I never understood having cards like Deglamer and Unravel in the sideboard. What is it mainly going after. I understand that you could target your own things but can't see 4 sideboard slots just for that. Can anyone give reasoning for it?
It's normal to have 2-4 artifact/enchantment removal in the sideboard as they're useful against a multitude of decks. Affinity, Tron, Infect, Lantern, Whir Prison, and various decks where you can expect some problematic cards after sideboard (like Blood Moon or Worship).
The typical choices for this slot includes Nature's Claim, Natural State and Seal of Priomordium, all of which comes with advantages and disadvantages. The choice of Deglamer and Unravel is specifically targeted against the Whir Prison deck as neither Chalice of the Void nor Welding Jar can stop it. Whether this is correct when Whir Prison is just a small percentage of the meta is very doubtful, but there's little doubt that's his reason.
Whether or not you want Rest in Peace against Izzet Phoenix depends a lot on how many Snapcaster Mage, Pteramander and Pyromancer Ascension they run. They're not worth bringing in solely because of Phoenix, but I often feel like it's still worth it since we can spare some slots and we don't really have much else to bring in.
Regarding Tron, it can be a bit tough but it's not so awful. We do have a fast clock and they won't have a turn 4 Ugin all that often while a turn 3 Karn/Wurmcoil can often be beaten. Post sideboard we have a lot of strong cards that can lock them down quite well. More problematic than you would expect at first glance is Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as it gets around all of our hate and exiles it. It's not fast but our sideboard cards often slow us down too, so they will have time for it often.
Unravel is also better than natural state in matchup against affinity where welding jar is also a common card.
Another better spot is against wurmcoil engine which unravel is a clean answer
Awesome! Bogles is often a great meta deck. We tend to be strong when sideboards are turned too heavily to fight one thing. The lack of engineered explosives in the boards is really helping us, I think.
When Izzet Phoenix (aka a creature deck) is the deck to beat, bogles will certainly shine
Good Evening Pyro Prison Players!
I know I have been out and about for awhile now in the month of February. I've been taking care of some personal things, but intently watching the meta when able and practicing when I can. I see we have many new faces, and although I cannot get quite back as far as I need to in order to catch up I tossed myself back 3 pages and thought I'd quote you guys and say hello and give some comments as I see them (which many have been answered by the likes of Raystack, Caligula, Zayl, Nate, and others!).
Hey guys, fairly new to the prison strategy and love reading through this stuff to learn. Hopefully after some more experience I can give some input/ideas.
Welcome! Fresh eyes are always welcome. As some of the semi-veteran players are settling in we can lose sight of what may be another angle to tackle! By all means take all our suggestions to heart but bring your own also, especially if you have some of that sweet sweet data of results to back it up!
Congrats! I believe you were also taking this to a Badlands reward type of event this past (or previously past) Sunday! Hope that went well, and great run to start things out!
It is called sun and moon becasue the sun emblem on the white pips + blood moon, our RW list has very little resemlance to it though so we are far enough away to be considered a separate deck.
Like Ray said Grafdiggers cage is a necessary evil, Though often times decks that want a grafdiggers you want chalice on 2 more than three weird how that works out.
Koth of the Hammer is a very powerful card yes. and playing +ulting him early is insane. but right now bolt is very highly played so getting him to stay out is the problem especially since we cant protect him with giving ourself hexproof anymore. plus you have to run atleat 14 mountains to make him practical as well.
I'd like to back both Ray and Zayl here. The funny thing that is mentioned is sometimes you 'skip' Chalice on 1, this is understanding your meta opponent and what is likely to disrupt you from winning. Many points in modern you'll find that yes we are non-bo'ing as people call it, but if you don't have the effect in play by T4 anyway you're falling behind. Many will note our deck is 'inconsistent' and while this may have some truth to it we tackle the meta like a control deck does. A control deck wishes for the game to exceed past 8+ turns in order to aseemble pieces. We do similar things at times where we try to limit our opponents resources to give us the attempt to 'draw 8 (8 turns)'. Albeit we are giving out opponent that opportunity to draw out. Many will say that is not a way to play magic, but I'd fire back that my deck has a larger probablity to draw out my win condition as I retain X win conditions within the size of Y deck, where you have Z outs to get around my locks or limiting spells out of your deck.
Sorry, new to the deck, why is Eidonlon good against burn?
Am afraid that your own eidolon may end up locking up yourself?
Would some kind of sweepers better in its place?
I’m glad you asked AvalancheRiders! You’re right in questioning the Eidolons against burn. The reason it works is that they won’t lose us the game unless we play an ensnaring bridge, but in a situation where you have an eidolon out against burn you wouldn’t play the bridge anyway! Eidolon gives us more pressure against burn since every single spell in their deck will become a shock to their face, and also allows us to have a blocker when It gets close. At the very worst it gets hit with a lightning bolt or they have to block it with a goblin guide or an eidolon of their own, which essentially turns it into a 3 for 1, as it shocks them, and reduces the amount our face would’ve taken. At the very best against burn, it can win us the game, either by providing a win con or by giving us time to find a chalice or moon to lock them out further.
This is a great response, well done Nate. I want to add my own words which may just simply echo this. My best example was actually an upset opponent. My opponent (on MTGO) slammed their messages in chat of the typical lucky, bad deck, etc. What was the most satisfying thing to read though was the comment "And you kept Eidolon in versus burn, what an idiot." What was satisfying about this is that we understood the matchup more then our opponent. What do I mean by this? Firstly, the deck I was running had x4 Eidolon sideboard, and x4 Bridge mainboard. G2 and G3 (I forget if it went to G3), involved the typical swaps of Anger of the Gods/Eidolons in and things like Ensnaring Bridge and probably some other shenanigans. What is not understood though is we are not hiding behind a bridge, which my opponent has to assume - Most will assume you are "Free Win Red" made popular by Saffron Olive of MTGGoldfish. This is where most get their data, and nothing wrong with that. Just something to note, when deciding if you are the "Aggo" or the "Control" matchup, it is important to know to give you the best edge. In the case of Eidolon, we are applying pressure. You won't get behind a bridge fast enough so you must rely on removal packages and aggression. Goodluck in your burn matchups! They can be quite 50/50 G1 not knowing what your opponent is on.
This is what I've been thinking open to suggestions. Not 100% on the sideboard yet. I like the main. Only switch to that might be switching the Chandra in the board for the Koth in the main. I had thought about the "Light up the Stage" build that Fluffy had a few weeks back but I feel that I could play the traditional style pyro prison a bit better.
Let me know what you guys think.
I know I am late for this response but wanted to say I hope it went well, and always consider playing something you are familiar with and understand the ins-and-outs! This rewards players much more then making last minute changes. Only when firmly comfortable with the deck would I recommend last minute changes. For the record, I cannot decide if I like Light up the Stage, and still cannot. I feel it may be the bait card like Sarkhan was a few sets back.
Been messing around with the deck again; out of curiosity, what are our worst matchups?
Great question, and I believe this is opinionated a touch between the community, it will also rely on your build and how you are approaching the meta. I'll break it down to three versions you could run, and then give from the "Classic" list what the matchups that are bad are.
Aggro List: Includes 6+ Rabblemasters and sometimes Eidolons in the Main. May consider Pia & Kiran or Hazoret and may go the extra mile with an additional one or a Koth. This list tends to lack a bit of removal for more power, and will be suited for Control, Burn, and Jund metas, though Jund may still give the creature dense list a run for its money.
Control List: This list will favor a heavy reliance on the planeswalker kill. It will possibly run the x4 Rabble but that would be it for creatures. It may choose to try and play something sneakier like Trinisphere or more sweepers. This list will do well in Creature/Midrange type of metas.
Classic List: Balances Moons/Locks/Creatures/Walkers. This is what we call the 50/50 and sometimes suffers from the "Drawing the wrong side of the deck" however with an appropriate sideboard G2/G3 should be well tuned and G1 should challenge Greedy Manabases. It will suffer to Combo drastically at times. This one is well suited for a GP or Large event, due to a more 'balanced' approach and the 'unknown' meta.
What are the bad matchups?
Jund - This deck has the most removals for Bridge/Moon/Chalice, and can typically function on 1 Forest/1 Swamp. If they sniff you are Blood Moon based in G1 it is an uphill battle.
UW Control - This deck runs the gambit of basics, and can get ahead of us if we are not careful. Please note that UWx control decks are not unfavored, but the straight UW one is.
Hardened Scales & KCI... Just kidding =) - But I'll note a combo deck ignoring you and not heavily reliant on the mana base will be difficult. Hardened Scales can fit into this category due to the range of attack points.
Dredge - This deck just wins, and our graveyard in the Mono Red version is weak.
Eldrazi Tron - Ratchet Bomb, T1 TKS (yes I've seen this), A Waste. Ugh this deck... I'd almost rather see just Tron then Eldrazi Tron
Devoted Druid Combo (Only for Fluffy) - I'm up to losing to this about 15 times on T3. I dunno, its my luck. This shouldn't be a hard matchup...
Tron & Burn (Ad Naus) - I'll note Tron as a 50/50 matchup - If you are on the right side of the tracks you will have x2 Games to win it, fall in the first game and it is an uphill battle. I would not call this unfavorable and actually may come down to the dice roll for who is first, it is the Honorable Mention of difficulty
What are the good matchups?
Wow that's a lot of bad matchups? So what is good and why?
Grixis Death Shadow - Chalice on 1, Blood Moon, Ensnaring Bridge. We are literally built for this. The more seasoned opponent will make it difficult appropriately countering what we have with Stubborn Denial, and the more seasonsed Pyro Prison player will know when to wait or when to go with it (when you can't wait anymore or the risk of losing something to thoughtseize is too much).
Humans & Spirits - Probably more Humans on this but both fold hard to Blood Moon and Bridge. Chalice is a littel bit of an awkward card but you should be clear for take off against these.
Affinity (Normal) - If you run into the little robots and they're not flinging things with Hardened scales your Bridge and Chalice should be enough, we also tend to have enough artifact removal.
4C Prison - I actually believe this matchup is an oddball easy one unless your opponent is seasoned. Typically a Moon stops them from casting Whir, and if they haven't drowned you in lock pieces by the time your Moon is down our more proactive plan should get the job done. I call this one favored, but a lot will disagree.
Pheonix - This deck is an oddball. It is "Us as a counter" and what I mean by that is they pivot also. I've won because of Bridge, and then lost cause they turned into Pyromancer Ascension, but then my opponent has not and staid with Thing in the Ice and we win. This one is a battle that turns into some heavy hitting mind games. I'll list it as favored though as Chalice on 1 and Bridge work wonders here, and Bridge in game 1 can sometimes just be it all.
Amulet Titan - Gobble Gobble, next game.
Other decks not listed? Either more 50/50 based, or just something I haven't thought of.
How's the control matchup? Seems like you just want to be on the aggro Rabble plan. Chalice on 1 should be good, but the other lock pieces (Moon/Bridge) not so good depending on the mana base of the control deck.
Anyone else think that Trinisphere is really good right now? I know the deck is filled to the brim with 3-drops, but this could be yet another lock piece that could shut the opponent out while we do our thing. I think the ritual count would need to be increased so that turn 1/2 3-drops are more likely. Something like this perhaps:
I'm sorry to report that Modern is not like Legacy. I'll try 3-ball (Trinisphere) from time to time, but I'll shelve that one. It may be decent against Pheonix and that would be about it. If your FNM meta is Pheonix all night, slam it in the main, if it is not leave little 3-ball at home.
Resident prison experts Fluffywolf2 and Stickballruss have been testing it, and it's spicy indeed! Bedevil has been raved about in particular.
As a final note (I'll have a follow up at some point), but I think the deck list is decent and solves a problem or two that we have while hurting other matchups. My prime example is the lack of Eidolon of the Great Revel - missing from Storm based or "Multi-spell" decks. The pro of the deck, man Dredge just dies when you slam Leyline, and the combo of Chandra and Liliana is bone chilling and maybe more powerful in some cases then Jace and Teferi.
I'll have more in a future post, it is dinner, but look for the 5-0 lists from Competitive League tomorrow (Tuesday posting).
Re Humans matchup: really not sure the matchup is good in my limited testing. Yes before sideboard, they are cold to Bridge and Moon.
But meddling mage, thalia all makes reducing hand sizes difficult.
Also humans usually has either Noble or Vial to start with and thus not completely dead to Blood Moon.
I believe the matchup to be slightly less favorable
The numbers are from across 2 GPs, and we did terribly at GP Oakland, probably with only a few people running the deck, so each loss is more of a percentage compared to the million Phoenix decks over the 2 events. Over the past 2 years my winrate has stayed around 65% total, but we've seen quite a few shifts in the meta over that time, some periods we got absolutely crushed, like right after the unbannings. Some periods we couldn't lose. Right now is somewhere in the middle. We have a good number of good matchups as well as bad ones.. so it's hard to put a number on it, but it's not 41%.
If you look at Joymonger's post above, you'll see that with a couple less mistakes and a little better luck (we don't lose to GDS), the deck could've taken him all the way. Its Modern. Play what you like and play it well, you can win. Dont believe me? Did you notice Bogles had a 61% winrate in LA? Do we think that's reflective of their true winrate right now?
I totally got what you said here.
Deck seems strong in my limited experience with it.
Though I believe the point here is that the deck is inconsistent compared to other archtypes (ie we just win or lose big time) which is something we accept.
Re bogles:
The deck is actually pretty strong right now, though the deck is another high variance, inconsistent deck like ours.
Michael Margelisch posted a top 8 finish at the MCQ in Strasbourg over the weekend. Very promising. I’m like 80% to play something very similar to his build at GP LA. I see that he trimmed a ritual and I may follow the same lead, but contiuning to trim 2 moons in anticipation of seeing loads of Mountains. I’m gonna stick to my guns and leave the Molten Rains in the side because they’ve gotten me out of so many jams. 3 of top 8 at MCQ Strasbourg being Rock is kind of disconcerting and I still hate our chances against blue control decks, but I love that it’s consistently putting up numbers.
If you are cutting moons, why play the deck in the first place?
Hey! I also played Rabble at GP oakland. I went 7-2 Day 1 and made day 2! I won my first game and was 8-2, but had a really bad streak after and just missed cashing at 10-5.
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Legion Warboss
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Abrade
2 Anger of the Gods
4 Blood Moon
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Pyretic Ritual
3 Gemstone Caverns
14 Mountain
1 Mutavault
4 Ramunap Ruins
Sideboard:
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Boil
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Spellskite
2 Torpor Orb
1 Trinisphere
I took extensive notes and was planning on writing it out somewhere if people were interested! I brought the deck to prey on U/R Phoenix, but while I did beat a few of them, I lost to the red variants. We have a bad matchup vs good KCI players. Triple ee and trawler loops breaks all of the locks. I would have skewed my board towards these.
Good work! Very interested to know what you have faced in the GP.
So this is my attempt on the deck and it plays really good vs moderndecks - beside that I lost every match vs Standarddecks (Jeskai Control, Grixis Control) which wasnt that great... but I had a lot of fun
I have some questions:
- Ensnaring Bridge vs the 4 Goblins // Hazoret // Sarkhan Ultimate
makes me feel quite uncomfortable... does it work?
- is the Eidolon really that great? Used to run in in my Burnlist where it was really good but in this deck i dont know.
- One of Pyretic Ritual - whats the benefit of it?
Hello Walker! First off it’s awesome you picked up the deck and welcome! So now let me see if I can answer some of your concerns. You have 8 Goblins, a Hazoret,and two Sarkhans that can all attack, your question about the bridge is warrented. But with the way bridge was created, if you’re empty handed your goblins aren’t forced to attack, and when you eventually have a critical mass of them, you can save the card in your hand during combat, and then swing with all the goblins for the win. Hazoret plays like a planeswalker and slowly kills the opp while also being incredibly hard to kill, the only major cards able to kill it being path to exile or lilianna of the veil. And since path decks are on the downswing, and we have goblins to sacrifice to liliana, you can usually assume she’ll ride out the game. Sarkhan is a different story. He’s mostly their to fix your draws into something better, but if you do find yourself ulting him behind the bridge, you can keep using his rummage ability to find one of your two Abrades to destroy our own bridge and swing with lethal!
Eidolons are basically the 4th lock piece. They help us against Storm, KCI, Burn, Tron, any deck that runs Arclight Phoenix or Thing in the Ice, and any deck we want to be aggressive against, (control). It is a great card until you’re behind a bridge, but most of the decks we bring it in against we will cut some or all bridges.
The one of Pyretic looks out of place, but in reality it’s ritual number 9, it simply gives us another copy of Desperate Ritual and Simian Spirit Guide, and helps with explosive turn 1 and turn 2 plays. The one of Gemstone Caverns you’re does less in the deck than the Pyretic Ritual does, abd I’d highly upping the Genstone count to (3).
I hope this answered all of your questions and I highly recommend going back and reading past posts, all of your questions have been answered a few times and many more questions you haven’t even asked yet. There are also other decklists and cards to test, and sideboard discussions and guides to help with bad matchups!
Sorry, new to the deck, why is Eidonlon good against burn?
Am afraid that your own eidolon may end up locking up yourself?
Would some kind of sweepers better in its place?
I knew I was against UB Faeries. I am also on the draw. I knew a quick threat would mean a huge upper hand to me. Everything inside me was screaming Mulligan because this is such a risky hand but I just couldn't help but think that Chandra is a house even on turn 3 or 4 let alone turn 1. 'But if you play Chandra turn 1, add two mana and play Chalice on 1 it might be enough to just take the game,' I thought to myself. But I also might never be able to play another spell after I make that decision. Would it really be enough?
"I'll keep."
Oh God. We're in this now. Opponent plays Island, go.
No Sarkhan for me... Opponent draws. Doesn't draw a way to prevent Chandra's ult. Scoops.
Sigh of relief. Chandra just stole that damn game. Also, I apparently enjoy taking unnecessary risks that lead to extremely stressful games.
Just ported to this deck from a legacy Dragon Stompy background.
Your opponent should really counter your ritual with his spell snare there.
The reason being that if you get to 3 mana and land a blood moon, that may be game over unless his hand is basics heavy.
I still think countering the ritual there will yield more benefits that letting you to three mana for whatever pieces (ie Blood Moon, Sarkhan, Bridge) you may have.
I am New Auras player. Would you say it is a good deck?
Many thanks
I'm not sure what you mean by a "good deck." Is it solid for FNM? Definitely. I used to terrorize my FNM for years with the deck. Most players from my former FNM actually believe Bogles is a "good deck" because they are very results oriented, while I actually know that the deck is probably average at best and I could have won a lot more often with Splinter Twin or Bloom Titan.
As for right now. I do think the deck is underrated. I think it's a solid Tier 2 option and happens to do well vs. several Tier 1 decks. That is a good place to be. I personally think it's a bit underpowered and to be more succinct, bit inconsistent for a GP, but it seems that MatsT has proven me wrong there, posting a 12-3 with it.
Bogles is totally fine.
With the printing of assasin's trophy and uptick of Jund, BG midrange, Burn, it is probably time to move back to maindeck Leylines
With more and more cards getting printed there are a lot of auras competing for the same flex spots. Spirit Link, Gryff's Boon, Cartouche of Solidarity, Spirit Mantle and Unflinching Courage are all reasonable options. I've just found Spirit Mantle to be the most useful recently. It's excellent against Grixis Death's Shadow and it helps a lot with blocking against decks like Human, Hollow One and so on. With all the options available now Spirit Link feels a bit too narrow, unlike all the other auras it's truly useless in a number of matchups. Path to Exile I've always felt were essential, it helps so much against decks like Affinity, Burn, Humans, Eldrazi, Hollow One, Bridgevine, Bant Spirits and so on. Even in matchups where it's weaker like Jund and Mardu it's still very servicable and will buy you a few turns to topdeck something. But, if UW control becomes dominant, it's certainly time to drop the Path to Exiles and go all in on Gryff's Boon.
On the other hand William Ljungberg also went 12-3 at GP Prague with a list containing 4 Gryff's Boon and 3 Unflinching Courage but only 1 Path to Exile and 1 Spirit Mantle. All in all the deck mostly relies on the 30-34 fixes slots and the rest makes a smaller impact. I haven't been testing enough against the current meta to make any authoritative statements.
Mats, I saw that you also play only 3 spiritdancer, that seems a bit unusual as we only have so little creatures here.
What is your take on that? Thanks
I also played this deck in GP Stockholm and finished with a respectable 12-3 record for a 19th place. Unfortunately I lost the round 15 win-and-in so missed out on top 8. All three of the losses were against UW Miracles, which is somewhat concerning, but I also beat it twice in the tournament. Terminus is a huge problem but it's also almost the only relevant card in the matchup. I was frequently able to reload and overcome the first Terminus and in several duels I won through 2 of them. All in all I think this matchup is fairly close to 50-50. One thing to note is that you need to keep Spirit Mantles post sideboard to get through Timely Reinforcements. Take out Path to Exile instead, as they are even more useless than against the old UW control.
In addition to this I beat GDSx2, Bridgevine, Jund, Affinity, Mardu Pyromancer, Bogles, Titanshift and Bant Spirits. I won't recap every game because it's not super interesting and to be honest I don't remember all. Some interesting notes:
I basically gave away one duel against Bant Spirits. I started out with turn 1 Bogle and he had turn 1 Mausoleum Wanderer. At this point I had only 1 more land in hand along with Kor Spiritdancer, Rancor and 2xDaybreak Coronet. I played the Spiritdancer figuring that between the next draw step and Spiritdancer trigger, I should be able to draw another land. Of course I did not, and as a result he was able to Spell Queller both of my Coronets (once off a Collected Company) and counter all the Path to Exiles with Mausoleum Wanderers. If I just play Rancor and pass on turn 2, the next turn's Daybreak Coronet will just straight up win me the game.
I also gave away one duel in the mirror which is especially embarrassing. I was on the draw and we both had a turn 1 Bogle. She was stuck on 1 land and I just had a Dryad Arbor so we played 1 aura each on turn 2. On turn 3 I still had no third land but I played a Spirit Mantle to be able to reduce damage by blocking (her bogle was 5/3 at that point). However, assuming she had any 1-mana aura (exceedingly likely given the lack of lands) this would not have been enough as I would die over 2 turns anyway. I was at 10 after 3x Canopy use and 2+5 damage from the Bogle. Much better would have been to play a 1 mana aura using Dryad Arbor, then EoT Path my own Arbor to get double white for Daybreak Coronet. This would have beat almost any play from her side, especially given that I could follow up with the Spirit Mantle next turn.
In game 1 against Bridgevine he was on the play and on turn 3 he attacked me with Greater Gargadon, Vengevine and four 2/2 zombies. I was able to chump the Gargadon with a Bogle, kill one zombie with my Bogle+Ethereal and take 10 damage to go from 14 to 4. On my turn I could play Spider Umbra+Daybreak Coronet to attack for 8 gaining to 12, and at this point he couldn't even attack as Greater Gargadon would die to the 8/8 first strike lifelink and his other units would not deal enough damage. I guess this highlights how good this matchup is, that even with such a crazy start on the play I was able to win on turn 4.
Against Titanshift post sideboard he had Engineered Explosives but I was able to build up on a Spellskite. Gaining to 26, even a "36 damage Scapeshift" was not lethal as I could pay 24 life to redirect.
All in all I'm happy with my deck choice and will probably play the deck again in the future. I'm still interested in the blue splash for Stubborn Denial as a way to fight against Terminus (and combo decks like Storm/KCI), but as I had no time for testing there was no chance for this tournament. The prevalence of Field of Ruin could prove problematic for this plan.
Well done! Congratulations to your finish.
Regarding your list, how have the 4 maindeck path to exile been? I saw that most list plays only 1-2 in maindeck with the remaining in sideboard.
3 spirit mantle is also interesting, though I suppose it has some plays vs uw control to prevent flash creature/colonade from blocking.
With only 4 lifegain auras, do you miss the lifegain in aggro matchup?
About 6 months ago, I was aware that there would be a Grand Prix in my hometown.
And it would be the first constructed GP ever happened here.
The format is modern.
Being mostly a Legacy player, I did not really have an idea of the format.
Not having a lot of time to playtest, my plan then was to settle on a particular deck early and then started the practice.
After checking the mtgtop8 lists for some deck choices, I came to the following 4 potential decks which I should like playing:
Mono white hatebears (vial or non vial)
Mono black 8Rack
Ponza
Affinity
I posted the above choices to the local groups and explained that I was new to modern and needed a deck choice for GP. Opinions varied and pretty much suggested that 1-3 were just dogs. Then local player Kiu (aka Tron God) suggested me to play Bogles as Bogles is
easier to pilot and can ignore the opponent most of the time. I checked the deck and then decided that the deck seems cool enough and has a low floor to start with.
Then I just acquired the cards and started the testing.
My testing was mostly done online in cocaktrice through causals as I did not have a lot of time for paper testing. (also did not want to spend money to acquire the deck in digital form in MTGO).
My first iteration of the deck was the then standard 4 Leyline main version of the deck:
Enchantment (26)
4x Daybreak Coronet
4x Ethereal Armor
1x Gryff's Boon
3x Hyena Umbra
3x Leyline of Sanctity
4x Rancor
4x Spider Umbra
1x Spirit Link
2x Spirit Mantle
Instant (2)
2x Path to Exile
Land (20)
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Forest
4x Horizon Canopy
1x Plains
4x Razorverge Thicket
3x Temple Garden
1x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
Creature (12)
4x Gladecover Scout
4x Kor Spiritdancer
4x Slippery Bogle
Sideboard (15)
1x Dromoka's Command
3x Gaddock Teeg
2x Path to Exile
2x Rest in Peace
4x Seal of Primordium
3x Stony Silence
Nothing too fancy there.
When I was drawing closer to the tournament, online causal testing revealed that maindeck Leyline seemed to be more often dead with much less Death Shadow in the metagame.
Then I came across this list by William Ljungberg accidentally:
Land (21)
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Forest
4x Horizon Canopy
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Plains
4x Razorverge Thicket
3x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
Enchantment (26)
4x Daybreak Coronet
4x Ethereal Armor
4x Gryff's Boon
3x Hyena Umbra
4x Rancor
3x Spider Umbra
1x Spirit Mantle
3x Unflinching Courage
Instant (1)
1x Path to Exile
Creature (12)
4x Gladecover Scout
4x Kor Spiritdancer
4x Slippery Bogle
Sideboard (15)
3x Gaddock Teeg
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Path to Exile
2x Rest in Peace
2x Seal of Primordium
2x Stony Silence
He had a 12-3 run in GP Prague and was said to be the early creator of Bogles. What’s not to like?
So I changed to this list and then started the intensive testing with one more week to go.
I came into the GP with an expected metagame of Humans, Tron, UW Control, Burn being the most played decks.
Onto the event:
Round 1 - Bye
Round 2 - vs Counter Company
Game 1 - I was on the draw and we both kept out 7.
Opponent went T1 fetch, shock, BOP. I went with T1 fetch, shock, Bogles.
Opponent played T2 Vizier of Remedies and a shock tapped.
Sigh, bad matchup.
On my turn 2, I went Rancor, Ethereal Armor, attack for 5. Opponent down to 12.
On his turn 3, opponent tanked, played a fetch and then passed.
T3, I went rancor, spider umbra, hyena umbra (thought about leaving one mana open to bluff Path to Exile but opponent will go for it anyway and hence decided against it) to grow Bogles to a 12 power monster. Attack, blocked my bolges with BOP and Vizier, tapping the two for a chord for 2 to search for Druid. Damage cleared and both his critter dies and he fell down to 2. At eot, he fetched, fell to 1.
On his T4, he played a Eternal Witness tapping the Druid with one land untapped, getting back the Vizier. Then he put one -0/-1 counter on his Druid to untap it and added one more mana and tapped his land, playing Vizier, then he generated 1 million mana. Play Duskwatch Recruiter and that was game! So close!
Game 2 - we both mulliganed
T1 land go, opponent has no mana dorks.
T2 Spiritdancer was not met with any removals. Opponent just land go on T2
T3 I suit up my Spiritdancer with double Ethreal Armor without any response. The attack brought him to 12. My opponent fetches at my EOT and his T3 involves shockland and a 1/1 Ballista.
T4, I further suited up the Spirtdancer to a 13/13 with an umbra, pointed a Path to the Ballista, then attack for the win. Apparently opponent may have been relying on some Collected Company?
Game 3 - I keep with opponent down to 6
T1 mana dork.vs Bogle
T2 Pridemage vs Teeg
T3 Play irrelevant creature and exalted attack with Pridemage against Teeg attack and Bogle being suited up and not able to attack.
T4 Opponent played irrelevant creature vs Spirit Mantle Bogle for 5 more. Teeg stay on sideline.
T5 Opponent cannot attack anymore because he was losing the race and I had a Daybreak Cohorot & Gryff’s Boon to seal it up as opponent has only 1 Pridgemange to either remove Mantle or Gryff’s Boon.
After the game, opponent showed me a hand of Chord and Collected Company being locked by Teeg.
Good to win a bad matchup!
2-0
Round 3 - vs Burn
In general, burn matchup should be easy. Just stick a lifelink aura nad win, right?
Game 1 - on the play and I mulled to a not particular sexy hand with Bogle and a Spiritdancer but one Aura and no lifelink. Opponent kept.
T1 Bogle met T1 Swiftspear.
T2 Ethereal Armor on Bolge and opponent Lavla Spike and attack with spear. Suspend Rift Bolt after combat
T3 I made a 3/5 Spiritdancer with Gryff’s Boon. Opponent attacked with Swiftspear and I blocked the 2/3 Swiftspear. Opponent casted a bolt, a Searing Blaze to grow his Swiftspear to 4/5 . So his Swiftspear survived while my Spiritdancer died.
T4 I finally drew some auras to grow my Bogles to 5/3. But by then I am only at 3 life with opponent at 12 life from Bogle attacks.
I would die to any bolt. With a canopy in hand and my choice here was either:
1. Do not attack and wait to topdeck a lifelink aura, this play can prevent dying to Goblin Guide with Swiftspear on the table.
2. Attack opponent to 7 and hope to draw Gryff’s Boon, Ethereal Armor to finish him next turn.. I had 7 copies of the card left and two draw steps.Shortening the clock and dun give him much chance to topdeck a bolt.
I took line no. 2.
Opponent drew and played Goblin Guide (not sure topdecked or not). Sad…
Took a peek at my top card, Grff’s Boon, saddddder…...sigh
Game 2 mulled to 6
I drew a hand with 2 Bogles, Daybreak Cohorot, Path, lands.
I played Bogles and equipped with Ethereal Armor. But kept drawing more bogles instead of auras.
Opponent hit me with double Swiftspear and ALWAYS left open 2 mana, even when presented the opportunity to Helix me on his turn for 2 extra damages. Instead he did it on my end step. VERY suspicious.
I smelled Destructive Revelry.
At the end, I had to go for it after drawing 2 more Bogles but not auras, and he showed me the Revelry for the Ethereal Armor. And that’s game with my poor draw.
Burn is such a good matchup and losing to burn in 2 games seemed unbelievable. But that happened. My opponent seemed to draw quite well in both games. Maybe that is variance.
2-1
Round 4 - vs UW Control with Terminus
This round report is short as there is not much to say about this matchup.
In my experience, you either win easily when they dun have the terminus or just scoop to the Terminus followed by planeswalker.
Game 1 - Mull to 5 on the play into a hand of Arbor, Aura, lands
Not wanting to go to four when opponent kept his 7, I kept the hand and prayed that I was paired against a removal light deck.
T1 Arbor got Sunlanced? WTF? Path is expected but Sunlance?
Ok.
T2 I topdecked a Bogle and we are on to business now.
T3-T5, I suited up the Bogle the best I can to a 5/2. The way that my opponent drew his cards suggested that he was on Terminus. I attacked my opponent to 10. When my opponent played a Teferi and drew cards on T5. I tanked for a moment and finally decided to attach the Teferi instead of him. Teferi killed, opponent tapped out for Terminus.
I replayed another Bogle and started to suit up again, getting opponent to 3.
He Terminus again and got Jace online, it’s time to pack it in.
Game 2
T2 Spiritdancer is spell snared.
T3 Spiritdancer plus Rancor met Path to Exile.
I got my Bogles and suited up. That met Terminus after two attacks.
Then I had two more Bogles going. He tried a Colonade block but that met with a Path.
Though, flooding and without drawing auras, I am forced to deploy the Hexproof 1/1s vs his Clique, Snappie with double Planewalkers going all the time and flipped Search for more control fun.
At the end, he ultimated Teferi and start to work on my lands.
Not even close, where is my TEEG?
2-2
Round 5 - Burn
Game 1 On the play, I mull to 6 to a hand with Daybreak Cohorot.
T1 Bogle vs Goblin Guide
T2 No play vs Eidolon
T3 Spiritdancer and aura vs some burn and attack
T4 Daybreak Cohort plus Spiritdancer means GG
Game 2 Similar things happened (lifelink is good against Burn) as I drew “normal” Bogles draw while opponent did not see any of his sb cards. He showed me Destructive Revelry, Ensnaring Bridge after the match. I did bring in some seals for the matchup though.
Confidence back after this easy win!
3-2
Round 6 - Grixis Reanimator
Game one on the play, I kept while opponent mulled
T1 Bogles vs Island Serum Vision, suspected UW control
T2 suit up Bogles to attack for 3, and opponent played Blackcleave Cliffs and left mana open
T3 tried to put an aura on the Bogles. Opponent casted Izzet Charm to counter it!
T4 attacked for 7, opponent played another serum vision
T5 attacked for 7 more
The Izzet Charm was a big tell of Reanimator. Hence I sideboarded that way and brought in all RIP, Path, Teeg.
Game two, I mull to 6 to a decent hand.
Opponent went T1 Vision with both scry on top, T2 Search for Azcanta, I suspected that it may actually be Grixis Control and I sb wrongly.
I went with the usual beatdown plan to take my opponent from 18 to 14 then to 8..
On his T4, opponent thought for long on his upkeep for his Search for Azcanta scry. That may have taken 2 minutes. Then he flipped Emrakul to the GY and responded the shuffle trigger with Goryo’s Vengeance. I sac all my permanants and was down to 1 life.
My T4, I played a land and a Bogle.
The other turns involved us to race to kill the other person first.
I found a Ethereal Armor and tried to double my clock, but he had Izzet Charm.
In his digging to Through the Breach end, he discarded a SSG, I thought that he may actually be ok to cast that Guide with me in 1 life. I attacked him down to 3 before he finally found Breach for Emrakul.
Game 3 we both kept
I had a great draw.
T1 Bogle vs T1 Faithless Looting discarding lands.
T2 Auras on Bogles, opponent did some more diggings
T3 RIP and auras.on Bogles
By T4, my opponent outs will be Through the Breach for Emrakul.
I counted my permanents and found that I will get to kept a lethal Bogles even through the Emrakul trigger
My opponent thought for a bit and finally decided to dig more.
He passed and when I attacked next turn, he was dead.
4-2
Round 7 - Bridgevine
Game one on the draw, I kept while opponent mulled
I got a 13/13 Bogles enchanted with Spider Umbra, double Ethereal Armor and Daybreak Cohorot going, gained 13 life in the process, dropped him to 9 before he found a sac outlet of to prevent lifegain.
He had two Bridge from Below and started to do crazy things with 2 Bloodghast to generate a no. of zombies. I popped a Canopy to find a Rancor to trample through the blockers and to get the lifegain of another 17 life. Upto 42 life now and killing 5 Zombies in the process.
Then on his turn, he began to go nuts. Sac Bloodghast, got 2 zombies, played fetch, brought back Bloodghast, sac Bloodghast, got 2 more, sac fetch, got a land, brought back Bloodghast, played and sac Neonate etc, the end result is a whopping 16 Zombies on the battelfield, then he casted Bushwacker with kicker to give them all +1/+0 and haste! That is too much for me to handle with the blocked zombie being sac before damage to prevent lifegain….GG
Game 2 - we both kept
I drew no sb cards but a beatdown Bogles hand with a path.
T1 Bogles met with T1 Thoughtseize.
He discarded one of my Auras.
I suited up Bogles and then start attacking, he tried the one drop, 0 mana creature, Vengevine plan. I pointed my topdecked path to it.
Then my opponent seemed to lose his steam, and my Bogles beatdown just went all the way with him digging with Faithless Looting and discarding lands.
Game 3 -we both kept
His Stitcher's Supplier betrayed him this game, milling useless cards (like double destructive revelry?) into the gy. I just do the usual Bogle beatdown thing.
5-2
Round 8 - BURN AGAIN
Game one - On the play, we both kept
I got a lifelink Bogles going, saw RW fastland, Goblin Guide, then he conceded
Game two - I kept a Leyline, Spiritdancer x 2, Aura hand, Horizon Canopy
His draw was pretty heavy on creatures with Goblin Guide and Grim Lavamancer (blanking my Spiritdancer until T3).
I drew my 2nd land with the help of the guide and also got a Bogle in the process. Began equipping the Bogle with Auras when my life was at low teens.
Then when I sticked Daybreak on the Bogle and attacked. Opponent tried to Destructive Revelry the Daybreak and want to make my Bogle tapped.
A judge call later, we were back to attack step and my opponent Destructive Revelry the Daybreak before combat . Opponent had a Goblin Guide and a Lavamancer on the table, I was at 4 (2 damage from Destructive Revelry, fetches, self damage from Horizon Canopies, damn that land), sensing that he wanted me to tap my 5/3 Bogles for attack. I suspect that he had some form of haste creature there. So better not attack.
Indeed he had, he casted a Goblin Guide, I blocked one and took 3 and went to 1.
My hand had Unflinching Courage but not the painless mana (damn Horizon Canopy again!) to cast it! I casted a naked Bogle for block with only one painless mana on the battlefield.
Opponent has another Grim Lavamancer, 3 creatures vs 2 creatures, who wins?
With opponent at 13, I have no outs.
Game 3 - Mull the good old one Plains and Bogles, Auras hand to the aforementioned Leyline, 2 paths 6 card hand which I MULLed (probably a mistake as advised by Mats) into a 5 card hand of Bogle, double Horizon Canopy, land, Daybreak hand, scry Unflinching Courage to the top.
This game is hilarious:
It went like this:
T1 Bogle vs Grim Lavamancer
T2 Shockland tapped pass vs opponent nth
T3 Attach Unfliching Courage attack (3/3) met Skullcrack, ok
T4 Attach another Unflinching Courage attack (5/5) met Skullcrack again, hmmm, ok
T5 Attach Daybreak Conhort attack (8/8) met SKULLCRACK ONCE AGAIN, this is not ok!
That is already 9 damages from the Skullcracks alone, I had taken 6 damage from Horizon Canopies, the rest was easy mode for burn deck…..
Opponent showed me even more burn spell in hand afterwards...
5-3
HOW ON EARTH CAN I LOST TWICE TO BURN in a tournament with Bogles?
I still dunno how, but it happened...
Takeaway:
Modern is not an easy format. You are working on thin margin, and games are quick. There are only a few decisions in a game and that may change the outcome of a game.
Life may be fair, I had won some of the more difficult matchups like Counter Company and possibly Reanimator. And then karma came and made my opponent drew so good that even two good matchups like Burn were lost.
Game 1 against burn, I was at 3 against an opponent swiftspear and 2 cards in hand and 3 lands. His earlier play has been all burn spells to trigger the swiftspear. Tapping all his mana each turn
I had a 5/3 bogles with opponent at 12. With 2 lands in play, my hand was all lands except a canopy.
My choice is to
1.attack with the 5/3 (rancor, ethreal armor) and hoping to dodge any burn spell for one turn, and draw a gryff boon for lethal or lifelink aura next turn.
2. Or stay on defence to avoid goblin guide, and only goblin guide and hope to topdeck lifelink aura
What will you pick?
Game 2 I drew an interesting hand against burn on sb game playing first:
Leyline
Arbor
Fetch x 2
Rancor
Daybreak
Horizon Canopy
My deck only plays one arbor.
Do you think that is playable?
Game 3 sb game against burn, hand is this which I play first:
Leyline
Forest
Canopy
Path x 2
Rancor
Unravel is also better than natural state in matchup against affinity where welding jar is also a common card.
Another better spot is against wurmcoil engine which unravel is a clean answer
When Izzet Phoenix (aka a creature deck) is the deck to beat, bogles will certainly shine
Re Humans matchup: really not sure the matchup is good in my limited testing. Yes before sideboard, they are cold to Bridge and Moon.
But meddling mage, thalia all makes reducing hand sizes difficult.
Also humans usually has either Noble or Vial to start with and thus not completely dead to Blood Moon.
I believe the matchup to be slightly less favorable
I totally got what you said here.
Deck seems strong in my limited experience with it.
Though I believe the point here is that the deck is inconsistent compared to other archtypes (ie we just win or lose big time) which is something we accept.
Re bogles:
The deck is actually pretty strong right now, though the deck is another high variance, inconsistent deck like ours.
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/from-port-to-oak-and-beyond-modern-matchups-bans-and-ravnica-allegiances/
If you are cutting moons, why play the deck in the first place?
Good work! Very interested to know what you have faced in the GP.
Sorry, new to the deck, why is Eidonlon good against burn?
Am afraid that your own eidolon may end up locking up yourself?
Would some kind of sweepers better in its place?
Just ported to this deck from a legacy Dragon Stompy background.
Your opponent should really counter your ritual with his spell snare there.
The reason being that if you get to 3 mana and land a blood moon, that may be game over unless his hand is basics heavy.
I still think countering the ritual there will yield more benefits that letting you to three mana for whatever pieces (ie Blood Moon, Sarkhan, Bridge) you may have.
Bogles is totally fine.
With the printing of assasin's trophy and uptick of Jund, BG midrange, Burn, it is probably time to move back to maindeck Leylines
Mats, I saw that you also play only 3 spiritdancer, that seems a bit unusual as we only have so little creatures here.
What is your take on that? Thanks
Well done! Congratulations to your finish.
Regarding your list, how have the 4 maindeck path to exile been? I saw that most list plays only 1-2 in maindeck with the remaining in sideboard.
3 spirit mantle is also interesting, though I suppose it has some plays vs uw control to prevent flash creature/colonade from blocking.
With only 4 lifegain auras, do you miss the lifegain in aggro matchup?
And it would be the first constructed GP ever happened here.
The format is modern.
Being mostly a Legacy player, I did not really have an idea of the format.
Not having a lot of time to playtest, my plan then was to settle on a particular deck early and then started the practice.
After checking the mtgtop8 lists for some deck choices, I came to the following 4 potential decks which I should like playing:
Mono white hatebears (vial or non vial)
Mono black 8Rack
Ponza
Affinity
I posted the above choices to the local groups and explained that I was new to modern and needed a deck choice for GP. Opinions varied and pretty much suggested that 1-3 were just dogs. Then local player Kiu (aka Tron God) suggested me to play Bogles as Bogles is
easier to pilot and can ignore the opponent most of the time. I checked the deck and then decided that the deck seems cool enough and has a low floor to start with.
Then I just acquired the cards and started the testing.
My testing was mostly done online in cocaktrice through causals as I did not have a lot of time for paper testing. (also did not want to spend money to acquire the deck in digital form in MTGO).
My first iteration of the deck was the then standard 4 Leyline main version of the deck:
Enchantment (26)
4x Daybreak Coronet
4x Ethereal Armor
1x Gryff's Boon
3x Hyena Umbra
3x Leyline of Sanctity
4x Rancor
4x Spider Umbra
1x Spirit Link
2x Spirit Mantle
Instant (2)
2x Path to Exile
Land (20)
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Forest
4x Horizon Canopy
1x Plains
4x Razorverge Thicket
3x Temple Garden
1x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
Creature (12)
4x Gladecover Scout
4x Kor Spiritdancer
4x Slippery Bogle
Sideboard (15)
1x Dromoka's Command
3x Gaddock Teeg
2x Path to Exile
2x Rest in Peace
4x Seal of Primordium
3x Stony Silence
Nothing too fancy there.
When I was drawing closer to the tournament, online causal testing revealed that maindeck Leyline seemed to be more often dead with much less Death Shadow in the metagame.
Then I came across this list by William Ljungberg accidentally:
Land (21)
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Forest
4x Horizon Canopy
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Plains
4x Razorverge Thicket
3x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
Enchantment (26)
4x Daybreak Coronet
4x Ethereal Armor
4x Gryff's Boon
3x Hyena Umbra
4x Rancor
3x Spider Umbra
1x Spirit Mantle
3x Unflinching Courage
Instant (1)
1x Path to Exile
Creature (12)
4x Gladecover Scout
4x Kor Spiritdancer
4x Slippery Bogle
Sideboard (15)
3x Gaddock Teeg
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Path to Exile
2x Rest in Peace
2x Seal of Primordium
2x Stony Silence
https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gppra18/top-stories-2018-08-26
He had a 12-3 run in GP Prague and was said to be the early creator of Bogles. What’s not to like?
So I changed to this list and then started the intensive testing with one more week to go.
I came into the GP with an expected metagame of Humans, Tron, UW Control, Burn being the most played decks.
Onto the event:
Round 1 - Bye
Round 2 - vs Counter Company
Game 1 - I was on the draw and we both kept out 7.
Opponent went T1 fetch, shock, BOP. I went with T1 fetch, shock, Bogles.
Opponent played T2 Vizier of Remedies and a shock tapped.
Sigh, bad matchup.
On my turn 2, I went Rancor, Ethereal Armor, attack for 5. Opponent down to 12.
On his turn 3, opponent tanked, played a fetch and then passed.
T3, I went rancor, spider umbra, hyena umbra (thought about leaving one mana open to bluff Path to Exile but opponent will go for it anyway and hence decided against it) to grow Bogles to a 12 power monster. Attack, blocked my bolges with BOP and Vizier, tapping the two for a chord for 2 to search for Druid. Damage cleared and both his critter dies and he fell down to 2. At eot, he fetched, fell to 1.
On his T4, he played a Eternal Witness tapping the Druid with one land untapped, getting back the Vizier. Then he put one -0/-1 counter on his Druid to untap it and added one more mana and tapped his land, playing Vizier, then he generated 1 million mana. Play Duskwatch Recruiter and that was game! So close!
Game 2 - we both mulliganed
T1 land go, opponent has no mana dorks.
T2 Spiritdancer was not met with any removals. Opponent just land go on T2
T3 I suit up my Spiritdancer with double Ethreal Armor without any response. The attack brought him to 12. My opponent fetches at my EOT and his T3 involves shockland and a 1/1 Ballista.
T4, I further suited up the Spirtdancer to a 13/13 with an umbra, pointed a Path to the Ballista, then attack for the win. Apparently opponent may have been relying on some Collected Company?
Game 3 - I keep with opponent down to 6
T1 mana dork.vs Bogle
T2 Pridemage vs Teeg
T3 Play irrelevant creature and exalted attack with Pridemage against Teeg attack and Bogle being suited up and not able to attack.
T4 Opponent played irrelevant creature vs Spirit Mantle Bogle for 5 more. Teeg stay on sideline.
T5 Opponent cannot attack anymore because he was losing the race and I had a Daybreak Cohorot & Gryff’s Boon to seal it up as opponent has only 1 Pridgemange to either remove Mantle or Gryff’s Boon.
After the game, opponent showed me a hand of Chord and Collected Company being locked by Teeg.
Good to win a bad matchup!
2-0
Round 3 - vs Burn
In general, burn matchup should be easy. Just stick a lifelink aura nad win, right?
Game 1 - on the play and I mulled to a not particular sexy hand with Bogle and a Spiritdancer but one Aura and no lifelink. Opponent kept.
T1 Bogle met T1 Swiftspear.
T2 Ethereal Armor on Bolge and opponent Lavla Spike and attack with spear. Suspend Rift Bolt after combat
T3 I made a 3/5 Spiritdancer with Gryff’s Boon. Opponent attacked with Swiftspear and I blocked the 2/3 Swiftspear. Opponent casted a bolt, a Searing Blaze to grow his Swiftspear to 4/5 . So his Swiftspear survived while my Spiritdancer died.
T4 I finally drew some auras to grow my Bogles to 5/3. But by then I am only at 3 life with opponent at 12 life from Bogle attacks.
I would die to any bolt. With a canopy in hand and my choice here was either:
1. Do not attack and wait to topdeck a lifelink aura, this play can prevent dying to Goblin Guide with Swiftspear on the table.
2. Attack opponent to 7 and hope to draw Gryff’s Boon, Ethereal Armor to finish him next turn.. I had 7 copies of the card left and two draw steps.Shortening the clock and dun give him much chance to topdeck a bolt.
I took line no. 2.
Opponent drew and played Goblin Guide (not sure topdecked or not). Sad…
Took a peek at my top card, Grff’s Boon, saddddder…...sigh
Game 2 mulled to 6
I drew a hand with 2 Bogles, Daybreak Cohorot, Path, lands.
I played Bogles and equipped with Ethereal Armor. But kept drawing more bogles instead of auras.
Opponent hit me with double Swiftspear and ALWAYS left open 2 mana, even when presented the opportunity to Helix me on his turn for 2 extra damages. Instead he did it on my end step. VERY suspicious.
I smelled Destructive Revelry.
At the end, I had to go for it after drawing 2 more Bogles but not auras, and he showed me the Revelry for the Ethereal Armor. And that’s game with my poor draw.
Burn is such a good matchup and losing to burn in 2 games seemed unbelievable. But that happened. My opponent seemed to draw quite well in both games. Maybe that is variance.
2-1
Round 4 - vs UW Control with Terminus
This round report is short as there is not much to say about this matchup.
In my experience, you either win easily when they dun have the terminus or just scoop to the Terminus followed by planeswalker.
Game 1 - Mull to 5 on the play into a hand of Arbor, Aura, lands
Not wanting to go to four when opponent kept his 7, I kept the hand and prayed that I was paired against a removal light deck.
T1 Arbor got Sunlanced? WTF? Path is expected but Sunlance?
Ok.
T2 I topdecked a Bogle and we are on to business now.
T3-T5, I suited up the Bogle the best I can to a 5/2. The way that my opponent drew his cards suggested that he was on Terminus. I attacked my opponent to 10. When my opponent played a Teferi and drew cards on T5. I tanked for a moment and finally decided to attach the Teferi instead of him. Teferi killed, opponent tapped out for Terminus.
I replayed another Bogle and started to suit up again, getting opponent to 3.
He Terminus again and got Jace online, it’s time to pack it in.
Game 2
T2 Spiritdancer is spell snared.
T3 Spiritdancer plus Rancor met Path to Exile.
I got my Bogles and suited up. That met Terminus after two attacks.
Then I had two more Bogles going. He tried a Colonade block but that met with a Path.
Though, flooding and without drawing auras, I am forced to deploy the Hexproof 1/1s vs his Clique, Snappie with double Planewalkers going all the time and flipped Search for more control fun.
At the end, he ultimated Teferi and start to work on my lands.
Not even close, where is my TEEG?
2-2
Round 5 - Burn
Game 1 On the play, I mull to 6 to a hand with Daybreak Cohorot.
T1 Bogle vs Goblin Guide
T2 No play vs Eidolon
T3 Spiritdancer and aura vs some burn and attack
T4 Daybreak Cohort plus Spiritdancer means GG
Game 2 Similar things happened (lifelink is good against Burn) as I drew “normal” Bogles draw while opponent did not see any of his sb cards. He showed me Destructive Revelry, Ensnaring Bridge after the match. I did bring in some seals for the matchup though.
Confidence back after this easy win!
3-2
Round 6 - Grixis Reanimator
Game one on the play, I kept while opponent mulled
T1 Bogles vs Island Serum Vision, suspected UW control
T2 suit up Bogles to attack for 3, and opponent played Blackcleave Cliffs and left mana open
T3 tried to put an aura on the Bogles. Opponent casted Izzet Charm to counter it!
T4 attacked for 7, opponent played another serum vision
T5 attacked for 7 more
The Izzet Charm was a big tell of Reanimator. Hence I sideboarded that way and brought in all RIP, Path, Teeg.
Game two, I mull to 6 to a decent hand.
Opponent went T1 Vision with both scry on top, T2 Search for Azcanta, I suspected that it may actually be Grixis Control and I sb wrongly.
I went with the usual beatdown plan to take my opponent from 18 to 14 then to 8..
On his T4, opponent thought for long on his upkeep for his Search for Azcanta scry. That may have taken 2 minutes. Then he flipped Emrakul to the GY and responded the shuffle trigger with Goryo’s Vengeance. I sac all my permanants and was down to 1 life.
My T4, I played a land and a Bogle.
The other turns involved us to race to kill the other person first.
I found a Ethereal Armor and tried to double my clock, but he had Izzet Charm.
In his digging to Through the Breach end, he discarded a SSG, I thought that he may actually be ok to cast that Guide with me in 1 life. I attacked him down to 3 before he finally found Breach for Emrakul.
Game 3 we both kept
I had a great draw.
T1 Bogle vs T1 Faithless Looting discarding lands.
T2 Auras on Bogles, opponent did some more diggings
T3 RIP and auras.on Bogles
By T4, my opponent outs will be Through the Breach for Emrakul.
I counted my permanents and found that I will get to kept a lethal Bogles even through the Emrakul trigger
My opponent thought for a bit and finally decided to dig more.
He passed and when I attacked next turn, he was dead.
4-2
Round 7 - Bridgevine
Game one on the draw, I kept while opponent mulled
I got a 13/13 Bogles enchanted with Spider Umbra, double Ethereal Armor and Daybreak Cohorot going, gained 13 life in the process, dropped him to 9 before he found a sac outlet of to prevent lifegain.
He had two Bridge from Below and started to do crazy things with 2 Bloodghast to generate a no. of zombies. I popped a Canopy to find a Rancor to trample through the blockers and to get the lifegain of another 17 life. Upto 42 life now and killing 5 Zombies in the process.
Then on his turn, he began to go nuts. Sac Bloodghast, got 2 zombies, played fetch, brought back Bloodghast, sac Bloodghast, got 2 more, sac fetch, got a land, brought back Bloodghast, played and sac Neonate etc, the end result is a whopping 16 Zombies on the battelfield, then he casted Bushwacker with kicker to give them all +1/+0 and haste! That is too much for me to handle with the blocked zombie being sac before damage to prevent lifegain….GG
Game 2 - we both kept
I drew no sb cards but a beatdown Bogles hand with a path.
T1 Bogles met with T1 Thoughtseize.
He discarded one of my Auras.
I suited up Bogles and then start attacking, he tried the one drop, 0 mana creature, Vengevine plan. I pointed my topdecked path to it.
Then my opponent seemed to lose his steam, and my Bogles beatdown just went all the way with him digging with Faithless Looting and discarding lands.
Game 3 -we both kept
His Stitcher's Supplier betrayed him this game, milling useless cards (like double destructive revelry?) into the gy. I just do the usual Bogle beatdown thing.
5-2
Round 8 - BURN AGAIN
Game one - On the play, we both kept
I got a lifelink Bogles going, saw RW fastland, Goblin Guide, then he conceded
Game two - I kept a Leyline, Spiritdancer x 2, Aura hand, Horizon Canopy
His draw was pretty heavy on creatures with Goblin Guide and Grim Lavamancer (blanking my Spiritdancer until T3).
I drew my 2nd land with the help of the guide and also got a Bogle in the process. Began equipping the Bogle with Auras when my life was at low teens.
Then when I sticked Daybreak on the Bogle and attacked. Opponent tried to Destructive Revelry the Daybreak and want to make my Bogle tapped.
A judge call later, we were back to attack step and my opponent Destructive Revelry the Daybreak before combat . Opponent had a Goblin Guide and a Lavamancer on the table, I was at 4 (2 damage from Destructive Revelry, fetches, self damage from Horizon Canopies, damn that land), sensing that he wanted me to tap my 5/3 Bogles for attack. I suspect that he had some form of haste creature there. So better not attack.
Indeed he had, he casted a Goblin Guide, I blocked one and took 3 and went to 1.
My hand had Unflinching Courage but not the painless mana (damn Horizon Canopy again!) to cast it! I casted a naked Bogle for block with only one painless mana on the battlefield.
Opponent has another Grim Lavamancer, 3 creatures vs 2 creatures, who wins?
With opponent at 13, I have no outs.
Game 3 - Mull the good old one Plains and Bogles, Auras hand to the aforementioned Leyline, 2 paths 6 card hand which I MULLed (probably a mistake as advised by Mats) into a 5 card hand of Bogle, double Horizon Canopy, land, Daybreak hand, scry Unflinching Courage to the top.
This game is hilarious:
It went like this:
T1 Bogle vs Grim Lavamancer
T2 Shockland tapped pass vs opponent nth
T3 Attach Unfliching Courage attack (3/3) met Skullcrack, ok
T4 Attach another Unflinching Courage attack (5/5) met Skullcrack again, hmmm, ok
T5 Attach Daybreak Conhort attack (8/8) met SKULLCRACK ONCE AGAIN, this is not ok!
That is already 9 damages from the Skullcracks alone, I had taken 6 damage from Horizon Canopies, the rest was easy mode for burn deck…..
Opponent showed me even more burn spell in hand afterwards...
5-3
HOW ON EARTH CAN I LOST TWICE TO BURN in a tournament with Bogles?
I still dunno how, but it happened...
Takeaway:
Modern is not an easy format. You are working on thin margin, and games are quick. There are only a few decisions in a game and that may change the outcome of a game.
Life may be fair, I had won some of the more difficult matchups like Counter Company and possibly Reanimator. And then karma came and made my opponent drew so good that even two good matchups like Burn were lost.
That may be my destiny.
I had a 5/3 bogles with opponent at 12. With 2 lands in play, my hand was all lands except a canopy.
My choice is to
1.attack with the 5/3 (rancor, ethreal armor) and hoping to dodge any burn spell for one turn, and draw a gryff boon for lethal or lifelink aura next turn.
2. Or stay on defence to avoid goblin guide, and only goblin guide and hope to topdeck lifelink aura
What will you pick?
Game 2 I drew an interesting hand against burn on sb game playing first:
Leyline
Arbor
Fetch x 2
Rancor
Daybreak
Horizon Canopy
My deck only plays one arbor.
Do you think that is playable?
Game 3 sb game against burn, hand is this which I play first:
Leyline
Forest
Canopy
Path x 2
Rancor
Would you keep this?