For those unsure about the burn matchup (I switched from burn to play Ponza but I still play it about 25% of the time in Modern and 100% of the time in Legacy) Blood Moon isn’t that great. You can keep in the other Rain effects because Trinisphere is your friend here along with your life gain package.
I do exactly the opposite. I keep Blood Moon in as it shuts off Boros Charm, Lightning Helix, Destructive Revelry and possibly Atarka's Command. I find it pretty hard to lock Burn out under a Trinisphere. Sure it's possible to lock them out of the game but they have way more lands than we have land destruction spells, so they eventually draw out of the lock and we end up drawing land destruction when they have 4 lands in play.
A second more practical reason is that I always have lots of cards that I want to bring in against Burn: Trinispheres, Kitchen Finks, Obstinate Baloths, and I need to side something out, so out goes the land destruction.
For those unsure about the burn matchup (I switched from burn to play Ponza but I still play it about 25% of the time in Modern and 100% of the time in Legacy) Blood Moon isn’t that great. You can keep in the other Rain effects because Trinisphere is your friend here along with your life gain package.
I do exactly the opposite. I keep Blood Moon in as it shuts off Boros Charm, Lightning Helix, Destructive Revelry and possibly Atarka's Command. I find it pretty hard to lock Burn out under a Trinisphere. Sure it's possible to lock them out of the game but they have way more lands than we have land destruction spells, so they eventually draw out of the lock and we end up drawing land destruction when they have 4 lands in play.
A second more practical reason is that I always have lots of cards that I want to bring in against Burn: Trinispheres, Kitchen Finks, Obstinate Baloths, and I need to side something out, so out goes the land destruction.
Almost all decks in Modern have more lands than we have land destruction. The point is Burn decks only have 18 land, and if we can destroy their first two or three land. Burn does not have card draw to find more land, they can only hope to topdeck it. Doing this can sometimes tilt people, so beware the salt.
I found Blood Moon to be a dead draw against them. Even against a RW Burn opponent, I would prefer the moon to be more life gain or another creature that can block guides. They would only have 2 or 3 copies of Deflecting Palm in their 75, so they won't always have it. If they fetched the sacred foundry, then I will destroy it. If they keep a fetch uncracked, then I will destroy their other lands to try and reduce them to one mana. And on Burn players that I know, even if they represent the palm with RW mana open, they are sometimes... bluffing it - although there was one time I received 5 damage from a palmed tireless tracker.
What I take out from the deck are -2 Titan -3 moon for some Baloths and ooze. Already have a trinisphere in the main, because there are other decks in my meta that trinisphere is effective.
For those unsure about the burn matchup (I switched from burn to play Ponza but I still play it about 25% of the time in Modern and 100% of the time in Legacy) Blood Moon isn’t that great. You can keep in the other Rain effects because Trinisphere is your friend here along with your life gain package.
I do exactly the opposite. I keep Blood Moon in as it shuts off Boros Charm, Lightning Helix, Destructive Revelry and possibly Atarka's Command. I find it pretty hard to lock Burn out under a Trinisphere. Sure it's possible to lock them out of the game but they have way more lands than we have land destruction spells, so they eventually draw out of the lock and we end up drawing land destruction when they have 4 lands in play.
A second more practical reason is that I always have lots of cards that I want to bring in against Burn: Trinispheres, Kitchen Finks, Obstinate Baloths, and I need to side something out, so out goes the land destruction.
I found Blood Moon to be a dead draw against them. Even against a RW Burn opponent, I would prefer the moon to be more life gain or another creature that can block guides. They would only have 2 or 3 copies of Deflecting Palm in their 75, so they won't always have it. If they fetched the sacred foundry, then I will destroy it. If they keep a fetch uncracked, then I will destroy their other lands to try and reduce them to one mana. And on Burn players that I know, even if they represent the palm with RW mana open, they are sometimes... bluffing it - although there was one time I received 5 damage from a palmed tireless tracker.
Deflecting Palm is no joke. I'll bring out my Mardu Burn deck if the meta calls for it, but lately I've been pretty steady on just Bogles and Ponza. Despite running a full set myself whenever I'm on Burn, I still manage to get annihilated by Palm whenever I'm up against Burn, especially with Bogles. Nothing hurts more than having your hex proof, trample, lifelink, vigilance,first strike Bogle swing in, for what you think will be lethal, and then getting your soul crushed as ******* Palm hits the board and proceeds to take a dump on your chest. I'm definitely not bitter or anything....
Game 1 - Turn 2 Blood Moon, he can't do anything.
Game 2 - Lost due to not drawing LD/Gas, and keep topdecking lands.
Game 3 - I was trying to pressure his health really low, I attacked with Tracker, Courser, BBE. He hardcasted Settle the Wreckage, looked like a instant blowout, but however, he was not drawing enough lands, I use Stone Rain, Molten Rain to keep attack his manabase, lategame he had Gideon of the Trail, my Inferno Titan run it over.
Jund win 2-0
Game 1 - He discard my Blood Moon, then discard my LD spell, I have 2 Arbor Elf, Utopia Brawl, He used Thoughtseize to discard my Inferno Titan, have a Goyf and Ooze on board, I topdecked another Inferno Titan, killed his Ooze, now his Goyf can't beat titan so yeah...
Game 2 - This game he doesn't have any discard vs me, I ramp into fast Inferno Titan...
Jund win 2-1
Game 1 - Me on the play, cast bunch of LD, Jund was too alow. Titan did the work.
Game 2 - I keep a hand like ... 3 land, Tracker, BBE, BBE, Thrun, I thought I could draw into a dork or Spawl, Jund had big 5/6 Goyf. Later on it was like I had 2 land, 1 land with Utopia Spawl on, I can cast a 4 mana spell next turn, but he casted a BBE into Abrupt Decay to get rid of my Utopia Spawl... now he have BBE and Goyf attacking so I lose.
Game 3 - My hand was like, Forest, Arbor Elf, Utopia Spawl, Molten Rain, Stone Rain, Chandra TOF, Kessig Wolf Run. I play turn 1 elf, next turn he used Thoughtseize to get rid of my Utopia Spawl so I can have no red source, then on my turn I topdecked a Wooded Foothill to cast Molten Rain on his Blackcleave, then his turn he play Raging Ravine, I got rid of that with Stone Rain. Now it is way too behind for Jund, I drop down Chandra TOF and pia and Kiran Nalaar to seal the deal.
Last Match vs Ironclan Combo, split (played for fun I won, Trinisphere did the work).
Choke wasn't that amazing vs U/W Control I have to say... they only run like 5 Island.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is not that amazing I think, would rathing have 4th copy of Milten Rain, now running 3.
Im not sure if add 1 more Misty to support Tracker would be great, now im running 8 fetch, Wolf-Run.
Game 1 - Turn 2 Blood Moon, he can't do anything.
Game 2 - Lost due to not drawing LD/Gas, and keep topdecking lands.
Game 3 - I was trying to pressure his health really low, I attacked with Tracker, Courser, BBE. He hardcasted Settle the Wreckage, looked like a instant blowout, but however, he was not drawing enough lands, I use Stone Rain, Molten Rain to keep attack his manabase, lategame he had Gideon of the Trail, my Inferno Titan run it over.
Jund win 2-0
Game 1 - He discard my Blood Moon, then discard my LD spell, I have 2 Arbor Elf, Utopia Brawl, He used Thoughtseize to discard my Inferno Titan, have a Goyf and Ooze on board, I topdecked another Inferno Titan, killed his Ooze, now his Goyf can't beat titan so yeah...
Game 2 - This game he doesn't have any discard vs me, I ramp into fast Inferno Titan...
Jund win 2-1
Game 1 - Me on the play, cast bunch of LD, Jund was too alow. Titan did the work.
Game 2 - I keep a hand like ... 3 land, Tracker, BBE, BBE, Thrun, I thought I could draw into a dork or Spawl, Jund had big 5/6 Goyf. Later on it was like I had 2 land, 1 land with Utopia Spawl on, I can cast a 4 mana spell next turn, but he casted a BBE into Abrupt Decay to get rid of my Utopia Spawl... now he have BBE and Goyf attacking so I lose.
Game 3 - My hand was like, Forest, Arbor Elf, Utopia Spawl, Molten Rain, Stone Rain, Chandra TOF, Kessig Wolf Run. I play turn 1 elf, next turn he used Thoughtseize to get rid of my Utopia Spawl so I can have no red source, then on my turn I topdecked a Wooded Foothill to cast Molten Rain on his Blackcleave, then his turn he play Raging Ravine, I got rid of that with Stone Rain. Now it is way too behind for Jund, I drop down Chandra TOF and pia and Kiran Nalaar to seal the deal.
Last Match vs Ironclan Combo, split (played for fun I won, Trinisphere did the work).
Choke wasn't that amazing vs U/W Control I have to say... they only run like 5 Island.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is not that amazing I think, would rathing have 4th copy of Milten Rain, now running 3.
Im not sure if add 1 more Misty to support Tracker would be great, now im running 8 fetch, Wolf-Run.
Congrats on the good finish. Nice work beating those Jund decks.
Regarding Nissa VOZ no one has ever said she is crucial to the deck. Please keep in mind there are quite a few flex spots in Ponza which she is 1 of. If you don’t like her then don’t run her but I am glad to see people test cards and find out that they don’t like it rather than not try a card just because at first glance doesn’t look great.
For those interested in her merits, she is good against big creature decks and has the potential to make all the dorks into actual thread along with making cards like P&K or Huntmaster better as well. Her ult is basically game winning, but every ult should be. Pretty good hit off BBE.
I am not sure where an updated sb guide is but I am sure we can come up with something collectively. Question is are we going to use just generalizations or use a list for + and -?
hello guys! I would like to give my cents about the burn match up discussion that was taking place in the last days. I faced yesterday burn twice at the same FNM (round 1 + top8). I won G1 stabilizing the board and with a blood moon in play which turned off some spell he had. Then I lost G2 and G3 for not seeing lands at all (G3 I mulled to 4 and keep double sprawl and bolt but did not see ANY lands :S). Then I made a friendly match siding out blood moon and keeping LD inside and I think it worked much better. I faced the guy again in top8 and, despite losing both matches due to terrible draw and amazing topdeck from his side, I think LD is better than moon cause it may forces him to play only 1 spell each turn.
In both cases I think it depends a lot on the drawings of burn player. There can me matches where we have moon in play but the opponent has plently of bolt/lava spike/rift bolts and he is able to play his entire hands quickly. But also there can be matches where he has only coloured spells.
After these few matches I agree though is better to side out Moon and keep in LD!
Having moon or LD is dependent on your sideboard plan and the type of burn your opponent is playing. Mono red, boros, naya, radkos have their own ways of dealing with ponza.
As I board in Trinisphere in G2/3, keeping moon in is better as it removes enchantment/artifact hate if they don't have green mana when moon resolves. My courser has gotten destructive revelry too many times.
Like you've said, it is also depend on your burn opponent draws. If they get a dream hand, it is very hard for us to deal with it.
For me, moon is better over a larger amount of games played. I used to remove moons and keep LDs but I'm keeping moon in now as I get more familiar with the match up. The best way is still to keep grinding out games and find what suits our personal play style the best.
Went to an FNM yesterday. Usually I don't manage it - as I work full time and our FNM's are on in the afternoon - so it was a bit odd for me to be playing Ponza in paper. We only managed three rounds as the store was closing early, but I am happy to report I won all three. I'd like to briefly discuss two points:
Bloodbraid Elf - what a champion! As good as we all know him to be. I managed to cast him most games and hit an Arbor Elf twice. It felt like it hurt the first time, but having the elf as "free" worked in my favour. I used him to chump block a nasty looking Boggle one occasion and on the other to cast Titan the following turn as well as a Stone Rain. Interestingly enough, I sided BloodBraid out in both matches. The first was against Blue Moon and the second against Boggles. Both decks caved to Trinisphere and the Boggle deck especially. My takeaway point was that even without BloodBraid the deck still performs excellently when geared towards Tempo-Control.
Thrun, the last Troll feels right in the main-board. I know this isn't a popular choice among a lot of you, but I won against Blue Moon exclusively because of this card and against Boggles / Merfolk he became the perfect blocker. They all just lacked ways to deal with him and the regeneration effect changes the way faster decks play against you. With a lot of players testing Jace, I think Thrun earns his place at two in the main. There are a lot of pesky counters about! It might be local meta, but I was happier to see Thrun than a lot of my 4-drops, even when not playing against control.
Game 1 - Turn 2 Blood Moon, he can't do anything.
Game 2 - Lost due to not drawing LD/Gas, and keep topdecking lands.
Game 3 - I was trying to pressure his health really low, I attacked with Tracker, Courser, BBE. He hardcasted Settle the Wreckage, looked like a instant blowout, but however, he was not drawing enough lands, I use Stone Rain, Molten Rain to keep attack his manabase, lategame he had Gideon of the Trail, my Inferno Titan run it over.
Jund win 2-0
Game 1 - He discard my Blood Moon, then discard my LD spell, I have 2 Arbor Elf, Utopia Brawl, He used Thoughtseize to discard my Inferno Titan, have a Goyf and Ooze on board, I topdecked another Inferno Titan, killed his Ooze, now his Goyf can't beat titan so yeah...
Game 2 - This game he doesn't have any discard vs me, I ramp into fast Inferno Titan...
Jund win 2-1
Game 1 - Me on the play, cast bunch of LD, Jund was too alow. Titan did the work.
Game 2 - I keep a hand like ... 3 land, Tracker, BBE, BBE, Thrun, I thought I could draw into a dork or Spawl, Jund had big 5/6 Goyf. Later on it was like I had 2 land, 1 land with Utopia Spawl on, I can cast a 4 mana spell next turn, but he casted a BBE into Abrupt Decay to get rid of my Utopia Spawl... now he have BBE and Goyf attacking so I lose.
Game 3 - My hand was like, Forest, Arbor Elf, Utopia Spawl, Molten Rain, Stone Rain, Chandra TOF, Kessig Wolf Run. I play turn 1 elf, next turn he used Thoughtseize to get rid of my Utopia Spawl so I can have no red source, then on my turn I topdecked a Wooded Foothill to cast Molten Rain on his Blackcleave, then his turn he play Raging Ravine, I got rid of that with Stone Rain. Now it is way too behind for Jund, I drop down Chandra TOF and pia and Kiran Nalaar to seal the deal.
Last Match vs Ironclan Combo, split (played for fun I won, Trinisphere did the work).
Choke wasn't that amazing vs U/W Control I have to say... they only run like 5 Island.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is not that amazing I think, would rathing have 4th copy of Milten Rain, now running 3.
Im not sure if add 1 more Misty to support Tracker would be great, now im running 8 fetch, Wolf-Run.
Congrats on the good finish. Nice work beating those Jund decks.
How many Titan do you use?
3 Titan 1 Kia Nalaar in the main, I just think that card is a serious beating vs some decks.
Hi I’ve started playing the deck and I’ve found Courser of Kruphix to be a bit lacklustre a lot of the time, especially since we’re not a primeval Titan or azusa deck. Has anyone tried Nissa Vastwood Seer or Domri Rade? Origins Nissa in particular feels like it could be strong, it ramps, it provides a body, turn 3 play, and the pw form provides a rly good clock and threat. Thoughts?
Hi I’ve started playing the deck and I’ve found Courser of Kruphix to be a bit lacklustre a lot of the time, especially since we’re not a primeval Titan or azusa deck. Has anyone tried Nissa Vastwood Seer or Domri Rade? Origins Nissa in particular feels like it could be strong, it ramps, it provides a body, turn 3 play, and the pw form provides a rly good clock and threat. Thoughts?
Personally, I'm a big fan of both Courser and Domri. Like Cajun mentioned earlier on this page, we have quite a few flex spots, so YMMV; figure out what suits your particular meta. Courser + Chandra on the board is great synergy and Courser alone can be just solid value as a 2/4 body that pads your life total so long as you're hitting your land drops. Domri doesn't seem to get much love elsewhere, but I've found that it also has nice synergy w/ Courser, can be hit of BBE, and his -2 comes in handy quite often.
Courser is our best MD flex slot in an aggro and burn filled meta. It will 100% of the time be our best G1 card against burn and quite often our best g2 card.
BBE and Tireless Tracker are pretty brittle blockers.
It is also a great card against any discard or attrition strategy as it gives your topdecks more value.
It also blocks and kills BBE while surviving combat.
Courser is simply the under-appreciated workhorse of the deck.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
Ok guess it is time to go over general sb strategies. There has already been disagreements with regards to how to sb against burn, but I will give my thoughts and encourage others to do so as well because collectively we can become better players if we help one another.
I will cover as many as I can but if you want me to address other decks or further explain reasons why I sideboard the way I do just let me know.
Burn: kinda covered already but Trinisphere and life gain cards in. Blood moons and PWs out.
Storm: Trinisphere and GY hate (if you play choke then also bring this in). Blood moon and big finishers out.
Humans: Sweepers, 1-2 life gain, 1-2 Artifact hate (Abrade strong here). PW and couple Rains out (1 Elf if need be to make swap even)
G/B/x midrange or control: GY hate (if you play Finks and Scooze very strong here) (if playing against control Thrun). Flex cards out such as Courser and Lightning Bolt.
Affinity: All artifact hate and Sweepers in. PW (argument can be made for keeping Nissa in if playing P&K) and some number of Rains out.
Tron: Honestly nothing is worth bringing in to make the matchup better than it already is.
Valakut: Same as Tron.
Hollow One: GY hate and Sweepers with 1-2 Artifact hate in. PW and Blood Moon out.
Dredge: GY hate and Sweepers. PW and some flex spots out.
Living End: GY hate and Trinisphere in (if you play P&K don’t forget that it can shoot down your own creatures thus wait to crack clues). PW and some number of flex spots out.
Boggles: Trinisphere and 1-2 Sweepers in (if you play beast within great here to blow up the Daybreak Cornet) (if you play Fracturing Gust it is the typically the game ended). Chandra and some number of flex spots out.
Death Shadow: GY hate and Thrun in (Primal Command can come in clutch to give opponent life to kill Shadows). Chandra and some number of flex spots out (Courser not great).
D&T: Some artifact hate and Sweepers in. PW and a couple flex spots out.
U/W/x control: Thrun and GY hate in (if you play choke and Finks bring them in too). 1 Elf and some number of flex spots out.
I hope this is a good start for y’all. With all the outs mentioned above you can also take out 1 BBE if needed. Variance doesn’t always help.
SC.Ooze is pretty good against Burn, provided you time it well. Gaining life in single increments prevents getting blown out by Skullcrack, and once 4/4 or larger it becomes difficult to attack through or remove.
Land destruction against Humans seems good on the play, less so on the draw. Blood Moon can still do a number on them, though.
The simple sideboard plan stratedgy is just figure out what cards in your maindeck seems to be awful againsts the opponents deck in G1, then deside on what sideboard options are good to combat against your opponents deck.
Ok guess it is time to go over general sb strategies. There has already been disagreements with regards to how to sb against burn, but I will give my thoughts and encourage others to do so as well because collectively we can become better players if we help one another.
I will cover as many as I can but if you want me to address other decks or further explain reasons why I sideboard the way I do just let me know.
Tron: Honestly nothing is worth bringing in to make the matchup better than it already is.
Valakut: Same as Tron.
Hollow One: GY hate and Sweepers with 1-2 Artifact hate in. PW and Blood Moon out.
I hope this is a good start for y’all. With all the outs mentioned above you can also take out 1 BBE if needed. Variance doesn’t always help.
I like to add in Trinispheres for these matchups too. Also add in lifegain against titanshift decks. Keeping above 18 life is good against titanshift.
Out: 3 Bolt (this only deals with BoB), Courser (pumps goyf is bad).
In: Obstinate Baloth, Thrun, 2 Relics of Progenitus.
Other Rogue decks:
The simple sideboard plan stratedgy is just figure out what cards in your maindeck seems to be awful againsts the opponents deck in G1, then deside on what sideboard options are good to combat against your opponents deck.
Keep bolts in. Bob is a kill on sight card. You dont want jund to outgrind you. Having bolts forces them to play scooze and lili with shields up. I like having bolts on hand just to killa bob when it lands.
By the way, for those of you who may not have picked up on this already, if your Jund opponent casts BBE and cascades into Liliana, Lili will be on the stack above BBE. When Lili resolves, BBE will still be on the stack, your opponent will not be able to tick up, and you will receive priority. You can then bolt Lili straight away. This and Bob are good enough reasons to keep bolts against Jund.
This is also the case with BBE into Nissa, VoZ.
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I do exactly the opposite. I keep Blood Moon in as it shuts off Boros Charm, Lightning Helix, Destructive Revelry and possibly Atarka's Command. I find it pretty hard to lock Burn out under a Trinisphere. Sure it's possible to lock them out of the game but they have way more lands than we have land destruction spells, so they eventually draw out of the lock and we end up drawing land destruction when they have 4 lands in play.
A second more practical reason is that I always have lots of cards that I want to bring in against Burn: Trinispheres, Kitchen Finks, Obstinate Baloths, and I need to side something out, so out goes the land destruction.
Almost all decks in Modern have more lands than we have land destruction. The point is Burn decks only have 18 land, and if we can destroy their first two or three land. Burn does not have card draw to find more land, they can only hope to topdeck it. Doing this can sometimes tilt people, so beware the salt.
I found Blood Moon to be a dead draw against them. Even against a RW Burn opponent, I would prefer the moon to be more life gain or another creature that can block guides. They would only have 2 or 3 copies of Deflecting Palm in their 75, so they won't always have it. If they fetched the sacred foundry, then I will destroy it. If they keep a fetch uncracked, then I will destroy their other lands to try and reduce them to one mana. And on Burn players that I know, even if they represent the palm with RW mana open, they are sometimes... bluffing it - although there was one time I received 5 damage from a palmed tireless tracker.
What I take out from the deck are -2 Titan -3 moon for some Baloths and ooze. Already have a trinisphere in the main, because there are other decks in my meta that trinisphere is effective.
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Deflecting Palm is no joke. I'll bring out my Mardu Burn deck if the meta calls for it, but lately I've been pretty steady on just Bogles and Ponza. Despite running a full set myself whenever I'm on Burn, I still manage to get annihilated by Palm whenever I'm up against Burn, especially with Bogles. Nothing hurts more than having your hex proof, trample, lifelink, vigilance,first strike Bogle swing in, for what you think will be lethal, and then getting your soul crushed as ******* Palm hits the board and proceeds to take a dump on your chest. I'm definitely not bitter or anything....
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U/W Control win 2-1
Game 1 - Turn 2 Blood Moon, he can't do anything.
Game 2 - Lost due to not drawing LD/Gas, and keep topdecking lands.
Game 3 - I was trying to pressure his health really low, I attacked with Tracker, Courser, BBE. He hardcasted Settle the Wreckage, looked like a instant blowout, but however, he was not drawing enough lands, I use Stone Rain, Molten Rain to keep attack his manabase, lategame he had Gideon of the Trail, my Inferno Titan run it over.
Jund win 2-0
Game 1 - He discard my Blood Moon, then discard my LD spell, I have 2 Arbor Elf, Utopia Brawl, He used Thoughtseize to discard my Inferno Titan, have a Goyf and Ooze on board, I topdecked another Inferno Titan, killed his Ooze, now his Goyf can't beat titan so yeah...
Game 2 - This game he doesn't have any discard vs me, I ramp into fast Inferno Titan...
Jund win 2-1
Game 1 - Me on the play, cast bunch of LD, Jund was too alow. Titan did the work.
Game 2 - I keep a hand like ... 3 land, Tracker, BBE, BBE, Thrun, I thought I could draw into a dork or Spawl, Jund had big 5/6 Goyf. Later on it was like I had 2 land, 1 land with Utopia Spawl on, I can cast a 4 mana spell next turn, but he casted a BBE into Abrupt Decay to get rid of my Utopia Spawl... now he have BBE and Goyf attacking so I lose.
Game 3 - My hand was like, Forest, Arbor Elf, Utopia Spawl, Molten Rain, Stone Rain, Chandra TOF, Kessig Wolf Run. I play turn 1 elf, next turn he used Thoughtseize to get rid of my Utopia Spawl so I can have no red source, then on my turn I topdecked a Wooded Foothill to cast Molten Rain on his Blackcleave, then his turn he play Raging Ravine, I got rid of that with Stone Rain. Now it is way too behind for Jund, I drop down Chandra TOF and pia and Kiran Nalaar to seal the deal.
Last Match vs Ironclan Combo, split (played for fun I won, Trinisphere did the work).
Choke wasn't that amazing vs U/W Control I have to say... they only run like 5 Island.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is not that amazing I think, would rathing have 4th copy of Milten Rain, now running 3.
Im not sure if add 1 more Misty to support Tracker would be great, now im running 8 fetch, Wolf-Run.
EDH: Xenagos, God of Revels.
Congrats on the good finish. Nice work beating those Jund decks.
How many Titan do you use?
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For those interested in her merits, she is good against big creature decks and has the potential to make all the dorks into actual thread along with making cards like P&K or Huntmaster better as well. Her ult is basically game winning, but every ult should be. Pretty good hit off BBE.
I am not sure where an updated sb guide is but I am sure we can come up with something collectively. Question is are we going to use just generalizations or use a list for + and -?
Having moon or LD is dependent on your sideboard plan and the type of burn your opponent is playing. Mono red, boros, naya, radkos have their own ways of dealing with ponza.
As I board in Trinisphere in G2/3, keeping moon in is better as it removes enchantment/artifact hate if they don't have green mana when moon resolves. My courser has gotten destructive revelry too many times.
Like you've said, it is also depend on your burn opponent draws. If they get a dream hand, it is very hard for us to deal with it.
For me, moon is better over a larger amount of games played. I used to remove moons and keep LDs but I'm keeping moon in now as I get more familiar with the match up. The best way is still to keep grinding out games and find what suits our personal play style the best.
Bloodbraid Elf - what a champion! As good as we all know him to be. I managed to cast him most games and hit an Arbor Elf twice. It felt like it hurt the first time, but having the elf as "free" worked in my favour. I used him to chump block a nasty looking Boggle one occasion and on the other to cast Titan the following turn as well as a Stone Rain. Interestingly enough, I sided BloodBraid out in both matches. The first was against Blue Moon and the second against Boggles. Both decks caved to Trinisphere and the Boggle deck especially. My takeaway point was that even without BloodBraid the deck still performs excellently when geared towards Tempo-Control.
Thrun, the last Troll feels right in the main-board. I know this isn't a popular choice among a lot of you, but I won against Blue Moon exclusively because of this card and against Boggles / Merfolk he became the perfect blocker. They all just lacked ways to deal with him and the regeneration effect changes the way faster decks play against you. With a lot of players testing Jace, I think Thrun earns his place at two in the main. There are a lot of pesky counters about! It might be local meta, but I was happier to see Thrun than a lot of my 4-drops, even when not playing against control.
3 Titan 1 Kia Nalaar in the main, I just think that card is a serious beating vs some decks.
EDH: Xenagos, God of Revels.
Personally, I'm a big fan of both Courser and Domri. Like Cajun mentioned earlier on this page, we have quite a few flex spots, so YMMV; figure out what suits your particular meta. Courser + Chandra on the board is great synergy and Courser alone can be just solid value as a 2/4 body that pads your life total so long as you're hitting your land drops. Domri doesn't seem to get much love elsewhere, but I've found that it also has nice synergy w/ Courser, can be hit of BBE, and his -2 comes in handy quite often.
Link to Discord server where anybody from MTGS can keep up with thread topics while everything is being sorted out with the new site.
BBE and Tireless Tracker are pretty brittle blockers.
It is also a great card against any discard or attrition strategy as it gives your topdecks more value.
It also blocks and kills BBE while surviving combat.
Courser is simply the under-appreciated workhorse of the deck.
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
I will cover as many as I can but if you want me to address other decks or further explain reasons why I sideboard the way I do just let me know.
Burn: kinda covered already but Trinisphere and life gain cards in. Blood moons and PWs out.
Storm: Trinisphere and GY hate (if you play choke then also bring this in). Blood moon and big finishers out.
Humans: Sweepers, 1-2 life gain, 1-2 Artifact hate (Abrade strong here). PW and couple Rains out (1 Elf if need be to make swap even)
G/B/x midrange or control: GY hate (if you play Finks and Scooze very strong here) (if playing against control Thrun). Flex cards out such as Courser and Lightning Bolt.
Affinity: All artifact hate and Sweepers in. PW (argument can be made for keeping Nissa in if playing P&K) and some number of Rains out.
Tron: Honestly nothing is worth bringing in to make the matchup better than it already is.
Valakut: Same as Tron.
Hollow One: GY hate and Sweepers with 1-2 Artifact hate in. PW and Blood Moon out.
Dredge: GY hate and Sweepers. PW and some flex spots out.
Living End: GY hate and Trinisphere in (if you play P&K don’t forget that it can shoot down your own creatures thus wait to crack clues). PW and some number of flex spots out.
Boggles: Trinisphere and 1-2 Sweepers in (if you play beast within great here to blow up the Daybreak Cornet) (if you play Fracturing Gust it is the typically the game ended). Chandra and some number of flex spots out.
Death Shadow: GY hate and Thrun in (Primal Command can come in clutch to give opponent life to kill Shadows). Chandra and some number of flex spots out (Courser not great).
D&T: Some artifact hate and Sweepers in. PW and a couple flex spots out.
U/W/x control: Thrun and GY hate in (if you play choke and Finks bring them in too). 1 Elf and some number of flex spots out.
I hope this is a good start for y’all. With all the outs mentioned above you can also take out 1 BBE if needed. Variance doesn’t always help.
Land destruction against Humans seems good on the play, less so on the draw. Blood Moon can still do a number on them, though.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
Link to Discord server where anybody from MTGS can keep up with thread topics while everything is being sorted out with the new site.
Affinity:
Out: 4 Stone Rain, 3 Molten Rain, Chandra TOD.
In: Ancient Grudge 2, Anger 2, Fracturing Gust, Abrade, 2 Kitchen Finks.
(LD does absolutely nothing here, they are too fast, it is a huge tempo lose, Blood Moon is revelant in this matchup as it shutdown their manlands)
Burn:
Out: Nissa, TOF, 3 Molten Rain
In: 2 Trinisphere, 2 Kitchen Finks, Obstinate Baloth.
Jund:
Out: 3 Bolt (this only deals with BoB), Courser (pumps goyf is bad).
In: Obstinate Baloth, Thrun, 2 Relics of Progenitus.
U/W/x:
Out: 3 Bolt.
In: 2 Relics, Thrun.
Human:
Out: Nissa, Chandra TOD, 1 Molten Rain.
In: 2 Anger, 1 Abrade.
Grixis or 4 color GDS:
Haven't seen this deck lately due to BBE unban.
Maybe out: Courser, Chandra (can't hit Tasigur and Angler ...), 3 Bolt.
In: 2 Relics, Thrun, 2 Kitchen Finks.
Hollow One:
This is tough matchup
Out: 4x Blood Moon, 1 Nissa.
In: 2 Relics, 2 Anger, 1 Abrade.
Storm:
Out: Tireless Tracker (too slow), 1 Nissa.
In: 2 Trinisphere, 1 Choke, 2 Relics of Progenitus.
Bogles:
Haven't faced this deck before, probably:
Out: Pia Nalaar, Courser, Nissa.
In: 2 Trinisphere, 1 Fracturing Gust.
Other Rogue decks:
The simple sideboard plan stratedgy is just figure out what cards in your maindeck seems to be awful againsts the opponents deck in G1, then deside on what sideboard options are good to combat against your opponents deck.
EDH: Xenagos, God of Revels.
I like to add in Trinispheres for these matchups too. Also add in lifegain against titanshift decks. Keeping above 18 life is good against titanshift.
Keep bolts in. Bob is a kill on sight card. You dont want jund to outgrind you. Having bolts forces them to play scooze and lili with shields up. I like having bolts on hand just to killa bob when it lands.
This is also the case with BBE into Nissa, VoZ.
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza