Hi lantern, thanks for your continuous contributions to this thread.
I hope you don't mind if they are two points you brought up I respectfully disagree with:
1. Tome scour being "a bad neonate": I'm really puzzled... neonate mills more only if you have access to ggt. We all agree that the deck looks for consistency, and tome scour is so much more reliable... I know it "looks like a bad card" (as opposed to sexy neonate) but shouldn't we be more reasonable that ?
To be clear, Im not saying playing jund colors is wrong. I just want to argue that there is an objective reason to play blue. You don't have to take my word for it: all I ask is that you goldfish imagining neonate is tome scour... how often is it better? It especially helps with mulligans.
For example, look at bbd round 9 match 3 yesterday where he has neonate, lootings and reunion but his only dredger is dakmore salvage. How much better would tome scour have been? (He ended winning still, ill admit haha). At the same time, tome scour is better when you go to five cards or less. Often it's better both in good AND bad hands.
Don't take my word for it, try it at home
2. The hivemind : i think the aggregation you did is very helpful. However, i think there is a limit to the wisdom of the crowd, it tends to be more wisdoms of the pros... so many stock lists are defined by famous people winning with or writing about it (Think lanto with death shadow , overturf with delver, hoogland with chord). So many archetypes went from zero to hero based on a pro playing it: death shadow, lantern, rg valakut, amulet back then. Basically nobody took them seriously before, no one tried or saw the power.
All I'm saying is that modern has taught us to keep an open mind. We often netdeck and that's fine, but let's not forget the aggregate numbers don't say it all: some good ideas can be lost for a long time.
Played side events of eternal weekend, went a combined record of 7-1. Deck was great, felt close to the perfect mix of speed and consistency. Saw some hate, scooze leyline and rip but not enough to lose a match. Lost a round to affinity, made a couple of slight misplays. The matchup is a bit closer than I would hope , I lose often to etched champion. I'm considering bring a gnaw to circumvent that, would have won easily if I had it.
I played a blue build very close to my WMCQ list:
Modern dredge
4 bloodghast
4 narcomeaba
4 prized amalgam
4 golgari grave troll
4 stinkweed imp
3 life from the loam
1 darkblast
Some notes about my sideboarding strategy at the WMCQ. First, let me say it's just a guide, I made some adjustment on the fly depending on what I saw, whether I was on the draw etc. So instead of exact numbers, I'll have In and Out sections.
General Philosphy: sideboard as little as possible. That includes not bringing hate in the dark (i.e. know the stock SB of all main archetype before the tournament starts, whether you expect a lot of hate to come in). I wouldn't bring natural state against Jund even if they often run 1 cage, but I would against Eldrazi.
I played in the SB:
2 Darkblast
1 Rally the Peasants
4 Lightning Axe
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Collective Brutality
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Natural State
Brutality and natural state were the cards I used the least. Never got to cast them. I think grudge, darkblast and gnaw are too good at doing what they do. I'm very pro lava axe, as a very clean answer to ooze. Decay is a good card of course, and good against all kind of hate (of course if you except a lot of hate, there is a debate whether to play dredge at all).
1. You miss the second land drop once in a while. 19 lands is ok. Many merfolk play 19 lands, with 4 drops and mutavault. One landers are hard to win with. Two answers: mulligan more, and have more 1-mana enabler. Tome scour helps with both, this is why it's so good.
2. Reunion (now obsoleting voice) is great, but you need a critical mass of 1 mana enabler. Plus, as you can see by goldfishing, it can make some mulligans akward (no dredger, no second land). Still probably good enough to a four of, but I won't cut Tome scour for it.
3. Rally is great to have. Of course there some matchups where it's not great. It won me many games, and in only a few of them it was overkill. There are a lot of decks to have shut the door on quickly, like Valakut or Melira company. I really think it's pulling its wait. In the course of the tournament I've even started to board it our less and less.
I'll make a separate post about the SB guide I used of the event.
A few words about the list: I play Tome Scour and rainbow lands since the beginning, working with iostream on the deck. The rainbow lands have minimal cost and Tome Scour really does wonder for the deck (more on this below).
About the tournament: I wanted to play Dredge for this event, as it was clear that people would be underprepared for it after a sequence of bad performances. I was right beyond any expectations and I saw no cages or RIP the whole day. Only three scoozes, one kalitas and one anger of the gods. Needless to say I had a deck advantage over 90% of the room.
I went 8-1 in the swiss so of course I had variance on my side, I drew and dredged well all day. Beyond that, the last factor that really help my finish was the mulligan strategy. I mulliganned almost systematically and won many games on 5 or even 4 cards. Really, you want to have a fast start, and it’s worth always shipping back seven card hands with only one enabler. For anyone wanting to improve with the deck, that’s a key margin to boost your win percentage.
Side note: this is exactly why Tome Scour shines. It allows to mulligan aggressively and still have playable four cards hands in a way that neonate or voice cannot guarantee. This is huge in practice, and many people underrate tome scour because this upside it’s not obvious by just looking at the card itself. End of side note.
Now the games (sorry for forgetting some details):
Round 1 - Lantern
Guy was nice but clearly had no idea how to play against dredge. He made a few small misplays, and I had a fast draw both games backed up by conflagrate.
2-0, 1-0
Round 2 - Jund
Game 1 I had a good start and he was behind the whole game, with only goyf bolt and Liliana of the Last Hope. Game 2 took a long time, where he played Kalitas twice, but I killed it twice with conflagrate and then lightning axe. I grind him out by playing gravetrolls, I had to play really tight but I finished him with zero cards left, dredging the last three to find a lethal rally.
2-0, 2-0
Round 3 - Affinity
Lost G1 to a great draw. He couldn’t beat darkblast G2. G3 I was behind the whole game, but eventually started to turn it around. I decided to tap out to flashback lootings facing a two turn clock etched champion in order to apply some pressure, but find myself dead to a topdecked plating, with grudge sitting in my yard. It was the only card that would save him, but maybe I did play too aggressively.
1-2, 2-1
Round 4 - WG Tron
G1 goes very long, I’m able to fight through karn and wurmcoil engine, but I eventually mill myself by dredging too much for no reason. Big mistake, should have thought more ahead. G2 he looses in spite of Ugin and oblivion stone, he misplayed by not playing a second O-stone. We have five minutes left for G3, but fortunately I have a great draw and run him over.
2-1, 3-1
Round 5 – Infect
G1 he mulligans and has a poor draw with only a nexus and misses a land drop after double probe. Not close. G2 he draws too many lands, and has to spend his pump spell to save blighted agent from conflagrate. I fade become immense and win next turn.
2-0, 4-1
Round 6 – Valakut
My first RG Valakut opponent of the day. I believe we split the first two games, as I have a very slow G2 (possibly a one lander). G3 goes long, I gain tons of life with gnaw to the bone and he has to play defensively. I reanimate a large grave troll, and he tries to kill it with four valakut triggers only for me to regenerate it. After this misstep, he’s way too far behind to have a shot.
2-1, 5-1
Round 7 – Valakut
I’m paired against Oliver Tiu, who plays the same deck from Worlds, who he actually got from my last round opponent. I know he doesn’t have any serious hate. G1 is absurd: I mulligan down to 4 with a hand that has lands but no action (but can hardcast amalgam). I’m expecting to loose quickly has he ramps very quickly to five lands. I’m considering not playing anything beyond my copperline gorge to keep him in the dark, but when I draw lootings I decide to try the 1% win. He plays scapeshift next turn, I fully expect to die but he can’t show me enough mountains! He drew one too many and deals zero damage, loosing next turn to rally the peasants. G2 is easy as I protect my self with gnaw to the bone and beat an anger exiling triple bloodghast without much trouble. Very nice guy.
2-0, 6-1
Round 8 - Melira Company
I hope this is a win and in (turned out it will not be) and I’m not happy to face Melira combo. I have a decent draw G1 with pressure and conflagrate, but he draws enough company, chord and combo pieces to gain infinite life. G2 he keeps a one lander with birds and looses to darkblast. G3 is drawn out, I play to my outs, keeping his board as clear as possible with darkblast and conflagrate. I make a mistake on dividing the damages from the second conflagrate, not seeing that he can use the haunt ability of his pontiff to save his melira. Fortunately, he misses it too and realizes it too late. He tries not to tilt and come back in the game but I have too much pressure and win by a close margin. Pfew!
2-1, 7-1
Round 9 – Jund
We have to play, and I’m told he’s on Jund. His 75 has very little against dredge. G1 he goes Turn 2 ooze on the play, but I have darkblast in hand to kill it on my second turn. After that, he is not able to put up any defense in both games.
2-0, 8-1
Wow! From round 6 onwards, it was clear I had one of the best decks in the room for the day. Variance went my way of course, but the only match I lost was from a very close game. I was very happy with the 75 and felt I could beat anything, so I’m not really nervous going into the Top 8. Although I’m starting to get very tired….
Quarterfinal- Valakut
Two quick games, my opponent couldn’t really put anything together. Gnaw puts me far ahead in G2 and Valakut is not that good at playing defense. I think Dredge is significantly favored as long as you play a couple of Gnaw in the board.
2-0
Semifinal - Death’s Shadow Zoo (Sam Black)
I’m not very happy to play Death Shadow, as it’s probably the worst matchup for dredge among Tier 1 decks. Plus, Sam knows Dredge inside out, so can’t expect much edge there. He’s a bit slow out of the gate G1, and I don’t attack too aggressively until I can finish him off with conflagrate. No Temur Battle Rage = clean win. G2 I’m a bit slow and he finds Death’s Shadow + TBR, not very close. Note: at this point, I’ve never lost this matchup when they fail to draw TBR and always lost when they did. By the time G3 comes, I’m very tired and make the worst play of the day by not mulliganing what is essentially a one lander with a looting and an axe. Iostream thought it was a terrible keep at the time and I have to agree with him. I ended having a decent draw but I was just a tad too slow to beat death’s shadow + TBR once again.
1-2
I was a bit disappointed of not giving me the best chance in the most important game, but I didn’t beat myself too hard and it was an amazing tournament overall.
I loved the list, manabase was fine all day, never lost a game because of it. Won multiple games on the back of Tome Scour, turning a five card hand into an insane opening. The 60 is great, although I need to find room to fit Cathartic Reunion. The SB was fine, but still up in the air.
I top 4 the US wmcq, lost to Sam black on death shadow. Went 8-1 in the Swiss, almost 300 players. Deck was great, dodged the hate and drew well. I'm too tired to post a report now but here is my list:
4 bloodghast
4 narcomeaba
4 prized amalgam
4 golgari grave troll
4 stinkweed imp
3 life from the loam
1 darkblast
I encourage everyone to try tome scour, it's virtually as good as this 1-mana spell everyone is hoping to be printed. In fact it's much better than that if you have no dredger in hand or graveyard, which helps a ton to prevent you from mulling to oblivion. I've been playing it since the beginning, it's really key to have enough consistency. MAny people like to give rainbow lands a bad rap but honestly they are totally fine.
Here is my list for reference:
Modern dredge
4 bloodghast
4 narcomeaba
4 prized amalgam
4 golgari grave troll
4 stinkweed imp
3 life from the loam
1 darkblast
//Sideboard
2 feed the clan
2 nihil spellbomb
2 engineered explosives
2 ancient grudge
1 scavenging ooze
1 darkblast
1 kolaghan's command
2 duress
2 flex
The sb and manabase are likely off a bit.
Really, in my opinion the key to make the deck work is to realize you can get delirium turn 1 at the cost of 1 or zero card, by going tarfire/architects of will + gitaxian probe. In fact, any sorcery after the 8 double type cards will give you delirium (which makes probe a must in my view, even in a jund build). Following this route, this builds eschews bolt and try to leverage stubborn denial given that grim flayer is almost always on.
A jund build that cuts blue could be better as the mana is much improved, plus it can play Lilliana, here is a draft:
//17 creatures
4 Gnarlwood Dryad
4 Grim Flayer
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Architects of Will
1 Shriekmaw
Seems like a fun powerful deck to me that can play a lot of under costed creatures and many of the best one mana spells in the format. I need to test more to see how it fares against most top decks though. I feel like the blue version might be better because stubborn denial is pretty good against what are traditionally bad jund matchups (TRON, burn, some version of jeskai). Merfolk seems pretty hard to beat though.
I also think using explosive cards like Burning Inquiry is underappreciated. Many don't like it because they think of it as an enabler, when it's really a payoff card. It adds a lot of speed at very little cost. That's especially valuable given that a lot of the deck worst match ups requires really a fast hand to win (i.e. Suicide Zoo, Melira).
The Lee Shi Tian build with voice and a lot of lands has received a lot of coverage, but I think there is a good middle ground. For example, along the lines of:
Personally, I play something very close to FLCL, except I play the 5c manabase and Tome Scour instead of Goblin Lore (I think Tome scour is the best way to use Inquiry, so that you max good 1-mana enablers). I've tweaked iostream's list to play a couple more lands and replace bridge by a couple of conflagrate.
The loam engine is still effective (even if of course it's slightly less reliable than in the 20 lands with fetches), and you can get to harness the power of conflagrate. But at the same time, you have access to the explosiveness of burning inquiry. This card usually allow to effectively win on turn two, I have found it to be well worth the occasional mulligan.
In the end, the main issue is that Tome Scour is really quite a bit better than Shriekhorn. I can see why many dislike Inquiry, as it's not maximized in a Jund color build (also it's still fine I think).
Given that ggt is gone, neonate is less consistent as an enabler.
I have a good rainbow list for those who are looking to try. It still goldfishes extremely well:
4 bloodghast
4 narcomeaba
4 prized amalgam
4 golgari thug
4 stinkweed imp
3 life from the loam
1 darkblast
4 faithless lootings
4 tome scour
2 insolent neonate
4 cathartic reunion
2 conflagrate
1 flex (rally/Haunted dead/3rd conflagrate)
1 dakmore salvage
3 spirebuff canal
2 copperline gorge
1 mountain
4 city of brass
4 gemstone mine
4 mana confluence
The manabase has been polished for a while. The mana is quite good, although not perfect of course.
Sideboard depends on the evolution of the meta.
Thanks!
Here is a list that went 5-0 on Mtgo with four spell pierce:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/534346#online
Maybe swan song is better in some cases.
Not sure it's better than thoughtseize but I would curious to know if anyone had tried it.
I hope you don't mind if they are two points you brought up I respectfully disagree with:
1. Tome scour being "a bad neonate": I'm really puzzled... neonate mills more only if you have access to ggt. We all agree that the deck looks for consistency, and tome scour is so much more reliable... I know it "looks like a bad card" (as opposed to sexy neonate) but shouldn't we be more reasonable that ?
To be clear, Im not saying playing jund colors is wrong. I just want to argue that there is an objective reason to play blue. You don't have to take my word for it: all I ask is that you goldfish imagining neonate is tome scour... how often is it better? It especially helps with mulligans.
For example, look at bbd round 9 match 3 yesterday where he has neonate, lootings and reunion but his only dredger is dakmore salvage. How much better would tome scour have been? (He ended winning still, ill admit haha). At the same time, tome scour is better when you go to five cards or less. Often it's better both in good AND bad hands.
Don't take my word for it, try it at home
2. The hivemind : i think the aggregation you did is very helpful. However, i think there is a limit to the wisdom of the crowd, it tends to be more wisdoms of the pros... so many stock lists are defined by famous people winning with or writing about it (Think lanto with death shadow , overturf with delver, hoogland with chord). So many archetypes went from zero to hero based on a pro playing it: death shadow, lantern, rg valakut, amulet back then. Basically nobody took them seriously before, no one tried or saw the power.
All I'm saying is that modern has taught us to keep an open mind. We often netdeck and that's fine, but let's not forget the aggregate numbers don't say it all: some good ideas can be lost for a long time.
I played a blue build very close to my WMCQ list:
Modern dredge
4 bloodghast
4 narcomeaba
4 prized amalgam
4 golgari grave troll
4 stinkweed imp
3 life from the loam
1 darkblast
4 faithless lootings
4 tome scour
2 insolent neonate
4 cathartic reunion
2 conflagrate
1 rally the peasants
1 dakmore salvage
3 spirebuff canal
2 copperline gorge
1 mountain
4 city of brass
4 gemstone mine
4 mana confluence
Sideboard
4 lightning axe
3 ancient grudge
2 gnaw to the bone
3 darkblast
1 rally the peasants
2 collective brutality
Manabase was good, didn't have any real problem. Might squeeze some fragmentize in the board if it was a GP, but even that I'm not sure.
General Philosphy: sideboard as little as possible. That includes not bringing hate in the dark (i.e. know the stock SB of all main archetype before the tournament starts, whether you expect a lot of hate to come in). I wouldn't bring natural state against Jund even if they often run 1 cage, but I would against Eldrazi.
I played in the SB:
2 Darkblast
1 Rally the Peasants
4 Lightning Axe
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Collective Brutality
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Natural State
Brutality and natural state were the cards I used the least. Never got to cast them. I think grudge, darkblast and gnaw are too good at doing what they do. I'm very pro lava axe, as a very clean answer to ooze. Decay is a good card of course, and good against all kind of hate (of course if you except a lot of hate, there is a debate whether to play dredge at all).
Jund/Abzam
In: 4 Axe
Out: shave darkblast, loam, conflagrate, voice
Burn
In: Gnaw, brutality
Out: Cut darkblast, conflagrate, loam
RG Valakut
In: Gnaw, rally
Out: cut voice, darkblast
Affinity
In: darkblast, grudge
Out: loam, rally, voice, bloodghast
Death Shadow
In: 4 axe
Out: rally, loam, darkblast, bloodghast
Infect:
In: darkblast, grudge, brutality, maybe a couple of axe
Out: rally, loam, bloodghast, voice, neonate
Not claiming this 100% right but hopefully it gives a general idea.
1. You miss the second land drop once in a while. 19 lands is ok. Many merfolk play 19 lands, with 4 drops and mutavault. One landers are hard to win with. Two answers: mulligan more, and have more 1-mana enabler. Tome scour helps with both, this is why it's so good.
2. Reunion (now obsoleting voice) is great, but you need a critical mass of 1 mana enabler. Plus, as you can see by goldfishing, it can make some mulligans akward (no dredger, no second land). Still probably good enough to a four of, but I won't cut Tome scour for it.
3. Rally is great to have. Of course there some matchups where it's not great. It won me many games, and in only a few of them it was overkill. There are a lot of decks to have shut the door on quickly, like Valakut or Melira company. I really think it's pulling its wait. In the course of the tournament I've even started to board it our less and less.
I'll make a separate post about the SB guide I used of the event.
1. Keep (3/5)
2. Keep (5/5)
3. Mulligan (4/5)
4. Mulligan (5/5)
By the way, this is assuming there are 4 tome scour in the deck. With none, I guess you're stuck keeping most of these.
Decklist is here:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/wmcq-top-8-decklists/united-states-september-2016
A few words about the list: I play Tome Scour and rainbow lands since the beginning, working with iostream on the deck. The rainbow lands have minimal cost and Tome Scour really does wonder for the deck (more on this below).
About the tournament: I wanted to play Dredge for this event, as it was clear that people would be underprepared for it after a sequence of bad performances. I was right beyond any expectations and I saw no cages or RIP the whole day. Only three scoozes, one kalitas and one anger of the gods. Needless to say I had a deck advantage over 90% of the room.
I went 8-1 in the swiss so of course I had variance on my side, I drew and dredged well all day. Beyond that, the last factor that really help my finish was the mulligan strategy. I mulliganned almost systematically and won many games on 5 or even 4 cards. Really, you want to have a fast start, and it’s worth always shipping back seven card hands with only one enabler. For anyone wanting to improve with the deck, that’s a key margin to boost your win percentage.
Side note: this is exactly why Tome Scour shines. It allows to mulligan aggressively and still have playable four cards hands in a way that neonate or voice cannot guarantee. This is huge in practice, and many people underrate tome scour because this upside it’s not obvious by just looking at the card itself. End of side note.
Now the games (sorry for forgetting some details):
Round 1 - Lantern
Guy was nice but clearly had no idea how to play against dredge. He made a few small misplays, and I had a fast draw both games backed up by conflagrate.
2-0, 1-0
Round 2 - Jund
Game 1 I had a good start and he was behind the whole game, with only goyf bolt and Liliana of the Last Hope. Game 2 took a long time, where he played Kalitas twice, but I killed it twice with conflagrate and then lightning axe. I grind him out by playing gravetrolls, I had to play really tight but I finished him with zero cards left, dredging the last three to find a lethal rally.
2-0, 2-0
Round 3 - Affinity
Lost G1 to a great draw. He couldn’t beat darkblast G2. G3 I was behind the whole game, but eventually started to turn it around. I decided to tap out to flashback lootings facing a two turn clock etched champion in order to apply some pressure, but find myself dead to a topdecked plating, with grudge sitting in my yard. It was the only card that would save him, but maybe I did play too aggressively.
1-2, 2-1
Round 4 - WG Tron
G1 goes very long, I’m able to fight through karn and wurmcoil engine, but I eventually mill myself by dredging too much for no reason. Big mistake, should have thought more ahead. G2 he looses in spite of Ugin and oblivion stone, he misplayed by not playing a second O-stone. We have five minutes left for G3, but fortunately I have a great draw and run him over.
2-1, 3-1
Round 5 – Infect
G1 he mulligans and has a poor draw with only a nexus and misses a land drop after double probe. Not close. G2 he draws too many lands, and has to spend his pump spell to save blighted agent from conflagrate. I fade become immense and win next turn.
2-0, 4-1
Round 6 – Valakut
My first RG Valakut opponent of the day. I believe we split the first two games, as I have a very slow G2 (possibly a one lander). G3 goes long, I gain tons of life with gnaw to the bone and he has to play defensively. I reanimate a large grave troll, and he tries to kill it with four valakut triggers only for me to regenerate it. After this misstep, he’s way too far behind to have a shot.
2-1, 5-1
Round 7 – Valakut
I’m paired against Oliver Tiu, who plays the same deck from Worlds, who he actually got from my last round opponent. I know he doesn’t have any serious hate. G1 is absurd: I mulligan down to 4 with a hand that has lands but no action (but can hardcast amalgam). I’m expecting to loose quickly has he ramps very quickly to five lands. I’m considering not playing anything beyond my copperline gorge to keep him in the dark, but when I draw lootings I decide to try the 1% win. He plays scapeshift next turn, I fully expect to die but he can’t show me enough mountains! He drew one too many and deals zero damage, loosing next turn to rally the peasants. G2 is easy as I protect my self with gnaw to the bone and beat an anger exiling triple bloodghast without much trouble. Very nice guy.
2-0, 6-1
Round 8 - Melira Company
I hope this is a win and in (turned out it will not be) and I’m not happy to face Melira combo. I have a decent draw G1 with pressure and conflagrate, but he draws enough company, chord and combo pieces to gain infinite life. G2 he keeps a one lander with birds and looses to darkblast. G3 is drawn out, I play to my outs, keeping his board as clear as possible with darkblast and conflagrate. I make a mistake on dividing the damages from the second conflagrate, not seeing that he can use the haunt ability of his pontiff to save his melira. Fortunately, he misses it too and realizes it too late. He tries not to tilt and come back in the game but I have too much pressure and win by a close margin. Pfew!
2-1, 7-1
Round 9 – Jund
We have to play, and I’m told he’s on Jund. His 75 has very little against dredge. G1 he goes Turn 2 ooze on the play, but I have darkblast in hand to kill it on my second turn. After that, he is not able to put up any defense in both games.
2-0, 8-1
Wow! From round 6 onwards, it was clear I had one of the best decks in the room for the day. Variance went my way of course, but the only match I lost was from a very close game. I was very happy with the 75 and felt I could beat anything, so I’m not really nervous going into the Top 8. Although I’m starting to get very tired….
Quarterfinal- Valakut
Two quick games, my opponent couldn’t really put anything together. Gnaw puts me far ahead in G2 and Valakut is not that good at playing defense. I think Dredge is significantly favored as long as you play a couple of Gnaw in the board.
2-0
Semifinal - Death’s Shadow Zoo (Sam Black)
I’m not very happy to play Death Shadow, as it’s probably the worst matchup for dredge among Tier 1 decks. Plus, Sam knows Dredge inside out, so can’t expect much edge there. He’s a bit slow out of the gate G1, and I don’t attack too aggressively until I can finish him off with conflagrate. No Temur Battle Rage = clean win. G2 I’m a bit slow and he finds Death’s Shadow + TBR, not very close. Note: at this point, I’ve never lost this matchup when they fail to draw TBR and always lost when they did. By the time G3 comes, I’m very tired and make the worst play of the day by not mulliganing what is essentially a one lander with a looting and an axe. Iostream thought it was a terrible keep at the time and I have to agree with him. I ended having a decent draw but I was just a tad too slow to beat death’s shadow + TBR once again.
1-2
I was a bit disappointed of not giving me the best chance in the most important game, but I didn’t beat myself too hard and it was an amazing tournament overall.
I loved the list, manabase was fine all day, never lost a game because of it. Won multiple games on the back of Tome Scour, turning a five card hand into an insane opening. The 60 is great, although I need to find room to fit Cathartic Reunion. The SB was fine, but still up in the air.
Thanks for reading! This thread is great!
4 bloodghast
4 narcomeaba
4 prized amalgam
4 golgari grave troll
4 stinkweed imp
3 life from the loam
1 darkblast
4 faithless lootings
4 insolent neonate
4 tome scour
2 tormenting voice
1 rally the peasants
2 conflagrate
2 dakmore salvage
2 shivan reef
2 copperline gorge
1 mountain
4 city of brass
4 gemstone mine
4 mana confluence
Sideboard
4 lightning axe
3 ancient grudge
2 gnaw to the bone
2 darkblast
1 rally the peasants
2 collective brutality
1 natural state
Tome scour was great all day.
Here is my list for reference:
Modern dredge
4 bloodghast
4 narcomeaba
4 prized amalgam
4 golgari grave troll
4 stinkweed imp
3 life from the loam
1 darkblast
4 faithless lootings
4 insolent neonate
4 tome scour
2 tormenting voice
1 rally the peasants
2 conflagrate
2 dakmore salvage
2 shivan reef
2 copperline gorge
1 mountain
4 city of brass
4 gemstone mine
4 mana confluence
Modern BUG delirium
//22 creatures
4 Gnarlwood Dryad
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Grim Flayer
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Architects of Will
4 glassdust hulk
1 Shriekmaw
//10 instants
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Stubborn Denial
1 Vapor Snag
2 thought scour
//10 sorcery
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
//18 lands
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Breeding Pool
1 Watery Grave
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 island
//Sideboard
2 feed the clan
2 nihil spellbomb
2 engineered explosives
2 natural state
1 scavenging ooze
1 darkblast
2 duress
1 painful truths
1 disfigure
1 traverse
The deck reaches delirium turn 1 or 2 very consistently.
Modern 4c delirium
//19 creatures
4 Gnarlwood Dryad
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Grim Flayer
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Architects of Will
1 Shriekmaw
//10 instants
4 Tarfire
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Stubborn Denial
1 Vapor Snag
//11 sorcery
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
//20 lands
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Watery Grave
1 Forest
1 Swamp
//Sideboard
2 feed the clan
2 nihil spellbomb
2 engineered explosives
2 ancient grudge
1 scavenging ooze
1 darkblast
1 kolaghan's command
2 duress
2 flex
The sb and manabase are likely off a bit.
Really, in my opinion the key to make the deck work is to realize you can get delirium turn 1 at the cost of 1 or zero card, by going tarfire/architects of will + gitaxian probe. In fact, any sorcery after the 8 double type cards will give you delirium (which makes probe a must in my view, even in a jund build). Following this route, this builds eschews bolt and try to leverage stubborn denial given that grim flayer is almost always on.
A jund build that cuts blue could be better as the mana is much improved, plus it can play Lilliana, here is a draft:
//17 creatures
4 Gnarlwood Dryad
4 Grim Flayer
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Architects of Will
1 Shriekmaw
//9 instants
4 Tarfire
3 Abrupt Decay
1 mutagenic growth (?)
1 kolaghan's command
//11 sorcery
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
//3 planeswalker
3 Lilliana of the veil
//20 lands
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 wooded foothills
3 Bloodstained mire
4 blackleaves cliffs
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Forest
1 Swamp
(Again, mana is probably bad)
Seems like a fun powerful deck to me that can play a lot of under costed creatures and many of the best one mana spells in the format. I need to test more to see how it fares against most top decks though. I feel like the blue version might be better because stubborn denial is pretty good against what are traditionally bad jund matchups (TRON, burn, some version of jeskai). Merfolk seems pretty hard to beat though.
I also think using explosive cards like Burning Inquiry is underappreciated. Many don't like it because they think of it as an enabler, when it's really a payoff card. It adds a lot of speed at very little cost. That's especially valuable given that a lot of the deck worst match ups requires really a fast hand to win (i.e. Suicide Zoo, Melira).
The Lee Shi Tian build with voice and a lot of lands has received a lot of coverage, but I think there is a good middle ground. For example, along the lines of:
18-19 lands
24 key creatures
2-3 Loam
1 Rally
2 Conflagrate
4 Lootings
3-4 extra enablers
3-4 inquiry
1-2 flex
Personally, I play something very close to FLCL, except I play the 5c manabase and Tome Scour instead of Goblin Lore (I think Tome scour is the best way to use Inquiry, so that you max good 1-mana enablers). I've tweaked iostream's list to play a couple more lands and replace bridge by a couple of conflagrate.
The loam engine is still effective (even if of course it's slightly less reliable than in the 20 lands with fetches), and you can get to harness the power of conflagrate. But at the same time, you have access to the explosiveness of burning inquiry. This card usually allow to effectively win on turn two, I have found it to be well worth the occasional mulligan.
In the end, the main issue is that Tome Scour is really quite a bit better than Shriekhorn. I can see why many dislike Inquiry, as it's not maximized in a Jund color build (also it's still fine I think).