+1 brutality (expected thalia/meddling mage nonsense)
+2 Anger
-2 Hug (counterspells)
-1 ritual (generally don't like ritual vs. thalia, plus this is a slow ish matchup)
post-sideboard deck consists of 4 SSGs, 1 ritual, 4 shoals, 4 wurm, 2 borborygmos, 2 brutalities, 1 lightning axe, no hugs. rest should be the usual suspects
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- Kathal
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Member for 10 years, 2 months, and 28 days
Last active Sat, Sep, 14 2019 10:22:53
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Nov 25, 2017
1
djhova posted a message on Grishoalbrand / Griselbrand ReanimatorPosted in: ComboQuote from finalnub »
I've been meaning to play the ooze version (and the fury version for the matter) as it's getting a bit stale playing grishoalbrand all the time. Do you have an updated list I can fool around with:)?Quote from Kathal »Always when I hear about the BR Grisel Control versions, I have to think immediately about this version: http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/necrotic_ooze_combo_deck_tech_.html
Of course, completely outdated, but as a base it would be interesting to go from it.
Greetings,
Kathal
Looking at the list, I kind of get the gist of the deck but still don't quite understand. Oooze lets us dodge.. just cage right? Looks like the idea is to bin borb+griselbrand, play an ooze and combo (the combo seems to be chaining soul spikes which is the only life gain engine that I see). Other targeted GY hate like scooze, surgical, Leyline/RIP still seems to be good vs this version, unless you sequence a certain way (playing ooze first, then binning griselbrand/borb).
Posted about it in here before but: http://riptidelab.com/necrotic-brews-the-goryos-vengeance-variety-hour/
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Nov 18, 2017
1
finalnub posted a message on Grishoalbrand / Griselbrand ReanimatorHere's a mini report on the Modern Challenge that I won last weekPosted in: Combo
Round 1 vs. D00mwake (UG Merfolk, OTD)
G1: I keep a h and of temple, land Vengeance, Whispers, Griselbrand, Shoal, Breach. Base plan is to discard Griselbrand to t2 Night's Whisper and combo t3. He plays some new green dorks but doesn't do anything relevant. I combo t3
+2 Bontu's +1 Pact +1 Anger +1 Lightning Axe
-2 Ritual -1 Whisper -1 Brutality -1 Through the Breach
I board out a breach because WIth their clock and disruption I don't think I'm making it out to t5 very often. Especially on the draw I'm on full defensive mode
g2: I mull a good 7 with Vengeance, cantrips, Pact etc but no land, into no land 6 and 5 and keep a 4 with land, SSG, looting, x. Funny when you still have a realistic chance as long as you have a land and looting, basically. I get run over.
g3: I keep a mediocre hand of 4 lands, looting, whisper, anger. By turn 2 I have drawn into Breach, Griselbrand, Shoal and SSG so my plan is now well defined. His t3 involves him extending into 3 creatuers so I plan on tapping out with SSG to try and combo, as I'm not lnog for the world. I draw a Wurm for the turn and both my constraints become relaxed and I win.
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2 vs. Gmanlsa (GB Tron, OTP)
g1 I start with a nutty hand of 2 lands, looting, vengeance, Griselbrand and Wurm. His turn 1 is a Tower into Chromatic Star. My next turn is a bit better
+2 Shattering Spree
-1 Brutality -1 Ritual
This matchup is such a joke that I wouldn't even bother with Blood Moon OTP.
G2 I start with a reasonable hand of each of my 3 fatties, temple, mountain, looting, hug. He insists on being the fun police with a t1 relic and t2 brutality taking away my hug. I eventually looting into a vengeance and I have a decision to ditch Griselbrand or hold him to draw into breach. I bin the griselbrand and try to draw into another Vengeance, a Spree, or Breach a Wurm for my win condition. his t4 tron produces a wurmcoil and I never get close
G3 i start with 2 lands, rit, SSG, looting, borb, grisel. My Looting hits a Vengeance and I start to wonder if today's the day.
2-0 (2-1)
Round 3 vs. SmoiL (Eldrazi Tron, OTD)
g1 I keep a hand of 2 lands, wurm, SSG, whispers, hug and Vengeance. Pretty good. He leads on Mine+Chalice for 0, so he obviously has another Chalice. I temple a Breach on bottom and he casts an irrelevant chalice for 1. He misses his third landdrop which makes me wonder about his keep. His board consisted of a Ballista for 1, chalice for 1, chalice for 0, GQ and Mine when I breached in a Wurm on turn 4
+2 Shatternig Spree +1 Bontu's +1 Lightning Axe
-1 Brutality -2 Ritual -1 Temple on the play
I've actually had Etron players insist on Chalice for 1 even postboard so if you observe that, don't bother with Lightning axe
g2 I have a good hand of 3 lands, 2 Whispers, Griselbrand and Breach and draw a ssg t1. He plays a chalice for 1 again and then plays a temple into TKS on t3 and takes away my Griselbrand when I had 2 Breaches. Rude. His t4 consisted of playing a Smasher to smash me to 8. My turn 4 consisted of drawing another fast mana and breaching in a Wurm for 15. He's now at 5 with TKS and Smasher while I'm at 8 with 3 angry 5/5 wurms plus a Blood Crypt, Breach and Shoal. I'm winning the race for now but this can be swung around in his favor by stuff like All is Dust, running smashers/Endbringers. Sure enough, on his next turn he plays another smasher such that his board is now Smasherx2 and TKS. He passes and I present lethal and we trade off 2 of our creatuers and he chumps with TKS which draws me a hug (hand is now hug, spree, shoal, breach, Crypt). It's going to be problematic if he draws another 5/5 or an All is Dust so I work towards getting a second breach going. I hug pitching Spree and SHoal to pick up a rit, wurm and looting. So I'm set up to fight through another blocker/All is Dust next turn with another Breached Wrum. Of course he draws a TKS and takes away my Breach. I draw a blank and he chumps my wurm, going down to 3. I draw another Breach off of the TKS and his topdecked Smasher is made obsolete next turn
3-0 (2-0)
Round 4 vs. Juzam-Djinn84 (Storm, OTP)
g1 I recognize his name as a storm grinder so I know I'm in for a ride. I keep a hand of 2 lands, 2 Vengeances, griselbrand and SSG. On my t2 i don't draw anything and pass, aiming to discard to handsize next turn (I have SSG+2 vengeances to play through a remand). He plays a baral on t3 but does not kill me. I EoT Vengeance with my SSG, and he has the remand. I untap and Vengeance again for the win
+1 Brutality +1 Lightning Axe +2 Pact
-2 rit -2 hug
I would bring in the chalices for pacts OTP
g2 i keep a mediocre hand that never draws a Vengeance with Griselbrand in the bin. I dig 22 cards deep to no avail. He plays 2 Goblins and a Baral and beats em down
g3 I mull a no land 7 into a hand with 2 lands, Vengeance, Breach and Griselbrand. Seems reasonable enough.I scry a SSG to the bottom looking for cantrips. His turn 2 Electromancer sends me into a panic and of course I draw a Brutality like a professional and kill the goblin. I punt t3 when I main phase Vengeance with him at 3 lands and nothing else. I get remanded and lose tempo. thankfully he doesn't murder me turn 4 and I go for it again main phase (I think him having 3 lands vs. 4 is a big difference in terms of what he needs to go off next turn). He uses 2 of his 3 open mana to cast Peer through Depth, prsumably looking for dispel. He doesn't have it and I kill him t4
4-0 (2-1)
Round 5 vs. toondoslav (GW elves, otp)
I keep a very speculative hand of temple, whisper, rit, shoal, wurm, griselbrand, Breach. I have 2 shots at a land and then I'd be in business. I scry another temple to the top while he plays a bunch of dorks. On his turn 2 he spews 11 points of damage onto play. On my turn 3 I play my third land, play a ritual, shoal pitch wurm splice breach, breaching Griselbrand. My mana is pretty constrained here but I cannot give him a chance to draw an archdruid or an ezuri. I end fizzling because my deck size was divisible by 7 with 4 remainder. I end the turn with 4 cards left in deck, 5 lands and 2 Vengeances in hand, and a Borb in the GY with the opponent at 13 and I pray he doesn't kill me. He doesn't topdeck and swings for 11 and i kill him with borb
+2 Bontu's +1 Lightning Axe +1 Anger
-2 Ritual -1 Whisper -1 Temple OTD
Brutailty is good in theory but being OTD vs OTP for the turn 2 play can make a world of a difference
g2 I keep a hand with 2 lands, vengeance, phose, shoal, Bontu's and Anger. Great. He mulls to 5 and I feel a RIP to the face in my future. his first 2 turns consists of t1 land heritage druid, t2 land nothing. I don't draw business for a while so I just sculpt my hand. He plays a t3 RIP and keeps beating me down his 1/1. I draw enough mana so I cast a SSG to halt his Heritage druid assault. He then draws his 4th land and plays ezuri, which is bad news bears. I attack with SSG with the plan to wipe away ezuri after. He makes the mistake of blocking SSG with Heritage Druid and then regeneration it, tapping him out, letting my Bontu's sweep his board. I keep drawing Vengeances after though and he draws a Vizier and a Nettle afterwards, and my life is starting to get reallly low with jsut breaches but nothing else in my hand. I finally draw a griselbrand but get a really bad draw 7 or two, so I set up a breach Griselbrand next turn. He plays a selfless spirit and attacks. I make a gigantic mistake of breaching and attacking with Griselbrand the next turn, where he obviously blocked then sacced to deny lifelink. I should've obviously waited for him to attack with his Nettle Sentinel to block it. THankfully I don't get punished and I finally get there in 10 turns
5-0 (2-0)
Round 6 vs. TomatoCheese (GB Tron, OTD)
g1 I keep a hand of 2 swamps, 2 shoals, wurm, griselbrand and vengeance and chuckle at his t1 tower+Sphere. I plan on t1 land, t2 discard griselbrand, t3 kill. He doesn't have discard and I kill him t3
SB: same as above
g2 I keep a very speculative hand of 2 Vengeances, land, ssg, spree, phose, shoal. His first 2 turns concists of a swamp+Marsh and a relic, which complicates things for my double Vengeance hand. I manaphose into a land and spree his relic+map and he gets no value out of either of those. I draw into looting+Griselbrand by t4 and win.
6-0 (2-0)
Round 7 vs. Miguelcaster (Eldrazi & Taxes, OTP)
I look him up as the only other undefeated and groan at his history of playing E&T. I keep a hand that kills him t4 even through a t3 TKS
+1 Anger +2 Bontu's +1 Lightning axe
-1 Brutality -1 Whisper -2 RItual
g2 and g3 plays the same. I'm ruined by a mixture of thalias and RIP. I would try Blood Moons OTP because their mana base without Vials is putrid
6-1 (1-2)
Quarterfinals vs. TomatoCheese (GB Tron, OTP)
g1 I keep a 1 lander with wurms, Vengeance, Griselbrand and Looting. keep. Sucks that the second land is a Temple but thankfully he doesn't have a Brutality and I win g3
SB: Same as above
g2: I mull a no land 7 into temple, swamp, 2 whispers, hug, wurm. he has t3 tron+relic.while I keep cantripping and eventually draw into breach+fatty, only to be thoughtseized but thankfully he's durling around with eggs and Thragtusk. I draw into a Shoal+Breach+Borb+wurm+4 lands, so I shoal pitch borb breaching in wurm when he's at 23. this line is pretty weak vs. wurmcoil but he hadn't played it for 2 turns after tron so i figured that wasn't a thing. I pass confidently and he slams wurmcoil. Thankfully I did splice the breach so I have 4 lands+whisper+ssg+Breach leftover. My whisper draws me into another wurm. He attacks with wurmcoil (no block) and then plays a ballista for 6, which seals the deal as I breach in a wurm and attack 30 points of power
7-1 (2-0)
Semifinals vs eronkim (OTP, Burn)
Before g1 I'm doing some research and realize 1 of the player has a bunch of 5-0s with lantern and grixis shadows, so I'm praying he loses in the semis
g1 I keep a hand of 2 temples, mountain, looting, ssg, phose, wurm. Not the most exciting hand. He goes foundry+goblin guide revealing griselbrand. I find a Vengeance with my looting and he tapped down for swifty and bolt so I don't have to worry about skullcrack effects while I kill him t3
+2 Pact +1 Lightning Axe
-3 Whispers
g2 I keep a pretty loose hand of 3 temple, montain, swamp, rit, shoalx2, wurm. But gain 11 vs burn seems good so whatever. I draw a Griselbrand then scry another land to the top for Guide. next turn I draw a temple and scry breach to the top. Though I'm already at 11, i have 2 lands and a hand of 2 shoals, wurm, rit, griselbrand with a Breach next turn, so I feel OK. I don't shoal while he's tapped out and take a risk that he doesn't have skullcrack effects and I can combo next turn. His next turn is a Molten Rain to set me back (?!?!) I end up in the game state that I shared with you above, and ended up stopping rather than keep going. I took the hit, did a Brutality check and won the turn after
8-1 (2-0)
Finals vs. caux12 (Burn, OTD)
Thankfully Jadoth on the other side lost playing lantern and now I get to face a good matchup. I have a hand that has combo pieces but 2 too many whispers. thankfully I t1 loot away a Griselbrand and topdeck a Vengeance t2. I wait until the end of his next turn as not to get blown out by Skullcrack (skullcrack in response to Vengeance renders griselbrand to nothing).he ends up tapping out for Eidolon so I am free to carefully combo off while being mindful of the Eidolon on t3
SB: same as above. Consider bringing chalices in OTP
g2 I mull a no land 7 into 5 red cards and a swamp into 2 mountains, hug, looting and pact. I shrug and keep. I actually make a game out of it by drawing into vengeance/brutality etc while he runs out of gas. He slams a relic a tur nbefore I can Vengeance back a Griselbrand and that is that
g3 I have 2 temples, looting, phose, vengeance, chalice, breach and scry a SSG to the bottom. t2 I draw Vengeance, loot into griselbrand with 2 vengeances in hand. Opponent taps out on his t2, and it just feels like it's my day. I kill him and take down the whole thing.
TLDR: I played the matchup bingo well, and had a bunch of t3/t4 kills
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Oct 22, 20173
spawnofhastur posted a message on [[Official]] SCG Modern DiscussionsYes, because the all Sainted Twin, may Lord have Mercy on her URx name, never gave people free wins.Posted in: Modern Archives
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Aug 15, 2017
1
finalnub posted a message on Grishoalbrand / Griselbrand Reanimatort0adman, Leyline unfortunately isn't close to a 1 hit KO against them. The real problems are the discards and the counterspells. With their high density of cantrips, they will eventually see their shadows/pyromancer and kill you in short order. And EE likely won't put in the work you'd want it to - most of the times it's just going to be one shadows plus a snapcaster/delver beating you down. In that case, even a push or a murderous cut would be better.Posted in: Combo
I would definitely play Read the Bones over Sign in Blood
I would highly recommend against transforming your deck in such a way that you are no longer being proactive and asking the questions. I would much proactively shut down the opposing gameplan through moons and chalices. Leylines are deader than dead late game.
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Aug 12, 2017
1
finalnub posted a message on Grishoalbrand / Griselbrand ReanimatorPosted in: ComboQuote from Kathal »What you also can do is:
Play a Mountain, pass, if he does nothing in your endstep let him untap. If he wants to combo off in his turn you can still combo off in response (just do it when something is on the stack, otherwise you might run into a Grapeshot problem (denying you draws)).
If he just untaps and attacks with Baral again, Goryo's Griseldaddy into the game and block Baral. If he has a Remand here, you can say okay and do the same thing again (or just wait to play around any counter-spell he might have).
This will allow you to go off in his Endstep in response to the Goryo's trigger OR right there in the combat phase. Just don't do it, when he can cast Sorceries, cause it can get quite awkward.
Greetings,
Kathal
yea, i think that may be the best way to go. I just respect Storms' ability to win from nowhere, but maybe too much. I think we should plan to Vengeance if they tap out on our End Step for Gifts and combo off, or plan to double Vengeance on their end step if they do not combo off. if they do try, we can try and find a clean spot to combo in response -
Aug 9, 2017
1
TehCheator posted a message on Grishoalbrand / Griselbrand ReanimatorPosted in: ComboQuote from finalnub »In a cruel twist, the most innocent looking decision actually decided the game for us. I still think keeping a land is better here for hardcasting Griselbrand. If you accept that, keeping the SSG over ritual is better IMO because it's uncounterable and hardcasting SSGs will matter a non-zero amount of time (like when you breach a wurm). Counterpoint is if you expect to combo this turn, mana will be a bottle neck and having a ritual to splice multiple times will save you. What do you guys think?
I think that you have to be planning to Combo here, and that saving resources to hardcast Griselbrand is incorrect. While you have the mana to do so, you still need to draw one of your 3 remaining Griselbrands for that to even be an option, and you're only going to have ~1-2 turns to do that before the Thing in the Ice makes it mostly irrelevant anyway.
You have a Pact, and a reasonable hope that your opponent is going to cast something and give you a window when they are tapped low to go for it. Given that I expect the game to be over one way or another within 1 turn, I'm discarding both lands here. Then on the 2nd Looting I'm discarding the Manamorphose and 1 SSG, leaving 2x SSG + Ritual in hand. Then when you go off you can Splice the Ritual onto both Shoals, giving you 4 Mana. Cast the ritual for the 5th and Breach the Borborygmos for the win. -
May 15, 2017
1
finalnub posted a message on Grishoalbrand / Griselbrand Reanimatortheir only real out would be shattering spree. I checked a few 5-0 lists and they seem to be running 1-2 of them from the side. of course, no sane storm player would bring shattering spree game 2 so we'd get a free chesseout win in g2 should we resolve itPosted in: Combo -
Apr 25, 201722
ktkenshinx posted a message on Staff transition and farewellHello, MTGS community!Posted in: Modern
I'm posting to let you all know some sad news. Effective May 1, I'm stepping down as a staff member at MTGS. This means I will no longer be one of the Modern subforum moderators. I've loved working to make the forums a better place, promote this great format of ours, and discuss all the strategy, policy, and cards that make Modern the format we call home. Unfortunately, with life changes on the horizon, I'm no longer able to dedicate time to the site and must step down.
Lantern has already posted an announcement for new moderator candidates, and I encourage you to apply if you think you'd be a good fit for the job. You can see his announcement here:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/774999-help-wanted-looking-for-a-new-moderator-for-modern
And here's the link to the Moderator Applications subforum, for those who want to submit an application. This subforum also includes application submission guidelines:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/community-forums/community-discussion/staff-inbox/moderator-applications
I will still post on the site after May, but with much less activity than before. No matter where Modern goes from here, it will always hold a special place in my gaming interests, and I hope all of you keep Moderning on through thick and thin. If you have any subforum suggestions that the rest of our amazing staff can look into (Lantern, Torpf, and CavalryWolfPack), please post them here so they can look them over as the new staff member gets onboarded.
It's been a great ride since I joined the staff years back, and I look forward to seeing the team keep improving the forums after I depart. For all you Modern players, keep up the great conversation and always remember to consider all the qualitative, quantitative, and anecdotal evidence when making statements and decisions about the format. Stay critical and level-headed. Always try to elevate the conversation and keep it data-driven. If we can do that, we'll have a better community and a better format overall.
Take care, everyone!
-ktkenshinx- -
Apr 24, 20174
Lord Hazanko posted a message on [[Official]] Legacy Ban List Discussion Thread (Read OP before Posting)Not sure what to do in Doomsday Tendrils without Top.Posted in: Legacy (Type 1.5) - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
1
KCI if you want it dead (cause traditional Eggs is hot garbage), Scrap Trawler if you want to kick it down to Tier 2 territory.
Phoenix sucks balls against Midrange and Tempo decks, so I doubt it.
Greetings,
Kathal
1
Greetings,
Kathal
PS: Totally agree with @gkourou btw, while I would love to play against Twin again (cause it was such a good match-up
1
The second night was a Shoal build with 4 Phoenixes and Discovery, but I have no idea what he cut (he went off once so saw a lot of cards but I didn't saw any "missing" cards to say it this way).
Greetings,
Kathal
1
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
2 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Blooming Marsh
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Bojuka Bog
//Creatures
4 Bloodghast
3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
2 Stinkweed Imp
1 Golgari Brownscale
1 Necroplasm
4 Faithless Looting
1 Tormenting Voice
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Life from the Loam
2 Mausoleum Secrets
2 Driven // Despair
2 Lingering Souls
//Removal
2 Darkblast
1 Lightning Axe
1 Collective Brutality
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Heaven // Earth
3 Conflagrate
4 Thoughtseize
1 Raven's Crime
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Nature's Claim
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
1 Lightning Axe
4 Leyline of the Void
Went 3-2 and played against the following things:
UR Kiln Fiend 2-0 (killed creatures, made lots of Zombies, he was never able to push lethal through)
Ad Nauseam 1-2 (game 1 I lucked him away, game 2 he had Unlife into 3 Angel's Grace, but found ADN quickly enough, game 3 he killed me on turn 4 top decking ADN while I had lethal on board on the backswing)
BW Midrange/Control 1-0-1 (won a long and grindy game 1, he didn't concede fast enough to Loam + Squees + Infestation, so game 2 went to time, had two cards left in the bib when the 5th extra turn ended)
Humans 2-0 (Game 1 grinded through 3 Meddling Mage, 2 Freebooter and 2 Thalia, Brownscale was king recovering several life, Conflagrate turned the game around, Game 2 Pharao + Infestation + Dark Blast was enough to grind him down)
Infect 1-2 (game 1 I had not enough interaction, game two I he dealt 9 Infect thanks to Darkblast's -1/-1 and than cleaned his board up, game 3 I kept a 6 land hand with one Fetchland (Bloodstained Mire, Grudge, Dark Blast, Loam, Tormenting Voice, Conflagrate) but never drew the second land).
Thoughts afterwards:
Was an extremely experimental list, Secrets was decent but I missed a good (mass) removal target and a discard spell. Maybe run the Crime MD and a Dark Salvation as a removal/finisher hybrid which you can tutor? Dunno.
Missed the Pharao MD, will definitely add him back. The 5 Draw spells felt awesome, might even want a 6th (so a second Tormenting Voice). Also, Tormenting Voice is better than Hugs here, cause I was often in Scenarios where I only wanted to discard a single card or I only had one card to begin with. Had a couple of times Driven//Despair in my hand/yard but never did something (and I could hardly use it). It would require a more early creature drops, so that you can nab 2-3 cards on turn 3 to be really worthwhile. Hence, I tend to cut them completely (also frees deckspace up).
The white source (Godless Shrine) was useless, was more of an liability than anything else (never hard casted Lingering Souls). So it will get cut again and replaced by another mana source, dunno which one yet. Also, not that keen on Tec Edge so far, might switch it for another Ghost Quarter/Field of Ruin (though, would want another basic than).
In general I felt, that if I can stabilise around turn 4-5 I would win the game for sure, which was something refreshing after playing lots of Delver
The list has potential, but needs a lot of work to get refined, some clunky things are in there and I'm missing a lot of things I would want to add. However, this is just meant as a brainstorm deck than anything else.
Greetings,
Kathal
1
It is honestly speaking a more fundamental question on which direction modern should be steered. Cards like Ponder, DTT, DRS, Pod, Twin and Cloudpost will pump up the Power by a "large" margin, which both enables and weakens a lot of semi competitive decks. If the overall net gain is positive or negative cannot be judged at all, since those are such huge unknown factors.
However, on the other hand there are a bunch of cards on the list which are more on the "not so impactful" side of spectrum (as we have seen with BBE, Jace, BB, Sword and Valakut). Those could come of the list either way without having an noticeable impact on the format.
There were two more periods of time, where the diversity suffered (although not as much as in Eldrazie Winter, which is nigh impossible if we are honest), it was TC time (three decks having a metagame share of above 50%) and a small time frame of Return to Ravinca (2-3 months, it was DRS vs Pod vs Twin, which were close to 50% overall (NOTE: DRS combined 2 decks)).
But than again, nothing beats Eldrazie in this regard.
Greetings,
Kathal
1
Regarding "fair" deck vs Dredge: Humans, Counter-Cat and Kiki-Chord all have even-ish match-ups pre board (at least pre Chill printing, would need to test again to see, how it currently looks like).
Greetings,
Kathal
2
Delver (Ponder + Preordain, Treasure Cruise, Probe)? Loam + Bug Midrange/Control (Deathrite)? Zoo (Note: they unbanned Nacatl after close to 4 years being banned)? Gifts Control (Seething Song, DTT)? Pod (Company is not Pod...)?
I could list even more decks (Infect till the printing of Become Immense, Second Breakfast till now KCI,...) but Twin is anything but a special snowflake in this regard...
Greetings,
Kathal
1
2
I want to thank especially @ktkenshinx who did all those metagame reports (and more) over the past few years, without him we would lack a good history of the Modern metagame and thus I could have never made the point I waned to make (due to the lack of facts):
Since 2014 Modern shifted from a Standard like playstyle (so more "grinding out advanages") towards a more unfair one (unfair in: "Either you deal with it or you are in trouble"), which historically speaking always happened to big formats (be it Vintage, Legacy, super Extended (8 year Extended), Modern and even Pauper). It is no problem to play traditional "fair" decks, but your deck needs to do something good and not sitting around and waiting to die. This is not limited to combo decks but it can also mean slamming a huge Death Shadow early, having synergistic grow effects on your creatures (humans) or, get value chains going (Counter-Company and Spirits), having some high impact cards loaming around (Teferi), but do not sit just ideal there and threaten nothing.
Also, clever deck building became more and more important over time, things like Suicide Zoo would have never came into existent without some brewers. Do you need to go so far to get a deck viable? Nah, if it has already a good gameplan.
Counter Cat (Delver + Nacatl + tempo shell) is a prime example for this:
- If the meta gets faster, I will also get tiny bit faster (including more burn, Helixes, cutting on the 2CMC counters,...)
- If there is combo running around, I might switch up my counter suit (more 1 CMC counters, maybe include Disruption Shoal again)
- If it gets slower, add more value chains (Snapcaster, Huntmaster, Hazeret, Chart a Course, Faithless Looting,...)
Tuning your deck is nowadays even more important, cause you cannot say: "The following 6-7 decks make up 50+% of the metagame". That is the beauty and struggle from Modern, when your MD is basically your SB already
Greetings,
Kathal
24
Modern was rather "stale" till the release of "Khans of Takir", which basically opened the floodgates for every set.
Before you had a very stable and pillar centric format, BGx , UWR, Twin, Pod, Affinity and (starting with Born of the Gods) Burn (Note: Tron rotated in and out, depending on how much Twin, Pod and Affinity there was). And with Khans, basically everything changed:
- TC and DTT pushed Delver/hyper Aggro and Scapeshift back into relevance (as some other different combo decks), combined with the big boon Pod gained (Angle Pod) UWR and also BGx took a nose dive, since they simply couldn't keep up (even with DTT for UWR)
- Than Pod, TC and DTT got banned, Fate Reforged got released, UWR never recovered since the meta shift was to fundamental. Infect started to rise as the premier aggro/combo deck (combined with early showings of Bloom) thanks to Become Immense, Grixis started to emerge due to the printing of the Delve creatures. Suicide Zoo made the first few steps due to the printing of Become Immense and Battle Rage. The meta was still in a turmoil, cause the old rules were broken (of the 5-6 pillar decks in modern). Tron made got a boost due to the printing of Ugin, Spirit Dragon and cause of the huge metagame share of Abzan (although again, very short lived) Metagame update 2-3.2015
- Than Dragons of Takir happened, which granted us with Collected Company but more important: Atarkas Command. Burn rose to be one of THE Tier 1 decks and not leaving with burn hate in your SB was basically a death sentence. Furthermore, Grixis established itself as the Tier 1 value/control deck due to K-Command (although for a relatively short period of time). Amulet Bloom finally established itself and also showed insane MTGO win rates. Metagame update 4-5.2015
- Magic Origins was a more "calm" set, since it only added baby Jace (very short stint), Aethergrid (still sees play in Lantern and co) and Hangerback Walker (different decks). Thus this was the first real time period since Journey into Nyx where the metagame had time to breath. Jund also finally recovered while Abzan got demoted (hard). Also, Meerfolk saw more play due to the printing of Harbinger of the Tides. metagame update 6-7.2015
- While in Battle of Zendrika the omen was already foreseeable what might happen with the Eldrazi creatures (pritning of Ulamog pushed again Tron), it was not yet quite clear what will exactly happen. Hence, the metagame had overall 6 months a rather chill time period, which can be seen here: 10-11.2015. Oh btw. Bloom was finally a permanent Tier 1 deck
Also, before we go the the real breaking phase, I just want to point out which decks where Tier 1 at that point in time (in the correct order given the metagame share):
- Affinity 9,3%
- Jund 8,7%
- Burn 7,8%
- RG Tron 5,5%
- Merfolk 5,3%
- Infect 5,3%
- UR Twin 4,5%
- Grixis Twin 4,2%
- Amulet Bloom 4,1%
Hence, within only a year the metagame shifted so drastically, from a clear 5-6 pillar format towards a very broad format where the more "unfair" (aka doing actually things which required an answer from the opponent in some way or another or you will lose) decks became the majority of the Tier 1. That Amulet Bloom got a lot of flag and rose even harder as the premier combo deck in the format, was quite interesting to observe.
- Oath of the Gatewatch happened. TKS and Smasher say hi and Eldrazi "Winter" happened. HEven after their respective bans the set still offered a lot of goodies for Modern: Reckless Bushwhacker, Reflector Mage, Kalitas, World Breaker and Kozeliks Return have or had a major influence in the metagame at one point or the other. Here is the ugly breakdown: 5-6.2016. And why did it never recover and went back to status quo (or something similar)? Summer Bloom and Splinter Twin got banned when Oath got released. Suddenly another pillar bit the dust (after UWR)
- At that point in time Modern was broken and would never truly recover from that. The unbanning of Sword and AV, while having an initial hype, did nothing for the format. Keep in mind that Suicide Zoo became rolling in that time period, it slowly saw more and more play, but it was still more a niche deck than anything else. This can be seen here: 4-5.2016. Only Jund and Affinity were left from the "old guard", while Tron established itself as one since then.
- With Shadows over Inistrad nothing really "important" happened, but that Prized Amalgam and Neonate got printed (yeah yeah, I know, there were lots of good cards in that set: Traverse, Thraben Inspector, Titi, Tracker, Thalia's Lieutenant, Pieces of the Puzzel, Duskwatch Recruiter, Nahiri (OMG UWR IS BACK?!?!?
1) Return of Jeskai cause of Nahiri only to die down 2-3 months later
2) Dredge as a Tier 1 deck
3) Death's Shadow Zoo (aka Suizide Zoo) finally being a Tier 1 deck (and gaining a lot of ban talk)
Jund was king, Affinity on his side, Tron was gone (again), UWR returned, 3 ancient pillars in the Tier 1, while one will crumble soon (UWR). Also, the metagame looks vastly different than what it used to, mostly due to new tech (e.g. the whole shell of Suizide Zoo was legal since Fate Reforged, so more than a year ago) and especially new printings. Oh btw, RG Titanshift so a rise of popularity (not yet tier 1) but steadily climbing since Eldrazi Winter.
- Eldricht Moon aka Eldricht Hug saw overall 4 important cards printed: Collective Brutality, Bedlam Reveler, Spell Queller and Liliana the Last Hope. This resulted into again, lots of brewing and hyping of different decks, but in the end, everything stayed the same: Aug 2016. Also, something I forgot to mention: Midrange Elrazies (be it Bant or RG) still were considered quite good.
- The Release of Kaladesh meant one thing: Printing of Cathartic Reunion (aka Hugs) which pushed Dredge a notch up which also resulted into a huge uptick of Infect, cause Infect was just darn good in that time and especially in that metagame. This can be seen here: Dec 2016. Only two decks Infect had really problems with in the Tier 1: Jund and Burn. The rest was either a race or a rather easy match-up.
- Aether Revolt granted us with Fatal Push, Walking Balista and Baral. It also meant, that GGT and Probe got axed. Probe due to Suizide Zoo and Infect (mainly) GGT cause of the sideboard problematic (see B&R update for more infos). Feb 2017. Classic Jund ceased to exist, Shadow Jund was born and this meant, only one of the classic pillars, Affinity survived till now. However, overall the metagame was quite nice (see link), lots of fair "unfair" decks running around compared to previous times.
- The remaining two years can be summarised quite easy (since then there are hardly metagame data out there, due to the change of Wizards policy in this regard):
1) Death Shadow (be it Jund or Grixis) stayed relevant for more than a year, before dropping out of favour
2) Jund never came back, which has mainly to do with a broadening of the metagame and being rather inflexible to adapt
3) Storm rose to be a Tier 1 or at least Tier 1 contender for the majority of the time (due to the printing of Baral and the adoption from the Ritual Gifts version to include Gifts Ungiven)
4) Humans happened
5) Spirits emerged as a great deck (this year)
6) BBE and Jace got unbanned, both having close to zero impact for the longest time
7) True Control only revived due to the printing of Opt, Teferi and the adaptation of removing AV and including Terminus.
8) Hollow One got "discovered"
9) Affinity dropped down in favour of Hardening Scales
So, shor trip down memory-lane, but why do this recap over the last 4 years?
Basically, since the release of Khans of Takir, the old pillars (all of them) are gone. Only Tron and Burn (which were in the crowd back than but not pillars) have survived. And this alone made the metagame so much more wide, where the question is now: "Who can do the most "unfair" thing at the time" (again, "unfair" in: If you cannot deal with it you will have a serious problem). So if you played since the beginning (as did I), there is a reason why we feel, that the metagame became more "linear" to say it this way, cause as it shows, it became so BUT some very specific time frames (Midrange Shadow time period and the one pre Kaladesh). Before that, you could always bang on the big 5-6 pillars (aka police decks) to keep the metagame check. Since those are now long gone, the metagame overall became more volatile (as can be seen at the recent GPs, which are usually extreme in one case or another).
Greetings,
Kathal