+1 Kitchen Finks (sticky threat vs. verdict)
+1 Blood Moon (yes, Blood Moon is your best plan in this MU)
+1 Avalanche Riders (UW is very mana hungry, I prefer Fulminator in this MU but Riders is probably fine)
+1 Nahiri, the Harbinger (non-creature threats are great in these MUs, - Deals with random enchantments like D Sphere)
+1 Thragtusk (2-for-1 threat)
-1 Ethersworn Canonist (I don't like canonist in general vs. Eidolon but this definitely isn't the MU for him)
-2 Path to Exile
-2 Lightning Helix
He'd noted that Meddling Mage was specifically to interact more with non-interactive combo G1, and he'd removed Pridemage as he's not afraid of Ensnaring Bridge now that he's playing Jace.
I'm usually not too impressed with non-Retreat lists (too many linear decks that I have to go under at my LGS), but the point about Mage is well taken. The fact that you drop Kessig and the R mana also means the mana base is less warped, which makes Clique and Jace look more appealing.
Might have to give this variant a shot.
That's almost identical to what I was playing when I was trying out Jace in Bant Company, never thought about having Meddling Mage be a mb card. I just realized how insane it'd be to Company into Meddling Mage and V-Clique.
You have to name a card with Mage before Clique gets to see their hand.
Sweet list, but it looks dead in the water against Affinity with 0 Kataki 0 Stony... No ways to remove Artifacts or enchantments also can't be right, even with a way to play around Bridge. Then again, Kelvin may be just making a conscious choice to improve some matchups at the expense of others.
I agree, some copies of Stony/Kataki would likely find their way into my board when I get to trying this list out. It's worth noting that Affinity should take a substantial hit with BBE Jund and Grixis/UWx rising in popularity.
He'd noted that Meddling Mage was specifically to interact more with non-interactive combo G1, and he'd removed Pridemage as he's not afraid of Ensnaring Bridge now that he's playing Jace.
Sorry, as I unfortunately did not get to attend this event, I was unable to ask or speak to him about his deck, and therefore cant comment on his list. If I get the chance to go to his shop, I will ask him about his input and share his insights here.
Thanks! I'll probably just shoot him a message on FB. Looked pretty close to the list he'd 5-0'd with with the inclusion of MD Meddling Mage.
Anybody interested in learning from the master Kelvin Chew playing this deck can watch it. The event is a team modern format and the video show the finals of the playoffs at our LGS.
Do you know if Kelvin was on the 4 Coco/2 Jace/4 Path list for this event?
Kind of an interesting list.. Relying on Black creature-based disruption in the main and Thoughtseize/Brutality post board. Assuming he was heavily metagaming towards Storm/Tron while still leveraging the strength of Company/KOTR/Tracker vs. Shadow decks.
Looks pretty cool! Do you know which place Kelvin ended?
He had a pretty poor run, closing at 8-8. Judging by Mengucci's article on CFB it doesn't seem like he was particaurly happy with his deck choice for Modern.
Kind of an interesting list.. Relying on Black creature-based disruption in the main and Thoughtseize/Brutality post board. Assuming he was heavily metagaming towards Storm/Tron while still leveraging the strength of Company/KOTR/Tracker vs. Shadow decks.
What do you guys think of Disdainful Stroke over Unified Will? I feel like it hits everything I actually care about countering and avoids all the awkward situations.
In the Queller lists it may be correct. The main card Stroke doesn't hit would be Oblivion Stone which I suppose Queller should have covered. Unified Will does do a bit more work vs. Lantern hitting both Whir/Bridge and can counter Living End. On the other side of that argument, Stroke definitely has more play to it in the Mirror, Ponza, and Jeskai Control (non-tempo).
Test it out and let us know what you think.
Edit: I put in 10 games with the Bant list above last night and was thoroughly unimpressed with the decks performance across a variety of MUs. I'll give it a few more go's today but not having that Finks/Gavony grind engine I'm used to just left me feeling helpless against anything fair.
This list seems like it has a lot of really weird numbers of cards. Fauna shaman feels like a 3-4 or a 0 to me mostly, and 3 duskwatch feels like 2 too many in this kinda build. I'd almost give some thought to going 4 fauna shaman, up to 4 eternal witness, and down on a lot of other combo pieces.
With 4 quellers (which I presume you are banking on for Supreme Verdict insurance game 1) I'm not sure I would want to run a selfless spirit as a silver bullet main deck especially with no renegade ralliers, kinda lean toward making that something better (an ooze perhaps would be good).
The number of 3-drops actually seems unusually low (9?) for a 11 dork deck even with 21 lands. I'd be inclined to see closer to 10, or even 11. It definitely feels loose to have a courser in there without the 4th witness, but if you were heavier on Shamans courser gets better (since the repeated shuffling == more land drops).
My immediate thought was 3 Shaman / 2 Recruiter. I've always preferred Witness as a 3-of as it's relatively clunky in a number of MUs. Selfless spirit is perfectly fine without Rallier in my opinion. 7 1-CMC dorks plays nicely with Shaman on T2 allowing you to untap with 4 Mana and turn irrelevant creatures into Quellers starting on T3.
I'm probably just biased having cashed GPs playing Fauna Shaman and still believe it's in a great position given how popular Grafdigger's Cage is.
Fauna Shaman is a great addition in my opinion to the Spell Queller lists. I'm not sold on the 1-of Courser of Kruphix in the main as it's a pretty lackluster tutor target that could likely be swapped for a Scavenging Ooze. I've never been a fan of Kor Firewalker from the board but can see it as a 1-of ace for the Burn MU.. a 2nd copy of Burrenton Forge-Tender could fill the slot as well.
Other than that, I think this list looks pretty fantastic and I'm excited to give it another shot.
Is there a reason to even play Restoration if you’re already all in on Saheeli? Felidar Guardian fills the role better in those lists in my experience.
You're capable of making informed decisions with data. If a 75 has a sub par MWP vs deck A and an outstanding MWP vs deck B finding a middle ground to improve vs deck A is beneficial. Even if the data just came in the form of a 60 card main deck you're still better off making data driven decisions with your sideboard. I have no problem being bold, I've cashed GPs playing Company lists playing nobody else in the room was on. Data helps.. someone's spicy one of they took to FNM, while nice to know.. doesn't exactly help when trying to really refine something.
Well, I'm sorry, but I don't know what to tell you then. There are tons of lists out there but even the ones that win tournaments don't come with a win rate vs each deck. If I find one that I think is more than just a ball-parking of "I feel good in this match up, so 70-30", then I'll send it your way, but as of right now the best data we have is "None of the Company lists are good."
I just think asking for data is a bit much because it's generally paraded around when we have it, and asking for lists is... Well, which would you like?
I simply asked if anyone had data. If you don’t, that’s fine. Just a heads up though, playing a MU and “feeling good” doesn’t make it a 70-30 MU.
+1 Kitchen Finks (sticky threat vs. verdict)
+1 Blood Moon (yes, Blood Moon is your best plan in this MU)
+1 Avalanche Riders (UW is very mana hungry, I prefer Fulminator in this MU but Riders is probably fine)
+1 Nahiri, the Harbinger (non-creature threats are great in these MUs, - Deals with random enchantments like D Sphere)
+1 Thragtusk (2-for-1 threat)
-1 Ethersworn Canonist (I don't like canonist in general vs. Eidolon but this definitely isn't the MU for him)
-2 Path to Exile
-2 Lightning Helix
You have to name a card with Mage before Clique gets to see their hand.
I agree, some copies of Stony/Kataki would likely find their way into my board when I get to trying this list out. It's worth noting that Affinity should take a substantial hit with BBE Jund and Grixis/UWx rising in popularity.
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Meddling Mage
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Spell Queller
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Vendilion Clique
Planeswalkers (2)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Spells (8)
4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company
2 Botanical Sanctum
1 Breeding Pool
2 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
1 Bojuka Bog
3 Blessed Alliance
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Unified Will
3 Reflector Mage
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Worship
He'd noted that Meddling Mage was specifically to interact more with non-interactive combo G1, and he'd removed Pridemage as he's not afraid of Ensnaring Bridge now that he's playing Jace.
I sent him a message this morning, I'll post a list when he replies.
Thanks! I'll probably just shoot him a message on FB. Looked pretty close to the list he'd 5-0'd with with the inclusion of MD Meddling Mage.
Do you know if Kelvin was on the 4 Coco/2 Jace/4 Path list for this event?
He had a pretty poor run, closing at 8-8. Judging by Mengucci's article on CFB it doesn't seem like he was particaurly happy with his deck choice for Modern.
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Voice of Resurgence
2 Courser of Kruphix
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Tireless Tracker
Spells (10)
2 Fatal Push
4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company
2 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Bojuka Bog
3 Thoughtseize
3 Collective Brutality
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Voice of Resurgence
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Worship
Kind of an interesting list.. Relying on Black creature-based disruption in the main and Thoughtseize/Brutality post board. Assuming he was heavily metagaming towards Storm/Tron while still leveraging the strength of Company/KOTR/Tracker vs. Shadow decks.
In the Queller lists it may be correct. The main card Stroke doesn't hit would be Oblivion Stone which I suppose Queller should have covered. Unified Will does do a bit more work vs. Lantern hitting both Whir/Bridge and can counter Living End. On the other side of that argument, Stroke definitely has more play to it in the Mirror, Ponza, and Jeskai Control (non-tempo).
Test it out and let us know what you think.
Edit: I put in 10 games with the Bant list above last night and was thoroughly unimpressed with the decks performance across a variety of MUs. I'll give it a few more go's today but not having that Finks/Gavony grind engine I'm used to just left me feeling helpless against anything fair.
My immediate thought was 3 Shaman / 2 Recruiter. I've always preferred Witness as a 3-of as it's relatively clunky in a number of MUs. Selfless spirit is perfectly fine without Rallier in my opinion. 7 1-CMC dorks plays nicely with Shaman on T2 allowing you to untap with 4 Mana and turn irrelevant creatures into Quellers starting on T3.
I'm probably just biased having cashed GPs playing Fauna Shaman and still believe it's in a great position given how popular Grafdigger's Cage is.
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=118304
1 Walking Ballista
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Devoted Druid
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
3 Eternal Witness
2 Fauna Shaman
1 Meddling Mage
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Reflector Mage
1 Selfless Spirit
4 Spell Queller
3 Vizier of Remedies
1 Courser of Kruphix
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Botanical Sanctum
1 Breeding Pool
2 Gavony Township
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Horizon Canopy
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
Spells (8)
4 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Kor Firewalker
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Reflector Mage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
3 Path to Exile
2 Unified Will
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Kataki, War's Wage
Fauna Shaman is a great addition in my opinion to the Spell Queller lists. I'm not sold on the 1-of Courser of Kruphix in the main as it's a pretty lackluster tutor target that could likely be swapped for a Scavenging Ooze. I've never been a fan of Kor Firewalker from the board but can see it as a 1-of ace for the Burn MU.. a 2nd copy of Burrenton Forge-Tender could fill the slot as well.
Other than that, I think this list looks pretty fantastic and I'm excited to give it another shot.
I simply asked if anyone had data. If you don’t, that’s fine. Just a heads up though, playing a MU and “feeling good” doesn’t make it a 70-30 MU.
Naya Chord/Evo featuring Fiery Justice and Blood Moon seems to be the only thing putting up results recently.