most of it was easy if I had boardwipe somewhere in the opener or off the top deck.
Affinity and merfolk played out as such that I didn't get any boardwipe and I had to combo scapeshift to burn down my opponents creatures, since my opponents were either at lethal next turn and above 18 life.
won 3 games on the back of emrakul, the promised end after being forced to use scapeshift for boardwipe. the follow up mind slaver ability made it impossible for my opponents to make any sort of comeback.
Played this deck in both a PPTQ (4-2) and at GP Charlotte (5-4; started 5-1, then lost to UB fae, UB fae and KCI Eggs in annoying fashion three straight rounds to miss day 2) earlier in the year. Have been on Jund, Zoo and Burn lately (mainly Jund, as that's my go-to deck), but I feel RG Titanshift is in a good spot, especially since it just took down the PPTQ at my LGS last weekend. Trying to finalize the 75 I want as I'm gonna take it to a PPTQ this weekend. I'm also really contemplating playing this instead of Jund at GP DFW in a month.
Few quick questions.
1a. Is the one Courser worth it? Or switch it back to the 4th Explore? (I wasn't running the Courser earlier in the year.)
1b. If keeping Courser: 4th Explore, or 2nd Farseek? (4/1 or 3/2 split?)
2. Do I want Melira, Ruric Thar, Tireless Tracker, Shatterstorm, or Crumble to Dust in the board? Maybe even a 2nd Ancient Grudge or Destructive Revelry? I've heard Fog is really good against Zoo, Robots and Infect, so I wanted to try it out, and I don't think I want Grafdigger's right now. But, is my SB good, or do I cut something? (I feel like I like the 15 currently, but Thrun, Relic, EE and Fog seem like the only spots that could honestly be shaved, if need be. Is EE good/needed right now?)
How is our matchup with Abzan Company?
Lost one match to it yesterday and both games the guy managed to combo out to "infinite" life right before I could kill him.
Abzan Company matchup in my opinion depends on how much interaction you run. Personally, between 4 Bolts 3 Angers and 3 Sudden Shock against them the matchup has been fine for me.
Abzan Company matchup in my opinion depends on how much interaction you run. Personally, between 4 Bolts 3 Angers and 3 Sudden Shock against them the matchup has been fine for me.
I agree with you on this. it's all about how much you can kill there creatures. anger main board is better for this matchup. But knowing what to kill and when is even more important.
For example, you can kill kitchen finks to give it the counter before the combo team is complete. This way your coco player can't use eternal witness to bring back what you killed and combo off anyways.
this is just a taste of what you can do to win the match. Honestly the best thing to do is playtest the matchup a lot.
Round 1: Mono Green Devotion
This matchup was not close. Game 1, I bolted his turn 2 Satyr Wayfinder, when he has a Garruk turn 3 for the entwined tooth and nail combo (for Xenagod/ Emrakul)turn 4. Game 2, he played a 4 mana sorcery destroy target noncreature permanent that I did not even know was played in modern, but it worked because it kept me off of Titan mana enough for him to summon a Primal Command Eternal Witness lock down loop untill he Sundering Titaned me for the win.
0-2 Games 0-1 Match
Round 2: Jund
Not much to say here. He goes agressive on me, but I scapeshift turn 4 for the win. Game 2, he gets me down to 8 before he is Titaned out of the game.
2-2 Games 1-1 Match
Round 3: UW Control
Game 1, he durdles with walls while I play a Prime time and kill him. Game 2, he had spreading seas for 2 of my valakuts and ghost quartered the third one. However, two Prime times had the pressure on him and made the 4th Valakut valuable for the win. He had stated he had a lot of hate for the matchup (almost his entire sideboard), but this matchup I still think is favorable even with that.
4-2 Games 2-1 Match
Round 4: Boggles
Game 1, I am able to fog him with a Sakura to block his coroneted Boggle. That is enough for me to scapeshift him turn 4. Game 2, he goes for a quick spiritdancer kill, but he does not have the lifegain to not lose to scapeshift the fourth turn, so he played a Gaddock Teeg when I had 5 mountains and a valakut in play. Unfortunately for him, my hand consisted of Titans, so the plan did not work out. I get rid of his clock while doming him for 12, making the game a wrap. I was scared of Leyline there, but he did not draw it game 2.
6-2 Games 3-1 Match
At this point, because of my tiebreakers I am in 9th as the lowest 9 pointer since my round 1 opponent didnt do well after round 1 (prize payout to top 8), so I get paired down to the 7 pointer.
Round 5: Jund
Game 1, I am about to shift him when he has three cards in hand. He gets me down to 8 life and shows me triple bolt.... I ain't even mad!
Game 2, he gets me down low with a Ravine bob and goyf, but I scapeshift him for 36 the turn before I die.
Game 3 was tense. I had 2 active valakuts and I had to utilize my fetches to clear the way for my baloth and to ensure I did not die. He got rid of all 4 of my scapeshifts with Lost Legacy. I play a Baloth which is doing blocking duty, when I attack with Baloth to give me the out of any ramp spell to search for a land (since he got down to 12 life and I had a mountain in hand) or creature (prime time to win any other to stall). However, if he had drawn a red source besides Ravine he could have had lethal, but he did not draw the red source and I have one turn to topdeck anything but another land... The topdeck is... PRIME TIME! This game had some spectators and was the best game against Jund I have had with this deck (the first one where it felt genuinely close as it is such a good matchup for us). To note, be careful about shortcuts! I farseeked in game 3 to get a stomping ground, played it and before putting my deck down also put down my Valakut from hand at the same time because I was playing a little quicker then I should have (if I had put the deck down this wouldnt be an issue), so it caused a brief moment of confusion. During comp REL I would make sure to be more careful, but during FNM I was a little laxed about it.
I end up in 6th place (yay to horrific breakers!) and wind up with enough credit to get 3 flooded strands for 3 dollars!
The list is still going strong with a great win percentage!! I can not see myself changing the 75 I am so used to anytime soon, as if it is not broken, there is no need to fix it. Hoping to continue the streak next time!
Been testing this for about two weeks. Actually just bought the deck on MTGO yesterday, played practice games for about 5 hours, seems to be pretty strong. The Madcap Experiment revealing Platinum Emperion for no life loss since your life total can't change is great as a turn 3 play, I mean a 4 mana 8/8 with a powerful static ability isn't bad at all really. You buy yourself time to get into your titans/scapeshift/valakut triggers. In games that go longer I ended up hard casting them semi-frequently. A number of decks get shut down hard until they find unconditional/relavent removal, useful against other Valakut decks, Dredge, Affinity, Boggles, Death's Shadow Zoo, Eldrazi, Kiki variants, and fringe decks like 8 Rack, ect.
I'm not a fan of cutting lot of ramp spells for adding another combo in the deck just for buy time. The time you lose for have Platinum Emperion is the time that would have you already win with titan/scapeshift.
Useless vs Valakut : 3 triggers and Platinum Emperion is dead.
Boogles, Bant drazi, kiki play 4 path to exile.
8 Rack have Lili, Victim of Night, Slaughter Pact.
Madcap-Emperion combo is better in deck like blue moon because it can protect it, you can't.
I'm not a fan of cutting lot of ramp spells for adding another combo in the deck just for buy time. The time you lose for have Platinum Emperion is the time that would have you already win with titan/scapeshift.
Useless vs Valakut : 3 triggers and Platinum Emperion is dead.
Boogles, Bant drazi, kiki play 4 path to exile.
8 Rack have Lili, Victim of Night, Slaughter Pact.
Madcap-Emperion combo is better in deck like blue moon because it can protect it, you can't.
I'm still playing 13 ramp spells and 25 land.
Idk maybe test it before you completely disregard it lol. I've found it creates an answer or lose situation for minimal effort, also if played turn 3-4 you create a lot pressure by swinging, sometimes they just can't deal with the turn three 8/8.
Played the exact 75 from post #794 up above in a PPTQ today. You guys never answered my questions from my post, but it's fine. I'm fine.
33 players, 6 rounds (yes, six rounds because of ONE extra player).
W, 2-0, Eltronzi: I had a nice curve; he had no Thought-Knots. Steve blocked big Endless Ones. Game 2 Nature's Claim on Map slowed him down a lot.
W, 2-0, Jund: Nothing to say... it's the reason to play this deck.
W, 2-1, UWR control: Won 2 games through multiple counter spells; just wait until you can cast multiple win-cons in a turn. One game I lost was due to V.Clique, and multiple Bolt-Snap-Bolt interactions with no Steve for blocks.
W, 2-0, Grixis control: He knew what I was on and said he just couldn't win no matter what... games weren't really close (so he was right).
ID, both rounds 5 and 6.
Enter top 8 as #1 seed with insane 73% tie-breakers. I seriously think I unlocked an achievement today as EVERY single person I beat in the swiss (all four) ALL made top 8 and I was their only loss on the day in the swiss... that's an unreal stat!
Top 8: GR Titanshift, Eltronzi, Jund, Grixis ThingInTheIce/Pyromancer Ascension, UWR control, Simic Eldrazi Emerge, Abzan, Grixis control
Top 8 - W, 2-1, UWR control from round 3: I lost one game due to a Crumble to Dust. Played the land-go game and took it very slowly and eventually eeked it out. Thrun was also great at keeping him at bay. Land drops are good.
Top 4 - L, 0-2, Eltronzi from round 1: Man, did he save his nutso draws for this game. Map into Spellskite into Thought-Knot into Smasher both games. He also Warping Wail'd my Scapeshift game 1. #feelsbadman ((I seriously hate losing to someone in the top 8 that you already beat in the swiss. This guy ended up winnning the PPTQ.))
I feel I got lucky dodging burn, robots and infect. Was very happy with the deck overall and am going to run back the same 75 tomorrow at another PPTQ.
All-stars on the day: Obstinate Baloth, Thrun and Nature's Claim. Courser was ok... still not sure if I don't just want the 4th Explore. Also didn't really play Explosives nor Sudden Shock so I can't comment on their usefulness, but I feel that's more the match-ups I faced than anything else. Definitely loving this deck!
Congratulations. I played in a Grand Prix Trial for Dallas. 31 players for 5 rounds.
Round 1 vs. UR Delver. He does some quick Monastery Swiftspear with a bunch of spells every turn while I kept a 5 card hand with double Mountain and didn't play a spell. In the next game, I get off a very early Scapeshift and he is slightly slow. When they have time to cast a Bedlam Reveler, you usually have survived a while. In the last game, I play an Obstinate Baloth after taking a bunch of Monastery Swiftspear and 1/3 flying Prowess beats. He plays a turn 4 Mutagenic Growth after Git Probe and Serum Visions into Temur Battle Rage. Exact lethal after I block the Monastery Swiftspear. 1-2.
Round 2 vs. Grixis Control. He got a deck registration error game loss and in the last game, after Mana Leaking a Scapeshift, he didn't have another and the next Scapeshift won it. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Bant Eldrazi. In the first game, he starts slowly and my hand is all lands, ramp, and Khalni Heart Expeditions. I end up doing lethal with 2 Khalni Heart Expeditions for the last 4 basics in my deck to double Valakut for 24 damage. In the next game, he did a good job with a slow hand to leave up Negate mana. He taps down to 1 Blue source and I decide not to play around Stubborn Denial with Reality Smasher just cast. He has it for my Scapeshift and Smashers get me the next turn. In the next game after a mull to a weak 6, turn 2 Thought-Knot Seer takes my ramp, but I barely get enough Khalni Heart Expeditions to get lethal after killing a Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher. 2-1.
Round 4 vs. Nacatl Burn. In the first game after a mull to 5, I have almost nothing and double Goblin Guides smash my face. She taps out for Wild Nacatl and Grim Lavamancer with me at 7 and 1 card in hand. I think, there's no way I draw Anger of the Gods. Yep, I draw another land drop. In the next game, I got an Obstinate Baloth into 3 open mana and 5 cards in hand. It resolves and he gets there after swinging and having some chumps. Lotta lands for her. In the last game, I basically am a turn short of getting Prime Time in. I had good ramp, lands, and Titan, but couldn't draw any more ramp or ANY burn to humble some of her creatures. 1-2.
Round 5 vs. Mardu. In the first game, I play around a Lily and Nahiri, the Harbinger by discarding something other than Scapeshift and then drawing a Search for Tomorrow into it to win. In the next game, I do a similar thing. He double Inquisition of Kozileks me again, but I draw Titan into Scapeshift and win again. 2-0.
I finish 3-2, but get 9th place with 47% OMWP! So low; everyone I played did poorly except the first guy and the Burn player.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Hey guys, I have been gone for a couple of months because life got crazy. But I am back now. I'm really happy to see new faces talking about the deck and I am especially happy with how well everyone is doing. And my meta changed while I was away and I am positioned pretty well right now.
I went 3-1 last week and tonight with a list that I will post tomorrow. I will also go a little more in-depth tomorrow about matches.
Round 1 Infect. I get crushed like normal. I could have forced a slightly longer game two if I didn't misplay but I was still very dead too quickly.
Games 0-2 -- Matches 0-1
Round 2 UR Thing with Mainboard Blood moon. Lose game one to blood moon. Answer it game two, win through it Game 3
Games 2-3 -- Matches 1-1
Round 3 RUG Delver. Normally a bad matchup. Get there game 1 and my opponent never plays his second land game 2.
Been testing this for about two weeks. Actually just bought the deck on MTGO yesterday, played practice games for about 5 hours, seems to be pretty strong. The Madcap Experiment revealing Platinum Emperion for no life loss since your life total can't change is great as a turn 3 play, I mean a 4 mana 8/8 with a powerful static ability isn't bad at all really. You buy yourself time to get into your titans/scapeshift/valakut triggers. In games that go longer I ended up hard casting them semi-frequently. A number of decks get shut down hard until they find unconditional/relavent removal, useful against other Valakut decks, Dredge, Affinity, Boggles, Death's Shadow Zoo, Eldrazi, Kiki variants, and fringe decks like 8 Rack, ect.
its not bad, but cut a land and put in kessig wolf run so you are giving that platinum emperion trample. hypothetically it, plus wolf run pumps is 10+ damage a turn so that might end the game on its own.
3-1 yesterday.
Lost to Gruul Zoo and on game 3 had a hard decision at one point. Let me bring it to discuss.
He went Devastating Summon sacrificing 3 lands and followed with Bushwhacker, attacking me down to 2 life. His board was four 3/3 creatures. At this point I had Courser, 2 Valakuts, 1 Forest and Cinder Glade on field with a Fog on top. My hand was Search, Sakura, Farseek, Titan. He was at 14 life.
Drew the Fog and to top card was Baloth.
This is where the decisions came.
Line 1 was play STE intending not to crack, play the Fog when he attacks, draw Baloth. I would play Baloth going up to 6 life (possibly 7 from a land on top with Courser). I would have 3 blockers, two of which would stay alive, and take 3 damage down to 4 after the life gained from Sakura's land. My turn I probably would be able to play the Titan and lock the game.
Line 2 was cast Search to get a basic and going up to 3 and 5 lands and having a shot at a land from the top to go to 4 life and 6 lands. Playing Fog on attackers, drawing a new card on my turn and having the 7th land (going to 5 life), casting Titan going to 7 life, activating 2 Valakuts to wipe the board and in a position to win on the next turn.
I would have cast the search, used fog on his turn. Depending on board state and draw on my next turn I would have cast titan or STE. Either way your in a rough spot but with a whole bunch of top draws that are straight up value, basically any card in your deck is a good draw except another titan or ramp.
That is what I like about this deck you can put yourself in really great position for top draws if things aren't going as smooth as you want. I mean 20 or 30 outs in a deck that has 60 cards is so much sweeter then 1 or 2.
Has anyone tried using Ruric Thar? Not sure if it would be viable, but I think it's definitely a fun card to drop. It forces them to deal with it (punishing them in the process), or lose, while we can just sit back and play lands (bolting things), building up resources, etc. I'm gonna try it out and see how it works next FNM, probably.
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MODERN GBCombo ElvesBG UExtra TurnsU UWCheeriosWU
EDH RGURiku of Two ReflectionsRGU (Combo / Creature Toolbox) BWKarlov of the Ghost CouncilWB (Control / Aggro) GWSelvala, Explorer ReturnedWG (Goodstuff) RUWNarset, Enlightened MasterWUR (Superfriends)
I would have cast the search, used fog on his turn. Depending on board state and draw on my next turn I would have cast titan or STE. Either way your in a rough spot but with a whole bunch of top draws that are straight up value, basically any card in your deck is a good draw except another titan or ramp.
That is what I like about this deck you can put yourself in really great position for top draws if things aren't going as smooth as you want. I mean 20 or 30 outs in a deck that has 60 cards is so much sweeter then 1 or 2.
I believe that this is the correct play and I'd probably make it as well. The only reason I say probably is because I may get locked into thinking about the wrong line - a less successful one. (It's not always easy to choose correctly in the heat of a battle and from what you've seen from your opponent already.)
Just as an example of this, I lost to UR Delver to a line that I took, but after thinking about it after the match, I realized that the correct line was wrong in this one instance. I still was all right that I took it since I don't know my opponent's hand.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
It was a really hard decision to make on the spot.
I choose to play Search and hold Fog intending to cast Titan next turn.
But I had the bad luck to find as my 7th land a third Valakut, so when I played Titan I only had 5 mountains and couldn't wipe his board. I still had 7 life and 2 blockers, but he had Mutagenic to kill me.
I think the other line would be better, as Baloth would give me a lot of life and blocking potential (even though it would probably be killed by the Mutagenic). Then the Titan would come in giving me more life and I should probably be able to trigger the Valakuts (if I found mountains on my top).
If I had found Anger the game would be pretty much over, since my land drops took me out of Bolt range and that deck plays very few lands, so it would be unlikely that he found more than 1.
Anyway, it was a really hard situation and both lines had ups and downs. At the moment both of them looked equally right on their own aspect. Brought the discussion because it's interesting to see other oppinions.
We did it again. Back-to-back top 8's. Two PPTQ's, two days, two top 8's! Didn't take either of them home, but this just solidified my choice for GP DFW in a month.
17 players, 5 rounds, cut to top 8.
W, 2-0, Eltronzi: He stumbled on mana both games, didn't have any Thought-Knots, and I was able to Anger away his small Endless Ones. Multiple Steves (Sakura) were able to fog/ramp until we got to Scapeshift; he didn't have the Warping Wail to counter either game.
W, 2-0, Affinity: COMPLETELY surprised I won this match, especially game 1. He came out of the gates really fast with Vault Skirge, Overseer, two Arcbounds and some man-lands. I ramped once and on turn 4 had five mana and cast Anger. He sacked to Arcbound, and in response, I bolted, he sacked more and in response, I bolted again... he lost his whole board and couldn't recover. Game 2, he mulled to four... I love winning as much as the next guy but hate winning like that.
L, 1-2, Bogles: Man, Rancor is annoying as Steve can't fog/block/ramp due to trample. I died very fast game one to a giant lifelinking dude. Game 2, he was a tad bit slower and I just ramped really hard ignoring everything he was doing. Khalni Heart was an all-star and I Scapeshifted on 8 lands hitting him for 36 when he was at 29 life. Game 3 was very awkward as he kept a one-lander but DOUBLE white Leyline hand. His one land was Dryad Arbor so it had summoning sickness turn 1. I couldn't touch him (due to Leyline) so I just ramped really hard trying to draw to Nature's Claims or PrimeTime. I eventually got to a live Valakut while he was still on only one land so I killed his land with a trigger. He never drew his second land but I literally died to a 3/3 creature when he had ZERO lands on the battlefield because I couldn't draw a Steve, Fog, or PrimeTime to block... very frustrating.
W, 2-0, Jund: Nothing to say again... it's the reason to play this deck, and was a nice gift to put me into top 8. Opponent was very gracious in defeat. (*Spoiler: This guy ended up winning the whole thing.*)
ID, round 5 (with Burn, which also puts him in top 8).
Top 8: GR Titanshift, Eltronzi, Jund, Bant Eldrazi, Abzan CoCo, Bogles, Dredge, Burn
Top 8 - L, 0-2, Dredge: I literally have never played against this deck with Titanshift before, so I'm not sure how well the match should go. Game 1 he killed me one turn before I could Scapeshift him. I bolted a few of his early creatures, but they just come back and Faithless Looting with double Dredge 6 is VERY good. Game 2 I kept a 4-lander, Steve, Baloth, PrimeTime hand as I figured ramp and life-gain would get me there... I was wrong. As much as it sucks to mulligan, I feel you HAVE to mulligan to an Anger or a Relic in this match-up as they are just too fast for us in the "fair" game. Definitely a frustrating end to another decent tournament for me!
I loved how diverse the field was and I'm glad I keep avoiding Burn and Infect. Definitely happy with the 75 and don't feel I need to make any changes. Baloth again was the best card out of the board for the 2nd day in a row.
The Jund player ended up winning the whole thing, as the matches were:
Top 8: Dredge over Titanshift, Burn over Eltronzi, Jund over Bogles, Abzan CoCo over Bant Eldrazi
Top 4: Jund over Abzan CoCo, Burn over Dredge
Finals: Jund over Burn
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beat affinity, Naya Zoo, merfolk, elves.
most of it was easy if I had boardwipe somewhere in the opener or off the top deck.
Affinity and merfolk played out as such that I didn't get any boardwipe and I had to combo scapeshift to burn down my opponents creatures, since my opponents were either at lethal next turn and above 18 life.
won 3 games on the back of emrakul, the promised end after being forced to use scapeshift for boardwipe. the follow up mind slaver ability made it impossible for my opponents to make any sort of comeback.
still on the fence about running courser of kruphix in the main, over obstinate baloth
i'm down to 2 khalni heart expedition up to 4 oath of nissa, if i was to add more Khalni, i'd probably cut their to add a 3rd.
1 Courser of Kruphix
4 Primeval Titan
3 Khalni Heart Expedition
2 Anger of the Gods
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Explore
2 Farseek
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Scapeshift
3 Cinder Glade
3 Forest
7 Mountain
3 Stomping Ground
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
3 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Fog
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Nature's Claim
2 Sudden Shock
1 Anger of the Gods
Played this deck in both a PPTQ (4-2) and at GP Charlotte (5-4; started 5-1, then lost to UB fae, UB fae and KCI Eggs in annoying fashion three straight rounds to miss day 2) earlier in the year. Have been on Jund, Zoo and Burn lately (mainly Jund, as that's my go-to deck), but I feel RG Titanshift is in a good spot, especially since it just took down the PPTQ at my LGS last weekend. Trying to finalize the 75 I want as I'm gonna take it to a PPTQ this weekend. I'm also really contemplating playing this instead of Jund at GP DFW in a month.
Few quick questions.
1a. Is the one Courser worth it? Or switch it back to the 4th Explore? (I wasn't running the Courser earlier in the year.)
1b. If keeping Courser: 4th Explore, or 2nd Farseek? (4/1 or 3/2 split?)
2. Do I want Melira, Ruric Thar, Tireless Tracker, Shatterstorm, or Crumble to Dust in the board? Maybe even a 2nd Ancient Grudge or Destructive Revelry? I've heard Fog is really good against Zoo, Robots and Infect, so I wanted to try it out, and I don't think I want Grafdigger's right now. But, is my SB good, or do I cut something? (I feel like I like the 15 currently, but Thrun, Relic, EE and Fog seem like the only spots that could honestly be shaved, if need be. Is EE good/needed right now?)
Lost one match to it yesterday and both games the guy managed to combo out to "infinite" life right before I could kill him.
Do we aggressivly mull to our interaction spells?
WGUBR 5c Humans
GWR Naya Zoo
Legacy:
GW GW Maverick
R Goblins
I agree with you on this. it's all about how much you can kill there creatures. anger main board is better for this matchup. But knowing what to kill and when is even more important.
For example, you can kill kitchen finks to give it the counter before the combo team is complete. This way your coco player can't use eternal witness to bring back what you killed and combo off anyways.
this is just a taste of what you can do to win the match. Honestly the best thing to do is playtest the matchup a lot.
Round 1: Mono Green Devotion
This matchup was not close. Game 1, I bolted his turn 2 Satyr Wayfinder, when he has a Garruk turn 3 for the entwined tooth and nail combo (for Xenagod/ Emrakul)turn 4. Game 2, he played a 4 mana sorcery destroy target noncreature permanent that I did not even know was played in modern, but it worked because it kept me off of Titan mana enough for him to summon a Primal Command Eternal Witness lock down loop untill he Sundering Titaned me for the win.
0-2 Games 0-1 Match
Round 2: Jund
Not much to say here. He goes agressive on me, but I scapeshift turn 4 for the win. Game 2, he gets me down to 8 before he is Titaned out of the game.
2-2 Games 1-1 Match
Round 3: UW Control
Game 1, he durdles with walls while I play a Prime time and kill him. Game 2, he had spreading seas for 2 of my valakuts and ghost quartered the third one. However, two Prime times had the pressure on him and made the 4th Valakut valuable for the win. He had stated he had a lot of hate for the matchup (almost his entire sideboard), but this matchup I still think is favorable even with that.
4-2 Games 2-1 Match
Round 4: Boggles
Game 1, I am able to fog him with a Sakura to block his coroneted Boggle. That is enough for me to scapeshift him turn 4. Game 2, he goes for a quick spiritdancer kill, but he does not have the lifegain to not lose to scapeshift the fourth turn, so he played a Gaddock Teeg when I had 5 mountains and a valakut in play. Unfortunately for him, my hand consisted of Titans, so the plan did not work out. I get rid of his clock while doming him for 12, making the game a wrap. I was scared of Leyline there, but he did not draw it game 2.
6-2 Games 3-1 Match
At this point, because of my tiebreakers I am in 9th as the lowest 9 pointer since my round 1 opponent didnt do well after round 1 (prize payout to top 8), so I get paired down to the 7 pointer.
Round 5: Jund
Game 1, I am about to shift him when he has three cards in hand. He gets me down to 8 life and shows me triple bolt.... I ain't even mad!
Game 2, he gets me down low with a Ravine bob and goyf, but I scapeshift him for 36 the turn before I die.
Game 3 was tense. I had 2 active valakuts and I had to utilize my fetches to clear the way for my baloth and to ensure I did not die. He got rid of all 4 of my scapeshifts with Lost Legacy. I play a Baloth which is doing blocking duty, when I attack with Baloth to give me the out of any ramp spell to search for a land (since he got down to 12 life and I had a mountain in hand) or creature (prime time to win any other to stall). However, if he had drawn a red source besides Ravine he could have had lethal, but he did not draw the red source and I have one turn to topdeck anything but another land... The topdeck is... PRIME TIME! This game had some spectators and was the best game against Jund I have had with this deck (the first one where it felt genuinely close as it is such a good matchup for us). To note, be careful about shortcuts! I farseeked in game 3 to get a stomping ground, played it and before putting my deck down also put down my Valakut from hand at the same time because I was playing a little quicker then I should have (if I had put the deck down this wouldnt be an issue), so it caused a brief moment of confusion. During comp REL I would make sure to be more careful, but during FNM I was a little laxed about it.
I end up in 6th place (yay to horrific breakers!) and wind up with enough credit to get 3 flooded strands for 3 dollars!
The list is still going strong with a great win percentage!! I can not see myself changing the 75 I am so used to anytime soon, as if it is not broken, there is no need to fix it. Hoping to continue the streak next time!
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Cinder Glade
4 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
6 Mountain
3 Forest
Creatures:
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Primeval Titan
3 Platinum Emperion
4 Madcap Experiment
3 Scapeshift
4 Anger of the Gods
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Farseek
4 Search for Tomorrow
1 Explore
2 Fracturing Gust
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Crumble to Dust
3 Magma Spray
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Thragtusk
1 Sudden Shock
Been testing this for about two weeks. Actually just bought the deck on MTGO yesterday, played practice games for about 5 hours, seems to be pretty strong. The Madcap Experiment revealing Platinum Emperion for no life loss since your life total can't change is great as a turn 3 play, I mean a 4 mana 8/8 with a powerful static ability isn't bad at all really. You buy yourself time to get into your titans/scapeshift/valakut triggers. In games that go longer I ended up hard casting them semi-frequently. A number of decks get shut down hard until they find unconditional/relavent removal, useful against other Valakut decks, Dredge, Affinity, Boggles, Death's Shadow Zoo, Eldrazi, Kiki variants, and fringe decks like 8 Rack, ect.
Useless vs Valakut : 3 triggers and Platinum Emperion is dead.
Boogles, Bant drazi, kiki play 4 path to exile.
8 Rack have Lili, Victim of Night, Slaughter Pact.
Madcap-Emperion combo is better in deck like blue moon because it can protect it, you can't.
RG Titan Scapeshift GR
UBWAd Nauseam WBU
CEldrazi TronC
I'm still playing 13 ramp spells and 25 land.
Idk maybe test it before you completely disregard it lol. I've found it creates an answer or lose situation for minimal effort, also if played turn 3-4 you create a lot pressure by swinging, sometimes they just can't deal with the turn three 8/8.
33 players, 6 rounds (yes, six rounds because of ONE extra player).
W, 2-0, Eltronzi: I had a nice curve; he had no Thought-Knots. Steve blocked big Endless Ones. Game 2 Nature's Claim on Map slowed him down a lot.
W, 2-0, Jund: Nothing to say... it's the reason to play this deck.
W, 2-1, UWR control: Won 2 games through multiple counter spells; just wait until you can cast multiple win-cons in a turn. One game I lost was due to V.Clique, and multiple Bolt-Snap-Bolt interactions with no Steve for blocks.
W, 2-0, Grixis control: He knew what I was on and said he just couldn't win no matter what... games weren't really close (so he was right).
ID, both rounds 5 and 6.
Enter top 8 as #1 seed with insane 73% tie-breakers. I seriously think I unlocked an achievement today as EVERY single person I beat in the swiss (all four) ALL made top 8 and I was their only loss on the day in the swiss... that's an unreal stat!
Top 8: GR Titanshift, Eltronzi, Jund, Grixis ThingInTheIce/Pyromancer Ascension, UWR control, Simic Eldrazi Emerge, Abzan, Grixis control
Top 8 - W, 2-1, UWR control from round 3: I lost one game due to a Crumble to Dust. Played the land-go game and took it very slowly and eventually eeked it out. Thrun was also great at keeping him at bay. Land drops are good.
Top 4 - L, 0-2, Eltronzi from round 1: Man, did he save his nutso draws for this game. Map into Spellskite into Thought-Knot into Smasher both games. He also Warping Wail'd my Scapeshift game 1. #feelsbadman ((I seriously hate losing to someone in the top 8 that you already beat in the swiss. This guy ended up winnning the PPTQ.))
I feel I got lucky dodging burn, robots and infect. Was very happy with the deck overall and am going to run back the same 75 tomorrow at another PPTQ.
All-stars on the day: Obstinate Baloth, Thrun and Nature's Claim. Courser was ok... still not sure if I don't just want the 4th Explore. Also didn't really play Explosives nor Sudden Shock so I can't comment on their usefulness, but I feel that's more the match-ups I faced than anything else. Definitely loving this deck!
Round 1 vs. UR Delver. He does some quick Monastery Swiftspear with a bunch of spells every turn while I kept a 5 card hand with double Mountain and didn't play a spell. In the next game, I get off a very early Scapeshift and he is slightly slow. When they have time to cast a Bedlam Reveler, you usually have survived a while. In the last game, I play an Obstinate Baloth after taking a bunch of Monastery Swiftspear and 1/3 flying Prowess beats. He plays a turn 4 Mutagenic Growth after Git Probe and Serum Visions into Temur Battle Rage. Exact lethal after I block the Monastery Swiftspear. 1-2.
Round 2 vs. Grixis Control. He got a deck registration error game loss and in the last game, after Mana Leaking a Scapeshift, he didn't have another and the next Scapeshift won it. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Bant Eldrazi. In the first game, he starts slowly and my hand is all lands, ramp, and Khalni Heart Expeditions. I end up doing lethal with 2 Khalni Heart Expeditions for the last 4 basics in my deck to double Valakut for 24 damage. In the next game, he did a good job with a slow hand to leave up Negate mana. He taps down to 1 Blue source and I decide not to play around Stubborn Denial with Reality Smasher just cast. He has it for my Scapeshift and Smashers get me the next turn. In the next game after a mull to a weak 6, turn 2 Thought-Knot Seer takes my ramp, but I barely get enough Khalni Heart Expeditions to get lethal after killing a Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher. 2-1.
Round 4 vs. Nacatl Burn. In the first game after a mull to 5, I have almost nothing and double Goblin Guides smash my face. She taps out for Wild Nacatl and Grim Lavamancer with me at 7 and 1 card in hand. I think, there's no way I draw Anger of the Gods. Yep, I draw another land drop. In the next game, I got an Obstinate Baloth into 3 open mana and 5 cards in hand. It resolves and he gets there after swinging and having some chumps. Lotta lands for her. In the last game, I basically am a turn short of getting Prime Time in. I had good ramp, lands, and Titan, but couldn't draw any more ramp or ANY burn to humble some of her creatures. 1-2.
Round 5 vs. Mardu. In the first game, I play around a Lily and Nahiri, the Harbinger by discarding something other than Scapeshift and then drawing a Search for Tomorrow into it to win. In the next game, I do a similar thing. He double Inquisition of Kozileks me again, but I draw Titan into Scapeshift and win again. 2-0.
I finish 3-2, but get 9th place with 47% OMWP! So low; everyone I played did poorly except the first guy and the Burn player.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I went 3-1 last week and tonight with a list that I will post tomorrow. I will also go a little more in-depth tomorrow about matches.
Round 1 Infect. I get crushed like normal. I could have forced a slightly longer game two if I didn't misplay but I was still very dead too quickly.
Games 0-2 -- Matches 0-1
Round 2 UR Thing with Mainboard Blood moon. Lose game one to blood moon. Answer it game two, win through it Game 3
Games 2-3 -- Matches 1-1
Round 3 RUG Delver. Normally a bad matchup. Get there game 1 and my opponent never plays his second land game 2.
Games 4-3 -- Matches 2-1
Round 3 Jund. 3 grindy games. Eventually win
Games 6-4 -- Matches 3-1
Marath, Will of the Wild Tokens!! / Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund Dragons! / Muzzio, Visionary Architect / Brago, King Eternal / Daretti, Scrap Savant / Narset, Enlightened Master / Alesha, Who Smiles at Death / Bruna, Light of Alabaster / Marchesa, the Black Rose / Iroas, God of Victory / Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury / Omnath, Locus of rage / Titania, Protector of Argoth / Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Modern
Elves / Titanshift / Merfolk
its not bad, but cut a land and put in kessig wolf run so you are giving that platinum emperion trample. hypothetically it, plus wolf run pumps is 10+ damage a turn so that might end the game on its own.
Lost to Gruul Zoo and on game 3 had a hard decision at one point. Let me bring it to discuss.
He went Devastating Summon sacrificing 3 lands and followed with Bushwhacker, attacking me down to 2 life. His board was four 3/3 creatures. At this point I had Courser, 2 Valakuts, 1 Forest and Cinder Glade on field with a Fog on top. My hand was Search, Sakura, Farseek, Titan. He was at 14 life.
Drew the Fog and to top card was Baloth.
This is where the decisions came.
Line 1 was play STE intending not to crack, play the Fog when he attacks, draw Baloth. I would play Baloth going up to 6 life (possibly 7 from a land on top with Courser). I would have 3 blockers, two of which would stay alive, and take 3 damage down to 4 after the life gained from Sakura's land. My turn I probably would be able to play the Titan and lock the game.
Line 2 was cast Search to get a basic and going up to 3 and 5 lands and having a shot at a land from the top to go to 4 life and 6 lands. Playing Fog on attackers, drawing a new card on my turn and having the 7th land (going to 5 life), casting Titan going to 7 life, activating 2 Valakuts to wipe the board and in a position to win on the next turn.
What would you guys do?
WGUBR 5c Humans
GWR Naya Zoo
Legacy:
GW GW Maverick
R Goblins
That is what I like about this deck you can put yourself in really great position for top draws if things aren't going as smooth as you want. I mean 20 or 30 outs in a deck that has 60 cards is so much sweeter then 1 or 2.
MODERN
GBCombo ElvesBG
UExtra TurnsU
UWCheeriosWU
EDH
RGURiku of Two ReflectionsRGU (Combo / Creature Toolbox)
BWKarlov of the Ghost CouncilWB (Control / Aggro)
GWSelvala, Explorer ReturnedWG (Goodstuff)
RUWNarset, Enlightened MasterWUR (Superfriends)
I believe that this is the correct play and I'd probably make it as well. The only reason I say probably is because I may get locked into thinking about the wrong line - a less successful one. (It's not always easy to choose correctly in the heat of a battle and from what you've seen from your opponent already.)
Just as an example of this, I lost to UR Delver to a line that I took, but after thinking about it after the match, I realized that the correct line was wrong in this one instance. I still was all right that I took it since I don't know my opponent's hand.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I choose to play Search and hold Fog intending to cast Titan next turn.
But I had the bad luck to find as my 7th land a third Valakut, so when I played Titan I only had 5 mountains and couldn't wipe his board. I still had 7 life and 2 blockers, but he had Mutagenic to kill me.
I think the other line would be better, as Baloth would give me a lot of life and blocking potential (even though it would probably be killed by the Mutagenic). Then the Titan would come in giving me more life and I should probably be able to trigger the Valakuts (if I found mountains on my top).
If I had found Anger the game would be pretty much over, since my land drops took me out of Bolt range and that deck plays very few lands, so it would be unlikely that he found more than 1.
Anyway, it was a really hard situation and both lines had ups and downs. At the moment both of them looked equally right on their own aspect. Brought the discussion because it's interesting to see other oppinions.
WGUBR 5c Humans
GWR Naya Zoo
Legacy:
GW GW Maverick
R Goblins
17 players, 5 rounds, cut to top 8.
W, 2-0, Eltronzi: He stumbled on mana both games, didn't have any Thought-Knots, and I was able to Anger away his small Endless Ones. Multiple Steves (Sakura) were able to fog/ramp until we got to Scapeshift; he didn't have the Warping Wail to counter either game.
W, 2-0, Affinity: COMPLETELY surprised I won this match, especially game 1. He came out of the gates really fast with Vault Skirge, Overseer, two Arcbounds and some man-lands. I ramped once and on turn 4 had five mana and cast Anger. He sacked to Arcbound, and in response, I bolted, he sacked more and in response, I bolted again... he lost his whole board and couldn't recover. Game 2, he mulled to four... I love winning as much as the next guy but hate winning like that.
L, 1-2, Bogles: Man, Rancor is annoying as Steve can't fog/block/ramp due to trample. I died very fast game one to a giant lifelinking dude. Game 2, he was a tad bit slower and I just ramped really hard ignoring everything he was doing. Khalni Heart was an all-star and I Scapeshifted on 8 lands hitting him for 36 when he was at 29 life. Game 3 was very awkward as he kept a one-lander but DOUBLE white Leyline hand. His one land was Dryad Arbor so it had summoning sickness turn 1. I couldn't touch him (due to Leyline) so I just ramped really hard trying to draw to Nature's Claims or PrimeTime. I eventually got to a live Valakut while he was still on only one land so I killed his land with a trigger. He never drew his second land but I literally died to a 3/3 creature when he had ZERO lands on the battlefield because I couldn't draw a Steve, Fog, or PrimeTime to block... very frustrating.
W, 2-0, Jund: Nothing to say again... it's the reason to play this deck, and was a nice gift to put me into top 8. Opponent was very gracious in defeat. (*Spoiler: This guy ended up winning the whole thing.*)
ID, round 5 (with Burn, which also puts him in top 8).
Top 8: GR Titanshift, Eltronzi, Jund, Bant Eldrazi, Abzan CoCo, Bogles, Dredge, Burn
Top 8 - L, 0-2, Dredge: I literally have never played against this deck with Titanshift before, so I'm not sure how well the match should go. Game 1 he killed me one turn before I could Scapeshift him. I bolted a few of his early creatures, but they just come back and Faithless Looting with double Dredge 6 is VERY good. Game 2 I kept a 4-lander, Steve, Baloth, PrimeTime hand as I figured ramp and life-gain would get me there... I was wrong. As much as it sucks to mulligan, I feel you HAVE to mulligan to an Anger or a Relic in this match-up as they are just too fast for us in the "fair" game. Definitely a frustrating end to another decent tournament for me!
I loved how diverse the field was and I'm glad I keep avoiding Burn and Infect. Definitely happy with the 75 and don't feel I need to make any changes. Baloth again was the best card out of the board for the 2nd day in a row.
The Jund player ended up winning the whole thing, as the matches were:
Top 8: Dredge over Titanshift, Burn over Eltronzi, Jund over Bogles, Abzan CoCo over Bant Eldrazi
Top 4: Jund over Abzan CoCo, Burn over Dredge
Finals: Jund over Burn