Against affinity, having the chalice on 0 is not by any means necessary, nor does it win you the game immediately, nor is it a completely dead topdeck later in the game.
Hi guys,
I was seeing pascal Maynard playing humans company and I thought about bant eldrazi: why we don't play reflector mage?
Right now, the 3 drops played for the deck are: sky spawner, reshaper, eternal witness, displacer.
I think eldrazi displacer is a 4of in almost every lists so they are in.
Skyspawner: ramp effect, 2/1 flyer against affinity and two bodies for 3 mana ( relevant against really fast aggro to stabilize ). It's also nice to play around blood moon
Reshaper: great blocker and great against removals, it seems to me great in fair matchup were our deck is already favorite. Sometimes hard to cast because of the <> cost. It doesn't do nothing until it dies
Eternal witness: almost the same as reshaper, she's good in fair matchups when we are already favorite. She's a bit slow and sometimes hard to cast.reat synergy with displacer
Reflector mage: it affects the board when it enters the battlefield, it's great against death shadow and eldra tron, can slow down many decks. Differently from reshaper, he has uses even in matchups where reshaper is a dead card ( example: vs storm to bounce the 2 mana creatures, versus company to bounce a piece of the combo etc.. ). It has great synergy with displacer ( could be a lock if opponent doesn't have removal ) and great synergy with thought-knot ( bounce with mage, than exile with seer the turn after ). It has sometimes problems with the cost, but I seem to have more often uw mana than double green ( witness cost ). We can name human with cavern
So I'm inclined to play mage in this meta along with sky spawner to have a faster deck. I would play something like this, a 5 mana dorks list:
I was reviewing your post and thought another option that can be used with displacer (like witness, reflector and reshaper: Vendilion Clique. It can work as a fifth TKS, has a better clock and can help in difficult matches (combo/control).
Against affinity, having the chalice on 0 is not by any means necessary, nor does it win you the game immediately, nor is it a completely dead topdeck later in the game.
Ok - if it works for you then more power to you.
Id suggest that chalice on zero will generally break the Affinity player - its pretty hard to lose if you get it down on the play turn 1. Most ppl would suggest that Chalice is only good against Affinity turn 1 on zero - thats certainly been my experience. Regardless of the above - Ill be playing chalice in Eldrazi moving forward as I think its necessary in the current meta (part of the reason the E-Tron is doing so well) - but def will play 4x copies..
Im still refining my list (as I haven't played Bant in ~2 months) - but I have Bant on MTGO and will fire off some leagues in the nearish future. Usually 3 leagues in a row is the maximum before I start to make poor decisions - don't OD on MTGO!
I used to play 4x Chalice when Infect was Tier 1 - I'm not totally convinced (but leaning that way) on Chalice but it def helps against Storm, other combo plus others (UW Control comes to mind) that Bant struggles against otherwise.
Came across an interesting card: Favor of the Mighty. It's pretty good for punching through damage in clogged boardstates against decks full of <=3cmc weenies like Coco decks... also protecting against removal
Applicable versus:
- WU Control
- Dredge
- Counters Company
- Humans Company
- Merfolk
- Elves
- Bogles
- Death and taxes
So, you seem to jam this deck a bunch on mtgo, what's the new tech for our SB? I have a PPTQ coming July 15th, and I really wan to run Bant Eldrazi. I took the deck out for a spin and went 2-2 locally but I can trace those to losses to loose plays and poor sequencing (surprisingly. you can get rusty in a format if you don't play it enough).
There isn't as much Blood Moon going around locally and I feel like hate bears and DS are decent match ups for the deck. The losses could've easily been turned into wins with better play execution, so I'm not actually worried about deck choice, but my SB is super out dated.
What I'd like to hedge against:
Counters Company
Dredge
Valakut
Eldrazi Tron, this is a deck I've beaten off the back of permission or have gotten crushed because my own mana acceleration doesn't match theirs once they hit tron. That said, I don't feel like we are unfavored here, and I like that our draws are faster/ more consistent. T2-T3 TKS is much more doable for us than it is for them. Thought's on this match up and how do you all SB here? This match up is is one of the reasons I keep disdainful stroke in my SB.
Also, this is a huge debate for me:
Reshaper Vs Spawner
There is a quite a bit of affinity in my meta, and I have won a ton of matches off of spawner's pecking my opponents to death via exalted triggers. They also do some work against burn, when I did run reshaper I always felt I wanted spawner, the scion matters more than it looks.
I lost to my own burn R1, and debated if I should've chump blocked T2 after casting Noble. I had enough lands and temple + TKS. I should've chumped and saved the 2 pts of damage. That wound up mattering since I lost that game by 2 pts. G2 I won, G3, I needed my noble but got greedy with a shock land, I could've chumped instead I shocked in a to leave up Path mana. I could've elected to jump in front of something and save damage. So lessons learned, the kid I looaned the deck to went 3-1 (nice kid, he needed a deck to play for the night).
Round 3 I lost to G/W tron? I punted game 1, I attacked face first into a Blessed Alliance with my displacer knowing that I should have casted TKS first! I make this stupid plays at the LGS level, but I tend to learn from them quite well. G2 I had NO chance, he landed Karn by T3 and went to town. I did managed to get that Karn off the ground, only to have him find another one. My gut tells me I win this match if I can get G1, and I should've gotten G1 with the TKS + Displacer lock.
The other matches were Vs a Mono Back Devotion brew (super cool deck) 2-0 and ?? I can't remember it was 2-0 but tiered deck. I think the deck is fine, the constant "Oh bant eldrazi is dead" is wrong. You can use this deck to tech against most of the field. I do remember getting T2 TKS into smasher this past event and it always feels great.
Man, I really can't remember that other round. Anyhow, I guess it is correct to drop spawners now? Even if my meta has at least 3-4 afinity decks in the room? Yeah I don't I can do that locally yet.
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Standard Arena: Eh? Gruul or Die
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now: G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record) C Eldrazi Tron (9-5) UG Infect RW Burn
If we're being honest, I'm completely biased towards Reshaper. Nevertheless, since arguments are arguments and truth is truth, I'll advocate for Reshaper, though the choice is up to you. Bant Eldrazi is a deck that can act really aggressive if the situation calls for it, but can also have a really heavy late-game through Displacer+Drowner. Taking this into account, the main benefits of Matter Reshaper are the following:
1) It's the worst nightmare for attrition decks, as they are wasting a card and you aren't. It can find you another creature, a relevant spell or ramp your bigger dudes.
2) It's also great against midrange decks, as it forces unfavorable battles on the defense, but can also attack aggressively with Noble Hierarch backup.
3) It makes your whole strategy stronger to wrath effects, as they are a fast clock that make it so you don't lose the card advantage battle.
4) Finally, as I've mentioned before, it's lighter on the mana-base, as we usually want our first fetch to be Temple Garden to play Hierarch while leaving open Displacer, Path and Ancient Stirrings. If the Noble dies and your next play is Sol land-Skyspawner it becomes awkward, whereas Reshaper doesn't have that.
The main setbacks of playing Matter Reshaper are:
1) The colorless cost makes the deck weaker against Blood Moon.
2) It's not great against deck where it doesn't trade (i.e. decks with fliers).
This is usually a trade-off I'm willing to do, as our deck usually just loses to blood moon anyways and we have other ways to fight flier decks like affinity.
All in all, it is definitely a metagame decision, and you can always run both Just try giving ol' Reshaper a chance.
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UWGBant EldraziUWG Decided I don't like Todd Stevens decks.
My guess would be against snapcaster decks where you can return a flash backed spell to hand, living end where you can return the living end to the hand, and it buys you time against supreme verdict decks. Since he mentioned a tweet he would cut a trinisphere for it it seems like it's his anti combo tech for those must stop spells, scapeshift etc.
It does seem to combo well with thought knot turn 3 bounce the spell, turn 4 TKS take the spell, name death shadow or tasigur or something
I think disdainful stroke or flashfreeze are just better against UW control and titanshift. I don't like putting ourselves on the counterspell game plan if we don't have to - Chalice is the easier way deal with combo decks...
Been thinking about it as well. Being able to Stirrings into it is a huge + point. I was also thinking of removing 1 relic and add in a 2nd leyline of sanctity once this is in mb.
I was reviewing your post and thought another option that can be used with displacer (like witness, reflector and reshaper: Vendilion Clique. It can work as a fifth TKS, has a better clock and can help in difficult matches (combo/control).
Ok - if it works for you then more power to you.
Id suggest that chalice on zero will generally break the Affinity player - its pretty hard to lose if you get it down on the play turn 1. Most ppl would suggest that Chalice is only good against Affinity turn 1 on zero - thats certainly been my experience. Regardless of the above - Ill be playing chalice in Eldrazi moving forward as I think its necessary in the current meta (part of the reason the E-Tron is doing so well) - but def will play 4x copies..
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
I used to play 4x Chalice when Infect was Tier 1 - I'm not totally convinced (but leaning that way) on Chalice but it def helps against Storm, other combo plus others (UW Control comes to mind) that Bant struggles against otherwise.
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
UWGBant EldraziUWGDecided I don't like Todd Stevens decks.UBRGrixis ControlUBR
UUUAnd anything that plays 4x Cryptic CommandUUU
Applicable versus:
- WU Control
- Dredge
- Counters Company
- Humans Company
- Merfolk
- Elves
- Bogles
- Death and taxes
There isn't as much Blood Moon going around locally and I feel like hate bears and DS are decent match ups for the deck. The losses could've easily been turned into wins with better play execution, so I'm not actually worried about deck choice, but my SB is super out dated.
What I'd like to hedge against:
Counters Company
Dredge
Valakut
Eldrazi Tron, this is a deck I've beaten off the back of permission or have gotten crushed because my own mana acceleration doesn't match theirs once they hit tron. That said, I don't feel like we are unfavored here, and I like that our draws are faster/ more consistent. T2-T3 TKS is much more doable for us than it is for them. Thought's on this match up and how do you all SB here? This match up is is one of the reasons I keep disdainful stroke in my SB.
Also, this is a huge debate for me:
Reshaper Vs Spawner
There is a quite a bit of affinity in my meta, and I have won a ton of matches off of spawner's pecking my opponents to death via exalted triggers. They also do some work against burn, when I did run reshaper I always felt I wanted spawner, the scion matters more than it looks.
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
Round 3 I lost to G/W tron? I punted game 1, I attacked face first into a Blessed Alliance with my displacer knowing that I should have casted TKS first! I make this stupid plays at the LGS level, but I tend to learn from them quite well. G2 I had NO chance, he landed Karn by T3 and went to town. I did managed to get that Karn off the ground, only to have him find another one. My gut tells me I win this match if I can get G1, and I should've gotten G1 with the TKS + Displacer lock.
The other matches were Vs a Mono Back Devotion brew (super cool deck) 2-0 and ?? I can't remember it was 2-0 but tiered deck. I think the deck is fine, the constant "Oh bant eldrazi is dead" is wrong. You can use this deck to tech against most of the field. I do remember getting T2 TKS into smasher this past event and it always feels great.
Man, I really can't remember that other round. Anyhow, I guess it is correct to drop spawners now? Even if my meta has at least 3-4 afinity decks in the room? Yeah I don't I can do that locally yet.
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
1) It's the worst nightmare for attrition decks, as they are wasting a card and you aren't. It can find you another creature, a relevant spell or ramp your bigger dudes.
2) It's also great against midrange decks, as it forces unfavorable battles on the defense, but can also attack aggressively with Noble Hierarch backup.
3) It makes your whole strategy stronger to wrath effects, as they are a fast clock that make it so you don't lose the card advantage battle.
4) Finally, as I've mentioned before, it's lighter on the mana-base, as we usually want our first fetch to be Temple Garden to play Hierarch while leaving open Displacer, Path and Ancient Stirrings. If the Noble dies and your next play is Sol land-Skyspawner it becomes awkward, whereas Reshaper doesn't have that.
The main setbacks of playing Matter Reshaper are:
1) The colorless cost makes the deck weaker against Blood Moon.
2) It's not great against deck where it doesn't trade (i.e. decks with fliers).
This is usually a trade-off I'm willing to do, as our deck usually just loses to blood moon anyways and we have other ways to fight flier decks like affinity.
All in all, it is definitely a metagame decision, and you can always run both Just try giving ol' Reshaper a chance.
UWGBant EldraziUWGDecided I don't like Todd Stevens decks.UBRGrixis ControlUBR
UUUAnd anything that plays 4x Cryptic CommandUUU
R1: Jund 2-1
R2: Esper DS 2-1
R3: Jund 2-0
Still not sure why we're under represented.
Ran with 3 Reshaper, 2 Skyspawner, 1 E Witness and 1 Blessed Alliance.
wondering the same thing..
It does seem to combo well with thought knot turn 3 bounce the spell, turn 4 TKS take the spell, name death shadow or tasigur or something
UWx control/midrange
Bant Eldrazi
3 Brushland
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Plains
1 Scavenger Grounds
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
3 Yavimaya Coast