Lol at chalice being a freakin mythic. It's not like mana drain in that its expensive because of low supply, its expensive because it sees a lot of play, it should have been rare to increase supply, and give a better spread of value (a 60-70 card every case as opposed to a 30-40 card every 2 boxes).
I beat grixis energy, gb snek, esper approach, and grixis improvise. I lost to esper gpg (which feels like a really hard matchup).
I'll be the first to admit that the manabase isn't correct, it was hard to get double red sometimes, I'm cuting an evolving wilds and forest for the 4th crag, another slough, another thicket making it 24 lands instead of 23, I think this will fix it.
The idea was have a lot of explore to fix draws and just jam Phoenix and glorybringers till they die. And that worked really well. Arguels bloodfast is insane as well, if aggro wasn't a thing I'd maindeck 3 and I'm thinking about playing the third in the board. Even the flipped side is great because you can sac your Phoenix in response to exile removal, card is nuts. I had games where I was 15+ cards deeper than my opponent.
Going forward I'm moving the wildgrowth walkers to the board (they were unimpactful but i still think they will be good against aggro). I want 4 deathgorge in the main. Explore fuels deathgorge and deathgorge fuels bloodfast. There is a lot of power here this might not be the optimal build, but there is a tier one deck here somewhere. My matchups that I won felt really easy.
Hmmm, I'm going to disagree with you on the 1 path thing. Outside of Reid Duke, who basically just makes every Abzan deck a worse version of Jund, no one really agree's with that.
Gaddock Teeg is always nice in theory but he doesn't really work out.
What do you really need path for that liliana can't handle? Wurmcoils and Gideon's, sometimes kitchen kinks. There just isn't a huge need for exile right now, and the ramp is a significant draw back. Besides, I don't think we need a huge array of removal right now anyway, most of the format is full of decks with just a handful of threats.
Sure teeg dies to everything, but if he doesn't die, he locks certain decks out. Shuts off company and chord out of company, Karn and ugin out of tron, cryptic, verdict, and all walkers out of jeskai, gifts, past, and empty out of storm, ad nauseoum, scapeshift (which is a rediculously hard card to beat otherwise), Hell it even hits conflagrate out of dredge. He is super powerful and we have ways to recur him like Liliana the last hope.
So when do you run Confidant? is it primarily an inclusion belonging to metas past and forgotten? I'm just curious.
I don't like confidant in abzan, because of souls increasing our cmc 3+ count compared to Jund. Jund can also close quicker than us, so the lifeloss doesn't matter as much to them.
I think flayer is far better for our deck. He not only stops you from flooding out mid game, but he dumps souls at the same time, which is just gross, not to mention the synergy with Liliana the last hope. he becomes a 4/4 after connecting just once most of the time (and I'm not running anything like bauble to support him). My creature suite right now is 4 goyf, 4 flayer, 2 ooze, and 2 rhino.
I was alittle skeptical about smugglers copter and I thought that ghost quarter would be better than mutavault. But I've been grinding in leagues and they are clearly amazing together. Gideon is also a ridiculously fast closer, you guys should try him out.
My sideboard is still in flux, this was it in the last league:
I lost to burn and living end, because I couldn't draw my hate fast enough, the same thing has been happening, like losing to dredge because of no rip, etc... Liliana was supposed to be hate against x/1's, card advantage for midrange mirrors, and be able to recur fulminators. Turns out she's just too slow. I'm thinking about cutting her, and one needle for this sideboard:
The top 8 decks of modern (according to mtggoldfish) are:
eldrazi tron, grixis death's shadow, titan shift, burn, storm, affinity, u/w control, and abzan.
I think we are favored already against death's shadow, and u/w control.
I think we are around 50% against affinity and abzan (maybe a bit better against abzan).
So I've molded my board to be really good against the other 4.
fulminator, needle and wrath for eldrazi
fulminator, leyline for titan shift
leyline for burn
leyline, and rip for storm
I'm kind of worried about coco, I haven't played against that deck with this yet. You guys seem confidant in that matchup though. Will only a sideboarded persecution and wrath be good enough with my main, I guess cutting 2 inquisition for them?
Is that all you got bro?
attack with the miner, flicker then:
herbalists, herbalists, rishkar pumping up an herbalist and the thraben inspector you played turn one, use the inspector to hold up blossoming defense. Adding 8 power on turn 3 (12 power total) AND holding up a protection spell. This card is going to be stupid. It's burning tree emissary all over again.
1
1
3
3
1
1
4 blooming marsh
4 dragonskull summit
3 root-bound crag
1 sheltered thicket
1 canyon slough
3 evolving wilds
3 forest
3 swamp
1 mountain
4 merfolk branchwalker
3 seeker's squire
4 wildgrowth walker
4 jadelight ranger
4 rekindling Phoenix
4 glorybringer
1 tetzimoc, primal death
Spells 13
3 fatal push
2 abrade
2 arguel's bloodfast
3 vraska's contempt
3 cut to ribbons
2 deadeye tracker
3 duress
2 abrade
2 deathgorge scavenger
2 sweltering suns
2 angrath, the flame-chained
I beat grixis energy, gb snek, esper approach, and grixis improvise. I lost to esper gpg (which feels like a really hard matchup).
I'll be the first to admit that the manabase isn't correct, it was hard to get double red sometimes, I'm cuting an evolving wilds and forest for the 4th crag, another slough, another thicket making it 24 lands instead of 23, I think this will fix it.
The idea was have a lot of explore to fix draws and just jam Phoenix and glorybringers till they die. And that worked really well. Arguels bloodfast is insane as well, if aggro wasn't a thing I'd maindeck 3 and I'm thinking about playing the third in the board. Even the flipped side is great because you can sac your Phoenix in response to exile removal, card is nuts. I had games where I was 15+ cards deeper than my opponent.
Going forward I'm moving the wildgrowth walkers to the board (they were unimpactful but i still think they will be good against aggro). I want 4 deathgorge in the main. Explore fuels deathgorge and deathgorge fuels bloodfast. There is a lot of power here this might not be the optimal build, but there is a tier one deck here somewhere. My matchups that I won felt really easy.
Will post my updated list soon
1
What do you really need path for that liliana can't handle? Wurmcoils and Gideon's, sometimes kitchen kinks. There just isn't a huge need for exile right now, and the ramp is a significant draw back. Besides, I don't think we need a huge array of removal right now anyway, most of the format is full of decks with just a handful of threats.
Sure teeg dies to everything, but if he doesn't die, he locks certain decks out. Shuts off company and chord out of company, Karn and ugin out of tron, cryptic, verdict, and all walkers out of jeskai, gifts, past, and empty out of storm, ad nauseoum, scapeshift (which is a rediculously hard card to beat otherwise), Hell it even hits conflagrate out of dredge. He is super powerful and we have ways to recur him like Liliana the last hope.
I don't like confidant in abzan, because of souls increasing our cmc 3+ count compared to Jund. Jund can also close quicker than us, so the lifeloss doesn't matter as much to them.
I think flayer is far better for our deck. He not only stops you from flooding out mid game, but he dumps souls at the same time, which is just gross, not to mention the synergy with Liliana the last hope. he becomes a 4/4 after connecting just once most of the time (and I'm not running anything like bauble to support him). My creature suite right now is 4 goyf, 4 flayer, 2 ooze, and 2 rhino.
1
I've been doing pretty well with this maindeck on mtgo.
4 marsh flats
4 concealed courtyard
3 godless shrine
3 shambling vent
1 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
2 plains
2 swamp
4 mutavault
1 vault of the archangel
4 tidehollow sculler
4 dark confidant
artifacts: 4
4 smuggler's copter
walkers: 6
3 Liliana of the veil
3 Gideon, ally of zendikar
spells: 18
4 fatal push
4 path to exile
3 thoughtseize
3 inquisition of kozilek
4 lingering souls
I was alittle skeptical about smugglers copter and I thought that ghost quarter would be better than mutavault. But I've been grinding in leagues and they are clearly amazing together. Gideon is also a ridiculously fast closer, you guys should try him out.
My sideboard is still in flux, this was it in the last league:
3 rest in peace
1 zealous persecution
3 fulminator mage
2 Liliana, the last hope
3 leyline of sanctity
1 wrath of god
I lost to burn and living end, because I couldn't draw my hate fast enough, the same thing has been happening, like losing to dredge because of no rip, etc... Liliana was supposed to be hate against x/1's, card advantage for midrange mirrors, and be able to recur fulminators. Turns out she's just too slow. I'm thinking about cutting her, and one needle for this sideboard:
4 rest in peace
1 zealous persecution
4 fulminator mage
4 leyline of sanctity
1 wrath of god
The top 8 decks of modern (according to mtggoldfish) are:
eldrazi tron, grixis death's shadow, titan shift, burn, storm, affinity, u/w control, and abzan.
I think we are favored already against death's shadow, and u/w control.
I think we are around 50% against affinity and abzan (maybe a bit better against abzan).
So I've molded my board to be really good against the other 4.
fulminator, needle and wrath for eldrazi
fulminator, leyline for titan shift
leyline for burn
leyline, and rip for storm
I'm kind of worried about coco, I haven't played against that deck with this yet. You guys seem confidant in that matchup though. Will only a sideboarded persecution and wrath be good enough with my main, I guess cutting 2 inquisition for them?
1
1
Is that all you got bro?
attack with the miner, flicker then:
herbalists, herbalists, rishkar pumping up an herbalist and the thraben inspector you played turn one, use the inspector to hold up blossoming defense. Adding 8 power on turn 3 (12 power total) AND holding up a protection spell. This card is going to be stupid. It's burning tree emissary all over again.