MTG Salvation

If she sticks, she's really good against any blue decks that arnt combo. I didn't get to use her cause either I didn't draw her or she got countered

Hey guys, been awhile since I've posted but figured I'd start doing it again.

I made 35th with Punishing Jund at US EW. It was fun and hard, especially with facing two very hard matchups that I won, which I'll go over shortly. Heading into this weekend, I built the SB for combo/Lands and saw no lands and little combo. Against grixis and czech, I was confidant for the matchups and felt good going in. I like playing spice which you'll see in the list below.

LIST
// Lands
3 Badlands
3 Bayou
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Swamp
1 Taiga
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland

// Creatures
3 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Vial Smasher the Fierce

// Spells
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Hymn to Tourach
2 Kolaghan's Command
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Punishing Fire
1 Sylvan Library
4 Thoughtseize

// Sideboard
1 Backlash
1 Choke
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Dreadbore
2 Duress
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Golgari Charm
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Pithing Needle
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Toxic Deluge

Matches:
R1: BYE (from trials)
R2: Tezzeret (2-1)
R3: Omnitell(2-0)
R4: 4c Control (2-1)
R5: Sneak and Show (2-1)
R6: Grixis Delver (1-2)
R7: Blood moon (2-1)
R8: Sultai Deathshadow (0-2, camera match vs Justin Parnell)
R9: Czech Pile (1-2)
R10: RUG Delver (2-0)
R11: Grixis Delver (2-1)

Post weekend thoughts:
8-3 the and my losses where to not being able to draw the right cards against my opponets. I got to beat two show and tell decks pretty easily with back to back hand disruption. Overall, I don't think I'll change much going head in the main, except maybe turn that taiga into another waste land. SB wise, backlash is coming out for either another REB or a diabolic edict. Dreadbore was insane this weekend and killed at least 3 JTMS. Golgari Charm did work against Pyro tokens and TNN. Garruk did some amazing work against all the small creature decks. Didn't get to cast chandra at all this weekend, which made me a bit sad. Vial smasher won at least 4 games for me. Card is insane with kcommand and BBE and even punishing fire in the long games.

@darksteel, need to see your MB. Any good SBing needs to have a md list so we can see what the possible outs are. In terms of what you bring in with your SB:

Affinity:
Out:
Etched Champion, Memnite, (sometimes) signal pest
In:
Ancient G, Aether Grid, Wear//Tear
Reason: Etched and memnite do not do well againt ourselves. Our match revolves around who lands either steel overseer/Aether grid first. (I tend not to bring in spellskite)

Jund/Junk/Bant/Zoo:
Out:
Signal Pest, Memnite, Steel Overseer
In:
Etched Champion, Spellskite, Wear//Tear
Reason: Stony Silence and Ancient grudge/K-Command define this match. Ensure your opener is explosive with no digression from the speed.

Combo Decks(Grisel, Storm, Ad naus)
Out:
Memnite and Etched champion
In:
Thoughtseize, Blood Moon, Grafdiggers, Disdainful stroke
Reason: You have to be fast, and a 3mana 2/2 is not going to cut it. Again a ton of small dudes can get the job done fast

@elscar

I have been playing dispatch since last september, because dismember cost so much life. Raely do I have the case of not having the mana.

@everyone

I have been playing natural state and it has done me wonders. I totally recommend trying it out instead of wear/tear.

Ill write a report for the Baltimore Regionals that I placed 66th, later on today. Went 6-4 and the room was filled with Eldrazi and contributed to 2 of my losses(Lost to G/R tron and Scapeshift). On the Thought/GB split, I think we need to still play 4 GB and just depends on how you feel with a # of thoughts. It's bad against the eldrazi decks/aggro decks. I like ensoul as a option to go towards, but do remember that if its not on a darksteel, it can be remover fairly easy.

This is the list I have been winning with for the past 2 weeks. Not a lot of eldrazi decks around, so not really focused on that matchup. Currently 2 zoo, 2 infect, 1 G/r, 1 Eldrazi, Jeskai Kiki, 2 Lantern, 1 Abzan company, and 3 burn decks.

Yes, that is an Tezz, AoB in the 75. He has been phenomenal against the slower decks/Burn. Whoever was asking for Hangarback walker, he is good against jund, merfolk. Any deck with path makes you a tiny bit sad and best when they go to creeping/shatterstorm(ofc). Truy one in the main, and once you get it plus arcbound, you will see how powerful it is! The one thoughtcast has been pleasant, might go to more copies. I am not a huge fan of ensoul, only because it is bad against any path/terminate decks.

Hey guys, sorry for the long delay on this but I took second on Virginia's Modern States and now am preparing for the RPTQ this weekend. Changes I am making from my states list would be -2 Blood Moons, +2 Whipflare. I do not think Blood Moon is that great right now and would have rather had those Whipflares for the finals( vs Podless Pod). Here is the list and after this weekend I will do a massive recap on both tournys and a follow up on how this deck currently is going forward in modern! 2nd Place Modern States

Keep: Hand One, Hand Five

Hand One: Enough threats to deploy fastly or slowly plus the ability to cast the Galv Blast is key to removing quick strats(Twin, Zoo, Jund)
Hand Five: Hand is dumped by T2 and its aggressive!

Mull: Hand Two, Three, Four

Hand Two isnt aggressive enough (IF) they have any removal for overseer and thus you pitch it. You could try that seven and see if the draw is value, otherwise you do not have any threats. Hand Three is too heavy on drops, not enough lands/mana. Same with Hand Four

Keep: Hand One, Hand Four/Five(they are the same?)

Hand One: Slow, decent threats, just hope we scry well or just hope they do not have all the removal.
Hand Four/Five: T2 etched champion with protection is pretty good. Also dodges spell snare

Mull: Hand Two, Three

Hand Two hinges too much on the scry to be relevant to keep. Hand Three is light on decent threats. No one is going to be afraid of this plan because it doesn't play out fast enough. Sure the scry can be helpful in this situation, but if it is land/springleaf/mox opal AFTER the scry? Hope you can race.

I have been playing the Aether Grid in my sideboard(2) and I like it against the decks it is already good against AND control decks (grixis/UWR). Allows you to be on another game plan while being aggressive. I personally recommend playing 3 EC/2 MoE because both do separate things for the bigger creatures we face. EC is great against the majority of the decks in modern and will win games on its won. MoE is great against control and slow-ish decks. I also still think Hangarback Walker is the real deal in this deck because if it resolves, it can take over a game. I do think that if twin is not dominant in your meta, then -1 Galv, +1 Thoughtcast.

For the Bloom matchup, just play a ton of threats before they can assemble. Get the most out of your dudes and manlands. Out of sideboard: Spell Pierce, Thoughtseize, Spellskite, and Ancient Grudge are the best cards to play. I play dispatch instead of dismember, so that also helps.

How do we deal with bogles? He won game 1 but, I eeked out game 2 with emrakul swings to get rid of his field + timely to block. He just stole game 3, nothing i could do there.

@Kovo I'd want to swap the MoE and Etched numbers and -1 Overseer and +1 spellskite. Also no interaction with stony silence(IE no Wear or Thoughtseize)?

@Frosty care to give the list you played? Having the spellskites in the main help. Also having an opening hand that has some gas + galv blast helps too.

My problem with it is that you have described the ideal scenario. How often are you going to get the ideal scenario? Is it that good to warrant taking out the best card in the deck (Etched Champion) to put in something that will occasionally get there? Mind you, I like Day's Undoing in affinity, but right now the format is slow and this deck preys on it by being extremely fast. Day's Undoing can help with that by refilling with gas, but they also get removal or their threats as well. Against Jund, what if you dump your hand and say leave 2-3 cards left and they go T1 IoK or TS? More likely they will take the Day's. Also they get the first action after Day's Undoing, which can be a disaster.

I have done my testing with Day's Undoing and I found sticking to the original plan to be much better in the current meta. Also, i love me some good T1 Frogmites, but that card is not worth running unless you can make it more threatening(Tempered Steel or follow up Tezz, AoB).

@The Aller: My problem with Day's Undoing, is that with all this Jund/Grixis floating around, is that all that removal they had, they have it again now. They get to react first after it resolves, and that's something you usually do not want. Sure, it is good against decks that don't pack a ton of removal, but overall the majority of the decks you will face in a large setting will want that removal back into their hands. Can you give us some data to conclude that it is the best version? What did you play against? How did you SB? Did you God hand into Day's which resulted in another god hand?

Going forward, after playing with spellskite in the main, I like it. I would play 2 in the mainboard, 0 in SB. I also have been on the Hangarback Walker plan since origins came out and it should be a 2-3 in the 75. However, where to place it is kind of hard to judge at the moment. I have slowly gone back to 2 Master of Etherium. Here is my current list at the momemnt:

sorry about the delay guys, been busy with other stuff. I went 2-2 with my losses to Zoo and G/W Aggro.

R1: Naya Burn(2-1 Win)
This matchup is very dependent on their early creature + removal. G1 he just had all the burn and topdecked the win. Hangarback Walker did a good job at delaying a monastery swiftspear. G2 I landed an early Spellskite and won because of it. G3, Again another spellskite into vault skirge.
-2 Memnite
-2 Steel Overseer
-2 Signal Pest
+2 Spellpierce
+2 Whipflare
+2 Spellskite

R2: G/W Aggro(2-1 Lost)
Overall this match is simple, survive their threats and beat with fliers. G1 I get a very good opener and he cannot keep up with a cranial plated vault skirge. Hangarback walker did work here because it kept a voice/loxodon from being aggressive. G2, he had enough removal and beats to win it. G3 was a disaster, he had a timely T3 Fracturing Gust against my very fast hand.
-4 Signal Pest
-2 Memnite
-2 Steel Overseer
+2 Spell Pierce
+2 Spellskite
+2 Thoughtseize
+1 Dispatch
+1 Wear/Tear

R3: U/R Day's Delver(2-0 Win)
This is usually a simple match, but day's undoing makes our game so much better. G1 I had a slow hand but a Hangarback walker got in with some beats with a signal pest. I won by Inkmoth nexus after he snagged and bolted most of my guys. G2 was even slower, and ended with myself getting exact. He had Hurkyll's Recall(2) for these games and it is always such a time walk.
-2 Memnite
-2 Signal Pest
+2 Spell Pierce
+2 Thoughtseize

R4: Collected Zoo(2-1 Lost)
This is always a difficult matchup with the Zoo player has 2 or more removal in opening. G1 I was able to beat him with a cranial plated vault skirge. G2 He just had a nuts opener and followed up collected company into Knight of the Req which got a kessig wolf run. G3 I had a fast start but a T2 Stony Silence into T3 Kataki lost the game because I couldn't activate my spellskite to grab the kessig wolf run.
-2 Memnite
-2 Steel Overseer
-4 Signal Pest
+2 Spell Pierce
+2 Thoughtseize
+1 Dispatch
+1 Relic of Prog
+2 Spellskite

So looking at the results from the Modern IQ from DC, the only thing that seems interesting is the tempered steel list that made 13th. Also note that only one affinity deck is playing Day's Undoing and it is in the sideboard. Overall, it seems like Day's Undoing is just a win more card and through multiple testings from this forum, seems not worth the slots to dedicate. I do think going forward, Spellskite and Welding Jar have spots in the deck seeing as K-Command is being played in any R/B/X deck and that 4 Galv Blasts will be the correct number.

Things to note about the Top 16: 2 Grixis lists overall only running 4 copies of K-command. Multiple Jund lists but only 4 copies of K-command and 6 copies of Abrupt Decay. Other Tier 2 decks like Hatebears, Bogles, Goryo's and Zoo appeared and with some hate with them as well.

I will be playing this list tomorrow at an event. I will give a play-by-play once it is over:

Hey Kyro, mind giving a play by play if you can remember? Would give some insight on how Day's did against Burn and Grixis Twin!