I dropped Celestial Purge. I think it is still an important card vs burn as it creates fuel for processors; it is a 2cmc kill spell against a problem deck, and it is a valuable spell against storm for getting rid of pyromancer's ascension. I do agree that 2 is too much.
There are a few cards I am worried about showing up. Namely Stormchaser Mage. I can see a delver, yp, stormchaser deck forming and Purge will be important there.
Former Twin players have been looking into the options of shifting their control shells into possible UR Delver builds or even Storm for that matter. I'm kinda interested to see if Stormchaser Mage will become Modern Playable, granted it isn't as fast as Monastery Swiftspear. Only time will tell honestly. BW Eldrazi right now honestly is too fast for control to keep up with at the moment. The Pro Tour will determine how things will go.
I took out maps a while ago and haven't really missed them, currently running a 3/2/0 split. I main deck 2 extractions which has proven extremely useful, and is actually one of my favorite cards to see. I know there was talk a while back that it is a SB card at best for combo. However I find it is an incredibly powerful activator for this deck.
Yes it has to be play on a card that was already used, but it gives so much information. Remember after casting it you look through you opponents deck and hand, as well as getting hopefully 4 cards into exile. It either prepares you for a massive sower or turns on your herders and stranglers. The other great part is no one sees it coming game 1.
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Current Decks
Modern
No idea because my favorite decks keep getting banned or having the rules changed against them
Round 3 vs. Infect. We split prizes, but I give him the win since he has to go. 0-2.
What are your thoughts on Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher? It looks like people are including Thought-Knot Seer, so I plan on getting some on Friday. What about Reality Smasher?
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Exile target opponent's creature for 2C with Displacer
While the return trigger is on the stack, activate Displacer again for 2C, targeting own Strangler
Second activation resolves; Strangler re-ETBs, Processing first exiled card
Give another target opponent's creature -3/-3
Exiled card is "new" having changed zones, and stays in the graveyard, meeting up with its also-dead buddy for some shared commiseration.
Can you say "uncounterable 2-for-0", kids? I knew you could!
One could pull off this trick using only three Temples, though of course usually more lands would be needed. Thoughts?
Sadly it does not work that way, the ability must resolve completely and you can not respond to part of it once it is going off. It is like casting a spell once they look at your hand with any discard, you just can't do it sadly.
Besides that I think 3 TKS is great in the main board, I have cut down to 3 blight herder, 3 oblivion sowers and doing a split of 1 newlamog and 1 new kozilek. There are just certain match ups where one is better than the other. I also like running 1 all is dust in the main, it just auto wins so many matches.
Round 3 vs. Infect. We split prizes, but I give him the win since he has to go. 0-2.
What are your thoughts on Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher? It looks like people are including Thought-Knot Seer, so I plan on getting some on Friday. What about Reality Smasher?
Smasher is good against control, a clock against tron and combo, and another relatively cheap big body against aggro. I'm running 2 and want to test more but I may move down to 1. TKS is very good but I like running 3 more than 4.
@mweissm: I am running a single Newlamog and have been considering trying a single Newzilek since I pulled one at the prerelease. In what match-ups have you found Newzilek to be better than Newlamog?
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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"
Exile target opponent's creature for 2C with Displacer
While the return trigger is on the stack, activate Displacer again for 2C, targeting own Strangler
Second activation resolves; Strangler re-ETBs, Processing first exiled card
Give another target opponent's creature -3/-3
Exiled card is "new" having changed zones, and stays in the graveyard, meeting up with its also-dead buddy for some shared commiseration.
Can you say "uncounterable 2-for-0", kids? I knew you could!
One could pull off this trick using only three Temples, though of course usually more lands would be needed. Thoughts?
Sadly it does not work that way, the ability must resolve completely and you can not respond to part of it once it is going off. It is like casting a spell once they look at your hand with any discard, you just can't do it sadly.
Besides that I think 3 TKS is great in the main board, I have cut down to 3 blight herder, 3 oblivion sowers and doing a split of 1 newlamog and 1 new kozilek. There are just certain match ups where one is better than the other. I also like running 1 all is dust in the main, it just auto wins so many matches.
Yeah. looks like this is the relevant text:
112.3b Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as “[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).]” A player may activate such an ability whenever he or she has priority. Doing so puts it on the stack, where it remains until it’s countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. See rule 602, “Activating Activated Abilities.”
112.3c Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[Trigger condition], [effect],” and include (and usually begin with) the word “when,” “whenever,” or “at.” Whenever the trigger event occurs, the ability is put on the stack the next time a player would receive priority and stays there until it’s countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”
So it's the "then" in Displacer instead of a "when that card enters exile" that makes the difference, if I understand. Damn. How cool would that have been.
Ended up dropping Reality Smasher. He sure is great at closing games, but what I usually found was that he was too slow vs. aggro matches, and we're already good at killing other midrange/control decks.
Went 2/2/2 on Eye/Urborg/Map plan. Honestly I hate casting map, it's slow and boring, but it makes the deck more consistent.
I like Matter reshaper. He's proactive and gives us something to do early on if we don't have anything processed yet.
He beats well, he blocks well. No value if he get's Path'd, but hey, you get a land and that was their Path they wont have for your next guy.
Try out as a 2-3 split between him and Strangler.
I just had issues consistently getting Strangler online when I wanted it.
Went down to 3 Sower. Was often doing nothing, or sitting in my hand being expensive. I'll go up to 4 if I can squeeze in 1 Scrabbling Claw to help exile opponent's cracked fetchlands for a future Sower.
You'll notice this list has 3 tapped lands. I don't really map for Bojuka bog, but it's been nice to have in hand to process when I want it. Turn 1 discard is not really the goal anymore. It's more like T1-T3 setup Relic/discard/& Souls. T2/T3/4 TKS.
2 Shambling Vents, 1 Vault of the Archangel, & 3 Timely Reinforcement. Also, 1 less Sower. This deck is built to handle aggro. Infect can still be an issue, but lingering souls tokens can block them all day.
Scapeshift is actually kinda hard for this deck. We don't run Tectonic Edge, so keeping their land count down is hard. I try to aggro them quickly and discard/TKS their Scapeshift/Bring to Light, or their card draw. Get your life total above 18. They have trouble killing Blight Herder and TKS cuz 4/5 or 4/4 is difficult for red. TL;DR Discard their combo piece, aggro them, stay above 18, get to Ulamog and win.
Now that Twin's gone, stupid uninteractive decks like Storm are coming back..gross. You can discard their Ascension or put them in topdeck mode. TKS exiles stuff which is very relevant. Disrupt and establish a clock. Gams 2 & 3 they board inot Empty the Warrens and it's unwinnable for us unless we have a sweeper in hand, or their hand sucks.
Haven't gotten a chance to play against Kiki-Chord yet.
Infect is still rough. Even with sideboard slots and lots of removal and blockers. If your hand is clunky (it often is) they will just jam all their spells and kill you. If you kil their Glistener Elf/Blighted Agent, their Inkmoth will win while you're tapped out.
I certainly miss playing against Twin.
1x Warping Wail in sideboard has helped for matches like this.
1x Aven Mindcensor might be neat sideboard tech too. She can stop fetches, GQ's, and Paths in many patchups. Hurts Tron and Scapeshift, can block vs. Affinity.
I don't know what/how many sweepers to run in th side. I want something for Merfolk/Elves/Abzan Coco/Affinity, but All is Dust usually is too slow, and does nothing vs. affinity. Engineered Explosives might be the pick, haven't tested. Zoo can be hard as well.
EDIT: For sweepers, what about Black Sun's Zenith? On 3 mana it still kills a bunch of elves and affinity/infect. We can cast it for 5mana (3BB) and -3/-3 everything but still keep our TKS alive (as a 1/1 but still). At 4 mana it doesn't kill all of Zoo's creatures, but does make them unthreatening.
Not sure if it's better then Flaying Tendrils, because Kiki-Chord runs Finks & Voice.
Also, thoughts on 1 MB Oblivion Ring? I dont know what to cut yet, maybe the Dismember. It's certainly slower, but having a nice universal removal that can hit Cranial Plating/Wurmcoil/Karn/Finks/Merfolk/Pyromancer's Ascension/Random Delver Creatures.
For sweepers I currently have all is dust in the main, but this may change. It is very dependent on how the meta shifts in the next month or so. If affinity and Tron end up taking a large share of the meta (I think they will) I will probably move it to the board. Similarly aggressive decks like elves, merfolk and zoo might be too fast to get to 5-7 mana as well.
I am currently using Languish, which I really like. It is semi one sided as Herder and Sower both survive it. However, with TKS coming into the fold, it may not be as good as it basically gains them a card. There are a few decks that late game sweepers are excellent against, namely Abzan Company and Kiki-Chord.
I am expecting Kiki-Chord to be a solid tier 1.5-2 deck (maybe tier 1) and sweepers are important there. In my mind Kiki-Chord is kind of like twin. But instead of combo or tempoing you out, it combos or values you out. It does a lot of GY recursion at instant so keeping up a relic is important. Case in point, a very common line of play you will see is EoT Chord for 3 to get Eternal Witness and bring chord back to their hands. Then if you try and remove the Witness they will chord Restoration Angel to protect the witness and recur the chord again, and if you don't remove the angel asap they will chord in Kiki and combo off. It isn't a fast play, but the value is just insane. At the same time, if you play a sweeper, and they have enough mana, they will chord in Reveillark and recur most of their board. If they recur a witness, they will pull the chord or reveillark back and begin the process again. This brings in instant speed GY hate again. None of their creatures are particularly large but they go wide and they can pull some really interesting tricks with Kiki.
I run Extraction main, and I normally save it for the first activation of Chord. Out of the board I bring in Memoricide. I used to target Chord first, but after talking to my friend who runs the list (where I got my practice from) he says the first target should probably be Kiki. Kiki enables most of the ridiculous values like Kiki + Voice. It also breaks the I win combo, which makes them have to grind against us, which is not favorable.
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Current Decks
Modern
No idea because my favorite decks keep getting banned or having the rules changed against them
Alright guys, I just had some Tuesday Night Modern to report for yall and then I'll get to a couple of the comments I see on here.
Round 1 Affinity(2-1)[1-0]
Game 1 I thought I was in pretty good shape, sitting on a couple removal spells and 2 lingering Souls. Unfortunately he dropped a T3 Etched Champion and Cranial Plating and I found 0 Midrange Eldrazi for blocks. Game 2 was similar (etched champion but arcbound ravager instead of plating and he mulled to 6 so fewer artifacts overall) except I did have My Eldrazi. This game really showcased for me an ability to pilot this deck into a winning position. I hardcast my Wasteland Strangler for no value and forced him to sacrifice his ravager(and another artifact) in order to save the Etched Champion when he swung in. If he sacrificed 1 more he'd be out of metalcraft and I could Path it so Champion was a 4/4. I then played a Blight Herder from hand for no additional value. He floated mana with his Mox Opal on his turn, played another Archbound Ravager and then Sacrificed the Opal and played another. He swings in again with Champion and I block with Blight Herder. He sacrifices Ravager and kills the Blight Herder. My turn I cast the Oblivion Sower out of my hand and hit a Inkmoth Nexus. He doesn't have an answer on his turn and swings into the wall by mistake (6/6 Champion vs 5/8 Sower). I had drawn a 2nd Sower the turn before so I crack in for 5 and cast another Sower (hitting Blinkmoth and a mountain). He is forced to now hold back and hope he draws an answer. If he swings in, I animate -> pump -> chump the Inkmoth and shrink his etched champion down to a killable size. He did get a Cranial Plating which means I can't swing in with Oblivion Sowers either. Within a couple turns I draw a Lingering Souls and flash it back. From there it was just 4 beats in the air every turn until he died. Game 3 was a LONG one. He ended up with a Vault Skirge with Cranial Plating on back to back topdecks which allowed him to climb back from 4 health and hit me pretty hard (I found no Lingering Souls) but I assembled an army of things on the ground (2 Blight Herders, 6 Scions, 1 Oblivion sower) and had Vault of the Archangel. This went on until I found an eye of ugin sacd all my scions and floated a mana to get Newlamog and the game was over.
Round 2 Jeskai Aggro (2-0) [2-0]
This is my friend and his list that I know very well. It uses Mantis Riders and things to tempo you into submission and then he sideboards in Runed Halos and Meddling Mages and tries to disrupt your game plan. Honestly he drew jack squat both games and the match was over within 10 min. I curved out twice and he had no answers.
Round 3 America Geist (2-0) [3-0]
Another person I am very familiar with and their decklist. Pretty standard Geist list. Runs 2 Tech Edges in the MB so things can get a bit spicy if she can keep me locked off lands (and geist is a pain to deal with). The grindy nature of this deck prevailed along with all the cast triggers. Even through counterspells I stole her lands (including a tech edge that was the killing blow in game 2 to blow up one of her Colonnades so I GQ the other). She got me very low on life (4) in game 2 but was forced to use a bolt on a wasteland strangler so she wouldn't just die.
Round 4 Esper Gifts (2-0) [4-0]
This is a very good Jund player who is playing something different tonight because of the influx of Eldrazi he suspects (there were 2 of us there). This list might be one we end up having some issues with because it was MUCH less about the normal Gifts route and more about stacking a TON of sweepers and counterspells and then killing with Colonnade or Lingering Souls tokens. Fortunately for me he drew 0 of either of those and I cruised to victory (part of that was game 2 I thoughtseized away a Gifts and Surgical Extraction'd it. Forcing him into topdeck mode and sticking him with an Iona in hand for the entire game. I did risk an overextention at the end which we both discussed as a likely mistake if he had drawn a board clear I had no follow up. I initially did it to remove him topdecking a Path or other targeted removal as an out. Probably should have held out on it though because we counted afterwards and he had all 8 wraths to 3 spot removal spells left.
All in all it was a great night. Some very odd matchups for sure but the deck did what it does best and brought home the money.
@DoggieDoo I'm interested what you are bringing in against infect that is making you feel like it's a bad matchup. It seems like a very easy one to me. You have to play a lot more cautiously since they can just pump to 10 and win but between MB GQ for Inkmoth Nexus, all our removal, discard and Lingering Souls to chump for days.. I've never really had a problem with them. The key is staying alive until they are out of gas. Block every swing even with a big guy like Blight Herder. If they pump their guy up to kill it.. you are winning. It may not feel like it but you are.
We have had a Naya Kiki-Chord player at one of my tournaments for a little while now and that deck is extremely good. The other problem is it's not like you can just stick a relic and win because they are off their Chord shenanigans because they still have a TON of beats. this is where I am probably going to run Flaying Tendrils because of the uptick of these type of decks as well as GW Hatebears. Initially I was against using it in the SB but it completely removes the value of Kitchen Finks and Voice and I think that might be valuable if their uptick is real (again this meta is so undetermined because the Rock Paper Scissors speculation is going rapidly until folks choose decks and stick with them).
All in all I am still EXTREMELY happy with this deck. I feel like it's in a great spot against a ton of decks and can't wait to play with our new friends on Friday.
I'm not liking taplands in this deck, it keeps ruining my turn 1 discard, i think i'll run 0 taplands
I think Bojuka bog can be easily replaced with a non-tap utility land as we got more than enough ways to exile the graveyard of an opponent already in our repertoire. Shizo, Deaths storehouse would be a good one to put in it's place.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm not liking taplands in this deck, it keeps ruining my turn 1 discard, i think i'll run 0 taplands
I think Bojuka bog can be easily replaced with a non-tap utility land as we got more than enough ways to exile the graveyard of an opponent already in our repertoire. Shizo, Deaths storehouse would be a good one to put in it's place.
I love Bojuka Bog as it gives you an uncounterable way to exile their yard and very rarely has it actually affected my ability to discard T1. I don't think Shizo is good because we have 1 legendary creature and we don't care if he gets blocked.
Shizo does nothing we want and Bojuka does quite a bit. CIPT blows but we can tolerate 2-3 of them in the deck.
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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
Hey everyone. I've been messing with this deck more and more and I'm starting to really enjoy playing it. I'm curious about the post-OGW versions. Is there a reason to buy Marsh Flats? Or is Caves of Koilos actually better here?
Hey everyone. I've been messing with this deck more and more and I'm starting to really enjoy playing it. I'm curious about the post-OGW versions. Is there a reason to buy Marsh Flats? Or is Caves of Koilos actually better here?
I never used Marsh Flats because you really only need a black based fetch. Secondly, I have removed all fetches for Caves and been extremely happy so far. My landbase currently (I played 6 tournaments over the last 2 weeks with this landbase to test it out):
4x Eldrazi Temple
4x Godless Shrine
4x Cave of Koilos
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Swamp
2x Plains
2x Urborg
2x Eye of Ugin
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Vault of the Archangel
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GXTronGX
RWxBurnRWx
Former Twin players have been looking into the options of shifting their control shells into possible UR Delver builds or even Storm for that matter. I'm kinda interested to see if Stormchaser Mage will become Modern Playable, granted it isn't as fast as Monastery Swiftspear. Only time will tell honestly. BW Eldrazi right now honestly is too fast for control to keep up with at the moment. The Pro Tour will determine how things will go.
4 Wasteland Strangler
3 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Blight Herder
4 Oblivion Sower
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Spells (19)
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Expedition Map
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Eye of Ugin
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Duress
2 Pithing Needle
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Celestial Purge
2 Rest for the Weary
2 Spellskite
2 Stony Silence
1 Timely Reinforcements
I could swap the 2 Expedition Map for 1 more Inquisition of Kozilek or Thoughtseize and 1 more Ghost Quarter, Godless Shrine or Eye of Ugin.
GXTronGX
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Yes it has to be play on a card that was already used, but it gives so much information. Remember after casting it you look through you opponents deck and hand, as well as getting hopefully 4 cards into exile. It either prepares you for a massive sower or turns on your herders and stranglers. The other great part is no one sees it coming game 1.
Round 1 vs. UB Faeries. I win 2-0.
Round 2 vs. UWR Blade Splicer. I win 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Infect. We split prizes, but I give him the win since he has to go. 0-2.
What are your thoughts on Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher? It looks like people are including Thought-Knot Seer, so I plan on getting some on Friday. What about Reality Smasher?
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)One could pull off this trick using only three Temples, though of course usually more lands would be needed. Thoughts?
Sadly it does not work that way, the ability must resolve completely and you can not respond to part of it once it is going off. It is like casting a spell once they look at your hand with any discard, you just can't do it sadly.
Besides that I think 3 TKS is great in the main board, I have cut down to 3 blight herder, 3 oblivion sowers and doing a split of 1 newlamog and 1 new kozilek. There are just certain match ups where one is better than the other. I also like running 1 all is dust in the main, it just auto wins so many matches.
Smasher is good against control, a clock against tron and combo, and another relatively cheap big body against aggro. I'm running 2 and want to test more but I may move down to 1. TKS is very good but I like running 3 more than 4.
@mweissm: I am running a single Newlamog and have been considering trying a single Newzilek since I pulled one at the prerelease. In what match-ups have you found Newzilek to be better than Newlamog?
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"
112.3b Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as “[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).]” A player may activate such an ability whenever he or she has priority. Doing so puts it on the stack, where it remains until it’s countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. See rule 602, “Activating Activated Abilities.”
112.3c Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[Trigger condition], [effect],” and include (and usually begin with) the word “when,” “whenever,” or “at.” Whenever the trigger event occurs, the ability is put on the stack the next time a player would receive priority and stays there until it’s countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”
So it's the "then" in Displacer instead of a "when that card enters exile" that makes the difference, if I understand. Damn. How cool would that have been.
4x Blight Herder
2x Matter Reshaper
3x Oblivion Sower
3x Thought-Knot Seer
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
3x Wasteland Strangler
Spells (20)
4x Path to Exile
1x Slaughter Pact
1x Dismember
4x Relic of Progenitus
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Thoughtseize
4x Lingering Souls
2x Expedition Map
1x Bojuka Bog
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Eldrazi Temple
2x Eye of Ugin
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Godless Shrine
2x Plains
2x Shambling Vent
1x Swamp
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Warping Wail
2x Disenchant
1x Black Sun's Zenith (Previously Doom Blade)
1x Flaying Tendrils
1x Ghost Quarter
2x Spellskite
2x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Timely Reinforcements
Ended up dropping Reality Smasher. He sure is great at closing games, but what I usually found was that he was too slow vs. aggro matches, and we're already good at killing other midrange/control decks.
Went 2/2/2 on Eye/Urborg/Map plan. Honestly I hate casting map, it's slow and boring, but it makes the deck more consistent.
I like Matter reshaper. He's proactive and gives us something to do early on if we don't have anything processed yet.
He beats well, he blocks well. No value if he get's Path'd, but hey, you get a land and that was their Path they wont have for your next guy.
Try out as a 2-3 split between him and Strangler.
I just had issues consistently getting Strangler online when I wanted it.
Went down to 3 Sower. Was often doing nothing, or sitting in my hand being expensive. I'll go up to 4 if I can squeeze in 1 Scrabbling Claw to help exile opponent's cracked fetchlands for a future Sower.
You'll notice this list has 3 tapped lands. I don't really map for Bojuka bog, but it's been nice to have in hand to process when I want it. Turn 1 discard is not really the goal anymore. It's more like T1-T3 setup Relic/discard/& Souls. T2/T3/4 TKS.
2 Shambling Vents, 1 Vault of the Archangel, & 3 Timely Reinforcement. Also, 1 less Sower. This deck is built to handle aggro. Infect can still be an issue, but lingering souls tokens can block them all day.
Scapeshift is actually kinda hard for this deck. We don't run Tectonic Edge, so keeping their land count down is hard. I try to aggro them quickly and discard/TKS their Scapeshift/Bring to Light, or their card draw. Get your life total above 18. They have trouble killing Blight Herder and TKS cuz 4/5 or 4/4 is difficult for red. TL;DR Discard their combo piece, aggro them, stay above 18, get to Ulamog and win.
Now that Twin's gone, stupid uninteractive decks like Storm are coming back..gross. You can discard their Ascension or put them in topdeck mode. TKS exiles stuff which is very relevant. Disrupt and establish a clock. Gams 2 & 3 they board inot Empty the Warrens and it's unwinnable for us unless we have a sweeper in hand, or their hand sucks.
Haven't gotten a chance to play against Kiki-Chord yet.
Infect is still rough. Even with sideboard slots and lots of removal and blockers. If your hand is clunky (it often is) they will just jam all their spells and kill you. If you kil their Glistener Elf/Blighted Agent, their Inkmoth will win while you're tapped out.
I certainly miss playing against Twin.
1x Warping Wail in sideboard has helped for matches like this.
1x Aven Mindcensor might be neat sideboard tech too. She can stop fetches, GQ's, and Paths in many patchups. Hurts Tron and Scapeshift, can block vs. Affinity.
I don't know what/how many sweepers to run in th side. I want something for Merfolk/Elves/Abzan Coco/Affinity, but All is Dust usually is too slow, and does nothing vs. affinity. Engineered Explosives might be the pick, haven't tested. Zoo can be hard as well.
EDIT: For sweepers, what about Black Sun's Zenith? On 3 mana it still kills a bunch of elves and affinity/infect. We can cast it for 5mana (3BB) and -3/-3 everything but still keep our TKS alive (as a 1/1 but still). At 4 mana it doesn't kill all of Zoo's creatures, but does make them unthreatening.
Not sure if it's better then Flaying Tendrils, because Kiki-Chord runs Finks & Voice.
Also, thoughts on 1 MB Oblivion Ring? I dont know what to cut yet, maybe the Dismember. It's certainly slower, but having a nice universal removal that can hit Cranial Plating/Wurmcoil/Karn/Finks/Merfolk/Pyromancer's Ascension/Random Delver Creatures.
I am currently using Languish, which I really like. It is semi one sided as Herder and Sower both survive it. However, with TKS coming into the fold, it may not be as good as it basically gains them a card. There are a few decks that late game sweepers are excellent against, namely Abzan Company and Kiki-Chord.
I am expecting Kiki-Chord to be a solid tier 1.5-2 deck (maybe tier 1) and sweepers are important there. In my mind Kiki-Chord is kind of like twin. But instead of combo or tempoing you out, it combos or values you out. It does a lot of GY recursion at instant so keeping up a relic is important. Case in point, a very common line of play you will see is EoT Chord for 3 to get Eternal Witness and bring chord back to their hands. Then if you try and remove the Witness they will chord Restoration Angel to protect the witness and recur the chord again, and if you don't remove the angel asap they will chord in Kiki and combo off. It isn't a fast play, but the value is just insane. At the same time, if you play a sweeper, and they have enough mana, they will chord in Reveillark and recur most of their board. If they recur a witness, they will pull the chord or reveillark back and begin the process again. This brings in instant speed GY hate again. None of their creatures are particularly large but they go wide and they can pull some really interesting tricks with Kiki.
I run Extraction main, and I normally save it for the first activation of Chord. Out of the board I bring in Memoricide. I used to target Chord first, but after talking to my friend who runs the list (where I got my practice from) he says the first target should probably be Kiki. Kiki enables most of the ridiculous values like Kiki + Voice. It also breaks the I win combo, which makes them have to grind against us, which is not favorable.
Round 1 Affinity(2-1)[1-0]
Game 1 I thought I was in pretty good shape, sitting on a couple removal spells and 2 lingering Souls. Unfortunately he dropped a T3 Etched Champion and Cranial Plating and I found 0 Midrange Eldrazi for blocks. Game 2 was similar (etched champion but arcbound ravager instead of plating and he mulled to 6 so fewer artifacts overall) except I did have My Eldrazi. This game really showcased for me an ability to pilot this deck into a winning position. I hardcast my Wasteland Strangler for no value and forced him to sacrifice his ravager(and another artifact) in order to save the Etched Champion when he swung in. If he sacrificed 1 more he'd be out of metalcraft and I could Path it so Champion was a 4/4. I then played a Blight Herder from hand for no additional value. He floated mana with his Mox Opal on his turn, played another Archbound Ravager and then Sacrificed the Opal and played another. He swings in again with Champion and I block with Blight Herder. He sacrifices Ravager and kills the Blight Herder. My turn I cast the Oblivion Sower out of my hand and hit a Inkmoth Nexus. He doesn't have an answer on his turn and swings into the wall by mistake (6/6 Champion vs 5/8 Sower). I had drawn a 2nd Sower the turn before so I crack in for 5 and cast another Sower (hitting Blinkmoth and a mountain). He is forced to now hold back and hope he draws an answer. If he swings in, I animate -> pump -> chump the Inkmoth and shrink his etched champion down to a killable size. He did get a Cranial Plating which means I can't swing in with Oblivion Sowers either. Within a couple turns I draw a Lingering Souls and flash it back. From there it was just 4 beats in the air every turn until he died. Game 3 was a LONG one. He ended up with a Vault Skirge with Cranial Plating on back to back topdecks which allowed him to climb back from 4 health and hit me pretty hard (I found no Lingering Souls) but I assembled an army of things on the ground (2 Blight Herders, 6 Scions, 1 Oblivion sower) and had Vault of the Archangel. This went on until I found an eye of ugin sacd all my scions and floated a mana to get Newlamog and the game was over.
Round 2 Jeskai Aggro (2-0) [2-0]
This is my friend and his list that I know very well. It uses Mantis Riders and things to tempo you into submission and then he sideboards in Runed Halos and Meddling Mages and tries to disrupt your game plan. Honestly he drew jack squat both games and the match was over within 10 min. I curved out twice and he had no answers.
Round 3 America Geist (2-0) [3-0]
Another person I am very familiar with and their decklist. Pretty standard Geist list. Runs 2 Tech Edges in the MB so things can get a bit spicy if she can keep me locked off lands (and geist is a pain to deal with). The grindy nature of this deck prevailed along with all the cast triggers. Even through counterspells I stole her lands (including a tech edge that was the killing blow in game 2 to blow up one of her Colonnades so I GQ the other). She got me very low on life (4) in game 2 but was forced to use a bolt on a wasteland strangler so she wouldn't just die.
Round 4 Esper Gifts (2-0) [4-0]
This is a very good Jund player who is playing something different tonight because of the influx of Eldrazi he suspects (there were 2 of us there). This list might be one we end up having some issues with because it was MUCH less about the normal Gifts route and more about stacking a TON of sweepers and counterspells and then killing with Colonnade or Lingering Souls tokens. Fortunately for me he drew 0 of either of those and I cruised to victory (part of that was game 2 I thoughtseized away a Gifts and Surgical Extraction'd it. Forcing him into topdeck mode and sticking him with an Iona in hand for the entire game. I did risk an overextention at the end which we both discussed as a likely mistake if he had drawn a board clear I had no follow up. I initially did it to remove him topdecking a Path or other targeted removal as an out. Probably should have held out on it though because we counted afterwards and he had all 8 wraths to 3 spot removal spells left.
All in all it was a great night. Some very odd matchups for sure but the deck did what it does best and brought home the money.
@DoggieDoo I'm interested what you are bringing in against infect that is making you feel like it's a bad matchup. It seems like a very easy one to me. You have to play a lot more cautiously since they can just pump to 10 and win but between MB GQ for Inkmoth Nexus, all our removal, discard and Lingering Souls to chump for days.. I've never really had a problem with them. The key is staying alive until they are out of gas. Block every swing even with a big guy like Blight Herder. If they pump their guy up to kill it.. you are winning. It may not feel like it but you are.
We have had a Naya Kiki-Chord player at one of my tournaments for a little while now and that deck is extremely good. The other problem is it's not like you can just stick a relic and win because they are off their Chord shenanigans because they still have a TON of beats. this is where I am probably going to run Flaying Tendrils because of the uptick of these type of decks as well as GW Hatebears. Initially I was against using it in the SB but it completely removes the value of Kitchen Finks and Voice and I think that might be valuable if their uptick is real (again this meta is so undetermined because the Rock Paper Scissors speculation is going rapidly until folks choose decks and stick with them).
All in all I am still EXTREMELY happy with this deck. I feel like it's in a great spot against a ton of decks and can't wait to play with our new friends on Friday.
I think Bojuka bog can be easily replaced with a non-tap utility land as we got more than enough ways to exile the graveyard of an opponent already in our repertoire. Shizo, Deaths storehouse would be a good one to put in it's place.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I love Bojuka Bog as it gives you an uncounterable way to exile their yard and very rarely has it actually affected my ability to discard T1. I don't think Shizo is good because we have 1 legendary creature and we don't care if he gets blocked.
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Modern: Bogles // 8-Whack/Goblins // UW Titan // Hollow One // Affinity // Dredge
EDH: Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Atraxa, Praetor's Voice // Meren of Clan Nel Toth
I never used Marsh Flats because you really only need a black based fetch. Secondly, I have removed all fetches for Caves and been extremely happy so far. My landbase currently (I played 6 tournaments over the last 2 weeks with this landbase to test it out):
4x Eldrazi Temple
4x Godless Shrine
4x Cave of Koilos
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Swamp
2x Plains
2x Urborg
2x Eye of Ugin
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Vault of the Archangel