I just expressed the same thoughts two posts above.
Currently I'm running 23 lands and 2x Oath of Nissa maindeck. It's clearly worse than Stirrings but still better than Modern's best blue cantrip (Serum Visions lol.
Works fine for me so far.
I think the land base is actually the part of the deck that has the most room for innovation, as almost everybody here is just copying the landbase of the deck that got top 8 at the GP. The other parts of the deck are super tight with only 2-3 flexspots.
Ideas like Blighted Cataract or Westvale Abbey definetely derserve some testing.
I'm trying 2Impulse instaed of the one flex slot and one land, for now it's working well,impulse saved my ass twice in 6 testing games becouse i needed to path to exile a big creature
I don't think it's worth it. If we want to play more cantrips then we will play Oath of Nissa. The difference between 1 and two mana is huuuge and will we sometimes just need that path or stony silence we would be diluting our otherwise super proactive gameplan by playing anticipate, which let's it do more harm than good.
For me the thing about Oath of Nissa is it makes me wish we could use it's other ability better. Unfortunately none of the planeswalkers in our colors are really things we want to play with.
For me the thing about Oath of Nissa is it makes me wish we could use it's other ability better. Unfortunately none of the planeswalkers in our colors are really things we want to play with.
Well I see where you come from, but that really shouldn't stop you from playing it. The first effect alone is so powerful (like i said, better than any modern legal blue cantrip lol) so cares about the second effect?
I've upped my oath-count to 3 today and did some testing, really liked it so far. I'm actually considering dropping a land for the 4th just to see how greedy I can be with this deck.
If anybody wants to shave some lands, Oath of Nissa is the way to go guys. Makes sure we still hit our land drops and finds more gas if we don't need land.
When I think about it, seeing how good Oath is just shows how busted Ancient Stirrings is
I'm trying 2Impulse instaed of the one flex slot and one land, for now it's working well,impulse saved my ass twice in 6 testing games becouse i needed to path to exile a big creature
I don't think it's worth it. If we want to play more cantrips then we will play Oath of Nissa. The difference between 1 and two mana is huuuge and will we sometimes just need that path or stony silence we would be diluting our otherwise super proactive gameplan by playing anticipate, which let's it do more harm than good.
For me the thing about Oath of Nissa is it makes me wish we could use it's other ability better. Unfortunately none of the planeswalkers in our colors are really things we want to play with.
I don't think it's worth it. If we want to play more cantrips then we will play Oath of Nissa. The difference between 1 and two mana is huuuge and will we sometimes just need that path or stony silence we would be diluting our otherwise super proactive gameplan by playing anticipate, which let's it do more harm than good.
For me the thing about Oath of Nissa is it makes me wish we could use it's other ability better. Unfortunately none of the planeswalkers in our colors are really things we want to play with.
That sounds awful, Nahiri is good in jeskai, because it runs tons of counterspells and removal spells to protect her and is a control deck. Our deck is aggro midrange, we want to be pushing our opponent with quick big creatures.
For me the thing about Oath of Nissa is it makes me wish we could use it's other ability better. Unfortunately none of the planeswalkers in our colors are really things we want to play with.
That sounds awful, Nahiri is good in jeskai, because it runs tons of counterspells and removal spells to protect her and is a control deck. Our deck is aggro midrange, we want to be pushing our opponent with quick big creatures.
I actually think that Nahiri would be good in this deck, if we could cast it reliably. Jeskai defends it with counterspells and removal, and Eldrazi would defend it with big creatures, scions and Thought-Knot Seers. The problem is that it costs R and W mana in a deck where we want at least 7 to 9 lands that produce neither for planeswalkers, and Noble Hierarchs don't produce the red either.
A big part of the reason why the best Eldrazi deck is bant and not naya or abzan is because Hierarchs are bant, so the white and the blue come at much less cost than red and black. And, I don't think that adding 4 Oath of Nissas or Birds of Paradise instead of Noble Hierarchs is worth it to make Nahiri easier to cast. Nahiri is particularly good in Jeskai because they were lacking win conditions, but Eldrazi has no problem closing out games.
Round 1 Cruel Control (2-1)[1-0]:
I seem to play this player about once a week and he is always on some variant of Grixis usually. This week it was Cruel Control. Him and I play often enough (even in this larger player pool) that he said he assembled his deck this week explicitly hoping he wouldn't run into me and my Bant Eldrazi. Game 1 went pretty much according to plan. I stuck a Cavern of Souls and started churning out value that he couldn't find any responses for. Game 2 he used a T4 Crumble to Dust on my Cavern and with some good to lucky top-decks he got his way into the win. Game 3 I proceeded to drop threats through removal and eventually got us both to top deck mode (let his visions resolve then cast an Uncounterable TKS and verify his hand as being trash afterwards). I then stuck a Thragtusk and Eldrazi Displacer and trololololed my way to victory.
Round 2 Abzan Coco (0-2)[1-1]:
Game 1 was horrid. He had essentially natural T3 infinite life and I drew 2 spellskites and all lands as answers. Game 2 I should have won with a very very complicated line of play that I screwed up. I'll go over the logistics with yall so that maybe you'll remember it if it ever happens to you. So I have him at 5 life. He has a Spellskite, Melira, Seer, Anafenza and Noble Hierarch in play. I have 2 Drowner of Hopes 4 Scion tokens and a Displacer that I just topdecked and played. I have enough mana to blink 3 things... however I also have a stubborn denial in hand and my opponent has 1 card in their hand (they know I have Denial as I found it off a Matter Reshaper). In the end if I try to blink my Drowner of Hope he can redirect to spellskite twice and go down to 1. Even if I tap down as many as possible with the scions, he'd still have enough to block the attackers. Likewise if try and sacrifice Scion tokens he redirects 2 to Spellskite and has 2 creatures back to block the 2 Drowner of Hope and then he will be able to untap. Instead I pass the turn and him and I both know that he has to find a Kitchen Finks and has 4 available (Scry) triggers to find it. He finds it 3 down and goes infinite which we just don't have an answer to. Here was the play I should have made. I sac the scion tokens to tap down all but Seer and Anafenza. He is forced to block or die so he now has to find 2 pieces for the infinite combo and I'd have him dead on the following turn. CoCo would normally be his out there but with Stubborn denial up with Ferocious it wouldn't resolve. Oh well. Live and learn I guess. This matchup feels really awkward to bad. I really wish we had a way to win through infinite life.. oh well.
Round 3 Mono U Tron (2-0)[2-1]:
Game 1 I go T2 Matter Reshaper, T3 TKS (taking Mindslaver and seeing he has nothing good), T4 Cavern->Smasher. That pretty much sealed the game from there. He did get to Cyclonic Rift my team and it did stall a bit but he just couldn't come back. Game 2 I proceeded on the beats plan. He did resolve a Mindslaver against me but post board I have very little he could do to hurt me (I had all beaters in hand). He finds a Platinum Angel which makes me think for a moment if I have an out to it. After a few seconds I realized I did and kept playing (World Breaker is the out). I then stick a board of TKS, Thragtusk and Eldrazi Displacer onboard. I gain a rediculous life total to keep myself from dying to Angel and I soft lock him out of his draw step. He did pseudo punt by letting me take a Cyclonic Rift which he totally should have cast because I didn't have a Cavern of Souls and while I had enough mana to blink TKS a few times, he gets a blind draw and I have only 1 blink for his following turn if everything resolves uncountered. He then just scoops when he realized his mistake and it was his last rift. (At first he didn't realize the lock I had him on and at EOT he used Academy Ruins and put Mindslaver back on top his library. I responded "Still at End Step, blink TKS. Draw your card first aaaaaaaaand its gone.")
Round 4 Jeskai Control (2-0)[3-1]:
I like this guy as a player but this is the same guy who insisted he has a favorable matchup against me despite me winning every game we have played of this matchup. Games themselves were fun but not a ton worth elaborating on. Thragtusk was a monster again. Grafdiggers was insanely awkward for him blanking double Snapcasters in his game 2 hand. These matchups are all about pacing. Don't barf all your threats onto board. Make them answer and then play the next one. Another fun (but ended up irrelevant) play during game 2 was I flipped Mark of Asylum after he bolted my Matter Reshaper. He drew no more Burn spells and I had a Cage out so it never actually mattered but that could have instantly made his removal awful. In the end I closed out game 2 because he was on the ropes and I went to blink Drowner of Hope. In response he helix and then bolts it. I sacrifice the 2 original scions and tap my last mana to blink it again. 2 turns later he was dead.
All in all another successful showing. I really want to find an Abzan Coco player and grind that matchup a bit to get a better feel for our role there and maybe be more confident in my keeps and SB against it (also all those tricky lines of play against that deck). The biggest breakout star this week has been the Swagmaster Thragdaddy. Thragtusk, I still have yet to face Burn which is the matchup he was initially intended for but because my local meta is so full of Midrange and Control (when he comes in as well), he has been really pulling the weight. The next card I am going to test is Westvale Abbey for the reasons I have mentioned before. There are just too many threats that require a "Path" in decks that run it for me to care if it flips. It is also excellent against Control as well. I was playtesting with a buddy last night after the tournament and got him out of actual cards (he was on Jeskai Control). He has a couple Wall of Omens in play but he has nothing relevant in hand. I know this is my chance to capitalize and I need to close this game out before he draws outs. I sacrifice the following creatures to flip Westvale: 2x Matter Reshaper, 1x Human Cleric Token, 1x Birds of Paradise, 1x Thragtusk. That is kinda dumb level of value to turn my board of killing 1 wall a turn to getting over the top for 9 immediately. Like Mutavault I think the times when it will matter will be slim but when it does.. oh boy it'll feel good.
Another mention of a nifty play I pulled against my buddy on Infect. With Drowner of Hope I go to tap down his only attacker. He uses Vines of Vastwood kicked twice thinking he has got me beat. I use mutavault to activate itself and then sacrifice it because it is also a scion... wha wha.
Grafdigger's cage is the big middle finger to Abzan Coco decks. It stops Company, Chord, and Persist; which just leaves them with a bunch of underwhelming little creatures that they have to try and grow to match your Eldrazi through Anafenza. Stick an early Cage (holding on to another one is not a bad thing considering they bring in Reclamation Sage) and just get some big dudes down and start swinging.
Grafdigger's cage is the big middle finger to Abzan Coco decks. It stops Company, Chord, and Persist; which just leaves them with a bunch of underwhelming little creatures that they have to try and grow to match your Eldrazi through Anafenza. Stick an early Cage (holding on to another one is not a bad thing considering they bring in Reclamation Sage) and just get some big dudes down and start swinging.
Yeah I am running them. I hit it game 2 as well but he had a Maelstrom Pulse and then ripped an Ewit off the top to use it again on my double Reshapers that I was killing him with. It was a bit of bad luck as well (I didn't hit a large eldrazi for a while) and as I stated, I totally misplayed at the end there not thinking of making him block with Seer. I just need to play the matchup more so I get reps in. There are also several other matchups I'd like to get reps against but folks at my LGS love their control too much. To give you an idea of my meta here are my numbers since I picked up this deck:
So I mean 60% of my matches have come against Midrange or Control decks which I have gone 11-0-1 against since they are this decks wheel house. I'm totally fine with that as I am raking in prize money hand over fist but I definitely need more reps against other decks that way when I do face them in larger spots that I am prepared.
I just put this deck together, aside from a few pieces it's super cheap! Which is a great selling point. I am somewhat new to modern so I don't know the ins and outs each deck has, but this is a great deck to start with considering the straightforward plan and sheer power of the cards. One thing I want advice on is what denotes a keepable hand. Obviously we get the nut draw of Eldrazi Temple plus Eldrazi Temple/mana dork into turn 2 Thought Knot Seer which is typically a snap keep, but I don't always get that.
Is an underwhelming hand with say, Matter Reshapers, Displacers and dorks as your only real action keepable if you've got an Ancient Stirrings or Eldrazi Temple? I know hands are matchup dependent but I just wanted advice on what to generally shoot for, since matches can be won or lost by opening hands.
I just put this deck together, aside from a few pieces it's super cheap! Which is a great selling point. I am somewhat new to modern so I don't know the ins and outs each deck has, but this is a great deck to start with considering the straightforward plan and sheer power of the cards. One thing I want advice on is what denotes a keepable hand. Obviously we get the nut draw of Eldrazi Temple plus Eldrazi Temple/mana dork into turn 2 Thought Knot Seer which is typically a snap keep, but I don't always get that.
Is an underwhelming hand with say, Matter Reshapers, Displacers and dorks as your only real action keepable if you've got an Ancient Stirrings or Eldrazi Temple? I know hands are matchup dependent but I just wanted advice on what to generally shoot for, since matches can be won or lost by opening hands.
The first thing I generally look for is acceleration.
Hands without dorks or Temples are rarely keepable (notable exception being having your 'superhoser' like RiP against Dredge or SS against Affinity with one or two other reasonably castable cards in hand and maybe against very slow and grindy MUs with Stirrings and Reshapers as you want to avoid to mulligan to often here because of CA)
Next thing is threads or Stirrings. I wanna have at least one (better two) threads in the 3-4cmc range.
Seer is great but Reshapers/Displacers/Skyspawners are fine too. Against MUs like Tron, Ad Nauseam or Grishoalbrand you wanna get some threats on the board as soon as possible.
And as Harakesh pointed out, we're so threat dense (and we got Stirrings (and in my case Oath of Nissa aswell) to find our bigger threats in the later game that you don't need to worry if you hand doesn't have any Drowners or Smashers. Usually I actually don't want to see Drowners in my starting seven.
FNM - 3-1 2nd Place
R1 - Jeskai Control (No Nahiri) - 2-0. Control feels super easy mode. Caverns and not overcommitting to the board with threats that are very tricky to deal with. Their removal really needs to lineup properly.
R2 - UW Control - 2-0. As above.
R3 - Tron - 0-2. Natural Tron both games, match-up felt hard. Even with a Stony Silence keeping O-Stone and a Map at bay in G2.
R4 - Lantern Control 2-0. Smashed in early for a lot of damage and got there G1. Game 2 I won through double exalted triggers on a Noble Hierarch. He even had Ashiok out, but my displacer just bounced anything he took back to my side of the table (Owner's control). When TKS came for me it was lights out. It was ME who was in fact controlling the LANTERN players draw steps. Felt really good!
GPT for Sydney - 4-2 14th/41
R1 - Grixis Control - 2-0. I wish I could vs control every game!
R2 - Affinity - 0-2. Game 1 Cranial Plating and Ravager was too hard. Even with a Path to Exile. Game 2 even a stony silence couldn't get me there as I died to vault skirges in the air. Perhaps a symptom of only having 1 skyspawner?
R3 - Jund - 2-1. Game 1 on the draw I stabilised with a good TKS and smasher into drowner. These are great threats and got the job done. Game 2 my smasher was Liliana minus'd and I was out tempo'd with removal. Game 3 I had great ramp. TKS took a Liliana and Drowner locked up the game. Drowner is the MVP in this match-up! Who's the midrange boss now, Jund!
R4 - Archangel Chord - 1-2. A close series, fell short to the combo with Spellskite protection. This match-up felt a little tough. All wins were the player on the play.
R5 - Merfolk 2-1 - Both my wins were very convincing. Game 2 I lost to a couple of lords, a mutavault and Islandwalk. Definitely a winnable match-up.
R6 - Jeskai Midrange /w Geists - 2-0. Harder than control, but a decent match-up overall.
Overall, 7-3 with the deck so far in matches. It feels awesome. I'd like to try more skyspawners, but I really don't want to cut Displacers or Reshapers! Though affinity felt hard G1, and infect would be basically the same I imagine. I boarded out my birds a lot vs control decks and played more threats to be answered.
I didn't play during 'Eldrazi Winter', but I am on board now!
Since i started testing with 3/3/3 of 3 drops i´ve been really comfortable with the deck.
Skyspawner is veeery good, i can´t even believe this card is common.
I tested mulliganing agressively to Ancient Tomb or at least Dork plus Stirrings.
It just doesn´t work since this deck has a midrangey nature. When playing Eldrazi Winter or Legacy, you just don´t have a reason to not mulligan a hand with no 2 mana lands or good anwers.
For example: Yesterday playing against Abzan Company, i mulled a hand that consisted of 1 Temple, 4 random colored and Pain Lands, 1 Smasher and 1 TKS.
This hand was just too slow for me. I mulled and the next 6 were kinda worse but i had more turn 1 and 2 plays.
Has anyone else been feeling pretty medium about matter reshaper? He tends to just come down turn three, chump and become another land or something. Like the cantripping is certainly good and maybe I'm not giving it enough credit but I'm thinking of changing to 3/4/2 of skyspawner displacer and reshaper. Reshaper is definitely better early on than displacer, especially against fast aggro, but late in the game the only three drop I want to see is displacer.
Has anyone else been feeling pretty medium about matter reshaper? He tends to just come down turn three, chump and become another land or something. Like the cantripping is certainly good and maybe I'm not giving it enough credit but I'm thinking of changing to 3/4/2 of skyspawner displacer and reshaper. Reshaper is definitely better early on than displacer, especially against fast aggro, but late in the game the only three drop I want to see is displacer.
How have you guys been feeling on him?
I actually think Reshaper is a need in this deck against aggro and midrange.
Maybe if you are casting him turn 3 you have something wrong, because this deck´s plan is to not play 2 drops so we can jump in the curve to 3 drops quickly by casting them via Dorks or Temple on Turn 2.
He is a beatstick along Noble too, so i would not go lower than 2.
I'm actually only running three reshapers. I'm leaving that slot and the flex slot open for Geist of St. Traft. Geist has been very good so far. So many decks just auto lose to a resolved Geist. He doesn't cantrip when he does die, but hitting for seven (with a Hierarch on the table) on T3 is pretty damned good. You also get to fly in for 4 against Wall of Roots/Spellskite and Affinity usually has to trade two threats on the block (unless they have Ravager, which is bad no matter what). It's even ok against the red decks, because hitting for six or seven every turn is a credible racing platform against them.
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Some people like to win MtG matches in the Red Zone. I prefer to win the way God intended: on the stack.
During the deck tech he does talk about how this was recorded Prior to GP LA, so I would assume the GP LA list he ran was a bit more tuned for the meta, and shaved on some of the things he didn't feel performed well in testing.
A serious question, how this deck can be a tier if every time we face infect or Coco/kiki chord/maybe affinity we lose hard?
Sure, this is a fun deck but is competitive?
Im not sure about "lose hard" part.
They are definitely hard matchups, but very winnable.
Abzan Cococ may be the easiest of those, because we play interaction and it is harder for them to play beatdown against 5/5 and 4/4's.
Affinity in the other hand may be the hardest. But, really, who wins the Affinity matchup with ease?. It is the best deck in Modern by a mile.
Infect is kinda 45/55. maybe 50/50 depending on your deck configuration.
Never played against Kiki, i really cant see the big problem, but i havent played so, no comment there.
What i do want to point out is that none of those matchups are good, and thats kind of a problem going forward. Luckily, the deck has a high ceiling, so i expect changes in the next months, so that the deck becomes more of a player amongst Tier 1 and 2 decks.
A serious question, how this deck can be a tier if every time we face infect or Coco/kiki chord/maybe affinity we lose hard?
Sure, this is a fun deck but is competitive?
Every deck in Modern has a bad match-up...
That is one of the complaints/lures of the format is that you can't sideboard against everything/not all opponents can sideboard enough against you. Tron loses super hard against aggro, but it still gets played because it has major game against Midrange, Midrange loses to combo, but has good game against aggro and control, ect...
Even Pros lose in modern tournaments when playing top decks if they face multiples of the wrong match-up. So don't get discouraged about some aggro loses(the meta is more towards midrange/control right now) and hope you have some luck to face more of the decks yours is good against than isn't good against.
A serious question, how this deck can be a tier if every time we face infect or Coco/kiki chord/maybe affinity we lose hard?
Sure, this is a fun deck but is competitive?
Some major exaggerations there. Infect is pretty even - we have 2 maindeck spellskites for instance and Ancient Stirrings can grab them. Skyspawner, Displacer, Path, Drowner, and Thought-Knot Seer all are great cards in the matchup too. Post-board we have a lot of options to make it possibly even slightly in our favor.
Abzan Coco is rough game 1. That's a bad matchup. Post board you need to hit some sideboard cards or run lucky. Grafdigger's Cage, also fetchable by Stirrings shuts them down hard. Any sort of counter spells Negate/Stubborn Denial is great vs Coco/Chord as well. TKS stealing important pieces is great of course.
Kiki Chord I don't understand why it would be a bad matchup. They're a slow combo deck.
Affinity is rough game 1, but significantly better post board. A lot of our creatures still are decent game 1, especially if you have been weaving in 2-3 Skyspawners into the main.
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Modern: Bant Eldrazi EDH: Rakdos, Lord of Riots
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For me the thing about Oath of Nissa is it makes me wish we could use it's other ability better. Unfortunately none of the planeswalkers in our colors are really things we want to play with.
Well I see where you come from, but that really shouldn't stop you from playing it. The first effect alone is so powerful (like i said, better than any modern legal blue cantrip lol) so cares about the second effect?
I've upped my oath-count to 3 today and did some testing, really liked it so far. I'm actually considering dropping a land for the 4th just to see how greedy I can be with this deck.
If anybody wants to shave some lands, Oath of Nissa is the way to go guys. Makes sure we still hit our land drops and finds more gas if we don't need land.
When I think about it, seeing how good Oath is just shows how busted Ancient Stirrings is
Well, I was considering going from Bant to Naya and using the 4 Nahiri, the Harbinger + Emrakul, the Aeons Torn package. I'm not certain how good/bad it would be though.
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
That sounds awful, Nahiri is good in jeskai, because it runs tons of counterspells and removal spells to protect her and is a control deck. Our deck is aggro midrange, we want to be pushing our opponent with quick big creatures.
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Standard Deck:
BUPirates
Modern Deck:
B8-Rack
I actually think that Nahiri would be good in this deck, if we could cast it reliably. Jeskai defends it with counterspells and removal, and Eldrazi would defend it with big creatures, scions and Thought-Knot Seers. The problem is that it costs R and W mana in a deck where we want at least 7 to 9 lands that produce neither for planeswalkers, and Noble Hierarchs don't produce the red either.
A big part of the reason why the best Eldrazi deck is bant and not naya or abzan is because Hierarchs are bant, so the white and the blue come at much less cost than red and black. And, I don't think that adding 4 Oath of Nissas or Birds of Paradise instead of Noble Hierarchs is worth it to make Nahiri easier to cast. Nahiri is particularly good in Jeskai because they were lacking win conditions, but Eldrazi has no problem closing out games.
Thursday Night Modern (47 people):
4x Noble Hierarch
1x Bird of Paradise
2x Spellskite
4x Matter Reshaper
4x Eldrazi Displacer
4x Thought-knot Seer
4x Reality Smasher
4x Drowner of Hope
1x World Breaker
Instants/Sorceries:
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Path to Exile
Lands:
4x Windswept Heath
4x Eldrazi Temple
3x Cavern of Souls
3x Brushlands
2x Yavamaya Coast
1x Mutavault
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Temple Garden
1x Breeding Pool
1x Forest
1x Plains
1x Waste
1x Ghost Quarter
3x Engineered Explosives
3x Stubborn Denial
3x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Timely Reinforcements
2x Stony Silence
1x Mark of Asylum
1x Thragtusk
Round 1 Cruel Control (2-1)[1-0]:
I seem to play this player about once a week and he is always on some variant of Grixis usually. This week it was Cruel Control. Him and I play often enough (even in this larger player pool) that he said he assembled his deck this week explicitly hoping he wouldn't run into me and my Bant Eldrazi. Game 1 went pretty much according to plan. I stuck a Cavern of Souls and started churning out value that he couldn't find any responses for. Game 2 he used a T4 Crumble to Dust on my Cavern and with some good to lucky top-decks he got his way into the win. Game 3 I proceeded to drop threats through removal and eventually got us both to top deck mode (let his visions resolve then cast an Uncounterable TKS and verify his hand as being trash afterwards). I then stuck a Thragtusk and Eldrazi Displacer and trololololed my way to victory.
Round 2 Abzan Coco (0-2)[1-1]:
Game 1 was horrid. He had essentially natural T3 infinite life and I drew 2 spellskites and all lands as answers. Game 2 I should have won with a very very complicated line of play that I screwed up. I'll go over the logistics with yall so that maybe you'll remember it if it ever happens to you. So I have him at 5 life. He has a Spellskite, Melira, Seer, Anafenza and Noble Hierarch in play. I have 2 Drowner of Hopes 4 Scion tokens and a Displacer that I just topdecked and played. I have enough mana to blink 3 things... however I also have a stubborn denial in hand and my opponent has 1 card in their hand (they know I have Denial as I found it off a Matter Reshaper). In the end if I try to blink my Drowner of Hope he can redirect to spellskite twice and go down to 1. Even if I tap down as many as possible with the scions, he'd still have enough to block the attackers. Likewise if try and sacrifice Scion tokens he redirects 2 to Spellskite and has 2 creatures back to block the 2 Drowner of Hope and then he will be able to untap. Instead I pass the turn and him and I both know that he has to find a Kitchen Finks and has 4 available (Scry) triggers to find it. He finds it 3 down and goes infinite which we just don't have an answer to. Here was the play I should have made. I sac the scion tokens to tap down all but Seer and Anafenza. He is forced to block or die so he now has to find 2 pieces for the infinite combo and I'd have him dead on the following turn. CoCo would normally be his out there but with Stubborn denial up with Ferocious it wouldn't resolve. Oh well. Live and learn I guess. This matchup feels really awkward to bad. I really wish we had a way to win through infinite life.. oh well.
Round 3 Mono U Tron (2-0)[2-1]:
Game 1 I go T2 Matter Reshaper, T3 TKS (taking Mindslaver and seeing he has nothing good), T4 Cavern->Smasher. That pretty much sealed the game from there. He did get to Cyclonic Rift my team and it did stall a bit but he just couldn't come back. Game 2 I proceeded on the beats plan. He did resolve a Mindslaver against me but post board I have very little he could do to hurt me (I had all beaters in hand). He finds a Platinum Angel which makes me think for a moment if I have an out to it. After a few seconds I realized I did and kept playing (World Breaker is the out). I then stick a board of TKS, Thragtusk and Eldrazi Displacer onboard. I gain a rediculous life total to keep myself from dying to Angel and I soft lock him out of his draw step. He did pseudo punt by letting me take a Cyclonic Rift which he totally should have cast because I didn't have a Cavern of Souls and while I had enough mana to blink TKS a few times, he gets a blind draw and I have only 1 blink for his following turn if everything resolves uncountered. He then just scoops when he realized his mistake and it was his last rift. (At first he didn't realize the lock I had him on and at EOT he used Academy Ruins and put Mindslaver back on top his library. I responded "Still at End Step, blink TKS. Draw your card first aaaaaaaaand its gone.")
Round 4 Jeskai Control (2-0)[3-1]:
I like this guy as a player but this is the same guy who insisted he has a favorable matchup against me despite me winning every game we have played of this matchup. Games themselves were fun but not a ton worth elaborating on. Thragtusk was a monster again. Grafdiggers was insanely awkward for him blanking double Snapcasters in his game 2 hand. These matchups are all about pacing. Don't barf all your threats onto board. Make them answer and then play the next one. Another fun (but ended up irrelevant) play during game 2 was I flipped Mark of Asylum after he bolted my Matter Reshaper. He drew no more Burn spells and I had a Cage out so it never actually mattered but that could have instantly made his removal awful. In the end I closed out game 2 because he was on the ropes and I went to blink Drowner of Hope. In response he helix and then bolts it. I sacrifice the 2 original scions and tap my last mana to blink it again. 2 turns later he was dead.
All in all another successful showing. I really want to find an Abzan Coco player and grind that matchup a bit to get a better feel for our role there and maybe be more confident in my keeps and SB against it (also all those tricky lines of play against that deck). The biggest breakout star this week has been the Swagmaster Thragdaddy. Thragtusk, I still have yet to face Burn which is the matchup he was initially intended for but because my local meta is so full of Midrange and Control (when he comes in as well), he has been really pulling the weight. The next card I am going to test is Westvale Abbey for the reasons I have mentioned before. There are just too many threats that require a "Path" in decks that run it for me to care if it flips. It is also excellent against Control as well. I was playtesting with a buddy last night after the tournament and got him out of actual cards (he was on Jeskai Control). He has a couple Wall of Omens in play but he has nothing relevant in hand. I know this is my chance to capitalize and I need to close this game out before he draws outs. I sacrifice the following creatures to flip Westvale: 2x Matter Reshaper, 1x Human Cleric Token, 1x Birds of Paradise, 1x Thragtusk. That is kinda dumb level of value to turn my board of killing 1 wall a turn to getting over the top for 9 immediately. Like Mutavault I think the times when it will matter will be slim but when it does.. oh boy it'll feel good.
Another mention of a nifty play I pulled against my buddy on Infect. With Drowner of Hope I go to tap down his only attacker. He uses Vines of Vastwood kicked twice thinking he has got me beat. I use mutavault to activate itself and then sacrifice it because it is also a scion... wha wha.
Grafdigger's cage is the big middle finger to Abzan Coco decks. It stops Company, Chord, and Persist; which just leaves them with a bunch of underwhelming little creatures that they have to try and grow to match your Eldrazi through Anafenza. Stick an early Cage (holding on to another one is not a bad thing considering they bring in Reclamation Sage) and just get some big dudes down and start swinging.
I Stream MTGO on Twitch: broodwarjc
I also post recordings of those streams on Youtube: broodwarjcavidgamer
Standard Deck:
BUPirates
Modern Deck:
B8-Rack
Yeah I am running them. I hit it game 2 as well but he had a Maelstrom Pulse and then ripped an Ewit off the top to use it again on my double Reshapers that I was killing him with. It was a bit of bad luck as well (I didn't hit a large eldrazi for a while) and as I stated, I totally misplayed at the end there not thinking of making him block with Seer. I just need to play the matchup more so I get reps in. There are also several other matchups I'd like to get reps against but folks at my LGS love their control too much. To give you an idea of my meta here are my numbers since I picked up this deck:
5 Tournaments:
15-4-1
Jeskai Control: 3-0-1
Grixis Control: 5-0
Burn: 0-2
Infect: 1-0
Bant Tokens: 1-0
Merfolk: 1-0
Dredge: 1-0
Jund: 1-0
RG Land D: 0-1
Abzan Coco: 0-1
Goblins: 1-0
Mono U Tron: 1-0
So I mean 60% of my matches have come against Midrange or Control decks which I have gone 11-0-1 against since they are this decks wheel house. I'm totally fine with that as I am raking in prize money hand over fist but I definitely need more reps against other decks that way when I do face them in larger spots that I am prepared.
Is an underwhelming hand with say, Matter Reshapers, Displacers and dorks as your only real action keepable if you've got an Ancient Stirrings or Eldrazi Temple? I know hands are matchup dependent but I just wanted advice on what to generally shoot for, since matches can be won or lost by opening hands.
The first thing I generally look for is acceleration.
Hands without dorks or Temples are rarely keepable (notable exception being having your 'superhoser' like RiP against Dredge or SS against Affinity with one or two other reasonably castable cards in hand and maybe against very slow and grindy MUs with Stirrings and Reshapers as you want to avoid to mulligan to often here because of CA)
Next thing is threads or Stirrings. I wanna have at least one (better two) threads in the 3-4cmc range.
Seer is great but Reshapers/Displacers/Skyspawners are fine too. Against MUs like Tron, Ad Nauseam or Grishoalbrand you wanna get some threats on the board as soon as possible.
And as Harakesh pointed out, we're so threat dense (and we got Stirrings (and in my case Oath of Nissa aswell) to find our bigger threats in the later game that you don't need to worry if you hand doesn't have any Drowners or Smashers. Usually I actually don't want to see Drowners in my starting seven.
Hope that helps as some general advise!
I won't break down every individual match, I'll just comment on the match-up as a whole.
My Deck - http://puu.sh/pgmhS/86b3d34c41.png
FNM - 3-1 2nd Place
R1 - Jeskai Control (No Nahiri) - 2-0. Control feels super easy mode. Caverns and not overcommitting to the board with threats that are very tricky to deal with. Their removal really needs to lineup properly.
R2 - UW Control - 2-0. As above.
R3 - Tron - 0-2. Natural Tron both games, match-up felt hard. Even with a Stony Silence keeping O-Stone and a Map at bay in G2.
R4 - Lantern Control 2-0. Smashed in early for a lot of damage and got there G1. Game 2 I won through double exalted triggers on a Noble Hierarch. He even had Ashiok out, but my displacer just bounced anything he took back to my side of the table (Owner's control). When TKS came for me it was lights out. It was ME who was in fact controlling the LANTERN players draw steps. Felt really good!
GPT for Sydney - 4-2 14th/41
R1 - Grixis Control - 2-0. I wish I could vs control every game!
R2 - Affinity - 0-2. Game 1 Cranial Plating and Ravager was too hard. Even with a Path to Exile. Game 2 even a stony silence couldn't get me there as I died to vault skirges in the air. Perhaps a symptom of only having 1 skyspawner?
R3 - Jund - 2-1. Game 1 on the draw I stabilised with a good TKS and smasher into drowner. These are great threats and got the job done. Game 2 my smasher was Liliana minus'd and I was out tempo'd with removal. Game 3 I had great ramp. TKS took a Liliana and Drowner locked up the game. Drowner is the MVP in this match-up! Who's the midrange boss now, Jund!
R4 - Archangel Chord - 1-2. A close series, fell short to the combo with Spellskite protection. This match-up felt a little tough. All wins were the player on the play.
R5 - Merfolk 2-1 - Both my wins were very convincing. Game 2 I lost to a couple of lords, a mutavault and Islandwalk. Definitely a winnable match-up.
R6 - Jeskai Midrange /w Geists - 2-0. Harder than control, but a decent match-up overall.
Overall, 7-3 with the deck so far in matches. It feels awesome. I'd like to try more skyspawners, but I really don't want to cut Displacers or Reshapers! Though affinity felt hard G1, and infect would be basically the same I imagine. I boarded out my birds a lot vs control decks and played more threats to be answered.
I didn't play during 'Eldrazi Winter', but I am on board now!
Skyspawner is veeery good, i can´t even believe this card is common.
I tested mulliganing agressively to Ancient Tomb or at least Dork plus Stirrings.
It just doesn´t work since this deck has a midrangey nature. When playing Eldrazi Winter or Legacy, you just don´t have a reason to not mulligan a hand with no 2 mana lands or good anwers.
For example: Yesterday playing against Abzan Company, i mulled a hand that consisted of 1 Temple, 4 random colored and Pain Lands, 1 Smasher and 1 TKS.
This hand was just too slow for me. I mulled and the next 6 were kinda worse but i had more turn 1 and 2 plays.
This deck isn´t easy to play, that´s for sure.
How have you guys been feeling on him?
I actually think Reshaper is a need in this deck against aggro and midrange.
Maybe if you are casting him turn 3 you have something wrong, because this deck´s plan is to not play 2 drops so we can jump in the curve to 3 drops quickly by casting them via Dorks or Temple on Turn 2.
He is a beatstick along Noble too, so i would not go lower than 2.
Im not sure about "lose hard" part.
They are definitely hard matchups, but very winnable.
Abzan Cococ may be the easiest of those, because we play interaction and it is harder for them to play beatdown against 5/5 and 4/4's.
Affinity in the other hand may be the hardest. But, really, who wins the Affinity matchup with ease?. It is the best deck in Modern by a mile.
Infect is kinda 45/55. maybe 50/50 depending on your deck configuration.
Never played against Kiki, i really cant see the big problem, but i havent played so, no comment there.
What i do want to point out is that none of those matchups are good, and thats kind of a problem going forward. Luckily, the deck has a high ceiling, so i expect changes in the next months, so that the deck becomes more of a player amongst Tier 1 and 2 decks.
Every deck in Modern has a bad match-up...
That is one of the complaints/lures of the format is that you can't sideboard against everything/not all opponents can sideboard enough against you. Tron loses super hard against aggro, but it still gets played because it has major game against Midrange, Midrange loses to combo, but has good game against aggro and control, ect...
Even Pros lose in modern tournaments when playing top decks if they face multiples of the wrong match-up. So don't get discouraged about some aggro loses(the meta is more towards midrange/control right now) and hope you have some luck to face more of the decks yours is good against than isn't good against.
I Stream MTGO on Twitch: broodwarjc
I also post recordings of those streams on Youtube: broodwarjcavidgamer
Standard Deck:
BUPirates
Modern Deck:
B8-Rack
Some major exaggerations there. Infect is pretty even - we have 2 maindeck spellskites for instance and Ancient Stirrings can grab them. Skyspawner, Displacer, Path, Drowner, and Thought-Knot Seer all are great cards in the matchup too. Post-board we have a lot of options to make it possibly even slightly in our favor.
Abzan Coco is rough game 1. That's a bad matchup. Post board you need to hit some sideboard cards or run lucky. Grafdigger's Cage, also fetchable by Stirrings shuts them down hard. Any sort of counter spells Negate/Stubborn Denial is great vs Coco/Chord as well. TKS stealing important pieces is great of course.
Kiki Chord I don't understand why it would be a bad matchup. They're a slow combo deck.
Affinity is rough game 1, but significantly better post board. A lot of our creatures still are decent game 1, especially if you have been weaving in 2-3 Skyspawners into the main.
EDH: Rakdos, Lord of Riots