Been awhile since I posted here, but I wanted to share a list I plan on bringing to my LGS for their Tuesday Modern event. War of the Spark added some fun goodies that I'm excited to try.
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
My LGS has a lot of big mana and an increasing # of Shadow/Bogles decks; honestly I'm just trying out Triumph because it's new, but it seems reasonable in a meta with decks that play one or two fatties at a time (Amulet, Tron, Shadow, Bogles, etc). I've been less impressed with Ass Trophy and Push because of their drawbacks, either ramping my opponent faster than Path or being far less useful mid-late game. I also replaced 2 of my Pushes with Nameless Inversion (grow Goyf, hits the majority of non-big mana creatures at my store, tag Awoken Horror with its bounce trigger on the stack and make it bounce itself back to its owner's hand) and Victim of Night (kills virtually everything important at my LGS's meta except for Gurmag Angler and Dredge), although I might go down a Triumph and back up a Push.
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
My LGS has a lot of big mana and an increasing # of Shadow/Bogles decks; honestly I'm just trying out Triumph because it's new, but it seems reasonable in a meta with decks that play one or two fatties at a time (Amulet, Tron, Shadow, Bogles, etc). I've been less impressed with Ass Trophy and Push because of their drawbacks, either ramping my opponent faster than Path or being far less useful mid-late game. I also replaced 2 of my Pushes with Nameless Inversion (grow Goyf, hits the majority of non-big mana creatures at my store, tag Awoken Horror with its bounce trigger on the stack and make it bounce itself back to its owner's hand) and Victim of Night (kills virtually everything important at my LGS's meta except for Gurmag Angler and Dredge), although I might go down a Triumph and back up a Push.
Interesting but I'm only playing one copy of Nameless Inversion. Plus I'm not a fan of the "can't cast from anywhere but the grave clause".
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Nameless Inversion wants Traverse the Ulvenwald, but now we are getting away from ourselves. I have had a lot of good moments from replacing one Push with a Cast Down, get those Gurmags and Crackling Drakes out of here.
I’m not very experienced with the current metagame in modern as I’ve been away from magic, but I’ve returned.
That being said, I’m running two copies of Bile Blight in the 75. One main, one board.. it’s won me multiple games vs. Humans and I know given my experience I can’t possibly have been the one to come up with something that’s potentially groundbreaking.
I guess my question is why is bile blight not played at all given the popularity of humans? It’s still a decent enough removal spell in the format right?
I’m not very experienced with the current metagame in modern as I’ve been away from magic, but I’ve returned.
That being said, I’m running two copies of Bile Blight in the 75. One main, one board.. it’s won me multiple games vs. Humans and I know given my experience I can’t possibly have been the one to come up with something that’s potentially groundbreaking.
I guess my question is why is bile blight not played at all given the popularity of humans? It’s still a decent enough removal spell in the format right?
Bile Blight is very cool. Seeing it mentioned takes me back to my Mono-Black Devotion days (which proved to be my gateway drug into BGx, lol), where I ran a similar split to what you’ve described above. It ticks a lot of the right boxes: instant speed, relatively cheap, multiple potential upsides compared to your typical Doom Blade.
The major reason it doesn’t see play is the BB casting cost. Statistically, you need 20 B sources in your deck to reliably cast Bile Blight on curve. Golgari players should ideally be running 18 B sources in their deck for the purposes of having BB reliably by T3, but even so, most are playing just 17 B sources to squeeze a little more utility into the landbase (myself included), or even fewer (I don’t recommend this). In any case, not even the most reliable and conservative stock BG lists can cast T2 Blight consistently enough to make it a good inclusion IMO; and unlike something like Hymn to Tourach, it’s not worth warping the manabase for.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
GB Golgari Midrange GB YouTube Channel, with deck techs, gameplay, analysis, spoiler reviews, and more!
I’m not very experienced with the current metagame in modern as I’ve been away from magic, but I’ve returned.
That being said, I’m running two copies of Bile Blight in the 75. One main, one board.. it’s won me multiple games vs. Humans and I know given my experience I can’t possibly have been the one to come up with something that’s potentially groundbreaking.
I guess my question is why is bile blight not played at all given the popularity of humans? It’s still a decent enough removal spell in the format right?
Bile Blight has been mentioned but it isn't popular. In addition to the BB cost, it's really only good in a few match-ups. If one faces those match-ups every Friday then it might be a fine card to play. It might even be worth altering the mana-base for it.
Most Rock players these days are running three or four colorless lands and several G-only lands. BB on turn two is tough for them. If one is hoping to catch multiple cards with the same name, he might not mind waiting to cast Bile Blight, but there's a risk of holding it.
Personally, I prefer Nameless Inversion as a one-of. It has different strengths and weaknesses and is only popular in Delirium lists. I'm still hoping to get Haakon going with it once before I die. Yes, I have one copy of Haakon in my side-board. I know it's bad, don't bother telling me it's bad but if I ever pull off even two castings of Nameless off of him, it's going to be glorious!
I was thinking about the games I tend to lose with GB Rock the other day. While some matchups are just not particularly great and are an uphill battle from the dice roll (Valakut), I noticed that I most often lose games through not being able to develop my mana base properly while needing to interact. After that realization I began to think about potential changes I could make to the deck to smooth it out. I was looking for something that could provide me land 3 when I got stuck on 2 or dig me closer to it so that I die less with unused resources in hand.
Two quick points:
1)I play with 0 Bobs and 4 Trackers
2) I am already at 25 lands
My first thought was considering BOB. However, I have don't currently like Bob in the format. He often dies without providing any value, his body is mostly irrelevant, and in the matchups where you are trying to develop and interact the life loss is often painful.
This line of thought got me considering merfolk branchwalker. He clearly helps with the problem that I am facing with my list. Pitching the Liliana you cannot cast or just straight up finding the land you need seems to be ideal. The extra point of power and toughness (when you don't find the land) makes trading more feasible, and he has synergy with both goyf and tireless tracker. On top of that he is another 2 drop that can be played early in the matchups where we need to be the aggressor that we can use to begin pressuring the life total.
My biggest concern with branchwalker is that the overall power level of the card is clearly lower or that the 3/2 body will not be a deterrent in enough matchups to be a bonus.
I tested some against my buddy playing humans the other day and the results were positive. Several times, I was very much hoping to have one to play out to propel me toward my 3rd or 4th land and the body often helped to gum up the ground and slow down an attack for a turn or two. This usually resulted in him before forced to extend further into my removal or the 2 sideboard sweepers I play. Obviously, further testing will be required.
If anyone is not afraid to think outside the box and decides to give it a go I would be interested to hear opinions of the results, or thoughts in general.
Interesting idea shikgriz. I only own 2 confidants but I’m definitely going to make some inclusions for 2 branchwalkers. My version is currently similar to Sol Malka’s list running Ghost Quarter, Bauble, Eternal Witness and Traverse. Branchwalker is no bob but I like the potential 3/2 and pseudo surveil(?) since you can draw a land or bin irrelevant cards. Right now I’m testing Ballista and Flayer and they have been ok. My meta with Affinity and humans makes ballista quite nice IMO. I will have to try out Branchwalker next though.
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
Hello Rock pilots. I have a question that I've been mulling over in my mind of late that I think your expertise might provide some valuable insight to.
I am a longtime fan of Thrun and played one or two in all of my midrange decks years ago (often in the main). Then, it seemed like he became less good in the meta, and I moved him to the SB. Eventually, I removed him completely. However, I recently saw this list in the top 16 of the MOCS. I also noticed four U/W Control lists in that top 16; I feel control in general might be on an up-tick with the printing of several new toys in War of the Spark. Thrun can't be countered, can't be hit with any sort of targeted removal, bounce, etc..., can regenerate through non-Wrath non-Terminus sweepers such as Supreme Verdict, and is great at putting a reasonable clock on an opponent or killing a planeswalker. He's not just good against control though. He can help in a variety of match-ups including against aggro as a good blocker and midrange as a difficult to remove threat. Unfortunately, he's incredibly slow against combo.
Kalitas on the other hand is quite strong as well, though it seems most people prefer to SB a copy or two. Obviously, a 3/4 lifelink that creates extra bodies when opposing creatures die is pretty good against creature-based aggro, but since Kalitas doesn't have an enter-the-battlefield or leaves-the-battlefield value trigger attached getting him bounced (say with a Reflector Mage or something) or removed is pretty annoying. The other apparent advantage Kalitas brings is his ability to hose GY creatures and creatures with death triggers; making sure Dredge creatures or Arclight Phoenix stays dead when you kill it is nice. However, it seems to me that Dredge is less popular with all the hate running around lately.
Hello Rock pilots. I have a question that I've been mulling over in my mind of late that I think your expertise might provide some valuable insight to.
I am a longtime fan of Thrun and played one or two in all of my midrange decks years ago (often in the main). Then, it seemed like he became less good in the meta, and I moved him to the SB. Eventually, I removed him completely. However, I recently saw this list in the top 16 of the MOCS. I also noticed four U/W Control lists in that top 16; I feel control in general might be on an up-tick with the printing of several new toys in War of the Spark. Thrun can't be countered, can't be hit with any sort of targeted removal, bounce, etc..., can regenerate through non-Wrath non-Terminus sweepers such as Supreme Verdict, and is great at putting a reasonable clock on an opponent or killing a planeswalker. He's not just good against control though. He can help in a variety of match-ups including against aggro as a good blocker and midrange as a difficult to remove threat. Unfortunately, he's incredibly slow against combo.
Kalitas on the other hand is quite strong as well, though it seems most people prefer to SB a copy or two. Obviously, a 3/4 lifelink that creates extra bodies when opposing creatures die is pretty good against creature-based aggro, but since Kalitas doesn't have an enter-the-battlefield or leaves-the-battlefield value trigger attached getting him bounced (say with a Reflector Mage or something) or removed is pretty annoying. The other apparent advantage Kalitas brings is his ability to hose GY creatures and creatures with death triggers; making sure Dredge creatures or Arclight Phoenix stays dead when you kill it is nice. However, it seems to me that Dredge is less popular with all the hate running around lately.
What do you think?
Sol Malka runs a copy of Thrun main-deck. He has some credibility.
So I’m getting the last of my cards to make this deck tomorrow. I just saw that Diabolic Edict is in Modern Horizons. What do you all think is it a auto include or does it need lots of testing?
I'm not sure why edict is even being mentioned considering triumph is better in every way.
No, it isn't. It can't rid you of a Bob that's going to kill you next turn. It can't get you two life from a Fink to keep you alive for another turn. It can't put a creature that's about to be exiled into the graveyard so that you can recur it later.
Corner cases, yes, and perhaps insignificant, but I'm not sure either belongs main-deck and, excepting LGS environments, I'm not sure either belongs in the 75.
4 Dark Confidant
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Tireless Tracker
Lands
4 Blooming Marsh
3 Field of Ruin
2 Forest
2 Hissing Quagmire
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Swamp
2 Treetop Village
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Assassin's Trophy
2 Fatal Push
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana's Triumph
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Mishra's Bauble
1 Nameless Inversion
3 Thoughtseize
1 Victim of Night
1 Ashiok, Dream Render
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Damnation
2 Damping Sphere
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Languish
1 Life Goes On
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Nissa, Vital Force
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Victim of Night
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
That being said, I’m running two copies of Bile Blight in the 75. One main, one board.. it’s won me multiple games vs. Humans and I know given my experience I can’t possibly have been the one to come up with something that’s potentially groundbreaking.
I guess my question is why is bile blight not played at all given the popularity of humans? It’s still a decent enough removal spell in the format right?
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Bile Blight is very cool. Seeing it mentioned takes me back to my Mono-Black Devotion days (which proved to be my gateway drug into BGx, lol), where I ran a similar split to what you’ve described above. It ticks a lot of the right boxes: instant speed, relatively cheap, multiple potential upsides compared to your typical Doom Blade.
The major reason it doesn’t see play is the BB casting cost. Statistically, you need 20 B sources in your deck to reliably cast Bile Blight on curve. Golgari players should ideally be running 18 B sources in their deck for the purposes of having BB reliably by T3, but even so, most are playing just 17 B sources to squeeze a little more utility into the landbase (myself included), or even fewer (I don’t recommend this). In any case, not even the most reliable and conservative stock BG lists can cast T2 Blight consistently enough to make it a good inclusion IMO; and unlike something like Hymn to Tourach, it’s not worth warping the manabase for.
YouTube Channel, with deck techs, gameplay, analysis, spoiler reviews, and more!
Most Rock players these days are running three or four colorless lands and several G-only lands. BB on turn two is tough for them. If one is hoping to catch multiple cards with the same name, he might not mind waiting to cast Bile Blight, but there's a risk of holding it.
Personally, I prefer Nameless Inversion as a one-of. It has different strengths and weaknesses and is only popular in Delirium lists. I'm still hoping to get Haakon going with it once before I die. Yes, I have one copy of Haakon in my side-board. I know it's bad, don't bother telling me it's bad but if I ever pull off even two castings of Nameless off of him, it's going to be glorious!
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
Two quick points:
1)I play with 0 Bobs and 4 Trackers
2) I am already at 25 lands
My first thought was considering BOB. However, I have don't currently like Bob in the format. He often dies without providing any value, his body is mostly irrelevant, and in the matchups where you are trying to develop and interact the life loss is often painful.
This line of thought got me considering merfolk branchwalker. He clearly helps with the problem that I am facing with my list. Pitching the Liliana you cannot cast or just straight up finding the land you need seems to be ideal. The extra point of power and toughness (when you don't find the land) makes trading more feasible, and he has synergy with both goyf and tireless tracker. On top of that he is another 2 drop that can be played early in the matchups where we need to be the aggressor that we can use to begin pressuring the life total.
My biggest concern with branchwalker is that the overall power level of the card is clearly lower or that the 3/2 body will not be a deterrent in enough matchups to be a bonus.
I tested some against my buddy playing humans the other day and the results were positive. Several times, I was very much hoping to have one to play out to propel me toward my 3rd or 4th land and the body often helped to gum up the ground and slow down an attack for a turn or two. This usually resulted in him before forced to extend further into my removal or the 2 sideboard sweepers I play. Obviously, further testing will be required.
If anyone is not afraid to think outside the box and decides to give it a go I would be interested to hear opinions of the results, or thoughts in general.
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
Thrun, the Last Troll or Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet as a MD inclusion right now? Or both, or neither? Or other???
I am a longtime fan of Thrun and played one or two in all of my midrange decks years ago (often in the main). Then, it seemed like he became less good in the meta, and I moved him to the SB. Eventually, I removed him completely. However, I recently saw this list in the top 16 of the MOCS. I also noticed four U/W Control lists in that top 16; I feel control in general might be on an up-tick with the printing of several new toys in War of the Spark. Thrun can't be countered, can't be hit with any sort of targeted removal, bounce, etc..., can regenerate through non-Wrath non-Terminus sweepers such as Supreme Verdict, and is great at putting a reasonable clock on an opponent or killing a planeswalker. He's not just good against control though. He can help in a variety of match-ups including against aggro as a good blocker and midrange as a difficult to remove threat. Unfortunately, he's incredibly slow against combo.
Kalitas on the other hand is quite strong as well, though it seems most people prefer to SB a copy or two. Obviously, a 3/4 lifelink that creates extra bodies when opposing creatures die is pretty good against creature-based aggro, but since Kalitas doesn't have an enter-the-battlefield or leaves-the-battlefield value trigger attached getting him bounced (say with a Reflector Mage or something) or removed is pretty annoying. The other apparent advantage Kalitas brings is his ability to hose GY creatures and creatures with death triggers; making sure Dredge creatures or Arclight Phoenix stays dead when you kill it is nice. However, it seems to me that Dredge is less popular with all the hate running around lately.
What do you think?
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
Corner cases, yes, and perhaps insignificant, but I'm not sure either belongs main-deck and, excepting LGS environments, I'm not sure either belongs in the 75.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn