for those of you wondering why travis' list looks "stock" its because hes my testing buddy and Disgruntled elk online. He ended x-4, losing his top 8 shot to storm where he technically misplayed but it wouldnt have mattered cuz his opp had everything.
Post notes results from him and from my jamming in side events:
Deck feels great in its current form
Jace is meh, we cut both copies out of the main for the 4th serum visions and a krark-clan ironworks. Ironworks is for grindy matchups or combo where we need some way to leverage thopter sword to go over the top. Case in point, Travis' last win was against amulet titan, where he had thopter sword in play for most of the game. His opponent still almost managed to kill him with multiple titans and ruric-thar. Had travis had kci in his deck, it would have been an easier win
spellskite from the board was an all-star, trying to find a way to the main deck.
scissors out of the board was HOT all day. Trav beat tron twice I believe, essentially by being lava axe.deck
I found the same with Jace and agree on Spellskite I main board 2 in most my builds and he's VERY fun with Master Transmuter = great protection minus shatter storm.
@Jmelanson : I don't own Jace and have been extremely busy trading into some Power lately, so I can't really appreciate Jace's spot in the deck nor back my impression up with lots of play time from the current period. I am, however, following the issue very closely wherever I can.
And @Zac's deck tech on Tezz was one of those places. If i recall well he said that all the games in which he got to cast Jace TMS he lost. He wasn't positive if card just didn't belong in the shell or what YET, but it seemed disappointing for sure.
Now @Noctem and Travis' notes seem to back that sentiment up.
@Noctem89 : Thanks for the notes ! If we TLDR. the event, Jace has been underwhelming for this run. But more importantly, both Travis and Zac have lost their most crucial games to big Tron and Storm. Boy is Damping Sphere going to give this archetype a kick!!! This is the week-end's biggest takeaway to me.
@Jmelanson : Spellskite has been awesome out of Lantern's board too. All the Cryptics, D-Spheres, Karn activations that Welding Jar couldn't help us against, Skite would insulate us from.
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MODERN Blue Lantern, UBx Tezzerator. OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
I have been on an absolute tear since JTMS unban. I am 11-2-3 with all draws being intentional and the 2 loses where in the same night where I played like garbage. I don't know everyone else's list but it just took some small tweaking to fit him in and he has been incredibly good. Ensnaring Bridge + JTMS is game over most of the time. I have played him to double unsummon the same creature multiple times to buy a window for a my other expensive spells. In the grindy matchups he comes down and brainstorms multiple times until they remove him or you win. I agree that JTMS isn't super good in Modern but this has got to be one of the best if not THE best deck for him.
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U/B Tezzeret Control
Sultai Midrange
Anything Innovative
for those of you wondering why travis' list looks "stock" its because hes my testing buddy and Disgruntled elk online. He ended x-4, losing his top 8 shot to storm where he technically misplayed but it wouldnt have mattered cuz his opp had everything.
Post notes results from him and from my jamming in side events:
Deck feels great in its current form
Jace is meh, we cut both copies out of the main for the 4th serum visions and a krark-clan ironworks. Ironworks is for grindy matchups or combo where we need some way to leverage thopter sword to go over the top. Case in point, Travis' last win was against amulet titan, where he had thopter sword in play for most of the game. His opponent still almost managed to kill him with multiple titans and ruric-thar. Had travis had kci in his deck, it would have been an easier win
spellskite from the board was an all-star, trying to find a way to the main deck.
scissors out of the board was HOT all day. Trav beat tron twice I believe, essentially by being lava axe.deck
Travis here,
And here I was looking to find the deck, and they moved it to the established zone! A lot of what Noctem said sums up my overall thoughts. I can do a tournament report if people are wanting it, but the long and short of it was I was x-1 going into day 2 (only loss was to Brennan DeCandio), then I lost to Jadine (mulls both games 2 and 3), and I definitely misplayed not making a 5/5. I had totally blanked on the IoK in her hand for some reason. What can I say, I was tired :P. Got a snack after that round and was x-2 going into round 13 with very high breakers. I then lost to storm back to back, which Scissors almost got me out of. Beat Daryl Ayers in round 15 in an insane series where both of us were exhausted. Deck is great, but the changes I discussed with Noctem definitely feel correct going forward. I also can't wait for Damping Sphere and Karn, Scion of Urza to really kick Tron and Storm where it hurts.
I haven't had time to test Jace yet, as I only have him in paper and refuse to pay online. In theory, he seems somewhat similar to tezz in what kind of board state you would want to play him - that is, after combo is not an option and/or behind a bridge or facing a single threat from opponent. The only thing he doesn't really do that Tezz does (other than a quick ultimate) is attack Tron, so I could see how he's a little disappointing.
@Noctem89 - I'm very curious to know how Disgruntled Elk handled burn during the tourney, or if he ever faced it. 4 Thoughtseize (over Inquisition of Kozilek) and no Brutality would make me nervous in that matchup.
My own online experiences recently: doing no better than 3-2, usually 2-3... all because of getting wrecked by Jund! My sideboard with decay and whatnot, which had felt great for a time, has felt decidedly underwhelming after the Bloodbraid Elf unban caused what seemed like a quadrupling of Ancient Grudge being cast against me. So yesterday I decided to switch over to Esper, with 3 Lingering Souls in the board. SO much smoother, and coasted to a 4-1 record, losing a very close match to Grixis control in which I got mana choked games 1 and 3. Losing decay is a bummer, but 2 Fragmentize/2 Echoing Truth for stony worked fine against UW and Jeskai control. I also put Etched Champion in the board to combat goyfs and bloodbraid.
@Disgruntled Elk - Hey, nice job navigating the field to a good finish. See above post (@Noctem) for question regarding burn matchup and your list. Did you see burn at all and how did it go with thoughtseize and no CB?
Glad to see Tezz getting some love on Camera. I've been pretty busy lately and not playing a ton, mostly playing various Jace decks, but have been jamming some Tezz again for the last week.
I like the SCG takes on the deck.
Some of my thoughts
1) Jace, I like it, but don't love it. Can be a wincon in the face of Stony Silence. Doesn't dig as deep as Tezz for artifacts. I do like that brainstorm can draw you into your non-artifacts like Whir, Abrupt Decay, etc. I think the 4/2 split is too many 4 drops. I personally hate when I'm relying on Bridge to get keep you alive vs an aggro deck and you draw a bunch of 4 drops that clutter up your hand till you die. I've also not been in love with 4 Tezz in general in a long time. I'm currently on a 3/2 tezz/jace split and it's feeling ok. I could see an argument for ditching Jace completely, but I enjoy the card a lot so probably won't.
2) Pentad Prism. I really go back and forth on it. I feel like I want to play 0, but need to play some number of either them or Talisman. I'm kinda feeling Talisman lately with the increase in 4 drops.
3) Ensoul Artifact in the board is spicy. I was pretty skeptical about it at first, but I'll give it a try.
4) Chalice of the Void. I've been trying out 4 Chalice main over the thoughtseize/IoKs/Serum visions. I'm not sure I love it, but I certainly don't hate it. It's a strong card to lock stuff out, 4 of them means putting it on 1 on turn 2 is fairly consistent. As weird as it is, I've also got some pretty nice starts by putting it on 0 just to enable Opal for 2 mana on turn 1. Like land, Bauble, Opal, chalice on 0, then something like Chalice on 1, or Thopter Foundry. Shutting off my extra baubles doesn't feel great, but often a chalice on 1 feels a lot better. I've even put Chalice on 2 a bunch and relyed on either my walkers or whir to get me the thopter sword combo out. I really dunno if Chalice is actually better than the thoughtseizes though. I think I'd at least want 3 of them in the sideboard
5) Mox Opal. I've gone up to 4 and and kinda liking it, especially with the chalices as described above.
6) I still love collective brutality, especially when I'm on the chalice plan. Card is so flexible and great vs burn. Also helps ditch clunky expensive cards out of hand for Bridge.
7) I'm also feeling the 4/3 Thopter Sword split lately. I just want to get it online as much as possible.
8) Why KCI over Time Sieve? I've certainly gone back and forth on time sieve. Sometimes it feels win more, sometimes it's your only way to steal a free win. I guess it requires 5 mana instead of 4 to go off, but can actually just win on the spot there, while being cheaper to Whir for/cast.
9) I even recently managed to defeat tron 2-0! that like never happens. Went something like, on the play, Bauble and crack it to see what I'm up against, see Map. Land Pithing Needle naming Map. Turn 2 Chalice on 1. That plus an eventual ghost quarter made me quickly get out ahead. Chalice on 1 feels very good vs them.
This is where I'm at now. Sideboard especially is constantly in flux, need to find room for those Ensoul Artifacts
Is Karn really going to be what we want? I mean initially I was on board, but he really only does 2 things, draw cards, and make a threat. He seems much weaker at drawing cards than Jace or Tezzeret. Is his -2 really worth playing over Jace, more Tezzerets, or just other cards? I dunno, it might be, but I'm pretty skeptical. I guess as maybe a sideboard card vs decks where Bridge is bad I like the idea of Karn a fair bit
If JTMS is not a solid «cog» in the machine [thanks @Racing089 for giving us hope on this! Keep' em coming, reports], not sure how Karn could turn out to be. We'll find out I guess
@DisgruntledElk : I for one would looove me a full report. Congrats anyways!!
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MODERN Blue Lantern, UBx Tezzerator. OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
I can see that. I'd like to see both Karn and Teferi in action in the deck. I think both could be great. Ahh the promise of sets with cards that aren't a pile of pirates and dinosaurs!
Rd 1 W vs Storm (2-0)
-opponent mis-sequenced and I killed off his chances to win with a whirred spellbomb)
Rd 2 W vs Humans (2-1)
-Thopter Sword killed them, and welding jar/skite were huge at protecting bridge. Damnation sealed the deal.
Rd 3 W vs Aaron Barich on Infect (2-1)
-I whiffed twice with Tezz game 1, then he bricked on lands game 2, then I started swinging with 5/5s after playing spellskite. He had to start chumping all my dudes and died soon after.
Rd 4 W vs Jeskai Burn (2-1)
-Game 1 he stumbled on lands and Thopter Sword got there. Game 2 I misboarded because I did not see that he was on burn and died. Game 3 I stabilized with Thopter Sword at 4 life.
Rd 5 L vs Brennan DeCandio on 4C Reveler/Pyromancer (1-2)
-Game 1 I thopter sword him out. Game 2 and three he hits both of his EEs and K commands. It was rough and I bricked for multiple turns.
Rd 6 W vs Elves (2-0)
-Game 1 I whir for bridge+welding jar, and it locks him out. Game 2 I cast damnation on turn 3 thanks to pentad prism and follow up with Thopter Sword. GG
Rd 7 W vs G Tron (2-0)
-Game 1 he stumbles for a turn, I jam an early tezz and make 3 5/5s over a few turns to kill him.
Rd 8 W vs Humans (2-1)
-Game 1 I punt savagely by not playing bridge after he kitsails to hit the other one. He then plays mage naming it and I die with a bunch of cards in hand. I was tired and thirsty, and it showed. I regrouped, and killed him game 2 and 3 with thopter sword/bridge/damnation. EZ mode.
Rd 9 W vs Humans (2-1)
-Game 1 I keep 2 bauble, 2 serum visions, and 2 lands after mulling. I then serum visions twice to bottom 2 lands each, and draw a land off each and the baubles. I do nothing and die. Game 2 and 3 are won in similar fashions to round 8.
Going into day 2 I was 8-1, at 9th place!
Rd 10 W vs Blue Moon/UR control (2-1)
-Game 1 I thopter/sword him out after forcing a counterspell on my end of turn whir. Game 2 I lose to him having the perfect mix of on-curve counters, a clock in clique and stormbreath, and me bricking multiple draw steps. Game 3 I ultimate Tezzeret with Thopter Sword to kill him the turn before he killed me with JTMS ultimate.
Rd 11 L vs Jadine on Jund. (1-2)
-Game 1 I Thopter Sworded her out. Game 2 she hits all her commands, I mulligan, and she also has BOB. Rough beats. Game 3 I punted by not making a 5/5 and blowing the prism mana on the pulse instead of a foundry.
Rd 12 W vs Jeskai Control. (2-0)
-Game 1 I play Thopter Sword with Thoughtseize to plow the way. Game 2 plays very similarly.
Rd 13 L vs Storm (0-2)
-Game 1 he kills me on turn 3. Game 2 I miss my land drop and am unable to do enough to disrupt him as he hits shattering spree to hit both cage and spellbomb.
Rd 14 L vs Storm (1-2)
-Game 1 we go Turbo Tezz and get him to 3 before he is able to combo off. Game 2 I kill him with Ensoul Artifact and Tezzeret 5/5s after thoughtseizing. Game 3 he eeks out the win the turn before he dies. I thought I had punted by whirring at the wrong time (I have minimal experience vs storm, was tired an thirsty, etc.). It turns out it didn't matter, because he ALSO had the wipe away if I had gotten spellbomb instead of cage. Bye Bye top 8 chances
Rd 15 W vs Daryl Ayers on Amulet (2-1)
-Game 1 he copies my ruins to make an engineered explosives every turn. GG. Game 2 I Thopter Sword+Thoughtseize and get there. Game 3 is nuts. Things get so complicated that opponent is warned for slow play and we go to turns. I am able to survive a hit from a double striking 12 power Prime Time and crack back for lethal on turn 5!
All-in-all, I really like the deck.I would make the following changes going forward:
Main:
-2 JTMS
+1 Serum Visions
+1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
This smooths out our draws and gives us the capacity to instantly win.
Sideboard:
-1 Ensoul
+1 Collective Brutality
Gives us a bit more help vs Burn. Even though I didn't play it at all at the tournament, my practice vs the deck with this configuration indicates that the matchup is no worse than 50%, which I am fine with.
Here's a huge UGH moment I just have to share... I just missed out on 5-0 in a modern competitive league. I was 4-0, and it was game 3 vs mono green tron. I had a board of 5 lands, padeem (without having the highest cmc artifact) 7-8 swinging thopters and the combo, with a pithing needle on O-Stone. My opponent had a wurmcoil swinging every turn, a TKS, a million land, and 2 ineffective O-stones. He was at 36 life and me at an irrelevant 11. I can't get sieve because it was exiled, so it's sort of a weird top-deck race that I was going to win in like 5 turns of him gaining life and me gaining more and more thopters. He has no cards in hand, I have 2 useless discard and another foundry in hand.
Then, while making thopters on his end step, I accidentally click needle instead of sword, proceed to draw Tezz which would have ultimated for lethal on the following turn, and then have to watch him topdeck more lands ensuring that I would have won. Of course his O-stones cash in and I lose to token wurmcoil beats, while he just gives me an unsympathetic "lol." ARG! TRON!!!
@DisgruntledElk Thanks for the report! Great run. Last match seemed crazy ha. As other means of improving the Burn match-up, have you considered bumping up to 4/3 the Thopter-Sword pieces count? Or switching some number of Thoughtseize for IoK or Brutality?
@The_Nobodys nooooooooooooooo! Nothing much to say else than «ARG!» haha. And you said it. Don't do this again.
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MODERN Blue Lantern, UBx Tezzerator. OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
The meta became a bit more favorable for us would be my guess. If we play a bunch of decks that fold to thopter sword, we should be pretty favored. Only deck that this doesnt technically apply to is burn i think because its more combo-y in that it can kill us before we get the chance to set up.
I think that though BBE kcommand sucks for us, what the existence of BBE has done to the format is force out control decks that try to answer threats one for one, and it's also made controlling the game via hand disruption significantly worse.
That's my guess
Also - it's definitely true that Jace is a generically powerful card, I don't think he's powerful enough in our build to warrant how much drag another 4cmc permanent adds to the vital process of getting under bridge. Sometimes I think 4 AoB is too many but 3 is too few because of this very problem, but I think dropping one for a Jace is a huge leap in the wrong direction.
@Radouf - I also think it's just a few more people picking up the deck. I don't see the meta as that much easier for us, except maybe the big uptick in Jund means a little less combo out there, like storm and counters company. I'd usually rather try to out-grind jund, even though they're favored over us, than try to keep a strong combo deck in check. Also, I've been facing slightly more anti-jund decks like dredge, bogles, and merfolk, which are all basically free wins game-1. I've really had to relearn the post-board bogles matchup, though, which is pretty tough, as Gaddock Teeg always seems to completely mess with my plans.
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Post notes results from him and from my jamming in side events:
Deck feels great in its current form
Jace is meh, we cut both copies out of the main for the 4th serum visions and a krark-clan ironworks. Ironworks is for grindy matchups or combo where we need some way to leverage thopter sword to go over the top. Case in point, Travis' last win was against amulet titan, where he had thopter sword in play for most of the game. His opponent still almost managed to kill him with multiple titans and ruric-thar. Had travis had kci in his deck, it would have been an easier win
spellskite from the board was an all-star, trying to find a way to the main deck.
scissors out of the board was HOT all day. Trav beat tron twice I believe, essentially by being lava axe.deck
And @Zac's deck tech on Tezz was one of those places. If i recall well he said that all the games in which he got to cast Jace TMS he lost. He wasn't positive if card just didn't belong in the shell or what YET, but it seemed disappointing for sure.
Now @Noctem and Travis' notes seem to back that sentiment up.
@Noctem89 : Thanks for the notes ! If we TLDR. the event, Jace has been underwhelming for this run. But more importantly, both Travis and Zac have lost their most crucial games to big Tron and Storm. Boy is Damping Sphere going to give this archetype a kick!!! This is the week-end's biggest takeaway to me.
@Jmelanson : Spellskite has been awesome out of Lantern's board too. All the Cryptics, D-Spheres, Karn activations that Welding Jar couldn't help us against, Skite would insulate us from.
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
Sultai Midrange
Anything Innovative
Travis here,
And here I was looking to find the deck, and they moved it to the established zone! A lot of what Noctem said sums up my overall thoughts. I can do a tournament report if people are wanting it, but the long and short of it was I was x-1 going into day 2 (only loss was to Brennan DeCandio), then I lost to Jadine (mulls both games 2 and 3), and I definitely misplayed not making a 5/5. I had totally blanked on the IoK in her hand for some reason. What can I say, I was tired :P. Got a snack after that round and was x-2 going into round 13 with very high breakers. I then lost to storm back to back, which Scissors almost got me out of. Beat Daryl Ayers in round 15 in an insane series where both of us were exhausted. Deck is great, but the changes I discussed with Noctem definitely feel correct going forward. I also can't wait for Damping Sphere and Karn, Scion of Urza to really kick Tron and Storm where it hurts.
@Noctem89 - I'm very curious to know how Disgruntled Elk handled burn during the tourney, or if he ever faced it. 4 Thoughtseize (over Inquisition of Kozilek) and no Brutality would make me nervous in that matchup.
My own online experiences recently: doing no better than 3-2, usually 2-3... all because of getting wrecked by Jund! My sideboard with decay and whatnot, which had felt great for a time, has felt decidedly underwhelming after the Bloodbraid Elf unban caused what seemed like a quadrupling of Ancient Grudge being cast against me. So yesterday I decided to switch over to Esper, with 3 Lingering Souls in the board. SO much smoother, and coasted to a 4-1 record, losing a very close match to Grixis control in which I got mana choked games 1 and 3. Losing decay is a bummer, but 2 Fragmentize/2 Echoing Truth for stony worked fine against UW and Jeskai control. I also put Etched Champion in the board to combat goyfs and bloodbraid.
I like the SCG takes on the deck.
Some of my thoughts
1) Jace, I like it, but don't love it. Can be a wincon in the face of Stony Silence. Doesn't dig as deep as Tezz for artifacts. I do like that brainstorm can draw you into your non-artifacts like Whir, Abrupt Decay, etc. I think the 4/2 split is too many 4 drops. I personally hate when I'm relying on Bridge to get keep you alive vs an aggro deck and you draw a bunch of 4 drops that clutter up your hand till you die. I've also not been in love with 4 Tezz in general in a long time. I'm currently on a 3/2 tezz/jace split and it's feeling ok. I could see an argument for ditching Jace completely, but I enjoy the card a lot so probably won't.
2) Pentad Prism. I really go back and forth on it. I feel like I want to play 0, but need to play some number of either them or Talisman. I'm kinda feeling Talisman lately with the increase in 4 drops.
3) Ensoul Artifact in the board is spicy. I was pretty skeptical about it at first, but I'll give it a try.
4) Chalice of the Void. I've been trying out 4 Chalice main over the thoughtseize/IoKs/Serum visions. I'm not sure I love it, but I certainly don't hate it. It's a strong card to lock stuff out, 4 of them means putting it on 1 on turn 2 is fairly consistent. As weird as it is, I've also got some pretty nice starts by putting it on 0 just to enable Opal for 2 mana on turn 1. Like land, Bauble, Opal, chalice on 0, then something like Chalice on 1, or Thopter Foundry. Shutting off my extra baubles doesn't feel great, but often a chalice on 1 feels a lot better. I've even put Chalice on 2 a bunch and relyed on either my walkers or whir to get me the thopter sword combo out. I really dunno if Chalice is actually better than the thoughtseizes though. I think I'd at least want 3 of them in the sideboard
5) Mox Opal. I've gone up to 4 and and kinda liking it, especially with the chalices as described above.
6) I still love collective brutality, especially when I'm on the chalice plan. Card is so flexible and great vs burn. Also helps ditch clunky expensive cards out of hand for Bridge.
7) I'm also feeling the 4/3 Thopter Sword split lately. I just want to get it online as much as possible.
8) Why KCI over Time Sieve? I've certainly gone back and forth on time sieve. Sometimes it feels win more, sometimes it's your only way to steal a free win. I guess it requires 5 mana instead of 4 to go off, but can actually just win on the spot there, while being cheaper to Whir for/cast.
9) I even recently managed to defeat tron 2-0! that like never happens. Went something like, on the play, Bauble and crack it to see what I'm up against, see Map. Land Pithing Needle naming Map. Turn 2 Chalice on 1. That plus an eventual ghost quarter made me quickly get out ahead. Chalice on 1 feels very good vs them.
This is where I'm at now. Sideboard especially is constantly in flux, need to find room for those Ensoul Artifacts
1 Academy Ruins
1 Breeding Pool
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Flooded Strand
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Spire of Industry
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
Planeswalkers (5)
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Thopter Foundry
3 Sword of the Meek
2 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Mox Opal
1 Welding Jar
1 Pithing Needle
4 Mishra's Bauble
3 Talisman of Dominance
1 Crucible of Worlds
Spells (6)
4 Whir of Invention
2 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Pithing Needle
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Defense Grid
1 Sun Droplet
1 Spellskite
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Welding Jar
1 Collective Brutality
3 Thoughtseize
@DisgruntledElk : I for one would looove me a full report. Congrats anyways!!
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
Here is the list for reference:
UBx Turbo Tezz
Rd 1 W vs Storm (2-0)
-opponent mis-sequenced and I killed off his chances to win with a whirred spellbomb)
Rd 2 W vs Humans (2-1)
-Thopter Sword killed them, and welding jar/skite were huge at protecting bridge. Damnation sealed the deal.
Rd 3 W vs Aaron Barich on Infect (2-1)
-I whiffed twice with Tezz game 1, then he bricked on lands game 2, then I started swinging with 5/5s after playing spellskite. He had to start chumping all my dudes and died soon after.
Rd 4 W vs Jeskai Burn (2-1)
-Game 1 he stumbled on lands and Thopter Sword got there. Game 2 I misboarded because I did not see that he was on burn and died. Game 3 I stabilized with Thopter Sword at 4 life.
Rd 5 L vs Brennan DeCandio on 4C Reveler/Pyromancer (1-2)
-Game 1 I thopter sword him out. Game 2 and three he hits both of his EEs and K commands. It was rough and I bricked for multiple turns.
Rd 6 W vs Elves (2-0)
-Game 1 I whir for bridge+welding jar, and it locks him out. Game 2 I cast damnation on turn 3 thanks to pentad prism and follow up with Thopter Sword. GG
Rd 7 W vs G Tron (2-0)
-Game 1 he stumbles for a turn, I jam an early tezz and make 3 5/5s over a few turns to kill him.
Rd 8 W vs Humans (2-1)
-Game 1 I punt savagely by not playing bridge after he kitsails to hit the other one. He then plays mage naming it and I die with a bunch of cards in hand. I was tired and thirsty, and it showed. I regrouped, and killed him game 2 and 3 with thopter sword/bridge/damnation. EZ mode.
Rd 9 W vs Humans (2-1)
-Game 1 I keep 2 bauble, 2 serum visions, and 2 lands after mulling. I then serum visions twice to bottom 2 lands each, and draw a land off each and the baubles. I do nothing and die. Game 2 and 3 are won in similar fashions to round 8.
Going into day 2 I was 8-1, at 9th place!
Rd 10 W vs Blue Moon/UR control (2-1)
-Game 1 I thopter/sword him out after forcing a counterspell on my end of turn whir. Game 2 I lose to him having the perfect mix of on-curve counters, a clock in clique and stormbreath, and me bricking multiple draw steps. Game 3 I ultimate Tezzeret with Thopter Sword to kill him the turn before he killed me with JTMS ultimate.
Rd 11 L vs Jadine on Jund. (1-2)
-Game 1 I Thopter Sworded her out. Game 2 she hits all her commands, I mulligan, and she also has BOB. Rough beats. Game 3 I punted by not making a 5/5 and blowing the prism mana on the pulse instead of a foundry.
Rd 12 W vs Jeskai Control. (2-0)
-Game 1 I play Thopter Sword with Thoughtseize to plow the way. Game 2 plays very similarly.
Rd 13 L vs Storm (0-2)
-Game 1 he kills me on turn 3. Game 2 I miss my land drop and am unable to do enough to disrupt him as he hits shattering spree to hit both cage and spellbomb.
Rd 14 L vs Storm (1-2)
-Game 1 we go Turbo Tezz and get him to 3 before he is able to combo off. Game 2 I kill him with Ensoul Artifact and Tezzeret 5/5s after thoughtseizing. Game 3 he eeks out the win the turn before he dies. I thought I had punted by whirring at the wrong time (I have minimal experience vs storm, was tired an thirsty, etc.). It turns out it didn't matter, because he ALSO had the wipe away if I had gotten spellbomb instead of cage. Bye Bye top 8 chances
Rd 15 W vs Daryl Ayers on Amulet (2-1)
-Game 1 he copies my ruins to make an engineered explosives every turn. GG. Game 2 I Thopter Sword+Thoughtseize and get there. Game 3 is nuts. Things get so complicated that opponent is warned for slow play and we go to turns. I am able to survive a hit from a double striking 12 power Prime Time and crack back for lethal on turn 5!
All-in-all, I really like the deck.I would make the following changes going forward:
Main:
-2 JTMS
+1 Serum Visions
+1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
This smooths out our draws and gives us the capacity to instantly win.
Sideboard:
-1 Ensoul
+1 Collective Brutality
Gives us a bit more help vs Burn. Even though I didn't play it at all at the tournament, my practice vs the deck with this configuration indicates that the matchup is no worse than 50%, which I am fine with.
Here's a huge UGH moment I just have to share... I just missed out on 5-0 in a modern competitive league. I was 4-0, and it was game 3 vs mono green tron. I had a board of 5 lands, padeem (without having the highest cmc artifact) 7-8 swinging thopters and the combo, with a pithing needle on O-Stone. My opponent had a wurmcoil swinging every turn, a TKS, a million land, and 2 ineffective O-stones. He was at 36 life and me at an irrelevant 11. I can't get sieve because it was exiled, so it's sort of a weird top-deck race that I was going to win in like 5 turns of him gaining life and me gaining more and more thopters. He has no cards in hand, I have 2 useless discard and another foundry in hand.
Then, while making thopters on his end step, I accidentally click needle instead of sword, proceed to draw Tezz which would have ultimated for lethal on the following turn, and then have to watch him topdeck more lands ensuring that I would have won. Of course his O-stones cash in and I lose to token wurmcoil beats, while he just gives me an unsympathetic "lol." ARG! TRON!!!
@The_Nobodys nooooooooooooooo! Nothing much to say else than «ARG!» haha. And you said it. Don't do this again.
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
That's my guess
Also - it's definitely true that Jace is a generically powerful card, I don't think he's powerful enough in our build to warrant how much drag another 4cmc permanent adds to the vital process of getting under bridge. Sometimes I think 4 AoB is too many but 3 is too few because of this very problem, but I think dropping one for a Jace is a huge leap in the wrong direction.