I'm digging it. As mentioned it's awkward that it can't get you Flickerwisp, but still have about 17-19 targets depending on flex spots, so should be consistent enough I believe. And it's flickerable to boot!
If only we had another good hatebear at 2 cmc or so it would be perfect, but I'm still going to test it as a 2-of upon release.
Hi folks, is WR Taxes a doable thing nowadays or is the black just too good not too include? Wanted to run a spicy yet more consistent Death and Taxes build and a Red splash seems to be up my alley.
I wouldn't say black is "too good not to include" as a lot of players here (myself included) prefers the mono-white version. But as far as splashes go I supppose black is to-go atm, yes. Sorry just a detail ~
As for red splash, I don't think we can mimic legacy DnT's success with it without Recruiter of the Guard, but there are some interesting options. I'd start out with Dire Fleet Daredevil. It turned out to be too errant for legacy but I imagine it's slighly better in modern. A small rundown of some interactions: Stealing Snap's targets with vial on 2, deny Faithless Looting/Lingering Souls flashbacks, gain CA with cheap removal, Thoughtseizeing the BGx player back. And that first strike is actually very relevant nowadays. Other card that are potentially good is Magus of the Moon, and for sb Hazoret the Fervent, Wear//Tear, and Abrade.
I'd love some feedback if you decide to go for it!
That's a lot to process! I agree that the meta is unhealthy now in general, and I believe it's directly connected to the Jace unban. The card itself is barely played nowadays, but that's because the meta shifted heavily to cheese aggro decks to beat him. And these decks has stayed for a while.
However, I'm really against your opinion on how bad placed DnT is right now, at least as far as mono-white is concerned. Imo we can handle aggro decks quite fine even without targeted hate. Nut draws from ex. Hollow one is obviously bad, but who can handle that? Luckily it doesn't occur too often and we have a good shot against their average draws. Same can be said against most aggro decks really. Card draw in mono is a sligh issue, but unless we're playing against something that's heavily removal-based (BGx, Mardu), we can 2-for-1 (or even 3-for-1?) our opponent enough to make up for it. Also most aggro decks these days can't handle multiple Blade Splicer triggers. I could go on with a lot of examples but I'll stay brief :')
Regarding your card suggestions! I've been playing 1 Shalai for a while, and I think she's good. Unsure if I'd go above 1 copy tho as the effect is a little less applicable than Restoration Angel, but certain decks struggle a lot with her. The exact same thing can be said with Auriok Champion in the board.
I don't really see the use of Porphyry Nodes, wouldn't it destroy our own dudes most of the time? I mean, Inspectors and Blade Splicer are smol. I may test a copy in the board for a couple streams tho. Norn's Annex is an interesting card I mused about in the past, but I think its drawbacks is too harsh nowadays. You wouldn't really want to pay 4 life to get it down early enough against aggro, would you? And unless you've pressured them enough they can just pay with life to swing lethal. May have some applications against certain decks, Mardu Tokens comes to mind. But I simply think Auriok Champion should be in that spot instead.
The others are either too costy or doesn't impact enough, I think. If only Epochrasite was 2 time counters..
How is the general consensus around playing 1 copy of Aven Mindcensor with the full Leonin Arbiters or replacing one? I feel like it can be devastating for the opponent, but idk.
I've had 1 in main at several occasions, but always end up dropping it for something else after a while depending on the meta. It's obviously good against decks that relies on search effects (storm, tron, valakut) and I believe it's good against 3-colored midrange decks too (BGx, Jeskai). The latter category will often have removal and mana to cast it by turn 3, thought. Which bring me to the downside: it's too slow to lock.
Arbiter is really good because of how early you can utilize it's effect to sometimes shut your opponent out of the game. That 1 mana difference is often the difference between doing so or not. Personally I wouldn't use Mindcensor main these days because of how aggressive the meta is (at least in my experience), but I can definitely support 1-2 copies in the sb if you struggle against said matchups.
Hi guys, I've been trying to get into modern and I finally decided on buying Mono-White DnT. Here is my list that I am running at the moment. I know how essential aether vial is and I'll be able to pick up a playset in a month or two. I've had the most trouble against infect and tribal decks such as Humans and Merfolk. Bant Spirits gives me lots of trouble. Do you guys have any ideas on how to improve my deck or any tips on those matchups? Thanks.
First off, replace the Militants with Thraben Inspectors. Even without copter the inspector is the best 1-drop for this deck because we lacks proper card advantage. With flicker the clues lets us grind much better, which is essential to win the control matchups. I can also recommend the copter itself, maybe in place of some Spirit (I think 1-2 is fine depending on meta). Otherwise it looks fair given that it's vial-less for budget reasons.
The matchups you listed are all kinda hard and comes down to tempo plays, where Vial is exceptionally useful. Merfolk and Spirits both comes down to who place the most well timed bounce/paths to push through damage and make the best trades. It's really important to not miss damage in these matchups since the race tends to be very close. Specifically against merfolk, keep up a Ghost Quarter or Flickerwisp in hand at all times to cancel out a Spreading Seas which allows them to alpha-strike with Islandwalk.
Sideboard plan is basically to just jam in as much removal as you can without detering your own aggro too much. Boardwipes are appreciated against merfolk since they build a board faster than us.
Humans is known as one of our worst matchups, but personally I find it much easier after Ixalan since they only run 1 basic now. This means their lands can be Quartered or Fielded without Arbiter aggresively early on, and paths can be used freely. I've won several games by making them unable to do anything by keeping them down on 1 land and no dorks. If you can just stabilize the initial aggro it should be easy from there.
I recently started streaming various cardgames over at twitch and I've decided to do modern leagues with mono-white DnT every sunday from 14 pm CEST, starting tomorrow.
Now, I'm not that much of an entertainer and at best I'm an average pilot. But I hope some of you will join me anyway and spark some discussion on deckbuilding and plays in real-time. The decklist I'll be playing is found beneath the stream, eventually in my signature here.
Thoughts on a Collective Effort main with all humans and Hollow one's?
For that cost I'd rather pay 1 more and have a boardwipe of some sort, it just doesn't do enough for 3. The counters doesn't make up for it when defense is your goal.
For additional spot removal that isn't restricted to non-white (Sunlance), I'd reccommend Declaration in Stone (excellent vs Hollow), Oust, or even Condemn if there's any Death's Shadow there too. If you want something without any drawback, Reprisal does the same as Effort for 2 mana and only 1 being white, while also being instant.
Being able to hit Thalia, a silver bullet from SB, or even a legendary land (Flagstones/Eiganjo) makes me think it can be a nice addition to up the deck's consistency. I don't think it's insane since it's 2 mana (or even 3 with Thalia in play), but I'm really interested in testing some copies.
After spending an absurd amount of time theory-crafting and scrapping lists, I managed to find a list I was pretty comfortable with and piloted to the top 8, landing 4th place out of 57 people.
I didn't take great notes cause I was tired and only got progressively more tired as the night wore on, as we start at 7PM and folks usually play it out due to high turnout each week & full prize payout. I'll do a better job recording next time, but below is the matchups with any impressions I can recall.
Round 1: Esper Spirits 2-1
He's a pretty skilled player that gets bored with standardized lists. He's got more of a stock Spirits build with heavier removal and some jank in the form of Zur, The Enchanter with a few bullets like Steel of the Godhead and Detention Sphere. The games were super-grindy and saw violent swings in life totals. He'd stabilize with a Geist of Saint Traft after Pushes and PTE wiped my board state, but Finks, Inspector, and Flickerwisp/Angel would routinely push me back into the green and neuter his plays with combat tricks. My sideboard wasn't a ton of help, but I remember throwing in my 3rd Crusader for a Looter Scooter and beating face. I misread Dusk / Dawn when I put it in my sideboard and wished it was a Doj/*** all night, as I often had nothing but 3-power creatures in play on my side, with 2-power dorks on his side, with no upside to /Dawn. Maybe I just boarded wrong, but I cinched game 3 by gaining a billion life off recuring/flickering Finks and double-striking my way to victory.
Round 2: Jund 0-2
Game 1 I almost got there, but he stabilized with Scooze and patiently played through my mana denial and made good decisions with his Bolts on my Crusader(s). Crusader is obviously a house here, I just wish Paladin En-Vec had double-strike. Game 2 I brought in 3 Relics and 2 Firewalkers to handle his Goofys and act as a pseudo Clue token and blank his Bolts. I wished my Firewalkers were Auriok Champions the whole night due to the Pushes/Bolts being the most prevalent spells in my meta. Game 2 he kept a 2-lander with Bob and 3 BBE. He didn't flip a single spell with Bob and played all 3 BBE's. I died in a fire, but he's a great Jund pilot.
Round 3: Grixis Death's shadow 2-1 Gurmag Angler got blocked all day Games 1-3 and most of his army couldn't block my Crusaders, or block them and live, anyway. The 3rd Crusader and 3 relics came in for the last 2 games. Game 2 he gets there with Liliana making me sacrifice my sole surviving creature. Game 3 I played tighter and more conservatively, grinding it out with (my) EOT Flickerwisp off vial 2 turns in a row to turn off his remaining black source after vialing in an Arbiter in response to his fetchland / my Quarters. The salt was real and he dropped.
Round 4: U/R Gifts Storm 2-0
Games 1 and 2 played out exactly the same during the first 2 turns. T1 Vial > T2 Inspector off Vial and play Thalia > he can't gain ground. Game 2 Eidolon came down and he bolted it and I said "sure, resolves." He tried putting the Eidolon in the graveyard when I reminded him it was a 1/4. He posed no threat and I beat him up with golems and flyers for the win. Feels good, man.
Round 5: Mono Green Tron 2-1
Missed a vial trigger game 1 like I didn't have years of D&T experience and it cost me the game. When I went to vial in Arbiter in response to Expedition Map. He Ugin'd and pooped on me. Games 2 and 3 were different and Finks did work post-Pyroclasms while his Tron pieces got Flickered during my end step / destroyed. I didn't know what to sideboard so 3 Relics came in, which just became Clue tokens, drawing me gas.
Round 6: Intentional draw into T8.
Round 1 of Top 8: 1-2 Mardu Pyromancer
This was the most fun I'd had in MTG in a long time (7 years to be exact). He was a joyful, pleasant opponent that shared banter with me as we got loopier and loopier as the night wore on (around 1:30 AM at this point). My inexperience in the format and first time seeing Mardu Pyromancer got me game 1 when he K-Commanded my Blade Splicer & Golem token in response to trying to Wisp it. Game 2 I got there off a Turn 3 and 4 Crusader. Game 3 I got him to 4 life when he looted 2 Lingering Souls and flashed them back, with no way for me to overcome his growing army, despite PTEing 2 Pyromancers and 1 Reveler. I ain't even mad.
Takeaways: Thraben Inspector is absurd. If I ever do include Judge's Familiar or Dryad Militant in the main, it will be in addition to Inspectors. I stopped counting at 15 cards drawn off that critter through the course of the night. The P/T was useful more than once against tokens and he was just a one-way ticket to value town. Mirran Crusader was a good call. I want to run 3 MB. Kitchen Finks was okay. Never quite useless, never quite the bomb, resilient and helpful occasionally. Maybe he should live in the sideboard or I should find more ways to abuse him, ala Eldrazi Displacer.
My manabase was tighter than a crab's rear-end and gave me no fits, but I think I'd rather have a 2/2 split Field of Ruin and Tectonic Edge or Mutavault.
Overall, a good first foray back into D&T.
The report was a good read, glad you found a list to your liking : ) I'm quite surprised Mirran Crusader keep seing so much success in a bolt format.. I suppose I'll have to bite the bullet and try it out more myself!
Mardu, or tokens in general, is in my experience quite hard to deal with. For this reason Declaration in Stone has almost become a stapled 1-2 of in my sideboards. Wether this is right or wrong I can't say, these decks are quite rare to face after all, but I do like the ability to occasionally stomp multiple Death's Shadows or the like.
I'm also a bit surprised you didn't have any artifact hate in the board, was it intentional?
I keep seeing successful lists running a stack of 1-ofs (virtual 5-ofs if we count 1 Mindcensor with 4 Arbiter), 2-ofs, and 3-ofs all over the place, with the mostly-agreed-upon core being the only consistent theory in action. This, plus my inexperience with this particular format and 7 year absence has made this a real undertaking. Where do you awesome folks land on all of this?
The 1 or 2-ofs you keep seeing in lists is probably a portion of the flex slots that's tailored for the meta the pilots predicted for the event which they topped.
Generally, 2-ofs are often some kind of proactive tool that you want to see late-game. Very good examples of these are Thalia HC or Eldrazi Displacer (in mono-white without Temples).
1-ofs are often silver bullets, or 5th piece of disruption (Mindcensor being a good example, as you mentioned). Don't be too concerned about these numbers, the flex spots can both be full playsets or 1/2-ofs depending on how much power you'll sacrifice for flexibility. MTGO meta is very spread so lots of 1/2-ofs are a common sight when looking at top8 lists.
My only suggestion is that you should always run 4 copies of the cards in the core, I really don't like lists that cuts a Thalia, Wisp (or even Splicer) for extra removal or some random jank like Mana Tithe. Those cards, althought useful, belong in flex spots.
Against your listed meta, I think the 1 Mindcensor is a good include. If you're feeling ballsy you can also try out my idea of of running 4 Vryn Wingmare alongside Thalia, it actually looks very useful here (not enough data to tell the effectiveness of this in modern tho).
Sideboard teching is a bit harder, but I can offer a few suggestions. You should obviously have Forge-Tenders to counter burn/ponza, maybe 1-2 Blessed Alliance too in case of Stormbreath Dragon. Maybe Phyrexian Revoker can be effective if Ad Nauseam count is high, as they also double against Liliana, Last Hope which has seen increase in play after BBE unban (and this Lili is a lot worse than Veil). 1-of Eidolon of Rhetoric is good against BBE and storm.
Otherwise I think you can fill in the voids with the common stuff like Rip, Stony/Relic-Warder, div.removal.
I think the Damping Sphere is going to be a phenomenal addition to our sideboard. Also hoses Amulet, which has been doing great locally (no, seriously).
I'm also a bit interested in one of the new walkers:
Karn, Scion of Urza (4)
Legendary Planeswalker — Karn
+1: Reveal the top two cards of your library. An opponent chooses one of them. Put that card into your hand and exile the other with a silver counter on it.
-1: Put a card you own with a silver counter on it from exile into your hand.
-2: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with "This creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control."
5 loyalty
Not sure, but gaining card advantage every turn in mono-white taxes seems aluring for grindy matchups. Slamming either Gideon might just be better tho.
Jace and Bloodbraid being unbanned, what are we supposed to do? How bad is this for us? Is Phyrexian Revoker finally going to have to be maindecked, alongside an Eidolon of Rhetoric or Ethersworn Canonist?
Tbh I'm not that scaered of Jace himself, our deck are well positioned to beat decks playing him. I'm more concerned about what will happen to the meta, as I predict it will shift into faster decks or more tron to beat Jace.
Bloodbraid elf? No idea tbh. Jund will obviously be harder, but can't gauge how present the archetype will be because of Mr.Blue.
Is there a reason why my tournament report from Saturday got ignored so easily?
I know that a small tournament report from a new player is not very interesting but I could really use some feedback on sideboarding.
I have read all sideboarding guide I could find but I am still really unsure especially on what to board out in certain MUs.
I believe the reason is that many people (myself included) after a while stops reading long reports simply because there's so many. When I visit a forum it's much easier to throw in opinions on a discussion that can be answered with a couple lines, while a report is a wall-of-text in comparison. Exception is when someone performs well in a big tournament.
No one dislikes reports tho, so there's no harm in posting Just note that if there's a lot of activity otherwise it might get lost in the convo.
However if you'd like feedback on just a couple things, chances for getting an answer is almost guaranteed if you post just those questions.
If only we had another good hatebear at 2 cmc or so it would be perfect, but I'm still going to test it as a 2-of upon release.
As for red splash, I don't think we can mimic legacy DnT's success with it without Recruiter of the Guard, but there are some interesting options. I'd start out with Dire Fleet Daredevil. It turned out to be too errant for legacy but I imagine it's slighly better in modern. A small rundown of some interactions: Stealing Snap's targets with vial on 2, deny Faithless Looting/Lingering Souls flashbacks, gain CA with cheap removal, Thoughtseizeing the BGx player back. And that first strike is actually very relevant nowadays. Other card that are potentially good is Magus of the Moon, and for sb Hazoret the Fervent, Wear//Tear, and Abrade.
I'd love some feedback if you decide to go for it!
That's a lot to process! I agree that the meta is unhealthy now in general, and I believe it's directly connected to the Jace unban. The card itself is barely played nowadays, but that's because the meta shifted heavily to cheese aggro decks to beat him. And these decks has stayed for a while.
However, I'm really against your opinion on how bad placed DnT is right now, at least as far as mono-white is concerned. Imo we can handle aggro decks quite fine even without targeted hate. Nut draws from ex. Hollow one is obviously bad, but who can handle that? Luckily it doesn't occur too often and we have a good shot against their average draws. Same can be said against most aggro decks really. Card draw in mono is a sligh issue, but unless we're playing against something that's heavily removal-based (BGx, Mardu), we can 2-for-1 (or even 3-for-1?) our opponent enough to make up for it. Also most aggro decks these days can't handle multiple Blade Splicer triggers. I could go on with a lot of examples but I'll stay brief :')
Regarding your card suggestions! I've been playing 1 Shalai for a while, and I think she's good. Unsure if I'd go above 1 copy tho as the effect is a little less applicable than Restoration Angel, but certain decks struggle a lot with her. The exact same thing can be said with Auriok Champion in the board.
I don't really see the use of Porphyry Nodes, wouldn't it destroy our own dudes most of the time? I mean, Inspectors and Blade Splicer are smol. I may test a copy in the board for a couple streams tho.
Norn's Annex is an interesting card I mused about in the past, but I think its drawbacks is too harsh nowadays. You wouldn't really want to pay 4 life to get it down early enough against aggro, would you? And unless you've pressured them enough they can just pay with life to swing lethal. May have some applications against certain decks, Mardu Tokens comes to mind. But I simply think Auriok Champion should be in that spot instead.
The others are either too costy or doesn't impact enough, I think. If only Epochrasite was 2 time counters..
Arbiter is really good because of how early you can utilize it's effect to sometimes shut your opponent out of the game. That 1 mana difference is often the difference between doing so or not. Personally I wouldn't use Mindcensor main these days because of how aggressive the meta is (at least in my experience), but I can definitely support 1-2 copies in the sb if you struggle against said matchups.
The matchups you listed are all kinda hard and comes down to tempo plays, where Vial is exceptionally useful. Merfolk and Spirits both comes down to who place the most well timed bounce/paths to push through damage and make the best trades. It's really important to not miss damage in these matchups since the race tends to be very close. Specifically against merfolk, keep up a Ghost Quarter or Flickerwisp in hand at all times to cancel out a Spreading Seas which allows them to alpha-strike with Islandwalk.
Sideboard plan is basically to just jam in as much removal as you can without detering your own aggro too much. Boardwipes are appreciated against merfolk since they build a board faster than us.
Humans is known as one of our worst matchups, but personally I find it much easier after Ixalan since they only run 1 basic now. This means their lands can be Quartered or Fielded without Arbiter aggresively early on, and paths can be used freely. I've won several games by making them unable to do anything by keeping them down on 1 land and no dorks. If you can just stabilize the initial aggro it should be easy from there.
Now, I'm not that much of an entertainer and at best I'm an average pilot. But I hope some of you will join me anyway and spark some discussion on deckbuilding and plays in real-time. The decklist I'll be playing is found beneath the stream, eventually in my signature here.
See you in the chat!
EDIT: new time
For additional spot removal that isn't restricted to non-white (Sunlance), I'd reccommend Declaration in Stone (excellent vs Hollow), Oust, or even Condemn if there's any Death's Shadow there too. If you want something without any drawback, Reprisal does the same as Effort for 2 mana and only 1 being white, while also being instant.
http://mythicspoiler.com/dom/cards/boardtheweatherlight.html
Being able to hit Thalia, a silver bullet from SB, or even a legendary land (Flagstones/Eiganjo) makes me think it can be a nice addition to up the deck's consistency. I don't think it's insane since it's 2 mana (or even 3 with Thalia in play), but I'm really interested in testing some copies.
Mardu, or tokens in general, is in my experience quite hard to deal with. For this reason Declaration in Stone has almost become a stapled 1-2 of in my sideboards. Wether this is right or wrong I can't say, these decks are quite rare to face after all, but I do like the ability to occasionally stomp multiple Death's Shadows or the like.
I'm also a bit surprised you didn't have any artifact hate in the board, was it intentional?
Generally, 2-ofs are often some kind of proactive tool that you want to see late-game. Very good examples of these are Thalia HC or Eldrazi Displacer (in mono-white without Temples).
1-ofs are often silver bullets, or 5th piece of disruption (Mindcensor being a good example, as you mentioned). Don't be too concerned about these numbers, the flex spots can both be full playsets or 1/2-ofs depending on how much power you'll sacrifice for flexibility. MTGO meta is very spread so lots of 1/2-ofs are a common sight when looking at top8 lists.
My only suggestion is that you should always run 4 copies of the cards in the core, I really don't like lists that cuts a Thalia, Wisp (or even Splicer) for extra removal or some random jank like Mana Tithe. Those cards, althought useful, belong in flex spots.
Against your listed meta, I think the 1 Mindcensor is a good include. If you're feeling ballsy you can also try out my idea of of running 4 Vryn Wingmare alongside Thalia, it actually looks very useful here (not enough data to tell the effectiveness of this in modern tho).
Sideboard teching is a bit harder, but I can offer a few suggestions. You should obviously have Forge-Tenders to counter burn/ponza, maybe 1-2 Blessed Alliance too in case of Stormbreath Dragon. Maybe Phyrexian Revoker can be effective if Ad Nauseam count is high, as they also double against Liliana, Last Hope which has seen increase in play after BBE unban (and this Lili is a lot worse than Veil). 1-of Eidolon of Rhetoric is good against BBE and storm.
Otherwise I think you can fill in the voids with the common stuff like Rip, Stony/Relic-Warder, div.removal.
I'm also a bit interested in one of the new walkers:
Legendary Planeswalker — Karn
+1: Reveal the top two cards of your library. An opponent chooses one of them. Put that card into your hand and exile the other with a silver counter on it.
-1: Put a card you own with a silver counter on it from exile into your hand.
-2: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with "This creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control."
5 loyalty
Not sure, but gaining card advantage every turn in mono-white taxes seems aluring for grindy matchups. Slamming either Gideon might just be better tho.
Edit: hid the spoiled card text
Tbh I'm not that scaered of Jace himself, our deck are well positioned to beat decks playing him. I'm more concerned about what will happen to the meta, as I predict it will shift into faster decks or more tron to beat Jace.
Bloodbraid elf? No idea tbh. Jund will obviously be harder, but can't gauge how present the archetype will be because of Mr.Blue.
No one dislikes reports tho, so there's no harm in posting
However if you'd like feedback on just a couple things, chances for getting an answer is almost guaranteed if you post just those questions.