I thought grixis death's shadow had problems with decks that go wide. Bitterblossom provides an endless stream of creatures with evasion that should be able to threaten lethal in most games, I suppose you still have to worry about Temur Battle Rage but that is usually only a 2-off.
I have been playing BW-midrange for a over two years (was playing abzan haakon loam before that), and it is very possible that my evaluation is screwed. I have been considering making a switch from BW to BG seeing as goyfs are at an all time low now, and I only need a play-set of goyfs to make the switch.
Grixis Shadow does board out TBR in removal heavy matchups, and therefore they will board them out against us. Bitterblossom can be very effective against Shadow for that reason. Its a nice card for the matchup.
If you happen to have both Languish and Damnation then I'd cut the second TS for it. I personally don't think LoTV is bad in that matchup, I think she is actually quite nice. I could maybe see cutting one copy on the draw, but with 3 copies in the main at first place, I think I still want on average one LoTV per game and with 3 copies you accomplish that on average.
I recently got back in modern after a 6 month break and immediately wanted to try out the Rock with Assassin's Trophy. I immediately noticed a percentage point gain vs. big mana with FoR + Trophy. My question is, how necessary is Fulminator now? My old build had 2 Fulminator + 2 Damping Sphere in the SB but I feel like FoR + Trophy is now enough vs. Tron and Amulet. Granted to match-ups still don't feel particularly favorable but they do feel much better. Plus not being able to loop Fulminator with Kholagan's Commands (like Jund) always bugged me. I kind of want to trim some number of SB slots dedicated to land hate for more answers to aggro, combo and burn.
Fulminator is still needed. Most lists still play 3 copies of it in the SB. And actually are cutting down on trophies as the drawback is too problematic sometimes. The thing is, everytime you destroy something with trophy where a decay would have also done the job, you are giivin your opponent free stuff for nothing.
Oh I understand you. I personally am pretty uncertain how this will shape up for us. In theory, Tron, Amulet, 4c Whir and Affinity will rise again. And I really don't want to see Amulet in particular becoming even more strong now. Nevertheless the ban was necessary.
For Jund specifically, its tough to say how it will shape up though.
@Grim_Flayer First of all congrats to your live league, it is really enjoyable to watch you play, keep it up!
Concerning the Amulet matchup, the thing to keep in mind is that they will and should board out Amulets against you after game 1. The reason is, that as we are not a very fast deck, they don't need to be fast either (as Amulet essentially only generates tempo and acceleration). So, I would personally not bother about Amulets after Game 1. However, this is not a complete clear thing to do also from the AMulet players perspective. Some people still might bring them in. In such as case I like to keep Decays if you run them. Decays are more reliable than Push to kill an Azusa, and Decay can also kill Scout and the Amulet if they really leave them in. I think from our deck the weakest cards are Push and Scooze. Push does kill Scout and Azusa, but I think most of the time those are not the realy problematic cards. The cards you loose to is the Titan itself or Hornet Queen. We want all our TS, Trophies, LoTV and ideally Damnation for potential killing of the endgame threats. The goal of Amulet is just to go bigger than we do in chaining titans. We want to disrupt them and drop a fast goyf before they can cast Hornet queen.
I would probably keep CB, as you can kill Azusa, Scout and also take Pacts/Stirrings potentially.
EE is only really appealing to clear up Hornet Queen Tokens imo. Other than that I think EE is not worth it.
Push is rather weak, but not sure how many to cut. I think somewhere around 1-2 copies to cut is correct. I guess having access to a couple copies is nice.
Hm, might be true, but Discovery is also costed as 1 as opposed to
Not sure how that effects the mana requirements, but yeah, you might be right that 13 and 20 is enough. However, as we do run decay anyway, we want the 14 and 21 requirement for green anyway, I guess you can skimp on the white a bit.
As it is a double mana source, you can treat it like Abrupt Decay. That means in order to cast it consistantly you need to have 14 white and 14 green sources (while in addition have at least 21 lands in your deck that can produce either green or white). So wheel is definitely supportable in abzan.
The new article says 13 and 20 because of vancouver mulligan rule.
Nope it says the numbers I explained, you can see the explanation in the "how to deal with golden cards" section. Here is an example for Emmara:
"Emmara, Soul of the Accord. From the tables, we know that a 1G card needs 13 sources of green, a 1W card needs 13 sources of white, and a CC card needs 20 sources of that color. Hence, for Emmara I would recommend 14 sources of green, 14 sources of white, and 21 different sources that can produce green and/or white."
As it is a double mana source, you can treat it like Abrupt Decay. That means in order to cast it consistantly you need to have 14 white and 14 green sources (while in addition have at least 21 lands in your deck that can produce either green or white). So wheel is definitely supportable in abzan.
I did notice that Ben Jones chooses to draw against GBx decks, yeah. It might be good, but I am unsure. I think in legacy the games are more centered around certain key cards (like LtlH, Jace) and their protection to stick.
I guess the thing to say is if you choose play you are never wrong (as you get a clear advantage alone from the fact), but choosing to draw can be costly sometimes.
If I may link you to my article on this very topic, there you can read the details on why Tracker is not better than Bob:
https://mtgrock.com/category/play-patterns/play-patterns-the-tireless-tracker-misconception/
Grixis Shadow does board out TBR in removal heavy matchups, and therefore they will board them out against us. Bitterblossom can be very effective against Shadow for that reason. Its a nice card for the matchup.
-2 Tracker
-1 Thoughtseize
-1 Tarmogoyf
+1 EE
+1 Damnation/Languish
+1 Disfigure
+1 Pulse
If you happen to have both Languish and Damnation then I'd cut the second TS for it. I personally don't think LoTV is bad in that matchup, I think she is actually quite nice. I could maybe see cutting one copy on the draw, but with 3 copies in the main at first place, I think I still want on average one LoTV per game and with 3 copies you accomplish that on average.
https://mtgrock.com/2019/01/14/play-patterns-advanced-sideboarding/
https://mtgrock.com/2019/01/14/play-patterns-advanced-sideboarding/
https://mtgrock.com/2019/01/14/play-patterns-advanced-sideboarding/
Fulminator is still needed. Most lists still play 3 copies of it in the SB. And actually are cutting down on trophies as the drawback is too problematic sometimes. The thing is, everytime you destroy something with trophy where a decay would have also done the job, you are giivin your opponent free stuff for nothing.
For Jund specifically, its tough to say how it will shape up though.
Concerning the Amulet matchup, the thing to keep in mind is that they will and should board out Amulets against you after game 1. The reason is, that as we are not a very fast deck, they don't need to be fast either (as Amulet essentially only generates tempo and acceleration). So, I would personally not bother about Amulets after Game 1. However, this is not a complete clear thing to do also from the AMulet players perspective. Some people still might bring them in. In such as case I like to keep Decays if you run them. Decays are more reliable than Push to kill an Azusa, and Decay can also kill Scout and the Amulet if they really leave them in. I think from our deck the weakest cards are Push and Scooze. Push does kill Scout and Azusa, but I think most of the time those are not the realy problematic cards. The cards you loose to is the Titan itself or Hornet Queen. We want all our TS, Trophies, LoTV and ideally Damnation for potential killing of the endgame threats. The goal of Amulet is just to go bigger than we do in chaining titans. We want to disrupt them and drop a fast goyf before they can cast Hornet queen.
I would probably keep CB, as you can kill Azusa, Scout and also take Pacts/Stirrings potentially.
EE is only really appealing to clear up Hornet Queen Tokens imo. Other than that I think EE is not worth it.
Push is rather weak, but not sure how many to cut. I think somewhere around 1-2 copies to cut is correct. I guess having access to a couple copies is nice.
Yeah I would cut Kalitas and 1 Ooze also.
The matchup is unfavourable for us though.
Good luck!
Not sure how that effects the mana requirements, but yeah, you might be right that 13 and 20 is enough. However, as we do run decay anyway, we want the 14 and 21 requirement for green anyway, I guess you can skimp on the white a bit.
Nope it says the numbers I explained, you can see the explanation in the "how to deal with golden cards" section. Here is an example for Emmara:
"Emmara, Soul of the Accord. From the tables, we know that a 1G card needs 13 sources of green, a 1W card needs 13 sources of white, and a CC card needs 20 sources of that color. Hence, for Emmara I would recommend 14 sources of green, 14 sources of white, and 21 different sources that can produce green and/or white."
For reference check out my article about manabases: https://mtgrock.com/category/play-patterns/play-patterns-building-a-consistent-manabase/
Or Franks article as the original source: https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/how-many-colored-mana-sources-do-you-need-to-consistently-cast-your-spells-a-guilds-of-ravnica-update/
I guess the thing to say is if you choose play you are never wrong (as you get a clear advantage alone from the fact), but choosing to draw can be costly sometimes.