MTG Salvation

I find Burn to be a little stressful. If they're on the creature plan, you want a Goyf asap. You always want counters. I let through pretty much all Lava Spikes unless they're lethal, and try to counter any Searing Blaze blowouts and Helix if I can help it.

Eidolon is really rough on us and difficult to beat once resolved.

Meanwhile, I went 4-1 in a league with this:



Same as my paper deck, except the Traps are Surgicals in paper. Here's what I said in the Discord:

Round 1: Lost to E Tron 1-2. I cast Moon and cut myself off green early, had some Bolts and a Force for the inevitable planeswalkers, but after surviving the first two little Ugins, I lost to the Karn I didn't have an answer for. Actually, I lost to the Expedition Map that found him Wastes to unlock his hand. Rough matchup.

Round 2: Beat Scales 2-0. I think this is secretly one of our better matchups. Forced an Animation Module G1 backed up by pressure and Bolts to clear the way for Goyf. G2 I kept 2 lands,, Abrade, Return to Earth, EE, Bolt, and Tarfire, figuring I'd run opponent out of threats and find one soon. Worked great. Goyf and an EE on 0 held off a huge Hangarback Walker while Hexdrinker got ulted and swung uncontested for the last 6.

Round 3: Beat Rock 2-1. Had a grindy G1, but as always, their Goyfs are just better than ours. And the card I lost to was Spawn of Mayhem, of all things. Opponent must have been trying it as a random 4 drop in the spot they usually use for Kalitas. Flample is real. G2, they discarded a Hexdrinker and Goyf, but I had a third one and they flooded out. They Field of Ruined my red source, I Bolted down to 6, and they scooped. Prematurely, to me, but whatever. G3 I kept 2 lands, 2 Delvers, and a Hexdrinker. Delver flipped early and lived, I Bolted a Scooze and Leaked another, and after I got a Goyf out, they scooped when I flashed in a naked Snapcaster to eat a Liliana edict. Untap, attack, Bolt for lethal.

Round 4: Beat UW 2-1. G1 I didn't have enough disruption for their stuff, and they ended up with a flipped Search, Narset, and Jace ticking up. Drew lands, even when shuffling after the Jace activation, and scooped in the interest of time. G2 was quicker, when I got down a Delver that flipped T3, hit twice before eating a Path. Veil of Summer was huge here, forcing a Goyf through a Mana Leak or Spell Snare. Narset was quite good for me, too. G3 was more of the same, except Veil just cycled in response to Snap-Path. Punted a thing: opponent has two Snaps out, I've got a Goyf and a Narset. They swing to put me lower on life than they were and cast Timely. I had 2 Bolts and could've basically countered it. Fry was great as it tagged a Baneslayer. I won with the one Tarfire I left in after a Path I couldn't answer.

Round 5: Beat Jund 2-1. G1 I just got Junded. Seems to happen at least once a round against this deck, where they Thoughtseize your most important card, Push your threat, and land Liliana uncontested. G2 I don't much remember, but it was over when I flashed in a naked Snapcaster to eat the Liliana edict (apparently a favorite play against BGx) and swung back with a Bolt to the face. G3 was similar, except it involved me countering an Abrupt Decay with Veil of Summer. More than anywhere else, that card is great here. It's good against UW but it's straight up Cryptic Command here.

I'm going to trim a Vapor Snag and something else to try out a pair of Wrenn and Six in paper in a week and a half, but overall I've had really good luck with this list. I'm 13-8 in matches I've paid for, both paper and this league, and a lot of that is dragged down by an awful night at the LGS where I went 0-4, including the hugest combat math punt of my Modern career. The point is: the deck feels like it has some legs.

I'll be testing Wrenn and Six in a week and a half. Very optimistic. They shore up two hard matchups: go wide aggro and the decks that force a longer game. Am going to try a pair to start, replacing probably a Tarfire and a Vapor Snag to start.

No posts in this thread in days is a sign of the format being pretty great right now, yes?

I think "the Conspiracy Module" is something many cube owners play around with for a while, then give up on. Other than just completionism, I see no real reason to rank them.

I think Coatl is much more of a defensive card and doesn't fit with the plan here. I also think 4c Delver is just a bad hybrid of Delver and Snow Control, each of which are fine decks. It works in Legacy because they can flip Delver and it can be a threat, whereas Delver is pretty underpowered as a control finisher in Modern.

But you should absolutely try it out and let us know what works and doesn't. Astrolabe and Coatl are powerful cards, and access to black would solve many problems, though it opens up others.

I played 2 Veil of Summer and a Fry at Monday Modern last night. Beat Grixis Control, Abzan, and 5c Niv 2-0 each, and lost to Jund 0-2. Never boarded in Fry, and although I had Veil in for 3 of the 4 matchups, I never saw it.

But I had an interesting G2 against Niv. I had a Steam Vents, Stomping Ground, and Island in play, plus a flipped Delver and an unlevelled Hexdrinker. Opponent was at 11. I attacked for 5 with 2 Bolts, Opt, Snare, and Force in hand. On his upkeep, I cast Bolt, he responds with Helix on the Delver. I Snare it. He responds with Veil of Summer, so I Force pitching the Opt, then Bolt him for lethal. Just a sweet play.

Reid Duke had a good article on Veil the other day.

Quote from Reid Duke »

The best home in Modern would be green combo decks like Scapeshift, Neoform, Infect, and Collected Company. As a Jund player, I’m not looking forward to having my discard spells met by Veil of Summer. It’s a devastating trap, and it feels practically unavoidable. Holding up a single green mana is such a low cost to pay. And besides, discard spells are usually the way to sniff out a trap and make sure the coast is clear! Now, your best cards against opposing combo decks turn into devastating two-for-one exchanges in the opponent’s favor.

While we're not a combo deck, I think we're trying to do something similar to Infect or Company by protecting an important creature.

What are you playing these days, Jordan? Are you still on Mandrills, or have you migrated to Hexdrinker or Mongoose? For what it's worth, I'm super pleased with roughly 56/60 of my main deck right now, and while it's hard to say we're well-positioned, I think we have gotten some important tools in these last few sets.

I will say that while Jund was never easy, Wrenn and Six has made it that much more difficult. That card is a house against us. Pings our dudes, drowns us in card advantage. It even makes the Blood Moon plan pretty sketchy postboard.

Seasoned Pyromancer seems like a great add to keep pace with the attrition decks. I don't own any yet, but I can see this being the best option available.

Things I've played: Hazoret is good. I've played Chandra, Torch of Defiance and didn't care for it. A long time ago, I tried Bedlam Reveler but didn't like it much. I've played a Vendillion Clique, a Savage Knuckleblade, a Nimble Obstructionist . . . all more or less fine. My favorite of things I've played is definitely Huntmaster of the Fells, which just eats the board alive if you can untap with it. If you're just aiming for Jund, probably Hazoret is your best bet.

I think the main thing is to just increase your threat density a little bit, and it doesn't much matter with what. I was thinking of playing a pair of Young Pyromancer from the side just to make blockers and have an engine, but Seasoned Pyromancer is just better for that purpose at this point.

But tomorrow, I'm trying something totally different: Veil of Summer as a pair out of the board. I'm always tinkering, a evidenced above, and like I said, I think it basically doesn't matter what extra threat or two you add in. But this is totally different and gives a way to create 2 for 1s pretty easily against decks where that's really relevant. It's also 1cmc. Imagine casting it in response to a Fatal Push, having your creature live, and then drawing a card. It's a very narrow Cryptic Command. I don't know if it's going to be good, but I know exactly how all the other cards behave in the matchup, so I aim to find out if this is viable. I'm 50-50 on it.

Quote from lukey52 »

All things considered I'd say this ends up as a win for modern. I'm still shocked at some of the cards on the ban list considering what is legal but I'm glad they did what they could to not disrupt other decks and also keep the Hogaak deck as a competitive option.

I am starting to get worried about WU control though. With bridge gone and the Hogaak deck slowing down in general sweepers will become far more effective. On top of that with the 4 field of ruin 2 surgical package tron is a far less scary matchup than it used to be so if people reckon tron will be back that's pretty grim.

It's not like there's any 1 card in WU that is too strong it's just that in the last 2 years the deck has got access to field of ruin, opt, big teferi, little teferi, narset, jace, force of negation, dovin's veto and other less played options like fof and search for azcanta. That is a ton of tools that have really pushed the deck to the top.

Agreed that UW has gotten way stronger, but I think the thing going forward is that more cards like that should be printed that can go in other strats. Stuff like Hexdrinker, Seasoned Pyromancer, W6, Plague Engineer are all a good start. But we need more.

Sweet. Super pumped to see the real post-MH1 meta.

I think the idea is the staff decided to start a new site they'd be in control of. I'm registered over there and would prefer to move.

I'm kind of over arguing about bans. Wizards does whatever they'll do and nothing I can do or say will make much difference. I'm going to focus on playing the format in front of me. And for now, that means maindeck Surgical with Traps in the board.

Yeah, my takeaway was that it still managed to put 2 copies in the top 8 when people were warping their 75s to beat it. It had a target on its back unlike any deck I can think of since the Eye of Ugin ban, and still put 2 copies in the top 8. Deck's great, not totally solved yet, and has huge margins for error. I mean, this is a deck that can win from nowhere from an empty board. That's nuts.