MTG Salvation

Assassin's trophy can be had for $10 now. Is now a good time to buy?

I just came back from a 250ppl tourney. Went 4-5 (technically wen't 3-6). Not a good showing but eh...I don't get many opportunities to play MTG these days so any MTG is good for me.

First, my list:

Here's how it went down

UW COntrol (L) - Punted badly. I should've gotten the W here.
Humans (W)
Jund (L) - Couldn't get explosive starts
Jund (W) - Meh...mediocre starting hand. Lead the stampedes provided the gas to give me the W.
Storm (L) - Games 3 and 4, he had the kill before T4. Both games, i had lethal on board before he went off.
Human (L) - He had very good meddling mages. I was ready to go off with a T3 coco...but he meddling mage naming coco...then I proceeded to flounder for the next 4 turns.
Grishoalbrand (L) - Such a BS deck. T2 killed me twice. Didn't stand a chance. He gave me the win here since he was dropping anyways.
Jund (W) - Very fun games here.
Elves (L) - It all came down to who had the better draws and lead the stampedes. Both losses I had lethal on board, he was just a turn faster.

My thoughts: I do miss assassin's trophy and its ability to kill anything. Stain the mind is very slow to rely on it to stop any meaningful combo deck. I lost to storm with Stain in my hand. Phyrexian Revoker not being a green spell might have cost me a game against humans.

From my starting hands, I'm wondering if Hoogland is right to run Elves of the Deep Shadow over Nettle Sentinels is correct. I encountered multiple instances where I had a nettle sentinel in hand, the rest of my hand was great, but not enough ramp to get me there. I do remember he explained the reason to run the deep shadow elf over nettle sentenels is it allows for more keepable starting hands. I certainly enoountered that dilemma. Although its the nettle sentinel + heritage druid combo that allows us to play our entire hand out. I also feel 1 Nykthos in the main is good as well.

My elf opponent and I felt that the deck felt very meh at times...not explosive from time to time. Kind of clunky at times. Not sure if this is due to inexperience or just bad luck/draws.

Anyways. Good luck to all elf players!

I'm taking GB elves to a rather larger tournament this weekend (around 200ppl). GP atlanta had a lot of uninteractive decks. What's the general strategy against uninteractive decks? Just go faster than they? What are the general bad matchups?

Not sure what to expect. I don't get out and play much. But I do have the most experience with GB elves because it's relatively easy to play (not a lot of decision making). I'll post my deck later tonight.

Ancient Tomb. Sell or Hold?

While we are all oogling over these beautiful cards in UMA, I bet they curl up like pringles. LOL!

I'm interested in retrying the deck, but I'm always frustrated when my opponent drops their opposing fatty. How do you deal with a powered up DS? T3 angler? etc. It seems bad dumping a bunch of pump spells into our dudes trying to run over their opposing fatties. Thoughts?

Quote from idSurge »

EDIT: I cant escape it, both Arena and MTGO are all bloody Mono Red Steam-Kin...lol

Sorry for taking this sideways but...there's arena on Modern? I haven't touched arena in a while. Was there an update?

Quote from TyranidBill »

So... Would you do a 3 Chords/1 Lead split or vice versa? I am currently gonna try a 3 Lead 1 Chord version of GB Elves, with Clancallers.

I used to be a firm believer in 4 chords. Now I'm sold on 4 leads. Someone put it best (don't remember if it was here or reddit), but he said go chords if you are looking for combo pieces (GW elves). But GB since a lot of dudes to go wide and power up shaman, you want gas and gas is in lead the stampede.

Quote from Cody_X »

Emeria/proc for kami every turn is also a lock. If they rely on combat damage to win, they probably won't be.

Ehhh...It's a lock until they find an instant speed removal and kill kami at the end if your turn then come swinging in on their turn.

Congratulations! But why no snappy?

Wow, 12 cantrips means you skimped on removal. That's a bit too dicey for my taste. And only 12 threats too! Still a great finish, nonetheless.

Modern only boosters? You mean like Modern Masters?

Got it.

If we don't see that many "tier 2" players ( T8 pro tours as much as tier 1, then The only scg player I recall doing well in a pro tours is BBD) that means there's a pretty big difference in talent level between the tiers...and there's the rest of us. Lol.

That's pretty astounding.

How come we don't see the pros of the pro tour like Reid and LSV play in SCG, and SCG pros like Hoogland not play in pro tours and GPs? Or do they and I just not know?

Quote from genini2 »

Dredgevine is a 'new' deck that definitely needs to be on the watched. That being said we get decks that flash in the pan all the time. Jund Shadow was so powerful it needed a ban until it didn't. Cheerios with S'ram was too good a turn 2 until it wasn't. Humans was too dominating until it wasn't. Barring immediate, overwhelming evidence (like Eldrazi Winter) I'd say we need at least a month before we can call for a ban.

I saw mtggoldfish had a deck tech about it some time ago but only took off recently. What event was it?


I'm trying to find videos of the time it really took off.

There's a guy in my store who plays the Phyrexian Unlife/Solemnity combo to protect himself from dying. I don't know what his win condition is. If I'm are on RB hollow one, how do we beat that? I'm on 2 colors so even EE won't help. Scoop once he gets the combo lock out?