Around here no one runs hate since literally no one but me plays dredge. Isn't the point of the green SB package so you don't lose to hate like that? Could be something to look at, or the blue one with FoWs.
I think that the transformational sideboard is not so great. Before I did that I would just board in 4x unmask naming cage. But again, that sets you back. The idea is that this deck, as has been mentioned a multitude of times, is either hit or miss. Great in low-hate metas, extremely bad in high-hate metas. It's fine though. Since the latter just happens to be the case in my area, I will put the deck in my safe and play something else for a while.
I tend to agree, although;
I played the green-side for well over a year, and yes, it can grind games out past hate and win, if you get a degree of luck go your way.
The blue-side I played exclusively for over 6 months until I got bored of it > it's effective, I would argue more resilient than the green side (although more expensive!) especially considering it's possible to include the FOW's in your main, so it's entirely possible to counter that Lightning Bolt, Scavenging Ooze etc.
Of all the manaless builds, I prefer the blue one for two reasons > I think it's the best of the lot against hate, and I think because so much of the blue is already in the main you actually have a fair bit more room in the side than the green plan, giving the side flexibility.
All that said, Manaless isn't reliable in a tournament sense > it's the very definition of a glass cannon, and in my experience I would say if you didn't win game-1, you may as well concede after that.
Pragmatically speaking, I think I'd go with the blue board as well. Seems resilient and I like the interaction between Disrupting Shoal and Gitaxian probe to counter cage (our nemesis, or at least mine.)
Around here no one runs hate since literally no one but me plays dredge. Isn't the point of the green SB package so you don't lose to hate like that? Could be something to look at, or the blue one with FoWs.
I think that the transformational sideboard is not so great. Before I did that I would just board in 4x unmask naming cage. But again, that sets you back. The idea is that this deck, as has been mentioned a multitude of times, is either hit or miss. Great in low-hate metas, extremely bad in high-hate metas. It's fine though. Since the latter just happens to be the case in my area, I will put the deck in my safe and play something else for a while.
Hey, Bacon, I was the Elves player that you faced Match 8. Sorry about the stomping, but you're right that Elves has an excellent matchup against Dredge G1, and that with the inclusion of Containment Priest and loss of Treasure Cruise, Dredge will be on the receiving end of a lot of pain for quite a while.
Thanks for reading my report! I really enjoyed your deck!
Here's my tournament report from the PIQ in Los Angeles this weekend. I went 3-0-5 as compared to a tie record last year in the SCGLA Open.
Match 1: Loss 0-2 vs. Death and Taxes
Game 1: On the draw, opponent plays a T2 Thalia. I continue on trying to get something going from my upkeep creatures, but get pounded quickly before I can create a presence.
Game 2: On the draw, turn 1 cage.
Match 2: Loss 1-2 vs. Food Chain
Game 1: Off the draw, a hand full of dredge accelerators (wraith and probe) earn me the quick win vs my unwitting opponent.
Game 2: My aforementioned unwitting opponent, whom I failed to mention was also late for the tournament, was approached by a judge and subjected to a deck check on the suspicion that something was wrong with his decklist. The check did in fact reveal that he had failed to include two cards currently in his deck. He was issued a game loss and we continued to game 3.
Game 3: On the draw, turn 1 cage. Groundhog day begins.
Match 3: Win 2-0 vs. Scapeshift
Game 1: Off the draw (I was lucky to have lost so many die-rolls up to this point), I come out with phantasmagorian, dumping my hand at the end of his turn and proceeding to shred his hand with cabal therapies. After I've cleared the way I proceed to combo off for the win.
Game 2: Almost identical to the first. I found a slaughter games in his hand on this one, naughty boy! Cabal therapy is good medicine for that. Win w/ combo.
Match 4: Loss 1-2 vs. Reanimator
Game 1: Phantasmagorian, a couple dredgers and some wraiths are all I need for a quick combo kill. He tries to reanimate a grislebrand (wrong move), and doesn't seem to figure out in time what's going on.
Game 2: I side in Leyline of the Void, which I packed for the mirror matchup; and I consider reanimator the broken-est of mirrors. Mull to 6 to find it, which I do, and drop it down T0 with me on the draw. Opponent groans while I chortle loudly. Lucky for him, he has two mana in hand and by turn two manages to reanimate my Flayer, punching me with it over and over, then reanimates my street wraith, punching me with that too. Sneaky bastard. I die.
Game 3: After thinking it over a bit I keep in the leylines, hoping to get one in my opening hand. I don't. I don't get really anything good in my opening hand but decide to keep so as to race him for the kill. This was probably a questionable decision in hindsight, to keep the Leylines in, as I think Chancellor was strong here, or even Noxious. So back at the ranch, no dredger, mind you, I draw T1... and it's a narcomoeba. Cursed jellyfish! I keep drawing into nothing and am finally forced to discard creatures, which he proceeds to slap me with while he's reanimating his Iona (naming black) for a nice soft lock, then beats me to death with mostly my own stuff... just to prove a point.
Match 5: Loss 1-2 vs. Burn
Game 1: Burn is too slow to keep up with dredge, and is arguably one of my best matchups. I handily destroy him T3 with a little burn of my own from Flayer of the Hatebound.
Game 2: T1 Cage. Oh well, he won't find it Game 3.
Game 3: T1 Cage. I ask him after how many he was playing in his sideboard and he answers 4... you've got to be joking.
Match 6: Win 2-0 vs A pile of crap.
Game 1: 3 street wraiths in my opener with a dredger to discard. I easily T2 combo to beat my opponent who up to this point has revealed a hand of duress, dig thought time, brainstorm, and a phyrexian dreadnought. Ok... I'm amused.
Game 2: A little slower this time, and my opponent gets a chance to land a 9/9 death's shadow.. Cool. I proceed to hit him with the beats (ichorid) after he extirpates my nether shadows. I turn my creatures sideways for what should've been lethal on T6 and extend my hand, but instead of shaking it he casts Angel's Grace and I'm flabbergasted. Um, ok. I'll just kill you next turn. Who told you this was a deck?
Match 7: Win 2-0 vs. UB Delver
Game 1: My opponent, as usual, is unprepared to handle a quick comboing off. Although I can tell he is taking note of my deck and my plays for Game 2. I notice him complaining that his deck is outdated and that he is only playing it because his friend borrowed his American Delver deck.
Game 2: This game was much harder but I was able to defeat him with a combination of therapy-ing his hand and attacking around an unflipped delver. I am brought down to 6 life before winning with the creature plan. A close win.
Match 8: Loss 0-2 vs. Elves
Game 1: Playing for a tie-record, I go into this round optimistically but am soon crushed by the sheer speed of elves. Turn 2 Craterhoof gets me. I know my deck is fast, but elves is faster and is one of my weakest matchups. I'm not hopeful for game 2.
Game 2: Almost identical.
It's not enough that cage is in nearly 40% of sideboards, most often as a two-of, but now we have containment priest to contend with, which is right there main deck in Death and Taxes. Opponents have demonstrated that they are willing to mulligan insanely aggressively to get their hate by going down to just a few cards in hand (although oddly not one of my opponents ever ONCE put me on the play after I beat them. Go figure.) I suspect that graveyard hate is still especially high as we leave the Treasure Cruise epoch. Based on my considerable experience and research, to anyone considering picking up this deck for tournament play, I'd offer the following advice: Unless you are totally broke and just don't like Burn (cheaper), don't do it. This deck is not well positioned for the meta at this time for multiple reasons. 1. It used to be a novel deck and you could get the jump on an unwary Tier-1 player, no longer is that the case. The jig is up. Everybody sees it coming and knows exactly how to play around you post-board. 2. Wizards has also consistently made clear that they dislike Dredge and will continuously release very cheap and relevant cards that read: "Die dredge, die." This may change in the future, we can only wait and see.
Opponents are at 2 life. Teammate plays a lightning bolt targeting opponent. Retaining priority, I play an Angel's Grace. Priority passes, and the stack presumably begins to resolve. After Angel's Grace has resolved, can our opponents play a spell or activate a life-gaining ability before the lightning bolt resolves, (such as a Zuran Orb activation?) I believe I may be under the misguided impression that once the stack begins to resolve, nothing can stop it. Please ask me any clarifying questions necessary.
I think it really depends on the message said apparrel is conveying. Blatantly antagonistic sayings like "God hates ****" or "**** Jesus" would generally be frowned upon, and you can be asked to leave/change by the HJ or TO if it is objectionable enough. Context is very important with this kind of question, as ot's very easy to mislead and fish for the answer you want.
Good point, let's focus and dial-it in a bit. To do so I'll give a few examples:
"Jesus loves you"
"Jesus is Lord"
"Allah is King"
"God is alive"
Would those sorts of things be objectionable?
Personally, I'd be offended by the top one at least, "Jesus love you". Probably not the others.
I think religious attire such as a hijab or a kippah is fine because it simply reflects the beliefs that you, yourself, hold.
What I would find objectionable would be attire that attempts to suggest that I should also hold those beliefs, which is what "Jesus loves you" portrays, in my opinion.
What if the belief a person holds is that Jesus, in fact, loves everybody?
I think it really depends on the message said apparrel is conveying. Blatantly antagonistic sayings like "God hates ****" or "**** Jesus" would generally be frowned upon, and you can be asked to leave/change by the HJ or TO if it is objectionable enough. Context is very important with this kind of question, as ot's very easy to mislead and fish for the answer you want.
Good point, let's focus and dial-it in a bit. To do so I'll give a few examples:
"Jesus loves you"
"Jesus is Lord"
"Allah is King"
"God is alive"
Is it against the rules to wear religious attire to a Magic: The Gathering tournament? Is it permissible to wear attire that expresses a religious position or espouses a message that advocates a particular lifestyle? Do tournament players enjoy protection from religious persecution?
Worm, You call it childish, I call it justifiably spiteful. Really though, I generally trash talk it in a lighthearted sort of way ("that dang modern.") Obviously I'm not going to waste true malice on a card game, whatever form it may take. Deep down in the cockles of my heart, however, I still feel wronged in some way; a little "chased-off" from the format. I'd defy you not to feel the same.
Ignoring your grossly reductionist interpretation of why certain archetypes have been shown the door in modern: Those overly dominant decks just happened to be my decks, thank you very much. Decks I'd spent considerable time and effort, not to mention financial investment, into building. I don't appreciate you vilifying me for enjoying a particular way of playing magic, sir. Also I'd like to say I never once went over time playing eggs; the reason that deck was banned is because it didn't fit with the aggro theme of modern.
Modo is also a hilariously bad program that most people can't stand who have any sense. WotC has been raking it in for years yet they can't design a good client to save their life.
I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. MoDo is garbage, plain and simple. If I were to best describe it, I'd put it thusly: Apparently designed in 1999, attempting to use the Modo program makes me feel like an 80 year old man who has never seen a computer in his life, yet I am 26 and that is the farthest from the truth. Mind you I am an obsessed paper magic player and have been for years. I'd love to be able to test out and play decks on a client that doesn't make me feel physically ill by looking at it. Possibly one that is at least partly comprehensible and doesn't involve some sort of asinine card-trading scheme.
Pragmatically speaking, I think I'd go with the blue board as well. Seems resilient and I like the interaction between Disrupting Shoal and Gitaxian probe to counter cage (our nemesis, or at least mine.)
Thanks for reading my report! I really enjoyed your deck!
4x Golgari Thug
3x Shambling Shell
4x Stinkweed Imp
4x Golgari Grave-Troll
4x Balustrade Spy
1x Flayer of the Hatebound
4x Ichorid
4x Narcomeba
4x Nether Shadow
4x Phantasmagorian
4x Street Wraith
4x Chancellor of the Annex
4x Bridge from Below
Sorceries (12)
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Dread Return
4x Mindbreak Trap
4x Noxious Revival
4x Surgical Extraction
2x Mishra's Bauble
1x Flame-kin Zealot
Here's my tournament report from the PIQ in Los Angeles this weekend. I went 3-0-5 as compared to a tie record last year in the SCGLA Open.
Match 1: Loss 0-2 vs. Death and Taxes
Game 1: On the draw, opponent plays a T2 Thalia. I continue on trying to get something going from my upkeep creatures, but get pounded quickly before I can create a presence.
Game 2: On the draw, turn 1 cage.
Match 2: Loss 1-2 vs. Food Chain
Game 1: Off the draw, a hand full of dredge accelerators (wraith and probe) earn me the quick win vs my unwitting opponent.
Game 2: My aforementioned unwitting opponent, whom I failed to mention was also late for the tournament, was approached by a judge and subjected to a deck check on the suspicion that something was wrong with his decklist. The check did in fact reveal that he had failed to include two cards currently in his deck. He was issued a game loss and we continued to game 3.
Game 3: On the draw, turn 1 cage. Groundhog day begins.
Match 3: Win 2-0 vs. Scapeshift
Game 1: Off the draw (I was lucky to have lost so many die-rolls up to this point), I come out with phantasmagorian, dumping my hand at the end of his turn and proceeding to shred his hand with cabal therapies. After I've cleared the way I proceed to combo off for the win.
Game 2: Almost identical to the first. I found a slaughter games in his hand on this one, naughty boy! Cabal therapy is good medicine for that. Win w/ combo.
Match 4: Loss 1-2 vs. Reanimator
Game 1: Phantasmagorian, a couple dredgers and some wraiths are all I need for a quick combo kill. He tries to reanimate a grislebrand (wrong move), and doesn't seem to figure out in time what's going on.
Game 2: I side in Leyline of the Void, which I packed for the mirror matchup; and I consider reanimator the broken-est of mirrors. Mull to 6 to find it, which I do, and drop it down T0 with me on the draw. Opponent groans while I chortle loudly. Lucky for him, he has two mana in hand and by turn two manages to reanimate my Flayer, punching me with it over and over, then reanimates my street wraith, punching me with that too. Sneaky bastard. I die.
Game 3: After thinking it over a bit I keep in the leylines, hoping to get one in my opening hand. I don't. I don't get really anything good in my opening hand but decide to keep so as to race him for the kill. This was probably a questionable decision in hindsight, to keep the Leylines in, as I think Chancellor was strong here, or even Noxious. So back at the ranch, no dredger, mind you, I draw T1... and it's a narcomoeba. Cursed jellyfish! I keep drawing into nothing and am finally forced to discard creatures, which he proceeds to slap me with while he's reanimating his Iona (naming black) for a nice soft lock, then beats me to death with mostly my own stuff... just to prove a point.
Match 5: Loss 1-2 vs. Burn
Game 1: Burn is too slow to keep up with dredge, and is arguably one of my best matchups. I handily destroy him T3 with a little burn of my own from Flayer of the Hatebound.
Game 2: T1 Cage. Oh well, he won't find it Game 3.
Game 3: T1 Cage. I ask him after how many he was playing in his sideboard and he answers 4... you've got to be joking.
Match 6: Win 2-0 vs A pile of crap.
Game 1: 3 street wraiths in my opener with a dredger to discard. I easily T2 combo to beat my opponent who up to this point has revealed a hand of duress, dig thought time, brainstorm, and a phyrexian dreadnought. Ok... I'm amused.
Game 2: A little slower this time, and my opponent gets a chance to land a 9/9 death's shadow.. Cool. I proceed to hit him with the beats (ichorid) after he extirpates my nether shadows. I turn my creatures sideways for what should've been lethal on T6 and extend my hand, but instead of shaking it he casts Angel's Grace and I'm flabbergasted. Um, ok. I'll just kill you next turn. Who told you this was a deck?
Match 7: Win 2-0 vs. UB Delver
Game 1: My opponent, as usual, is unprepared to handle a quick comboing off. Although I can tell he is taking note of my deck and my plays for Game 2. I notice him complaining that his deck is outdated and that he is only playing it because his friend borrowed his American Delver deck.
Game 2: This game was much harder but I was able to defeat him with a combination of therapy-ing his hand and attacking around an unflipped delver. I am brought down to 6 life before winning with the creature plan. A close win.
Match 8: Loss 0-2 vs. Elves
Game 1: Playing for a tie-record, I go into this round optimistically but am soon crushed by the sheer speed of elves. Turn 2 Craterhoof gets me. I know my deck is fast, but elves is faster and is one of my weakest matchups. I'm not hopeful for game 2.
Game 2: Almost identical.
It's not enough that cage is in nearly 40% of sideboards, most often as a two-of, but now we have containment priest to contend with, which is right there main deck in Death and Taxes. Opponents have demonstrated that they are willing to mulligan insanely aggressively to get their hate by going down to just a few cards in hand (although oddly not one of my opponents ever ONCE put me on the play after I beat them. Go figure.) I suspect that graveyard hate is still especially high as we leave the Treasure Cruise epoch. Based on my considerable experience and research, to anyone considering picking up this deck for tournament play, I'd offer the following advice: Unless you are totally broke and just don't like Burn (cheaper), don't do it. This deck is not well positioned for the meta at this time for multiple reasons. 1. It used to be a novel deck and you could get the jump on an unwary Tier-1 player, no longer is that the case. The jig is up. Everybody sees it coming and knows exactly how to play around you post-board. 2. Wizards has also consistently made clear that they dislike Dredge and will continuously release very cheap and relevant cards that read: "Die dredge, die." This may change in the future, we can only wait and see.
Opponents are at 2 life. Teammate plays a lightning bolt targeting opponent. Retaining priority, I play an Angel's Grace. Priority passes, and the stack presumably begins to resolve. After Angel's Grace has resolved, can our opponents play a spell or activate a life-gaining ability before the lightning bolt resolves, (such as a Zuran Orb activation?) I believe I may be under the misguided impression that once the stack begins to resolve, nothing can stop it. Please ask me any clarifying questions necessary.
What if the belief a person holds is that Jesus, in fact, loves everybody?
Good point, let's focus and dial-it in a bit. To do so I'll give a few examples:
"Jesus loves you"
"Jesus is Lord"
"Allah is King"
"God is alive"
Would those sorts of things be objectionable?
I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. MoDo is garbage, plain and simple. If I were to best describe it, I'd put it thusly: Apparently designed in 1999, attempting to use the Modo program makes me feel like an 80 year old man who has never seen a computer in his life, yet I am 26 and that is the farthest from the truth. Mind you I am an obsessed paper magic player and have been for years. I'd love to be able to test out and play decks on a client that doesn't make me feel physically ill by looking at it. Possibly one that is at least partly comprehensible and doesn't involve some sort of asinine card-trading scheme.