I have still some questions and improvements regarding the FAQ.
First at all, if I´m in a Subforum it is not possible to go to the latest posting of a thread. Maybe, I´m just to dumb to find it. If this feature isn´t in yet, you should upgrade the FAQ in this point.
EDIT: Dumb me found it
Second, in the FAQ, if you are using the Black Version of the Forum, the font colour isn´t correct. There are some points, where the font colour is black although it should be white.
Sincerly,
Kathal
PS: The new Forum is pretty insane, love it
Is not a straight "play a card" like BBE nor "draw 3 when I enter" as Reveler, but with a single swing he will offer more overall benefits than either one.
Greetings,
Kathal
I honestly never thought, that we could get an upgrade on the creature/enabler side, but here we are. Putting the problem with Path aside (which can be handled via different cards), that card is just bonkers. Why?
- It is a recurring cheat engine, since there is no way to remove it permanently (it will return sooner than later)
- It is cheap enough to get hard casted
- It doges most played removal, Lightning Axe, Dismember, Bolt and Push does nothing against Mr. Boar
- It is a three card combo with any other creature with only a single cheat spell, which is insane
The only con is: You want that guy in the classic none Shoal version, which is honestly not that big of an problem, since nobody plays control atm and GDS is either way a piss-poor match-up.
I was already starting to brew with Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion cause of how good his ability is in the Necrotic Ooze version (after brewing around with a Powder + Gemstone Cavern + Pull of Eternity Build), but now I put a stop on it and will go back to the classic version. Dunno if I want to go Powder route or not, has it's pro and cons.
Greetings,
Kathal
- Bad draws from the good deck gets less likely which reduces the punishment what bad decks can do
However, bad decks tend to have worse bad draws than good decks (cause they usually do not lack in power, just in consistency). In my opinion, the exact opposite should happen: The absolute increase of consistency is way higher for bad decks than from good decks which in return gives the bad decks a better edge against the good decks, since their "do nothing draws" will happen way rarer than with the current ruling while little will change for the good decks.
Basically, I would argue the exact opposite is correct going forward. Bad decks will profit way more than the good decks.
Greetings,
Kathal
Greetings,
Kathal
Greetings,
Kathal
Btw. the biggest struggle I have found so far is, that if my Loams get exiled due to a Surgical, I can hardly win anymore. Losing the recurring removal spells is really harsh for many match-ups. Has anybody a idea, how to make the deck less Loam reliant while still being not hot garbage?
My first thought was to add some high power cards, which can act as an Loam alternative, but the ones I would want to play (looking at you Mr. Dack Fayden) are not modern legal
Greetings,
Kathal
I would play it in straight BUG, just play two Steam Vents to be able to grab it via any U fetchland, no need for Scalding Tarns.
Balista is very mediocre, cause again, when we have the mana we should do other stuff and when we do not have the mana it is a bad removal spell.
New Saheeli looks nice, since it is a better Young Pyro for this deck (cause it is a PW which dodges all the creature removal and is not R). However, not sure at all, if the amount of tokens produced is really that massive. Sure, with things like Teaching Chains or stuff like this you get to a lot of Tokens pretty fast, but dunno if you can do it properly against Control. However, against non Phoenix aggro decks it is a good card, since it can produce a ton of tokens quite fast to buy us more time. Though, those aggro decks which see play usually can ignore her quite well, either they fly (Phoenix, Hangerback Walker Tokens, Crackling Drake, Spirits), the deck has some form of board wipe (TiTi, Detention Sphere guy) or they can burn you out quite effective (Dredge, Burn, Walking Balista).
Greetings,
Kathal
Btw. something I stumbled across a few days ago: https://mtgmeta.io/metagame?f=modern
Greetings,
Kathal
Sure, purely overkill and probably totally unnecessary, but fun nevertheless
Greetings,
Kathal
PS: The only argument for it (besides being a really fast "finisher") is, that it can make a great Wild Rec impression, since instead of doubling your mana you just "go off".
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Flooded Strand
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding Pool
1 Island
1 Forest
//Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Hooting Mandrills
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Curious Obsession
4 Serum Visions
1 Faithless Looting
1 Thought Scour
2 Sleight of Hands
//Interaction
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
3 Blossoming Defense
2 Mana Leak
2 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
2 Huntermaster of the Fells
2 Damping Sphere
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Dispel
1 Pyroclasm
1 Kozilek's Return
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Destructive Revelry
1 Engineered Explosive
1 Magma Spry
First thing first: Punted cause I forgot about the Surgicals for the SB. Welp, I knew I forgot something, but missing the Graveyard hate is kinda hard.
Round 1 vs UR As Foretold Restor Vision.deck (yeah, that janky brew):
Game 1 I went Nacatl into Obsession into Mandrills into gg basically. No way he can deal with an active Obsession.
Game 2 was more drawn out, I was stuck on two lands (own fault for only playing 17 lands), he fired of a Resto via Electrodominance where he needed to sac 3 of his lands just to clear the board from 2x Goyf which represented lethal for the next turn. I went Bolt on Jace, he Dispelled, I went Mandrills into beats into gg. He was not able to land an As Foretold (nor Moon) due to the cheap counter mana set-up which basically allowed to play beater + counter.
Round 2 vs UR Phoenix
'Member that I forgot the Surgicals? Doh.
Game 1 was a slugfest. He didn't find any Phoenixes while my Delvers didn't flip at all (5 turns in a row btw). Since I only drew lands (even with the Fetch to re-set my top trick) I had no out vs his Crackling Drake. In his turn 5 (played Drake on turn 3 cause of an Path on TiTi) he was capable of pumping his Crackling Drake from a mediocre 3|4 into an 12|4 thanks to Thought Scour, Lootings and Manamorphose. Combined with a Bolt it was lethal.
Game 2 was a quick start from my side, early Nacatl into Obsession, Stubbing a Moon into value chain. At least I had the first Delver flip in that tournament in this game, and he still needed 3 turns to pull it together.
Game 3 was quite interesting. I countered a Flashback Looting via a Stub (as a Force Spike), cause he was so greedy to not play the land. On my board was a Goyf + 2x Nacatl and on his 5th turn he went for massive Phoenix turn, churning out 3 guys. He had in his hand a Lightning Axe + pitch (I didn't knew) so he swinged with all three, putting me down to 4 (he also had an Bolt). On my turn, I Bolted him, attacked him and Leaked his Axe and won the game off it.
Thinking about it, I should have leaked the flashback Looting in that Phoenix turn. Would have meant, that I would need another turn to win the game, but it was the more save line (only one Phoenix reanimates, the other two were in hand).
Round 3 vs Devoted Druid
Game 1 I lost the die roll, he went land, I went Serum Visions, he went Druid, I went Nacatl, he went Vizier, I bolted the Druid, he floated mana and cast Postmortem Lunge on the Druid and won from there. There was no way for me to win this since I would need to leave up double interaction to deal with this (which I had) but I would have no clock, which is the bigger problem than him getting the nut draw. Even Bolting in my turn would not be doable, since he still could have won on his turn.
Game 2 I had an early Nacatl with Obsession. I Bolted + Pathed everything releveant while Nacatle generated a ton of value (he didn't want to block with his Dorks, since he was mana screwed). I won on the back of an Mandrills and Snap + Bolt + the Nacatle through his Saheeli. Spell Snare + Pierce countered his combo attempts.
Game 3 was quite interesting. I played it more slower so that I can keep up double interaction when it came to this turn 4: His side: 3 lands (including an Canopy), Duskwatch, 1 Dork, 1 Vizier, 1 Forge Tender vs my 4 lands and Nacatl.
I Bolted the Vizier pre combat, he sacced the Forge Tender, attacked with Nacatle (no blocks) and EoT he sacced Canopy for a draw and in response I cleaned his board with Kozilek's Return. From there it was a smooth sailing, since it was basically a 2 for 4.
Round 4 vs GDS
We ID to get locked first and second and played it out for the exact position:
Game 1: We both mulled to 6, I kept a somewhat greedy 1 lander with a shock on top. He IoK me on turn 2 (he was otp, but wanted to draw the IoK). Lots of resource trading happened and in the end I won the game based on clever life management from him. Not "pumping" the Nacatl and thus only attacking for 2 damage was one of these things (and afterwards fetch to have the mana).
Game 2 was more of game 1, a slug fest where he landed an Angler with double Stub pack-up. I went Path, he stub, Snap Path, he stubbed again into topdeck Path which allowed my Goyfs and Nacatls to swing in. He followed up with an Death Shadow, which put this game in a draw position: If he attacks, he dies at the back swing, if I attack, I lose my board and than die on the backswing.
Game ended by me drawing a Bolt, which turned the attack into a lethal one. Though, I had a Looting in the graveyard, so I was in an better position than him, since any form of pump/interaction would win the game (as it did).
Thoughts:
Obsession is REALLY good, sadly an echantment and thus kinda iffy with Delver (kinda low on the Instant + Sorcery count). Also kinda want to play the 18th land, but no idea what to cut. Blossimg Defence allowed some cool tricks (like countering removal, killing an TiTi with an Nacatl and so on), however, not so sure if it is that much better than Mutagenic Growth. Gut feeling says yes atm.
SB was a mess, but I already mentioned it. Would need to ponder about what I want and what I need. Some number of graveyard interaction has to be in there, most likely Surgicals but could also be something like Cage, which is less painful and also fills the same role. Btw. Magma Spry was the "5th" Path for the Phoenix match-up, but I definitely want a "true" 5th. No idea what to play though, cause stuff like Condemn is just garbage :/
Greetings,
Kathal
Greetings,
Kathal
Greetings,
Kathal
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
4 Mountain
3 Sheltered Thicket
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Copperline Gorge
2 Rootbound Crag
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Raging Ravine
4 Faithless Looting
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Dismember
1 Flame Jab
1 Molten Vortex
1 Lightning Axe
//CMC2
2 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Life from the Loam
3 Commune with the Gods
4 Seismic Assault
3 Countryside Crusher
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Nissa, Vital Force
If you want to run 26 lands without any Wayfinder or 24 with two Wayfinders is up to you.
Greetings,
Kathal
That is at least what I found out about Search, when I tested it.
Greetings,
Kathal
At best case it is a Negate + a 1/1 Token for 2 Mana vs removal spells, something not many decks (if one at all) would want. Only RUG Delver plays something similar in Simic Charm and Simic Charm does much more than that spell (cause it either pumps, protects or is a tempo removal).
I can see the benefits of that card, but no deck wanting that effect.
Greetings,
Kathal