I went to SCG Regionals yesterday in San Diego, and there were a total of 161 players. I made top 8 and lost in the quarter finals to Abzan (really disappointing loss, as I feel very favored in the match up). my final standing in the event was 6th place.
Hey Bantdrazi, I was the other Bant Eldrazi player at San Diego Regionals. I got bumped out of the top 8 and ended 9th with 6-1-1 record. I was the only 19 pointer to get bumped Good job making the top 8 though!
My lineup was:
R1: No-show, 1-0
R2: Titanshift 2-0
R3: Grixis Goryo/Breach 2-0
R4: 5c Humans 2-1
R5: Mono-white Death Taxes 1-1-1 (Unintentiaonal draw. Won g1, and then thought I had g2 locked up but got utterly blown out by a Dusk to Dawn.)
R6: Living end 2-1 (Don't ask how, I still don't know)
R7: Living end 0-2 (Really? probably the only two living end players in the room)
R8: Eldrazi Tron 2-1
Going into Round 8, I knew that if I won, I would either get 7th, 8th or 9th place. My breakers were 60%, which isn't great for that position. Ended up 9th bummer I couldn't rep another Bant eldrazi in the top 8.
I ran 2 EE main, 1 side. I think 3 main is just too many dead cards main in a lot of matchups. But I like the 3rd in the board.
Brosterman,
I scouted out another bant eldrazi player at the tournament to talk to him. Was that you?
The guy I talked to played 3 skyspawner and 3 matter reshaper. 2 ceremonious rejection in the side.
I also watched a player call a judge over when you casted a skyspawner through a cavern that you apparently (according to the other player) didnt name a creature type when you played it?
I didn't realize there was another bant eldrazi player with such a high record.
Also, your matchups seemed more difficult than mine. I might not have made it past the living end decks. I only had two Rest In Peace in my sideboard, and I contemplate back and forth about 2 or 3
Brosterman,
I scouted out another bant eldrazi player at the tournament to talk to him. Was that you?
The guy I talked to played 3 skyspawner and 3 matter reshaper. 2 ceremonious rejection in the side.
I also watched a player call a judge over when you casted a skyspawner through a cavern that you apparently (according to the other player) didnt name a creature type when you played it?
I didn't realize there was another bant eldrazi player with such a high record.
Also, your matchups seemed more difficult than mine. I might not have made it past the living end decks. I only had two Rest In Peace in my sideboard, and I contemplate back and forth about 2 or 3
None of those were me. I watched you play a game against UR moon in round 7 after I got ravaged by Living End very quickly, and then I think I played to your left in Round 8. I was at table 5 or 6.
Yeah I have 2 RiPs and 2 Grafdigger's Cage in my board. Cage seems so bad when I get matched up against Living End (2 Disdainful Strokes too), but I've basically conceded that matchup in regards to my sideboard.
Oh ya, the U/R Moon guy had me scared all three games. It is super uncomfortable to play against blood moon decks. My hand really came together 2 of the 3 games though.
Living end is for sure a bad match up for us. It's Rest In Peace or game over. I'm surprised to hear you had to play it twice. And Goyro Vengeance can be tough as well. You placed well for having being paired up against several bad match ups.
In the future, I think I will adjust my sideboard down to two leylines. I really like the card because it patches 3 very popular bad match ups of ours. (Burn, valakut, and storm) However, with 3 in my list, I almost feel more obligated to aggressively mulligan for it. In the deciding game for top 8, I was playing against burn, and boarded all of them in. I didn't see a single one, but I was concerned that I would draw multiple copies when it was too late.
Same with Stony Silence. I think I will drop that down to 2 copies as well. I already feel favored against affinity. And the other decks I want it in are lanturn, regular tron, eldrazi tron, and ad nausum. 3 out of 4 of those are not all that popular.
What that means for me is I have a potential two open spots to put into my sideboard. A bit unsure what I plan to do as of now, but cards I am considering include a 3rd stubborn denial, a 3rd Rest In Peace, blessed alliance, rhonas, nissa, steward of elements, a 2nd natural state, ethersworn canonist, and runed halo. There is also the option to hard commit to the leylines and put 4 in the sideboard.
Living end is actually a reasonable matchup. We have big dudes that can actually win against a post-living end board state, so don't overcommit on board if you don't have to. I have won against living end preboard by baiting them into an early living end and saving displacer/drowner in hand.
Chalice also makes the postboard games easy. I have won on a mull to 3 against LE with chalice in hand.
In my testing, leyline is only really good against burn. Balakut and storm can be annoyed by it but also can disregard it entirely.
I also highly encourage cutting stony silence. The EE & in my case walking ballista are really good, and worship serves the same purpose as SS. You don't really need stony against tron, and needle can be better in some cases.
I have really liked ballista. I have wanted to draw it a LOT. The other night I was under a blood moon with no basics and topdecked one of my maindeck ballista which proceeded to win the game.
Living end is actually a reasonable matchup. We have big dudes that can actually win against a post-living end board state, so don't overcommit on board if you don't have to. I have won against living end preboard by baiting them into an early living end and saving displacer/drowner in hand.
Chalice also makes the postboard games easy. I have won on a mull to 3 against LE with chalice in hand.
It is absolutely not a reasonable matchup. It's the actual worst matchup for Bant Eldrazi. The reason is that if you don't overload the board, they will just Fulminator Mage and Beast Within your lands to keep you off a high land count for when they Living End. So it's hard to develop a Drowner/Displacer lock after they Living End because you will be down a few lands (likely temples) and because they will 1-shot you in the next combat because you gave them extra time to cycle more creatures.
That being said, having chalice in the board helps your matchup. They can still Beast Within the chalice, and will bring in Ingot Chewers in g3 if they see chalice in g2. But yes, it helps.
Lol it is definitely not the worst matchup for Bant... counters company / company decks in general are much worse. Any time you have access to cards that singlehandedly win matchups, they can't be your worst matchup. Chalice, Gideon's intevention, RIP, Worship, Eidolon/Rule of Law, +/- counterspells make it a very winnable matchup.
I have been fulminator'ed and avalanche rider'ed by them, trust me I know it's not great. I have also played blood moon variants which are even harder but still winnable. You're definitely not going to beat their nut draws of early multiple cyclers + fulminator, but the deck has a non-negligible fail rate and their slow draws can be maneuvered around by managing what's in your own graveyard. Often you have to think along their axis in terms of what you want in your own graveyard and when.
Lol it is definitely not the worst matchup for Bant... counters company / company decks in general are much worse. Any time you have access to cards that singlehandedly win matchups, they can't be your worst matchup. Chalice, Gideon's intevention, RIP, Worship, Eidolon/Rule of Law, +/- counterspells make it a very winnable matchup.
But those cards don't single handedly win the matchup. They always play Beast Within
Like I said, Chalice in your board makes the matchup much better. But it's not a common SB card. So I think we can agree to disagree.
For elspeth WW is too unreliable for a value play. The payoff for a WW casting cost card has to be pretty much winning you the game in order for the mana inconsistency to be worth it. We generally cannot support planeswalkers.
I think you are running too many copies of the same sb cards. You want redundancy but you don't want to flood on the same hate card.
EE is amazing against humans and there is a solid argument to running 3 main right now.
Brosterman, regarding chalice, I think it is just wrong to not at least run 1 for that exact reason. Sure it's fringe but that doesn't mean it's not the optimal choice. It is rare for individual cards to win games on their own and chalice is one of those cards. It also has broad coverage in that it hits random decks like living end and lantern control. Like I said I also think the matchup is plenty winnable without it anyway...
Pokemontrainer17707
I have never done a team unified event before, but I have read that no two decks on a team can contain the same card. You already mentioned you are anticipating a lot of affinity because of this. Based on my recent regional event, I can tell you there were a lot of U/G Merfolk in the room. I only had to play against the Humans deck 1 time, but it still seems very popular. Both of these decks seem like choices people might gravitate to for the team unified event because they play cards that are almost exclusive to their own deck. (Yes, both decks run Aether Vial, but you know what I mean)
As I write this, it seems you have already been convinced to run a 3rd EE. I support the decision.
As for your sideboard, It seems solid. I have in the past, not enjoyed two disdainful strokes because it often feels narrow. I'm not a big fan of the card against E-Tron because of Cavern of Souls. Against any variant of control, it can usually only hit cryptic command. I have been liking a 1 of Flashfreeze,(also narrow) because it still hits Titanshifts payoff cards, and has utility in match ups like Burn, Ponza, and Counter company decks. But seeing as you are not running the stubborn denials anymore and you are running a 3rd Cage, I could see 2 disdainful stroke being better.
In regards to your choice of enchantment/artifact removal, I Have gone back and forth on Natural state and Reclamation Sage. In general, I would say Natural state has treated me better. 1 mana instant speed has felt much better than 3 mana "sorcery" speed. You do sacrifice the option to "live the dream" and flicker Rec Sage, but in all honesty, that has been such an infrequent thing to happen to me.
I also ran 3 Stony Silence at my recent regional top 8 finish, but I feel like it's a serious consideration to drop down to 2.(I recognize you have had 3 in your board for a long time) You mentioned you only bring in 2 against E-Tron, and we are pretty favored against affinity. Even more so now that you are on the 3 mainboard EE. Other match ups where you would want all three include regular tron(not very popular in my experiance), lanturn (Stony Silence can backfire sometimes as EE is often the primary way to destroy ensnaring bridge, and Ad Nauseam.
Planeswalker wise, I like your spicy tech for grindy match ups. I myself have wanted to try Nissa, Steward of Elements, but have been unable to do so in my current Blood Moon meta. My dissatisfaction of scooping to Blood Moon is why I ran a 1 of Talisman of Progress mainboard.
Grafdigger is wrong against snapcaster decks. You're going down 1 card in order to MAYBE get one or two down from them.
The reason I prefer rec sage over nat atate is that rec sage is a threat itself. This makes it more palatable to bring in against UW control or eldrazi tron. Against blood moon and affinity alone, nat state is probably better.
I also really don't like stony against eldrazi tron. You want gas gas gas against them and don't want a reactive hand like stony silence path dork land land land land. Sure it can win games if you're on the play and you screw up their map, but the games you lose against etron are where you lose your tempo advantage and stony does not commit to the board.
Even though E-Tron players have been cutting things like Main board relic and mindstone, I still think stony silence has a place in our deck against E-Tron. The way that Eldrazi Tron beats us is by going bigger than us. Stony silence slows them down significantly by turning off their ability to tutor their tron lands as well as cavern of souls which can be relevant if you bring in disdainful strokes from the sideboard. Shutting off the Walking Ballista makes it so they cant manipulate combat, and an unchecked Basilisk Collar can be too much of a tempo swing to recover from. I have always brought it in against them both on the play and on the draw. I understand whyjesse's concern to not bring them in on the draw (i still bring them in) in that they can just run you over before you get off the ground. Id say the decision comes down to what cards you saw game one (Mindstones?) and player preference.
Pokemontrainer, I think the Sideboard plan you mentioned above for E-Tron is very reasonable. I too,have noticed that the more experienced players leave in chalice against us. Stony Silence is to E-tron, as Chalice is to Bant Eldrazi. I like leaving in 1 EE against them to hedge against it. Especially because you bring in Rec Sage. It provides you two ways to turn on your removal, tutor, and ramp back on in the event they chalice on 1.
Also a decent amount of Bant Eldrazi players play 2 main board EE and one in the Side. It seems to me like you like to hedge against auto losing to counter company decks similar to how I like to hedge against blood moon decks. (I play the Bird and 1 of talisman). You seem quite fond of dismember as of now, so I liked your idea of going down to 2 stony silence and an EE in the side. that way you can play both your dismembers and show all the Devoted druids who is boss.
Honestly though I don't think we have to SB much against eldrazi tron. The matchup is so favorable. I agree the only real cards to side out are skyspawner and extra EEs, so you only really have a few spots to bring in anyway. I would much rather devote space against valakut/storm/affinity/coco.
I bring in pithing needle, drowner, rec sage, and rhonas and that's it. Maybe dismember if I have it.
Disdainful stroke vs Flashfreeze is similar bc the main reason to bring them is primetime. I think disdainful is good mainly if you see a lot of regular tron (but not e tron). it's just okay against control.
I do not follow Willy Edel on twitter, but I do not like Magus of the Tabernacle to help against the counters company deck. By the time we can cast the card that is supposed to help us against the difficult match up, they could have already combo'd. Seems like a really bad card for us, as it would constantly tax our mana as well. I would say the card is complete nonsense for us. Hopefully in your testing, you will be able to report back some success with it, but it seems real bad to me
So I scrubbed out of my rptq going 0-2 against UR breach twice in a row and dropping. I won both game 1s but lost to blood moon in all of my postboard games. It was pretty miserable since our normal outs (dork casting skyspawner to give a scion, EE on 3) can be interacted with on their part with removal or counterspells.
I did manage to win one of those preboard games under a blood moon because of ballista. Ballista performed well overall and I liked having the mainboard creature castable under blood moon.
This experience makes me more likely to go back to natural state instead of rec sage. The original reason I liked rec sage was for the inevitability against Affinity, which is now achieves by walking ballista, and because sage better value against UW control and eldrazi tron, which are less relevant now.
Sorry to hear you scrubbed out of your RPTQ. Of all things, double Blood Moon. I definitely understand the appeal to Rec Sage, but I think its probably a good idea to switch back natural state, or natures claim. I do however, think that making the slight change to your sideboard hardly makes you more resilient to blood moon. I suppose its all about just making the bad match ups less bad.
I am going to try a single Batterskull in my sideboard and see how it feels as my resilient threat. Seems great against blood moon decks as well. I've never really tried the card as of yet. I never wanted to give opponents extra incentive to play stony silence against me. Abzan players shutting off my EE and Batterskull seems relevant. Also, it makes Burn players almost guaranteed to have a target with destructive rivalry with 3 Leylines and a Batterskull.
Hopefully most burn players will assume I'm on the single worship plan and won't find it worth bringing in the Destructive Rivalry's.
Batterskull is too slow against burn tbh. I do like the card, but I don't run it now because of ballista (don't want too many artifacts) and bc I don't see much abzan where it's best. Any deck with blue or red can interact with it via ceremonious or shatter/kolaghan. I'd sooner run rhonas which is also good late game.
1-ofs are indeed very minor but min maxing is all about finding those small percentage points wherever you can.
I am going to be looking into hashep oasis (+3/+3 desert) as a utility land. It is easier on our mana than gavony, is active a turn earlier, and has more potential on the turn it comes down, but not nearly as inevitable.
I totally agree with you that batterskull is too slow in the burn match up. I felt that Thragtusk was always a turn too late against burn, and Thragtusk s life gain happens when it enters the battlefield. With batterskull, I'd have to have an entire additional untap phase before it pays off. It still seems like I should bring it in against them. Not bringing in cards that say "lifelink" in the burn match up just feels wrong. Leylines can buy me time if I have it opening hand.
You are right in saying that a lot of decks have answers to batterskull such as kolaghan's command and cermoniuos rejection. Perhaps it's not the best sideboard tech. In my local meta, there is consostantly a green red ponza, jund with blood moons in the side, and a red white blood moon chalice deck. I really don't enjoy losing to blood moon. Walking ballista seems great in its ability to be casted through the moon, but seems poor in the matchups I just mentioned. Maybe my best solution is to go back to the two of talisman of progress mainboard. When I tried that before, blood moon was laughably bad against me.
The dessert land seems like it could possibly have potential and it's nice the land itself can tap for green. Let us know how it performs.
In a meta full of ponza, abzan, uw control, etc I think batterskull is really reasonable.
Ballista isn't really going to carry a game by itself against blood moon. You do need heftier blood moon resilience than it alone. I do think it is good in ponza or rw prison where we have a lot of turns with empty mana to dump into it and they don't always have the removal to answer it quickly.
I think the best sb answer to blood moon is still just a wastes. We can fetch it with path which makes it a lot easier to find than talismans. It's super narrow but in that meta would be something I would actually consider. Talismans can be super awkward.
I have two other cards I am interested in trying out in the sideboard - big thalia and gaddock teeg. Thalia seems like it should come in on the play in many matchups and buys lots of time. Gaddock teeg is great against storm, company, and maybe even valakut but nonbos with EE and chalice.
I've never ran the basic waste before. I have however, ran the basic island and was quite fond of it. I have since made it a second basic forest because that was around the same time I started playing a single bird of paradise in my list. You think waste is better than a basic island?
And ya, the talisman it definitely awkward. It is not one of my favorite cards in my list.
I could get behind the idea of big Thalia. Seems great when on the play.
Edited to include an update of tonight's modern event.
Final record was 3-0 split for 2nd and 3rd (somebody on infect went 4-0, which I have found to be a decently favorable match up for us, or so my current record against him suggests that)
Match 1: Storm Game 1: My opponent has notoriously been playing Scapeshift for several months. I mulliganed to 5 because my hand wasn't good enough to beat Scapeshift. My 5 card hand was pretty poor as well, but I didn't want to go to 4. To my surprise, I see he is on Storm. I lose on turn 3, as per protocol. Game 2: I keep an opening hand with Leyline. I get fast pressure on opponent with Thought-Knot seer, and smasher. He is around 10 life with 9 damage presented on my board, and he scoops after realizing he didn't have a way to win as he sideboarded out empty the warrens. (and I guess he doesn't play echoing truth)...to be fair, he is pretty new to playing storm. Game 3: I mulligan to 6, and I scry. my scry is leyline. I disappointingly ship it to the bottom. he gets stuck on 1 land for way to long. I thought knot him and see a bunch of rituals and a blood moon. I strip him of the blood moon, and he doesn't draw his second land until far too late.
Match 2: Death Shadow Game 1: Nothing notable really happened. I win first game Game 2: I land a turn 2 Rest in Peace and slowly start hitting my land drops. the game ends up in a really weird spot because I have thought knot and smasher on board agaisnt his snapcaster and death shadow. he was at 11 life. I have an opportunity to put him to 2 if I swing, but then i make his death shadow angry. (also he could block my smasher with death shadow, and because trample damage, his shadow would live.) the game was stalled out for a few turns, until I drew a ancient stirrings to find a drowner of hope. even after casting the drowner of hope, things looked dicey if i attacked. I had to wait an additional turn to attack so my drowner of hope could swing as well. my next draw step was a second drowner of hope and it sealed the deal.
Match 3: Blue Eldrazi (cryptic commands, walking ballistas, thought knots, reshapers, smashers, skyspawners, drowners. (spreading seas in the side) Seemed like a really cool deck. guy went 3-1. (his only loss was to me) game 1: I am a bit confused as to what I am playing against. he wins with a drowner of hope (i'm so unfamiliar to that card being used against me) Game 2: He gets stuck on a single island and an eldrazi temple. he casts a reshaper and i gladly let him attack me as i do not want the reshaper drawing him a land. he eventually cant keep up with my threats after struggling on land for a few turns. Game 3: Most notable interaction in this game was when I resolved a thought knot seer, seeing his hand of cryptic, thought knot, smasher and drowner. I took his thought knot as it was his most impactful card at the time. he untapped, played a land and passed the turn (he could of played smasher, but chose to leave cryptic up instead. I had cavern of souls in hand and the ability to play smasher, but didn't want to play into the cryptic. I go straight to combat and attack with my thought knot seer. he takes the damage and at my end step, attempts to draw a card and bounce my thought knot seer. I brought in one of my Stubborn denials and it showed up at the right time. I counter cryptic, which was back breaking for him. Had it resolved, he would of drawn off cryptic, drawn off thought knot leaving, and drawn for turn, and undoubtedly played drowner of hope. He untaps and doesnt draw the 6th land to play the Drowner of hope.
Match 4 (Jund- with 3 blood moon sideboard. and rabblemaster---unsure if mainboard or sideboard.
We split, but played it out for glory.
I won game 1, but lost games 2 and 3.
the 3rd game could have gone a bit different, but i fetched for a basic forest in fear of blood moon, and my hand needed blue which I never drew.
Hey Bantdrazi, I was the other Bant Eldrazi player at San Diego Regionals. I got bumped out of the top 8 and ended 9th with 6-1-1 record. I was the only 19 pointer to get bumped Good job making the top 8 though!
My lineup was:
R1: No-show, 1-0
R2: Titanshift 2-0
R3: Grixis Goryo/Breach 2-0
R4: 5c Humans 2-1
R5: Mono-white Death Taxes 1-1-1 (Unintentiaonal draw. Won g1, and then thought I had g2 locked up but got utterly blown out by a Dusk to Dawn.)
R6: Living end 2-1 (Don't ask how, I still don't know)
R7: Living end 0-2 (Really? probably the only two living end players in the room)
R8: Eldrazi Tron 2-1
Going into Round 8, I knew that if I won, I would either get 7th, 8th or 9th place. My breakers were 60%, which isn't great for that position. Ended up 9th bummer I couldn't rep another Bant eldrazi in the top 8.
I ran 2 EE main, 1 side. I think 3 main is just too many dead cards main in a lot of matchups. But I like the 3rd in the board.
I scouted out another bant eldrazi player at the tournament to talk to him. Was that you?
The guy I talked to played 3 skyspawner and 3 matter reshaper. 2 ceremonious rejection in the side.
I also watched a player call a judge over when you casted a skyspawner through a cavern that you apparently (according to the other player) didnt name a creature type when you played it?
I didn't realize there was another bant eldrazi player with such a high record.
Also, your matchups seemed more difficult than mine. I might not have made it past the living end decks. I only had two Rest In Peace in my sideboard, and I contemplate back and forth about 2 or 3
None of those were me. I watched you play a game against UR moon in round 7 after I got ravaged by Living End very quickly, and then I think I played to your left in Round 8. I was at table 5 or 6.
Yeah I have 2 RiPs and 2 Grafdigger's Cage in my board. Cage seems so bad when I get matched up against Living End (2 Disdainful Strokes too), but I've basically conceded that matchup in regards to my sideboard.
Living end is for sure a bad match up for us. It's Rest In Peace or game over. I'm surprised to hear you had to play it twice. And Goyro Vengeance can be tough as well. You placed well for having being paired up against several bad match ups.
In the future, I think I will adjust my sideboard down to two leylines. I really like the card because it patches 3 very popular bad match ups of ours. (Burn, valakut, and storm) However, with 3 in my list, I almost feel more obligated to aggressively mulligan for it. In the deciding game for top 8, I was playing against burn, and boarded all of them in. I didn't see a single one, but I was concerned that I would draw multiple copies when it was too late.
Same with Stony Silence. I think I will drop that down to 2 copies as well. I already feel favored against affinity. And the other decks I want it in are lanturn, regular tron, eldrazi tron, and ad nausum. 3 out of 4 of those are not all that popular.
What that means for me is I have a potential two open spots to put into my sideboard. A bit unsure what I plan to do as of now, but cards I am considering include a 3rd stubborn denial, a 3rd Rest In Peace, blessed alliance, rhonas, nissa, steward of elements, a 2nd natural state, ethersworn canonist, and runed halo. There is also the option to hard commit to the leylines and put 4 in the sideboard.
Chalice also makes the postboard games easy. I have won on a mull to 3 against LE with chalice in hand.
In my testing, leyline is only really good against burn. Balakut and storm can be annoyed by it but also can disregard it entirely.
I also highly encourage cutting stony silence. The EE & in my case walking ballista are really good, and worship serves the same purpose as SS. You don't really need stony against tron, and needle can be better in some cases.
I have really liked ballista. I have wanted to draw it a LOT. The other night I was under a blood moon with no basics and topdecked one of my maindeck ballista which proceeded to win the game.
It is absolutely not a reasonable matchup. It's the actual worst matchup for Bant Eldrazi. The reason is that if you don't overload the board, they will just Fulminator Mage and Beast Within your lands to keep you off a high land count for when they Living End. So it's hard to develop a Drowner/Displacer lock after they Living End because you will be down a few lands (likely temples) and because they will 1-shot you in the next combat because you gave them extra time to cycle more creatures.
That being said, having chalice in the board helps your matchup. They can still Beast Within the chalice, and will bring in Ingot Chewers in g3 if they see chalice in g2. But yes, it helps.
I have been fulminator'ed and avalanche rider'ed by them, trust me I know it's not great. I have also played blood moon variants which are even harder but still winnable. You're definitely not going to beat their nut draws of early multiple cyclers + fulminator, but the deck has a non-negligible fail rate and their slow draws can be maneuvered around by managing what's in your own graveyard. Often you have to think along their axis in terms of what you want in your own graveyard and when.
But those cards don't single handedly win the matchup. They always play Beast Within
Like I said, Chalice in your board makes the matchup much better. But it's not a common SB card. So I think we can agree to disagree.
I think you are running too many copies of the same sb cards. You want redundancy but you don't want to flood on the same hate card.
EE is amazing against humans and there is a solid argument to running 3 main right now.
Brosterman, regarding chalice, I think it is just wrong to not at least run 1 for that exact reason. Sure it's fringe but that doesn't mean it's not the optimal choice. It is rare for individual cards to win games on their own and chalice is one of those cards. It also has broad coverage in that it hits random decks like living end and lantern control. Like I said I also think the matchup is plenty winnable without it anyway...
I have never done a team unified event before, but I have read that no two decks on a team can contain the same card. You already mentioned you are anticipating a lot of affinity because of this. Based on my recent regional event, I can tell you there were a lot of U/G Merfolk in the room. I only had to play against the Humans deck 1 time, but it still seems very popular. Both of these decks seem like choices people might gravitate to for the team unified event because they play cards that are almost exclusive to their own deck. (Yes, both decks run Aether Vial, but you know what I mean)
As I write this, it seems you have already been convinced to run a 3rd EE. I support the decision.
As for your sideboard, It seems solid. I have in the past, not enjoyed two disdainful strokes because it often feels narrow. I'm not a big fan of the card against E-Tron because of Cavern of Souls. Against any variant of control, it can usually only hit cryptic command. I have been liking a 1 of Flashfreeze,(also narrow) because it still hits Titanshifts payoff cards, and has utility in match ups like Burn, Ponza, and Counter company decks. But seeing as you are not running the stubborn denials anymore and you are running a 3rd Cage, I could see 2 disdainful stroke being better.
In regards to your choice of enchantment/artifact removal, I Have gone back and forth on Natural state and Reclamation Sage. In general, I would say Natural state has treated me better. 1 mana instant speed has felt much better than 3 mana "sorcery" speed. You do sacrifice the option to "live the dream" and flicker Rec Sage, but in all honesty, that has been such an infrequent thing to happen to me.
I also ran 3 Stony Silence at my recent regional top 8 finish, but I feel like it's a serious consideration to drop down to 2.(I recognize you have had 3 in your board for a long time) You mentioned you only bring in 2 against E-Tron, and we are pretty favored against affinity. Even more so now that you are on the 3 mainboard EE. Other match ups where you would want all three include regular tron(not very popular in my experiance), lanturn (Stony Silence can backfire sometimes as EE is often the primary way to destroy ensnaring bridge, and Ad Nauseam.
Planeswalker wise, I like your spicy tech for grindy match ups. I myself have wanted to try Nissa, Steward of Elements, but have been unable to do so in my current Blood Moon meta. My dissatisfaction of scooping to Blood Moon is why I ran a 1 of Talisman of Progress mainboard.
The reason I prefer rec sage over nat atate is that rec sage is a threat itself. This makes it more palatable to bring in against UW control or eldrazi tron. Against blood moon and affinity alone, nat state is probably better.
I also really don't like stony against eldrazi tron. You want gas gas gas against them and don't want a reactive hand like stony silence path dork land land land land. Sure it can win games if you're on the play and you screw up their map, but the games you lose against etron are where you lose your tempo advantage and stony does not commit to the board.
Pokemontrainer, I think the Sideboard plan you mentioned above for E-Tron is very reasonable. I too,have noticed that the more experienced players leave in chalice against us. Stony Silence is to E-tron, as Chalice is to Bant Eldrazi. I like leaving in 1 EE against them to hedge against it. Especially because you bring in Rec Sage. It provides you two ways to turn on your removal, tutor, and ramp back on in the event they chalice on 1.
Also a decent amount of Bant Eldrazi players play 2 main board EE and one in the Side. It seems to me like you like to hedge against auto losing to counter company decks similar to how I like to hedge against blood moon decks. (I play the Bird and 1 of talisman). You seem quite fond of dismember as of now, so I liked your idea of going down to 2 stony silence and an EE in the side. that way you can play both your dismembers and show all the Devoted druids who is boss.
I bring in pithing needle, drowner, rec sage, and rhonas and that's it. Maybe dismember if I have it.
Disdainful stroke vs Flashfreeze is similar bc the main reason to bring them is primetime. I think disdainful is good mainly if you see a lot of regular tron (but not e tron). it's just okay against control.
So I scrubbed out of my rptq going 0-2 against UR breach twice in a row and dropping. I won both game 1s but lost to blood moon in all of my postboard games. It was pretty miserable since our normal outs (dork casting skyspawner to give a scion, EE on 3) can be interacted with on their part with removal or counterspells.
I did manage to win one of those preboard games under a blood moon because of ballista. Ballista performed well overall and I liked having the mainboard creature castable under blood moon.
This experience makes me more likely to go back to natural state instead of rec sage. The original reason I liked rec sage was for the inevitability against Affinity, which is now achieves by walking ballista, and because sage better value against UW control and eldrazi tron, which are less relevant now.
I am going to try a single Batterskull in my sideboard and see how it feels as my resilient threat. Seems great against blood moon decks as well. I've never really tried the card as of yet. I never wanted to give opponents extra incentive to play stony silence against me. Abzan players shutting off my EE and Batterskull seems relevant. Also, it makes Burn players almost guaranteed to have a target with destructive rivalry with 3 Leylines and a Batterskull.
Hopefully most burn players will assume I'm on the single worship plan and won't find it worth bringing in the Destructive Rivalry's.
Batterskull is too slow against burn tbh. I do like the card, but I don't run it now because of ballista (don't want too many artifacts) and bc I don't see much abzan where it's best. Any deck with blue or red can interact with it via ceremonious or shatter/kolaghan. I'd sooner run rhonas which is also good late game.
1-ofs are indeed very minor but min maxing is all about finding those small percentage points wherever you can.
I am going to be looking into hashep oasis (+3/+3 desert) as a utility land. It is easier on our mana than gavony, is active a turn earlier, and has more potential on the turn it comes down, but not nearly as inevitable.
You are right in saying that a lot of decks have answers to batterskull such as kolaghan's command and cermoniuos rejection. Perhaps it's not the best sideboard tech. In my local meta, there is consostantly a green red ponza, jund with blood moons in the side, and a red white blood moon chalice deck. I really don't enjoy losing to blood moon. Walking ballista seems great in its ability to be casted through the moon, but seems poor in the matchups I just mentioned. Maybe my best solution is to go back to the two of talisman of progress mainboard. When I tried that before, blood moon was laughably bad against me.
The dessert land seems like it could possibly have potential and it's nice the land itself can tap for green. Let us know how it performs.
Ballista isn't really going to carry a game by itself against blood moon. You do need heftier blood moon resilience than it alone. I do think it is good in ponza or rw prison where we have a lot of turns with empty mana to dump into it and they don't always have the removal to answer it quickly.
I think the best sb answer to blood moon is still just a wastes. We can fetch it with path which makes it a lot easier to find than talismans. It's super narrow but in that meta would be something I would actually consider. Talismans can be super awkward.
I have two other cards I am interested in trying out in the sideboard - big thalia and gaddock teeg. Thalia seems like it should come in on the play in many matchups and buys lots of time. Gaddock teeg is great against storm, company, and maybe even valakut but nonbos with EE and chalice.
And ya, the talisman it definitely awkward. It is not one of my favorite cards in my list.
I could get behind the idea of big Thalia. Seems great when on the play.
Edited to include an update of tonight's modern event.
Final record was 3-0 split for 2nd and 3rd (somebody on infect went 4-0, which I have found to be a decently favorable match up for us, or so my current record against him suggests that)
Match 1: Storm
Game 1: My opponent has notoriously been playing Scapeshift for several months. I mulliganed to 5 because my hand wasn't good enough to beat Scapeshift. My 5 card hand was pretty poor as well, but I didn't want to go to 4. To my surprise, I see he is on Storm. I lose on turn 3, as per protocol.
Game 2: I keep an opening hand with Leyline. I get fast pressure on opponent with Thought-Knot seer, and smasher. He is around 10 life with 9 damage presented on my board, and he scoops after realizing he didn't have a way to win as he sideboarded out empty the warrens. (and I guess he doesn't play echoing truth)...to be fair, he is pretty new to playing storm.
Game 3: I mulligan to 6, and I scry. my scry is leyline. I disappointingly ship it to the bottom. he gets stuck on 1 land for way to long. I thought knot him and see a bunch of rituals and a blood moon. I strip him of the blood moon, and he doesn't draw his second land until far too late.
Match 2: Death Shadow
Game 1: Nothing notable really happened. I win first game
Game 2: I land a turn 2 Rest in Peace and slowly start hitting my land drops. the game ends up in a really weird spot because I have thought knot and smasher on board agaisnt his snapcaster and death shadow. he was at 11 life. I have an opportunity to put him to 2 if I swing, but then i make his death shadow angry. (also he could block my smasher with death shadow, and because trample damage, his shadow would live.) the game was stalled out for a few turns, until I drew a ancient stirrings to find a drowner of hope. even after casting the drowner of hope, things looked dicey if i attacked. I had to wait an additional turn to attack so my drowner of hope could swing as well. my next draw step was a second drowner of hope and it sealed the deal.
Match 3: Blue Eldrazi (cryptic commands, walking ballistas, thought knots, reshapers, smashers, skyspawners, drowners. (spreading seas in the side) Seemed like a really cool deck. guy went 3-1. (his only loss was to me)
game 1: I am a bit confused as to what I am playing against. he wins with a drowner of hope (i'm so unfamiliar to that card being used against me)
Game 2: He gets stuck on a single island and an eldrazi temple. he casts a reshaper and i gladly let him attack me as i do not want the reshaper drawing him a land. he eventually cant keep up with my threats after struggling on land for a few turns.
Game 3: Most notable interaction in this game was when I resolved a thought knot seer, seeing his hand of cryptic, thought knot, smasher and drowner. I took his thought knot as it was his most impactful card at the time. he untapped, played a land and passed the turn (he could of played smasher, but chose to leave cryptic up instead. I had cavern of souls in hand and the ability to play smasher, but didn't want to play into the cryptic. I go straight to combat and attack with my thought knot seer. he takes the damage and at my end step, attempts to draw a card and bounce my thought knot seer. I brought in one of my Stubborn denials and it showed up at the right time. I counter cryptic, which was back breaking for him. Had it resolved, he would of drawn off cryptic, drawn off thought knot leaving, and drawn for turn, and undoubtedly played drowner of hope. He untaps and doesnt draw the 6th land to play the Drowner of hope.
Match 4 (Jund- with 3 blood moon sideboard. and rabblemaster---unsure if mainboard or sideboard.
We split, but played it out for glory.
I won game 1, but lost games 2 and 3.
the 3rd game could have gone a bit different, but i fetched for a basic forest in fear of blood moon, and my hand needed blue which I never drew.