So I'm curious. How can we improve vs the humans deck. I know my meta seems to be increasing with them. I have both the black and white eldrazi and the mono white eldrazi
Human is a pretty good matchup for BW EnT, Orzhov Pontiff and Fatal Push helps out of the sideboard but Wasteland Strangler with flicker/displacer/tidehollow often wins it.
The base is almost the same but with the following changes:
1) Death's Shadow + Wrath package. It's a huge threat and the cycling aids mitigate one of Mardu flaws (draws). Wrath can accidentely helps againts Living Ends.
2) Orzhov Charm: The right Terminate for the right deck. Kills any creature, cause us damage, bounce a creature or return DS/Swiftspear to the battlefield.
It seems good so far. The SB is a working progress but have the listed cards are wonderful...for now.
Cheers,
I played Death's Shadow in Mardu for a while, and while I found it fun, I usually felt it didn't worth losing all that life hoping to draw a Death's shadow (grixis cantrip and Jund finds it). It might be different with your list since you have Faithless and Reveler to find him. One thing I disagree is that Street Wraith mitigate the card draw of mardu. Street Wraith replace itself for 2 life, it doesn't draw you any card; Bedlam those help in that extend.
Tell us about your testing, interested in hearing more.
@nukedz
The premise of the deck, and why I labeled it mid-range, is that the deck is more akin to Grixis Delver or Death's Shadow. There is a preponderance of discard, to limit your opponent's plays, followed up with cheap burn and creatures. Goblin Guide is the equivalent of Delver of Secrets in that you can play it on T2 after stripping an answer from their hand on T1 and apply immediate pressure on the opponents life total with the Guides. I classify my deck as Mid-Range because it's not trying to kill the opponent as quickly as Burn. I have had some initial success with the list so far on cockatrice, beating Burn, GTron, and Grixis Delver. I've also lost to Humans and Delver, but they all went to 3 games so I feel good about that. It might just be beginner's luck as well, so I'll continue testing it to see if the Deck has any merit.
Yeah, my mana base has tripped me up a couple of games now. Any help would be appreciated here!
Yeah I know it's more of a midrange deck, and this is the reason why Goblin Guide doesn't fit in and Hellspark Elemental is in the same boat.
About the Mana Base, I would play something like this
I'm usually disinterested in 60 card formats, but with the rise of Mardu I find myself finally being intrigued enough to step in and take an active interest and particpate.
Blood Moon, Fulminator Mage, and Molten Rain all seem like better options for fighting Tron than Anguished Unmaking. The best way to stifle Tron is to attack their real combo engine: their Tron lands. The Moon is the cleanest answer because it eliminates all three Tron lands as viable mana sources and cuts of future copies of each card as well. It also shuts off Eldrazi Temple if you're facing Eldrazi Tron (the superior option in my opinion). Their only real answer against the Moon is a resolved All is Dust or an activated Oblivion Stone. However, the cost of screwing our own mana base seems way too high. Stax strategies are usually effective because their Stax cards (Trinisphere, Thorn of Amethyst, etc.) help buy time for their permanent based win conditions to get there. I don't see that there are too many incarnations of Mardu where there is a high enough density of permanents to actually close the game. Especially Reveler lists. In short, I think that the Moon hinders our strategy enough to help buy our opponents extra turns instead of being a nail in the coffin that it needs to be.
I've been thinking about where I perceive the meta-game to be at this current state. It seems like Humans, Tron, Storm, Death's Shadow variants, and Burn are the big players in the game, with Jund, Abzan Vizier Combo, Jeskai Control, and Merfolk rounding it out. First, that's a huge meta-game to prepare for, which is kind of cool as an EDH player to observe. There are a ton of different strategies and cards to account for, which is a challenge I like. Anyways, of the decks that make out the top players, I've always been attracted to Burn. It's a clean way to kill people and requires that each card be maximized in terms of efficiency. I like that. It's vulnerable to a lot interesting hate cards, but it's always been pretty consistently at the top.
In light of those observations, I think I'd like to submit a list for review here. It's a mid-range take on Burn with the absolutely vital elements of discard that B brings to the table. I've thought about each slot pretty thoroughly, and I'll explain each card choice as to why it's included in this list.
I play the 61st land as a self-imposed "lucky" card. I don't know why, but when I played Standard aeons ago I always played 61 cards and it helped either make me feel lucky or increase my luck. But that's besides the point.
Lightning Bolt - I feel is very obvious. It defines pretty much every format it's legal in. What's important about the card is that you understand the role that you play from the beginning of the game, as that determines how this card is used. Do you need to be the control player? Or do you need to be the Aggro player? Bolt can function either way, but it's a very important spell in either regard so it needs to be used wisely.
Lightning Helix - Aggro-Tempo decks are very powerful, and this spell helps shorten the clock or kill an enemy creature, all while buying us some time with its built-in lifegain ability. Similar to Bolt, a great card.
Goblin Guide - I really think that the best way to approach a format is by being proactive. The Guide is simply the best R 1 drop, ever, and puts a ton of pressure on an opponent from T1 onwards. It's a staple in the Burn archetype for a reason and I think it's the best T1 play a deck could be doing. Maybe Bolt is better.
Hellspark Elemental - this is a card choice I'm keen to explain. With the rise of both Fatal Push and the heavy rise of discard as the control route of choice, threats absolutely need to be resilient to discard and cheap removal. I think it's why Snapcaster Mage and Lingering Souls are so well positioned; they help you recover cards that an opponent forced you to discard. Cards with flashback or Unearth are therefore sources of virtual card advantage. Hellspark fits the bill on being a resilient threat that you can recur from the 'yard to continue pressuring the opponent. It's especially good since you can happily discard it to escalate Collective Brutality and not miss too much on tempo. It's also a ton of fun to have someone Bolt it the first time only for you to Unearth it later for value. I think Hellspark and Lingering Souls are great cards because of their resiliency.
Lingering Souls - probably the reason to play Mardu in the first place. It can spawn an instant chump blocking force, it can create a swarm of Spirits to close out the game via Aggro, and it has Flashback to create a late-game presence in the case that you and your opponent are in top-deck mode. A fantastic card, I think it's one of the better cards in the whole format.
Blightning - this is a card I'm very interested in people's opinions of. I think that in the current climate of discard and cheap removal, whoever has the most cards in hand can win. Blightning simply ensures that the shredding of hands we do throughout the course of the game via Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Collective Brutality stays effectual. It also deals more damage to the dome than its competitor, Kolaghan's Command. I think that the extra damage and the extra card that Blightning offers is marginally superior to K-Command, but I could see the utility and value of K-Command outweighing Blightning. Testing will tell, I suppose.
Collective Brutality - pretty much the sleeper hit of Eldritch Moon in my opinion. All 3 modes are totally relevant for the meta-game, and we are happy to pitch [CARD}Lingering Souls[/CARD] and Hellspark Elemental to its Escalate cost in order to get more value. It forces additional discard, kills early creatures, buffers our life, AND shortens the clock against opponents. A fantastic tempo card, I think this card could easily go up to a 4-of.
Thoughtseize - like Lightning Bolt, you need to understand the role that you're playing once you sit down for the game. Do you need to prioritize removing their combo pieces, their early game plays, or their late-game bombs? That decision rests on what you know of your opponent. It's also important to determine if you should play it first or a Burn spell first. I personally like to play discard first, so that I know what I'm up against and then craft a strategy around that. You also want to disrupt their strategy as quickly as possible so that your burn spells are more effective.
Inquisition of Kozilek - see Thoughtseize. It rounds out the classic discard suite that defines Modern right now.
Path to Exile - there are a ton of threats that Bolts and their variants can't kill. Some stupidly pumped Thalia's Lieutenant, Wurmcoil Engine, Tarmogoyf, Death's Shadow, most of the Eldrazi creatures, the Delve creatures, etc. Path gets rid of them all for a clean CMC that's is very cheap.
Fatal Push - this card has pretty much revamped the entire Modern format and heavily influenced Legacy already. Play it because it helps us clear the board of blockers so that Goblin Guide and Hellspark Elemental can push through for damage. Hellspark and Fetch-lands trigger the Revolt trigger, so you can frequently trade up with the Push to kill bigger creatures, notably Huntmaster of the Fells.
The land package is fairly straightforward, I think, so I won't delve into those choices too much.
The Sideboard is configured to beat Tron, Affinity, Dredge, Tarmogoyf decks, Storm, and a few other supplemental cards against Aggro strategies. Hazoret the Fervent is a really cool card that is a great topdeck. It also helps keep the pressure on to help close the game. I really want to find a spot for it in the maindeck, but just a singleton.
Anyways, this list is different from the Reveler and Planeswalker lists that are popular, and I think it might be a viable strategy to attack the meta-game in a unique and proactive way.
I honestly think a deck that tries to be burn/midrange will fail both ways. You say it yourself, burn maximize each spell so it can kill very fast, and it isn't even always working. Your deck is a mix of aggro creatures, removal, burns and discards. Goblin guide is good in burn because you don't care giving lands to your opponent as you intent to finish the game fast. Your deck can't close a game quickly. Also, 7 fastland is way too many, your mana base could easily be fixed to play blood moon, which is much better than molten rain. I don't know if it's theory crafting or if you actually tried it but I can't see this deck win regularly.
I updated my list, still playing Kambal in the MD - but aa a 2 off. I tested this exact list yesterday with my playgroup and I had some nice matches against some nice decks!
20 lands? -> Yes, beeing able to cast Hazoret is a great feeling with this deck. Adds consistency.
Hostile Desert? -> Believe it or not: great/amazing manland! 3/4 is nothing to laugh about, dodges bolt (which is great) and is really easy to activate (in my opinion).
Kambal? -> A petcard of mine. Great in my meta full of spellslinging decks! Sits back and does its thing, which is draining life and giving me two in return. I really like him.
Hazoret? -> Nice as an one off, hits hard. Can shock stuff if needed, especially in the lategame where drawing additional lands can be bad (and this combos with Hostile Desert).
Chandra, ToD? -> Just great card overall, adds another angle to the deck.
Collective Brutality -> Black swiss army knife, every mode is great and can be adjusted to the situation.
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I also tested 2 Nahiri the Harbinger in the Chandra slot. Didnt like it, but beeing able to hit Enchantments is great.
Thoughts?
Your curve seems very top heavy with 11! 3cmc spells and 3 4 CMC spells (not even counting Reveler which isn't always 2 CMC) in a deck that want to play a lot of cheap spells to empty it's hand and play Reveler for 2-3 CMC. Chandra feels out of place to me; a 4CMC card that doesn't fuel reveler or Young Pyro seems pretty bad for the build. Also, I personally don't like playing path with Blood Moon, I'd rather have 2 push in those slots. Overall, I feel like you trade speed and consistency for a better late game, which the deck already has.
I recently bought a Nahiri playset and Emrakul and started testing this deck. My questions are all probably a mix of stupid and already answered in this thread, but here I go.
What's the consensus on a few Monastery Mentors either as a finisher or to try to hold off the pressure with tokens as a last resort?
I have a 3/3 Path/Push split and 3 terminate/ 1 dreadbore, is this good?
How many wraths are needed?
Never tried Monastery mentor because we are pretty clogged in the 3 cmc spot, but it might be an interesting alt win con. Wrath's effect depends mostly on meta but I usually run 1 mainboard and 1 or 2 sb, in a random meta. I still like having a few bolts in there, I personally don't play any terminate, 1 dreadbore and 3 push/3 path.
I didn't like it when I proxied it because of hitting 3 and 4 cost cards almost every time. Maybe its just my personal experience but I hated it.
Just found out there's going to be a Modern tournament this weekend with a foil Misty Rainforest for 1st place, I want to go in with the best chance I have. This is what I took to FNM, what should I switch to maximize my chances? I don't have access to Liliana so that's out of the question.
I definitely want to take out Illness In The Ranks and switch out Bontu's Last Reckoning for Wrath of God, beyond that I don't know what to put in. It's in a store I haven't played at before, so I'm going in blind as for what kind of decks to expect.
I would definitely run 4 Lingering and 4 Nahiri and 3 Thoughtseize if you have access to them, they help a lot vs combo match up. Butcher and Thalia seem sub optimal to me in such a deck. I played quite a lot of games with Mardu Nahiri and I believe that no creature is the way to go except a Gurmag or two(I do have Liliana though).
I've been trying to make Vexing devil works in a DS mardu shell and even with Orzhov Charm AND Proclamation of rebirth, it just doesn't work. I almost always wished it was something else. Felt like card disadvantage most of the time. Maybe it worth a try with bone picker but both card on their own feels pretty bad.
Quote from Lantern »
Not going to list all the millions of changes I did in the last 7 hours... But Since there was an update:
Tiers updated... ALOT
Some of you may have noticed the tiering updating has lagged behind alot recently. Our data collection manager (ktken) is retiring from staff, so collection has been pretty hard for us. We are changing our systems completly, and over the next month I'll be rolling out the new benchmarks we use to tiering and testing them over the next half a year or so.
So just bare with us for a month, and everything will be clear and tip top shape.
I run 4 path + 1 push main, and I'm rarely unhappy seing it. It always depend on meta but in a random meta I like having 1 more removal to deal with Tarmo/Death's shadow. Never tried a resto but I feel fine with 4x 4CMC creatures.
Hi guys, went to my second tournament last weekend and first with Death n Taxes. 144 players, 8 rounds, ended up 25, missing top 16 and pricing with a lost in round 8. This is the list I brought. I decided to bring E&T instead of my usual main deck because of my recent success on cockatrice with it. I'm currently 55-15 in matches on cockatrice (78% win rate) against mostly t1-t2 decks. I'm well aware cockatrice isn't super competitive but still, the deck feels pretty strong atm.
Round 1: G/W Death n Taxes 2-1 (1-0)
It's a pretty good match up, they don't have much to deal with our creatures and Displacer + Strangler is often game over. He won a very close g2 while G1 and g3 were pretty easy.
MVP: strangler
Boarded in : Pontiff, 2x Blessed Allicance and Oblivion Ring.
Round 2: Storm 0-2 (1-1)
This lost felt really bad, such an easy matchup, had never lost to them prior that and it was an awful feeling.
G1 he has a goblin on board, I decide to cast a T3 thought-knot to pressure him and take out combo his piece instead of pathing the goblin. His hand was full of ritual and no Past in flame. he top decked past in flame and comboed.
G2 I punted hard, I took a goblin with Tidehollow instead of moon, thinking I would just take the moon on T3 with Thought-knot, without realizing he would just Ritual+moon and lock me out. My mistake it would have been an easy game has I had pontiff and he used everything to cast 20 golbins. Stress sometimes.
Round 3: Storm again 2-0 (2-1)
Storm again, this time I would not make the same mistake. G1 he lost to Arbiter+thalia lock. G2 he keep a 1 land hand with cantrips, rituals and Bloodmoon, he doesn't find second land but early enough and I take blood moon, had a plains and just top decked a vial also. he manages to cast 12 goblins which I take care with engineered for the win.
Round 4: Burn 2-0 (3-1)
Great match-up again, lucky with pairing.
G1 he flood a little and I take over.
G2, I end up at 2, being able to lock him with 1 land on his draw phase with thalia out.
MVP: Thalia, Thought-Knot
Round 5: Death's shadow Jund 1-2 (3-2)
Was expecting to see it at least once, the guy ended up winning the event.
G1 was very close and grindy but he topdecked better and closed with a death's shadow.
G2 Was very close again, I attacked him once with a flickerwisp in the entire game when he was at 2, we trade resources all game long.
G3 I took out all vial as they almost always lead with T1 discard and the game often end up in top deck mode. He lead with T1 getting my Relic, flooding the board with 3 Tarmo and a death's shadow.
MVP: Big game hunter, Blessed Alliance, path.
Board in: Engineered Explosives, 2 RiP, 2 Big Game Hunter, 2 Blessed Alliance
Round 6: ...Storm! 2-0 (4-2)
Storm again, 2-0 again, he didn't do much and was pretty salty to be against DnT.
He sided out past in flames package to bring in PLatinum Emperion combo but couldn't cast it.
Round 7: G/R Ponza 2-1 (5-2)
G1 is he scoop at tidehollow thalia and arbiter.
G2 I mull to 6, keeping a no lander with 2 vials. I found my first land T3, and he got both my vials with ancient grudge.
G3 I start with Vial, he doesn't crack the fetch before I Put my counter in Vial, double Arbiter + thalia was enough to win.
Boarded in: sin collector, Engineered Explosives, Oblivion Ring.
MVP Thalia, Arbiter
Round 8: Eldrazi Tron 1-2 (5-3)
Pretty good matchup again, was pretty happy has I never lost against them and played multiple times.
G1 pretty good opening hand with 2 vial, ended up with 4 vials and 6 lands on board while he had Tron naturally T5 and Karn.
G2 was pretty easy, I rode T2 and T3 thought-knot to victory.
G3 he got natural tron again and cast a 5/5 Walking balista on t5 to clean board after double Thought-Knot.
He was pretty lucky overall and I didn't see a ghost Quarter in any of the games.
Boarded In: 2 Big game Hunter, 2 Blessed Alliance, 1 Oblivion Ring.
MVP: Big game hunter, Thought-Knot.
Overall, the deck played really well, and felt competitive in pretty much every games (except round 8). I was sad missing top 16 but still happy with my performance playing pretty tight after my punt round 2. The deck is a little soft to Death's shadow decks which is something that needs to be adressed, There was quite a lot of Grixis/Jund Death's shadow decks at the event. On the other side, there was also plenty of Burn which is a very good matchup.
What do we think about a blue splash for permission/ maybe Geist of saint graft or ancestral visions or spell queller etc
I wouldn't play 4 colors personally and definitely not for blue cards. most of the time, we want to lead with T1 discard. Also, we have more than enough 3 cmc cards actually. Spell queller is good when you play stuff at instant speed, we play planeswalker, discard or lingering during our turn, we don't draw/go.
I'm comparing Dismember to push, When I say both happen to cost games it's in regard or Push vs Dismember. In those specific cases, a push instead and I would have won. Same happened against Eldrazi though so Basically I'm saying I had issues with both spells regarding the creatures in the current meta.
I don't find chalice all that bad, first off you can take it with your inquis or thoughtseize so unless they are cheating it out with fast mana its pretty easy to get rid of. Once again your weakening your overall package to bring in narrow cards, just my opinion mind you. If you are using all those white spells why even play 8 rack? You would be far better served to go to a midrange value shell which is a different deck. Lingering souls is a perfect example of a card that makes no sense in our deck but is a hugely powerful card. Why would you want to invest 5 mana and 2 turns into 4 spirit tokens with 8 rack? it really makes zero sense to the way I play 8 rack. 8 rack is not a mid range value deck there is however some very good midrange value decks that use white and black
What match ups do you feel the need to bring in chalice of the void if you run it in your sideboard or engineered explosives? Both of these cards just seem to be harming your over all plan more then they help against any deck I can think of atm.
Fetches do help enable revolt for Fatal Push which is great no argument there but personally I think I would rather the GQs as man lands are one of this decks worst enemies. However I think a turn 3 smallpox and fatal push to clear a board is one of this decks best plays against certain decks, so there is other ways to enable revolt.
Not sure why chalice isn't a problem when running a deck with 20+ 1cmc spell but whatever. Of course you can take it with discard but we all know it's not always that easy. Lingering is perfectly fine out of the board and often discarded to lili or pox for additional value. I don't get the 'weakening overall package’, Why would stony silence, RiP or Disenchants weakens overall package when pithing needles, pack rat or asylum visitor doesn’t? Anyway you seem to dislike white splash and pretty sure you’ve never tried it in the first place.
Just wanted to add that most of the time, the white splash doesn’t even hurt me if I’m not siding in any white cards.
I've added Fatal Push to the list of removal spells and put it at the top. I said I was going to add it to the Primer a lot sooner, but I decided to not do that until I have more statistics at my disposal, and since nobody else contributed any data whatsoever, I'm doing all of the necessary testing by myself. Which, obviously, takes a lot of time. Right now I am slightly under 200 games and when I get to that treshold I will analyse the remainder of the data and make a separate paragraphs somewhere, talking only about Push and it's various applications.
I got around 120 games played with 2-3 fatal pushes main (75% BW 25% MonoBlack) and while I didn’t keep track of my Fatal pushes statistics (only matchup), It has been a problem a few times against grixis and eldrazi decks, however, dismember also cost me a couple of games against Death’s Shadow zoo even Burn. I’ll take notes every times one comes up from now on.
Human is a pretty good matchup for BW EnT, Orzhov Pontiff and Fatal Push helps out of the sideboard but Wasteland Strangler with flicker/displacer/tidehollow often wins it.
I played Death's Shadow in Mardu for a while, and while I found it fun, I usually felt it didn't worth losing all that life hoping to draw a Death's shadow (grixis cantrip and Jund finds it). It might be different with your list since you have Faithless and Reveler to find him. One thing I disagree is that Street Wraith mitigate the card draw of mardu. Street Wraith replace itself for 2 life, it doesn't draw you any card; Bedlam those help in that extend.
Tell us about your testing, interested in hearing more.
Yeah I know it's more of a midrange deck, and this is the reason why Goblin Guide doesn't fit in and Hellspark Elemental is in the same boat.
About the Mana Base, I would play something like this
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Arid Mesa
3 Marsh Flats
2 Blood Crypt
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Godless Shrine
4 Blackcleave cliffs
2 swamp
1 mountain
1 plains
If you want to go more midrange I would probably add some Shambling Vent
I honestly think a deck that tries to be burn/midrange will fail both ways. You say it yourself, burn maximize each spell so it can kill very fast, and it isn't even always working. Your deck is a mix of aggro creatures, removal, burns and discards. Goblin guide is good in burn because you don't care giving lands to your opponent as you intent to finish the game fast. Your deck can't close a game quickly. Also, 7 fastland is way too many, your mana base could easily be fixed to play blood moon, which is much better than molten rain. I don't know if it's theory crafting or if you actually tried it but I can't see this deck win regularly.
Your curve seems very top heavy with 11! 3cmc spells and 3 4 CMC spells (not even counting Reveler which isn't always 2 CMC) in a deck that want to play a lot of cheap spells to empty it's hand and play Reveler for 2-3 CMC. Chandra feels out of place to me; a 4CMC card that doesn't fuel reveler or Young Pyro seems pretty bad for the build. Also, I personally don't like playing path with Blood Moon, I'd rather have 2 push in those slots. Overall, I feel like you trade speed and consistency for a better late game, which the deck already has.
Never tried Monastery mentor because we are pretty clogged in the 3 cmc spot, but it might be an interesting alt win con. Wrath's effect depends mostly on meta but I usually run 1 mainboard and 1 or 2 sb, in a random meta. I still like having a few bolts in there, I personally don't play any terminate, 1 dreadbore and 3 push/3 path.
I would definitely run 4 Lingering and 4 Nahiri and 3 Thoughtseize if you have access to them, they help a lot vs combo match up. Butcher and Thalia seem sub optimal to me in such a deck. I played quite a lot of games with Mardu Nahiri and I believe that no creature is the way to go except a Gurmag or two(I do have Liliana though).
Not going to list all the millions of changes I did in the last 7 hours... But Since there was an update:
Tiers updated... ALOT
Some of you may have noticed the tiering updating has lagged behind alot recently. Our data collection manager (ktken) is retiring from staff, so collection has been pretty hard for us. We are changing our systems completly, and over the next month I'll be rolling out the new benchmarks we use to tiering and testing them over the next half a year or so.
So just bare with us for a month, and everything will be clear and tip top shape.
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Concealed courtyard
3 Godless Shrine
2 Plains
1 Swamp
Artifacts 5
4 Vial
1 Relic of Progenitus
Instants 5
4 Path to Exile
1 Fatal Push
3 Thalia, guardian of thraben
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Flickerwisp
3 Tidehollow sculler
4 Eldrazi displacer
4 Thought-knot Seer
3 Wasteland Strangler
1 Blade Splicer
2 Selfless Spirit
2 Rest in peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Big game hunter
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Burrenton Forge-tender
1 Sin collector
Round 1: G/W Death n Taxes 2-1 (1-0)
It's a pretty good match up, they don't have much to deal with our creatures and Displacer + Strangler is often game over. He won a very close g2 while G1 and g3 were pretty easy.
MVP: strangler
Boarded in : Pontiff, 2x Blessed Allicance and Oblivion Ring.
Round 2: Storm 0-2 (1-1)
This lost felt really bad, such an easy matchup, had never lost to them prior that and it was an awful feeling.
G1 he has a goblin on board, I decide to cast a T3 thought-knot to pressure him and take out combo his piece instead of pathing the goblin. His hand was full of ritual and no Past in flame. he top decked past in flame and comboed.
G2 I punted hard, I took a goblin with Tidehollow instead of moon, thinking I would just take the moon on T3 with Thought-knot, without realizing he would just Ritual+moon and lock me out. My mistake it would have been an easy game has I had pontiff and he used everything to cast 20 golbins. Stress sometimes.
Round 3: Storm again 2-0 (2-1)
Storm again, this time I would not make the same mistake. G1 he lost to Arbiter+thalia lock. G2 he keep a 1 land hand with cantrips, rituals and Bloodmoon, he doesn't find second land but early enough and I take blood moon, had a plains and just top decked a vial also. he manages to cast 12 goblins which I take care with engineered for the win.
MVP: Thalia
Boarded in: 2 Burrenton, 1 Engineered, 1 Pontiff, 1 surgical, 2 Rest in Peace.
Round 4: Burn 2-0 (3-1)
Great match-up again, lucky with pairing.
G1 he flood a little and I take over.
G2, I end up at 2, being able to lock him with 1 land on his draw phase with thalia out.
MVP: Thalia, Thought-Knot
Round 5: Death's shadow Jund 1-2 (3-2)
Was expecting to see it at least once, the guy ended up winning the event.
G1 was very close and grindy but he topdecked better and closed with a death's shadow.
G2 Was very close again, I attacked him once with a flickerwisp in the entire game when he was at 2, we trade resources all game long.
G3 I took out all vial as they almost always lead with T1 discard and the game often end up in top deck mode. He lead with T1 getting my Relic, flooding the board with 3 Tarmo and a death's shadow.
MVP: Big game hunter, Blessed Alliance, path.
Board in: Engineered Explosives, 2 RiP, 2 Big Game Hunter, 2 Blessed Alliance
Round 6: ...Storm! 2-0 (4-2)
Storm again, 2-0 again, he didn't do much and was pretty salty to be against DnT.
He sided out past in flames package to bring in PLatinum Emperion combo but couldn't cast it.
Round 7: G/R Ponza 2-1 (5-2)
G1 is he scoop at tidehollow thalia and arbiter.
G2 I mull to 6, keeping a no lander with 2 vials. I found my first land T3, and he got both my vials with ancient grudge.
G3 I start with Vial, he doesn't crack the fetch before I Put my counter in Vial, double Arbiter + thalia was enough to win.
Boarded in: sin collector, Engineered Explosives, Oblivion Ring.
MVP Thalia, Arbiter
Round 8: Eldrazi Tron 1-2 (5-3)
Pretty good matchup again, was pretty happy has I never lost against them and played multiple times.
G1 pretty good opening hand with 2 vial, ended up with 4 vials and 6 lands on board while he had Tron naturally T5 and Karn.
G2 was pretty easy, I rode T2 and T3 thought-knot to victory.
G3 he got natural tron again and cast a 5/5 Walking balista on t5 to clean board after double Thought-Knot.
He was pretty lucky overall and I didn't see a ghost Quarter in any of the games.
Boarded In: 2 Big game Hunter, 2 Blessed Alliance, 1 Oblivion Ring.
MVP: Big game hunter, Thought-Knot.
Overall, the deck played really well, and felt competitive in pretty much every games (except round 8). I was sad missing top 16 but still happy with my performance playing pretty tight after my punt round 2. The deck is a little soft to Death's shadow decks which is something that needs to be adressed, There was quite a lot of Grixis/Jund Death's shadow decks at the event. On the other side, there was also plenty of Burn which is a very good matchup.
I wouldn't play 4 colors personally and definitely not for blue cards. most of the time, we want to lead with T1 discard. Also, we have more than enough 3 cmc cards actually. Spell queller is good when you play stuff at instant speed, we play planeswalker, discard or lingering during our turn, we don't draw/go.
Not sure why chalice isn't a problem when running a deck with 20+ 1cmc spell but whatever. Of course you can take it with discard but we all know it's not always that easy. Lingering is perfectly fine out of the board and often discarded to lili or pox for additional value. I don't get the 'weakening overall package’, Why would stony silence, RiP or Disenchants weakens overall package when pithing needles, pack rat or asylum visitor doesn’t? Anyway you seem to dislike white splash and pretty sure you’ve never tried it in the first place.
Just wanted to add that most of the time, the white splash doesn’t even hurt me if I’m not siding in any white cards.
I got around 120 games played with 2-3 fatal pushes main (75% BW 25% MonoBlack) and while I didn’t keep track of my Fatal pushes statistics (only matchup), It has been a problem a few times against grixis and eldrazi decks, however, dismember also cost me a couple of games against Death’s Shadow zoo even Burn. I’ll take notes every times one comes up from now on.