Kari Zev's is just very situational, it's definitely worse than Demonic Dread if you play against anything without Remand, and even then it's not great. Playing Kari Zev's as a 9th enabler is fine but playing it before the 4th or even the 3rd Demonic Dread seems wrong. Kari Zev needs LE in hand and it even gets fizzled by removals/sac of any kind. It's just not good.
About the Cascadeless list, I'm pretty sure you should run 4 Faithless Looting, 4 Cathartic Reunion and maybe even Goblin Lore or Serum Visions in this kind of deck. And you don't need any cycler, you could play any kind of fun creatures.
The Major problem of this kind of list is the lack of consistency: You need to draw a Living End, an Enabler, and Cyclers/Discard enablers.
Hey Everyone,
Played BTL Scapeshift in a local 50-ish (8 rounds for 50 people is weird I know...) people tournament today, quick report:
List is pretty normal. I played Fatal Pushes instead of Bolts, to have a better Death's Shadow MU.
My opponent usually plays some kind of BGx Midrange, but I guess he changed for this tournament.
G1 he starts with turn 1 Mountain Go. I'm thinking he's playing G/R Valakut, or maybe, but less likely, Burn. I was wrong.
I turn 1 fetch for Breeding Pool, suspend Search for Tomorrow. I then get Turn 2 Blood Mooned, but my forest fetched by SfT will allow me to get other basics. Kodama's Reach is a boon, allowing me to Cryptic bounce my opponent's Blood Moon and kill him many turn after, the only clock from my opponent being a Chandra, Torch of Defiance.
I side in 1 EE, 2 Negates, and maybe a couple baloths, and remove Damnation, 1-2 Fatal Pushes (I saw a spellskite G1 and suspects he's playing Goblin Rabblemaster so I leave 1-2 in the deck) and Worldly Counsel. I thought about bringing some number of Dispels in, but at this point all I was expecting as far as instant goes were Rituals and Magma Jets.
G2 I fetch a couple basics early, I EE his Moon away and he starts pressuring me with a Chandra. He eventually exiles a Boil with his Chandra, but I am very happy to have a Cryptic for it. I proceed to find a Bring to Light and win the game.
Overall the matchup is probably very favorable, as long as we're careful with basics. We have all the time in the world to find answers to Moon and they cannot do that much about it.
My opponent is playing Death's Shadow Jund. G1 I get double inquisitioned, but my opponent cannot do much about my 3 Cryptics and takes 2 of my ramp spells. I draw my 4th land on the third turn, allowing me to Cryptic every turn and eventually win as my opponent has a bunch of removals in hand.
I side out a couple Remands, ramp spells and 1 Cryptic, because of incoming Fulminator Mages. I put in the 2nd EE, 2 Negates and 3 Baloths.
G2 My opponents gets some early pressure with a Tarmogoyf and a Shadow. I'm able to slow him down with Cryptics, then Damnation. I then win with Valakut and mountain #6-8 to his face.
Playing against Ad Nauseam. The matchup looks really bad G1, but I think that the 4 additional counterspells and Slaughter Games make it slightly favorable post board.
My opponent and I both play conservatively for a while (=draw land go for 7 turns, basically) outside of a ramp spell from me and a Phyrexian Unlife on turn 3 for my opponent. Thinking I won't win the long game with just 2 Cryptics, I go for a Scapeshift with 8 lands and a Cryptic backup, and fortunately for me my opponent only has 1 piece of action (Spoils of the Vault/Ad Nauseam/Angel's Grace/Pact of Negation).
I side out removals for counterspells, Slaughter Games and the 2nd EE.
He starts G2 with a white Leyline in play, but he's a bit light on land. A Remand on Lotus Bloom gains me enough time to play explosive, crack it, and then Slaughter Games Ad Nauseams. I then snap Slaughter Games his Angel's Graces because he has 2 in hand, and win with Snapcaster + Sakura Tribe Beatdown as he found another Leyline.
My Opponent is playing Dredge. He only finds his 2nd land on turn 4 on G1, and mulls to 4 G2. Not the most interesting match, but the win locks me for top 8.
My Opponent plays Mono Red Burn. He wins the toss and quickly dispatches me with 2 Goblin Guides, piling massive amount of damages before I play Damnation, but my life total is too low and I end up losing on the following turn.
I side in Madcap+Emperion, 4 counterspells, anger,3 Baloths. Side out EE, snapcaster mages, damnation, 1 Scapeshift, Worldly Counsel, 2 Remands and 2 Cryptics (Maybe I should have sided out 3 remands and only 1 Command, in retrospective).
I win game 2 by turn 4 killing my opponent on the play.
In G3, I draw the following starting hand: 2 Remands, Mountain, Stomping Ground, Search for Tomorrow, Fatal Push, 1 Baloth. Being on the draw, having Madcap+Emperion in the deck, which my opponent doesn't know about, and not having a 3rd land, I choose to mulligan, which might be greedy. I mull into a very similar hand: Remand, Mountain, Steam Vents, Fatal Push, SfT, Bring to Light. No green mana, but with a scry and on the draw, this hand is potentially a turn 4 Platinum Emperion. It may be too slow, but I think it gives me a better shot than a random 5. I keep it, proceed to never draw a land and get turn 4 killed.
ID with Bogles. I might post the top 8 report tomorrow.
Hope my english was decent, and that this report was interesting for some of you
I'd love to get any insight on the decklist or report !
Deck looks great !
Having never played the deck, I would feel like 4 Kiki is too many. It's not trivial to cast and might be a bit clunky.
Otherwise, maybe having some Bring to Light targets in the sideboard could be a good way to get some free wins. As a Bring to Light Scapeshift player, I would say interesting options would be:
- A wrath/anger of the gods (this doesnt look great in a creature deck, but still might be a good one to surprise your opponents)
- Crumble to Dust
- Slaughter Games
- Creeping Corrosion/Shatterstorm/Fracturing Gust
- Madcap Experiment+Platinum Emperion
- Thragtusk
Otherwise, I'm pretty sure most lands are probably better than Gemstone Mine in this deck. I feel like a fetch does mostly the same, except it's not that bad in a long game. Obviously a fetch is worse against Burn and co, but I feel like a fetch would be overall better.
They're both pretty decent against Lingering Souls to be fair.
I think I would first cut Architects and flex spot like shriekmaws, faeries, and maybe 1 Beast Within to get those new 8 1-mana cyclers in. Not sure if we need to cut Minotaur or Carabid, I guess I might cut 1-2 minotaur.
Madcap exepriment + Platinum Emperion actually shows up in BTL Scapeshift in MD or SB. It's a great BTL target against lots of decks. It's also been played in Blue Moon and Ponza.
1. Lost Legacy - This is our replacement for slaughter games. It is one turn faster than it that's why I use this instead of the later.
Not quite sure it's better, probably depends on your local meta. Slaughter Games had some utility against slow counter heavy deck, where Legacy would be pretty bad. For the more usual Cranial-Extraction-ish matchups, it depends. The double black cost might hurt us, but I guess it's basically as much a problem as the 4 CMC of Games in terms of mana issues.
It's better against GR Valakut, Bloomless Amulet, GrishoalBrand.
It's worse against BtL Shift, Ad Nauseam, Eggs, Jeskai Control.
Against Gifts, it probably depends on how much countermagic they're running, but speed means LL is probably better in this matchup.
I probably forgot a few deck, I'd be glad if you told me which ones
Kari Zev Expertise as a 9th Living End seems decent to me, I'll try it out.
The Restore Balance Idea is interesting. It definitely doesnt help versus Dredge and Burn, which are Living End's worst matchups in my experience.
Weirdly, I've had a bit of trouble beating RG Valakut and this might help here. Tron is already a good matchups, at least as long as they don't mainboard too many Relics. Scapeshift and Storm are close matchups, and the transformational plan might help against those.
Against Counterspell decks (Faeries, Delver, Jeskai Control, Gifts), the Restore balance plan might help by making a resolved balance a nearly guaranteed victory, but you lose the 1-3 traps some people run and the consistency of cycling, and those cons push me in the "it doesn't help" direction.
But for me, the fact that this plan doesn't help LE against its worst matchups is the issue here.
In my exeprience, there is no viable Sideboard Plan to beat Dredge or Burn with 5 cards or less in a 3-game match. And believe me, I went deep. Cascade into Kor Firewalker/Cage/Yixlid Jailer level. I also tried the usual lifegain package, but they were definitely too slow on the draw and often too slow on the play. Leylines+Faeries has never been enough for me to beat Dredge consistently, if they don't forget to bring their Nature's Claim in.
Edit: Now that I think of it, when I saw the Balance versus Dredge matchup tested, half of the Dredge versions were still running Bridge so the matchup might not be as bad as I wrote previously. I'm still not convinced it is a good matchup.
I've been goldfishing this deck for a few months, and even though it is probably too slow for competitive Modern, I love it. Lately, I've been trying a Sultai Seasons Past version, the goal being to go infinite with Dark petition, Seasons Past, Dictate and Early Harvest. I had the feeling that I fizzled very often with the usual UG version.
So here it is:
The sideboard has not been tested at all.
This version has the advantages of not fizzling at all, but the Sultai manabase is sometimes a problem. I tried going with a more controlling BG version and killing with Sign in Blood but the black card draw was just too bad.
I tested 2-3 Kor but it always felt too slow, even turn 1 Kor on the play still lost me the game. And it was nearly uncastable.
I think I'll go with Boars and Gnaw, thank to all of you guys for your insight.
Just to say thanks to the people who helped me choosing my deck. I couldn't find cards for either of the decks you adviced so I played Stompy and lost in the finals of the PPTQ.
To answer skallerorm, I personnaly like Merfolk more because I hate losing to blood moon and Tribal is always nice but that's only my opinion.
About the Cascadeless list, I'm pretty sure you should run 4 Faithless Looting, 4 Cathartic Reunion and maybe even Goblin Lore or Serum Visions in this kind of deck. And you don't need any cycler, you could play any kind of fun creatures.
The Major problem of this kind of list is the lack of consistency: You need to draw a Living End, an Enabler, and Cyclers/Discard enablers.
Played BTL Scapeshift in a local 50-ish (8 rounds for 50 people is weird I know...) people tournament today, quick report:
List is pretty normal. I played Fatal Pushes instead of Bolts, to have a better Death's Shadow MU.
3 Scapeshift
4 Cryptic Command
1 Damnation
4 Remand
1 Worldly Counsel
3 Fatal Push
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Kodama’s Reach
2 Farseek
4 Sakura-tribe Elder
4 Search for Tomorrow
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Polluted Delta
2 Valakut, the molten Pinnacle
4 Steam Vents
4 Stomping Ground
1 Cinder Glade
1 Breeding Pool
1 Watery Grave
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Madcap Experiment
1 Platinum Emperion
1 Slaughter Games
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Negate
2 Dispel
3 Obstinate Baloth
G1 he starts with turn 1 Mountain Go. I'm thinking he's playing G/R Valakut, or maybe, but less likely, Burn. I was wrong.
I turn 1 fetch for Breeding Pool, suspend Search for Tomorrow. I then get Turn 2 Blood Mooned, but my forest fetched by SfT will allow me to get other basics. Kodama's Reach is a boon, allowing me to Cryptic bounce my opponent's Blood Moon and kill him many turn after, the only clock from my opponent being a Chandra, Torch of Defiance.
I side in 1 EE, 2 Negates, and maybe a couple baloths, and remove Damnation, 1-2 Fatal Pushes (I saw a spellskite G1 and suspects he's playing Goblin Rabblemaster so I leave 1-2 in the deck) and Worldly Counsel. I thought about bringing some number of Dispels in, but at this point all I was expecting as far as instant goes were Rituals and Magma Jets.
G2 I fetch a couple basics early, I EE his Moon away and he starts pressuring me with a Chandra. He eventually exiles a Boil with his Chandra, but I am very happy to have a Cryptic for it. I proceed to find a Bring to Light and win the game.
Overall the matchup is probably very favorable, as long as we're careful with basics. We have all the time in the world to find answers to Moon and they cannot do that much about it.
I side out a couple Remands, ramp spells and 1 Cryptic, because of incoming Fulminator Mages. I put in the 2nd EE, 2 Negates and 3 Baloths.
G2 My opponents gets some early pressure with a Tarmogoyf and a Shadow. I'm able to slow him down with Cryptics, then Damnation. I then win with Valakut and mountain #6-8 to his face.
My opponent and I both play conservatively for a while (=draw land go for 7 turns, basically) outside of a ramp spell from me and a Phyrexian Unlife on turn 3 for my opponent. Thinking I won't win the long game with just 2 Cryptics, I go for a Scapeshift with 8 lands and a Cryptic backup, and fortunately for me my opponent only has 1 piece of action (Spoils of the Vault/Ad Nauseam/Angel's Grace/Pact of Negation).
I side out removals for counterspells, Slaughter Games and the 2nd EE.
He starts G2 with a white Leyline in play, but he's a bit light on land. A Remand on Lotus Bloom gains me enough time to play explosive, crack it, and then Slaughter Games Ad Nauseams. I then snap Slaughter Games his Angel's Graces because he has 2 in hand, and win with Snapcaster + Sakura Tribe Beatdown as he found another Leyline.
I side in Madcap+Emperion, 4 counterspells, anger,3 Baloths. Side out EE, snapcaster mages, damnation, 1 Scapeshift, Worldly Counsel, 2 Remands and 2 Cryptics (Maybe I should have sided out 3 remands and only 1 Command, in retrospective).
I win game 2 by turn 4 killing my opponent on the play.
In G3, I draw the following starting hand: 2 Remands, Mountain, Stomping Ground, Search for Tomorrow, Fatal Push, 1 Baloth. Being on the draw, having Madcap+Emperion in the deck, which my opponent doesn't know about, and not having a 3rd land, I choose to mulligan, which might be greedy. I mull into a very similar hand: Remand, Mountain, Steam Vents, Fatal Push, SfT, Bring to Light. No green mana, but with a scry and on the draw, this hand is potentially a turn 4 Platinum Emperion. It may be too slow, but I think it gives me a better shot than a random 5. I keep it, proceed to never draw a land and get turn 4 killed.
I'd love to get any insight on the decklist or report !
Having never played the deck, I would feel like 4 Kiki is too many. It's not trivial to cast and might be a bit clunky.
Otherwise, maybe having some Bring to Light targets in the sideboard could be a good way to get some free wins. As a Bring to Light Scapeshift player, I would say interesting options would be:
- A wrath/anger of the gods (this doesnt look great in a creature deck, but still might be a good one to surprise your opponents)
- Crumble to Dust
- Slaughter Games
- Creeping Corrosion/Shatterstorm/Fracturing Gust
- Madcap Experiment+Platinum Emperion
- Thragtusk
Otherwise, I'm pretty sure most lands are probably better than Gemstone Mine in this deck. I feel like a fetch does mostly the same, except it's not that bad in a long game. Obviously a fetch is worse against Burn and co, but I feel like a fetch would be overall better.
I think I would first cut Architects and flex spot like shriekmaws, faeries, and maybe 1 Beast Within to get those new 8 1-mana cyclers in. Not sure if we need to cut Minotaur or Carabid, I guess I might cut 1-2 minotaur.
Not quite sure it's better, probably depends on your local meta. Slaughter Games had some utility against slow counter heavy deck, where Legacy would be pretty bad. For the more usual Cranial-Extraction-ish matchups, it depends. The double black cost might hurt us, but I guess it's basically as much a problem as the 4 CMC of Games in terms of mana issues.
It's better against GR Valakut, Bloomless Amulet, GrishoalBrand.
It's worse against BtL Shift, Ad Nauseam, Eggs, Jeskai Control.
Against Gifts, it probably depends on how much countermagic they're running, but speed means LL is probably better in this matchup.
I probably forgot a few deck, I'd be glad if you told me which ones
Kari Zev Expertise as a 9th Living End seems decent to me, I'll try it out.
Weirdly, I've had a bit of trouble beating RG Valakut and this might help here. Tron is already a good matchups, at least as long as they don't mainboard too many Relics. Scapeshift and Storm are close matchups, and the transformational plan might help against those.
Against Counterspell decks (Faeries, Delver, Jeskai Control, Gifts), the Restore balance plan might help by making a resolved balance a nearly guaranteed victory, but you lose the 1-3 traps some people run and the consistency of cycling, and those cons push me in the "it doesn't help" direction.
But for me, the fact that this plan doesn't help LE against its worst matchups is the issue here.
In my exeprience, there is no viable Sideboard Plan to beat Dredge or Burn with 5 cards or less in a 3-game match. And believe me, I went deep. Cascade into Kor Firewalker/Cage/Yixlid Jailer level. I also tried the usual lifegain package, but they were definitely too slow on the draw and often too slow on the play. Leylines+Faeries has never been enough for me to beat Dredge consistently, if they don't forget to bring their Nature's Claim in.
Edit: Now that I think of it, when I saw the Balance versus Dredge matchup tested, half of the Dredge versions were still running Bridge so the matchup might not be as bad as I wrote previously. I'm still not convinced it is a good matchup.
I've been goldfishing this deck for a few months, and even though it is probably too slow for competitive Modern, I love it. Lately, I've been trying a Sultai Seasons Past version, the goal being to go infinite with Dark petition, Seasons Past, Dictate and Early Harvest. I had the feeling that I fizzled very often with the usual UG version.
So here it is:
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Visions
2 Explore
4 Search for Tomorrow
2 Anticipate
4 Early Harvest
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Island
6 Forest
4 Edge of Autumn
4 Dark Petition
4 Manamorphose
2 Seasons Past
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
2 Swamp
2 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Flaying Tendrils
2 Damnation
1 Thragtusk
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Painful Truths
3 Bound // Determined
3 Duress
1 Maelstrom Pulse
The sideboard has not been tested at all.
This version has the advantages of not fizzling at all, but the Sultai manabase is sometimes a problem. I tried going with a more controlling BG version and killing with Sign in Blood but the black card draw was just too bad.
I think I'll go with Boars and Gnaw, thank to all of you guys for your insight.
Do you really play only 18 lands and 2 oxydize Main deck ?
To answer skallerorm, I personnaly like Merfolk more because I hate losing to blood moon and Tribal is always nice but that's only my opinion.