MTG Salvation

Here's a slightly more niche question: What is the game plan against living end, especially the type that mainboards multiple copies of Fulminator Mage and Avalanche Riders? I've been having a rough time trying to fend off the combo and six MB land destruction cards at the same time. I'm playing a shoktroopa-style list and would definitely appreciate any strategy hints or tips on what to do with this list:

Land (23)
x12 Urza Lands
x1 Tectonic Edge
x1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
x1 Academy Ruins
x8 Island

Creatures (9)
x2 Treasure Mage
x2 Solemn Simulacrum
x1 Wurmcoil Engine
x1 Sundering Titan
x1 Platinum Angel
x2 Snapcaster Mage

Spells/Artifacts (28)
x4 Thirst for Knowledge
x4 Condescend
x4 Repeal
x4 Remand
x4 Expedition Map
x3 Talisman of Dominance
x2 Mindslaver
x1 Oblivion Stone
x1 Spell Burst
x1 Cyclonic Rift

Sideboard:
x3 Squelch
x3 Dismember
x2 Spell Snare
x2 Spell Pierce
x2 Relic of Progenitus
x2 Aetherize
x1 Wurmcoil Engine

If I asked this question a week ago, I'm sure the answer would almost invariably have been pod. That deck really rewarded players who took the time to learn it inside and out and understand the several lines of play available at any given point in the game. Knowing the meta-game and understanding what threats and tricks your opponent had available was also very important for pod players insofar as it influenced what you would pod into.

Without pod, though, what decks in modern really go above and beyond in terms of rewarding players for practicing, knowing their own deck, and knowing and their opponent's deck (in other words, tight play)? I currently play U-Tron (a solidly Tier 2 deck, but incredible if you take a few months to really learn it) and am considering building UWR Control, UWR Midrange, or Twin. I'm interested to hear from people who play Tier 1 decks what they consider the most rewarding decks in modern now.

A public service reminder to everyone in the thread that will hopefully steer discussion toward relevant cards:

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/567422-i-just-personally-spoke-with-aaron-forsythe-at-pro

Aaron Forsythe has explicitly said the following cards will never be unbanned in modern. There is no need to discuss them right now:

• Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• Seething Song
• Green Sun's Zenith
• Stoneforge Mystic
• Preordain (We can infer from this that Ponder is probably off the table too)

He also said that Sword of the Meek is highly unlikely to get an unban anytime soon, although it's at least theoretically possible.

I'm liking almost everything about this guy. He's a one-sided board wipe for us that can be used almost as many times as we want and he's extremely hard to remove. When his -X = 0, say bye-bye to flipped delvers and pyromancer tokens for free. He still costs 8 mana, though, so it's not something you can rush for like a Platinum Angel when you're getting aggro'd down. If the goal is to completely deny the opponent from establishing a board presence, though, I can see this guy being played instead of Sundering Titan. Still, I don't think it's a substitute for a bunch of chalices right now. Cool card, though!

EDIT: The big pitfall of this card is that it's not an artifact so it can't be tutored for. That may be a dealbreaker.

Great sideboarding guide! Thanks for posting.

A couple of general questions for everyone:

1. What do you guys think about running Tolaria West? A deck has been 4-0ing a couple of dailies recently that runs it as land #24 and I've liked having it available in playtesting so far.
2. Is running Chalice of the Void a more permanent strategy (i.e., it's an objectively good card that will probably be run for long time to come) or is it more of a temporary metagame reaction to the surge of UR Delver/Burn decks?

As a side note regarding the soul sisters: Tokens still aren't very well-supported in most cubes, but the soul sisters would be much more powerful if played in a token-heavy deck.

What's a good deck to play for fun-hating masochists whose desire to make their opponent's Magic experience absolutely miserable is only trumped by their own self-loathing? I'm talking about the closest modern equivalent to Doomsday Fetch-Tendrils in legacy. Budget, colors, playstyle, competitiveness, all of those things are trifling and irrelevant. I have no favorite cards--I hate all of them. All I want is something that makes me question why I bothered getting out of bed every time I open up my deckbox.

Thanks for compiling this! FWIW, I upped my cube to 450 so you may want to change that in the first post.

I'm super excited about these new refuge lands. The art on them is gorgeous! I have no idea what I'd cut if I didn't scrap the guildgates, though. I'm already at 450 without signets.

There are tons. Ethereal Armor, Pacifism, Hyena Umbra, Madcap Skills, Rancor, Snake Umbra, Moldervine Cloak, Temporal Isolation, Arrest, Stab Wound, Claustrophobia, Narcolepsy, Spectral Flight, Recumbent Bliss, Faith's Fetters, Bonds of Faith, Mark of the Vampire, to name a few of the more common (heh) ones.

I've got a playset of Mutavaults and a Sword of Light and Shadow I'm thinking of trading into my LGS. Of course I need to work out the details with them, but there's a chance I'll be able to get either two Cryptic Command or three foil textless Lightning Bolts. Of the two options, which do you think would be the better deal? I'm leaning toward the Lightning Bolts, just because they have no place to go except for up.

I saw someone do the math on what a fetchland reprint would do to the price, and mathematically they would drop to between $20-30 post-reprint. This is assuming that five different fetchlands are printed at rare status in a large, standard-legal expansion. This figure is calculated by comparing the price of a booster box ($100 for this example) to the odds of pulling any of the five fetchlands. I forget how the math works out, but the odds of pulling X fetchlands out of 36 packs is high enough that they couldn't average more than $20-30 each without making the boxes worth more than $100. Of course, blue fetches will be higher on average, and this math assumes that people are rational (a rookie mistake), but I know I'm not spending any money on fetchlands until they're reprinted.

As far as my own trades go, what about these? I'm trying to offload a playset of Mutavaults and a Sword of Light and Shadow and the store I'll be trading with has a couple of options I'm considering:

Pile A:
4 Morningtide Mutavault - LP
1 Modern Masters SoLaS - NM

Pile B:
2 Cryptic Command - NM

Pile C:
3 Foil Textless Lightning Bolt - NM

I'm leaning toward the Lightning Bolts, just because they'll never go down in value. What do you think?

LethalRayne,

The only pure Grixis deck that I'm aware of in modern is a Grixis control deck, which you wouldn't want. There's lots of good combo in blue/red, though. Twin is the best UR combo deck right now, but you might like storm too if you're King Durdle. If you like tempo decks and swinging for 3 in the air on turn two, UR delver is pretty fun too. Of the three, Twin is probably the most competitive combo deck and best fits the Spike/Johnny mindset.

It's not easy, but some people are reporting success in resolving AEtherspouts. I wouldn't go for :symb::symb: unless you were mainboarding Dismember, and even then you'd want an Urborg. I'm not sure that it's worth the trouble.

Quote from Herotime »

So I played my first night of Mono-U Tron this week. I went 1-2-1 I went to time first game against Affinity, Lost to burn my second match and then I lost to blue moon. The blue moon match almost went to time in the first game.

My question is, when do you remand vs when is the best time to hard counter? I got desperate in my burn match having to remand burn spells to try and find a hard counter.

Typically you'll side out the Remands for more specific hate cards during aggro matches, especially against burn. Aggro decks have such cheap spells that they'll probably be able to recast them if you remand them.