Some things I'm playing that you aren't that I swear by:
Soldevi Adnate - This card is so damn good. It makes an insane amount of mana over the course of a game if you can feed it things like shriekmaw and solemn. It's a recent addition and it's been MVP in several games. I also give heavy preference to 2 CMC creatures that are good to hit off grenzo, since you can also play them on t2 and feel good about it.
Kozilek's Translator, Skirge Familiar - Translator is great, basically 'taps' for 4 mana a turn cycle. Skirge familar is similar, and it's slightly less busted without magus of the wheel/wheel of fortune, but free mana is free mana.
Godo/Sword of Feast and Famine - The Godo/SoFaF package gets you so many free wins. SoFaF is already great in grenzo since you can play it when the table's shields are down, get your mana investment back, and then threaten to have double mana the next turn. When Godo is put into play on the end step and the table's shields are down, things get nutty. Since godo gets to attack twice essentially the next turn, you're going to be able to triple up your mana. It pretty much always either wins the game or puts you way ahead. It does put a huge target on your head, but I'm usually the target out of the gate anyway in my group when I bust Grenzo out
Godo also grabs thornbite staff for you as well when you need it, which seems pretty clutch.
Shriekmaw - Like i said, I give high preference to creatures that aren't embarassing to have to pay retail for, which means I'd much rather play shriekmaw over something like duplicant since it's just way more lean.
Balthor, the Defiled - You're not running Balthor?!?! Man, balthor is one of the single best cards in the deck, and can really help you clinch the win in those games where Grenzo has died too many times to feasibly recast. It's also super one-sided. Definitely give this one a try.
Maralen of the Mornsong - This card is the nuts too since we break its symmetry so hard. Put it into play on opponent's end step, grim tutor for ashnod's altar/wheel of fortune and watch the table cry. It's also really funny to reanimate or put into play in response to other peoples' wheels/windfalls/draw spells
Magus of the Wheel - Really solid out to start hitting more land drops, pairs really well with skirge familiar and anger. Can make infinite mana with epitaph golem if you have that setup.
Chaos Warp - Even though it's not a creature, I feel like it's really nice to have an out to anything, including pesky things like rest in peace and suppression field.
Faithless looting/cathartic reunion - Again, not creatures, but they look at so many cards in the pre-grenzo turns and we care so little about discarding our nerds that they're really close to 1-mana draw-two and 2-mana draw-three. I'm inclined to keep pretty much any hand where they're castable in my opener
Goblin Chirurgeon - Grenzo's personal bodyguard and another goblin sac outlet. Wouldn't leave home without it.
Humble Defector/Dark Confidant - Our deck is super mana hungry and hitting land drops is crucial. They're both 2 mana, pre-Grenzo plays that can help you hit some extra lands. I don't worry about the downside of Humble Defector since it already did its job, and we also have many ways to sac it with the trigger on the stack later in the game. Plus you can even sweet talk your way into getting it back sometimes.
Chrome Mox/Gemstone Caverns - Probably the single best cards in the deck to have in your opening hand. t2 grenzo is so clutch and gets you started so much faster, and we have infinite nerds in our hand to pitch to them.
Inventor's Fair - Land, so very little cost to adding it to the deck. Tutors up game winning combo pieces like ashnod's altar and metallic mimic
Crypt of Agadeem - Can make some extra mana, little cost to include
Howltooth Hollow - Spinerock knoll #2, even if you never activate it (and I actually have before, thanks to maralen + wheel!)
But yeah, definitely interested in trying some new stuff as well since i still have some cards in my list i'm disappointed by like Chainer and Olivia. I see the power of Lightning Crafter after reading your writeup, definitely a card I had written off before.
My shortlist right now is:
Moggcatcher
Imperial Recruiter
Yahenni
Mana Crypt
Whisper, Blood Liturgist
Lightning Crafter
Azra Oddsmaker
Zhalfirin Void
Path of Ancestry
I also would like to give skullclamp another chance. Also gonna figure out if thornbite staff is worth it in my build, since it has an impressive number of combos.
Also pretty excited for Goblin Trashmaster (damn this card is great!) and Meteor Golem out of M19.
take my experience with a grain of salt because i am playing a battle of wits chord/evo deck, but a chord/evo target that is way overperforming for me right now is Zealous Conscripts. So many free wins off of this guy, whether it's stealing Nahiri on 8 and getting my own emrakul, stealing ad naus's unlife in response to ad naus, stealing a random dude in a board stall in the creature matchups, stealing opposing kiki to combo off.
i think it definitely serves some consideration for a slot, think it's way better than something like shriekmaw as a 5-drop.
The thing about Image is that if it happens to die to a regular, 1-for-1 removal spell, just about anything else you could've played in that spot (except for Kira) dies to that same removal spell.
Looking at current mtggoldfish tier decks right now, the only cards that actually punish image's downside are Kcommand (sometimes), pump spells (especially mutagenic growth), Electrolyze (though the other 1 damage might not even kill anything else), Rejeerey trigger in the mirror, Drowner of Hope, Eldrazi Displacer, and that's really it.
On the other hand, against decks that are faster than us like Affinity or Ad Nauseam, we live and die by how many lords we can slam onto the table by turn 4. PhImage is so good at being lords 13-14 in my build, especially when it can be a 2 mana Reej, and really feels like it gives me a chance of stealing game 1's vs bad matchups.
Another thing I love about the card is when you want to play 2 lords on turn 4 but you have a mutavault and no Reej, you can play 1 UU lord and PhImage it. This saved me against affinity last modern night.
Kira is a great card for the right metagame, but I don't even feel like she's that great against the 'removal heavy' decks beyond game 1 because those decks are packing 2-3 sweepers in the side guaranteed and looking for them aggresively post-board. I was just tired of tapping out for Kira just to get her eaten up by a sweeper so that's why I feel she's not necessary.
I went back to 2 spell pierce, 2 dismember in the main for disruption like the old, pre-eldrazi nikachu lists for modern night tonight and went 4-0 pretty ez, 8-1 in games, vs RG land destruction, burn, RG scapeshift, and affinity. Spell pierce did so much work in every match, countering mwonvuli acid moss, bonfire of the damned, boros charm, anger of the gods, khalni heart expedition, springleaf drum, cranial plating, and i’m sure more i’m forgetting. It's gonna take some pretty serious convincing to get me to drop them from the main again. Cut Kiras from the 75 entirely since she’s so bad vs sweepers and maxed out on Rejeerey. Also went for a 2/2 image/harbinger split in the main with 3 tidebinder in the side. I know some people are down on Image right now but I find he's just so helpful for when you need to lordspam aggro to win, and the fact that he can be a lord that you cast for 1U off a mutavault is so good when your mana is weird with 1 or 2 mutavaults and all UU lords in hand. Love this 75 and would run it back 100% as is. If I change anything, it would be going to 2 tidebinder in the side for another dispel or an echoing truth.
Here's another question: we use Dispel frequently as a 1-mana counter. How often might Swan Song be better or worse? There are only a few enchantments or sorceries I'd care to counter, but they would be quite nice to hit. Likewise, giving them a 2/2 flyer will rarely matter, but might on occasion.
I'm loving a 2-of swan song in my sideboard. Great for countering sweepers and things like ad nauseam, pyromancer ascension, and other combo pieces from noninteractive combo decks. Really good against the RG valakut players is my meta since I need to spend too much mana pressuring them and I can never hold up negate.
FWIW my SB looks like 4x Hurkyll's, 3x Tec Edge, 2x Gut Shot, 2x Relic, 1x Dispel, 1x Spell Pierce, 2x Swan Song with 2x Dismember and 1x Spell Pierce as disruption in the main.
What (SB-)cards would be particularly strong against Jund and/or Control?
Liliana (ORI), Sin Collector, Voice of Resurgence, Scooze, Sigarda (AVR). Anything else?
Thanks!
the jund matchup is already fine. eternal witness and company are so good against them. post board just shave spellskites, non-relevant bullets, and some combo, and bring in paths, decays, value stuff, scooze, fulminator, forge-tender, and sin collector. sigarda is way too narrow in the SB for this deck
Well.. Why even play any combo pieces at all at this point? How are you going to find them? What makes the combo plan of this deck work is the combination of Chord+Company and the high number of combo pieces.
If you're really that worried about control, 4x Voice is a no-brainer, for starters. The rest of your list is just a big overreaction. The control player leaving blue mana up is a huge tell and it makes it very easy to play around counterspells, if not outright run into them to force them to give you a Voice token or get back your spell with E Witness later on. Wraths are just bad against a combination of Voice+Finks on the board. Just play conservatively and the control matchup isn't really that bad, since they usually lack a clock to go along with their disruption, letting you beat them down with a couple of creatures in the meantime.
As for the graveyard hate, this might actualy be the right time to run Angel+Feeder main, or at least SB it.
lol i left the 4x chord of calling out of my list like a dingus. the deck is still combo focused, but more 50/50 split between combo and beatdown/value grind than the 75/25 plan in the company list.
Not excited about playing collected company in a meta that will likely be full of graveyard hate, dispels, mana leaks, and wraths in the near future. Thinking about switching up to a value based list with evolutionary leaps instead of collected companies. Here's my initial draft:
aether vial is absolutely awful in this deck. please take a look at the collected company math and see how much worse it is when you can only jam 21 hit creatures. I run 28 potential hits and already have trouble sometimes in games when I coco and have nothing but mana dorks and melira in play.
1x Anger
1x Apprentice Necromancer
1x Balthor the Defiled
1x Big Game Hunter
1x Burnished Hart
1x Canal Dredger
1x Chainer, Dementia Master
1x Corpse Connoisseur
1x Crypt Ghast
1x Dark Confidant
1x Dualcaster Mage
1x Epitaph Golem
1x Faceless Butcher
1x Goblin Chirurgeon
1x Goblin Matron
1x Goblin Welder
1x Godo, Bandit Warlord
1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1x Grim Haruspex
1x Humble Defector
1x Ingot Chewer
1x Iron Myr
1x Junktroller
1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1x Kozilek's Translator
1x Leaden Myr
1x Magus of the Wheel
1x Magus of the Will
1x Maralen of the Mornsong
1x Metallic Mimic
1x Millikin
1x Murderous Redcap
1x Olivia, Mobilized for War
1x Palladium Myr
1x Pawn of Ulamog
1x Phyrexian Delver
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Puppeteer Clique
1x Ravenous Chupacabra
1x Shriekmaw
1x Skirge Familiar
1x Soldevi Adnate
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Treasonous Ogre
1x Tuktuk Scrapper
1x Viscera Seer
1x Zealous Conscripts
1x Cathartic Reunion
1x Dread Return
1x Faithless Looting
1x Gamble
1x Living Death
1x Wheel of Fortune
Artifact
1x Ashnod's Altar
1x Chrome Mox
1x Heartstone
1x Sol Ring
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Tel-Jilad Stylus
Instant
1x Chaos Warp
1x Entomb
Land
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Buried Ruin
1x Command Beacon
1x Command Tower
1x Crypt of Agadeem
1x Dragonskull Summit
1x Gemstone Caverns
1x Graven Cairns
1x High Market
1x Howltooth Hollow
1x Inventors' Fair
1x Luxury Suite
1x Marsh Flats
1x Mortuary Mire
1x Mountain
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Polluted Delta
1x Rakdos Carnarium
1x Shadowblood Ridge
1x Smoldering Marsh
1x Spinerock Knoll
1x Sulfurous Springs
7x Swamp
1x Temple of Malice
1x Temple of the False God
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Volrath's Stronghold
Some things I'm playing that you aren't that I swear by:
Soldevi Adnate - This card is so damn good. It makes an insane amount of mana over the course of a game if you can feed it things like shriekmaw and solemn. It's a recent addition and it's been MVP in several games. I also give heavy preference to 2 CMC creatures that are good to hit off grenzo, since you can also play them on t2 and feel good about it.
Kozilek's Translator, Skirge Familiar - Translator is great, basically 'taps' for 4 mana a turn cycle. Skirge familar is similar, and it's slightly less busted without magus of the wheel/wheel of fortune, but free mana is free mana.
Godo/Sword of Feast and Famine - The Godo/SoFaF package gets you so many free wins. SoFaF is already great in grenzo since you can play it when the table's shields are down, get your mana investment back, and then threaten to have double mana the next turn. When Godo is put into play on the end step and the table's shields are down, things get nutty. Since godo gets to attack twice essentially the next turn, you're going to be able to triple up your mana. It pretty much always either wins the game or puts you way ahead. It does put a huge target on your head, but I'm usually the target out of the gate anyway in my group when I bust Grenzo out
Godo also grabs thornbite staff for you as well when you need it, which seems pretty clutch.
Shriekmaw - Like i said, I give high preference to creatures that aren't embarassing to have to pay retail for, which means I'd much rather play shriekmaw over something like duplicant since it's just way more lean.
Balthor, the Defiled - You're not running Balthor?!?! Man, balthor is one of the single best cards in the deck, and can really help you clinch the win in those games where Grenzo has died too many times to feasibly recast. It's also super one-sided. Definitely give this one a try.
Maralen of the Mornsong - This card is the nuts too since we break its symmetry so hard. Put it into play on opponent's end step, grim tutor for ashnod's altar/wheel of fortune and watch the table cry. It's also really funny to reanimate or put into play in response to other peoples' wheels/windfalls/draw spells
Magus of the Wheel - Really solid out to start hitting more land drops, pairs really well with skirge familiar and anger. Can make infinite mana with epitaph golem if you have that setup.
Chaos Warp - Even though it's not a creature, I feel like it's really nice to have an out to anything, including pesky things like rest in peace and suppression field.
Faithless looting/cathartic reunion - Again, not creatures, but they look at so many cards in the pre-grenzo turns and we care so little about discarding our nerds that they're really close to 1-mana draw-two and 2-mana draw-three. I'm inclined to keep pretty much any hand where they're castable in my opener
Goblin Chirurgeon - Grenzo's personal bodyguard and another goblin sac outlet. Wouldn't leave home without it.
Humble Defector/Dark Confidant - Our deck is super mana hungry and hitting land drops is crucial. They're both 2 mana, pre-Grenzo plays that can help you hit some extra lands. I don't worry about the downside of Humble Defector since it already did its job, and we also have many ways to sac it with the trigger on the stack later in the game. Plus you can even sweet talk your way into getting it back sometimes.
Chrome Mox/Gemstone Caverns - Probably the single best cards in the deck to have in your opening hand. t2 grenzo is so clutch and gets you started so much faster, and we have infinite nerds in our hand to pitch to them.
Inventor's Fair - Land, so very little cost to adding it to the deck. Tutors up game winning combo pieces like ashnod's altar and metallic mimic
Crypt of Agadeem - Can make some extra mana, little cost to include
Howltooth Hollow - Spinerock knoll #2, even if you never activate it (and I actually have before, thanks to maralen + wheel!)
But yeah, definitely interested in trying some new stuff as well since i still have some cards in my list i'm disappointed by like Chainer and Olivia. I see the power of Lightning Crafter after reading your writeup, definitely a card I had written off before.
My shortlist right now is:
Moggcatcher
Imperial Recruiter
Yahenni
Mana Crypt
Whisper, Blood Liturgist
Lightning Crafter
Azra Oddsmaker
Zhalfirin Void
Path of Ancestry
I also would like to give skullclamp another chance. Also gonna figure out if thornbite staff is worth it in my build, since it has an impressive number of combos.
Also pretty excited for Goblin Trashmaster (damn this card is great!) and Meteor Golem out of M19.
i think it definitely serves some consideration for a slot, think it's way better than something like shriekmaw as a 5-drop.
modern becomes the golden format
List with no spreading seas 5-0'd
Looking at current mtggoldfish tier decks right now, the only cards that actually punish image's downside are Kcommand (sometimes), pump spells (especially mutagenic growth), Electrolyze (though the other 1 damage might not even kill anything else), Rejeerey trigger in the mirror, Drowner of Hope, Eldrazi Displacer, and that's really it.
On the other hand, against decks that are faster than us like Affinity or Ad Nauseam, we live and die by how many lords we can slam onto the table by turn 4. PhImage is so good at being lords 13-14 in my build, especially when it can be a 2 mana Reej, and really feels like it gives me a chance of stealing game 1's vs bad matchups.
Another thing I love about the card is when you want to play 2 lords on turn 4 but you have a mutavault and no Reej, you can play 1 UU lord and PhImage it. This saved me against affinity last modern night.
Kira is a great card for the right metagame, but I don't even feel like she's that great against the 'removal heavy' decks beyond game 1 because those decks are packing 2-3 sweepers in the side guaranteed and looking for them aggresively post-board. I was just tired of tapping out for Kira just to get her eaten up by a sweeper so that's why I feel she's not necessary.
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Wanderwine Hub
10 Island
4 Aether Vial
4 Cursecatcher
2 Spell Pierce
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Spreading Seas
4 Merrow Rejeerey
2 Dismember
4 Master of Waves
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Swan Song
1 Dispel
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Tidebinder Mage
I'm loving a 2-of swan song in my sideboard. Great for countering sweepers and things like ad nauseam, pyromancer ascension, and other combo pieces from noninteractive combo decks. Really good against the RG valakut players is my meta since I need to spend too much mana pressuring them and I can never hold up negate.
FWIW my SB looks like 4x Hurkyll's, 3x Tec Edge, 2x Gut Shot, 2x Relic, 1x Dispel, 1x Spell Pierce, 2x Swan Song with 2x Dismember and 1x Spell Pierce as disruption in the main.
the jund matchup is already fine. eternal witness and company are so good against them. post board just shave spellskites, non-relevant bullets, and some combo, and bring in paths, decays, value stuff, scooze, fulminator, forge-tender, and sin collector. sigarda is way too narrow in the SB for this deck
lol i left the 4x chord of calling out of my list like a dingus. the deck is still combo focused, but more 50/50 split between combo and beatdown/value grind than the 75/25 plan in the company list.
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
3x Gavony Township
2x Forest
1x Plains
1x Swamp
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Temple Garden
1x Godless Shrine
1x Razorverge Thicket
1x Marsh Flats
Creature
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Noble Hierarch
2x Viscera Seer
1x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1x Spellskite
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Wall of Roots
1x Qasali Pridemage
2x Voice of Resurgence
2x Eternal Witness
1x Fiend Hunter
3x Kitchen Finks
1x Orzhov Pontiff
1x Spike Feeder
1x Murderous Redcap
1x Archangel of Thune
3x Lingering Souls
1x Abrupt Decay
3x Evolutionary Leap
4x Chord of Calling
2x Tidehollow Sculler
1x Sin Collector
1x Scavenging Ooze
3x Path to Exile
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Stony Silence
1x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Fulminator Mage
1x Reclamation Sage
2x Thoughtseize
Thoughts?
Anybody see this list? Reflector mage merfolk?