Fatal Push gives GBx and, more importantly, UBx decks some new gas to deal with this ridiculous meta. The card IMO is not worth splashing, but depending on the rest of the spoilers, it could be enough that we'd want to change our MDs back to some 4 Relic setup (to put some percentage points in the Bxx matchups)and leave the bolts at home.
You'd have to think its a good thing for our deck, in terms of quelling the meta a bit.
Hey guys, what is the oppinion on Chalice of the Void in our sideboard?
Since we don't play SSG, it can only come down on turn 2.
I've never been a fan of it for that reason. Chalice is a weird card that you need to have come down early to be effective. In our deck, It's only useful (IMO) on turn 2 when you're on the play. It's too slow on the draw w/o SSG, so you really only have it for 1 of your sideboard games.
I'm actually in the middle of revisiting this idea. When I did it for the tournament, it was for Unlife, which was good but never came up much. Now, I'm just looking for some percentage points in aggro matchups, which I think will help out in tournaments. Right now, the splash is only for some Paths and Blessed Alliance in the SB. The manabase I think should look like this:
As of now, I'm keeping the 4 Bolts MD so this setup gives 12 Mountains, 11 T1 Green (18.3%), 6 T1 White (10%), 14 T1 Red (23.3%). The MD hasn't been worked out yet, but its looking like a standard setup as the G1 plan is pretty potent. If anyone has suggestions or has tested anything out, I'd love to hear it.
I think you take out the Scapeshifts for Breaches. Commune with Lava for Summoner's Pact. Khalni Heart Expedition for Simian Spirit Guide/Oath of Nissa or something.
Personally I like Nature's Claim. Mana-wise, I don't believe there is much of a difference, but it depends on if you want the instant speed interaction. You can Pact for Sage, but hardcasting it on turn 3 doesn't give you the option to nab an Inkmoth Nexus or mess with Affinity math.
I've actually tried this, except to hedge against the Restore Balance player at my shop. My conclusion was that the splash was viable but sub-par against decks that bring in Leyline against you anyway. Not that the plan doesn't work, just be weary of it.
Why not both? I'm just adding points for discussion, but I see Omen as more of an enabler for T4 consistency than a "ramp" spell. With Omen, you add a few more kills to the MD: T4 Titan + existing Valakut (or KHE, but that seems harder), T4 6-land Scapeshift, T4 4-land Scapeshift with KHE. You're also adding some resiliency to the natural Valakut kill by not putting a strain on your mountain count and give you the option to play some board control.
On the flip side, interaction like Anger can be played in this slot or something to help you get to Turn 4. The deck plays completely fine without it and still has a number of avenues to victory so you can argue that you don't need it at all (you don't). That's why in lists that play Omen, you only see 2.
My opinion is that Cage might be a little better. I like Relic better in general, but the decks Cage shuts off tend to be slightly faster than ours (Company, Dredge sometimes). Game 1 against LE should be fine, as you at least have the option to dump STE in the yard. Post-board, you won't get anything exciting unless you play Chalice.
This list is slightly different than what was posted here a few weeks ago. Notably, there are mainboard Coursers but however shares some similarities with Oliver and Ondrej's Worlds decklists.
It could. Lets say your opponent is at 5 life (for purposes) and you resolve Ruric Thar with Unlife on the field. They untap, cast Ad Nas, cast Lightning Storm. The RT trigger from Ad Naus puts them at -1 life, 0 poison; The RT Trigger from Lightning Storm puts them at -1 life, 6 poison. Then Lightning Storm resolves and you lose. Same situation for Lab Maniac -> Serum Visions. The more common situation is that they are at 17 or 20 life, and you would need 5 or 6 triggers to win IF Unlife was the pairing card with Ad Naus. You can force some sub-optimal plays, but their gameplan lines up well against ours.
@Miezekilla I like bringing in Grafdigger's Cage and Obstinate Baloth, taking out the Bolts. Thrun is very effective as well. Your priority should be getting Valakuts online, because then you just become impossible to interact with.
Another time I personally fetch for forests is if I dont have a titan or scapeshift or valakut and I already have five mountains in play . Maximizing the triggers has won me many games I should not have!
This is a really good point too. Squeezing value out of your land drops and building value to the mountains left in your deck is something you can actively do every game.
When to fetch a basic forest
This is more situational for when you want to get an early basic but I suppose a rule of thumb would be when you either a) want to preserve your life total, b) are in post-SB games for Blood Moon, c) post-SB games for F-Mage and Crumble (protect your lands from LD). If you are gearing up to Scapeshift and not Primeval Titan, then I think you safely grab a basic Forest anyway.
Sideboarding
You're right, the deck isn't overly complicated and the sideboarding should be straightfoward. You'll know when you want to remain a straight combo deck and when you'll need to be a little more midrange-y. You can cut ramp spells. All in all, there are 16 ramp spells in the MD and you can go down to 8-10 post-sb. KHE is usually the first to go for me when I know I want to trade some explosiveness for interaction. There is a split on this board on whether you can board out some number of Scapeshifts or Primeval Titans against heavy aggro decks; but to answer your question, yes you can cut into win-cons since the deck is flexible in how it wins.
Eldrazi and Tron Matchup
Tron hasn't been a large part of the meta, so there hasn't been a need to SB for it specifically. If you play against it often, then yeah dedicate some SB space to it. You would bring in your claims, Ancient Grudge, and Crumble I would imagine. As far as Eldrazi, I've tried to garner discussion on this thread about how to approach the MU. I think you just bring in Claims, maybe Sudden Shock (on the play). Reason is that our deck just can't interact with their creatures, outside of Roast/Dismember or something. They get World Breaker, Worship, and Stubborn Denial out of the board. I think how you play the MU is to Bolt whatever T1 play they have to keep them off their speed and combo afap.
2 Forest Over 3
3 Forests have been a sweet spot for the deck. Having 3 in the deck lets you loosely play around Ghost Quarter (good opponents will keep you off GG), and play a slightly better game under Blood Moon. I've played with 3 for the better part of the year and it just feels right. I've played with 2 before and it felt kinda sketchy. I offer no scientific evidence other than that.
Mainboard Baloth and EE
The mainboard baloth isn't unheard of, sometimes you just need it. The MB EE might be useful, but I can't think of a lot of situations right now where you'd want it in Game 1 over making the combo faster/consistent. Also in a deck without Relic, Goyf becomes a really real thing with enchanments and artifacts.
Explore and Farseek
The split on these is preferential and every list will be different. Explore is better on the draw, so you can side those out post-sb on the play if you want to.
Jund Matchup
Jund is a good matchup, but none of our matchups are autowins. You just have more tools here to play around what they are trying to do.
Popularity is a large part of it (although Scott Lipp has been on RG Breach for a while). From looking around the room on Friday and Saturday at Indy, if somebody was playing Valakuts, it was in RG Breach. Only a few people were actually playing Scapeshift.
Over a large event, if enough people are playing Breach someone is bound to win the matchup lottery and do well.
You'd have to think its a good thing for our deck, in terms of quelling the meta a bit.
I've never been a fan of it for that reason. Chalice is a weird card that you need to have come down early to be effective. In our deck, It's only useful (IMO) on turn 2 when you're on the play. It's too slow on the draw w/o SSG, so you really only have it for 1 of your sideboard games.
Hey I just saw your post. I think someone mentioned in below, but I tried a white splash out at an SCG event. I did a writeup at the link below:
https://fetchshockblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/scg-modern-classic-report-naya-scapeshift/
I'm actually in the middle of revisiting this idea. When I did it for the tournament, it was for Unlife, which was good but never came up much. Now, I'm just looking for some percentage points in aggro matchups, which I think will help out in tournaments. Right now, the splash is only for some Paths and Blessed Alliance in the SB. The manabase I think should look like this:
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Valakut
2 Cinder Glade
2 Stomping Ground
2 Sacred Foundry
6 Mountain
2 Forest
1 Plains
As of now, I'm keeping the 4 Bolts MD so this setup gives 12 Mountains, 11 T1 Green (18.3%), 6 T1 White (10%), 14 T1 Red (23.3%). The MD hasn't been worked out yet, but its looking like a standard setup as the G1 plan is pretty potent. If anyone has suggestions or has tested anything out, I'd love to hear it.
I came across your comment while browsing. There is a dedicated breachshift thread now:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/tier-2-modern/573328-rg-breach
I think you take out the Scapeshifts for Breaches. Commune with Lava for Summoner's Pact. Khalni Heart Expedition for Simian Spirit Guide/Oath of Nissa or something.
There is also a dedicated RG Titanshift thread:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/tier-2-modern/654300-rg-titan-scapeshift
2-3 is a good number for the SB for either card.
Why not both? I'm just adding points for discussion, but I see Omen as more of an enabler for T4 consistency than a "ramp" spell. With Omen, you add a few more kills to the MD: T4 Titan + existing Valakut (or KHE, but that seems harder), T4 6-land Scapeshift, T4 4-land Scapeshift with KHE. You're also adding some resiliency to the natural Valakut kill by not putting a strain on your mountain count and give you the option to play some board control.
On the flip side, interaction like Anger can be played in this slot or something to help you get to Turn 4. The deck plays completely fine without it and still has a number of avenues to victory so you can argue that you don't need it at all (you don't). That's why in lists that play Omen, you only see 2.
My opinion is that Cage might be a little better. I like Relic better in general, but the decks Cage shuts off tend to be slightly faster than ours (Company, Dredge sometimes). Game 1 against LE should be fine, as you at least have the option to dump STE in the yard. Post-board, you won't get anything exciting unless you play Chalice.
http://manadeprived.com/titan-shift-primer/
This list is slightly different than what was posted here a few weeks ago. Notably, there are mainboard Coursers but however shares some similarities with Oliver and Ondrej's Worlds decklists.
@Miezekilla I like bringing in Grafdigger's Cage and Obstinate Baloth, taking out the Bolts. Thrun is very effective as well. Your priority should be getting Valakuts online, because then you just become impossible to interact with.
This is a really good point too. Squeezing value out of your land drops and building value to the mountains left in your deck is something you can actively do every game.
When to fetch a basic forest
This is more situational for when you want to get an early basic but I suppose a rule of thumb would be when you either a) want to preserve your life total, b) are in post-SB games for Blood Moon, c) post-SB games for F-Mage and Crumble (protect your lands from LD). If you are gearing up to Scapeshift and not Primeval Titan, then I think you safely grab a basic Forest anyway.
Sideboarding
You're right, the deck isn't overly complicated and the sideboarding should be straightfoward. You'll know when you want to remain a straight combo deck and when you'll need to be a little more midrange-y. You can cut ramp spells. All in all, there are 16 ramp spells in the MD and you can go down to 8-10 post-sb. KHE is usually the first to go for me when I know I want to trade some explosiveness for interaction. There is a split on this board on whether you can board out some number of Scapeshifts or Primeval Titans against heavy aggro decks; but to answer your question, yes you can cut into win-cons since the deck is flexible in how it wins.
Eldrazi and Tron Matchup
Tron hasn't been a large part of the meta, so there hasn't been a need to SB for it specifically. If you play against it often, then yeah dedicate some SB space to it. You would bring in your claims, Ancient Grudge, and Crumble I would imagine. As far as Eldrazi, I've tried to garner discussion on this thread about how to approach the MU. I think you just bring in Claims, maybe Sudden Shock (on the play). Reason is that our deck just can't interact with their creatures, outside of Roast/Dismember or something. They get World Breaker, Worship, and Stubborn Denial out of the board. I think how you play the MU is to Bolt whatever T1 play they have to keep them off their speed and combo afap.
2 Forest Over 3
3 Forests have been a sweet spot for the deck. Having 3 in the deck lets you loosely play around Ghost Quarter (good opponents will keep you off GG), and play a slightly better game under Blood Moon. I've played with 3 for the better part of the year and it just feels right. I've played with 2 before and it felt kinda sketchy. I offer no scientific evidence other than that.
Mainboard Baloth and EE
The mainboard baloth isn't unheard of, sometimes you just need it. The MB EE might be useful, but I can't think of a lot of situations right now where you'd want it in Game 1 over making the combo faster/consistent. Also in a deck without Relic, Goyf becomes a really real thing with enchanments and artifacts.
Explore and Farseek
The split on these is preferential and every list will be different. Explore is better on the draw, so you can side those out post-sb on the play if you want to.
Jund Matchup
Jund is a good matchup, but none of our matchups are autowins. You just have more tools here to play around what they are trying to do.
I think that hits a lot of your questions.
Over a large event, if enough people are playing Breach someone is bound to win the matchup lottery and do well.