I haven't spent any time on my c/ube since M:O and it's clearly out of date. This was a straight rip-off of Majikian's cube, but he hasn't updated his for awhile either. I'd like to bring it up to speed with recent sets.
Some things I am looking at as options include:
Rolling Thunder
Heir of Falkenrath
Duskwatch Recruiter
Renegade Freighter
Untethered Express
Ridgescale Tusker
But generally I need a lot of help from the experts!
Brad Nelson v Todd Stevens is on SCG premium, Grixis v E-Tron.
I think perhaps cutting the 3rd K-Command for a 3rd Rejection may be correct, those 3 drops really start to become clunky
Nelson is running 2x bolt/3x push, and while I don't love losing a push, I have a feeling it could be the right choice
I still feel like I might want 2x Temur Battle Rage in my 75 for fighting through swarm decks. I really feel like I have to draw one of my two Anger of the Gods to have a chance otherwise. I've considered cutting a Fatal Push in the main for one (while keeping the singleton bolt) and running a second in the side.
Hello DSJ players!! What is the status of our beloved deck? Any new tech and good experiences?
Is good deck. Currently split between classic DSJ splashing white in sideboard, DSJ with maindeck blue splash for 2-3 Stubborn Denial (essentially removing the TBR) and blue sideboard cards while removing the white splash entirely, and a very small percentage trying to do 5 color madness.
There has also been a significantly noticeable shift to Grixis from Jund, with Jund still having a tier 1 metagame share.
According to opinions I respect I will likely be removing the white splash and going to a blue one, but remaining in DSJ vs Grixis. It's just more my style of play and I've always been of the opinion that Grixis style decks require higher skill/better knowledge of the format/more reps than I have the time to develop.
So is the go-to now 2 LtLH, because she helps shore up Affinity and Elves-type matchups, along with graveyard recursion, unlike LoTV which is straight hand-shredding and minusing off any top-decked threats?
So what's the current thinking on the white splash? I know in Gerry T's article in March he said it wasn't necessary, and on the GAM podcast he and Majors were saying that Lingering Souls seemed way overrated in the mirror and that Ranger of Eos was just too damn slow. However, all the lists still seem to be running the splash.
I just finished the manabase for DSJ and was thinking of running either it or Junk Mid at Modern night tonight... a tough choice!
The fevered visions plan is something I'm going to do moving forward. Play 1 island in the SB and maybe 1-2 Spirebluff Canal in the MB.
The main question is whether or not we should be going Pummeler or just R/G Energy. I'm going to GP Prov this coming week and not sure which route to go.
I honestly don't see how RG Energy is better, or that much better at least, than WR vehicles in the aggro archetype if you don't capitalize on the Pummeler potential.
I was wondering if do we keep a 7 card hand with Viridian Corrupter as our only creature with Infect ? Seems a bit too slow. Thanks.
In the blind, it depends on the rest of the cards in your hand. I'd lean towards no, and have taken it out of my maindeck at this point anyway. Games 2 and 3 entirely depends on the deck you are playing against. If you need to be fast, it's not going to be the creature you want to draw.
The 3 total Twisted Image and 2 main deck Distortion Strike is very surprising to me. Equally surprised by the 2 Dispel in the board since it seems like 90% of the time Defense/Vines says the same thing Dispel will and Pierce is relevant in more matchups.
Also of note: no Finks in the board. Maybe Dispel is for the Burn matchup?
I'm not really sure Tom's list is much better than theorycrafting right now. I'm almost wanting to cut Grafdigger's from my sideboard entirely, because I find dredge to be an easy matchup and isn't really on gameplan. The only real reason would be to have much of a chance against Abzan Company.
I don't want to screencap it because it's premium, and I'm not gonna type it up. It's basically the 12 creatures, 19 lands with no arbor, and the typical list with the modifications I mentioned above.
1 fetch, 1 twisted, 1 blessing, 1 vines. He has 12 maindeck creatures (no Corrupter) and actually has 2 Distortion Strike in the main. The rest is as expected.
[deck]Land (19)
Edit: If you wanted to try a third Blossoming Defence, what you cut from the MB? I literally cant find anything. An apostlle's blessing maybe? But thats stressed. The card is insane.
Tom Ross was on record saying he's cutting a Vines for one so he can get to 4 of them main. And everyone said I was crazy to suggest that...
"The moment Blossoming Defense was revealed, I got a rush of messages asking about its application in Modern Infect. Not to stray away from the established truth that the world has found optimal over the course of thousands of tournaments and tens of thousands of games, my initial inclination is that I wanted a couple, but nothing too fancy just yet.
Since then I've come around to thinking that the power level of Blossoming Defense is really high. So high that I'm willing to shave on a copy of Vines of Vastwood to complete a full set of them. After all, Splinter Twin is no longer a thing reducing the applications of Vines of Vastwood. Of course, if Infect becomes a highly played deck, I suggest switching the following numbers around to go back up to four Vines of Vastwood."
[deck]Land (19)
Edit: If you wanted to try a third Blossoming Defence, what you cut from the MB? I literally cant find anything. An apostlle's blessing maybe? But thats stressed. The card is insane.
Tom Ross was on record saying he's cutting a Vines for one so he can get to 4 of them main. And everyone said I was crazy to suggest that...
Ok, time to ask another dumb question about this deck...
Has anyone considered running Mishra's Bauble at all? We have a similar situation as Suicide Zoo does in that we're wanting specific cards to close out the game early, and we have plenty of fetches to shuffle if we see something we don't want on top on the upkeep.
Not saying "jam in 4 of these", but I am curious if anyone as tried it as a 2 of.
#1 rule when suggesting cards to add to a deck: what are you taking out in order to add them?
Think about the raw efficiency of pretty much every card in this deck: everything directly advances the game plan and/or adds to shoring up weaknesses by giving you the more-or-less 20-card-sideboard. Mishra's bauble effectively cantrips, but not truly, as it puts you a half turn behind where you were to replace itself. It fuels delve, sure, which is a big reason a deck like Death's Shadow Zoo would want to run it, but remember that they don't have any access to blue mana like Infect does.
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/33352
Some things I am looking at as options include:
Rolling Thunder
Heir of Falkenrath
Duskwatch Recruiter
Renegade Freighter
Untethered Express
Ridgescale Tusker
But generally I need a lot of help from the experts!
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
I still feel like I might want 2x Temur Battle Rage in my 75 for fighting through swarm decks. I really feel like I have to draw one of my two Anger of the Gods to have a chance otherwise. I've considered cutting a Fatal Push in the main for one (while keeping the singleton bolt) and running a second in the side.
Is good deck. Currently split between classic DSJ splashing white in sideboard, DSJ with maindeck blue splash for 2-3 Stubborn Denial (essentially removing the TBR) and blue sideboard cards while removing the white splash entirely, and a very small percentage trying to do 5 color madness.
There has also been a significantly noticeable shift to Grixis from Jund, with Jund still having a tier 1 metagame share.
According to opinions I respect I will likely be removing the white splash and going to a blue one, but remaining in DSJ vs Grixis. It's just more my style of play and I've always been of the opinion that Grixis style decks require higher skill/better knowledge of the format/more reps than I have the time to develop.
https://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-reid-abzan-deaths-shadow/
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-pgo-in-san-antonio-2nd-place/
There are also Abzan Delirium lists that capitalize on cards typically found in DS decks:
http://www.dexarmy.com/?p=350
I need practice on both of them, and have no idea what the local meta is looking like!
I just finished the manabase for DSJ and was thinking of running either it or Junk Mid at Modern night tonight... a tough choice!
I honestly don't see how RG Energy is better, or that much better at least, than WR vehicles in the aggro archetype if you don't capitalize on the Pummeler potential.
In the blind, it depends on the rest of the cards in your hand. I'd lean towards no, and have taken it out of my maindeck at this point anyway. Games 2 and 3 entirely depends on the deck you are playing against. If you need to be fast, it's not going to be the creature you want to draw.
I'm not really sure Tom's list is much better than theorycrafting right now. I'm almost wanting to cut Grafdigger's from my sideboard entirely, because I find dredge to be an easy matchup and isn't really on gameplan. The only real reason would be to have much of a chance against Abzan Company.
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/33673_Kaladesh-Modern-Analysis.html
If you don't have premium, the relevant quote is:
"The moment Blossoming Defense was revealed, I got a rush of messages asking about its application in Modern Infect. Not to stray away from the established truth that the world has found optimal over the course of thousands of tournaments and tens of thousands of games, my initial inclination is that I wanted a couple, but nothing too fancy just yet.
Since then I've come around to thinking that the power level of Blossoming Defense is really high. So high that I'm willing to shave on a copy of Vines of Vastwood to complete a full set of them. After all, Splinter Twin is no longer a thing reducing the applications of Vines of Vastwood. Of course, if Infect becomes a highly played deck, I suggest switching the following numbers around to go back up to four Vines of Vastwood."
Tom Ross was on record saying he's cutting a Vines for one so he can get to 4 of them main. And everyone said I was crazy to suggest that...
#1 rule when suggesting cards to add to a deck: what are you taking out in order to add them?
Think about the raw efficiency of pretty much every card in this deck: everything directly advances the game plan and/or adds to shoring up weaknesses by giving you the more-or-less 20-card-sideboard. Mishra's bauble effectively cantrips, but not truly, as it puts you a half turn behind where you were to replace itself. It fuels delve, sure, which is a big reason a deck like Death's Shadow Zoo would want to run it, but remember that they don't have any access to blue mana like Infect does.