shoals (there aren't that many non land, non draw, non combo cards in the deck anyway). If a hand is like Whispers, 3 lands, shoal, shoal, ritual, then that's not keepable in my eyes.
Clearly it doesn’t do anything until we’re already starting to combo off and we have either Gris or Borbo in play, but once we start drawing cards with Gris every Mox Amber we hit is an extra B, R, or G potentially. I’m not sure what it would replace in the 60/75 but free mana, conditional or not, should always be looked at closely.
The argument is there that SSG is just better which it very well could be but I still think this card needs to be tested in this deck to see if it adds anything to our gameplan. Any thoughts on numbers? What it would replace?
I'm planning on maybe playing it as a one-of. As you said, SSG has infinitely more utility (grey ogre, Breaching ahead of schedule, mana during combo turn). I don't feel that start-up mana during combo turns is a constraint often enough for me so I'm not optimistic.
Generally Brutailty has much wider application (especially BUrn) and should take most of the things that you care about taking. Life loss is obviously very significant with how linear and proactive Modern is. I haven't encountered a matchup where THoughtseize specifically would be a matchup breaking card.