How is cryptbreaker working for you guys? I'm not sure if it's good or not.
I've playtested cryptbreaker some and I think the card is pretty awesome for a 1-drop. I think playing that turn 1 and discarding something like Prized Amalgam turn two to make a 2/2 zombie is pretty sweet. The draw seems really nice too if you keep zombies up for blockers and then tap at the end of the opponent's turn to draw an extra card.
I have been working on the below list since EMN came out and I am really excited to take it to FNM as soon as I can. The deck is centered around Diregraf Colossus and Haakon, Stromgald Scourge counting Nameless Inversion as a zombie and a knight. This card has a lot of synergy with the deck because I can pitch it to Cryptbreaker or Grisly Salvage and still cast it multiple times with Haakon. For diregraf colossus, it adds a +1/+1 counter to it when its in the graveyard and if I cast it I get another 2/2 zombie. With this list I have 10 zombies that come back to the battlefield extremely easy and 14 ways to put them in the graveyard. I think Grisly Salvage and Liliana, the Last Hope are both very good card selection choices that also help fill the yard for more zombie shenanigans.
Hi Everyone, I haven't been able to play for a while because I have been travelling a lot for work. I was finally able to make it to an FNM with the following deck:
I know you guys aren't fans of Bob in the deck, but I really enjoyed playing with him in this event (more explanation below). Also, I switched The Rack with Shrieking Affliction because I was worried about maindeck Kolaghan's Command (which I ended up not seeing). Another card that surprised me was Ratchet Bomb, I was worried it would be too slow against aggressive decks but it was actually very useful.
Game 2: I was able to get Ratchet Bomb out on turn 2, he forgot that artifacts have summoning sickness so he continued to play Wild Nacatl, and two Goblin Guide with his Experiment One. I blew the bomb on turn three and used Kolaghan's Command to get rid of the experiment. After that, Nyxathid beat him down without much resistance.
Game 3: This game was pretty tough, he had two Goblin Guide right out of the gates and I shocked myself to bolt one and used Ratchet Bomb to kill the other. I wasn't able to stabilize until I was on 5 life, but I had all four Nyxathid in hand and he wasn't able to deal with them once he had no cards and no way to draw into more.
Round 2: Gw Tron (Gifts)
Game 1: He mulliganed to five, I had Thoughtseize and Wrench Mind in hand, he wasn't able to come back from that. Did not let him see any creatures and two Shrieking Affliction killed him pretty quickly.
Game 2: He dropped two Leyline of Sanctity and my hand was flooded with discard and no Ratchet Bomb to blow it up. He eventually got Gifts into Iona.
Game 3: This became a very long game where he mulled for leyline and I kept a hand with Blood Moon, Dark Confidant and Nyxathid. He had Oblivion Ring for Dark Confidant and Detention Sphere for Nyxathid. He also played around Blood Moon, so it didn't affect him very much due to all of his basics. He ended up played out his hand so I dropped a Shrieking Affliction and Ratchet Bomb for the enchantments. Once I destroyed O-ring and D-Sphere, all it took was one swing with Dark Confidant and Nyxathid and he conceded. He was only two draws away from Gifts but by then it was too late.
Round 3: Jund
Game 1: I had answers for all of his creatures. I eventually got Nyxathid + Liliana of the Veil out and it was over.
Sideboard: I was not sure what to sideboard here, so I just didn't use anything.
Game 2: Ooze got pretty big this game and he got me down to 5 life. I had some lucky topdecks with Terminate and Liliana of the Veil, brought out Nyxathid and won the game. This game I was able to bait out a bolt with Dark Confidant that would have killed my Liliana of the Veil.
Round 4: Co-Co Elves
Game 1: Lightning Bolt + Terminate + Kolaghan's Command wrecked the board state for him early game. Once Nyxathid came out all he could do was chump block until he didn't have anything left. Dark Confidant came out and was able to provide me with a lot of card advantage this game.
Game 2: He had an explosive three turns and had a bunch of elves out. I did not play anything until turn 3 Anger of the Gods and he never recovered.
Round 5: Amulet Bloom
Game 1: He got out a pretty early Primeval Titan and I had no answers.. by the time I killed it I had 3 life and I scooped once he played another Summoner's Pact.
Game 2: He starts the game out with Leyline of Sanctity, I played a turn three Blood Moon. I played Dark Confidant and proceded to beat him down for ten turns. Bob helped me get through all of my useless discard. I was able to draw a couple Terminate to kill his blockers (Simian Spirit Guide and Azusa, Lost but Seeking).
Game 3: This was another long game, but luckily he didn't have Leyline. However, I lost the game because of a huge misplay on my part. He played Seal of Primordium turn three and I just completely forgot about it. He eventually played Summoner's Pact into Primeval Titan, and I had Terminate and Blood Moon in my hand. I played the Blood Moon instead thinking I had won because he couldn't pay for pact and then he destroys my Blood Moon after I pass the turn and I proceed to get beat down with a 6/6 doublestriker. I killed it the next turn and then used Surgical Extraction on Summoner's Pact. He casted Summoner's Pact in response and I scooped.
Overall, I ended up going 4-1 and getting second place. The Elves guy I played actually ended up getting first, I was his only loss. I really enjoyed my version of this deck and I have to say Dark Confidant came in every game against Elves and Amulet Bloom and helped me retain card advantage most of the time. As of right now, I don't think I would change anything about the deck. Nothing seemed clunky and everyone was very surprised/confused when they saw Nyxathid come out. The only matchup I am actually scared to play against with this deck is Burn and Tron, and I don't think adding/subtracting any number of Dark Confidants will fix those matchups. I am planning on taking this deck to a couple of PPTQs in my area and eventually to the SCG Open IQ in September (Cincinnati). Let me know what you guys think about the deck.
I played a monday night modern event at my lgs with the Decklist below. I ended up going 1-2 and dropping. The only reason I lost the two rounds I did was because of bad draws when myself and the opponent were in topdeck mode. My games tonight made me think that the "Lightning Rack" style decks should run 4 Dark Confidant. I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that the only reason we didn't play confidants with the mono black version was because we didn't want to fill up our hand due to bridge. Without relying on bridge, I think confidants can be a good way to draw cards and keep up with blue decks. Our curve is so low that I don't see the damage ever being a problem. I also plan on swapping out Blightning with Kolaghan's Command after this weekend, which means I can use that to recur a confidant if need be. I know that some 8rack decks in the past have used confidants, including Arjan van Leeuwen's pro tour deck a while back: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=63825
I wanted to see what the general consensus is around here before I spend $300 on a playset.
Hi, I've been lurking in this thread for a while.. I started out with the monoblack list last year and I am really enjoying the BR list with Grim Lavamancer and Nyxathid maindeck. It looks like people are getting fired up about which one is the "better" deck. I think since there is such a division between the mono black users and BR users, why doesn't someone just start a new BR Rack deck primer? I mean technically it isn't even an "8rack" deck because it only uses 4 copies of The Rack and no Shrieking Affliction. I think creating a new primer for the BR Rack deck will eliminate all of the animosity in this thread.
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I've playtested cryptbreaker some and I think the card is pretty awesome for a 1-drop. I think playing that turn 1 and discarding something like Prized Amalgam turn two to make a 2/2 zombie is pretty sweet. The draw seems really nice too if you keep zombies up for blockers and then tap at the end of the opponent's turn to draw an extra card.
I have been working on the below list since EMN came out and I am really excited to take it to FNM as soon as I can. The deck is centered around Diregraf Colossus and Haakon, Stromgald Scourge counting Nameless Inversion as a zombie and a knight. This card has a lot of synergy with the deck because I can pitch it to Cryptbreaker or Grisly Salvage and still cast it multiple times with Haakon. For diregraf colossus, it adds a +1/+1 counter to it when its in the graveyard and if I cast it I get another 2/2 zombie. With this list I have 10 zombies that come back to the battlefield extremely easy and 14 ways to put them in the graveyard. I think Grisly Salvage and Liliana, the Last Hope are both very good card selection choices that also help fill the yard for more zombie shenanigans.
Here's the list:
4 Gravecrawler
4 Cryptbreaker
4 Relentless Dead
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Diregraf Colossus
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
Noncreature Spells
4 Grisly Salvage
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Nameless Inversion
2 Liliana, the last hope
4 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Hissing Quagmire
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Woodland Cemetery
Sideoard
4 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Creeping Corrosion
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Damnation
3 Golgari Charm
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4 Nyxathid
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Wrench Mind
4 Terminate
2 Blightning
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
1 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Blood Moon
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Dragon's Claw
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Rakdos Charm
I know you guys aren't fans of Bob in the deck, but I really enjoyed playing with him in this event (more explanation below). Also, I switched The Rack with Shrieking Affliction because I was worried about maindeck Kolaghan's Command (which I ended up not seeing). Another card that surprised me was Ratchet Bomb, I was worried it would be too slow against aggressive decks but it was actually very useful.
Here is my tournament report:
Round 1: Small Zoo
Game 1: Goblin Guide, Wild Nacatl, Burning-Tree Emissary, and Atarka's Command beat me down pretty quickly. Not much to say here, I had Lightning Bolt + Terminate but it still wasn't enough.
Sideboard: +2 Ratchet Bomb +2 Anger of the Gods +2 Dragon Claw -2 Blightning -4 Dark Confidant
Game 2: I was able to get Ratchet Bomb out on turn 2, he forgot that artifacts have summoning sickness so he continued to play Wild Nacatl, and two Goblin Guide with his Experiment One. I blew the bomb on turn three and used Kolaghan's Command to get rid of the experiment. After that, Nyxathid beat him down without much resistance.
Game 3: This game was pretty tough, he had two Goblin Guide right out of the gates and I shocked myself to bolt one and used Ratchet Bomb to kill the other. I wasn't able to stabilize until I was on 5 life, but I had all four Nyxathid in hand and he wasn't able to deal with them once he had no cards and no way to draw into more.
Round 2: Gw Tron (Gifts)
Game 1: He mulliganed to five, I had Thoughtseize and Wrench Mind in hand, he wasn't able to come back from that. Did not let him see any creatures and two Shrieking Affliction killed him pretty quickly.
Sideboard: +3 Blood Moon +3 Rakdos Charm +2 Surgical Extraction +2 Ratchet Bomb -4 Wrench Mind -2 Blightning -4 Lightning Bolt
Sideboard Note: I was not sure if I should have gone Rakdos Charm in here, the main reason I brought it in was to exile his graveyard after he used Gifts Ungiven. However, the scenario never came up.
Game 2: He dropped two Leyline of Sanctity and my hand was flooded with discard and no Ratchet Bomb to blow it up. He eventually got Gifts into Iona.
Game 3: This became a very long game where he mulled for leyline and I kept a hand with Blood Moon, Dark Confidant and Nyxathid. He had Oblivion Ring for Dark Confidant and Detention Sphere for Nyxathid. He also played around Blood Moon, so it didn't affect him very much due to all of his basics. He ended up played out his hand so I dropped a Shrieking Affliction and Ratchet Bomb for the enchantments. Once I destroyed O-ring and D-Sphere, all it took was one swing with Dark Confidant and Nyxathid and he conceded. He was only two draws away from Gifts but by then it was too late.
Round 3: Jund
Game 1: I had answers for all of his creatures. I eventually got Nyxathid + Liliana of the Veil out and it was over.
Sideboard: I was not sure what to sideboard here, so I just didn't use anything.
Game 2: Ooze got pretty big this game and he got me down to 5 life. I had some lucky topdecks with Terminate and Liliana of the Veil, brought out Nyxathid and won the game. This game I was able to bait out a bolt with Dark Confidant that would have killed my Liliana of the Veil.
Round 4: Co-Co Elves
Game 1: Lightning Bolt + Terminate + Kolaghan's Command wrecked the board state for him early game. Once Nyxathid came out all he could do was chump block until he didn't have anything left. Dark Confidant came out and was able to provide me with a lot of card advantage this game.
Sideboard: +2 Anger of the Gods +2 Ratchet Bomb -2 Blightning -2 Wrench Mind
Game 2: He had an explosive three turns and had a bunch of elves out. I did not play anything until turn 3 Anger of the Gods and he never recovered.
Round 5: Amulet Bloom
Game 1: He got out a pretty early Primeval Titan and I had no answers.. by the time I killed it I had 3 life and I scooped once he played another Summoner's Pact.
Sideboard: +2 Surgical Extraction +3 Blood Moon -3 Lightning Bolt -2 Blightning
Game 2: He starts the game out with Leyline of Sanctity, I played a turn three Blood Moon. I played Dark Confidant and proceded to beat him down for ten turns. Bob helped me get through all of my useless discard. I was able to draw a couple Terminate to kill his blockers (Simian Spirit Guide and Azusa, Lost but Seeking).
Sideboard: +2 Ratchet Bomb -2 Wrench Mind
Sideboard Note: I didn't know those decks played Leyline of Sanctity, so I added Ratchet Bomb to deal with it.
Game 3: This was another long game, but luckily he didn't have Leyline. However, I lost the game because of a huge misplay on my part. He played Seal of Primordium turn three and I just completely forgot about it. He eventually played Summoner's Pact into Primeval Titan, and I had Terminate and Blood Moon in my hand. I played the Blood Moon instead thinking I had won because he couldn't pay for pact and then he destroys my Blood Moon after I pass the turn and I proceed to get beat down with a 6/6 doublestriker. I killed it the next turn and then used Surgical Extraction on Summoner's Pact. He casted Summoner's Pact in response and I scooped.
Overall, I ended up going 4-1 and getting second place. The Elves guy I played actually ended up getting first, I was his only loss. I really enjoyed my version of this deck and I have to say Dark Confidant came in every game against Elves and Amulet Bloom and helped me retain card advantage most of the time. As of right now, I don't think I would change anything about the deck. Nothing seemed clunky and everyone was very surprised/confused when they saw Nyxathid come out. The only matchup I am actually scared to play against with this deck is Burn and Tron, and I don't think adding/subtracting any number of Dark Confidants will fix those matchups. I am planning on taking this deck to a couple of PPTQs in my area and eventually to the SCG Open IQ in September (Cincinnati). Let me know what you guys think about the deck.
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I wanted to see what the general consensus is around here before I spend $300 on a playset.
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Wrench Mind
1 Raven's Crime
4 Terminate
4 Blightning
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Polluted Delta
2 Mutavault
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Graven Cairns
4 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Pithing Needle
1 Murderous Cut
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Rakdos Charm
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