how do you guys find the Trawler KCI matchup? They seem to be way more resilient than I'd expected
I've only played against them once, but won the match. Lost the first game, but won both sideboard games on the back of Surgical Extraction and Kommand. You basically have to keep them off their KCIs and they can't win.
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Modern UBR Grixis Shadow UBR UR Izzet Phoenix UR UW UW Control UW GB GB Rock GB
Commander BG Meren of Clan Nel Toth BG BGUW Atraxa, Praetor's Voice BGUW
played a GPT today, turned an 0-2 start into a 10th place finish.
Round 1 Got easily destroyed by the same kid playing fish, maybe this match is worse than I thought it was
0-1
Round 2 I lose a tight match against an almost UW blink/hate bears deck, ran stuff like spell pierce, mana leak, spell queller, wall of omens and lade splicer. Beat him game 1, kept a bad hand game 2 and had a nut opener but he drew really well
0-2, would have had to win out and get lucky at this point.
Round 3 get paired against eldrazi tron, which i kinda felt pretty good about. Never played the match before but I've heard its pretty good for us. Made quick work of a pretty bad draw game 1, game 2 i was doing well but he drew Ugin, which was probably his only out. Game 3 I put early pressure on and made some small misplay on what i delved but didn't get punished
1-2, starting to crawl back.
Round 4 I 2-1 affinity. I just remember game 1 he mulled to 6 and didn't seem impressed with it but he kept it. I remember he had a pretty hard time turning on metalcraft and I was able to put some really good early pressure on. In order to turn on metalcraft, he had to use his 2 inkmoth nexus to animate themselves and tap his mox opal for W to try and dispatch my attacking tasigur, I asked a judge if it checked for metalcraft upon cast or resolution and he said resolution, so i k command his 2 lands to take away metalcraft and make the dispatch do essentially nothing since tasi was already tapped. He scooped to that. game 2 was doing back and fourth, he top decks an ornithopter to block and I don't get the removal spell. I die to flyers. Game 3 he mulls to 5 and keeps 3 blinkmoth nexis, 1 memnite and 1 plains. I was on the play and inqusition the memnite away. he deals reasomable damage but eventually, my higher volume of cards catches up to him. what really got me ahead was me being able to serum visions, bolt his blocker, then play a gurmag angler and deaths shadow in one turn.
2-2, a win next round would have been nice
dunno what happened 5th round but my opponent no showed, so I got the win to move me to 3-2. I was thinking maybe I got down paired. Probably would have gotten top 8 if the fish player who beat me round 1 would have won his win and in.
I just bought into this deck, having many of the expensive cards from building Grixis Delver a few years ago. I'm looking forward to joining my local modern community piloting this deck.
I was wondering about budget sideboard options. I basically spent by Magic allowance on main deck pieces and will have to piece together the sideboard over the next few weeks/months. In the mean time are there any specific budget friendly variants for cards like Engineered Explosives or Liliana of the Last Hope? Also being new to this modern meta and sideboard theory, in general, would be helpful.
Collective Brutality, Countersquall and even Kolaghan's Command may be a little on the pricey side so I think 1 copy of both Brutality and squall are enough to suffice (as long as you have 4 Stubborn Denial) and you can try Rise//Fall in place of a 3rd Kommand in the side. Honestly the sideboard is pretty flexible so you're free to do whatever with it but these are just some options for you to consider.
Hope it helps.
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Modern URBSome variant of Death's Shadow URB Grixis Control (Chapin Version) JFM Storm / Treasure Cruise Delver / Splinter Twin / Infect
Round 2, i get destroyed by living end. game 1 I did okay, he just beat me. Game 2 i got aggressive by trying to stick a turn 2 Tasigur with hopes he didn't have spirit guide and he did. I've been having a problem with this match up, is this a bad matchup or is there any advice I can get?
Street Wraith are very good against them, you could cicle in responde to Living End to put them in the yard and them come back to block their dudes or kill him (swampwalk) if they are at low life. You always could use your Fatal Pushes to kill your own Death's Shadow to come back too (because you'll have almost no targets in the Living End deck). Stubborn Denial and Countersquall are very good, be careful with your land drops or you'll get blown out by Fulminators. Our discard is ok, you could discard some cascade spell to slow them down, but it's not at it's best in this matchup. Nihil spellbomb and Surgicals are very good too by the way.
I'm sorry for the english, it's not my first language.
how do you guys find the Trawler KCI matchup? They seem to be way more resilient than I'd expected
I've only played against them once, but won the match. Lost the first game, but won both sideboard games on the back of Surgical Extraction and Kommand. You basically have to keep them off their KCIs and they can't win.
yea that's what I figured. It just seems like they very consistent because of all the cantripping artifacts, which is part of their appeal I'm sure.
Feels like a weird sideboarding job but I felt all of the SB cards are high impact and it's more about answering their specific threats with one clock rather than racing them thus the SB. not sure if any of this is right though!
I got blown out in game one by this deck having never seen it before. Games 2 and 3, I just held up a stubborn denial for the KCI. It is pretty much like extracting our death shadows.
vs. affinity, we are just doing a grixis control imitation and solve their board state rather than prioritizing getting a clock down right? I still have trouble with them and there seem to have been more and more affnity decks onilne lately (a lot of 5-0 finishes too) and I must be doing something wrong
vs. affinity, we are just doing a grixis control imitation and solve their board state rather than prioritizing getting a clock down right? I still have trouble with them and there seem to have been more and more affnity decks onilne lately (a lot of 5-0 finishes too) and I must be doing something wrong
That's not quite right - don't have as many 2 for 1s and get our life total fairly low on our own, so we can't always win the super long game vs. their manlands, other random fliers, and Galvanic Blasts. In short, you need that clock. But you have to pick your spots very carefully so you don't take a massive plating or ravager hit. The hardest part of the matchup in my experience is beating Etched Champion.
Fair enough. In my experience it's been the Etched Champion and manland+plating that does me in. Perhaps it'd be worthwhile to switch Angers back to Kozilek's Returns since there seems to be less dredge lately. That a non-graveyard dependent abzan coco decks with the vizier/druid combo is rising lessens the appeal for Anger too
What do people think of using 2 or 3 spreading seas in the side instead of fulminators and/or molten rains against Tron/Eldrazi/Valakut and possily BGx decks? Way easier to cast and replaces itself. I've had great success with it - loved it in Merfolk, love it now.
Fair enough. In my experience it's been the Etched Champion and manland+plating that does me in. Perhaps it'd be worthwhile to switch Angers back to Kozilek's Returns since there seems to be less dredge lately. That a non-graveyard dependent abzan coco decks with the vizier/druid combo is rising lessens the appeal for Anger too
I've been running flaying tendrils over anger. Easier to cast, good vs. kitchen finks, hits etched champion. Altho' it's not great vs. dredge.
yea I have considered Tendrils, but if I cared about the exile effect, a large part of that desire would be vs dredge, who's been approaching a 10% meta share. Also, getting manlands like mutavaults and the Nexi is also big game.
we don't lack at all in single target removal nor do we care that much about bolting faces for 2 for 2 mana so I don't see why we shouldn't play Kozilek's Return over that
I prefer Engineered Explosives to either Anger or Koz Return. It's not as clean for some things, but it's also the only way to deal with other kinds of problematic permanents. Plus it can be blown at instant speed for 2 mana and discourage opponents from over-extending their boards (which allows me to pick off things with targeted removal and attack with fatties).
What do people think of using 2 or 3 spreading seas in the side instead of fulminators and/or molten rains against Tron/Eldrazi/Valakut and possily BGx decks? Way easier to cast and replaces itself. I've had great success with it - loved it in Merfolk, love it now.
I'd say try them out, not like this deck can get to 5 mana quick enough to snap + rain reliably. And by that time the land disruption might be too late. Playing Fulminators felt really slow and often didn't do enough when I brought them in.
Commander GUR Maelstrom Wanderer BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith RRR Feldon of the Third Path WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
A new deck on the radar to watch out for is the As Foretold build with all the suspend cards. You almost have to take As Foretold with disruption or counter it. A free boardwipe and draw 3 from turn 3 on is hard to beat. Regarding Leylines, I've been fairly surprised at how winnable games still are even when they drop them to start.
If Flaying Tendrils took care of Prized Amalgam, I'd definitely try it. But since it doesn't, it's not really that great vs. Dredge, so I'd rather have the additional flexibility of instant speed from Kozilek's Return, because nailing manlands vs. Affinity is a big deal.
If you really want to beat Valakut, the card you're looking for is Disdainful Stroke. The land destruction is slower and they can draw out of it since they have a ton of mana sources, and Spreading Seas doesn't do that much to slow them down since they're a 2 color deck. Countering a Titan, on the other hand, can be game breaking. There are only so many threats in their deck - sometimes they play their one threat, and if it doesn't resolve they die! Stroke hits some other things, like Ad Nauseum, Gifts Ungiven, all of Tron's threats, and the most important Eldrazi, so it's not too narrow of a SB card either. Of course, this competes with the Ceremonious Rejection slot in the SB, and rejection is better vs. Tron and Eldrazi, and also helps out a lot vs Lantern, Scrap Trawler/Krark-Clan Ironworks combo, and some vs affinity. So it depends on which decks you want to beat.
I'm also not a big fan of EE in this shell, but I could see it. There are still a lot of decks where EE for 0, 2, or 3 is solid. But funadmentally, I haven't had enough problems with enchantments to want to weaken my SB sweepers in order to target them. We have a lot of discard and countermagic which can take care of these problems if used judiciously. If Bogles, in particular, is a problem, play Liliana of the Veil.
Similarly, I'm not a fan of going Sultai. Losing Terminate and K Command is too much. Decay and Pulse are pretty good, but you lose your ability to grind via K Command, and you also lose the flexibility of having a cheap, instant speed way to kill essentially any creature.
I've only played against them once, but won the match. Lost the first game, but won both sideboard games on the back of Surgical Extraction and Kommand. You basically have to keep them off their KCIs and they can't win.
UBR Grixis Shadow UBR
UR Izzet Phoenix UR
UW UW Control UW
GB GB Rock GB
Commander
BG Meren of Clan Nel Toth BG
BGUW Atraxa, Praetor's Voice BGUW
Round 1 Got easily destroyed by the same kid playing fish, maybe this match is worse than I thought it was
0-1
Round 2 I lose a tight match against an almost UW blink/hate bears deck, ran stuff like spell pierce, mana leak, spell queller, wall of omens and lade splicer. Beat him game 1, kept a bad hand game 2 and had a nut opener but he drew really well
0-2, would have had to win out and get lucky at this point.
Round 3 get paired against eldrazi tron, which i kinda felt pretty good about. Never played the match before but I've heard its pretty good for us. Made quick work of a pretty bad draw game 1, game 2 i was doing well but he drew Ugin, which was probably his only out. Game 3 I put early pressure on and made some small misplay on what i delved but didn't get punished
1-2, starting to crawl back.
Round 4 I 2-1 affinity. I just remember game 1 he mulled to 6 and didn't seem impressed with it but he kept it. I remember he had a pretty hard time turning on metalcraft and I was able to put some really good early pressure on. In order to turn on metalcraft, he had to use his 2 inkmoth nexus to animate themselves and tap his mox opal for W to try and dispatch my attacking tasigur, I asked a judge if it checked for metalcraft upon cast or resolution and he said resolution, so i k command his 2 lands to take away metalcraft and make the dispatch do essentially nothing since tasi was already tapped. He scooped to that. game 2 was doing back and fourth, he top decks an ornithopter to block and I don't get the removal spell. I die to flyers. Game 3 he mulls to 5 and keeps 3 blinkmoth nexis, 1 memnite and 1 plains. I was on the play and inqusition the memnite away. he deals reasomable damage but eventually, my higher volume of cards catches up to him. what really got me ahead was me being able to serum visions, bolt his blocker, then play a gurmag angler and deaths shadow in one turn.
2-2, a win next round would have been nice
dunno what happened 5th round but my opponent no showed, so I got the win to move me to 3-2. I was thinking maybe I got down paired. Probably would have gotten top 8 if the fish player who beat me round 1 would have won his win and in.
starting to feel really good about this deck
I just bought into this deck, having many of the expensive cards from building Grixis Delver a few years ago. I'm looking forward to joining my local modern community piloting this deck.
I was wondering about budget sideboard options. I basically spent by Magic allowance on main deck pieces and will have to piece together the sideboard over the next few weeks/months. In the mean time are there any specific budget friendly variants for cards like Engineered Explosives or Liliana of the Last Hope? Also being new to this modern meta and sideboard theory, in general, would be helpful.
Collective Brutality, Countersquall and even Kolaghan's Command may be a little on the pricey side so I think 1 copy of both Brutality and squall are enough to suffice (as long as you have 4 Stubborn Denial) and you can try Rise//Fall in place of a 3rd Kommand in the side. Honestly the sideboard is pretty flexible so you're free to do whatever with it but these are just some options for you to consider.
Hope it helps.
URB Some variant of Death's Shadow
URB Grixis Control (Chapin Version)
JFM Storm / Treasure Cruise Delver / Splinter Twin / InfectCommander/EDH
This pile of cards when I feel like it
Death's Shadow discord link
Street Wraith are very good against them, you could cicle in responde to Living End to put them in the yard and them come back to block their dudes or kill him (swampwalk) if they are at low life. You always could use your Fatal Pushes to kill your own Death's Shadow to come back too (because you'll have almost no targets in the Living End deck). Stubborn Denial and Countersquall are very good, be careful with your land drops or you'll get blown out by Fulminators. Our discard is ok, you could discard some cascade spell to slow them down, but it's not at it's best in this matchup. Nihil spellbomb and Surgicals are very good too by the way.
I'm sorry for the english, it's not my first language.
yea that's what I figured. It just seems like they very consistent because of all the cantripping artifacts, which is part of their appeal I'm sure.
I am playing:
19 lands
4 SVs
2 Denials
4 Scours
4 Shadow
3 Push
2 IoK
4 Seizes
2 Bolts
1 Terminate
1 Rise/Fall
4 Snapcasters
2 Kolaghan's Commands
4 Street Wraiths
2 Tasigur
2 Angler
SB:
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Stubborn Denial
2 Liliana the Last Hope
1 Fatal Push
2 Collective Brutality
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Temur Battle Rage
1 Izzet Staticaster
My Plan so far:
+2 Rejections
+2 Denials
+2 Extractions
-1 Swamp
-1 Rise/Fall
-1 SV
-1 Scour
-1 Angler
-1 Push
Feels like a weird sideboarding job but I felt all of the SB cards are high impact and it's more about answering their specific threats with one clock rather than racing them thus the SB. not sure if any of this is right though!
That's not quite right - don't have as many 2 for 1s and get our life total fairly low on our own, so we can't always win the super long game vs. their manlands, other random fliers, and Galvanic Blasts. In short, you need that clock. But you have to pick your spots very carefully so you don't take a massive plating or ravager hit. The hardest part of the matchup in my experience is beating Etched Champion.
Merfolk Wizards AKA "Wizards of the Coast"
I've been running flaying tendrils over anger. Easier to cast, good vs. kitchen finks, hits etched champion. Altho' it's not great vs. dredge.
UBR Grixis Death's shadow
UBR Grixis Death's shadow
UBR Grixis Shadow UBR
UR Izzet Phoenix UR
UW UW Control UW
GB GB Rock GB
Commander
BG Meren of Clan Nel Toth BG
BGUW Atraxa, Praetor's Voice BGUW
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
I'd say try them out, not like this deck can get to 5 mana quick enough to snap + rain reliably. And by that time the land disruption might be too late. Playing Fulminators felt really slow and often didn't do enough when I brought them in.
GURB Grixis/Jund Shadow
RBG Dredge
xUx U Ballista Tron
Commander
GUR Maelstrom Wanderer
BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius
BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth
WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
RRR Feldon of the Third Path
WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
If Flaying Tendrils took care of Prized Amalgam, I'd definitely try it. But since it doesn't, it's not really that great vs. Dredge, so I'd rather have the additional flexibility of instant speed from Kozilek's Return, because nailing manlands vs. Affinity is a big deal.
If you really want to beat Valakut, the card you're looking for is Disdainful Stroke. The land destruction is slower and they can draw out of it since they have a ton of mana sources, and Spreading Seas doesn't do that much to slow them down since they're a 2 color deck. Countering a Titan, on the other hand, can be game breaking. There are only so many threats in their deck - sometimes they play their one threat, and if it doesn't resolve they die! Stroke hits some other things, like Ad Nauseum, Gifts Ungiven, all of Tron's threats, and the most important Eldrazi, so it's not too narrow of a SB card either. Of course, this competes with the Ceremonious Rejection slot in the SB, and rejection is better vs. Tron and Eldrazi, and also helps out a lot vs Lantern, Scrap Trawler/Krark-Clan Ironworks combo, and some vs affinity. So it depends on which decks you want to beat.
I'm also not a big fan of EE in this shell, but I could see it. There are still a lot of decks where EE for 0, 2, or 3 is solid. But funadmentally, I haven't had enough problems with enchantments to want to weaken my SB sweepers in order to target them. We have a lot of discard and countermagic which can take care of these problems if used judiciously. If Bogles, in particular, is a problem, play Liliana of the Veil.
Similarly, I'm not a fan of going Sultai. Losing Terminate and K Command is too much. Decay and Pulse are pretty good, but you lose your ability to grind via K Command, and you also lose the flexibility of having a cheap, instant speed way to kill essentially any creature.