After reading the Primer, what made smokestack fall out of favor? The deck has asymmetry to counteract the soot counters, it disregards abrupt decay and pithing needle, and overall it is a very mean spirited card.
I really want to find Smokestack a new home since Dutch/Geddon Stax is no longer really a viable strategy in my meta. I gotta use my Tabernacle somewhere!
As much as I hate Delver, UR is a decent way to get into the format. You can interact with opposing decks to learn their ins and outs. Also it might be closer to your playstyle. Reanimator does a decent job of fighting hate by either: Bounce, destroying it, a plan B, or simply going faster than it. You could do a Mono-B build but you lose consistency and protection. Can't go wrong with either deck.
A friend of mine on MTGO has legacy affinity built and wants to branch out to other decks. The problem is well...I don't know what other viable decks he can build in Legacy with affinity cards at all.
They don't recycle non-evergreen keywords that often anyway especially really old ones that are annoying to keep track of. I mean there's a reason why they put it on Old Fogey
....Still the card is quite aggressively costed, I'll take 4! Also...when does it Phase in and out? Those mechanics probably are not going to see play these days, it would scare off new players. It's all about turning critters sideways these days.
B/G is a great color combination. It's just due to the nature of legacy we can color fix a lot easier to splash a third color to make the decks even better.
B/G alone is a solid combination in Modern. You got Rock with Obliterators and Tec Edges.
Death and Taxes is an archetype I haven't faced yet, so I am no expert. With my current board, my inclination would be to side out permission, and side in Pithing Needle and Engineered Explosives. In your opinion, would that do the job?
I'm not an expert with the matchup either, but I believe I understand it well enough. They're definitely our worst matchup on paper. 3x Karakas, 4x Swords, 4x Thalia, Revoker, flyers + Mother of Runes, Wasteland/Port, and Æther Vial to top it off... half their cards are home runs against our attack-with-a-legendary-fatty strategy.
EE and Needle seems fine, you might be able to leave Massacre out of your 75 if you're bringing in at least 2x EE. Problem is they run Phyrexian Revoker and could vial it in response so you have to land the Explosives early to be effective. Massacre is nice since it's a 1-mana wrath under Thalia. Some people also run Dread of Night.
DnT is a rather miserable matchup as their maindeck suite is rather strong against us. Your nonlegendaries like Tidespout Tyrant, Empyrial Archangel/Inkwell Leviathan, and such will be your best bet against them. I run dread of night since the shop I play at I end up having a hard time against him. I use the abrupt decay plan as it hits most hate pieces out there except Leylines.
Hello guys, recently joined but I’ve been lurking for a while. I have a reanimator but I haven’t been able to buy Underground Sea and Force of will so I’m running Watery Grave and Foil Hopefully next year I will be able to get a pair of duals or a set of FoW.
I was thinking about using Abrupt Decay, but what about Massacre? It’s also an option and it wouldn’t require the green splash…
@hypnotyque: I’m on the same wagon (about shocklands) and it can be too much life lost just reanimating anything, specially if you want to combo Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur turn one. I would advise against thoughtseize so you don’t get too low on life inadvertently.
Massacre only takes out creature based hate. Abrupt Decay covers all hate that I can think of save Leyline of the Void plus it's instant speed.
I've played with this deck a couple of times and the one that frustrates me is figuring out what kind of hand to keep
Best picture is like 1 Entomb, 1 Reanimator, 1 Lotus Petal and then spells to counter spell. Thats dream world
But in real life, what kind of hands do you generally keep?
I assume at least 1 Entomb and 1 Reanimator type spell.
Also how aggressively can we mulligan with this deck?
I've mulled as aggressively as down to 3. Where it was a single underground sea, an entomb, and reanimate. I had no way to bait any counters but I was just lucky my opponent didn't have forces or dazes in hand and he tapped out.
Jund and Maverick in my mind are the best of the midrange decks. If your metas are excessively fair both decks can run the punishing fire/Grove of the Burnwillows package.
As much as the abrupt decay package is a great thing to fight against hate, except for leylines. It makes our manabase incredibly crappy, for now Wasteland is on the decline for some odd reason so we can take advantage of it.
Containment Priest should have been a 2/1. Then Dread of Night would be an even better hoser
I was inspired to do this from GPNJ. A R/W painter player was packing Deflecting Palms for some odd reason, maybe because of burn? A lands player had a marit lage that was about to swing for lethal the painter player responds with Deflecting palm on Game 3.
My R/W list now run 4x of those things to do the same thing. I managed to do it against a dark maverick player the other night.
A friend of mine was watching a Miracles player with three counterbalances out in the field, the guy resolved EACH trigger on counterbalance individually and fetched each time. All I could think was: "Man this guy is a dick" and all my friend was saying "This warms my heart so much." We both have different philosophies on how we show our hate to our opponent. He wants to be hide it by playing a good deck, I'll be flat out and show it from playing Stax to playing Elesh Norn against elves.
Imperial Edict is the card in question here. Normally I'd just use Diabolic Edict against an Emakrul but this situation came up in a casual game where I had the card.
So my opponent had Emrakul, the Aeons Torn on the field (only creature too) on my next turn I casted Imperial Edict targeting my opponent. Since Emakrul has protection from colored spells this is where we all got confused.
The opponent is a legal target so that isn't a problem it's the part where my opponent had to choose a creature to destroy. Emakrul can be chosen, but can it be destroyed from the card's effect since it's a colored spell?
Protections as far as I know cover:
Cannot be blocked
Cannot be targeted
Cannot be enchanted
I use a shroud fatty against DnT. Due to my meta Empyrial Archangel meets my needs better. They cannot interact with it at all so it does the job well. Unless they run celestial flare or something. Inkwell Leviathan is pretty scary too against them.
Some other players will recommend tidespout tyrant to bounce an opposing karakas.
The meta adjusted by adding golgari charms, zealous persecution, and more edict effects. TNN I thought was gonna kill off Jund but instead it actually made my deck more popular to use.
I went 5-3 at GPNJ today with UBg. Strongest performance I've ever had in a Magic tournament. I'll post a bootleg report later. 8 rounds is brutal on the mind.
I had Punishing Jund and Shortcake Painter ready for this but I saw a LOOOOOT of burn and UR Delver which scared me away from using both decks.
First of all, it isn't Sultai. I'll call it BUG if cards from Khans make a serious impact on the deck. I didn't call Aggro Loam Jund until BBE was a thing.
Report below
Round 1: LED Dredge (Misplays: The match!)
G1 Didn't think he was dredge when he decided to go first, until I saw faithless looting. I decide to go for the kill I see his Grave Troll in the yard and....decide to animate dead it, didn't read that his power and toughness depended on what was in MY yard. Misplay #1. So my dredge opponent starts doing his G1 antics and dread returns a griselbrand. He was dredging pretty aggressively and he actually accidentally decked himself out since he only had high dredgers in the yard and still had 4 cards left to draw from Russel Brand only to have 2 cards in the deck left.
SB: -4 Exhume +2 Show and Tell +1 Chain of Vapor +1 Flusterstorm (I didn't know what to bring in)
G2
For some reason he was able to constantly cabal therapy stripping my hand even after forcing 3 times. He was able to bring out 8 zombies overpowering my Empyrial Archangel and attacking for lethal with a dread returned Flame Kin.
G3
Elesh Norn on turn 1. He was trying to dig for answers but didn't. Victory
1-0
Round 2 Goblins
He drops down a rabblemaster. On my first turn I careful studied into Griselbrand and reanimated it. Next turn he starts dropping chalices. I dig twice forced his first one but he drops another one. I get beat to death by goblin tokens.
SB: -4 Reanimate -1 Careful Study +2 Show and Tell +3 Abrupt Decay
Game 2
I kept a hand with 3 of my abrupt decays. He chalices on 1 so I respond by entombing elesh norn. My next turn I abrupt decay it. His next turn he brings down another chalice. This repeats until I run out of abrupt decays. I force his RIP. Then came the coup de grace, the dropped a magus of the moon. I had no response.
1-1 I thought this was an easy matchup...guess not
Round 3 UWR Miracles
G1 I have no idea what deck he was this game. All I saw was a snapcaster mage and a Vendillion clique beat me to death while he forced and spell pierced me to oblivion.
SB: -1 Daze +1 Flusterstorm
G2 I see he brings down a Tundra so I'm assuming he is packing STP and . I baited a griselbrand in the yard the turn before and attempted to reanimate so he forced it, instead i show and tell an Iona on white. Riding it to Victory. He dropped a top so I can guess what he was playing.
SB: -2 Daze +1 Flusterstorm -3 Careful Study +3 Abrupt Decay
G3 I thoughtseized him seeing he has RIP so I take it away. In my INFINITE wisdom I allowed his Counterbalance Top Lock to actually happen. Show and Tell an Empyrial Archangel. He was digging a few turns with the top so he fetches since he wasn't happy, so this was my chance to abrupt decay forcing him to shuffle the top away buying me a turn. Little did I know he managed to get another one. The archangel brings the pain, in a last ditch effort he cliques me only to see a thoughtseize but I still win in the end.
2-1
Round 4 UWR Delver...The fastest loss I can think of
G1 Three turns straight he wastelands me. So I'm stuck with a hand of nothing. I get beat to death by delvers.
-2 Reanimate -1 Animate Dead -1 Griselbrand -2 Careful Study +2 Abrupt Decay +1 Flusterstorm +1 Show and Tell +2 Dread of Night
G2 He was packing more permission than I was. I try Show and Telling my Archangel into play. Forced, pierced, and he flusterstormed my flustterstorm. Then came the real kick in the balls. He attacks me with a SFM with a sword (I think Feast and Famine) which makes me discard and he untaps his lands. On that single turn he drops RIP and Containment priest. I abrupt decay the priest . Next turn he attacks again..and brings down two more priests.
2-2 Oh how I wish I had Jund for that match
Round 5 Elves
G1 Elesh Norn turn 2 next
SB: -1 Tidespout Tyrant +1 Duress -2 Daze +2 Show and Tell -2 Exhume +2 Abrupt Decay
G2: He turn 2 Nat Orders. I kept a hand that would have turned 2 since I had petals, SnT, and Elesh Norn. So that gamble failed.
G3: He cabal therapies all my reanimation strategies. So that buys him time to durdle around and kill me with craterhoof.
2-3 Supposed to be an easy match but the better pilot won
Round 6 Merfolk U/W
G1: He drops a Lord of Atlantis. I drop Iona on Blue, doesn't seem too phased by it which boggled me. Then he drops some U/W land that doesn't untap if he reveals a Merfolk and I realized...noooo STP. No STP thankfully 7/7 Flyer beating down to win.
-2 Reanimate +2 Show and Tell
G2: He drops some weird Merfolk from Apocalypse that was turning my Sea into a basic plains. I drop Iona on Blue again and win.
3-3 First time I've seen that deck and it was U/W. Weird. Nice guy though. Players are starting to get visibly tired.
Round 7 UR...no wait Grixis Delver
G1: I'm convinced he was UR delver at this point. I reanimate Elesh Norn (ouch) and he kept bolting me. But strangely enough Elesh Norn was a good enough clock for victory.
-4 Reanimate +2 Show and Tell +1 Flusterstorm +1 Abrupt Devay
G2: Cabal Therapy yada yada raping my hand. I animate dead an empyrial Archangel stalling me a turn. This part I think I should have called a judge. He said he was gonna cast treasure cruise, revealed the card but didn't pay, and he took it back and cabal therapyed me taking my third show and tell. I had no answers for the rest of the game.
G3: I'm on the show and tell plan. But I entomb griselbrand. I thoughtseized him seeing he has only a pyroblast. So I use my first Snt to get blasted. Next turn I drop down Elesh Norn for Victory.
4-3 Where was UR Mania besides on the featured tables?
Round 8 RUG Delver
G1 I reanimate a Griselbrand and he scoops
-4 Reanimate +2 Show and Tell +1 Abrupt Decay +1 Flusterstorm
G2 He stifled me twice giving him the lead. I get burned to death.
G3 I show and tell a Griselbrand but this time he has delvers on the fields. I reanimate an Iona on Red for good measure and I get the win.
5-3 RIP Mongoose. He cut them for TC.
MVP Cards:
Iona, no matter what people say this is maindeckable for me.
Russel Brand: It's not a silver bullet but damn it works
Empyrial Archangel: Having that redirect damage ability is so sweet
Show and Tell: Always have a Plan B
Not so MVPs:
Abrupt Decay: Its uncounterable sure, but my manabase is incredibly shaky.
Sire of Insanity: I've seen how powerful it is on turn 1 but otherwise it's meh. I don't think it goes well in a non 4 petal build. Never used it once today, probably would have if I encountered storm.
Dread of Night: Next to me every round was Death and Taxes. Deep down I was sighing in relief that I didn't have to deal with them.
Tidespout Tyrant: Same deal. I used it to pitch to force lol.
Pithing Needle: Didn't use it, didn't draw it in elves
Duress: Didn't use it, probably could have used it in elves
Grave Titan: Didn't use it no edict decks around
I can't bring myself to cut Dazes altogether. Reanimator is pretty light on blue cards and we need them to pitch to force.
I really want to find Smokestack a new home since Dutch/Geddon Stax is no longer really a viable strategy in my meta. I gotta use my Tabernacle somewhere!
A friend of mine on MTGO has legacy affinity built and wants to branch out to other decks. The problem is well...I don't know what other viable decks he can build in Legacy with affinity cards at all.
....Still the card is quite aggressively costed, I'll take 4! Also...when does it Phase in and out? Those mechanics probably are not going to see play these days, it would scare off new players. It's all about turning critters sideways these days.
B/G alone is a solid combination in Modern. You got Rock with Obliterators and Tec Edges.
DnT is a rather miserable matchup as their maindeck suite is rather strong against us. Your nonlegendaries like Tidespout Tyrant, Empyrial Archangel/Inkwell Leviathan, and such will be your best bet against them. I run dread of night since the shop I play at I end up having a hard time against him. I use the abrupt decay plan as it hits most hate pieces out there except Leylines.
Massacre only takes out creature based hate. Abrupt Decay covers all hate that I can think of save Leyline of the Void plus it's instant speed.
I've mulled as aggressively as down to 3. Where it was a single underground sea, an entomb, and reanimate. I had no way to bait any counters but I was just lucky my opponent didn't have forces or dazes in hand and he tapped out.
Containment Priest should have been a 2/1. Then Dread of Night would be an even better hoser
My R/W list now run 4x of those things to do the same thing. I managed to do it against a dark maverick player the other night.
A friend of mine was watching a Miracles player with three counterbalances out in the field, the guy resolved EACH trigger on counterbalance individually and fetched each time. All I could think was: "Man this guy is a dick" and all my friend was saying "This warms my heart so much." We both have different philosophies on how we show our hate to our opponent. He wants to be hide it by playing a good deck, I'll be flat out and show it from playing Stax to playing Elesh Norn against elves.
So my opponent had Emrakul, the Aeons Torn on the field (only creature too) on my next turn I casted Imperial Edict targeting my opponent. Since Emakrul has protection from colored spells this is where we all got confused.
The opponent is a legal target so that isn't a problem it's the part where my opponent had to choose a creature to destroy. Emakrul can be chosen, but can it be destroyed from the card's effect since it's a colored spell?
Protections as far as I know cover:
Cannot be blocked
Cannot be targeted
Cannot be enchanted
Some other players will recommend tidespout tyrant to bounce an opposing karakas.
I had Punishing Jund and Shortcake Painter ready for this but I saw a LOOOOOT of burn and UR Delver which scared me away from using both decks.
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Tidespout Tyrant
3 Griselbrand
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
2 Lotus Petal
2 Ponder
3 Thoughtseize
4 Brainstorm
4 Careful Study
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
1 Animate Dead
2 Daze
4 Exhume
2 Show and Tell
1 Misdirection
4 Force of Will
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Flusterstorm
2 Dread of Night
2 Duress
2 Pithing Needle
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Show and Tell
1 Grave Titan
1 Sire of Insanity
First of all, it isn't Sultai. I'll call it BUG if cards from Khans make a serious impact on the deck. I didn't call Aggro Loam Jund until BBE was a thing.
Report below
Round 1: LED Dredge (Misplays: The match!)
G1 Didn't think he was dredge when he decided to go first, until I saw faithless looting. I decide to go for the kill I see his Grave Troll in the yard and....decide to animate dead it, didn't read that his power and toughness depended on what was in MY yard. Misplay #1. So my dredge opponent starts doing his G1 antics and dread returns a griselbrand. He was dredging pretty aggressively and he actually accidentally decked himself out since he only had high dredgers in the yard and still had 4 cards left to draw from Russel Brand only to have 2 cards in the deck left.
SB: -4 Exhume +2 Show and Tell +1 Chain of Vapor +1 Flusterstorm (I didn't know what to bring in)
G2
For some reason he was able to constantly cabal therapy stripping my hand even after forcing 3 times. He was able to bring out 8 zombies overpowering my Empyrial Archangel and attacking for lethal with a dread returned Flame Kin.
G3
Elesh Norn on turn 1. He was trying to dig for answers but didn't. Victory
1-0
Round 2 Goblins
He drops down a rabblemaster. On my first turn I careful studied into Griselbrand and reanimated it. Next turn he starts dropping chalices. I dig twice forced his first one but he drops another one. I get beat to death by goblin tokens.
SB: -4 Reanimate -1 Careful Study +2 Show and Tell +3 Abrupt Decay
Game 2
I kept a hand with 3 of my abrupt decays. He chalices on 1 so I respond by entombing elesh norn. My next turn I abrupt decay it. His next turn he brings down another chalice. This repeats until I run out of abrupt decays. I force his RIP. Then came the coup de grace, the dropped a magus of the moon. I had no response.
1-1 I thought this was an easy matchup...guess not
Round 3 UWR Miracles
G1 I have no idea what deck he was this game. All I saw was a snapcaster mage and a Vendillion clique beat me to death while he forced and spell pierced me to oblivion.
SB: -1 Daze +1 Flusterstorm
G2 I see he brings down a Tundra so I'm assuming he is packing STP and . I baited a griselbrand in the yard the turn before and attempted to reanimate so he forced it, instead i show and tell an Iona on white. Riding it to Victory. He dropped a top so I can guess what he was playing.
SB: -2 Daze +1 Flusterstorm -3 Careful Study +3 Abrupt Decay
G3 I thoughtseized him seeing he has RIP so I take it away. In my INFINITE wisdom I allowed his Counterbalance Top Lock to actually happen. Show and Tell an Empyrial Archangel. He was digging a few turns with the top so he fetches since he wasn't happy, so this was my chance to abrupt decay forcing him to shuffle the top away buying me a turn. Little did I know he managed to get another one. The archangel brings the pain, in a last ditch effort he cliques me only to see a thoughtseize but I still win in the end.
2-1
Round 4 UWR Delver...The fastest loss I can think of
G1 Three turns straight he wastelands me. So I'm stuck with a hand of nothing. I get beat to death by delvers.
-2 Reanimate -1 Animate Dead -1 Griselbrand -2 Careful Study +2 Abrupt Decay +1 Flusterstorm +1 Show and Tell +2 Dread of Night
G2 He was packing more permission than I was. I try Show and Telling my Archangel into play. Forced, pierced, and he flusterstormed my flustterstorm. Then came the real kick in the balls. He attacks me with a SFM with a sword (I think Feast and Famine) which makes me discard and he untaps his lands. On that single turn he drops RIP and Containment priest. I abrupt decay the priest . Next turn he attacks again..and brings down two more priests.
2-2 Oh how I wish I had Jund for that match
Round 5 Elves
G1 Elesh Norn turn 2 next
SB: -1 Tidespout Tyrant +1 Duress -2 Daze +2 Show and Tell -2 Exhume +2 Abrupt Decay
G2: He turn 2 Nat Orders. I kept a hand that would have turned 2 since I had petals, SnT, and Elesh Norn. So that gamble failed.
G3: He cabal therapies all my reanimation strategies. So that buys him time to durdle around and kill me with craterhoof.
2-3 Supposed to be an easy match but the better pilot won
Round 6 Merfolk U/W
G1: He drops a Lord of Atlantis. I drop Iona on Blue, doesn't seem too phased by it which boggled me. Then he drops some U/W land that doesn't untap if he reveals a Merfolk and I realized...noooo STP. No STP thankfully 7/7 Flyer beating down to win.
-2 Reanimate +2 Show and Tell
G2: He drops some weird Merfolk from Apocalypse that was turning my Sea into a basic plains. I drop Iona on Blue again and win.
3-3 First time I've seen that deck and it was U/W. Weird. Nice guy though. Players are starting to get visibly tired.
Round 7 UR...no wait Grixis Delver
G1: I'm convinced he was UR delver at this point. I reanimate Elesh Norn (ouch) and he kept bolting me. But strangely enough Elesh Norn was a good enough clock for victory.
-4 Reanimate +2 Show and Tell +1 Flusterstorm +1 Abrupt Devay
G2: Cabal Therapy yada yada raping my hand. I animate dead an empyrial Archangel stalling me a turn. This part I think I should have called a judge. He said he was gonna cast treasure cruise, revealed the card but didn't pay, and he took it back and cabal therapyed me taking my third show and tell. I had no answers for the rest of the game.
G3: I'm on the show and tell plan. But I entomb griselbrand. I thoughtseized him seeing he has only a pyroblast. So I use my first Snt to get blasted. Next turn I drop down Elesh Norn for Victory.
4-3 Where was UR Mania besides on the featured tables?
Round 8 RUG Delver
G1 I reanimate a Griselbrand and he scoops
-4 Reanimate +2 Show and Tell +1 Abrupt Decay +1 Flusterstorm
G2 He stifled me twice giving him the lead. I get burned to death.
G3 I show and tell a Griselbrand but this time he has delvers on the fields. I reanimate an Iona on Red for good measure and I get the win.
5-3 RIP Mongoose. He cut them for TC.
MVP Cards:
Iona, no matter what people say this is maindeckable for me.
Russel Brand: It's not a silver bullet but damn it works
Empyrial Archangel: Having that redirect damage ability is so sweet
Show and Tell: Always have a Plan B
Not so MVPs:
Abrupt Decay: Its uncounterable sure, but my manabase is incredibly shaky.
Sire of Insanity: I've seen how powerful it is on turn 1 but otherwise it's meh. I don't think it goes well in a non 4 petal build. Never used it once today, probably would have if I encountered storm.
Dread of Night: Next to me every round was Death and Taxes. Deep down I was sighing in relief that I didn't have to deal with them.
Tidespout Tyrant: Same deal. I used it to pitch to force lol.
Pithing Needle: Didn't use it, didn't draw it in elves
Duress: Didn't use it, probably could have used it in elves
Grave Titan: Didn't use it no edict decks around
I can't bring myself to cut Dazes altogether. Reanimator is pretty light on blue cards and we need them to pitch to force.