You cut serum visions a lot. I personally would never cut one in any matchup. They help us find sideboard cards or our engines. I'd trim more equipment before trimming SV.
I think you have a good point. I've long been considering cutting more equipment, but always been a little chicken. For the foreseeable future I'll try cutting more equipment first and seeing how that works. The meta on MTGO is becoming less hostile, so I plan to start jamming some leagues again next week. I'm working on getting a good setup so I can record some leagues and post them to this thread for feedback.
Instead of SV we also could use Incubation // Incongruity to find an engine. has anyone thought about it? it digs a bit deeper and also only requires blue.
It's crossed my mind several times, but I don't think it;'s worth it. We play only 8 engines, so 5 cards deep will often whiff. Plus, SV is so great because it helps to find lands, which incubation does not. for incubation to work, I think the deck would need to take a different turn and play more creatures such as monestary mentor and maybe the scry bird, which would dilute the overall combo.
The new mulligan sounds too strong for combo decks and Tron to be implemented, is my guess. It gives those deck a significant boost in power and consistency, and it seems unlikely to me that it's going to be used.
Would be amazing for Cheeri0s though, I completely agree
The new mulligan sounds too strong for combo decks and Tron to be implemented, is my guess. It gives those deck a significant boost in power and consistency, and it seems unlikely to me that it's going to be used.
Would be amazing for Cheeri0s though, I completely agree
It sounds good on paper, and I am super interested to see what happens. We are easy to disrupt though, where it's very hard to fight through a combination of two discard or removal spells. We will find our engines more often, but a good opponent will more often have the bolt/thoughtseize. I've been playing with 3 swansong MD and they have been great. I think if the new mulligan rule sticks, it will be even more beneficial to play protection. If they are not needed in the matchup (like tron), you can bottom them with the new mulligan rule, but keep them in the interactive matchups. I hope MTGO implements the new rules. I am super curious to test if it will be as degenerate as it seems on first glance.
Hello everyone. RPTQ in December went 1-4 drop (3x Spirits 2x Hollow1, discarding my dudes at random).
After Skewer was released i returned to my roots and playerd some solid burn but after seeing the metagame breakdown for LA im 80% back on the Cheeri0s train for GP Bilbao in 2 weeks. I will attach my current Decklist and my SB-Cheatsheet for discussion, as i got very valubale input from you guys the last time
Cages are a concession to Dredge, Phoenix and Coco/Elves. Had Forgetenders or Fragmentizes in that flexslot but prefer some GY Lockdown that buys us turns to go off.
Mainboard i dont know if the repeals are really necessary with the decline of Humans/Spirits and other Decks with MB taxes, so i cut 1 for a 1-off hurkylls as it has some value vs Affinity and Hardened scales.
I would value your opinions and Input on the cheatsheet, any Matchups im missing, which are relevant at the moment?
Lets make Sram Senior again!
Hello everyone. RPTQ in December went 1-4 drop (3x Spirits 2x Hollow1, discarding my dudes at random).
After Skewer was released i returned to my roots and playerd some solid burn but after seeing the metagame breakdown for LA im 80% back on the Cheeri0s train for GP Bilbao in 2 weeks. I will attach my current Decklist and my SB-Cheatsheet for discussion, as i got very valubale input from you guys the last time
Cages are a concession to Dredge, Phoenix and Coco/Elves. Had Forgetenders or Fragmentizes in that flexslot but prefer some GY Lockdown that buys us turns to go off.
Mainboard i dont know if the repeals are really necessary with the decline of Humans/Spirits and other Decks with MB taxes, so i cut 1 for a 1-off hurkylls as it has some value vs Affinity and Hardened scales.
I would value your opinions and Input on the cheatsheet, any Matchups im missing, which are relevant at the moment?
Lets make Sram Senior again!
Glad to hear it! I've also picked up cheerios again after switching to Red splash Eldrazi Serum Stompy for a bit. I've been having much better luck with it on MTGO. A few thoughts on your list:
The MD looks pretty standard. My current MD (without protction) is -1 NR -1 Repeal +1 SV +1 ET. I've really come to like echoing truth in the main as a 1 of, since it's a way to answer any tricky permanent, and an easy out to leyline of sanctity (which has saved me multiple times from the boggles decks running around online). As for the side, I don't like grafdigger's cage. I see the reasoning behind it, but I think it's superfluous. Our dredge matchup is fine, since we race them anyways G1 and are faster. G2 their only card to worry about is thoughtseize. With regards to phoenix, once again I don't think that cage addresses the true problems. Phoenix wins by bolting our dudes and flipping TiTi early. Cage only helps if they have a double phoenix nut-draw, which will win through cage anyways 90% of the time. I think forge-tenders or more path to exile would be better suited, as burn is still a large part of the meta, and PTE is great at dealing with random hate-creatures.
I'm glad to see the hurkyl's recall. It pushes the hardened scales matchup even more in our favor, and has saved me multiple times as the fifth retract. I also prefer a second aether grid, and have considered bumping it up to 3. In the matchups where it shines, it really shines. Something else I've been considering is Swan Song over silence. They essentially serve the same purpose, but Swan Song will hit discard and Eidalon. In theory silence is better vs phoenix though, as it can stop multiple removal spells if you play it on your turn before you drop your engine. Otherwise, SB looks similar and solid as it did last time.
Gonna give this thread a small bump. I just 4-1'd a competative league on MTGO, and streamed it. I meant to announce it here, but forgot to. I saved the replay, it's available here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/392018407.
R1: 2-1 vs UR Phoenix
R2: 2-1 vs Death Shadow Zoo
R3: 2-0 vs Affinity
R4: 0-2 vs Grixis Death Shadow
R5: 2-0 vs Mono G Tron
This was my first time streaming, so I forgot to turn the sound down on MTGO. Hope it is still entertaining to watch. I'm happy to answer any questions about decisions that anyone has.
Edit: Here's my current decklist, and the one I streamed with:
Hey Marit, nice content, i like it Took some notes while i started watching it, just for discussion, not to blame or talk you down on any of your ingame decisions.
Match1-Game1:
You go for a 2nd Boy and fizzle with grapeshot in hand with stormcount = 20 Should have just killed instead of deploying a 2nd engine. Most of the time 2nd engine is correct but here you can just kill safely.
Game2:
Interesting Decision not to Counter the First Looting. I think i would have gone for it, as it stocks his GY with phoenix and gives him an filter for excess lands (he looked flooded) for 1 mana. could have bought 1-2 turns i think.
Game 3:
I like the spot where you stop to combo with a potential redraw 4 if both boys survive and a 2 draw if they have 1 answer. The following turn where you partly fizzle i think Sram should have attacked for 2 (still 3 mana up after attck, 2/4 dudes = save). Sometimes the Small steps matter. I also like keeping up noxious vs decks that can bring in surgical to fizzle it
Match 2 - Game 1:
Good assesment of the situation, nice reasoning of possible removals. Another argument for going for it: if you draw grapeshot from your deck you can kill them with the stuff you have in hand after he dismembers himself down to 9 life
Game 2:
When you are dead on board with him on 7 im a big fan of not showing the aethergrid, just to conceal information from the opponent. When you cant win a spot, even if the opponent misplays then just concede, except if you intend to board the grids out and make him worry about them.
Game 3: Flawless vitory.
Match3 - Game1:
That first hand is really close imho. One of the main problems with the deck is hitting the lands and i would be inclined to keep it. If it was a postboard game it think its always a keep, game1 when you aim for the fastest goldfish kill it might be okay to mull for a better hand. Lately i got more conservative with my Game1 hands. When you keep the first hand you basically get 1 draw, 3x serum visions (draw+look) and then another draw which is a probability of 57.4% to hit it according to this hypergeometric calculator: https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx
The reasoning to go for it on turn 3 is perfectly on point, especially since affinity runs only 2-3 galblast since they went for frenzies and the situation can only get better, as you end up in the same spot you are now if he has it, so nothing is lost and you have 1 more handcard aswell.
Game 2:
When discarding in the Endstep i always Discard the Fetches except when i have to dig for a special shockland in the Deck, because we only have 6 fetchtargets in total. I dont think it was a problem here but its good to keep in mind, that we are limited on lands. I once lost a match cuz i discarded my sacred foundry and then couldnt fetch it, they stony silenced and i couldnt win cuz i was locked for red as my guy was summoning sick and mantle couldnt fix the mana. Was really sad.
In the spot where he concedes some thoughts on how i would have played that spot. Draw as many cards from 0´s as possible. If we then can deploy grid with 5 activations go for the grid but keep hurkylls open to nuke em from the orbit. We have 5 mana with paladin mantle and therefore it is unloosable with boardcontrol i think. Might be a slow but a safe finsish
Match 4 - Game1:
Not much to do here. One card that helped me a lot vs the Blackbased Decks is Paradoxical outcome. If they have mostly disruption for our plan postboard but no fast clock it enables an EOT Draw4-7 with the O´s run out and then you can get the Grapeshot to kill them from the hand with the returned pieces + the redraws. Sometimes you hit double engine. Might be worth a try for you, i found the 1-off outcome to be really good.
Game 2: Just shadow things.
Match 5 - Game1:
So ez.
Game 2:
I like boarding in Hurkyls for their Map or for a potential chalice on 0 or Engineered Explosives.
When you have both Paladins on board and hit land with the first redraw with 2 more cheerios i think i would have gone for the Sram from the hallowed fountain + mantle mana to redraw 6 from the reamining 2 0´s because we have to win that turn otherwise the o-stone wrecks us next turn. This way we have to hit mox/retract from 6 draws + 3 draws for each following O´s. Your line started with 2 more redraws until you hit the 3rd paladin and then go for the same Route. With that line we have to hit atleast retract from 4 draws + 2 draws for following O´s. Didnt do the math here but i think going for 6 + 3 per O is a better chance than 4 + 2 per O.
Instead of digging for another opal you could have noxioused the used one back on top to speed things up
Overall:
Nice Job, tight play, some good points for discussion. Keep those streams up, so we can all improve by discussing your plays and oppinions, its a great benefit for all of us artifact-stormers!
Hey Marit, nice content, i like it Took some notes while i started watching it, just for discussion, not to blame or talk you down on any of your ingame decisions.
Match1-Game1:
You go for a 2nd Boy and fizzle with grapeshot in hand with stormcount = 20 Should have just killed instead of deploying a 2nd engine. Most of the time 2nd engine is correct but here you can just kill safely.
Game2:
Interesting Decision not to Counter the First Looting. I think i would have gone for it, as it stocks his GY with phoenix and gives him an filter for excess lands (he looked flooded) for 1 mana. could have bought 1-2 turns i think.
Game 3:
I like the spot where you stop to combo with a potential redraw 4 if both boys survive and a 2 draw if they have 1 answer. The following turn where you partly fizzle i think Sram should have attacked for 2 (still 3 mana up after attck, 2/4 dudes = save). Sometimes the Small steps matter. I also like keeping up noxious vs decks that can bring in surgical to fizzle it
Thank you for the feedback! You'r not talking down at all. It's hard to reflect on a game without someone else's thoughts. Game 1 you have a great point. I missed lethal on the board, and will be sure to keep watch for it. I was pretty nervous since I just started streaming, and I distinctly remember having trouble thinking things through (at least in the first games). Second game is interesting, I hadn't considered hitting the looting. I just figured I would draw a land and swan song would be better for protection, especially since the hand had most of what was needed to win. I might try to be more aggressive with swan songs and see what happens. I did miss that attack in game 3, and need to keep it in mind. Every point of damage helps, especially since this deck is so random. Thanks again for the feedback! I hope to do a few more leagues, but it will be infrequently. I'll be sure to post here ahead of time though, so people who might be interested in watching will have notice.
I believe we would profit from Daze and such, but at the same time things could get awful if Force would actually enter the format. I don't want them. I am sure RND doesn't really trust our deck to be a positive force in modern... so they have to do things that only marginally affect us. Claim // Fame already does what Unearth could do for us, I don't see much improvement if they would reprint this card in modern. I am a fan of Benevolent Bodyguard. He might help to push through matchups that can hold up two answers at the same time ( to then counter one with swan song and handle the second one without using mana). But that's it. They will never reprint a Mother of Runes, even if it only gives hexproof the card is that dangerous imo.
We will see. I hope there will be some protection for non-red creature based combos. Devoted Druid would also benefit from changes in that direction and that combo is also not on the top of the meta right now. I believe though that Horizons wants to push midrange back into the meta. I bet there will be more pieces for Hatebears, tokens and Jund/ valuedecks and less pieces to protect degenerate stuff like our cheeri0s.
IF RND has done its homework they will only try to fix the current imbalance of tribal decks, restrain the abuse of the zone-cheating tools with cards like Containment priest and Grafdiggers Cage ( Imagine a card that forbids any LOOKS and SEARCHES into the library. It would kill any type of Ancient Stirrings/Collected Company/Lantern of insight/Chord of Calling cards. Wouldn't that be a decent amount of anti-fun?)
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My decks:
Competetive: Lantern Control, MonoR Phoenix, Dredge
Meta-Dependant: Modern Cheeri0s, Esper Spirits, Wilderness Teachings , Modern Elves, All-in Death's Shadow, Aristocrats, BW Death&Taxes
Fun own projects: Spireside Industries, UB Scrapyard, Thundercat Worship, Dirty Kitten, RB Rock, Eternal Toolbox
I was going to suggest exactly this. This deck is mostly optimized, since there are really only ~8 flex spots. Daze would be incredible for us. Free protection and disruption. With some tweaking, we may even be able to play force of will (although I am sure they will not reprint it). Last I checked, ~16 cards was the threshold for force (including force itself), which we might be able to do.
I second pretty much everything else you mentioned. We are a 1 card combo deck vulnerable to removal and discard, in a format with plenty of hate that attacks us on multiple axis already. I don't think it can really get worse for us, so I am optimistic for this new set!
Hey Marit, nice content, i like it Took some notes while i started watching it, just for discussion, not to blame or talk you down on any of your ingame decisions.
Match1-Game1:
You go for a 2nd Boy and fizzle with grapeshot in hand with stormcount = 20 Should have just killed instead of deploying a 2nd engine. Most of the time 2nd engine is correct but here you can just kill safely.
Game2:
Interesting Decision not to Counter the First Looting. I think i would have gone for it, as it stocks his GY with phoenix and gives him an filter for excess lands (he looked flooded) for 1 mana. could have bought 1-2 turns i think.
Game 3:
I like the spot where you stop to combo with a potential redraw 4 if both boys survive and a 2 draw if they have 1 answer. The following turn where you partly fizzle i think Sram should have attacked for 2 (still 3 mana up after attck, 2/4 dudes = save). Sometimes the Small steps matter. I also like keeping up noxious vs decks that can bring in surgical to fizzle it
Match 2 - Game 1:
Good assesment of the situation, nice reasoning of possible removals. Another argument for going for it: if you draw grapeshot from your deck you can kill them with the stuff you have in hand after he dismembers himself down to 9 life
Game 2:
When you are dead on board with him on 7 im a big fan of not showing the aethergrid, just to conceal information from the opponent. When you cant win a spot, even if the opponent misplays then just concede, except if you intend to board the grids out and make him worry about them.
Game 3: Flawless vitory.
Match3 - Game1:
That first hand is really close imho. One of the main problems with the deck is hitting the lands and i would be inclined to keep it. If it was a postboard game it think its always a keep, game1 when you aim for the fastest goldfish kill it might be okay to mull for a better hand. Lately i got more conservative with my Game1 hands. When you keep the first hand you basically get 1 draw, 3x serum visions (draw+look) and then another draw which is a probability of 57.4% to hit it according to this hypergeometric calculator: https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx
The reasoning to go for it on turn 3 is perfectly on point, especially since affinity runs only 2-3 galblast since they went for frenzies and the situation can only get better, as you end up in the same spot you are now if he has it, so nothing is lost and you have 1 more handcard aswell.
Game 2:
When discarding in the Endstep i always Discard the Fetches except when i have to dig for a special shockland in the Deck, because we only have 6 fetchtargets in total. I dont think it was a problem here but its good to keep in mind, that we are limited on lands. I once lost a match cuz i discarded my sacred foundry and then couldnt fetch it, they stony silenced and i couldnt win cuz i was locked for red as my guy was summoning sick and mantle couldnt fix the mana. Was really sad.
In the spot where he concedes some thoughts on how i would have played that spot. Draw as many cards from 0´s as possible. If we then can deploy grid with 5 activations go for the grid but keep hurkylls open to nuke em from the orbit. We have 5 mana with paladin mantle and therefore it is unloosable with boardcontrol i think. Might be a slow but a safe finsish
Match 4 - Game1:
Not much to do here. One card that helped me a lot vs the Blackbased Decks is Paradoxical outcome. If they have mostly disruption for our plan postboard but no fast clock it enables an EOT Draw4-7 with the O´s run out and then you can get the Grapeshot to kill them from the hand with the returned pieces + the redraws. Sometimes you hit double engine. Might be worth a try for you, i found the 1-off outcome to be really good.
Game 2: Just shadow things.
Match 5 - Game1:
So ez.
Game 2:
I like boarding in Hurkyls for their Map or for a potential chalice on 0 or Engineered Explosives.
When you have both Paladins on board and hit land with the first redraw with 2 more cheerios i think i would have gone for the Sram from the hallowed fountain + mantle mana to redraw 6 from the reamining 2 0´s because we have to win that turn otherwise the o-stone wrecks us next turn. This way we have to hit mox/retract from 6 draws + 3 draws for each following O´s. Your line started with 2 more redraws until you hit the 3rd paladin and then go for the same Route. With that line we have to hit atleast retract from 4 draws + 2 draws for following O´s. Didnt do the math here but i think going for 6 + 3 per O is a better chance than 4 + 2 per O.
Instead of digging for another opal you could have noxioused the used one back on top to speed things up
Overall:
Nice Job, tight play, some good points for discussion. Keep those streams up, so we can all improve by discussing your plays and oppinions, its a great benefit for all of us artifact-stormers!
Thanks for the great feedback. I agree with many of your points. I want to rewatch my games later, keeping your notes next to me so I can really understand them. Paradoxical outcome is a really good idea. Maybe I will try 2-3 in the side. There have been so many leagues I 4-1'd because I ran into GDS. I don't think I'll be able to stream for a little, but ideally I plan to stream once per week, likely on the weekends. When I manage to rerrange my schedule to fit in a weekly stream I'll definitely keep the thread updated.
I will post my Matchups and Results and some lessons regarding the current metagame learned in this Event. I wont have time for a full Tournament report but Maybe you guys can Profit a bit from my experiences.
R1/2 Byes
R3: 2-0 UR Phoenix (he went Top8)
R4: 2-0 UR Phoenix
R5: 0-2 Abzan Midrange
R6: 1-2 UR Phoenix
R7: 2-0 Titanshift
R8: 2-1 Titanshift
R9: 0-2 Burn
R10: 2-1 Humans
R11: 2-0 Tron
R12: 0-2 Humans
R13: 2-0 Dredge
R14: 1-2 Burn
R15: 2-0 UR Phoenix
The Maindeck Hurkylls was the best call i could have made. In 3 Matches against Phoenix they surgicaled my Retract when i cast the first one and i was only capable to win these Matches, because i could redraw into a hurkylls one time and the other two times i passed the turn, dropped the 2nd dude and then digged with the returned O´s to find hurkylls for the reset to kill them. As Long as Surgical is Maindeckable we Need to run hurkylls main and a Minimum of 2 noxious. I also blanked one surcical with a noxious and could win this way.
Fragmentize overperformed as an sideboardcard, especially vs Burn. Both Burn-Opponents i faced Day2 had 3-4 copies of cindervines + Eidolon. With that in mind we can no longer board for the old silence + Combo plan but have to go for fragmentize+path+echoing truth.
I won most of my game ones with kills in turns 3-5, because i was Patient enough to wait for them to tap out. If we loose game 1 most matchups are Looking Pretty dire. Humans won vs me with T2 thalias and i dont Think, that repeal is the correct mainboardchoice for this meta. Yes it can be a mini retract, which is nice to have, but Echoing truth deals with hatepieces in a more efficient way and it also hurts decks like Dredge, Affinity or phoenix a lot. It can also be a nice hurkylls/retract Impression, in one game i returned 3 paradise mantles with an E-Truth to then draw 6 Cards from them and win it.
Noxious Revival also overperformed for me, be it countering surgicals, making fetch-onelanders keepable or recurring the engine after they tap out for their first removal when on the Play. With the London Mulligan in Mind i would consider going up to 3 Noxious maindeck, as i expect a rise in decks like grishoalbrand and therefore even more surgicals (+ we can remove grisel to fizzle goryos with NR).
If i had to make any changes at the Moment i would go with -2 Repeal +1 E-Truth +1 Noxious Maindeck. I basically never used the repeals for plain redraws, because we then have to show them which deck we are, so the advantage of a cantrip is gone for this card. Sideboard was okay, with less Control than before we might want -1 Silence and +1 SwanSong/E-Truth/Fragmentize. The Rest was quiete fine. SwanSong never came up as a relevant Card but it felt nice to draw one while going of to Combat any unexepected Thing they might do. I was sceptic beforehands but marit convinced me that it is good and having one in Hand against both my titanshift opponents made me really happy (even though they never shifted ).
Overall a good Tournament with a well Performing deck, that i enjoyed to Play a lot, but neither cash nor glory could be achieved this time, because our bad matchups are really really bad.
I will post my Matchups and Results and some lessons regarding the current metagame learned in this Event. I wont have time for a full Tournament report but Maybe you guys can Profit a bit from my experiences.
R1/2 Byes
R3: 2-0 UR Phoenix (he went Top8)
R4: 2-0 UR Phoenix
R5: 0-2 Abzan Midrange
R6: 1-2 UR Phoenix
R7: 2-0 Titanshift
R8: 2-1 Titanshift
R9: 0-2 Burn
R10: 2-1 Humans
R11: 2-0 Tron
R12: 0-2 Humans
R13: 2-0 Dredge
R14: 1-2 Burn
R15: 2-0 UR Phoenix
The Maindeck Hurkylls was the best call i could have made. In 3 Matches against Phoenix they surgicaled my Retract when i cast the first one and i was only capable to win these Matches, because i could redraw into a hurkylls one time and the other two times i passed the turn, dropped the 2nd dude and then digged with the returned O´s to find hurkylls for the reset to kill them. As Long as Surgical is Maindeckable we Need to run hurkylls main and a Minimum of 2 noxious. I also blanked one surcical with a noxious and could win this way.
Fragmentize overperformed as an sideboardcard, especially vs Burn. Both Burn-Opponents i faced Day2 had 3-4 copies of cindervines + Eidolon. With that in mind we can no longer board for the old silence + Combo plan but have to go for fragmentize+path+echoing truth.
I won most of my game ones with kills in turns 3-5, because i was Patient enough to wait for them to tap out. If we loose game 1 most matchups are Looking Pretty dire. Humans won vs me with T2 thalias and i dont Think, that repeal is the correct mainboardchoice for this meta. Yes it can be a mini retract, which is nice to have, but Echoing truth deals with hatepieces in a more efficient way and it also hurts decks like Dredge, Affinity or phoenix a lot. It can also be a nice hurkylls/retract Impression, in one game i returned 3 paradise mantles with an E-Truth to then draw 6 Cards from them and win it.
Noxious Revival also overperformed for me, be it countering surgicals, making fetch-onelanders keepable or recurring the engine after they tap out for their first removal when on the Play. With the London Mulligan in Mind i would consider going up to 3 Noxious maindeck, as i expect a rise in decks like grishoalbrand and therefore even more surgicals (+ we can remove grisel to fizzle goryos with NR).
If i had to make any changes at the Moment i would go with -2 Repeal +1 E-Truth +1 Noxious Maindeck. I basically never used the repeals for plain redraws, because we then have to show them which deck we are, so the advantage of a cantrip is gone for this card. Sideboard was okay, with less Control than before we might want -1 Silence and +1 SwanSong/E-Truth/Fragmentize. The Rest was quiete fine. SwanSong never came up as a relevant Card but it felt nice to draw one while going of to Combat any unexepected Thing they might do. I was sceptic beforehands but marit convinced me that it is good and having one in Hand against both my titanshift opponents made me really happy (even though they never shifted ).
Overall a good Tournament with a well Performing deck, that i enjoyed to Play a lot, but neither cash nor glory could be achieved this time, because our bad matchups are really really bad.
I saw that CFP post. I didn't realize it was you. Congrats on the solid performance! I went 9-6 at GP Portland with the deck, so 10-5 is definitely a solid finish. Posting 3-1 vs UR phoenix is also impressive. From my experience, it seems to be a pretty good matchup, so I'm glad to see you have similar results. Def some bad beats, but at least you managed to avoid death shadow. I imagine the azban midrange matchup was a slaughter =[. With humans, the match is all about thalia. If it's answered, we win, otherwise they do.
I've been on 1 echoing truth MD for a bit, suggested by xboxgregory. I've been really happy with it, and think it's a good change. I think you need to add burrenton forge-tender to your sideboard. I play 3 currently, and it is a house vs burn. Drop one early to stall them. Sometimes it can be equipped with a sigil for 2-4, and you just beat down. It additionally acts as an answer to both eidalon and cindervines, while forcing them to draw skull crack or lose.
Good points on noxious. I might bump it up to two again. I've also been considering adding 1 ghurapur aethergrid MD. I'm always happy to draw it post-SB, and it can act as a half-decent engine. Swan song is great. I agree that it's not always used, but I feel so much more secure having one in my hand. Overall, your performance was great. Cheeri0s requires nerves of steel to pilot at large events due to how swingy and polarizing it is. Day 2 isn't easy to make (you were the only cheerios player), so once again, great job!
On a side-note, MTGO will be testing the london mulligan for a month, starting April 10. I will be sure to stream a few leagues of cheerios during that time, and will keep this thread updated with those times and dates. My list will be slightly modified, running 4 repeal main, to deal with all the eldrazi stompy decks that I'm sure will be running around.
Fragmentize overperformed as an sideboardcard, especially vs Burn. Both Burn-Opponents i faced Day2 had 3-4 copies of cindervines + Eidolon. With that in mind we can no longer board for the old silence + Combo plan but have to go for fragmentize+path+echoing truth.
Could you elaborate a bit further on the success of Fragmentize? I used to run this in the SB, but the slot is currently occupied by Wear // Tear.
In my experience Fragmentize deals with almost everything thrown at us (Sphere, Leyline, Cindervines, Blood Moon) but not Chalice of the Void. To me Fragmentize seemed versatile at first, but Wear // Tear ended up being my choice due to the instant-speed(Removing problematic artifacts/enchantments in the end-step of opp.)and the option to take Chalice X=1. I know that most opponents instinctively would go X=0, but what really shuts us down is X=1. Sometimes we might even face both X=1 and X=0 and even our MB pseudo-removal won't help(Repeal).
Btw congrats with the fine result in Bilbao - glad to see this deck represented on GP day 2! A few months ago I brought Cheeri0s to the Team Unified GP in Liverpool. Our team went 9-5 with Cheeri0s carrying it's load with a 9-5 finish.
List of what I'm currently running. Next time I'll replace 1x Repeal with 1x Hurkyl's Recall
I think you have a good point. I've long been considering cutting more equipment, but always been a little chicken. For the foreseeable future I'll try cutting more equipment first and seeing how that works. The meta on MTGO is becoming less hostile, so I plan to start jamming some leagues again next week. I'm working on getting a good setup so I can record some leagues and post them to this thread for feedback.
It's crossed my mind several times, but I don't think it;'s worth it. We play only 8 engines, so 5 cards deep will often whiff. Plus, SV is so great because it helps to find lands, which incubation does not. for incubation to work, I think the deck would need to take a different turn and play more creatures such as monestary mentor and maybe the scry bird, which would dilute the overall combo.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/competitive-gaming/mythic-championship-ii-format-and-london-test-2019-02-21
Would be amazing for Cheeri0s though, I completely agree
It sounds good on paper, and I am super interested to see what happens. We are easy to disrupt though, where it's very hard to fight through a combination of two discard or removal spells. We will find our engines more often, but a good opponent will more often have the bolt/thoughtseize. I've been playing with 3 swansong MD and they have been great. I think if the new mulligan rule sticks, it will be even more beneficial to play protection. If they are not needed in the matchup (like tron), you can bottom them with the new mulligan rule, but keep them in the interactive matchups. I hope MTGO implements the new rules. I am super curious to test if it will be as degenerate as it seems on first glance.
After Skewer was released i returned to my roots and playerd some solid burn but after seeing the metagame breakdown for LA im 80% back on the Cheeri0s train for GP Bilbao in 2 weeks. I will attach my current Decklist and my SB-Cheatsheet for discussion, as i got very valubale input from you guys the last time
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wHTELT0WSs8knXt3F0H02sTjYllKxc6F
4 Flooded Strand
3 Arid Mesa
2 Seachrome Coast
2 Plains
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Godless Shrine
20 O´s
4 Mox Opal
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Puresteel Paladin
4 Retract
1 Grapeshot
2 Noxious Revival
1 Hurkyls Recall
3 Serum Visions
2 Repeal
1 Paradoxical Outcome
2 Grafdiggers Cage
4 Silence
3 Claim/Fame
2 Path to Exile
1 Ghirapur Aethergrid
2 Echoing Truth
Cages are a concession to Dredge, Phoenix and Coco/Elves. Had Forgetenders or Fragmentizes in that flexslot but prefer some GY Lockdown that buys us turns to go off.
Mainboard i dont know if the repeals are really necessary with the decline of Humans/Spirits and other Decks with MB taxes, so i cut 1 for a 1-off hurkylls as it has some value vs Affinity and Hardened scales.
I would value your opinions and Input on the cheatsheet, any Matchups im missing, which are relevant at the moment?
Lets make Sram Senior again!
Glad to hear it! I've also picked up cheerios again after switching to Red splash Eldrazi Serum Stompy for a bit. I've been having much better luck with it on MTGO. A few thoughts on your list:
The MD looks pretty standard. My current MD (without protction) is -1 NR -1 Repeal +1 SV +1 ET. I've really come to like echoing truth in the main as a 1 of, since it's a way to answer any tricky permanent, and an easy out to leyline of sanctity (which has saved me multiple times from the boggles decks running around online). As for the side, I don't like grafdigger's cage. I see the reasoning behind it, but I think it's superfluous. Our dredge matchup is fine, since we race them anyways G1 and are faster. G2 their only card to worry about is thoughtseize. With regards to phoenix, once again I don't think that cage addresses the true problems. Phoenix wins by bolting our dudes and flipping TiTi early. Cage only helps if they have a double phoenix nut-draw, which will win through cage anyways 90% of the time. I think forge-tenders or more path to exile would be better suited, as burn is still a large part of the meta, and PTE is great at dealing with random hate-creatures.
I'm glad to see the hurkyl's recall. It pushes the hardened scales matchup even more in our favor, and has saved me multiple times as the fifth retract. I also prefer a second aether grid, and have considered bumping it up to 3. In the matchups where it shines, it really shines. Something else I've been considering is Swan Song over silence. They essentially serve the same purpose, but Swan Song will hit discard and Eidalon. In theory silence is better vs phoenix though, as it can stop multiple removal spells if you play it on your turn before you drop your engine. Otherwise, SB looks similar and solid as it did last time.
R1: 2-1 vs UR Phoenix
R2: 2-1 vs Death Shadow Zoo
R3: 2-0 vs Affinity
R4: 0-2 vs Grixis Death Shadow
R5: 2-0 vs Mono G Tron
This was my first time streaming, so I forgot to turn the sound down on MTGO. Hope it is still entertaining to watch. I'm happy to answer any questions about decisions that anyone has.
Edit: Here's my current decklist, and the one I streamed with:
4 Cathar's Shield
1 Echoing Truth
3 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Grapeshot
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Mox Opal
1 Noxious Revival
4 Paradise Mantle
2 Plains
4 Puresteel Paladin
1 Repeal
4 Retract
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Seachrome Coast
4 Serum Visions
4 Sigil of Distinction
4 Spidersilk Net
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Windswept Heath
3 Claim // Fame
1 Echoing Truth
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
3 Path to Exile
3 Swan Song
Match1-Game1:
You go for a 2nd Boy and fizzle with grapeshot in hand with stormcount = 20 Should have just killed instead of deploying a 2nd engine. Most of the time 2nd engine is correct but here you can just kill safely.
Game2:
Interesting Decision not to Counter the First Looting. I think i would have gone for it, as it stocks his GY with phoenix and gives him an filter for excess lands (he looked flooded) for 1 mana. could have bought 1-2 turns i think.
Game 3:
I like the spot where you stop to combo with a potential redraw 4 if both boys survive and a 2 draw if they have 1 answer. The following turn where you partly fizzle i think Sram should have attacked for 2 (still 3 mana up after attck, 2/4 dudes = save). Sometimes the Small steps matter. I also like keeping up noxious vs decks that can bring in surgical to fizzle it
Match 2 - Game 1:
Good assesment of the situation, nice reasoning of possible removals. Another argument for going for it: if you draw grapeshot from your deck you can kill them with the stuff you have in hand after he dismembers himself down to 9 life
Game 2:
When you are dead on board with him on 7 im a big fan of not showing the aethergrid, just to conceal information from the opponent. When you cant win a spot, even if the opponent misplays then just concede, except if you intend to board the grids out and make him worry about them.
Game 3: Flawless vitory.
Match3 - Game1:
That first hand is really close imho. One of the main problems with the deck is hitting the lands and i would be inclined to keep it. If it was a postboard game it think its always a keep, game1 when you aim for the fastest goldfish kill it might be okay to mull for a better hand. Lately i got more conservative with my Game1 hands. When you keep the first hand you basically get 1 draw, 3x serum visions (draw+look) and then another draw which is a probability of 57.4% to hit it according to this hypergeometric calculator: https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx
The reasoning to go for it on turn 3 is perfectly on point, especially since affinity runs only 2-3 galblast since they went for frenzies and the situation can only get better, as you end up in the same spot you are now if he has it, so nothing is lost and you have 1 more handcard aswell.
Game 2:
When discarding in the Endstep i always Discard the Fetches except when i have to dig for a special shockland in the Deck, because we only have 6 fetchtargets in total. I dont think it was a problem here but its good to keep in mind, that we are limited on lands. I once lost a match cuz i discarded my sacred foundry and then couldnt fetch it, they stony silenced and i couldnt win cuz i was locked for red as my guy was summoning sick and mantle couldnt fix the mana. Was really sad.
In the spot where he concedes some thoughts on how i would have played that spot. Draw as many cards from 0´s as possible. If we then can deploy grid with 5 activations go for the grid but keep hurkylls open to nuke em from the orbit. We have 5 mana with paladin mantle and therefore it is unloosable with boardcontrol i think. Might be a slow but a safe finsish
Match 4 - Game1:
Not much to do here. One card that helped me a lot vs the Blackbased Decks is Paradoxical outcome. If they have mostly disruption for our plan postboard but no fast clock it enables an EOT Draw4-7 with the O´s run out and then you can get the Grapeshot to kill them from the hand with the returned pieces + the redraws. Sometimes you hit double engine. Might be worth a try for you, i found the 1-off outcome to be really good.
Game 2: Just shadow things.
Match 5 - Game1:
So ez.
Game 2:
I like boarding in Hurkyls for their Map or for a potential chalice on 0 or Engineered Explosives.
When you have both Paladins on board and hit land with the first redraw with 2 more cheerios i think i would have gone for the Sram from the hallowed fountain + mantle mana to redraw 6 from the reamining 2 0´s because we have to win that turn otherwise the o-stone wrecks us next turn. This way we have to hit mox/retract from 6 draws + 3 draws for each following O´s. Your line started with 2 more redraws until you hit the 3rd paladin and then go for the same Route. With that line we have to hit atleast retract from 4 draws + 2 draws for following O´s. Didnt do the math here but i think going for 6 + 3 per O is a better chance than 4 + 2 per O.
Instead of digging for another opal you could have noxioused the used one back on top to speed things up
Overall:
Nice Job, tight play, some good points for discussion. Keep those streams up, so we can all improve by discussing your plays and oppinions, its a great benefit for all of us artifact-stormers!
I will play Phoenix for a while to bend my local meta the right way ^^
Competetive: Lantern Control, MonoR Phoenix, Dredge
Meta-Dependant: Modern Cheeri0s, Esper Spirits, Wilderness Teachings , Modern Elves, All-in Death's Shadow, Aristocrats, BW Death&Taxes
Fun own projects: Spireside Industries, UB Scrapyard, Thundercat Worship, Dirty Kitten, RB Rock, Eternal Toolbox
Thank you for the feedback! You'r not talking down at all. It's hard to reflect on a game without someone else's thoughts. Game 1 you have a great point. I missed lethal on the board, and will be sure to keep watch for it. I was pretty nervous since I just started streaming, and I distinctly remember having trouble thinking things through (at least in the first games). Second game is interesting, I hadn't considered hitting the looting. I just figured I would draw a land and swan song would be better for protection, especially since the hand had most of what was needed to win. I might try to be more aggressive with swan songs and see what happens. I did miss that attack in game 3, and need to keep it in mind. Every point of damage helps, especially since this deck is so random. Thanks again for the feedback! I hope to do a few more leagues, but it will be infrequently. I'll be sure to post here ahead of time though, so people who might be interested in watching will have notice.
I believe we would profit from Daze and such, but at the same time things could get awful if Force would actually enter the format. I don't want them. I am sure RND doesn't really trust our deck to be a positive force in modern... so they have to do things that only marginally affect us. Claim // Fame already does what Unearth could do for us, I don't see much improvement if they would reprint this card in modern. I am a fan of Benevolent Bodyguard. He might help to push through matchups that can hold up two answers at the same time ( to then counter one with swan song and handle the second one without using mana). But that's it. They will never reprint a Mother of Runes, even if it only gives hexproof the card is that dangerous imo.
We will see. I hope there will be some protection for non-red creature based combos. Devoted Druid would also benefit from changes in that direction and that combo is also not on the top of the meta right now. I believe though that Horizons wants to push midrange back into the meta. I bet there will be more pieces for Hatebears, tokens and Jund/ valuedecks and less pieces to protect degenerate stuff like our cheeri0s.
IF RND has done its homework they will only try to fix the current imbalance of tribal decks, restrain the abuse of the zone-cheating tools with cards like Containment priest and Grafdiggers Cage ( Imagine a card that forbids any LOOKS and SEARCHES into the library. It would kill any type of Ancient Stirrings/Collected Company/Lantern of insight/Chord of Calling cards. Wouldn't that be a decent amount of anti-fun?)
Competetive: Lantern Control, MonoR Phoenix, Dredge
Meta-Dependant: Modern Cheeri0s, Esper Spirits, Wilderness Teachings , Modern Elves, All-in Death's Shadow, Aristocrats, BW Death&Taxes
Fun own projects: Spireside Industries, UB Scrapyard, Thundercat Worship, Dirty Kitten, RB Rock, Eternal Toolbox
I was going to suggest exactly this. This deck is mostly optimized, since there are really only ~8 flex spots. Daze would be incredible for us. Free protection and disruption. With some tweaking, we may even be able to play force of will (although I am sure they will not reprint it). Last I checked, ~16 cards was the threshold for force (including force itself), which we might be able to do.
I second pretty much everything else you mentioned. We are a 1 card combo deck vulnerable to removal and discard, in a format with plenty of hate that attacks us on multiple axis already. I don't think it can really get worse for us, so I am optimistic for this new set!
Edit:
Thanks for the great feedback. I agree with many of your points. I want to rewatch my games later, keeping your notes next to me so I can really understand them. Paradoxical outcome is a really good idea. Maybe I will try 2-3 in the side. There have been so many leagues I 4-1'd because I ran into GDS. I don't think I'll be able to stream for a little, but ideally I plan to stream once per week, likely on the weekends. When I manage to rerrange my schedule to fit in a weekly stream I'll definitely keep the thread updated.
https://twitter.com/ChannelFireball/status/1107320741366767616
I will post my Matchups and Results and some lessons regarding the current metagame learned in this Event. I wont have time for a full Tournament report but Maybe you guys can Profit a bit from my experiences.
R1/2 Byes
R3: 2-0 UR Phoenix (he went Top8)
R4: 2-0 UR Phoenix
R5: 0-2 Abzan Midrange
R6: 1-2 UR Phoenix
R7: 2-0 Titanshift
R8: 2-1 Titanshift
R9: 0-2 Burn
R10: 2-1 Humans
R11: 2-0 Tron
R12: 0-2 Humans
R13: 2-0 Dredge
R14: 1-2 Burn
R15: 2-0 UR Phoenix
The Maindeck Hurkylls was the best call i could have made. In 3 Matches against Phoenix they surgicaled my Retract when i cast the first one and i was only capable to win these Matches, because i could redraw into a hurkylls one time and the other two times i passed the turn, dropped the 2nd dude and then digged with the returned O´s to find hurkylls for the reset to kill them. As Long as Surgical is Maindeckable we Need to run hurkylls main and a Minimum of 2 noxious. I also blanked one surcical with a noxious and could win this way.
Fragmentize overperformed as an sideboardcard, especially vs Burn. Both Burn-Opponents i faced Day2 had 3-4 copies of cindervines + Eidolon. With that in mind we can no longer board for the old silence + Combo plan but have to go for fragmentize+path+echoing truth.
I won most of my game ones with kills in turns 3-5, because i was Patient enough to wait for them to tap out. If we loose game 1 most matchups are Looking Pretty dire. Humans won vs me with T2 thalias and i dont Think, that repeal is the correct mainboardchoice for this meta. Yes it can be a mini retract, which is nice to have, but Echoing truth deals with hatepieces in a more efficient way and it also hurts decks like Dredge, Affinity or phoenix a lot. It can also be a nice hurkylls/retract Impression, in one game i returned 3 paradise mantles with an E-Truth to then draw 6 Cards from them and win it.
Noxious Revival also overperformed for me, be it countering surgicals, making fetch-onelanders keepable or recurring the engine after they tap out for their first removal when on the Play. With the London Mulligan in Mind i would consider going up to 3 Noxious maindeck, as i expect a rise in decks like grishoalbrand and therefore even more surgicals (+ we can remove grisel to fizzle goryos with NR).
If i had to make any changes at the Moment i would go with -2 Repeal +1 E-Truth +1 Noxious Maindeck. I basically never used the repeals for plain redraws, because we then have to show them which deck we are, so the advantage of a cantrip is gone for this card. Sideboard was okay, with less Control than before we might want -1 Silence and +1 SwanSong/E-Truth/Fragmentize. The Rest was quiete fine. SwanSong never came up as a relevant Card but it felt nice to draw one while going of to Combat any unexepected Thing they might do. I was sceptic beforehands but marit convinced me that it is good and having one in Hand against both my titanshift opponents made me really happy (even though they never shifted ).
Overall a good Tournament with a well Performing deck, that i enjoyed to Play a lot, but neither cash nor glory could be achieved this time, because our bad matchups are really really bad.
I saw that CFP post. I didn't realize it was you. Congrats on the solid performance! I went 9-6 at GP Portland with the deck, so 10-5 is definitely a solid finish. Posting 3-1 vs UR phoenix is also impressive. From my experience, it seems to be a pretty good matchup, so I'm glad to see you have similar results. Def some bad beats, but at least you managed to avoid death shadow. I imagine the azban midrange matchup was a slaughter =[. With humans, the match is all about thalia. If it's answered, we win, otherwise they do.
I've been on 1 echoing truth MD for a bit, suggested by xboxgregory. I've been really happy with it, and think it's a good change. I think you need to add burrenton forge-tender to your sideboard. I play 3 currently, and it is a house vs burn. Drop one early to stall them. Sometimes it can be equipped with a sigil for 2-4, and you just beat down. It additionally acts as an answer to both eidalon and cindervines, while forcing them to draw skull crack or lose.
Good points on noxious. I might bump it up to two again. I've also been considering adding 1 ghurapur aethergrid MD. I'm always happy to draw it post-SB, and it can act as a half-decent engine. Swan song is great. I agree that it's not always used, but I feel so much more secure having one in my hand. Overall, your performance was great. Cheeri0s requires nerves of steel to pilot at large events due to how swingy and polarizing it is. Day 2 isn't easy to make (you were the only cheerios player), so once again, great job!
On a side-note, MTGO will be testing the london mulligan for a month, starting April 10. I will be sure to stream a few leagues of cheerios during that time, and will keep this thread updated with those times and dates. My list will be slightly modified, running 4 repeal main, to deal with all the eldrazi stompy decks that I'm sure will be running around.
Could you elaborate a bit further on the success of Fragmentize? I used to run this in the SB, but the slot is currently occupied by Wear // Tear.
In my experience Fragmentize deals with almost everything thrown at us (Sphere, Leyline, Cindervines, Blood Moon) but not Chalice of the Void. To me Fragmentize seemed versatile at first, but Wear // Tear ended up being my choice due to the instant-speed(Removing problematic artifacts/enchantments in the end-step of opp.)and the option to take Chalice X=1. I know that most opponents instinctively would go X=0, but what really shuts us down is X=1. Sometimes we might even face both X=1 and X=0 and even our MB pseudo-removal won't help(Repeal).
Btw congrats with the fine result in Bilbao - glad to see this deck represented on GP day 2! A few months ago I brought Cheeri0s to the Team Unified GP in Liverpool. Our team went 9-5 with Cheeri0s carrying it's load with a 9-5 finish.
List of what I'm currently running. Next time I'll replace 1x Repeal with 1x Hurkyl's Recall
4 Puresteel Paladin
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
Land
4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Plains
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
Artifact
4 Sigil of Distinction
4 Paradise Mantle
4 Accorder's Shield
4 Spidersilk Net
4 Mox Opal
4 Cathar's Shield
4 Retract
2 Noxious Revival
3 Repeal
Sorcery
3 Serum Visions
1 Grapeshot
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
2 Wear // Tear
3 Path to Exile
2 Swan Song
2 Claim // Fame
Maybe. It's like Bird meets Swiftspear
Affinity
GR Eggs GR
UR Storm UR
BR Hollow One BR
WUR Cheerios WUR
G Mono-Green Control G