I went 5-3 on the day and was pretty happy with that result. I finished 32nd out of 148 people. If a game or two would have gone differently (stupid 100 dollar burn deck) I could have been sitting in the top 8. I played 8 rounds and didn't play a single one of 8 rack's good blue matchups. My matchups were:
Round 1: Jund (Win 2-0) Destroyed him in both matchups. Double wrench mind tore him apart both games and got a dakmor lock in game 1 early.
Round 2L Birthing Pod (Win 2-1). Named a qasali pridemage with pithing needle game 3 and had a grafdigger's that I rode home.
(At this point I was feeling Awesome about my day and hoping for some twin or UWR)
Round 3: Mono Red Burn (loss 0-2, and now understand the 4 of leyline of sanctity) NOTE: beware Eidolon of the great revel. It was brutal if not dealt with.
Round 4: Affinity (loss 1-2) Was super close. He top decked back to back thoughcasts in game 3. What can you do.
Round 5: RG Tron (loss 0-2) Did almost come back in game two after a mulligan to 4 cards. Didnt thoughtseize the bridge hate away. chose and Decided to surgically extract his karns. Ended up being a bad misplay. Just wanted to comment because it is possible to win with a timely surgical. Still not a fun matchup.
(Feeling awful after 3 straight losses to tough opponents)
Round 6: Soul sisters (win 2-1) NOTE: Had leylines but mulliganed and couldnt find one game 3. Advice to everyone is to not side out all your discard thinking you wont need it.
Round 7: Jund (win 2-1) Won the answer battle in the long run surprisingly in the two wins and got blown out badly in the loss.
Round 8: Jund (win 2-1) Had him die to his own dark confidant on a creeping corrosion flip when i was at 4 life staring at 2 goyfs.
Recap: I was able to finish strong and dodged the annoying but not impossible BG Rock matchup that I was hoping to dodge but played jund 3 times. The jund games were some of the most fun ive had playing magic, with me and my opponent just killing and dealing with every single permanenent until we both were in topdeck mode in almost every game. ( an example of an awesome moment was slaughter pacting an 8/9 tamogoyf, then dropping a liliana to make him sacrifice a dark confidant on turn 3). I didn't play against a single twin, UWR, Kiki Control, Scapeshift, UR delver, or control oriented blue deck all day. This doesn't mean there werent any there by any means but the meta as I walked around and talked to others has heavily shifted to Jund. UR delver and Tron were also popular choices.
If anyone is looking to sleeve this deck up soon I would definitely recommend the versions with buried ruin and bitterblossom. Buried ruin saved me many times in the jund matchups and bitterblossom was an incredible lifesaving blocker all day. (It blocked 2 6/7 goyfs long enough for me to find a removal spell and blocked the other all the way to the win). Darkblast ended up being my MVP removal spell all day long, dealing with things like kitchen finks with a grafdigger's cage out and more. Slaughter pact was a close second. All in all i think the meta is shifting to decks that play heavy amount of golgari charm, abrupt decay, and maelstrom pulse, so prepare accordingly! And good Luck to everyone and i hope you see more blue decks than i did!
Anyone have any input on the use of dismember over perhaps the slaughter pact 1x, or even the doom blade/victim of night spot? Is the frequent life loss from it just not viable for the marginal increase in available modern targets? I always thought dismember could be great as a 1-2 of.
Slaughter Pact is the only removal I've humored. I play a list with no removal but if I was going to play anything it would be Pact. The only reason I could see to argue for Dismember would be a meta full of 4/4 black creatures that come down turn 2-3. Since that is not the case, Smother, Doom Blade, Slaughter Pact or Victim of Night all seem like better choices. I can't think of too many times I would want to pay 4 for even 2 life to cast a removal spell in 8rack.
Playing Dismemeber for 3 mana you might as well be playing Hero's Downfall or Slaughter Pact for sure.
What's worse in the 1B and -2 life catagory
Doom Blade or Doom Blade that can target black creatures and you lose 2 life and doesn't kill creatures with more than 4 toughness?
Smother or Smother that can kill 4+CMC creatures, but only if they have 4 or less toughness... and you lose 2 life?
Victim of Night or Victim of Night that can target any creature, you lose 2 life and doesn't kill creatures with more than 4 toughness?
And finally playing Dismember for 1 and -4 life. If you really think this scenario is going to happen and happen often then you must be thinking one of two things. Either you are worried about your opponent dropping a 3+ toughness creature turn 1 or 2 a lot of the time, or you are worried about your mana availability. I can't think of too many creatures that can't wait a turn or 2 to get removed, that also can swing under Esnaring Bridge are big enough Disfigure can't handle them, but still have less than 5 toughness?
The (short) list of creatures I can think of that "need" to be dealt with as soon as you can are; Dark Confidant, Deathrite Shaman, Goblin Guide, Overseer, Tarmogoyf, Leonin Arbiter, Infect Ceatures and manlands... for now that's what I'm coming up with for creatures can get out faster than we can discard them.
Bob - dies to everything but pact and blade
Deathrite is banned
Guide dies to everything
Tarmogoyf dies to everything but somettimes (often) not Dismember
Arbiter - dies to everything
Infecters - die to everything
Manlands... well Colonade dies to everything, but Mulavault eludes Victim and some black manlands avoid blade and pact.
I think the real thing that makes the choice to not place Dismember easy is the GREEN section.
I appreciate the response but just so you know Dismember is -5/-5 meaning the creatures need 6 toughness to survive ultimately being a catch all for a elusive creature that hits the board before you find bridge. I agree dismember probably doesnt work overall just wanted to bring that up.
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Droplet is often unbeatable for Burn/RDW. It's only really good against them, but we take what we can get with the budget version.
what about it in the non budget version? I thought I saw it as a 2 of in your main version. same concept there? board in for burn?
Spellskite is better (good vs Burn and BGx -- both bad matchups -- as well as other things). I'd never use Droplet in non-budget. Yes, you board it in for burn.
Thanks. There has been a lot of hype about adding spellskite recently and i'm going to give it a go. Seems warranted. Can't wait to eat that abrupt decay aimed at my bridge.
yeah i agree. Just havent given it the full testing and dismember is a great magic card. Congrats on the successful build btw. I play a build identical to yours -1 urborg +1 buried ruin with great success at local events and a few grand prix side events. What do you use sun droplet for out of the sideboard though? seems like and interesting engine to buy an extra turn or two
Anyone have any input on the use of dismember over perhaps the slaughter pact 1x, or even the doom blade/victim of night spot? Is the frequent life loss from it just not viable for the marginal increase in available modern targets? I always thought dismember could be great as a 1-2 of.
Ive been playing a paper version of the deck for months using three bitterblossoms over 3 smallpox. It can lock down and win a control game or slow down non zoo creature deck enough to turn the tides. Tread carefully though because it takes some time to adjust to how to play it in the deck. You will lose games because of a badly timed bitter. Just give it time and you will love it over the smallpox (although they can be easier to run out into battle).
Necrogen Mists and Phyrexian Arena are good substitutes. Arena muddles the 3 drop spot in most real builds w/ liliana but without it can do great work. Honestly though lily is the engine that could in the deck. You really need it. It has become one of if not my favorite magic card since playing this deck. It is just silly good.
4 inquisition of kozilek
4 wrench mind
4 raven's crime
4 ensnaring bridge
4 liliana of the veil
3 bitterblossom
2 doom blade
1 slaughter pact
4 the rack
4 shrieking affliction
15 swamps
3 Urborg tomb of yawgmoth
3 buried ruin
1 dakmor salvage.
4 darkblast,
2 grafdigger's cage,
2 pithing needle,
3 spellskite
I went 5-3 on the day and was pretty happy with that result. I finished 32nd out of 148 people. If a game or two would have gone differently (stupid 100 dollar burn deck) I could have been sitting in the top 8. I played 8 rounds and didn't play a single one of 8 rack's good blue matchups. My matchups were:
Round 1: Jund (Win 2-0) Destroyed him in both matchups. Double wrench mind tore him apart both games and got a dakmor lock in game 1 early.
Round 2L Birthing Pod (Win 2-1). Named a qasali pridemage with pithing needle game 3 and had a grafdigger's that I rode home.
(At this point I was feeling Awesome about my day and hoping for some twin or UWR)
Round 3: Mono Red Burn (loss 0-2, and now understand the 4 of leyline of sanctity) NOTE: beware Eidolon of the great revel. It was brutal if not dealt with.
Round 4: Affinity (loss 1-2) Was super close. He top decked back to back thoughcasts in game 3. What can you do.
Round 5: RG Tron (loss 0-2) Did almost come back in game two after a mulligan to 4 cards. Didnt thoughtseize the bridge hate away. chose and Decided to surgically extract his karns. Ended up being a bad misplay. Just wanted to comment because it is possible to win with a timely surgical. Still not a fun matchup.
(Feeling awful after 3 straight losses to tough opponents)
Round 6: Soul sisters (win 2-1) NOTE: Had leylines but mulliganed and couldnt find one game 3. Advice to everyone is to not side out all your discard thinking you wont need it.
Round 7: Jund (win 2-1) Won the answer battle in the long run surprisingly in the two wins and got blown out badly in the loss.
Round 8: Jund (win 2-1) Had him die to his own dark confidant on a creeping corrosion flip when i was at 4 life staring at 2 goyfs.
Recap: I was able to finish strong and dodged the annoying but not impossible BG Rock matchup that I was hoping to dodge but played jund 3 times. The jund games were some of the most fun ive had playing magic, with me and my opponent just killing and dealing with every single permanenent until we both were in topdeck mode in almost every game. ( an example of an awesome moment was slaughter pacting an 8/9 tamogoyf, then dropping a liliana to make him sacrifice a dark confidant on turn 3). I didn't play against a single twin, UWR, Kiki Control, Scapeshift, UR delver, or control oriented blue deck all day. This doesn't mean there werent any there by any means but the meta as I walked around and talked to others has heavily shifted to Jund. UR delver and Tron were also popular choices.
If anyone is looking to sleeve this deck up soon I would definitely recommend the versions with buried ruin and bitterblossom. Buried ruin saved me many times in the jund matchups and bitterblossom was an incredible lifesaving blocker all day. (It blocked 2 6/7 goyfs long enough for me to find a removal spell and blocked the other all the way to the win). Darkblast ended up being my MVP removal spell all day long, dealing with things like kitchen finks with a grafdigger's cage out and more. Slaughter pact was a close second. All in all i think the meta is shifting to decks that play heavy amount of golgari charm, abrupt decay, and maelstrom pulse, so prepare accordingly! And good Luck to everyone and i hope you see more blue decks than i did!
I appreciate the response but just so you know Dismember is -5/-5 meaning the creatures need 6 toughness to survive ultimately being a catch all for a elusive creature that hits the board before you find bridge. I agree dismember probably doesnt work overall just wanted to bring that up.
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Thanks. There has been a lot of hype about adding spellskite recently and i'm going to give it a go. Seems warranted. Can't wait to eat that abrupt decay aimed at my bridge.
what about it in the non budget version? I thought I saw it as a 2 of in your main version. same concept there? board in for burn?