I've said it before, we're like the NicFit of modern: disrupt, ramp, play bomb. Only instead of SDT we have Relic
Let's talk practically, what are some of the cards in OGW that you might consider as part of a potential core? I.e. what new cards should I worry about gathering before they increase by 500%?
Thought-knot Seer and Reality Smasher if I were to venture a guess. Both will be used in many variants. The former fits perfectly into the curve and the later is just a really good finisher for the variants that don't get as much use out of Blight Herder as we do (we go far wider and with things like Vault... we can abuse the tokens better).
I've said it before, we're like the NicFit of modern: disrupt, ramp, play bomb. Only instead of SDT we have Relic
Let's talk practically, what are some of the cards in OGW that you might consider as part of a potential core? I.e. what new cards should I worry about gathering before they increase by 500%?
I've said it before, we're like the NicFit of modern: disrupt, ramp, play bomb. Only instead of SDT we have Relic
Let's talk practically, what are some of the cards in OGW that you might consider as part of a potential core? I.e. what new cards should I worry about gathering before they increase by 500%?
TKS will be replacing Conduit, a Strangler, and probably a Herder.
Reality Smasher will be a 1 or 2 of, but I might replace more Herders with him. Doesn't worry about Processing as much.
You shouldn't replace herder in the BW variant. It's just too good. We go very wide as it is. I think Thought-knot Seer is going to replace a couple MB discard (I'll probably go from 6 to 4) because they aren't dead draws late) and I'll be replacing 2 Sowers for Reality Smasher. Sower is great in the mirror match but overall he is a little slow and being just a singular beater after he resolves has made it weird. My creature base will probably look like this:
I've said it before, we're like the NicFit of modern: disrupt, ramp, play bomb. Only instead of SDT we have Relic
Let's talk practically, what are some of the cards in OGW that you might consider as part of a potential core? I.e. what new cards should I worry about gathering before they increase by 500%?
TKS will be replacing Conduit, a Strangler, and probably a Herder.
Reality Smasher will be a 1 or 2 of, but I might replace more Herders with him. Doesn't worry about Processing as much.
You shouldn't replace herder in the BW variant. It's just too good. We go very wide as it is. I think Thought-knot Seer is going to replace a couple MB discard (I'll probably go from 6 to 4) because they aren't dead draws late) and I'll be replacing 2 Sowers for Reality Smasher. Sower is great in the mirror match but overall he is a little slow and being just a singular beater after he resolves has made it weird. My creature base will probably look like this:
I've said it before, we're like the NicFit of modern: disrupt, ramp, play bomb. Only instead of SDT we have Relic
Let's talk practically, what are some of the cards in OGW that you might consider as part of a potential core? I.e. what new cards should I worry about gathering before they increase by 500%?
Do you think WINDBRISK HEIGHTS is too cute to add as a 1-of? just because we have lingering souls + blight herder to get us there. can be found with map when we're ready to go for it too.
Can pseudo-functionally replace 1 basic plains (if you run >1, maybe not if you only run 1 since you might want to be able to fetch for one)
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Modern: C Serum Eldrazi Legacy: CEldrazi C Mud W Soldier Stompy R Bread (big red stompy) WU Spirit Blade WUG Meat Hooks WUBGR Blue Dredge
Do you think WINDBRISK HEIGHTS is too cute to add as a 1-of? just because we have lingering souls + blight herder to get us there. can be found with map when we're ready to go for it too.
Can pseudo-functionally replace 1 basic plains (if you run >1, maybe not if you only run 1 since you might want to be able to fetch for one)
Yeah I think it's too cute. It's mainly that it comes in tapped that makes me against it. Also I love eating things placed on hideaway lands. It's also one of those cards that only helps when you are ahead. Usually if I am swinging with 3 or more creatures I am feeling pretty good about my chances.
I am not sold on TKS as a 4x. I think it is a great turn 2 play, but a bad turn 7+ play. Late in the game if you opponent's hand is empty or has lands, you exile nothing, drop and medium/large body, that if it dies, draws your opponent a card. That kind of sucks.
I am also not crazy about dropping Sower below 3. This decks trump card is Ulamog. Being able to threaten ulamog is important and I find it is very hard to do many games without sower. I have not yet tested TKS or Smasher yet personally, so this is all theory craft, but this is what I expect my deck to look like.
4x Relic
3x Souls
4x Path to Exile
2x Dismember
1x All is Dust
I am not sure where I want Warping Wail in the deck, and how I want to modify my SB. Maybe -1 Sower and -1 Dismember for 2x Warping.
As far as Endbringer goes, I think it is too slow. If it had haste omg would it be an insane powerhouse. The sad part is a 5/5 for 6 that does nothing the turn it comes into play is just to weak for this deck.
I've been kicking this around with quite a lot of success. I've found that Warping Wail just screws up the mana unnecessarily in this shell just because Path to Exile does the first mode better.
Reality Smasher might have a place - as is, this deck is basically just doing what the mono-black Eldrazi Processors thread is trying to do with OGW, except we're just running Souls instead of Smasher, which I think is right. But it's possible we should run both.
I have been thinking hard about lands and I think maybe you need to tweak your fetch:target ratio, which right now is 1:1. Path, GQ, or drawing a target into your hand could shut down your Flats altogether if you don't have one of your two Urborgs.
You would definitely notice this against Death and Taxes and any other land-control builds you might encounter, and if Eldrazi remains a thing, I think that it and the rise of Tron are likely to increase the share of that strategy in the meta.
With a 4-of TKS you might want a Wastes as well to get off GQ or Path, your own or others', as insurance against Blood Moon.
I've been kicking this around with quite a lot of success. I've found that Warping Wail just screws up the mana unnecessarily in this shell just because Path to Exile does the first mode better.
Reality Smasher might have a place - as is, this deck is basically just doing what the mono-black Eldrazi Processors thread is trying to do with OGW, except we're just running Souls instead of Smasher, which I think is right. But it's possible we should run both.
Reality Smasher still deserves a spot in the deck. I had a tournament last night where if I'd had Reality Smashers in the deck I'd have won (being able to tutor up a 3 drop haste 5/5 Trampler is a big deal. I cut my Sowers to 2 to do this. Oblivion Sower is fantastic in the mirror match and is still very good but the 6 drop cost is a bit clunky at times and Reality Smasher is harder to remove. Essentially I'm going with a 2-2 split of them and still running 4 Lingering Souls (which wins me many many games).
Brief Tournament Results:
Grixis Twin (0-2) [0-1]:
Game 1 was a game where the plan works great. I stripped his hand and kept him off twin. Problem was, I ran into 0 midrange Eldrazi that could provide a clock. He ended up jamming Twin with no counter magic and into my open mana... didn't have removal gg. Game 2 was another long and grindy match. In the end, I'd have loved reality smashers here. My topdecks were god awful so I was forced to use Eye of Ugin to go and find actual answers (he had countered my Ulamog but I killed both of his red sources). He ended up playing an Olivia which I had no answer to. He was at 2 life by the end with no answers for a Reality Smasher. Times like these are when it'd be really nice to just tutor up a hastey threat and stick it.
UB Eldrazi (2-0) [1-1]:
First time playing the mirrorish match for both of us. We had a ton of fun with this match because it was just weird. He has played BW the previous weeks and he was testing the UB list tonight. Game 1 was one of the most awkward interactions I have ever had at a tournament. I had 2 Oblivion Sowers, a Blight Herder and an Eye of Ugin in hand. A Swamp, Plains and 2 Spellskites in play. I was holding the eye of Ugin back because when I ripped his hand earlier I had seen GQ and wanted to time it's play with a Blight Herder into an Oblivion Sower. I drew a Path for turn and realized what I needed to do (he was tapped out, plenty of mana but I had ripped his only threat so he was trying to draw gas). In comes the awkwardness.. he has his own spellskite. We are both at 18 life. I go to path my own Spellskite. He redirects to his, I redirect to mine, he redirects to his, I redirect to mine (we did this all the way down to 6 life when he let me finally have it). I cracked my onboard Relic and drew an Urborg and semi-reluctantly played it for the turn. He goes and doesn't topdeck anything yet. I go, play Eye and cast Blight Herder into Oblivion Sower (he didn't respond with blowing up Eye which was surprising). He takes his draw and then scoops. Game 2 I rode the back of 4 Lingering Souls cast 7 times (he cracked relic on the first one) and I killed his Ashiok, ripped apart his hand with discard and killed him with lots of spirits. Fun side note. Delay is a terrible terrible counter for Lingering Souls on Flashback. I wasn't entirely certain on the interaction and it never came up in the match so we looked it up with the judge later (I am studying for my judge test so I like to confirm these things for my own knowledge base). If your opponent Delays your flashbacked Lingering Souls. It gets 3 time counters on it regardless that the card itself was exiled as part of flashback. After 3 turns you get to cast it from exile and it goes back to your GY for you to flash back again.
Round 3 Merfolk (1-2)[1-2]
God this match irritated me. I won't go too into detail because it was a fairly straight forward match. Suffice to say, I rolled over him game 1 and had lethal onboard for games 2 and 3, he rips Spreading Seas off the top both games and swings in for lethal... wish my topdecks were that good.. and they were the next round.
Round 4 RG Tron (2-0)[2-2]
I kept a kind of land heavy hand but it still had some gas to handle an unknown game 1. It had 2 out of my 3 MB GQs in it and an expedition map. I was on the draw and realized immediately he was on Tron. I managed to time my GQ's on his pieces by slow rolling the 2nd one in hand and got an Oblivion Sower into play. I forced him to use an Oblivion Stone on it. I then cast a 2nd one. He had a 2nd Oblvion stone which he cracked again but was down to 10. By this point I had assembled enough mana and cast a Newlamog I had drawn early in the game and he scooped. Game 2 was similar. I had a single GQ in opening hand and a map. I tutored up a 2nd GQ. This game was a LOT closer and he had about 3 draws as I was killing him that could have hurt me. Luckily he would have had to either play a Karn or Newlamogg(I had 4 Lingering Souls tokens doing the beats). For Karn, it would die to the Souls tokens if he tried to take care of one of them, he pluses and I give him a dead relic from hand (I had opted to play Stony Silence to eliminate O.Stone, Map and the catrip rocks from being good topdecks. He was 1 piece away from Tron (mine) and I had already killed 2 of them. I figured that was the best route but it did leave me with 2 relics stuck in hand). For Newlamog, he might have targeted my lands (I was on 4 1 swamp 1 godless shrine and 2 cave of koilos) or the tokens but either way I had a Path to Exile in hand to kill it and then keep beating in. He didn't draw another land and I killed him with the Souls tokens. This player is a bit of a sore loser at times though he is a really nice guy and a knowledgeable player. His pissiness tainted my joy of winning this stupid hard matchup.
That's it for last night. I have FNM tonight followed by pre-release! I'll probably post a tournament report on Tuesday when I am back into work (we are off for the MLK holiday and I usually post from work).
Your opponent's pissiness makes your victory all the more sweet. Good job friend.
Spreading Seas is a sonofa*****, I'd be one to hold back a GQ to protect against it. Fish and Tron are almost reason enough to play Crucible in the board
Your opponent's pissiness makes your victory all the more sweet. Good job friend.
Spreading Seas is a sonofa*****, I'd be one to hold back a GQ to protect against it. Fish and Tron are almost reason enough to play Crucible in the board
Yeah I drew none of my GQ either game otherwise I would have.. It was just some bad luck. I am really thinking of cutting down to 1 Spellskite. They are great in some matchups but mine always seem to travel in pairs at the worst possible time.
Awesome that this has been upped to tier 2. After further testing I really like TKS as a 3 of, I think 4 is too many but you always want to find 1. I like smasher as a 1-2 of depending on the matchup so I think he will end up being more a metagame call for the BW version. As for everything else I am unsure. I don't think BW wants reshaper or Endbringer, but Displacer is still seeming really good in some matchups, while bad in others. I don't think displacer is really a sb card, but maybe another metagame or personal preference call.
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My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
You want more consistency? Change the Reality Smashers and Matter Reshapers into Sowers & Stranglers.
But I found Strangler's blanked a lot, or didn't have enough processing to be relevant when I wanted them.
And Sower was often just dead in my hand if I had a clunky draw. It's also pretty underwhelming if you're losing.
Matter Reshaper is a CHEAP proactive threat you can throw onto an empty board. He's also a decent blocker vs. the aggro decks. Reality Smasher is amazing. He's great vs midrange or control(is that a thing?) and he's not bad vs. aggro if they're not flying, and you can afford to cast him (CMC = 5). TKS is perfect as a 3-of, I do not recommend changing that.
Both of these are also cards you can tutor with Eye of Ugin + lands + Scion Token sac's and then cast with whatever mana you had left on the next turn, for when you just can't afford Ulamog but NEED a board presence, or NEED to do 2 things in one turn.
Not sure why people are playing Expedition Map, I don't think it's necessary unless you're going much heavier drop route.
At this version, deck is a midrange grinder with game vs. the whole field, still terrible vs. Tron.
Midrange Deck that has powerful High end mid game cards and innevtiable Ulamog or Kozilek if you need counters + Card Draw.
I like this Processing version so far, because processing is easy and natural (TKS, Relic, Path, Sower, Bojuka), you're also not so reliant on it that you have to play crappy cards like Scrabbling Claw.
You want more consistency? Change the Reality Smashers and Matter Reshapers into Sowers & Stranglers.
But I found Strangler's blanked a lot, or didn't have enough processing to be relevant when I wanted them.
And Sower was often just dead in my hand if I had a clunky draw. It's also pretty underwhelming if you're losing.
First, a nitpick: you have 24 lands. You forgot to list your Bog.
I agree that multiple Sowers can be clunky and mediocre on defense, especially when your opponent is going wide, but I don't see how Reality Smasher helps there. As a defensive card, it's just worse since it has 3 less toughness.
A thing about the offensive capability of Reality Smasher, by the way, is that 5/5 is actually not as huge as you might think, especially past turn 4 or so. Like sometimes you have Smasher and your opponent has like Kird Ape and Nacatl, and you actually just can't attack because a double-block leads to an awful trade. I think the card is pretty win more.
This archetype has kind of been aching for a good 3cmc sweeper, and sadly, I don't think we have one. If only Flaying Tendrils gave -3/-3, then we would be in business.
Not sure why people are playing Expedition Map, I don't think it's necessary unless you're going much heavier drop route.
Because the mana is shaky and sometimes you need some fixing. Also, grabbing the utility lands is a common play.
I like this Processing version so far, because processing is easy and natural (TKS, Relic, Path, Sower, Bojuka), you're also not so reliant on it that you have to play crappy cards like Scrabbling Claw.
I initially though this was right, but now i'm thinking cutting "crappy cards" like scrabbling claws isn't what we want to do. We want to exile as many lands as we can from our opponent's graveyard to make oblivion sower better. I wouldn't be comfortable relying only on relics and bog to do that.
I initially though this was right, but now i'm thinking cutting "crappy cards" like scrabbling claws isn't what we want to do. We want to exile as many lands as we can from our opponent's graveyard to make oblivion sower better. I wouldn't be comfortable relying only on relics and bog to do that.
EDIT: Oblivion Sower works differently.
Between TKS, Path, and Relic, there's plenty of often used and good cards that allow for processing.
I've played with Expedition map. I never really wanted it. It was slow vs. the fast decks, didn't do anything vs. midrange decks, and is a lame topdeck down the line in our midrangey deck. I really don't think we need 25 lands + 2-3 maps. That's like half the deck devoted to mana.
With cheap cards like Souls, Discard, Matter Reshaper, and TKS, we don't have to get to 5/6//7/10 mana, there should be things to do when you're sitting at 3-4 mana.
About Reality Smasher, He's fine on defense vs. Path to Exile & Terminate, those cards see a lot of play. He's worse vs. Dismember I suppose, but then your opponent is 2-for-1'ing them selves which could be terrible. This guy is very powerful threat in any kind of slower game. Don't knock till you've tried. Although it might just be fine to -2 Smasher , +1 Sower & Strangler or something.
Thought-knot Seer and Reality Smasher if I were to venture a guess. Both will be used in many variants. The former fits perfectly into the curve and the later is just a really good finisher for the variants that don't get as much use out of Blight Herder as we do (we go far wider and with things like Vault... we can abuse the tokens better).
Thought-knot Seer
Reality Smasher.
TKS will be replacing Conduit, a Strangler, and probably a Herder.
Reality Smasher will be a 1 or 2 of, but I might replace more Herders with him. Doesn't worry about Processing as much.
You shouldn't replace herder in the BW variant. It's just too good. We go very wide as it is. I think Thought-knot Seer is going to replace a couple MB discard (I'll probably go from 6 to 4) because they aren't dead draws late) and I'll be replacing 2 Sowers for Reality Smasher. Sower is great in the mirror match but overall he is a little slow and being just a singular beater after he resolves has made it weird. My creature base will probably look like this:
1x Spellskite
3x Wasteland Stranglers
4x Thought-knot Seer
4x Blight Herder
2x Reality Smasher
2x Oblivion Sowers
Blight Herder is a monster to remove because he is 7 power over 4 bodies. That is insane. He also allows us to tap out and still play Warping Wail.
Forgot him for some reason.. 1x Ulamog as well
Can pseudo-functionally replace 1 basic plains (if you run >1, maybe not if you only run 1 since you might want to be able to fetch for one)
C Serum Eldrazi
Legacy:
C Eldrazi
C Mud
W Soldier Stompy
R Bread (big red stompy)
WU Spirit Blade
WUG Meat Hooks
WUBGR Blue Dredge
Yeah I think it's too cute. It's mainly that it comes in tapped that makes me against it. Also I love eating things placed on hideaway lands. It's also one of those cards that only helps when you are ahead. Usually if I am swinging with 3 or more creatures I am feeling pretty good about my chances.
I am also not crazy about dropping Sower below 3. This decks trump card is Ulamog. Being able to threaten ulamog is important and I find it is very hard to do many games without sower. I have not yet tested TKS or Smasher yet personally, so this is all theory craft, but this is what I expect my deck to look like.
4x Herder
2x Strangler
3x TKS
2x Smasher
1x Ulamog
4x Sower
2x IoK
2x TS
1x Surgical Extraction
4x Relic
3x Souls
4x Path to Exile
2x Dismember
1x All is Dust
I am not sure where I want Warping Wail in the deck, and how I want to modify my SB. Maybe -1 Sower and -1 Dismember for 2x Warping.
As far as Endbringer goes, I think it is too slow. If it had haste omg would it be an insane powerhouse. The sad part is a 5/5 for 6 that does nothing the turn it comes into play is just to weak for this deck.
For more information on the metagame update, check out the post in the metagame thread below:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/566735-modern-metagame-breakdown-and-discussion-updated?comment=923
I've been kicking this around with quite a lot of success. I've found that Warping Wail just screws up the mana unnecessarily in this shell just because Path to Exile does the first mode better.
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Eye of Ugin
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
2 Shambling Vent
1 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Blight Herder
3 Oblivion Sower
4 Thought-Knot Seer
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
2 Wasteland Strangler
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
2 Expedition Map
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spellskite
2 Stony Silence
2 Celestial Purge
1 Disenchant
3 Rest for the Weary
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Damnation
Reality Smasher might have a place - as is, this deck is basically just doing what the mono-black Eldrazi Processors thread is trying to do with OGW, except we're just running Souls instead of Smasher, which I think is right. But it's possible we should run both.
You would definitely notice this against Death and Taxes and any other land-control builds you might encounter, and if Eldrazi remains a thing, I think that it and the rise of Tron are likely to increase the share of that strategy in the meta.
With a 4-of TKS you might want a Wastes as well to get off GQ or Path, your own or others', as insurance against Blood Moon.
Reality Smasher still deserves a spot in the deck. I had a tournament last night where if I'd had Reality Smashers in the deck I'd have won (being able to tutor up a 3 drop haste 5/5 Trampler is a big deal. I cut my Sowers to 2 to do this. Oblivion Sower is fantastic in the mirror match and is still very good but the 6 drop cost is a bit clunky at times and Reality Smasher is harder to remove. Essentially I'm going with a 2-2 split of them and still running 4 Lingering Souls (which wins me many many games).
Brief Tournament Results:
Grixis Twin (0-2) [0-1]:
Game 1 was a game where the plan works great. I stripped his hand and kept him off twin. Problem was, I ran into 0 midrange Eldrazi that could provide a clock. He ended up jamming Twin with no counter magic and into my open mana... didn't have removal gg. Game 2 was another long and grindy match. In the end, I'd have loved reality smashers here. My topdecks were god awful so I was forced to use Eye of Ugin to go and find actual answers (he had countered my Ulamog but I killed both of his red sources). He ended up playing an Olivia which I had no answer to. He was at 2 life by the end with no answers for a Reality Smasher. Times like these are when it'd be really nice to just tutor up a hastey threat and stick it.
UB Eldrazi (2-0) [1-1]:
First time playing the mirrorish match for both of us. We had a ton of fun with this match because it was just weird. He has played BW the previous weeks and he was testing the UB list tonight. Game 1 was one of the most awkward interactions I have ever had at a tournament. I had 2 Oblivion Sowers, a Blight Herder and an Eye of Ugin in hand. A Swamp, Plains and 2 Spellskites in play. I was holding the eye of Ugin back because when I ripped his hand earlier I had seen GQ and wanted to time it's play with a Blight Herder into an Oblivion Sower. I drew a Path for turn and realized what I needed to do (he was tapped out, plenty of mana but I had ripped his only threat so he was trying to draw gas). In comes the awkwardness.. he has his own spellskite. We are both at 18 life. I go to path my own Spellskite. He redirects to his, I redirect to mine, he redirects to his, I redirect to mine (we did this all the way down to 6 life when he let me finally have it). I cracked my onboard Relic and drew an Urborg and semi-reluctantly played it for the turn. He goes and doesn't topdeck anything yet. I go, play Eye and cast Blight Herder into Oblivion Sower (he didn't respond with blowing up Eye which was surprising). He takes his draw and then scoops. Game 2 I rode the back of 4 Lingering Souls cast 7 times (he cracked relic on the first one) and I killed his Ashiok, ripped apart his hand with discard and killed him with lots of spirits. Fun side note. Delay is a terrible terrible counter for Lingering Souls on Flashback. I wasn't entirely certain on the interaction and it never came up in the match so we looked it up with the judge later (I am studying for my judge test so I like to confirm these things for my own knowledge base). If your opponent Delays your flashbacked Lingering Souls. It gets 3 time counters on it regardless that the card itself was exiled as part of flashback. After 3 turns you get to cast it from exile and it goes back to your GY for you to flash back again.
Round 3 Merfolk (1-2)[1-2]
God this match irritated me. I won't go too into detail because it was a fairly straight forward match. Suffice to say, I rolled over him game 1 and had lethal onboard for games 2 and 3, he rips Spreading Seas off the top both games and swings in for lethal... wish my topdecks were that good.. and they were the next round.
Round 4 RG Tron (2-0)[2-2]
I kept a kind of land heavy hand but it still had some gas to handle an unknown game 1. It had 2 out of my 3 MB GQs in it and an expedition map. I was on the draw and realized immediately he was on Tron. I managed to time my GQ's on his pieces by slow rolling the 2nd one in hand and got an Oblivion Sower into play. I forced him to use an Oblivion Stone on it. I then cast a 2nd one. He had a 2nd Oblvion stone which he cracked again but was down to 10. By this point I had assembled enough mana and cast a Newlamog I had drawn early in the game and he scooped. Game 2 was similar. I had a single GQ in opening hand and a map. I tutored up a 2nd GQ. This game was a LOT closer and he had about 3 draws as I was killing him that could have hurt me. Luckily he would have had to either play a Karn or Newlamogg(I had 4 Lingering Souls tokens doing the beats). For Karn, it would die to the Souls tokens if he tried to take care of one of them, he pluses and I give him a dead relic from hand (I had opted to play Stony Silence to eliminate O.Stone, Map and the catrip rocks from being good topdecks. He was 1 piece away from Tron (mine) and I had already killed 2 of them. I figured that was the best route but it did leave me with 2 relics stuck in hand). For Newlamog, he might have targeted my lands (I was on 4 1 swamp 1 godless shrine and 2 cave of koilos) or the tokens but either way I had a Path to Exile in hand to kill it and then keep beating in. He didn't draw another land and I killed him with the Souls tokens. This player is a bit of a sore loser at times though he is a really nice guy and a knowledgeable player. His pissiness tainted my joy of winning this stupid hard matchup.
That's it for last night. I have FNM tonight followed by pre-release! I'll probably post a tournament report on Tuesday when I am back into work (we are off for the MLK holiday and I usually post from work).
Spreading Seas is a sonofa*****, I'd be one to hold back a GQ to protect against it. Fish and Tron are almost reason enough to play Crucible in the board
Here to share a nice(little) article featuring BW Eldrazi by Owen Turtenwald:
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/owens-pick-of-the-week-for-modern-2/
Yeah I drew none of my GQ either game otherwise I would have.. It was just some bad luck. I am really thinking of cutting down to 1 Spellskite. They are great in some matchups but mine always seem to travel in pairs at the worst possible time.
RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
4x Blight Herder
1x Kozilek, the Great Distortion
2x Matter Reshaper
2x Oblivion Sower
2x Reality Smasher
3x Thought-Knot Seer
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
2x Wasteland Strangler
Spells (18)
4x Path to Exile
2x Slaughter Pact
4x Relic of Progenitus
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Lingering Souls
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Cavern of Souls
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Eldrazi Temple
3x Eye of Ugin
2x Ghost Quarter
2x Godless Shrine
2x Plains
2x Shambling Vent
1x Swamp
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Celestial Purge
2x Disenchant
1x Dismember
1x Flaying Tendrils
1x Ghost Quarter
2x Spellskite
2x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Timely Reinforcements
You want more consistency? Change the Reality Smashers and Matter Reshapers into Sowers & Stranglers.
But I found Strangler's blanked a lot, or didn't have enough processing to be relevant when I wanted them.
And Sower was often just dead in my hand if I had a clunky draw. It's also pretty underwhelming if you're losing.
Matter Reshaper is a CHEAP proactive threat you can throw onto an empty board. He's also a decent blocker vs. the aggro decks.
Reality Smasher is amazing. He's great vs midrange or control(is that a thing?) and he's not bad vs. aggro if they're not flying, and you can afford to cast him (CMC = 5).
TKS is perfect as a 3-of, I do not recommend changing that.
Both of these are also cards you can tutor with Eye of Ugin + lands + Scion Token sac's and then cast with whatever mana you had left on the next turn, for when you just can't afford Ulamog but NEED a board presence, or NEED to do 2 things in one turn.
Not sure why people are playing Expedition Map, I don't think it's necessary unless you're going much heavier drop route.
At this version, deck is a midrange grinder with game vs. the whole field, still terrible vs. Tron.
Midrange Deck that has powerful High end mid game cards and innevtiable Ulamog or Kozilek if you need counters + Card Draw.
I like this Processing version so far, because processing is easy and natural (TKS, Relic, Path, Sower, Bojuka), you're also not so reliant on it that you have to play crappy cards like Scrabbling Claw.
First, a nitpick: you have 24 lands. You forgot to list your Bog.
I agree that multiple Sowers can be clunky and mediocre on defense, especially when your opponent is going wide, but I don't see how Reality Smasher helps there. As a defensive card, it's just worse since it has 3 less toughness.
A thing about the offensive capability of Reality Smasher, by the way, is that 5/5 is actually not as huge as you might think, especially past turn 4 or so. Like sometimes you have Smasher and your opponent has like Kird Ape and Nacatl, and you actually just can't attack because a double-block leads to an awful trade. I think the card is pretty win more.
This archetype has kind of been aching for a good 3cmc sweeper, and sadly, I don't think we have one. If only Flaying Tendrils gave -3/-3, then we would be in business.
Because the mana is shaky and sometimes you need some fixing. Also, grabbing the utility lands is a common play.
I initially though this was right, but now i'm thinking cutting "crappy cards" like scrabbling claws isn't what we want to do. We want to exile as many lands as we can from our opponent's graveyard to make oblivion sower better. I wouldn't be comfortable relying only on relics and bog to do that.
EDIT: Oblivion Sower works differently.
Between TKS, Path, and Relic, there's plenty of often used and good cards that allow for processing.
I've played with Expedition map. I never really wanted it. It was slow vs. the fast decks, didn't do anything vs. midrange decks, and is a lame topdeck down the line in our midrangey deck. I really don't think we need 25 lands + 2-3 maps. That's like half the deck devoted to mana.
With cheap cards like Souls, Discard, Matter Reshaper, and TKS, we don't have to get to 5/6//7/10 mana, there should be things to do when you're sitting at 3-4 mana.
About Reality Smasher, He's fine on defense vs. Path to Exile & Terminate, those cards see a lot of play. He's worse vs. Dismember I suppose, but then your opponent is 2-for-1'ing them selves which could be terrible. This guy is very powerful threat in any kind of slower game. Don't knock till you've tried. Although it might just be fine to -2 Smasher , +1 Sower & Strangler or something.