MTG Salvation

Played Knightfall last weekend in GP Toronto going 5-3. Sadly picked up my 3rd loss in the last round of day 1, eliminating me from playing day 2, but I felt that overall the deck was performing well, though I think I let my list become a little too weak to burn (2 of my 3 losses).

Here is the list I played. I've been on 6 dorks for a long time and feel that it works well. Thalia H.C. was a great maindeck addition in quite a few matchups, I usually run Mindcensor or Ramunap Excavator that slot, but felt that Thalia would be e benefit in slowing down some decks I was worried about such as Humans (which I didn't even play against in the end). It ended up being a pretty powerful card vs. BGx and Pyromancer decks even when it only stuck for a turn or two. I ended up playing Moorland Haunt over the traditional Gavony due to expecting some grindy matchups like BG and Mardu, it definitely payed off in my grindy games, where gavony would have been pretty dead because of the removal I was facing.

I ended up taking for granted my burn matchup because of the strength some previous builds of mine had in the matchup, slowly my changes over time have made the burn matchup weaker and I wasn't adequately prepared for it or at least didn't draw my good cards vs. my two burn opponents. I'm reassessing the sideboard now to help have better answers to fast aggro, as I felt E.E. was a little slow, often needing me to take a turn off when using it and held me back from advancing my own plan.

I had no byes, so my 8 matchups were as follows:

Burn - Loss 0-2 (0-1)
UR Pyro/Thing - Win 2-0 (1-1)
BG - Win 2-0 (2-1)
Temur Moon - Win 2-1 (3-1)
Abzan - Win 2-0 (4-1)
Eldrazi Tron - Loss 0-2 (4-2)
Ad Nauseam - Win 2-1 (5-2)
Burn - Loss 0-2 (5-3)



With unbanning of Jace, I'm considering trying a build with no Company and more tempo oriented plan with 3-4 Jace(focus on flash creatures, light countermagic w/ knight and retreat), or even a trying to fit both 4 drops (maybe just fitting 2 Jace over a couple creatures in this case for the late game grind)

Quote from nerdsfearme »

Not playing this deck, but just passing by and interested... Isn't Jace, Vryn's prodigy really good in this deck?

The reason I don't think Jace is played here is because in modern we are not looking to gind out a long game, while the deck can go long, its not our aim, and other decks do it way better, so we want to press our early advantages with efficient threats while the using the effects of our disruptive/hatebearish creatures to slow the opponent down.

If you saw the Standard Bant Company decks that were big just around the release of SOI, it would seem jace is a great addition, but the main difference is that in standard, this deck was able to grind out a long game fairly well, and flashbacking CoCos in those slower games is obviously insane. For the modern version, it's just not quite the same gameplan.

There has been a lot of discussion on Goyf in the deck, and many of us have chosen to not play it on our own, and not due to budget. My original bant lists ran them (pre-coco), but once I shifted to a company oriented build I dropped them in favor of more utility. Personally I believe that a big strength of this deck is that we can go wide with creatures that have decent bodies and a lot of utility. A lot of the time in my deck goyf is "only" a 3/4 and while that is obviously still good value, I have found I would rather be playing Voice of Resurgence, Meddling Mage, Scooze, and Pridemage in my 2-drop slot over goyf as the added utility more than makes up for the loss in creature body. I'm sure in some builds, including goyf is the correct choice, but its not just due to budget that they have been passed up in some builds.

Hi everyone, it seems that the Bant Company thread was taken down due to overlap with this thread, so I thought this might be the best place to post this even though the following deck has no combo. This is a list that I recently played to a Top 4 finish at a Face to Face games modern 1k tournament in Toronto. The crowd was quite competitive and I think my deck performed quite well. I think that I am going to be moving back to a combo oriented list moving forward, but I think I made the right decision for this tournament to go all in on the value plan. My day went as follows, I would write a more detailed report but I am not great at remembering details of matches after they happened, and this was over a week ago. Key things I remember: the matches vs. Burn were not close. I have still never lost to Burn in a sanctioned match with Bant CoCo or Knightfall (though I believe value CoCo is a bit better against it). The games vs. Eldrazi were not close, but in the other direction. The abzan matchup can be a grindy one and I think comes down to the better draws if both players are around equal skill level. Delver decks are not good when you GQ their red source with a mindcensor in play and they don't have red mana the rest of the game.

Round 1: 2-1 vs. Grixis Delver (1-0 overall)
Round 2: 0-2 vs. BW Eldrazi (1-1 overall)
Round 3: 2-0 vs. Burn (2-1 overall)
Round 4: 2-1 vs. Abzan (3-1 overall)
Round 5: 2-0 vs. Burn (4-1 overall)
Round 6: ID vs. Zoo (4-1-1 overall)
Went into top 8 as 4th seed.
Quarterfinal: 2-1 vs. UR Twin(R.I.P.)
Semifinal: 1-2 vs. Abzan (same guy I beat earlier in the swiss)

Here was my decklist:



Moving Forward:

Under the impression that the meta is going to shift to a place where many top decks have very important utility lands. I have recently reworked my Knightfall list a little bit and started running 4 Ghost Quarter and 3 Aven Mindcensor maindeck. I haven't had my new list out to any events yet, but I think it will perform reasonably. It has been working out very well for me in testing vs. Infect, Tron, and UR/b Prowess/Delver.

I have been recently experimenting with Aether Vial in the deck. It has a lot of interesting implications such as letting us hold up interaction spells with mana and flash in creatures with the Vial. EoT Knight into Retreat is a much smaller window that the opponent has to interact with our combo. Here is where I am at with the deck currently, I think this could potentially even do without the combo, but I think it is meta dependant. Something to be aware of with this specific land setup, is that you can't technically oneshot the opponent from full life with the number of fetches/forests/plains, but that doesn't come up enough for me to build around it.

Quote from Pokken »

If you want the BTL effect, Either Wargate or Chord would be more likely to achieve the effect you're looking for.

Chord is really great in this deck, allows more versatility in the sideboard too as you can search those up with it, meaning you don't need as many copies of stuff, and convoke usually makes it cheaper than the BtL.

I think what he is asking is if they can play the Fulminator, then immediately sac it for the effect, which they can. In this case Sudden Shock will not help, but a lot of the time, players will hold it and try to get value out of the 2/2 body before saccing, which means you have a window to shock it.

I also like the aggressive style in this deck better than the slower controlling role some people take with it. The boros charms mainboard are an interesting thought. I used to run a pair of them, but eventually took them out. I have recently been thinking of putting a couple back in, especially because I play in a jund heavy meta, where my opponents are doing a lot of damage to themselves and 4dmg can really make a big difference, and as well it can give my angels and cliques indestructible vs their terminates/abrupt decays, and even geist vs. blockers.

Chandra is interesting, but I would suggest trying out Elspeth, Knight-Errant in that slot and see if you like it. She also helps geist punch through, by giving it flying and making it a 5/5 which can be absolutely bonkers if you can get it on curve. Also, she does more work on her own, as she can make 1/1's and turn them into flying 4/4s.

With the rise of Kolaghan's Command, in addition to your other points, I am also especially weary of running Batterskull.

It might be a budget thing, but I would also suggest you run a couple Vendilion Clique here, I find the flash 3/1 very strong as an aggressive play.

Honestly I think only offering it every once and a while is what keeps it making money. If it was there year round, people wouldn't get hyped for it, queues would not fill as fast, and it would be harder and harder to fire off drafts for it.

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Here's a recent 5-0 on MTGO list - we've seen this style of list on MTGO in the past, but people on the forums don't seem to play this build.

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/364980#paper

Notable md 4 meddling mages, no paths and chord + coco. 4 forge tenders in the side looks loose when kozilek's return starts popping up.

Played the following list to a 6-1 record in the MTGO tournament practice room.



This was the first list I threw together to try. I made no changes between matches. I wanted to get a feel for what was working and what wasn't. I had no idea how competitive the deck would even be. I lost to a Jeskai Control deck (only creature played was a Prognostic Sphinx and mainly played wrath effects and planeswalkers from what I saw in the two games). I defeated Abzan aggro, Abzan midrange, Mardu aggro/tokens, Mono Black aggro, W/u Heroic, and W/b midrange. All of the decks except the W/b midrange I'd consider quality decks with no budget cards being played.

Thoughts on cards which performed well:
Sagu Mauler - A house of a card. Whenever I got one out I usually won and they had no answer.

Thassa - Still a very potent card. I managed to get her active about half the time I played her. Just the scrying and unblockable effect were very valuable though.

Bident of Thassa - Was great every time. Too bad it is legendary or I'd play more!

Singing Bell Strike - Great tempo play, was always happy to see it. Handles basically everything you need it to (putting it on a Master of the Feast was fun).

Prognostic Sphinx - Excellent in most situations and opponents could never kill it without a wrath effect. Great for getting devotion.

Ice Feather Aven - Did some nice stuff morphing for value. Don't think more are needed, but pleasantly surprised by their usefulness.

Thoughts on cards which underperformed:
Jace, the Living Guildpact - Sided him out a lot. OK as a tempo play to bounce something occasionally, but just doesn't do much for the deck other than get a little devotion. Definitely replaceable.

Clever Impersonator - Never had a good chance to use these. Cast it once to copy a Banishing Light to get rid of an Elspeth, but that was it. I think they'd be better in the sideboard.

Master of Waves - Only one in the deck, but even when I drew it I wasn't super excited to play it over other cards.

Icy Blast - Did some useful stuff and will probably leave a couple in, but not being able to hit the ferocity enough makes it a low impact card overall. Still helped to push through damage though.

Hour of Need - Really situational. Was hoping to use it on mana dorks late in the game to turn them into threats and to hit ferocity for Icy Blast, but never materialized. Not sure I want to cut them just yet. They may still have use, just didn't draw it a lot to try it out much. Does go against the devotion aspect a bit as well if using on the Kiora's Followers and Icewing Avens.

Kiora's Follower - OK as a mana dork that gives a little devotion, but otherwise not impressive. The untap effect never came into play otherwise and they are mediocre in combat. Removing these would make it harder to turn on Thassa unless replaced by other blue cards.

Sideboard thoughts:
Hornet Nest - Actually was pretty good against the aggro decks. Buys time or forces them to give you annoying flyers.

Kiora, the Crashing Wave - Added a random one to try out against control decks who can't pressure her. Was very useful against the Heroic deck to stall their big hero. Did get to ultimate her once, so that was fun.

General thoughts:
The rest of the cards in the deck functioned as you'd expect. Mystics (Elvish and Rattleclaw) we're fine, I never had mana trouble. Disdainful Stroke was OK and Reclamation Sage was solid. The sideboard can be changed a lot really. I feel control is the worst match for the deck as it doesn't put a lot of pressure on early and if they deal with your threats you have a hard time coming back.

Morphing was better than expected. Draws lots of removal as people are scared it's a Mauler. The fact they are colorless came into effect against the Heroic deck's protection from color effects. I wish there were more playable morphs. The three in the deck are good, but more variety would be nice. I contemplated Hooded Hydra and even Thousand Winds, but decided against both.

All the scrying really helps smooth out the draws and avoid dead cards. Between the Temples, Thassas, and Sphinxes I was able to get quality draws later in the game rather than excess lands or mana dorks.

I think the deck needs creatures to help apply more pressure. Heir of the Wilds and Boon Satyr are thoughts. Bow of Nylea perhaps as well, but that's adding more double green costs, so the mana would need to adjust for those changes. A Mana Confluence or two might be needed at that point. I've researched a lot of the other blue cards available in Standard, but nothing else is jumping out at me as useful except possibly Hypnotic Siren or Chasm Skulker.

I think adding another Prognostic Sphinx is a definite. Probably for one of the Clever Impersonators I'm moving to the board. Possibly another Master of Waves for the other Impersonator, just to give it another shot before moving in a more green direction. The more green added the harder it becomes to devote to Thassa. She's still good even without it, but making her a 5/5 really puts things out of reach for opponents. For now I'm trying to not move farther into green and explore the blue devotion aspect as much as possible. May still make a modified version with more green additions and see how it performs in comparison. Will update when I have more games under my belt.