I added a Hallowed Fountain in place of my 8th fetch for just this reason. I picked up two Spellskite in MM15 and was thinking of using these against those specific matchups (and burn). I see it as more versatile (and more useful) than Leyline.
I can at least help with the splinter twin question! (My friend plays twin, I play against it quite often)
Several ways you can deal with Twin as a Tokens deck.
If they Pestermite/Exarch on your T3 end step,Path to Exile the creature during their upkeep. Zealous Persecution will blank them doing their combo and will also get rid of the original Pestermite but can also blank Exarch as you mentioned. Ghostly Prison is a nice little card as well that you can use vs more aggressive decks as well to slow them down but it does work against twin. Suppression Field which is a cheaper version of linvala with no 3/4 body. I don't know how many 4 drops you really want to run in tokens. I usually only run 4 with 2 Hero of Bladehold 2 Sorin Solemn Visitor, but I run a more aggressive tokens list. Auriok Champion maybe as a 3 of? The protection limits how they can remove her, usually not able to out right kill her instead having to bounce her back to your hand. She can definitely stall them. Plus Lifegain! Turn Spectral procession into... spectral procession +3 life!
Why Path during their upkeep? I would want the Pestermite gone and do it EOT or if they're just jamming it with four mana then Path it in response to the Twin.
Suppression Field seems sweet, but it hits your fetches and so you may have to build around it a little more. And it turns off Sorin.
Ghostly Prison seems the best bet with Auriok Champion. If you can get both into play, it taxes their Cryptics way too much.
You deny them the extra land for their turn, and if they counter it potentially leaves their mana tapped for your next turn besides keeping them off of casting twin.
Why Path during their upkeep? I would want the Pestermite gone and do it EOT or if they're just jamming it with four mana then Path it in response to the Twin.
Mostly to not give them the free land, since it comes into play tapped.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My posts end threads
Decks
Modern BGR Jund RGB BW Eldrazi and Taxes WB BWGAbzan CompanyGWB
Did miserable tonight. Draws just were not on my side. Still slaughtered Affinity and UR Delver. Lost to Twin, Elves, and an Abzan Hatebears deck that turn 2 Stifled a fetchland with Aven Mindcensor. I only had three fetches in my hand as lands...
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
What the deck lacks in card advantage it gains from being able to activate Windbrisk Heights. A lot of people complain about the land coming into play tapped, but it is the only way that you can balance the deck being mana hungry for Sorin, Vault, Secure the Wastes, Lingering Souls, and Spectral Procession with not flooding. You do have to have a lower curve with Bitterblossom to either play Heights on turn 1 or to be able to cast it turn 3 after jamming BB the turn before.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
I played 3 games against GW hatebears. I lost 1-2. I felt could've won the match if I 1.) played better, 2.) could've drawn removal vs his Gaddock Teeg. His Teeg locked out my Spectral Procession and I kept drawing them!
After those 3 games, I feel my opening hand tends to be very clunky and awkward. I feel I don't have any good play (aside from Thoughtseize and IoK) until turn 3. By that time I've already fallen behind. Hero of Bladehold needs to move to the SB. The deck doesn't seem to curve very well. How do I improve this? What else would you change?
If you have one Flagstones in play and play another, it lets you fetch a plains, which means it's an auto-fetchland. You can also kill it with your ghost quarters to fetch two lands, if you should notice you do not need the quarters in certaim matchups.
That seems really bad against Blood Moon.
And GW Hatebears isn't an awful matchup if you can get an anthem into play. You are larger than most of their most creatures and if you can keep Thalia off the board you can grind through their creatures and removal. That being said I haven't played against Collected Company out of these lists so maybe that makes it tougher.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
I put Flagstones there because I have them. I just use them to thin the deck. That's all. Later I last night I realized it makes me susceptible to Blood Moon. But looking at everyone else's list a lot of people run other non-basic lands. They'd get hurt by Moon too.
I'll try the Raise the Alarm. I didn't like it at first, because I liked the evasions of the spirit tokens. But another 3cmc card is just too awkward.
I put Flagstones there because I have them. I just use them to thin the deck. That's all. Later I last night I realized it makes me susceptible to Blood Moon. But looking at everyone else's list a lot of people run other non-basic lands. They'd get hurt by Moon too.
Running nonbasics to get BW or to provide utility makes sense and worth the risk. To run a nonbasic that could just as easily be a Plains in order to get a statistically minimal advantage from deck thinning just seems asking for it.
unfortunately I did not have a chance to test it yet, so i can't tell. On paper it looks good versus few decks but i am not sure. It's experiment.
Yeah, I have tested the card in the past, but only ever got to cast it once in a match where it didn't matter. That slot in my sideboard has fluctuated between Nevermore, Stain, and now Leyline. I wish there was a better answer to unfair decks.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
Why wouldn't we use Revoke Existence? The downside of being at sorcery speed doesn't seem that big against Blood Moon and Revoke Existence exiles, so it deals better with a Wurmcoil Engine. I'm going to test it when I can get some.
Why wouldn't we use Revoke Existence? The downside of being at sorcery speed doesn't seem that big against Blood Moon and Revoke Existence exiles, so it deals better with a Wurmcoil Engine. I'm going to test it when I can get some.
If you have two nonbasics, in response to the Blood Moon, you can float mana and then cast Disenchant at instant speed. You want instant speed if you want that effect.
Went 4-2 in the IQ good enough for 11th out of 53 people. Rather disappointing overall given how much Affinity was in the room.
[b]
Round 1, Affinity (2-1, 1-0)[/b]
Played against a dude who I have played once before at a store. He dreads the matchup. Game 1, I Inquisition an Etched Champion, but he rips a second. He gets me after suiting it up with Plating. Game 2, I play Bitterblossom and get there with some Anthems. Game 3, I Inquistion him nailing Whipflare leaving a Plating and I have the Disenchant for his Plating when he goes to equip it to a Champion. Thwarted, he tries to go all in with Ravager on a Champion and I win the race with Auriok Champion gaining me life off of Procession and Lingering Souls.
[b]Round 2, Infect (0-2, 1-1)[/b]
Bad player beats me. This guy was sequencing things wrong and misplaying his cards, but he just had it. Game 1, he does the slow grind, because he cheaps using his pump spells to kill tokens rather than go in on the unblocked one. Should have beat me turns earlier. He was using Become Immense and Mutagenic Growth to keep stuff alive, which ultimately just opened up him to removal that I sadly didn't have. Game 2, I don't have the second and third Zealous Persecution that I had when I loved this matchup. I keep a Thoughtseize and Path hand. Trade off with a lot of his stuff and finally he goes to Become Immense an Ichorclaw and his last card is an Apostle's Blessing to counter my Disenchant. With no BB tokens and just Souls, he kills me.
[b]Round 3, BW Aristocrats(2-1, 2-1)
Local guy from the shop who doesn't play much modern, but is a competent deckbuilder. He is basically playing similar list to what I was playing minus the token generators outside of Lingering for stuff like Geralf's Messenger, Cartel Aristocrat, and Blood Artist. Game 1, he gets there with Blood Artist making my trades awkward after Sorin, Lord of Innistrad emblems got me to a low life total. Game 2, I get him with an Auriok Champion into a million tokens from Lingering and Spectral Procession that I was able to keep ripping. A sorin finished him off. Game 3, I am able to get a Rest in Peace off of Windbrisk Heights nailing a Lingerining in the yard and negating any value that a Doomed Traveler, which he blocked with, would have gained him. Intangible Virtue just makes our Spirits much better than his when Blood Artist can't even trigger off of them.
[b]Round 4, Affinity (2-1, 3-1)[/b]
Game 1, I rip a Mox Opal, his single mana source, from his hand on the play only to lose to doube Steel Overseer that I am never able to find removal for. I hang in the game by ripping token generators with a Sorin on board, but eventually 5/5 Memnites and a 6/6 Vault Skirge get me. Game 2, I turn two a Stony Silence with his board being a bunch of zero mana dudes and a Steel Overseer. Next turn, he plays a Cranial Plating and scoops once I have Intangible Virtue and dorks online. Game 3 was won by the old Auriok Champion into a bajillion spirits tokens. I played way too heavily into Whipflare, but it turns out that he couldn't find any prior to the start of the tournament and so my greed paid off.
[b]Round 5, RUG Twin (1-2, 3-2)[/b]
Match was streamed and can be seen her starting at the 4:07:00 mark: http://www.twitch.tv/topdeckproductions/b/664293081 Long story short, I played rather badly. Game 1, I have two Bitterblossom online and so get there through them, but late in the game, I think he was at 7 life and I could have ticked Sorin up and swung for lethal, but if he has Cryptic than I just get fogged. I still have a Spectral Procession to cast. Instead, I chose to cast Spectral prior to attacking to bait out Cryptic for a counter-tap, which would keep him from drawing more stuff, but would still enable me to threaten lethal. But once he let Spectral resolve, maybe I should assume he doesn't have Cryptic? It was weird, but Twitch chat exploded over it telling me that I missed lethal. Anyways, BB tokens got there the next turn. Game 2, I grind it to a point where I have some Lingering Souls in hand and an Auriok Champion keeping him from comboing off. I cast a discard spell and see Exarch, Pestermite, Twin, and Bolt. Thinking that my life total was under pressure, I take Bolt when I should have taken Pestermite. He would have had to rip Snapcaster or a second Bolt to make that Bolt matter and I should have taken Pestermite, which beats Auriok Champion. When I realize what I did, I just threw the Auriok Champion into the red zone, angry that I punted. Game 3, I draw air when I it gets to the grind and lose.
[b]Round 6, GW Hatebears (2-1, 4-2)[/b]
Game 1, he goes wide with a Brimaz into Wilt-Leaf Liege and gets me dead with my own Bitterblossom. I end the game with a Secure the Wastes and Spectral Procession dead in my hand because of Gaddock Teeg, with a Sorin and another Procession tucked under Windbrisk Heights that I can't cast. Game 2, he has another Gaddock Teeg, but I draw double Anthem and Timely Reinforcements and a Lingering Souls enable me to just outclass his baord. Game 3, I discard him early seeing a Dromoka's Command and a Baneslayer Angel. I remove his early threats with Dismember and Cut. I navigate the game towards making Command bad, eventually he uses it to put a counter on Hierarch and fight my last Spirit, which turns on Timely Reinforcements. When he eventually casts the Baneslayer Angel, I have Hour of Reckoning ready for it and Plague Wind him. Sorin finishes him off a few turns later.
Super disappointing tournament despite a decent but not great finish. Twin is a harder matchup than I initially thought and so need more practice against it. I still haven't figured out how my sideboard should be configured against combo. Hour of Reckoning does work in those midrange matchups and could probably be brought in against Affinity, given that I cut the second Stony Silence. It's frustrating, because I'm just not playing tight enough and when I think I am playing adequately, I'm just not drawing the right part of my deck against combo.
You deny them the extra land for their turn, and if they counter it potentially leaves their mana tapped for your next turn besides keeping them off of casting twin.
Mostly to not give them the free land, since it comes into play tapped.
Decks
Modern
BGR Jund RGB
BW Eldrazi and Taxes WB
BWGAbzan Company GWB
Mtgo Modern
G Company Elves G
WBG Karador GBW
R Daretti R
RG Omnath GR
WRG Modern Burn GRW
WB Modern Tokens BW
DCI Rules Advisor as of 5/18/2015
My dream is to use Stave Off once before I die to stop Twin from going off.
Crawlspace would do well, but it isn't good for much else besides Twin. [edit]And apparently isn't modern legal[/edit].
As far as extra removal, Slaughter Pact is super anti-Twin tech.
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
2x Hero of Bladehold
Removal
4x Path to Exile
1x Dismember
1x Murderous Cut
Hand Jank
3x Thoughtseize
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
Token Generators
4x Spectral Procession
4x Lingering Souls
2x Timely Reinforcements
1x Secure the Wastes
1x White Sun's Zenith
2x Raise the Alarm
4x Intangible Virtue
2x Honor of the Pure
3x Zealous Persecution
Planeswalkers
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Lands
4x Marsh Flats
2x Windswept Heath
4x Godless Shrine
4x Isolated Chapel
2x Vault of the Archangel
2x Windbrisk Heights
4x Plains
1x Swamp
3x Duress
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Batwing Brume
2x Stony Silence
2x Martial Coup
2x Kor Firewalker
1x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Fracturing Gust
Not exactly what I would like it to be at present, but this is what I've got.
WBTokensWB
WBTokensWB
Yeah, Zenith is mostly just a placeholder for a second secure. Secure is just so good.
WBTokensWB
Here's my deck:
4x Spectral Procession
4x Lingering Souls
4x Midnight Haunting
4x Intangible Virtue
3x Zealous Persecution
4x Path to Exile
2x Hero of Bladehold
3x Thoughtseize
3x Inquisition of Kozelik
2x Doomblade
1x Honor of the Pure
4x Marsh Flats
4x Godless Shrine
4x Flagstones of Trokair
10x other lands
After those 3 games, I feel my opening hand tends to be very clunky and awkward. I feel I don't have any good play (aside from Thoughtseize and IoK) until turn 3. By that time I've already fallen behind. Hero of Bladehold needs to move to the SB. The deck doesn't seem to curve very well. How do I improve this? What else would you change?
And GW Hatebears isn't an awful matchup if you can get an anthem into play. You are larger than most of their most creatures and if you can keep Thalia off the board you can grind through their creatures and removal. That being said I haven't played against Collected Company out of these lists so maybe that makes it tougher.
I put Flagstones there because I have them. I just use them to thin the deck. That's all. Later I last night I realized it makes me susceptible to Blood Moon. But looking at everyone else's list a lot of people run other non-basic lands. They'd get hurt by Moon too.
I'll try the Raise the Alarm. I didn't like it at first, because I liked the evasions of the spirit tokens. But another 3cmc card is just too awkward.
Running nonbasics to get BW or to provide utility makes sense and worth the risk. To run a nonbasic that could just as easily be a Plains in order to get a statistically minimal advantage from deck thinning just seems asking for it.
Yeah, I have tested the card in the past, but only ever got to cast it once in a match where it didn't matter. That slot in my sideboard has fluctuated between Nevermore, Stain, and now Leyline. I wish there was a better answer to unfair decks.
Why wouldn't we use Revoke Existence? The downside of being at sorcery speed doesn't seem that big against Blood Moon and Revoke Existence exiles, so it deals better with a Wurmcoil Engine. I'm going to test it when I can get some.
If you have two nonbasics, in response to the Blood Moon, you can float mana and then cast Disenchant at instant speed. You want instant speed if you want that effect.
Went 4-2 in the IQ good enough for 11th out of 53 people. Rather disappointing overall given how much Affinity was in the room.
4 Windswept Heath
3 Windbrisk Heights
2 Isolated Chapel
2 Fetid Heath
3 Godless Shrine
2 Vault of the Archangel
3 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Auriok Champion
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Secure the Wastes
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
4 Path to Exile
1 Murderous Cut
1 Dismember
1 Timely Reinforcements
4 Inquistion of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
1 Fulminator Mage
2 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Rest in Peace
1 Stony Silence
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Disenchant
1 Go for the Throat
1 Hour of Reckoning
1 Aven Mindcensor
[b]
Round 1, Affinity (2-1, 1-0)[/b]
Played against a dude who I have played once before at a store. He dreads the matchup. Game 1, I Inquisition an Etched Champion, but he rips a second. He gets me after suiting it up with Plating. Game 2, I play Bitterblossom and get there with some Anthems. Game 3, I Inquistion him nailing Whipflare leaving a Plating and I have the Disenchant for his Plating when he goes to equip it to a Champion. Thwarted, he tries to go all in with Ravager on a Champion and I win the race with Auriok Champion gaining me life off of Procession and Lingering Souls.
[b]Round 2, Infect (0-2, 1-1)[/b]
Bad player beats me. This guy was sequencing things wrong and misplaying his cards, but he just had it. Game 1, he does the slow grind, because he cheaps using his pump spells to kill tokens rather than go in on the unblocked one. Should have beat me turns earlier. He was using Become Immense and Mutagenic Growth to keep stuff alive, which ultimately just opened up him to removal that I sadly didn't have. Game 2, I don't have the second and third Zealous Persecution that I had when I loved this matchup. I keep a Thoughtseize and Path hand. Trade off with a lot of his stuff and finally he goes to Become Immense an Ichorclaw and his last card is an Apostle's Blessing to counter my Disenchant. With no BB tokens and just Souls, he kills me.
[b]Round 3, BW Aristocrats(2-1, 2-1)
Local guy from the shop who doesn't play much modern, but is a competent deckbuilder. He is basically playing similar list to what I was playing minus the token generators outside of Lingering for stuff like Geralf's Messenger, Cartel Aristocrat, and Blood Artist. Game 1, he gets there with Blood Artist making my trades awkward after Sorin, Lord of Innistrad emblems got me to a low life total. Game 2, I get him with an Auriok Champion into a million tokens from Lingering and Spectral Procession that I was able to keep ripping. A sorin finished him off. Game 3, I am able to get a Rest in Peace off of Windbrisk Heights nailing a Lingerining in the yard and negating any value that a Doomed Traveler, which he blocked with, would have gained him. Intangible Virtue just makes our Spirits much better than his when Blood Artist can't even trigger off of them.
[b]Round 4, Affinity (2-1, 3-1)[/b]
Game 1, I rip a Mox Opal, his single mana source, from his hand on the play only to lose to doube Steel Overseer that I am never able to find removal for. I hang in the game by ripping token generators with a Sorin on board, but eventually 5/5 Memnites and a 6/6 Vault Skirge get me. Game 2, I turn two a Stony Silence with his board being a bunch of zero mana dudes and a Steel Overseer. Next turn, he plays a Cranial Plating and scoops once I have Intangible Virtue and dorks online. Game 3 was won by the old Auriok Champion into a bajillion spirits tokens. I played way too heavily into Whipflare, but it turns out that he couldn't find any prior to the start of the tournament and so my greed paid off.
[b]Round 5, RUG Twin (1-2, 3-2)[/b]
Match was streamed and can be seen her starting at the 4:07:00 mark: http://www.twitch.tv/topdeckproductions/b/664293081 Long story short, I played rather badly. Game 1, I have two Bitterblossom online and so get there through them, but late in the game, I think he was at 7 life and I could have ticked Sorin up and swung for lethal, but if he has Cryptic than I just get fogged. I still have a Spectral Procession to cast. Instead, I chose to cast Spectral prior to attacking to bait out Cryptic for a counter-tap, which would keep him from drawing more stuff, but would still enable me to threaten lethal. But once he let Spectral resolve, maybe I should assume he doesn't have Cryptic? It was weird, but Twitch chat exploded over it telling me that I missed lethal. Anyways, BB tokens got there the next turn. Game 2, I grind it to a point where I have some Lingering Souls in hand and an Auriok Champion keeping him from comboing off. I cast a discard spell and see Exarch, Pestermite, Twin, and Bolt. Thinking that my life total was under pressure, I take Bolt when I should have taken Pestermite. He would have had to rip Snapcaster or a second Bolt to make that Bolt matter and I should have taken Pestermite, which beats Auriok Champion. When I realize what I did, I just threw the Auriok Champion into the red zone, angry that I punted. Game 3, I draw air when I it gets to the grind and lose.
[b]Round 6, GW Hatebears (2-1, 4-2)[/b]
Game 1, he goes wide with a Brimaz into Wilt-Leaf Liege and gets me dead with my own Bitterblossom. I end the game with a Secure the Wastes and Spectral Procession dead in my hand because of Gaddock Teeg, with a Sorin and another Procession tucked under Windbrisk Heights that I can't cast. Game 2, he has another Gaddock Teeg, but I draw double Anthem and Timely Reinforcements and a Lingering Souls enable me to just outclass his baord. Game 3, I discard him early seeing a Dromoka's Command and a Baneslayer Angel. I remove his early threats with Dismember and Cut. I navigate the game towards making Command bad, eventually he uses it to put a counter on Hierarch and fight my last Spirit, which turns on Timely Reinforcements. When he eventually casts the Baneslayer Angel, I have Hour of Reckoning ready for it and Plague Wind him. Sorin finishes him off a few turns later.
Super disappointing tournament despite a decent but not great finish. Twin is a harder matchup than I initially thought and so need more practice against it. I still haven't figured out how my sideboard should be configured against combo. Hour of Reckoning does work in those midrange matchups and could probably be brought in against Affinity, given that I cut the second Stony Silence. It's frustrating, because I'm just not playing tight enough and when I think I am playing adequately, I'm just not drawing the right part of my deck against combo.