What do you make of this list? 2 beasts within, 3 fulminators, 3 SSGs, full four Carabids in main....looks to me like a little vanilla oldschool decklist But i guess it worked...
The deck looks a lot like my deck in the primer post. I take offense to it being called “vanilla” thank you!
What do you make of this list? 2 beasts within, 3 fulminators, 3 SSGs, full four Carabids in main....looks to me like a little vanilla oldschool decklist But i guess it worked...
Seeing how much burn in this report it makes me think 3 fulminators and 2 beasts was a savvy meta call. I think most of his decisions are totally justifiable even if I would not have gone that way, the exception for me is not using a full playset of leyline.
Most of our cycling creatures are almost interchangeable based on cycling cost. I still run a full set of Carabids and I have not looked back, but the difference between then and something like horror of the broken lands is very often marginal at best if at all. Having split cycling cost is a huge boon for Carabid, especially since this list runs 4 Horrors. An early bloodmoon can severely hurt this guys mana so I think the build makes sense.
Electrodominance is dirty, I had the turn 2 win once - couldn't pull it off because I had a basic Island, but I did pull it turn 3 several times.. instant speed. It's probably ban-worthy.
Electrodominance is dirty, I had the turn 2 win once - couldn't pull it off because I had a basic Island, but I did pull it turn 3 several times.. instant speed. It's probably ban-worthy.
Please this take discussion to one of the other threads on the forums (linked in the primer) related to other ways to combo with Living End. As Electrodominance cannot be played in decks with cascade effects, the discussion in this thread would be fruitless.
Please this take discussion to one of the other threads on the forums (linked in the primer) related to other ways to combo with Living End. As Electrodominance cannot be played in decks with cascade effects, the discussion in this thread would be fruitless.
Thanks!
Ok, thank you. This was the Living End thread I found on the Established forums so I thought it was the appropriate place. It's probably going to have to be replaced with an Electrodominance one I guess.
I am not 100% sure on that but maybe you can enlighten me on this: If I play against Harden Scaled Affinity, and use Living End in my turn, can I choose in which order the triggers are placed?
Situation: H.S.A player uses Ravager to sac the Metallic Mimic, than itself and adds the counter to a Walking Ballista which he then shoots at me. Now everything is in the graveyard and comes back. Now the H.S.A-player wants to name "Construct" with the mimic so that his Ballista enters with a counter. I thought that was OK, since the Mimic has a effect that says "as" which I understand is between the cast -> enter the battlefield order. But if it is my turn wouldn't I be able to change the order of the triggers so that Ballista dies ?
thx a lot : )
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Affinity is like the Christian religion. You got the old testament and the new. The old one was full of real affinity cards and then the new testament Metalcraft came along. Now with Hardened Scales the new Church of Affinity split up in two, just like the Catholics and Protestants." BRG Living End BRG G Hardened Scales Affinity G
I'm back and ready for more of these shenanigans. I've thrown together a list similar to the one from GP Oakland, but I'm not so sure what the meta looks like these days so I had a couple of questions.
Of course I've always loved Faerie Macabre, but why are we maindecking her now? Ironworks combo? General Snapcaster hate? Dredge?
Are there fewer Counterspells these days that going down to only two Ricochet Traps is the way?
Going from 4 each of Beast Within and Fulminator Mage down to 2 and 3 respectively is losing a LOT of LD for me. I'm guessing not running a full set of Fulminator isn't standard, but even that aside I'm going down to 75% of my current LD. I'm guessing Tron isn't nearly as common anymore?
Good to be back in the thick of it, but man I'm gonna miss Deadshot Minotaur. I just don't like the art on these new guys as much.
Edit: Also, are decks creature-centric enough that we don't need Dryad Arbor anymore?
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
I'm back and ready for more of these shenanigans. I've thrown together a list similar to the one from GP Oakland, but I'm not so sure what the meta looks like these days so I had a couple of questions.
Of course I've always loved Faerie Macabre, but why are we maindecking her now? Ironworks combo? General Snapcaster hate? Dredge?
Decks faster than Living End almost all use the graveyard. People who are good at magic and use creature decks fnd a way to build pressure and kill their own creature to let them return or they use discard/thoughtscour them. Its good against phoenix and ok against dredge and awesome against Hollow One in my opinion. And yes it is good against the Snapcaster Mage and very importantly it helps us not getting Surgical Extractioned: use the faerie macabre on Living End in the Graveyard (Or on a cascade spell that got discarded) when the opponent tries exile them withSurgical Extraction. The target is removed and the spell fizzles so they can not remove all our Cascade Spells/Living End
Are there fewer Counterspells these days that going down to only two Ricochet Traps is the way?
One reason might be the Faerie Macabre as a way to deal with snapcaster but in my opinion it depends on your local meta and what you expect. I always run 3 because I hate to loose against Merfolk's Spreading Sees and play against blue decks often.
Going from 4 each of Beast Within and Fulminator Mage down to 2 and 3 respectively is losing a LOT of LD for me. I'm guessing not running a full set of Fulminator isn't standard, but even that aside I'm going down to 75% of my current LD. I'm guessing Tron isn't nearly as common anymore?
Good to be back in the thick of it, but man I'm gonna miss Deadshot Minotaur. I just don't like the art on these new guys as much.
Edit: Also, are decks creature-centric enough that we don't need Dryad Arbor anymore?
The LD-package has shrunk for the better i.m.o. You do not need so many LD effects for 3 mana, because you will likely draw very many of them. The Beast Within @ 2 peaces is likely to the fast nature of Modern right now and the Fulminator Mage can only hit Non-basics which many decks try to play around. I keep always 4 Fulminator mages in my 75 and I can imagine a time where a third Beast within comes in as well.
I think the meta is so creature-centric right now that you can afford to not play Dryard Arbor. You don't want to lose against creature decks and they are so fast that you really need all the mana you can get, and in the worst case the opponent uses his 3-4 copies of Fatal push, a normally dead card against our land which sucks hard.
| Faerie Macabre is good against dredge, Hollow One, Phoenix and Death's Shadow. Ply at least 2 in the main is my suggestion
|
v
"Affinity is like the Christian religion. You got the old testament and the new. The old one was full of real affinity cards and then the new testament Metalcraft came along. Now with Hardened Scales the new Church of Affinity split up in two, just like the Catholics and Protestants." BRG Living End BRG G Hardened Scales Affinity G
Hey guys, I've been away a long time but I'm trying to get back into actively following modern, at least.
How are we feeling now that Ironworks is banned? Do we like our position more, or less? Has hollowed one really become so common that it's forcing us to be a deck that has to interact with their graveyard game 1? LD has really fallen off I see; so much of the deck is predicated on having access to a lot of fulminator activations, so I'm very curious if someone can offer an explanation for why the field of bullets is incentivizing slimming on them.
Glad to see Living End still has it's dedicated pilots--we'll terrorize modern yet!
Currently the big hitters are: Dredge, burn, phoenix, and grixis death shadow. Obviously modern is a very open meta and is the one where people are most likely to jam pet decks no matter what meta but given the above 4, it's safe to say that we're being pulled in many directions and looking at some less than favorable matches.
My personal opinion is that modern the format post KCI is still simply too fast and operating on too many different axis for living end to deal with without making concessions in our 75 that pulls the deck in many different areas.
Against the top 4, shaving some LD actually has some benefits, the only deck that LD can (not guaranteed) to hit hard is GDS, the other decks either don't care, can recover, or are resilient. The problem is that UW/x and tron are evergreen decks so the need for LD is always present and shaving these pieces opens you up to losing percentage points against the two aforementioned decks.
I think if the plan is to jam living end into this meta, that the key has to be in the SB. Looking at the current top tier decks, a 8 leyline plan (white and black) is very much something to consider. 8 leylines alone covers the top 4 decks pretty well and can hit a smattering of others in the process.
Currently the big hitters are: Dredge, burn, phoenix, and grixis death shadow. Obviously modern is a very open meta and is the one where people are most likely to jam pet decks no matter what meta but given the above 4, it's safe to say that we're being pulled in many directions and looking at some less than favorable matches.
My personal opinion is that modern the format post KCI is still simply too fast and operating on too many different axis for living end to deal with without making concessions in our 75 that pulls the deck in many different areas.
Against the top 4, shaving some LD actually has some benefits, the only deck that LD can (not guaranteed) to hit hard is GDS, the other decks either don't care, can recover, or are resilient. The problem is that UW/x and tron are evergreen decks so the need for LD is always present and shaving these pieces opens you up to losing percentage points against the two aforementioned decks.
I think if the plan is to jam living end into this meta, that the key has to be in the SB. Looking at the current top tier decks, a 8 leyline plan (white and black) is very much something to consider. 8 leylines alone covers the top 4 decks pretty well and can hit a smattering of others in the process.
I understand the thought behind having the Leylines. The white Leyline is really good against burn and the Thoughtseize -> Surgical Extraction plan. But I am not a fan of having a 4 of in your deck that is completely useless unless in your opening hand. That might be my personal preference not to take that risk. The Black leyline is good, no question. I still prefere the faerie Macabre (3 in the main) because the opponent may not see it coming and plays like he would normally do. And against the decks that don't really care for about the graveyard, it is still OK to get a 2/2 Flyer on the field.
I agree that our winning route is through "sideboard" cards but here is a thought for you: What if you play 1-2 Shriekmaws and or 1-2 Ingot Chewers in the mainboard. When did you need more than one Archfiend and had the time to cycle them both? When was the Monstrous Carabid ever an answer to anything?
Right now I play only 2 Archfiends and 2 Carabids, simply because the games we have good matchups, we don't need that many cyclers. The bad Matchups we lose because they have problematic cards we don't have an answer to or that are too hard to handle. The Evoke creatures come back, so they not only grant you meanngful interaction and hate, they also come back which is why they are so damn good in this deck.
My Experience with UWx Control:
You have to be faster and attack their lands. You have at least 3 Fulminator Mages to get rid of the Colonades / Hllowed FOuntains. The opponent may recognize that and will try to search for basic lands. The basic lands can be destroyed with Beast Within. These two cards, fastened up by a Simian Spirit guide, are our best winning route in my opinion. You will need a target when you cast Demonic Dread and these are your best choices. If you can manage to prohibit the double U, many counterspells can not be cast (Cryptc Command, Logic Knot, Snapcaster + something.) After LE getting rid of the double W prevents Supreme Verdict and Settle the Wreckage. You can Use Ricochet Trap on the last one mentioned but you need 4 Mana to do so.
My plan would be:
3-4 Fulminator Mage
2 Beast Within
3 Faerie Macabre
3-4 Simian Spirit Guide
1-2 Krosan Grip
2-3 Ricochet Trap
Cards that will most likely do nothing or not enough
Shriekmaw - no real targets
Archfiend of Ifnir - to slow and eats a Path anyway
Ingot Chewer - their graveyard hate is enchantment based (if they bring any)
And to back up my point from before: Playing Hate cards in the mainboard can have massive benefits. Usually the downside is, they do nothing if the opponents deck doeas not care about these cards. But in Living End you still get a creature out of it, even if there was no interaction. I am only concerned about playing 2 Shriekmaws in the mainboard because you have to hit one of your creatures eventually. But Fearie Macabre and Ingot chewer never completely fail.
Notable card in my 75 right now include:
2 Anger of the Gods - against Dredge, Humans , Vizier COmbo
2 Brindleboar - against Burn , Skred, 8Whack, 8Rack
2 Shriekmaw (May go up to 3) - against Burn, Humans, Spirits, Vizier Combo
3 Ricochet Trap (May go down to 2) - against UWx-control, Jeskai Control, Grixis Death's Shadow
3 Ingot Chewer - against both affinity versions, Tron, the graveyard hate
3 Faerie Macabre (may go up to 4) - against Dredge, UWx-control, Jeskai Control, Arclight Phoenix, any Death's Shadow, Jund, Surgical Extraction plan
4 Fulminator Mage - against UWx-control, Jeskai Control, Tron, Titan Shift, Amulet Titan
2 Krosan Grip (May go down to 1 or be replaced completely) against Leyline (i hate that card) and other enchantments.
2 Dead // Gone - against Burn, Humans, Elves, Vizier Combo, Affinity
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Affinity is like the Christian religion. You got the old testament and the new. The old one was full of real affinity cards and then the new testament Metalcraft came along. Now with Hardened Scales the new Church of Affinity split up in two, just like the Catholics and Protestants." BRG Living End BRG G Hardened Scales Affinity G
I'm not against hate cards in the MB, i've been on shriekmaws, faeries, and even an anger in the MB since the summer of last year. Though I don't see the need for ingot chewers in the main, not enough decks are playing key mainboard artifacts we care about (especially after KCI ban) that justify playing mainboarding an answer that while plays with our general strategy, is vastly inferior in power/toughness and the ability to replace itself at instant speed.
But the issue we're facing is still one of a general metagame one that's inherent to modern for a while now. The variety of decks faced simply operate on too many different axis that requires specific responses that unless said answers inherently plays extremely well into our general strategy, is going to handicap the decks that have to go out of their way to fit those cards (i.e. dead cards in certain matchups).
For instance in my personal experience, the LD package is currently in weird spot because we either really need it, or really don't and there's no healthy in-between. UW/x, tron, scapeshift, amulet are decks that specifically demand LD but the moment we hit burn, dredge, even phoenix, they are some of the last cards you want to see. There's not enough of those "midrange-y" decks like pyromaner, jund, valuetown decks in the meta that would make the call for LD to be a solid one instead of a 50/50 gamble depending on what people brought for the day.
This sunday was a league tournament with 36 people. I got 5th Place with a 4-1-1 and was really happy with the deck list here:
Mainboard
3 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Fulminator Mage
4 Street Wraith
1 Ingot Chewer
2 Shriekmaw
2 Monstrous Carabid
4 Horror of the Broken Lands
2 Archfiend of Ifnir
4 Desert Cerodon
1 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Swamp
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Copperline Gorge
1 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Blooming Marsh
4 Violent Outburst
2 Beast Within
3 Living End
4 Demonic Dread
What I played against:
1 Round Tron: 2-0
2 Round Arclight Phoenix: 2-0
3 Round Humans: 0-2
4 Round Arclight Phoenix: 1-1
5 Round Tron: 2-0
6 Round Burn: 2-1
I am not sure but tron seams to me like a really nice matchup. 5 Land destruction in the main, Good answers to their graveyard Hate, We don't loose to Karn.
Against Acrlight Phoenix I had a lot of fun. It is really interesting to play against and I would say we are a bit favored, because of the faerie macabre and the bounce effect of Titi is not killing us, when we can cycle the bounced creatures or play a Shriekmaw again to kill it.
The Matchup against Humans I played really bad in Game 2 but the first one was also close. It is doable in my opinion, much better than Spirits.
Against Burn I felt I was really lucky winning the first game. Seconds game he drew no hate, just killed me faster. Game 3 he was slower and the hate he drew was ensnaring bridge which I removed rather fast without it having any impact. I feel like we normally loose that if he just plays his normal 60 and draws good.
What I would change: -1 Dead // Gone +1 Faerie Macabre. I was not able to change the deck before the tournament but It did not matter that much. Still,I thin 4 faeries are very good right now and 2 dead//gone is not needed. The Krosan Grip I really like, eventhough it is akward sometimes.But I may change that in the future. And last, the no Verdant Catacombs is budged reason and I am not willing to pay this much more if so little people even bring bloodmoon even if they have it in their 75.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Affinity is like the Christian religion. You got the old testament and the new. The old one was full of real affinity cards and then the new testament Metalcraft came along. Now with Hardened Scales the new Church of Affinity split up in two, just like the Catholics and Protestants." BRG Living End BRG G Hardened Scales Affinity G
Congrats on the finish. As someone who doesn’t mind a singleton main board copy of sideboard cards, I’m interested in the Ingot Chewer inclusion. I do wonder if having two in the 75 is one too few though. Have you tried Kolaghan’s Command? It improves the Humans matchup a good deal.
Has anyone seen the mono red version of Living End that’s 5-0’d a few leagues?
3 Deadshot Minotaur
4 Desert Cerodon
4 Flameblade Adept
4 Hollow One
2 Insolent Neonate
4 Monstrous Carabid
2 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
3 Urabrask the Hidden
2 Cathartic Reunion
4 Faithless Looting
4 Living End
4 Electrodominance
16 Mountain
I admit, it does look sweet. I'll try that list, with slightly variation and R/W for 4 Wear//Tear in the Sideboard. Thanks for sharing !
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Affinity is like the Christian religion. You got the old testament and the new. The old one was full of real affinity cards and then the new testament Metalcraft came along. Now with Hardened Scales the new Church of Affinity split up in two, just like the Catholics and Protestants." BRG Living End BRG G Hardened Scales Affinity G
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The deck looks a lot like my deck in the primer post. I take offense to it being called “vanilla” thank you!
RBGLiving EndRBG
EDH
UFblthpU
BRXantchaRB
BGVarolzGB
URWZedruuWRU
Seeing how much burn in this report it makes me think 3 fulminators and 2 beasts was a savvy meta call. I think most of his decisions are totally justifiable even if I would not have gone that way, the exception for me is not using a full playset of leyline.
Most of our cycling creatures are almost interchangeable based on cycling cost. I still run a full set of Carabids and I have not looked back, but the difference between then and something like horror of the broken lands is very often marginal at best if at all. Having split cycling cost is a huge boon for Carabid, especially since this list runs 4 Horrors. An early bloodmoon can severely hurt this guys mana so I think the build makes sense.
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Comedy gaming podcast. Listening to it makes you cool.
He had Quicksilver Amulet from his sideboard to sidestep graveyard hate !!!
My own creation was adding the Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker- Deceiver Exarch combo, which has the advantage of being resilient to graveyard hate and castable from hand. I've also toyed with a version with 2 combos (Mikaeus, the Unhallowed/Triskelion), and the LD build with Ashen Rider and Woodfall Primus.
Electrodominance is dirty, I had the turn 2 win once - couldn't pull it off because I had a basic Island, but I did pull it turn 3 several times.. instant speed. It's probably ban-worthy.
Please this take discussion to one of the other threads on the forums (linked in the primer) related to other ways to combo with Living End. As Electrodominance cannot be played in decks with cascade effects, the discussion in this thread would be fruitless.
Thanks!
RBGLiving EndRBG
EDH
UFblthpU
BRXantchaRB
BGVarolzGB
URWZedruuWRU
Ok, thank you. This was the Living End thread I found on the Established forums so I thought it was the appropriate place. It's probably going to have to be replaced with an Electrodominance one I guess.
Situation: H.S.A player uses Ravager to sac the Metallic Mimic, than itself and adds the counter to a Walking Ballista which he then shoots at me. Now everything is in the graveyard and comes back. Now the H.S.A-player wants to name "Construct" with the mimic so that his Ballista enters with a counter. I thought that was OK, since the Mimic has a effect that says "as" which I understand is between the cast -> enter the battlefield order. But if it is my turn wouldn't I be able to change the order of the triggers so that Ballista dies ?
thx a lot : )
BRG Living End BRG
G Hardened Scales Affinity G
I'm back and ready for more of these shenanigans. I've thrown together a list similar to the one from GP Oakland, but I'm not so sure what the meta looks like these days so I had a couple of questions.
Of course I've always loved Faerie Macabre, but why are we maindecking her now? Ironworks combo? General Snapcaster hate? Dredge?
Are there fewer Counterspells these days that going down to only two Ricochet Traps is the way?
Going from 4 each of Beast Within and Fulminator Mage down to 2 and 3 respectively is losing a LOT of LD for me. I'm guessing not running a full set of Fulminator isn't standard, but even that aside I'm going down to 75% of my current LD. I'm guessing Tron isn't nearly as common anymore?
Good to be back in the thick of it, but man I'm gonna miss Deadshot Minotaur. I just don't like the art on these new guys as much.
Edit: Also, are decks creature-centric enough that we don't need Dryad Arbor anymore?
Living End Contributor and Enthusiast
Come Pucatrade with me
Rules Advisor
Modern: BRGLiving EndGRB
Legacy: UBGShardless BUGGBU
BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB
WURNarset NostalgicRUW
UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU
UBlue BraidsU
GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WBRAleshacratsBRW
UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU
URGYasova the ThreateningGRU
BGGlissa the ArticiferGB
WUSygg MerfolkUW
RSquee, Value NabobR
Decks faster than Living End almost all use the graveyard. People who are good at magic and use creature decks fnd a way to build pressure and kill their own creature to let them return or they use discard/thoughtscour them. Its good against phoenix and ok against dredge and awesome against Hollow One in my opinion. And yes it is good against the Snapcaster Mage and very importantly it helps us not getting Surgical Extractioned: use the faerie macabre on Living End in the Graveyard (Or on a cascade spell that got discarded) when the opponent tries exile them withSurgical Extraction. The target is removed and the spell fizzles so they can not remove all our Cascade Spells/Living End
One reason might be the Faerie Macabre as a way to deal with snapcaster but in my opinion it depends on your local meta and what you expect. I always run 3 because I hate to loose against Merfolk's Spreading Sees and play against blue decks often.
The LD-package has shrunk for the better i.m.o. You do not need so many LD effects for 3 mana, because you will likely draw very many of them. The Beast Within @ 2 peaces is likely to the fast nature of Modern right now and the Fulminator Mage can only hit Non-basics which many decks try to play around. I keep always 4 Fulminator mages in my 75 and I can imagine a time where a third Beast within comes in as well.
I think the meta is so creature-centric right now that you can afford to not play Dryard Arbor. You don't want to lose against creature decks and they are so fast that you really need all the mana you can get, and in the worst case the opponent uses his 3-4 copies of Fatal push, a normally dead card against our land which sucks hard.
| Faerie Macabre is good against dredge, Hollow One, Phoenix and Death's Shadow. Ply at least 2 in the main is my suggestion
|
v
BRG Living End BRG
G Hardened Scales Affinity G
How are we feeling now that Ironworks is banned? Do we like our position more, or less? Has hollowed one really become so common that it's forcing us to be a deck that has to interact with their graveyard game 1? LD has really fallen off I see; so much of the deck is predicated on having access to a lot of fulminator activations, so I'm very curious if someone can offer an explanation for why the field of bullets is incentivizing slimming on them.
Glad to see Living End still has it's dedicated pilots--we'll terrorize modern yet!
Currently the big hitters are: Dredge, burn, phoenix, and grixis death shadow. Obviously modern is a very open meta and is the one where people are most likely to jam pet decks no matter what meta but given the above 4, it's safe to say that we're being pulled in many directions and looking at some less than favorable matches.
My personal opinion is that modern the format post KCI is still simply too fast and operating on too many different axis for living end to deal with without making concessions in our 75 that pulls the deck in many different areas.
Against the top 4, shaving some LD actually has some benefits, the only deck that LD can (not guaranteed) to hit hard is GDS, the other decks either don't care, can recover, or are resilient. The problem is that UW/x and tron are evergreen decks so the need for LD is always present and shaving these pieces opens you up to losing percentage points against the two aforementioned decks.
I think if the plan is to jam living end into this meta, that the key has to be in the SB. Looking at the current top tier decks, a 8 leyline plan (white and black) is very much something to consider. 8 leylines alone covers the top 4 decks pretty well and can hit a smattering of others in the process.
I understand the thought behind having the Leylines. The white Leyline is really good against burn and the Thoughtseize -> Surgical Extraction plan. But I am not a fan of having a 4 of in your deck that is completely useless unless in your opening hand. That might be my personal preference not to take that risk. The Black leyline is good, no question. I still prefere the faerie Macabre (3 in the main) because the opponent may not see it coming and plays like he would normally do. And against the decks that don't really care for about the graveyard, it is still OK to get a 2/2 Flyer on the field.
I agree that our winning route is through "sideboard" cards but here is a thought for you: What if you play 1-2 Shriekmaws and or 1-2 Ingot Chewers in the mainboard. When did you need more than one Archfiend and had the time to cycle them both? When was the Monstrous Carabid ever an answer to anything?
Right now I play only 2 Archfiends and 2 Carabids, simply because the games we have good matchups, we don't need that many cyclers. The bad Matchups we lose because they have problematic cards we don't have an answer to or that are too hard to handle. The Evoke creatures come back, so they not only grant you meanngful interaction and hate, they also come back which is why they are so damn good in this deck.
My Experience with UWx Control:
You have to be faster and attack their lands. You have at least 3 Fulminator Mages to get rid of the Colonades / Hllowed FOuntains. The opponent may recognize that and will try to search for basic lands. The basic lands can be destroyed with Beast Within. These two cards, fastened up by a Simian Spirit guide, are our best winning route in my opinion. You will need a target when you cast Demonic Dread and these are your best choices. If you can manage to prohibit the double U, many counterspells can not be cast (Cryptc Command, Logic Knot, Snapcaster + something.) After LE getting rid of the double W prevents Supreme Verdict and Settle the Wreckage. You can Use Ricochet Trap on the last one mentioned but you need 4 Mana to do so.
My plan would be:
3-4 Fulminator Mage
2 Beast Within
3 Faerie Macabre
3-4 Simian Spirit Guide
1-2 Krosan Grip
2-3 Ricochet Trap
Cards that will most likely do nothing or not enough
Shriekmaw - no real targets
Archfiend of Ifnir - to slow and eats a Path anyway
Ingot Chewer - their graveyard hate is enchantment based (if they bring any)
And to back up my point from before: Playing Hate cards in the mainboard can have massive benefits. Usually the downside is, they do nothing if the opponents deck doeas not care about these cards. But in Living End you still get a creature out of it, even if there was no interaction. I am only concerned about playing 2 Shriekmaws in the mainboard because you have to hit one of your creatures eventually. But Fearie Macabre and Ingot chewer never completely fail.
Notable card in my 75 right now include:
2 Anger of the Gods - against Dredge, Humans , Vizier COmbo
2 Brindleboar - against Burn , Skred, 8Whack, 8Rack
2 Shriekmaw (May go up to 3) - against Burn, Humans, Spirits, Vizier Combo
3 Ricochet Trap (May go down to 2) - against UWx-control, Jeskai Control, Grixis Death's Shadow
3 Ingot Chewer - against both affinity versions, Tron, the graveyard hate
3 Faerie Macabre (may go up to 4) - against Dredge, UWx-control, Jeskai Control, Arclight Phoenix, any Death's Shadow, Jund, Surgical Extraction plan
4 Fulminator Mage - against UWx-control, Jeskai Control, Tron, Titan Shift, Amulet Titan
2 Krosan Grip (May go down to 1 or be replaced completely) against Leyline (i hate that card) and other enchantments.
2 Dead // Gone - against Burn, Humans, Elves, Vizier Combo, Affinity
BRG Living End BRG
G Hardened Scales Affinity G
But the issue we're facing is still one of a general metagame one that's inherent to modern for a while now. The variety of decks faced simply operate on too many different axis that requires specific responses that unless said answers inherently plays extremely well into our general strategy, is going to handicap the decks that have to go out of their way to fit those cards (i.e. dead cards in certain matchups).
For instance in my personal experience, the LD package is currently in weird spot because we either really need it, or really don't and there's no healthy in-between. UW/x, tron, scapeshift, amulet are decks that specifically demand LD but the moment we hit burn, dredge, even phoenix, they are some of the last cards you want to see. There's not enough of those "midrange-y" decks like pyromaner, jund, valuetown decks in the meta that would make the call for LD to be a solid one instead of a 50/50 gamble depending on what people brought for the day.
Remember that Horror of the Broken Lands is not bounced by Awakened Horror.
RBGLiving EndRBG
EDH
UFblthpU
BRXantchaRB
BGVarolzGB
URWZedruuWRU
Mainboard
3 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Fulminator Mage
4 Street Wraith
1 Ingot Chewer
2 Shriekmaw
2 Monstrous Carabid
4 Horror of the Broken Lands
2 Archfiend of Ifnir
4 Desert Cerodon
1 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Swamp
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Copperline Gorge
1 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Blooming Marsh
4 Violent Outburst
2 Beast Within
3 Living End
4 Demonic Dread
Sideboard
1 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Brindle Boar
1 Shriekmaw
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Ingot Chewer
2 Dead // Gone
3 Ricochet Trap
2 Krosan Grip
2 Anger of the Gods
What I played against:
1 Round Tron: 2-0
2 Round Arclight Phoenix: 2-0
3 Round Humans: 0-2
4 Round Arclight Phoenix: 1-1
5 Round Tron: 2-0
6 Round Burn: 2-1
I am not sure but tron seams to me like a really nice matchup. 5 Land destruction in the main, Good answers to their graveyard Hate, We don't loose to Karn.
Against Acrlight Phoenix I had a lot of fun. It is really interesting to play against and I would say we are a bit favored, because of the faerie macabre and the bounce effect of Titi is not killing us, when we can cycle the bounced creatures or play a Shriekmaw again to kill it.
The Matchup against Humans I played really bad in Game 2 but the first one was also close. It is doable in my opinion, much better than Spirits.
Against Burn I felt I was really lucky winning the first game. Seconds game he drew no hate, just killed me faster. Game 3 he was slower and the hate he drew was ensnaring bridge which I removed rather fast without it having any impact. I feel like we normally loose that if he just plays his normal 60 and draws good.
What I would change: -1 Dead // Gone +1 Faerie Macabre. I was not able to change the deck before the tournament but It did not matter that much. Still,I thin 4 faeries are very good right now and 2 dead//gone is not needed. The Krosan Grip I really like, eventhough it is akward sometimes.But I may change that in the future. And last, the no Verdant Catacombs is budged reason and I am not willing to pay this much more if so little people even bring bloodmoon even if they have it in their 75.
BRG Living End BRG
G Hardened Scales Affinity G
RBGLiving EndRBG
EDH
UFblthpU
BRXantchaRB
BGVarolzGB
URWZedruuWRU
3 Deadshot Minotaur
4 Desert Cerodon
4 Flameblade Adept
4 Hollow One
2 Insolent Neonate
4 Monstrous Carabid
2 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
3 Urabrask the Hidden
2 Cathartic Reunion
4 Faithless Looting
4 Living End
4 Electrodominance
16 Mountain
I’m interested in learning more about this list as well. Seems fun to play
I admit, it does look sweet. I'll try that list, with slightly variation and R/W for 4 Wear//Tear in the Sideboard. Thanks for sharing !
BRG Living End BRG
G Hardened Scales Affinity G