You still have 9 green fetches but now you can search for the sacred foundry with 7 fetches. Having 2 Blue fetches is a bummer, but it's very rare when we have to search for a hallowed fountain. Also, I have not done the math here, I'm just throwing ideas.
Also, what's the best replacement for hallowed fountain? I'm playing at a team constructed event and my teammate needs the fountain. I've thought about irrigated farmland, but maybe the UW fastland or the 10th fetchland is better.
I think you can afford not to play a Plains-Island Land, because having a Forest and a Hallowed Fountain is not so different from having a Forest and a Temple Garden. You can still cast most of your spells with either of the two combinations, but can't cast Reflector Mage nor Spell Queller.
Has anybody considered changing the Stomping Ground into a Sacred Foundry? Because having a Breeding Pool and Sacred Foundry in play will give us the perfect mana already. UR for Staticaster, GW for VoR, KotR, etc, and GR for Kessig Wolf Run. We'll have to adjust the fetches though, maybe 4 Windswept 3 Flooded Strand, 3 Misty Rainforest.
What are your thoughts on Thalia, Guardian of Thraben? I'm using a stock list just replacing Courser of Kruphix with Thalia. It does make our Collected Company into a 5-mana card but it slows down random decks, like living end, storm, ad naus, death shadow variants to name a few.
Top 8'd a 38 man GPT with this deck. Recently switched from Abzan Company and I haven't had the chance to get my Misty Rainforest yet. I would have also put in Gaddock Teeg and Unified Will in the side board but I was not able to get it in time. I have not had the chance to play burn yet so I don't know how Rhox War Monk fares in that matchup.
6 Rounds Total for the tournament. Played 5 Rounds and drew the last one to get into top 8. The Top 8 decided to split the Prize.
I knew that there were a lot of Combo and Tron decks here so I went with 3 Retreats plus 1 Vendilion Clique. Also, I couldn't remember most of my opening hands so I only mentioned what I remembered.
Round 1: Pyromancer's Ascension 2-0 Game 1: He got stuck at one land while I hold up a spell queller and deal lethal to him after I resolve a Coco. I did not get to see his pyromancer's ascension in this game. Game 2: I played some creatures and beat him down. I destroyed his pyromancer's ascension with a Qasali Pridemage and I counter his Gifts Ungiven with a Negate. It was a pretty fast game. Sideboarding: -3 Voice of Resurgence, -1 Tireless Tracker, -2 Courser of Kruphix, +4 Negate, +2 Reflector Mage (I expected him to play Baral and electromancer)
Round 2: Bring to Light Scape shift 2-1 Game 1: Drew a hand with 2 Lands, 1 Dork, 1 KotR, 1 Coralhelm, and forgot the others. I was on the play so I was able to combo off with him not having an answer, he had 2 open mana but I thought if he did not bolt my dork the first turn, he did not have the lightning bolts. He scooped when I showed the retreat on turn 3 after playing Knight on turn 2. Game 2: I kept a hand with 1 queller, that's as far as I remember, I tempoed him out with a queller into his Kodama's Reach when he was at 5 lands. I brought him down to 1 before he Bring to Lighted into a Scapeshift. I also made a mistake of using Collected Company on his end step because I was afraid of Anger of the Gods clearing the board, but the just used Izzet Charm to counter my EOT CoCo. Game 3: I mulled into a 1 Voice of Resurgence, 1 Dork, 2 Negate Hand, and 2 others. I don't remember what happened that much but Voice of Resurgence did almost all the damage while I was holding up the negates, he used Vendilion Clique on me and saw 2 negates--he put one on the bottom and I drew a Spell Queller. He thought it was his chance to combo so he used a Bring to Light to get an Anger of the Gods to bait my negate, he was thinking that if don't counter the Anger, he could at least stall some time to draw more counters for my negate. I used negate on the Anger then he proceeded to use Scapeshift and I Spell Queller it, th[/card]en swinging for lethal the next turn.
Sideboarding: -2 Scavenging Ooze, -1 Tireless Tracker, -1 Path to Exile, +4 Negate. I should have just sided out more PTEs but I thought he was bringing in more creatures so I left. I saw his sideboard after the match and he did not have Obstinate Baloth or stuff like that.
Round 3: UB Mill 1-2 Game 1: Turn 2 Mesmeric Orb, Turn 3 another Mesmeric Orb. I was able to get him to lethal range with an elemental token and Voice of Resurgence. He dropped Ensnaring Bridge with 4 cards in hands, I swing with Voice of Resurgence with Kessig Wolf Run dropping him to around 3 or 4. At my upkeep, he activated his Shelldock Isle and casted glimpse the unthinkable, we moved to game 2. Game 2: I was able to counter his Mesmeric Orb with Negate and just beat him down with a lot of cards remaining in my library. Game 3: I kept a hand with 2 KotR, 1 Dork, and 1 Retreat thinking I could win this easliy but Turn 1 and 2 Hedron Crab was just to much. When I played the KotR, he bounced it, delaying me. When I got to play the Retreat, I had 4 Cards in my deck. Despite the Knight being 20/20, I could not end the game because he had chump blockers and I was only able to tap 1.
Round 4: Eldrazi Tron 2-0 Game 1: Kept another Combo Hand containing a 2 Retreat, 1 Knight of the Reliquary, 1 Temple Garden, and 2 Forests but I decided to keep it. Turn 3 I played Knight of the Reliquary. Turn 4 I had no blue mana so I used Knight of the Reliquary to fetch a Breeding Pool to play Retreat, I had to Path my other creature to get a land to untap the Knight of the Reliquary and I combo'd from there. Game 2: I mulled to 6 with a hand containing 1 Spell Queller, 2 Hierarchs, 1 Stomping Ground, 1 Negate, and 1 card I forgot. I scryed a noble hierarch on the top. I thought to myself that I wasn't getting a better hand if I just draw 5 cards which will also get destroyed by Walking Balista so I kept the hand. Turns out he did not have the Walking Balista. He had such a slow start with tower, tower, ghost quarter though so I was able to play the 3 hierarch. I Spell Queller his Thought Knot Seer and rode the 3 times Exalted Spell Queller to victory with negate countering his dismember Sideboaring: -2 Scavenging Ooze, -1 Tireless Tracker, -3 Voice of Resurgence, -1 Retreat to Coralhelm, + 3 Negate, + 2 Reflector Mage, +2 Stony Silence.
Round 5: Esper Geist 2-0 Game 1: I don't remember much but I just beat him down with Voice of Resurgence. Game 2: I was able to get 2 Voice of Resurgence into play. He used engineered explosive to blow them up. I think he was color screwed in this game, not having black for around 5 turns. He was not able to race me as I used Blessed Alliance on his Guest of Saint Traft at the attack triggering the Angel Token, he dispels it and I negate the dispel.I was lucky to have had a Kessig Wolf Run to trample in damage after he used a total of 3 Timely Reinforcements. I did not play that much creature, prolonging the game. I was playing around the board sweeps I thought he might have boarded in. Sideboarding: -4 Spell Queller, -3 Retreat to Coralhelm, -1 Birds of Paradise. +4 Negate, +2 Blessed Alliance, +2 Rhox War Monk. Spell Queller isn't that good in this matchup seeing his tons of removal, so I opted for Negates and put in Rhox War Monk. In hindsight, Spell Queller does just eat the removals that could be targeted at my other relevant creatures.
Afterthoughts: This deck is fun as hell, having a fighting chance against all the decks is great. Also not being completely blowed out by Anger of the Gods feels nice. I did not put in Selfless Spirit because I don't think it is that good in this deck. It is a lot more suited in a deck that can tutor for it than trying to get lucky with Cocoing into it when the enemy uses a board wipe
Your List looks very similar to a Abzan list, minus the pte and hierarchs. What are the strengths of this deck compared to Jund and Abzan? I'm in the process of getting cards for BG(x) decks and I really like the Sultai colors.
Went 3-0 On an 8-man just a while ago.
1st Round: U/W White Winnie Aggro with Vial (GoST, Thalia, and Hero of Bladehold)
My creatures outclassed his and I had more removal. Went 2-0
In: 2 Zealous Persecution and 1 Abrupt Decay
Out: 1 Qasali Pridemage and 2 Voice of Resurgence
2 Arbor Elf and 1 Thoughtseize were supposed to be 3 Avacyn's Pilgrim but I really wanted to play since it was around 6 months ago when I last played--which also explains the messed up sideboard. The local meta was really competetive from when I was playing half a month ago (couple of BG/x, Twins, and Trons mostly) and there were usually about 15-19 players before every modern tuesdays. Also planning on obtaining the last Wilt-Leaf Liege I need, though I won't be buying really expensive mana dorks ATM (Noble Hierarch. I boarded out the Wilt-Leaf Liege versus decks that barely run creatures because it would be overkill, is that right?
Also, I think we have a very bad match-up with tron. What sideboard cards would be good vs it? I was thinking just Aven Mindcensor to hinder searches and Burrenton Forge-Tender for anti-pyroclasm.
As always, I recommend 4 LotV by principle. I have some questions regarding a few specific choices. Maybe these are meta decisions, what is your meta like?
Crucible of worlds? I understand how it's used, but it's kind of slow for our deck, and frankly, a lot of the lands in modern aren't worth having to play crucible, as good as some of them may be. Honestly, without wasteland, glacial chasm, maze of ith, or other important lands, it's really hard to justify...unless you see land destruction as a problem in your meta. Against living end, I could see that being a problem, but you probably need to be doing more important things than using crucible to get lands back. I like the card, I'm just not sure it's optimal in your deck. Furthermore, you only have 1 ghost quarter/1 tec edge, plus crucible isn't the best with KotR. Although the psuedo-Strip Mine lock out with ghost quarter can be really good, I find that there's few games where you'll be able to get to that point.
2 Zealous persecution is a little unusual. I see you're running 4 lingering souls though, so I think it's okay, but just saying, it's a little odd. Deathmark is a little odd, too, but it's not a bad card in the right meta...so I'm assuming your meta calls for something like this. Otherwise, I'd cut it.
Obviously, Wrath of God and Damnation are strictly better than Day of Judgment. I'm sure you are aware and I'm assuming it's just a budget option for now. Honestly, there's few situations where regeneration is relevant, but the other two are preferable. The price increase is kinda ****ty, but we are speaking competitively here.
Qasali Pridemage is a really good card, but unless you have a problem with artifacts (affinity, namely) and/or enchantments (bogle), I don't think they're worth mainboarding. I guess if your meta calls for it, then it's good, but that's only if you really see a lot of affinity and bogle.
Lastly, I'm guessing you don't own goyfs since they aren't in your list. If you do own them, I'm curious as to why you don't play them.
As for garruk, yeah, he's good as a 1 or 2-of. No question there.
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Would it be better to just drop the 2 Liliana of the Veil? Since I'm lacking the remaining 2. I barely even draw it but it is such a powerhouse against a lot of decks, mainly control decks such as UWR.
Going by your idea, maybe we could do something like this:
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Gavony Township
1 Kessig Wolfrun
You still have 9 green fetches but now you can search for the sacred foundry with 7 fetches. Having 2 Blue fetches is a bummer, but it's very rare when we have to search for a hallowed fountain. Also, I have not done the math here, I'm just throwing ideas.
I think you can afford not to play a Plains-Island Land, because having a Forest and a Hallowed Fountain is not so different from having a Forest and a Temple Garden. You can still cast most of your spells with either of the two combinations, but can't cast Reflector Mage nor Spell Queller.
Has anybody considered changing the Stomping Ground into a Sacred Foundry? Because having a Breeding Pool and Sacred Foundry in play will give us the perfect mana already. UR for Staticaster, GW for VoR, KotR, etc, and GR for Kessig Wolf Run. We'll have to adjust the fetches though, maybe 4 Windswept 3 Flooded Strand, 3 Misty Rainforest.
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Spell Queller
3 Voice of Resurgence
2 Courser of Kruphix
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Tireless Tracker
Spells
4 Collected Company
4 Path to Exile
3 Retreat to Coralhelm
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Breeding Pool
2 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Stomping Ground
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Gavony Township
1 Kessig Wolfrun
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Negate
3 Blessed Alliance
2 Izzet Staticaster
2 Stony Silence
2 Reflector Mage
2 Rhox War Monk
Top 8'd a 38 man GPT with this deck. Recently switched from Abzan Company and I haven't had the chance to get my Misty Rainforest yet. I would have also put in Gaddock Teeg and Unified Will in the side board but I was not able to get it in time. I have not had the chance to play burn yet so I don't know how Rhox War Monk fares in that matchup.
6 Rounds Total for the tournament. Played 5 Rounds and drew the last one to get into top 8. The Top 8 decided to split the Prize.
I knew that there were a lot of Combo and Tron decks here so I went with 3 Retreats plus 1 Vendilion Clique. Also, I couldn't remember most of my opening hands so I only mentioned what I remembered.
Round 1: Pyromancer's Ascension 2-0
Game 1: He got stuck at one land while I hold up a spell queller and deal lethal to him after I resolve a Coco. I did not get to see his pyromancer's ascension in this game.
Game 2: I played some creatures and beat him down. I destroyed his pyromancer's ascension with a Qasali Pridemage and I counter his Gifts Ungiven with a Negate. It was a pretty fast game.
Sideboarding: -3 Voice of Resurgence, -1 Tireless Tracker, -2 Courser of Kruphix, +4 Negate, +2 Reflector Mage (I expected him to play Baral and electromancer)
Round 2: Bring to Light Scape shift 2-1
Game 1: Drew a hand with 2 Lands, 1 Dork, 1 KotR, 1 Coralhelm, and forgot the others. I was on the play so I was able to combo off with him not having an answer, he had 2 open mana but I thought if he did not bolt my dork the first turn, he did not have the lightning bolts. He scooped when I showed the retreat on turn 3 after playing Knight on turn 2.
Game 2: I kept a hand with 1 queller, that's as far as I remember, I tempoed him out with a queller into his Kodama's Reach when he was at 5 lands. I brought him down to 1 before he Bring to Lighted into a Scapeshift. I also made a mistake of using Collected Company on his end step because I was afraid of Anger of the Gods clearing the board, but the just used Izzet Charm to counter my EOT CoCo.
Game 3: I mulled into a 1 Voice of Resurgence, 1 Dork, 2 Negate Hand, and 2 others. I don't remember what happened that much but Voice of Resurgence did almost all the damage while I was holding up the negates, he used Vendilion Clique on me and saw 2 negates--he put one on the bottom and I drew a Spell Queller. He thought it was his chance to combo so he used a Bring to Light to get an Anger of the Gods to bait my negate, he was thinking that if don't counter the Anger, he could at least stall some time to draw more counters for my negate. I used negate on the Anger then he proceeded to use Scapeshift and I Spell Queller it, th[/card]en swinging for lethal the next turn.
Sideboarding: -2 Scavenging Ooze, -1 Tireless Tracker, -1 Path to Exile, +4 Negate. I should have just sided out more PTEs but I thought he was bringing in more creatures so I left. I saw his sideboard after the match and he did not have Obstinate Baloth or stuff like that.
Round 3: UB Mill 1-2
Game 1: Turn 2 Mesmeric Orb, Turn 3 another Mesmeric Orb. I was able to get him to lethal range with an elemental token and Voice of Resurgence. He dropped Ensnaring Bridge with 4 cards in hands, I swing with Voice of Resurgence with Kessig Wolf Run dropping him to around 3 or 4. At my upkeep, he activated his Shelldock Isle and casted glimpse the unthinkable, we moved to game 2.
Game 2: I was able to counter his Mesmeric Orb with Negate and just beat him down with a lot of cards remaining in my library.
Game 3: I kept a hand with 2 KotR, 1 Dork, and 1 Retreat thinking I could win this easliy but Turn 1 and 2 Hedron Crab was just to much. When I played the KotR, he bounced it, delaying me. When I got to play the Retreat, I had 4 Cards in my deck. Despite the Knight being 20/20, I could not end the game because he had chump blockers and I was only able to tap 1.
Sideboarding: -1 Tireless Tracker, -2 Courser of Kruphix, -1 Scavinging Ooze, +4 Negate.
Round 4: Eldrazi Tron 2-0
Game 1: Kept another Combo Hand containing a 2 Retreat, 1 Knight of the Reliquary, 1 Temple Garden, and 2 Forests but I decided to keep it. Turn 3 I played Knight of the Reliquary. Turn 4 I had no blue mana so I used Knight of the Reliquary to fetch a Breeding Pool to play Retreat, I had to Path my other creature to get a land to untap the Knight of the Reliquary and I combo'd from there.
Game 2: I mulled to 6 with a hand containing 1 Spell Queller, 2 Hierarchs, 1 Stomping Ground, 1 Negate, and 1 card I forgot. I scryed a noble hierarch on the top. I thought to myself that I wasn't getting a better hand if I just draw 5 cards which will also get destroyed by Walking Balista so I kept the hand. Turns out he did not have the Walking Balista. He had such a slow start with tower, tower, ghost quarter though so I was able to play the 3 hierarch. I Spell Queller his Thought Knot Seer and rode the 3 times Exalted Spell Queller to victory with negate countering his dismember
Sideboaring: -2 Scavenging Ooze, -1 Tireless Tracker, -3 Voice of Resurgence, -1 Retreat to Coralhelm, + 3 Negate, + 2 Reflector Mage, +2 Stony Silence.
Round 5: Esper Geist 2-0
Game 1: I don't remember much but I just beat him down with Voice of Resurgence.
Game 2: I was able to get 2 Voice of Resurgence into play. He used engineered explosive to blow them up. I think he was color screwed in this game, not having black for around 5 turns. He was not able to race me as I used Blessed Alliance on his Guest of Saint Traft at the attack triggering the Angel Token, he dispels it and I negate the dispel.I was lucky to have had a Kessig Wolf Run to trample in damage after he used a total of 3 Timely Reinforcements. I did not play that much creature, prolonging the game. I was playing around the board sweeps I thought he might have boarded in.
Sideboarding: -4 Spell Queller, -3 Retreat to Coralhelm, -1 Birds of Paradise. +4 Negate, +2 Blessed Alliance, +2 Rhox War Monk. Spell Queller isn't that good in this matchup seeing his tons of removal, so I opted for Negates and put in Rhox War Monk. In hindsight, Spell Queller does just eat the removals that could be targeted at my other relevant creatures.
Afterthoughts: This deck is fun as hell, having a fighting chance against all the decks is great. Also not being completely blowed out by Anger of the Gods feels nice. I did not put in Selfless Spirit because I don't think it is that good in this deck. It is a lot more suited in a deck that can tutor for it than trying to get lucky with Cocoing into it when the enemy uses a board wipe
Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Arbor Elf
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Siege Rhino
4 Loxodon Smiter
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Voice of Resurgence
Spells
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile
3 Thoughtseize
3 Lingering Souls
4 Windswept Heath
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Swamp
1 Plains
2 Forest
1 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
2 Gavony Township
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Thoughtseize
1 Spellskite
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Thragtusk
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Stony Silence
2 Zealous Persecution
Went 3-0 On an 8-man just a while ago.
1st Round: U/W White Winnie Aggro with Vial (GoST, Thalia, and Hero of Bladehold)
My creatures outclassed his and I had more removal. Went 2-0
In: 2 Zealous Persecution and 1 Abrupt Decay
Out: 1 Qasali Pridemage and 2 Voice of Resurgence
1-0
2nd Round: U/R Delver with MB Blood Moon
Voice of Resurgence really shines in this matchup. Went 2-1
Lost 1 game due to him using 2 Sower of Temptation on my Smiters and Threads of Disloyalty on my Qasali Pridemage. Didn't draw enough removals.
In: 2 Zealous Persecution and 1 Abrupt Decay
Out: 2 Wilt-leaf Liege and 1 Qasali Pridemage
2-0
3rd Round: Affinity
Got the first game because I stabilized with Rhino and Finks and was able to remove the platings and steel overseers. Went 2-0
In: 2 Zealous Persecution, 1 Abrupt Decay, 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence, 2 Stony Silence, and 1 Kataki, War's Wage
Out: 2 Wilt-leaf Liege, 4 Voice of Resurgence, and 1 Loxodon Smiter
3-0
2 Arbor Elf and 1 Thoughtseize were supposed to be 3 Avacyn's Pilgrim but I really wanted to play since it was around 6 months ago when I last played--which also explains the messed up sideboard. The local meta was really competetive from when I was playing half a month ago (couple of BG/x, Twins, and Trons mostly) and there were usually about 15-19 players before every modern tuesdays. Also planning on obtaining the last Wilt-Leaf Liege I need, though I won't be buying really expensive mana dorks ATM (Noble Hierarch. I boarded out the Wilt-Leaf Liege versus decks that barely run creatures because it would be overkill, is that right?
Also, I think we have a very bad match-up with tron. What sideboard cards would be good vs it? I was thinking just Aven Mindcensor to hinder searches and Burrenton Forge-Tender for anti-pyroclasm.
Well, my meta consists of a ton of Pods--may it be melira or kiki. That's the reason for the Qasali Pridemage and Deathmark. Also, Zealous Persecution works wonders with my Lingering Souls and the Pods' 8-of dorks.
Thanks for the insight regarding the Crucible of Worlds, I'll be cutting them out of the sideboard from now on :). And yes, I don't own goyfs...
I was also thinking about Elspeth, Knight Errant. Do you think it would be good for this kind of build? Thanks again for the insights :)))
I personally run it as a 1-of in my deck.
4 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Godless Shrine
2 Temple Garden
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Treetop Village
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Dark Confidant
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Lingering Souls
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile
3 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition o Kozilek
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Garruk Relentless
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Torpor Orb
2 Stony Silence
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Go for the Throat
1 Deathmark
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Thoughtseize
1 Day of Judgement
Would it be better to just drop the 2 Liliana of the Veil? Since I'm lacking the remaining 2. I barely even draw it but it is such a powerhouse against a lot of decks, mainly control decks such as UWR.