The thing that makes Mindslicer playable for me is the fact that we typically have more permanent sources of card draw than our opponents in the form of Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence, Graveborn Muse and Bloodgift Demon so it's usually much easier for us to recover from the loss of our hand. Plus, I think the biggest benefits to forcing everyone to discard their hands are that a) it hampers the ability of our interactive opponents (read: the blue players) to disrupt our game plan, and b) it fuels the 'yards for Chainer abuse. Myojin of Night's Reach is way stronger, of course, but I don't think we necessarily mind losing our whole hand if it means everyone else does, too.
EDIT: Mindslicer does get progressively worse the fewer sac outlets you run. IMO he's still good without a sac outlet, but he's superb when you're able to control his timing.
hey all, sorry if this has been addressed in an earlier post, but how do we board against RG Tron when they bring in Rending Volley x4 and/or some number of Nature's Claim/Relic of Progenitus? I playtested a few matches against RG Tron today and I simply could not eke out a win before they stabilized with a huge threat I just couldn't deal with. any suggestions?
Sure, I'll concede that in hyper-competitive metagames, Grey Merchant may be too slow. How would you propose to win with Chainer against a meta full of Hermit Druid, Ad Nauseum, Doomsday and other combo decks that threaten to win by turn 4-6?
I appreciate your apology for being dismissive, but this has become a pretty combative atmosphere and I'd prefer not to contribute to any further toxicity.
So I've started collecting the pieces to build Grixis Twin, but I may have to make do with only 3 Serum Visions for awhile, until I can find one to trade for (it hurts my heart to pay/trade $14 for a common). In the meantime, what's a better choice for my 4th cantrip: a singleton Thought Scour or a Sleight of Hand?
I'm not actually running filth right now because black is underplayed in my playgroup, and my urborg is tied up in another deck. Plus I don't have a reliable way to get the urborg out
In that case, you're probably better off holding onto the Entomb until you're ready to cast Living End or assemble a Necrotic Ooze combo. If you're not ready to do one of those two things, I'd say a creature in the library is better than a creature in the graveyard.
That said, if your only Entomb target is Anger, it may not be worth running Entomb in the first place. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
The rest of the cards I needed for the deck came in yesterday and I put it together last night. The only problem, I noticed that I again ordered the cards for a deck and forgot the commander... Also, I misclicked and didn't add in the sage of fables to my cart. I am picking up marches a tomorrow though and will be picking up the sage on Monday probably.
In goldfishing, I ran into the issue of not knowing what to entomb for because I had drawn the anger. When this happens, do you guys just put a necrotic ooze combo piece in the yard? Or just anything good and hope you get the living death?
Filth could probably be your alternative Entomb target.
Yeah... I actually have a LOT of experience with Chainer, and I can say that, thus far, it does *not* appear to be fantastic in my list. Now, it may end up looking good in the long run, but I hold my doubts. I don't play Grey Merchant because typically it does nothing productive. Gains us a little life, does no significant damage.
Gray Merchant is only good if you plan on using him as a path to victory and build accordingly. I too have a lot of experience with Chainer, and in my own deck Gray Merchant is one of the fastest ways to win. With 8 devotion to black on the board, Gray Merchant in hand and the ability to produce 14 mana (which is pretty easy given all our mana doublers, Coffers and Nykthos), or 11 mana if Phyrexian Altar is active, and you kill a table all the way from 40 life. If opponents have taken any damage up to that point, then a table-kill requires even less mana. It's a house in the right deck, that deck probably just isn't your deck, as you may prefer getting into the red zone. I understand your desire to diversify your threats to avoid being hosed by grave hate, but with all due respect, saying that Gray Merchant does nothing productive is simply hyperbole. In the situation I outlined above, with 8 devotion on the table and Gray Merchant in hand, a single cast requiring 5 mana deals 10 damage to each of your opponents and gains you 30 life, and 8 mana to cast and recur once deals 20 damage and gains you 60 life. How that qualifies as "a little life" or dealing "no significant damage" is beyond me.
So I was checking out recent Top 8 Grixis Twin decklists, and I came across Arnaud Jochum's list from PPTQ Carta' jeu in Lyon, France. Can anyone explain to me why Dispeller's Capsule is appearing in the decklist, and how the player manages to cast it without a single white source in the 75? Am I totally missing something?
Hi all, longtime player here who's dabbled in modern from time to time. I haven't played a ton of the format (my heart belongs to EDH); as such, I'd say from an experience standpoint that I am fairly new to modern in general, and I'm in need of a little help here.
So, I'm thinking about scrapping one of my Tier 2 decks to assemble something in Tier 1, but I'm having some trouble deciding which direction I want to go in. I currently have three Tier 2 modern decks: Grixis Delver (sans Scalding Tarns), Abzan Company (sans Verdant Catacombs) and Mono U Merfolk. My plan is to break apart one of the latter two decks to trade into the pieces I need to upgrade Grixis Delver into either Grixis Twin or Grixis Control. To illustrate the similarities in cost, I've included a couple of lists of the cards I'd need to acquire to make these upgrades to Grixis Delver.
4 Scalding Tarn (again, I could make do without these for awhile)
Now, in the hopes of making my decision a bit easier, I pose the following questions to the wonderful MTG Salvation community:
1) Between Grixis Twin and Grixis Control, which is better positioned in the current modern landscape?
2) Which deck is more fun to pilot? (Please note that I enjoy all kinds of archetypes, so I'm not really biased in that regard.)
3) Is the power of Splinter Twin in modern beginning to wane?
4) Is Grixis Control riding an initial wave of success that's bound to sputter out soon?
5) Between Abzan Company and Merfolk, which deck should I scrap for trade fodder?
6) Why the hell didn't I finish my playset of Serum Visions back in Mirrodin block when they were $0.50 each?
Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Or you can even just vote in the poll!
To boot, the monoliths shouldn't draw nearly as much hate as the other combo enablers (Mana Echoes, Earthcraft, etc.), and wouldn't necessarily be wasted slots either, since they function primarily as mana rocks. Thoughts?
I run Batterskull and I love it. I'm pretty cavalier with my own life total when I'm playing Chainer, so the lifelink always ends up being relevant. Despite my relatively low creature count (my list has 20 dudes, not including Chainer himself), I even run Loxodon Warhammer as an additional buffer, often equipping it to Bloodghast or Reassembling Skeleton and swinging carelessly into blockers just to pad my life total a bit.
Dude, I wish I could spend that kind of money on a card. It's fifty dollars though and the judge foil is $80. It will remain on my longer term list of cards I want though.
Edit: When I look at the price data though, it seems to be on a downward trend so I will keep a close watch on the price.
I got super lucky and snagged one on eBay for $30. You can find a good deal!
Also, I'm with Rune and Central on this one. Sneak Attack makes even Ur-Drago incredibly efficient.
Since I'm planning on building Chainer in the future (on a more budgeted approach), I couldn't but notice Phyrexian Altar isn't in. You can abuse it with Kokusho and Gray Servant with Chainer's ability unless you don't like having that kind of power in your playgroup. Make's Chainer's ability cost BB instead of BBB. That and you get the life back for using them both. Since mana won't be a huge issue, you could effectively OTK.
Between four mana doublers, mana rocks, Liliana's ultimate (it happens every now and then), and Nykthos, when I start Gary loops I have more than enough mana to kill the table in a single turn.
That said it's honestly probably a better inclusion than Altar of Dementia since milling is pretty useless most of the time. I'm just attached to AoD because thematically it matches my general. Phyrexian Altar is also pretty expensive for a minor improvement and moreover I hate the artwork. If you're looking to make the deck more competitive then I think PA is the better card.
I'd encourage you to keep Altar of Dementia. I personally run it and Phyrexian Altar, as Ashnod's Altar got cut quite a long time ago, since it only produces colorless mana. Altar of Dementia has saved my skin more times than I can count--my Chainer deck often becomes Archenemy when it starts generating absurd amounts of BBB, and I have reliably used Altar of Dementia to mill myself in response to an opponent's attempt to kill me, only to see Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Kokusho, the Evening Star hit the GY with enough leftover mana to reanimate & sac it enough times to survive an alpha strike, if not outright win on the spot. I've always found AoD more useful at milling myself more than milling my opponents.
EDIT: Mindslicer does get progressively worse the fewer sac outlets you run. IMO he's still good without a sac outlet, but he's superb when you're able to control his timing.
I appreciate your apology for being dismissive, but this has become a pretty combative atmosphere and I'd prefer not to contribute to any further toxicity.
In that case, you're probably better off holding onto the Entomb until you're ready to cast Living End or assemble a Necrotic Ooze combo. If you're not ready to do one of those two things, I'd say a creature in the library is better than a creature in the graveyard.
That said, if your only Entomb target is Anger, it may not be worth running Entomb in the first place. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
Filth could probably be your alternative Entomb target.
Gray Merchant is only good if you plan on using him as a path to victory and build accordingly. I too have a lot of experience with Chainer, and in my own deck Gray Merchant is one of the fastest ways to win. With 8 devotion to black on the board, Gray Merchant in hand and the ability to produce 14 mana (which is pretty easy given all our mana doublers, Coffers and Nykthos), or 11 mana if Phyrexian Altar is active, and you kill a table all the way from 40 life. If opponents have taken any damage up to that point, then a table-kill requires even less mana. It's a house in the right deck, that deck probably just isn't your deck, as you may prefer getting into the red zone. I understand your desire to diversify your threats to avoid being hosed by grave hate, but with all due respect, saying that Gray Merchant does nothing productive is simply hyperbole. In the situation I outlined above, with 8 devotion on the table and Gray Merchant in hand, a single cast requiring 5 mana deals 10 damage to each of your opponents and gains you 30 life, and 8 mana to cast and recur once deals 20 damage and gains you 60 life. How that qualifies as "a little life" or dealing "no significant damage" is beyond me.
So, I'm thinking about scrapping one of my Tier 2 decks to assemble something in Tier 1, but I'm having some trouble deciding which direction I want to go in. I currently have three Tier 2 modern decks: Grixis Delver (sans Scalding Tarns), Abzan Company (sans Verdant Catacombs) and Mono U Merfolk. My plan is to break apart one of the latter two decks to trade into the pieces I need to upgrade Grixis Delver into either Grixis Twin or Grixis Control. To illustrate the similarities in cost, I've included a couple of lists of the cards I'd need to acquire to make these upgrades to Grixis Delver.
1) Between Grixis Twin and Grixis Control, which is better positioned in the current modern landscape?
2) Which deck is more fun to pilot? (Please note that I enjoy all kinds of archetypes, so I'm not really biased in that regard.)
3) Is the power of Splinter Twin in modern beginning to wane?
4) Is Grixis Control riding an initial wave of success that's bound to sputter out soon?
5) Between Abzan Company and Merfolk, which deck should I scrap for trade fodder?
6) Why the hell didn't I finish my playset of Serum Visions back in Mirrodin block when they were $0.50 each?
Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Or you can even just vote in the poll!
To boot, the monoliths shouldn't draw nearly as much hate as the other combo enablers (Mana Echoes, Earthcraft, etc.), and wouldn't necessarily be wasted slots either, since they function primarily as mana rocks. Thoughts?
Also, I'm with Rune and Central on this one. Sneak Attack makes even Ur-Drago incredibly efficient.
I also notice that you're not running Rune-Scarred Demon, which I think is much better in a Chainer deck than Diabolic Tutor. I'd encourage you to keep Altar of Dementia. I personally run it and Phyrexian Altar, as Ashnod's Altar got cut quite a long time ago, since it only produces colorless mana. Altar of Dementia has saved my skin more times than I can count--my Chainer deck often becomes Archenemy when it starts generating absurd amounts of BBB, and I have reliably used Altar of Dementia to mill myself in response to an opponent's attempt to kill me, only to see Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Kokusho, the Evening Star hit the GY with enough leftover mana to reanimate & sac it enough times to survive an alpha strike, if not outright win on the spot. I've always found AoD more useful at milling myself more than milling my opponents.