I keep running up against a lot of Ghost Quarters and Tectonic Edges in my opponents decks, running the 4 Eye of Ugin/4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth hasn't been really an issue that often. Anytime you cast a turn 2 Thought-Knot Seer or a Turn 3 Reality Smasher it puts your opponent pretty far behind.
How many stranglers are people on? I'm currently at 3 but have not yet finalized my list post-OGW yet. I could easily see myself dropping them down to 2.
Also, I could use some Sideboarding advice. Unfortunately my local meta makes for a very poor environment for Eldrazi, with Tron, Infect, Boggles, Merfolk, and Affinity all pretty popular. I mean just my last Wednesday modern event saw a turnout of 1 Living End, 1 Burn, and 2 each of Boggles, Merfolk, Infect, and Tron... It's painful at times My current SB is this:
With a meta like the one I talked about above, how would you all recommend I adjust my SB to improve my matchups with so many fast decks running around?
In a meta with a lot of Bogles and Infect I would maindeck at least two Spellskites, maybe another in the side. Since we are strong against BGx and very strong against UR/Grixis, including the recently banned Twin, and since Blood Moon makes things harder but not impossible, I have eliminated Celestial Purge from my side and I haven't really missed it.
For Merfolk, Elves, Zoo, Affinity and other assorted fast aggro I side 2x Engineered Explosives and 2x Damnation (you could also run Languish for budget reasons). EE is also not terrible against Bogles.
For me, Affinity gets 4x main boarded Lingering Souls, and from the side the sweepers, a 1-of Disenchant, and also the standard 2x Stony Silence.
Tron is very hard. I main 2 GQs (have not got room for more than that) and in the side, Stony, 2x Expedition Map, and an additional 3x Surgical Extraction (I have one main as well). GQ-->Extraction works amazing when you can get it.
Leyline of Sanctity looks really, really good for some matchups, but I can't seem to find room. It would be great against the mirror, Scapeshift, Storm, and Burn. (I find that Burn is pretty hard for me.) However I think I would want three Leylines instead of only two, since we really want it in the opener. Leyline is not good against any of the decks you mentioned having problems with.
So I've been looking at the cards available for this build, and come to the conclusion that what I'd really like to do is build a kind of "eldrazi jund".
By this I mean;
1) maindeck discard package & strong removal suite from Iok, thoughtseize, path to exile and liliana of the veil.
2) value or disruptive creatures I.e. Tidehollow sculler and/or Thought-knot seer
Where the deck begins to differ is that instead of running goyf as your main beater/clock, you can actually afford to run ulamog and kozilek as your top-end. Your threats continue the disruption which can potentially make this deck a really interesting control/aggro sort of strategy like hatebears.
This core of the deck (with plenty of room for additional stuff) seems like a really strong starting point. Thought knot seer itself seems like a really strong early play, to slow the board or just beat down if you get the chance.
The hasty trample guy seems nice for a 3 of but i'm not entirely sold on the full playset yet. Could be wrong. Seems good in multiples that's for sure.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
Hello guys, I have no experience with this deck but I have most of the pieces so might as well make a deck out of it. I'll don't have any OGW cards yet but I'll be getting some soon.
The manabase is a bit tricky. I don't have Marsh Flats, can I make do with Mire and Strand as Fetch? I like a couple of Shambling Vent as the lifelink really helps against burn. I want to make it a 3 of in anticipation to a lot of burn in my meta.
With regards to the creatures, how did Reality Smasher worked out? I can cut it to make room for 2 more Oblivion Sower.
Has anyone had success with Newzilek in their build? I opened one at the prerelease and I kind of want to play it but I dont really know if it is really what BW wants.
On the Smasher/Seer note: I'm currently on 3 seers and 2 smashers md and liking that for the time being.
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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"
If you are having problems with fish, the best way to do that is to introduce some natural predators into the ecosystem. Nobody takes a dump in the fishtank quite like elves in this format. The best way to deal with the fish is to start encouraging people to play elves in your meta. Build an elf deck and loan it to the guy who didn't bring a deck. Give out Ezuris and Heritage Druids to people for free(this is expensive but you can recoup your investment in tournament winnings). Go up to the merfolk player before the tournament and strike up a conversation about how well-positioned Elves is in the current meta and how many people at your store are playing it, including yourself. You are actually playing Eldrazi, but eldrazi are amoral deceptive creatures and it is in-character to lie. Then, you have to deal with the elves: I recommend Night of Souls Betrayal: this card is also pretty good against the fish but you'll probably have to have some removal with it to deal with their lords.
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These days, some wizards are finding they have a little too much deck left at the end of their $$$.
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
How is our Merfolk matchup? I played some games and couldn't win any.
It's hard. Don't listen to Rich, Elves is hard too . Both decks don't put much in the yard, and both come on wide and fast, with evasion in the form of Islandwalk (Merfolk) or Trample (Elves), making our Spirit tokens far less useful.
I maindeck six targeted removal spells with three Stranglers. I also run four sweepers in the board, two Damnation and two Engineered Explosives. All is Dust was too slow. I am also ready to GQ my own land to fight Spreading Seas. However these matches are just going to be tough because of their speed.
Marsh Casualties: Good for elves, uber-cheap and we don't run many 2-drops, but if fish plays a lord on turn 2, this card is dead. Zealous Persecution: Can double as an alpha-strike for Lingering Souls tokens on occasion. Flaying Tendrils: Stabilize AND process, nice Drown in Sorrow: Stabilize and scry. Probably better if you have a T1 Relic
BIG SWEEPERS: These can get Spell Pierced by the fish. This is bad and you usually lose. Gaddock Teeg also says no.
Languish: Stabilize while allowing your big-butted Eldrazi to live. Downside: Usually whiffs on Goyf (unless you process). Second downside: also kills Thought-Knot, and you know how much we love that guy. Damnation: When you absolutely, positively have to clean house, accept no substitutes. Downside: requires a second mortgage to purchase. Wrath of God: Somewhat harder to cast than Damnation but provides the same effect for a helluva lot less $. Night of Souls' Betrayal: This card just wins games if you land it at the right time. However, there are situations where it is not very useful. Also destroys Affinity, especially their pesky manlands. All is Dust: Terrible against Tron, Affinity, and the mirror. Probably still more expensive than the four-mana sweepers in most situations. Can remove indestructible dudes: too bad the only relevant one is Newlamog and he survives.
These days, some wizards are finding they have a little too much deck left at the end of their $$$.
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
I think Tendrils, Sorrow, Languish, Night, and All is Dust are probably the only ones worth having from that list. AiD would be good against other fringe T1 and T2 decks (Fish, Elves, Zoo, CoCo/Chord builds, etc) so I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing in the main or side. Opposing Goyfs really shouldn't be an issue either as ideally there would be very few cards in the GY at any given time so Languish should hit pretty often. That said, some combination of Sorrow/Tendrils/Night are probably the best ways to go for now. Night is just so good against Elves/Infect/Affinity and some other decks that it should be a one or two-of in the 75. It is just game over when it resolves most of the time. Tendrils/Sorrow also have good synergy especially if you run Disfigure. I'm currently on Mono B but this is what we have been discussing in that thread. In the main 60, the most oft used cards are Slaughter Pact, Dismember, Doomblade, and Disfigure for spot removal with Drown in Sorrow and now Flaying Tendrils being run as sweepers along with Night of Souls' Betrayal in the side. That said, I know you guys have Path so spot removal isn't as necessary but I would definitely stick to mono black sweepers if possible since they should be very easy to cast. Another thing we've been tossing around in Mono B is running a couple of Lilianas and Sea Gate Wreckage main which has yielded some interesting results.
I'm surprised others have a hard time against merfolk. I've only played two matches (5 games) against merfolk, but the match-up seems 50/50 to me. Some play tips:
I save my removal for their lords, especially master of waves. If there aren't any lords, kill the mutavaults.
Don't be afraid to use GQ on your own island. One of my opponents swung with what he thought was an unblockable school of fish. I GQ the eldrazi temple he spreading seas on and destroyed most of his creatures as a result.
Many of their cards are of little value against us, like spell pierce and cursecatcher. Vapor snag will often be used to save one of their lords from removal rather than bouncing an eldrazi. Use your wasteland stranglers because there's little merfolk can do against it.
I think your creature count is correct Cap. That is exactly what I was thinking of doing. I don't run map though. In its place I have been running 2x mainboard extractions. Also, with the up and coming prevalence of affinity, I think go for the throat is wrong. I would change that to a dismember.
Otherwise a damn sexy list.
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Modern
No idea because my favorite decks keep getting banned or having the rules changed against them
If I don't like Smasher, Ill go up to 3 Strangler and another warping wail.
I too really like almost everything about that list, except your C-color balance. You have only seven land sources for colorless in your deck. I think you might need to switch out some fetches, shocks, and/or basics for a four-of Caves of Koilos in order to get C more reliably by T3-4 (should be looking for 12-11 lands that tap colorless to get to 90% T3-4 reliability).
I also don't run Map in the main. Like Pants I have exile effects in that slot to enable Processing. However the Maps could help--some--with the CBW-balance issue, though I doubt they are enough and they will come at the cost of doing something else with that mana.
Man HUGE ban list update. I am totally taking Spellskites out of main (probably will run 1 in side for infect/boggles if I run into them). We are going to see an influx of 3 drops added to decks since people don't have to worry about losing when they tap out. What a glorious day as someone who was repeatedly T4 combo'd or T5 through removal.. it was aggravating. As for lands. I have been ecstatic with 3 MB GQ with 1 in SB. In the matchups where they matter, they mean a ton. I see lots of discussion about cutting Oblivion Sowers and my opinion is that you cut to 2 and no less. He is a little clunky on the curve as a 4x but he is a must answer threat that aids in exiling things for processing AND can ramp you into Newlamog. What I am replacing the 2x with is Reality Smasher. This gives me the ability to have a tutorable 5 damage haste, trampler that becomes a HUGE pain to get rid of. One of the biggest things we need to beat Tron and Scapeshift is a clock. He provides that for fairly cheap (usually 3). I also agree that we should all be running a 1x Cavern of Souls at a minimum. With Expedition Map we can really abuse the utility lands. I made the move on Friday to cut fetches completely and run 4x Cave of Kolios instead and I have to say, I have had 0 problems. It's been really nice to get guranteed T1 B/W land while only taking 1 if you need to need to play a discard spell (without having to fetch a basic). Ok onto a tournament report for FNM on.. well Friday, duh.
67 People showed up for modern. I did a count walking around after a quick round 1 victory and counted at least 12 players on Burn. What else to expect on FNM before prerelease.
Round 1 Turns.dec (2-0) [1-0]
Well this is supposed to be a miserable matchup (I've played it a lot before for practice after I faced this guy in a tournament last time). The problem is they are a lot like Scapeshift and we lack the mass interactivity with all their draw rocks. They then keep us tapped out and unless we are playing gas every turn, they end up suffering. This is is a matchup where Reality Smasher can help immensely. They may Gigadrowse our creatures and try to hit most of our lands during upkeep. You can respond with a tutor for Smasher and hit them for 5. This is something in my playtests that we can easily do to keep the pressure on. Alright onto the games. Game 1 he took a mull to 6 on the play (scry land go. I know he is on turns from this play). I used a T1 Thoughtseize and saw 5 lands and a Dictate of Kruphix. He proceeds to draw a lot of lands as I quickly ramp out and kill him. Game 2 he had a few more pieces of gas but I end up using Surgical Extraction on Exhaustion and he is unable to keep my massive board of guys tapped down before I kill him. This is a bad matchup and I got pretty fortunate that he drew very few draw rocks either game.
Round 2 Burn (1-2) [1-1]
Game 1 went about as well as I could hope. I used a T3 Path, Wasteland Strangler to destroy his board and forced the game into midrange where I won handedly. Game 2 I was killed on his T3 my T2 (yay... I got 2 land drops and died :-/...) Game 3 I had to mulligan down to 5, he played a T1 goblin guide and as he swung in over the next 3 turns he revealed a land...then i'd draw a land.. Ended up with 9 lands to 2 permanents... yup, not my round for sure. After this I hoped I'd just dodge Burn the next 2 rounds.
Round 3 Infect (2-0) [2-1]
I was helping this guy playtest against BW Eldrazi before the tournament. I never realized how amazingly stupid this matchup is in our favor. Lingering Souls carried the day as I either chumped for days (game 2 I had all 4 copies). I did catch him on 1 mistake. He swung in with his Inkmoth Nexus with Exalted trigger. I stacked blocked tokens (he was out of relevant pump spells). He goes to try and Pendalhaven and I remind him that his creature is now a 2/2 and can't get the buff. He never forgot to do it for the rest of the match but that did hurt him a bit.
Round 4 Draw
I offered to draw with my opponent because I wanted the store credit (recently had my bank double charge my rent check for some unknown reason and while they are getting that fixed/I get to payday on Friday... I am pretty broke). He gladly accepted as he was going to play Pre-release elsewhere and wanted to get food before hand. I asked him if he wanted to play until his friends were done and he agreed. As we were shuffling up, I guess his 2 friends were also on the winners side of the room and all took a draw their final round (turns out all 3 of them were on Burn).
All in all I can't complain. Went 2-1-1 on a night filled with bad matchups. This deck is really legit and the more reps I get with it, the happier I am about it.
I totally agree about Celestial Purges coming out of the side. I am going to hang onto them in case Keranos sticks around or I feel like I still want to bring it in against the other matchups (usually comes in vs Burn and Jund since it hits a lot of their onboard threats). I think in their sideboard slot I am going to run 2x Flaying Tendrils. It's not the greatest ever but it does what we need it to do (I also have a feeling we will be seeing an uptick in GW hatebears and such as another Tron combatant. The card still hits a ton of those GY value cards but gets rid of them cleanly too (Voice and Finks being the most notorious). When the Ban List update was announced, everyone was crying to high heaven that Tron and Affinity would be too dominate.. I actually think it's going to be a lot less impactful than people think. Initially we are going to see an uptick in Burn (because that is what happens in an unknown meta) but Tron still has plenty of bad matchups, it's expensive to build and is now on the radar for targeted hate in sideboards. Affinity is similar as well. The main thing this change does for us is it changes the way we think about our decks construction and sideboard. I don't think Warping Wail will be MB now since it's first mode just became a lot more narrow. We don't need MB Spellskites unless you know your meta has a ton of Boggles. I also cut my Slaughter Pact a while ago and have been happy without it. Now I think those who are running to REALLY don't need to. I am also wondering if we want to add some Artifact/Enchantment sweepers since we aren't REQUIRED to have answers to T4 Twin (Fracturing Gust as an example).
On 2 of the new cards I played against (unfortunately I pulled nothing for us this weekend at pre-release... other than a promo of Deceiver of Form.. which was dumb), I saw Thought Knot Seer and Reality Smasher. They were both crazy good and neither were being ramped out like we can. As I have mentioned before, I will probably go to a 4-2 split respectively. On Deceiver of Form.. he is just way too costly, however he did give me maximum trolls one game. I managed to drop him on T5 with 3 Plant tokens (I pulled a Nissa.. she is just meh.. if she sees modern play it's because she can be dropped and -2 immediately to pump an entire team which is good). Revealed the top card and it was Tajuru Pathwarden, swing for 10 trample on T5? My opponent just scooped. He will be just too awkwardly placed in our deck/other variants. He wants you to go very wide to get maximum benefit (so tokens make the most sense) but cost so much he'd only be good with things like Heartless Summoning. Those are just my brief thoughts on some of the new cards that could be placed in the deck.
This is what I am thinking right now. Haven't tested it, but seems good. The board is very much in flux, but I think 3-4 stony will be correct after the twin ban. There will be a lot of affinity and RG tron.
This is what I am thinking right now. Haven't tested it, but seems good. The board is very much in flux, but I think 3-4 stony will be correct after the twin ban. There will be a lot of affinity and RG tron.
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Tectonic Edge
4 Godless Shrine
3 Plains
1 Swamp
Creatures 22:
4 Wasteland Strangler
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Blight Herder
4 Oblivion Sower
4 Reality Smasher
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4 Relic of Progenitus
Instants 7:
4 Path to Exile
3 Dismember
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Surgical Extraction
2 All is Dust
2 Thoughtseize
2 Warping Wail
2 Doomblade
1 Kozelik, the Great Distortion
1 Dismember
I keep running up against a lot of Ghost Quarters and Tectonic Edges in my opponents decks, running the 4 Eye of Ugin/4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth hasn't been really an issue that often. Anytime you cast a turn 2 Thought-Knot Seer or a Turn 3 Reality Smasher it puts your opponent pretty far behind.
Modern: Bogles // 8-Whack/Goblins // UW Titan // Hollow One // Affinity // Dredge
EDH: Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Atraxa, Praetor's Voice // Meren of Clan Nel Toth
For Merfolk, Elves, Zoo, Affinity and other assorted fast aggro I side 2x Engineered Explosives and 2x Damnation (you could also run Languish for budget reasons). EE is also not terrible against Bogles.
For me, Affinity gets 4x main boarded Lingering Souls, and from the side the sweepers, a 1-of Disenchant, and also the standard 2x Stony Silence.
Tron is very hard. I main 2 GQs (have not got room for more than that) and in the side, Stony, 2x Expedition Map, and an additional 3x Surgical Extraction (I have one main as well). GQ-->Extraction works amazing when you can get it.
Leyline of Sanctity looks really, really good for some matchups, but I can't seem to find room. It would be great against the mirror, Scapeshift, Storm, and Burn. (I find that Burn is pretty hard for me.) However I think I would want three Leylines instead of only two, since we really want it in the opener. Leyline is not good against any of the decks you mentioned having problems with.
By this I mean;
1) maindeck discard package & strong removal suite from Iok, thoughtseize, path to exile and liliana of the veil.
2) value or disruptive creatures I.e. Tidehollow sculler and/or Thought-knot seer
Where the deck begins to differ is that instead of running goyf as your main beater/clock, you can actually afford to run ulamog and kozilek as your top-end. Your threats continue the disruption which can potentially make this deck a really interesting control/aggro sort of strategy like hatebears.
This core of the deck (with plenty of room for additional stuff) seems like a really strong starting point. Thought knot seer itself seems like a really strong early play, to slow the board or just beat down if you get the chance.
The hasty trample guy seems nice for a 3 of but i'm not entirely sold on the full playset yet. Could be wrong. Seems good in multiples that's for sure.
With this in mind during the building process, this is what my deck looks like.
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Caves of Koilos
4x Eldrazi Temple
3x Eye of Ugin
1x Ghost Quarter
2x Godless Shrine
2x Plains
3x Marsh Flats
3x Shambling Vent
2x Swamp
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of the Archangel
4x Oblivion Sower
3x Thought-Knot Seer
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4x Wasteland Strangler
2x Go for the Throat
4x Path to Exile
4x Lingering Souls
2x Thoughtseize
3x Expedition Map
4x Relic of Progenitus
2x Disenchant
1x Hushwing Gryff
1x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Spellskite
2x Reality Smasher
3x Rest for the Weary
1x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
Tatyova | Anje
Alela | Marchesa
Wanderer
4 Blight Herder
2 Oblivion Sower
2 Reality Smasher
3 Though-Knot Seer
3 Wasteland Strangler
1 Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger
Spells 20
4 Lingering Souls
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Path to Exile
2 Go for the Throat
2 Expedition Map
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Eye of Ugin
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Godless Shrine
2 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Shambling Vent
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Swamp
1 Plains
2 Spellskite
2 Disenchant
2 Celestial Purge
3 Rest for the Weary
2 Stony Silence
2 Warping Wail
1 All is Dust
1 Surgical Extraction
The manabase is a bit tricky. I don't have Marsh Flats, can I make do with Mire and Strand as Fetch? I like a couple of Shambling Vent as the lifelink really helps against burn. I want to make it a 3 of in anticipation to a lot of burn in my meta.
With regards to the creatures, how did Reality Smasher worked out? I can cut it to make room for 2 more Oblivion Sower.
On the Smasher/Seer note: I'm currently on 3 seers and 2 smashers md and liking that for the time being.
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"
If you are having problems with fish, the best way to do that is to introduce some natural predators into the ecosystem. Nobody takes a dump in the fishtank quite like elves in this format. The best way to deal with the fish is to start encouraging people to play elves in your meta. Build an elf deck and loan it to the guy who didn't bring a deck. Give out Ezuris and Heritage Druids to people for free(this is expensive but you can recoup your investment in tournament winnings). Go up to the merfolk player before the tournament and strike up a conversation about how well-positioned Elves is in the current meta and how many people at your store are playing it, including yourself. You are actually playing Eldrazi, but eldrazi are amoral deceptive creatures and it is in-character to lie. Then, you have to deal with the elves: I recommend Night of Souls Betrayal: this card is also pretty good against the fish but you'll probably have to have some removal with it to deal with their lords.
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
I maindeck six targeted removal spells with three Stranglers. I also run four sweepers in the board, two Damnation and two Engineered Explosives. All is Dust was too slow. I am also ready to GQ my own land to fight Spreading Seas. However these matches are just going to be tough because of their speed.
Marsh Casualties: Good for elves, uber-cheap and we don't run many 2-drops, but if fish plays a lord on turn 2, this card is dead.
Zealous Persecution: Can double as an alpha-strike for Lingering Souls tokens on occasion.
Flaying Tendrils: Stabilize AND process, nice
Drown in Sorrow: Stabilize and scry. Probably better if you have a T1 Relic
BIG SWEEPERS: These can get Spell Pierced by the fish. This is bad and you usually lose. Gaddock Teeg also says no.
Languish: Stabilize while allowing your big-butted Eldrazi to live. Downside: Usually whiffs on Goyf (unless you process). Second downside: also kills Thought-Knot, and you know how much we love that guy.
Damnation: When you absolutely, positively have to clean house, accept no substitutes. Downside: requires a second mortgage to purchase.
Wrath of God: Somewhat harder to cast than Damnation but provides the same effect for a helluva lot less $.
Night of Souls' Betrayal: This card just wins games if you land it at the right time. However, there are situations where it is not very useful. Also destroys Affinity, especially their pesky manlands.
All is Dust: Terrible against Tron, Affinity, and the mirror. Probably still more expensive than the four-mana sweepers in most situations. Can remove indestructible dudes: too bad the only relevant one is Newlamog and he survives.
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
All is Dust also kills flipped Jace, Liliana, Bogles, Keranos, Blood Moon, Spreading Seas for that matters. Something that Wraths don't hit.
4 Wasteland Stranglers is the key to not lose to merfolk/elves.
If I don't like Smasher, Ill go up to 3 Strangler and another warping wail.
Otherwise a damn sexy list.
I also don't run Map in the main. Like Pants I have exile effects in that slot to enable Processing. However the Maps could help--some--with the CBW-balance issue, though I doubt they are enough and they will come at the cost of doing something else with that mana.
Good luck and thanks for sharing your list.
67 People showed up for modern. I did a count walking around after a quick round 1 victory and counted at least 12 players on Burn. What else to expect on FNM before prerelease.
Round 1 Turns.dec (2-0) [1-0]
Well this is supposed to be a miserable matchup (I've played it a lot before for practice after I faced this guy in a tournament last time). The problem is they are a lot like Scapeshift and we lack the mass interactivity with all their draw rocks. They then keep us tapped out and unless we are playing gas every turn, they end up suffering. This is is a matchup where Reality Smasher can help immensely. They may Gigadrowse our creatures and try to hit most of our lands during upkeep. You can respond with a tutor for Smasher and hit them for 5. This is something in my playtests that we can easily do to keep the pressure on. Alright onto the games. Game 1 he took a mull to 6 on the play (scry land go. I know he is on turns from this play). I used a T1 Thoughtseize and saw 5 lands and a Dictate of Kruphix. He proceeds to draw a lot of lands as I quickly ramp out and kill him. Game 2 he had a few more pieces of gas but I end up using Surgical Extraction on Exhaustion and he is unable to keep my massive board of guys tapped down before I kill him. This is a bad matchup and I got pretty fortunate that he drew very few draw rocks either game.
Round 2 Burn (1-2) [1-1]
Game 1 went about as well as I could hope. I used a T3 Path, Wasteland Strangler to destroy his board and forced the game into midrange where I won handedly. Game 2 I was killed on his T3 my T2 (yay... I got 2 land drops and died :-/...) Game 3 I had to mulligan down to 5, he played a T1 goblin guide and as he swung in over the next 3 turns he revealed a land...then i'd draw a land.. Ended up with 9 lands to 2 permanents... yup, not my round for sure. After this I hoped I'd just dodge Burn the next 2 rounds.
Round 3 Infect (2-0) [2-1]
I was helping this guy playtest against BW Eldrazi before the tournament. I never realized how amazingly stupid this matchup is in our favor. Lingering Souls carried the day as I either chumped for days (game 2 I had all 4 copies). I did catch him on 1 mistake. He swung in with his Inkmoth Nexus with Exalted trigger. I stacked blocked tokens (he was out of relevant pump spells). He goes to try and Pendalhaven and I remind him that his creature is now a 2/2 and can't get the buff. He never forgot to do it for the rest of the match but that did hurt him a bit.
Round 4 Draw
I offered to draw with my opponent because I wanted the store credit (recently had my bank double charge my rent check for some unknown reason and while they are getting that fixed/I get to payday on Friday... I am pretty broke). He gladly accepted as he was going to play Pre-release elsewhere and wanted to get food before hand. I asked him if he wanted to play until his friends were done and he agreed. As we were shuffling up, I guess his 2 friends were also on the winners side of the room and all took a draw their final round (turns out all 3 of them were on Burn).
All in all I can't complain. Went 2-1-1 on a night filled with bad matchups. This deck is really legit and the more reps I get with it, the happier I am about it.
I totally agree about Celestial Purges coming out of the side. I am going to hang onto them in case Keranos sticks around or I feel like I still want to bring it in against the other matchups (usually comes in vs Burn and Jund since it hits a lot of their onboard threats). I think in their sideboard slot I am going to run 2x Flaying Tendrils. It's not the greatest ever but it does what we need it to do (I also have a feeling we will be seeing an uptick in GW hatebears and such as another Tron combatant. The card still hits a ton of those GY value cards but gets rid of them cleanly too (Voice and Finks being the most notorious). When the Ban List update was announced, everyone was crying to high heaven that Tron and Affinity would be too dominate.. I actually think it's going to be a lot less impactful than people think. Initially we are going to see an uptick in Burn (because that is what happens in an unknown meta) but Tron still has plenty of bad matchups, it's expensive to build and is now on the radar for targeted hate in sideboards. Affinity is similar as well. The main thing this change does for us is it changes the way we think about our decks construction and sideboard. I don't think Warping Wail will be MB now since it's first mode just became a lot more narrow. We don't need MB Spellskites unless you know your meta has a ton of Boggles. I also cut my Slaughter Pact a while ago and have been happy without it. Now I think those who are running to REALLY don't need to. I am also wondering if we want to add some Artifact/Enchantment sweepers since we aren't REQUIRED to have answers to T4 Twin (Fracturing Gust as an example).
On 2 of the new cards I played against (unfortunately I pulled nothing for us this weekend at pre-release... other than a promo of Deceiver of Form.. which was dumb), I saw Thought Knot Seer and Reality Smasher. They were both crazy good and neither were being ramped out like we can. As I have mentioned before, I will probably go to a 4-2 split respectively. On Deceiver of Form.. he is just way too costly, however he did give me maximum trolls one game. I managed to drop him on T5 with 3 Plant tokens (I pulled a Nissa.. she is just meh.. if she sees modern play it's because she can be dropped and -2 immediately to pump an entire team which is good). Revealed the top card and it was Tajuru Pathwarden, swing for 10 trample on T5? My opponent just scooped. He will be just too awkwardly placed in our deck/other variants. He wants you to go very wide to get maximum benefit (so tokens make the most sense) but cost so much he'd only be good with things like Heartless Summoning. Those are just my brief thoughts on some of the new cards that could be placed in the deck.
2 Wasteland Strangler
3 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Reality Smasher
4 Blight Herder
3 Oblivion Sower
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Spells (20)
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Warping Wail
1 Dismember
3 Lingering Souls
1 All Is Dust
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Godless Shrine
2 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Eye of Ugin
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Marsh Flats
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Celestial Purge
1 Spellskite
2 Disenchant
2 Rest for the Weary
3 Stony Silence
2 Languish
3 Memoricide
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This mana-base will not allow you to cast IOK or POE consistently on turns 1 through 3.