Tron is borderline unwinnable unless you have the nut hand and you get to disrupt them enough for your threats to actually matter. I have all but given up on this match up. I have 3 BM main, and 2 Rabblemaster in the board. That's about it. If I run into tron, oh well. I'll chalk that one up as a lose and move on. Can't win them all and Id rather make some of my other "bad matchups" better than trying to turn a borderline unwinnable matchup into slightly less unwinnable. I have come to terms with it and. I don't expect any/everyone else to follow in my footsteps though. This is a choice that I have made particularly because I think Tron players are the scum of the Modern world and the less I have to interact with them, the happier I am. I'll play the games the best I can with what I have and take my round loss and move on with my life.
I actually cut LtLH from my 75 all together. She has been relatively unimpressive. I have replaced her with Olivia Voldaren and an Anger of the Gods. I might be swapping the anger out for EE though.
Hi,
GBx player here, which i love and will keep playing, though this deck seems like so much so i want take it for a spin.
Mainboard seems pretty much the same overall, except for some player playing blood moon main or not.
Got a Couple of Questions:
Why does the deck have 2 mainboard mountains? Just to make some fetches more painless?
I saw very little SB against aggro, except for some having Ensnaring Bridge, but wouldn't Grim lavamancer and Kalitas be really good here?
Against what do you board in Kambal? Storm seems obvious. Against every Midrange and Control deck?
As for grave hate i see mostly Leylines. Why is this chosen over Nihil Spellbomb for example?
1) Like Flying Delver said, yes this is for more painless mana base
2) I have fallen in love with Ensnaring Bridge since I started using it. I am also messing around with Olivia to hedge against some of the other Mardu lists. I have her as a 1 of in my board and she has been a house so far.
3) Kambal seems to only come in against storm, burn and sometimes I bring him in against control. It really depends on their build. If it's UW, he's probably decent. If it's Jeskai, he's probably poor.
4) I stay away from Leyline. I think the card is particularly awful in the deck. It doesn't fit the deck. On the other hand, it is probably the most effective/efficient GY hate for this deck. I use Surgical. I also have a singleton Anger (though technically not "GY Hate") in the board as well because there's still some Dredge players lingering around out there at my LGS.
I want to say I'd keep this but I'm not sure. Against an aggro deck, you have the bolt + Mountain to stop their turn 1 play and kind of hide the fact that you're Mardu for a couple of turns. However, this hand needs a lot of help.
If you're playing against control, this hand looks like a pretty easy keep. Thoughtseize is a fine card to have to cast later.
If you're playing against combo, this hand is just the worst.
I think in the dark though, I'm probably gonna mull this one. I think we can do better at 6.
Presumably because he thought he was going to see a lot of storm. I think 2 is fine but 3 was an unnecessarily large amount. I want to cut 1 for Olivia though. She seemed super sweet last night. I had an opponent cast a Hazoret against me and I was able to steal it from him. She's also just good as a creature that nukes a bunch of small creature decks.
So last night I played almost the exact 75 from the SCG just to test it. The ensnaring bridges were great. I only played 2 of them though and instead of the 3rd bridge, I played an Olivia Voldaren and she was abo****ely amazing against the small creature decks. I loved have a mana sink that didn't require me to do anything on my turn. I felt smoother to be able to flashback Faithless Lootings with a couple of more options in hand. Olivia allowed me to stack a couple of cards in my hand before flashing it back.
That being said, She is quite large but felt really good compared to Hazoret the Fervent. I think I would probably look to replace something else in the board to fit her in. Probably Kambal as a 2 of rather than 3 of. Not exactly sure yet.
I am super high on Gideon of the Trials right now too. That card was gas for me all night the other night. I just kept letting my Infect opponent attack me as much as he or she wanted too as long as they left Gideon alone.
The guy who made this list spent quite a bit of time tuning it. It ran pretty well for me the entire night and felt very strong.
I think I would start with something similar to this and see what happens. I don't think this is the strongest version of the deck but it felt like it was very playable and very powerful.
Well, let's look at this from a step back. I play 2x Vent and 2x Village with a singular concealed courtyard. I don't think having the white mana right away is all that important. There's only a select few cards that need it early. So I don't think this hurts all that much.
So when attacking with wildwood, you're attacking for 3 damage. The reach ability is almost completely useless unless you're blocking. The land taps for G/W and we really need BB on turn 3 and this alo needs to ETB tapped on turn 1 to achieve turn 3 BBx for LotV.
Alternatively, with vents, it attacks for 2 + life link. This is a 4 point life swing opposed to 3 with wildwood. The lifelink is actually relevant especially against decks like burn. it taps for B/W allowing it to be played on turn 1 or 2 so we can achieve our turn 3 BBx mana for Lilana.
This is just my opinion on the card but I actually think vents is just better. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just supporting my case for the card.
Stirring Wildwood is completely useless in my opinion. The whole reason to have man lands is to get attacking. You know what ability is no good when attacking? That's right! Reach!
All sarcasm aside, I honestly used to think wildwood was fine but the more I played with vent, the more I realized how useless wildwood actually was. I was just wondering why you personally didn't like it. I understand the bolt complex and all but if their bolting my lands so they don't die, it means I'm probably in a really good position.
Not really a fan of Shambling Vent and prefer Stirring Wildwood always, but i really wanted to have a consistent manabase. With this i have 19B/17G/15W sources.
I never liked Dark Confidant in Junk, so i went back to Grim Flayer. With Flayer i prefer Brutalities MB to hack some delirium in time. I've had very good results with a single Nameless Inversion in the past, it contains many combat tricks, but i went for consistency with the second Brutality. I never liked nor will like any baubles or spellbombs in the main to get to delirium, but that's personal preference.
Testing Shalai, Voice of Plenty in the MB. Played about 3 rounds online and already found out that it's a "must respond to" threat. People make weird choices when she's on the stack, probably partly because she's new. A resolved Lingering souls and her +1/+1 ability gives the same results as Township (which is great) and the additional flyer has been very helpful.
Trying a 2/2 split of Damping Sphere and Fulminator mage. I'm a bit sceptical of Sphere but i can see it being good against tron on the Draw (since mage probably is too late). I probably wont be able to board them in much, so tests will be limited.
4 Wall of Omens
4 Blade Splicer
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Restoration Angel
Planeswalkers:
2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Enchantments:
3 Spreading Seas
1 Detention Sphere
Instant/Sorcery:
2 Oust
1 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Path to Exile
3 Cryptic command
2 Logic Knot
2 Spell Snare
2 Negate
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Island
2 Plains
1 Moorland Haunt
4 Field of Ruin
1 Mystic Gate
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Calciform Pools
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Dispel
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Rest In Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Runed Halo
2 Settle the Wreckage
1 Celestial Purge
1 Disdainful Stroke
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria is really sweet with Calciform Pools
1) Like Flying Delver said, yes this is for more painless mana base
2) I have fallen in love with Ensnaring Bridge since I started using it. I am also messing around with Olivia to hedge against some of the other Mardu lists. I have her as a 1 of in my board and she has been a house so far.
3) Kambal seems to only come in against storm, burn and sometimes I bring him in against control. It really depends on their build. If it's UW, he's probably decent. If it's Jeskai, he's probably poor.
4) I stay away from Leyline. I think the card is particularly awful in the deck. It doesn't fit the deck. On the other hand, it is probably the most effective/efficient GY hate for this deck. I use Surgical. I also have a singleton Anger (though technically not "GY Hate") in the board as well because there's still some Dredge players lingering around out there at my LGS.
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Torrential Gearhulk
Enchantments:
1 Search for Azcanta
Planeswalkers:
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Instants/Sorcery:
3 Mystical Teachings
1 Consume the Meek
3 Kolaghan's Command
2 Terminate
1 Pact of Negation
3 Cryptic Command
2 Wizard's Retort
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Snare
2 Logic Knot
3 Fatal Push
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Sunken Ruins
3 Island
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Dispel
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Collective Brutality
3 Gifted Aetherborn
1 Damnation
Updating the list to try out. Not sure that this is the correct sideboard. Will update after testing.
If you're playing against control, this hand looks like a pretty easy keep. Thoughtseize is a fine card to have to cast later.
If you're playing against combo, this hand is just the worst.
I think in the dark though, I'm probably gonna mull this one. I think we can do better at 6.
That being said, She is quite large but felt really good compared to Hazoret the Fervent. I think I would probably look to replace something else in the board to fit her in. Probably Kambal as a 2 of rather than 3 of. Not exactly sure yet.
The guy who made this list spent quite a bit of time tuning it. It ran pretty well for me the entire night and felt very strong.
I think I would start with something similar to this and see what happens. I don't think this is the strongest version of the deck but it felt like it was very playable and very powerful.
So when attacking with wildwood, you're attacking for 3 damage. The reach ability is almost completely useless unless you're blocking. The land taps for G/W and we really need BB on turn 3 and this alo needs to ETB tapped on turn 1 to achieve turn 3 BBx for LotV.
Alternatively, with vents, it attacks for 2 + life link. This is a 4 point life swing opposed to 3 with wildwood. The lifelink is actually relevant especially against decks like burn. it taps for B/W allowing it to be played on turn 1 or 2 so we can achieve our turn 3 BBx mana for Lilana.
This is just my opinion on the card but I actually think vents is just better. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just supporting my case for the card.
All sarcasm aside, I honestly used to think wildwood was fine but the more I played with vent, the more I realized how useless wildwood actually was. I was just wondering why you personally didn't like it. I understand the bolt complex and all but if their bolting my lands so they don't die, it means I'm probably in a really good position.
What's your reasoning behind liking Stirring Wildwood over Shambling Vent? Is it just for the body? I personally think that Shambling Vent is a much better man-land.