Skred Tournament Report –Top 8 finish in - 65 Player Modern 2k
(this is a copy+paste of what I posted to reddit). I meant to get this report written up a few days ago but I’ve been pretty busy. I attended a 65 player modern tournament on April 7th and did fairly well with Skred. I apologize for the lack of details (like sideboarding notes, etc,) as I’ve never written a report like this before and was mainly there to have a good time, which I definitely succeeded in. I’ve been on Skred as my primary modern deck since October 2016 and I realize it seems a little weaker in this meta than it has been, but it surprised me with how well it held up at the event.
Started the day off with a loss. Not too familiar with the matchup and I had held up a relic game 1 thinking he needed to cast a sorcery to recur the graveyard and go off. Turns out it was a build that uses the mana to hardcast Emrakul, which happened both games. There was probably a lot of ways I could’ve handled the matchup better but my opponent was able to go off both games.
U/W Control (Win 2-0) – 1-1 Record
I’ve always found UW/x control decks to be pretty favorable due to the must answer nature of Skred’s threats and how poorly the removal lines up. Game 1 was pretty straightforward with me being on the front foot the whole time. A stormbreath and thopters from P&K did the majority of the work, and 3 bolts to the face cleaned things up once I had baited Cryptic mana out. Game 2 was pretty similar – I think the game was won by a monstrous Stormbreath.
Ponza (Win 2-1) – 2-1 Record
Another matchup that I’ve generally found to be favorable. He won the first match with some land destruction and me being unable to get back to 4 mana. Don’t remember the exactly details of games 2 and 3 but some molten rains directed at enchanted forests and removal for all elves did some work. The destroyed lands kept his mana in check and a Hazoret cleaned up the third game. Dealing with the combo of Nissa, P&K and BBE from my opponent was a bit of a tough value grind but in the end I managed to break through the stalls.
R/G Eldrazi (Win 2-0) – 3-1 Record
Wasn’t sure exactly what I was up against the first 2 turns of game 1 but I bolted the bird and the Hierarch that came out. I top decked a Blood Moon for turn 3 right before he got an Eldrazi Temple down and mana screwed him out of the game.
Game 2 turned into a topdeck war where I eventually got another Blood Moon down and Molten Rained his basic forest to keep him off Natural State. He ended up with 3 Matter Reshapers on the field before the moon hit so it was a tricky game of navigating that race without having to block too early. Eternal Scourge held off the attack for a bit and I finally blocked one Reshaper and Bolted the other one before turning the corner and finishing the game off.
Burn (Win 2-0) – 4-1 Record
The burn matchup is always a stressful one as it’s always a tossup a to whether or not the cards line up properly. Game 1 definitely played out how I wanted it to as I spent the first 3 turns removing his creatures (2 Swiftspears and an Eidolon). I got a blood moon down after killing Eidolon and it stranded some white spells in hand. From there, I closed out the game with both Eternal Scourges.
Game 2 went well with a good amount of removal, both Scourges out again, and a Dragons Claw that I drew into. I got on the beatdown pretty quickly so my opponent ended up having to direct burn spells at my Eternal Scourges. I think I finished the game at 18 life after the Claw Triggers gained about 7 or so.
Hollow One (Win 2-1) – 5-1 Record
This match was against a regular at our LGS and was friendly but also the best game of Magic I had all day. Game 1 I had a hard time catching up and eventually got run down by recursion without a relic available. Game 2 I found the disruption I needed and eventually closed out the game.
Game 3 was one of the best games I’ve played and had a lot of back and forth. I had access to 2 relics (both were eventually popped at the right times) but was choked on 3 mana (2 mountains and 1 stone) with a grip of 5 of my threats in hand. I was stuck doing nothing for a few turns but with the relics available before I finally hit the 4th land drop and the floodgates were open. From there, it was a matter of resource management to get my threats on board as quickly as possible through Koth and Chandra ramping, while preserving my life total through chump blocks and eventually answer most threats through bolts, Skreds and sweepers (including 2 for 3s to finish off Hollow Ones and Anglers). I stabilized at 1 life while chumping a Bloodghast and fading bolt off the top until I closed out the game with a Stormbreath and friends.
Mono Green Tron (ID) – 5-1-1 Record
Drew this round to secure top 8 and grab some food between rounds. Turns out my opponent was on some kind of G/x Tron. Glad I didn’t have to face that!
Bogles (Loss 1-2)
My opponent and I both knew our decks going into this match so we had an idea of how this was going to play out but I still had fun knowing it was probably a 90-10 matchup in his favor.
Game 1 was actually pretty close. Raced him with T3 P&K, and T4 and T5 Stormbreath. He was at 14 the last turn of the game and I had 13 damage + 1 bolt in hand (2 Stormbreaths, one monstrous and 2 thopters swinging in) but turn 0 Leyline made the bolt useless.
Game 2 went about as well as it could’ve. A turn 2 Ratchet Bomb managed to take out a totem armor and then a K-Return finished off 3 of his creatures at once. He didn’t draw many auras after that and I closed the game out quickly.
Game 3 was a loss with relevant cards in hand, but being on the draw made my 3 mana sweepers too slow. Tried to race but a Daybreak Coronet caused him to win the game and finish at 30+ life.
Thoughts/Card choices:
Stormbreath Dragon:
I had considered cutting 1 or 2 in place of Glorybringers and/or a Sarkhan for cuteness/removal factor but, as someone else on Reddit put it, “I’ve never been let down by Stormbreath Dragon.” I think the 3 of is pretty solid, although a singleton Glorybringer could be a reasonable meta call. Also, if you’re ever stuck at 4 mana with a Stormbreath and a P&K in hand, casting mom and pop will immediately result in a path directed at them so you can untap with 5 mana (happened 4 times that I can remember over the course of the tournament).
Eternal Scourge:
I have done a lot thinking about this card’s slot, as I feel other Skred players likely have, too. Sometimes it just feels bad but at the same time, I can’t seem to cut it. I used to run Reckoner when I first started playing the deck and I prefer what it does (walls small dudes, blocks eldrazi successfully and allows you to Skred the face) but I do acknowledge it will often eat their removal spell they’ve been holding and provide a tempo disadvantage. The week leading up to the tournament, I was scrutinizing this slot and was considering running Reckoner or Rabblemaster in its place but in the end I feel it was the right call to play Scourge. One day, something will come to take its place but for now I’ll be keeping them in the MD.
Sideboard:
I’m very happy with the sideboard. K-Return deals with anything pro-red in the format and provides an extra set of sweepers in matchups where that’s needed. I feel the 4 claws are necessary and I never leave home without them. Always seems to be at least 1 burn match anytime I play, even if they’re kinda bad in other matchups. I wish I had 4 Molten Rain when needed but 3 felt like a good number.
Conclusion:
I just can’t stop playing this deck! I feel the meta hasn’t been too friendly to Skred lately (maybe the rason for the lack of 5-0 finishes on MODO) but it still has legs.
Went up against several different decks, including G/B Aristocrats, Mono Red Eldrazi, Mono White Humans, R/B Vampires, B/W Control and B/W Lifegain. None of the matchups were a huge problem for the deck, although the Aristocrats game was definitely the most difficult with every kill spill and Languish providing some kind of benefit to my opponent.
In terms of changes from here, I don't find dead weight to be a very useful card at all. Too many X/3s in the format. I could see myself turning it into a third concoction any day now. Sidisi is so-so. Amazing when I really need it, but not often worth the 4/6 body or tempo loss in exploiting itself. Silumgar was definitely MVP yesterday, providing a very hilarious win condition. The deck is pretty soft to Duress early on, but recovers quickly enough, often getting back whatever was taken via Jace.
The archetype is certainly a blast to play. Luck was on my side a lot of the time yesterday but there are a lot of really awesome ways to swing the back out of nowhere. Probably the most fun I've had playing Magic.
I’ve been testing and tuning UB Reanimator for about 3 weeks now but haven’t brought it to any kind of event yet. I’m planning on playing it at 2 Game Days next weekend. Here is my list.
I’m packing 4 Languish in the main board as I’m expecting an aggro-heavy local meta and I can always pitch them to GY to get a scorcery for delirium if needed. 24 lands feels like the right amount. Sometimes I have to go digging for them through Jace/Oath of Jace but I end up having to mitigate a lot of flood near the end of the game.
As of this weekend I’ve went from a 1/1 split of Kologhan and Silumgar to just 2 copies of Dragonlord Silumgar in the main as it usually ends up finding a hard to deal with target near the end of a game (Archangel of Tithes, etc), plus it’s just a hilarious card. I was testing on xMage against B/W control and stole someone’s Sorin then immediately ult’d for 19 vampire tokens, which was an amazing way to finish a game. The sideboard is definitely still a work in progress.
In terms of matchups, I’ve found CoCo not to be as terrible as I initially feared, although reflector mage can be quite annoying. He’s a reason why I don’t mind having Silumgars, because I can at least make my opponent regret bouncing it at some point. The 4 Languish really keep CoCo from building too much of a board, but they recover quick. I’ve also done extensive testing against various humans flavors and I’m not at all worried about them. Ojutai can be a bit of a pain with Always Watching but by the time it comes out, the board is usually under control enough that To the Slaughter finds its target.
Control and ramp are a bit difficult because of how reactive the early game is. Ramp is easy enough to disrupt post-board but other control decks are a bit problematic until I can resolve a Sphinx of the Final Word.
(this is a copy+paste of what I posted to reddit). I meant to get this report written up a few days ago but I’ve been pretty busy. I attended a 65 player modern tournament on April 7th and did fairly well with Skred. I apologize for the lack of details (like sideboarding notes, etc,) as I’ve never written a report like this before and was mainly there to have a good time, which I definitely succeeded in. I’ve been on Skred as my primary modern deck since October 2016 and I realize it seems a little weaker in this meta than it has been, but it surprised me with how well it held up at the event.
Decklist:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/skred-red-f2f-open/
Matches
KCI (Loss 0-2) – 0-1 Record
Started the day off with a loss. Not too familiar with the matchup and I had held up a relic game 1 thinking he needed to cast a sorcery to recur the graveyard and go off. Turns out it was a build that uses the mana to hardcast Emrakul, which happened both games. There was probably a lot of ways I could’ve handled the matchup better but my opponent was able to go off both games.
U/W Control (Win 2-0) – 1-1 Record
I’ve always found UW/x control decks to be pretty favorable due to the must answer nature of Skred’s threats and how poorly the removal lines up. Game 1 was pretty straightforward with me being on the front foot the whole time. A stormbreath and thopters from P&K did the majority of the work, and 3 bolts to the face cleaned things up once I had baited Cryptic mana out. Game 2 was pretty similar – I think the game was won by a monstrous Stormbreath.
Ponza (Win 2-1) – 2-1 Record
Another matchup that I’ve generally found to be favorable. He won the first match with some land destruction and me being unable to get back to 4 mana. Don’t remember the exactly details of games 2 and 3 but some molten rains directed at enchanted forests and removal for all elves did some work. The destroyed lands kept his mana in check and a Hazoret cleaned up the third game. Dealing with the combo of Nissa, P&K and BBE from my opponent was a bit of a tough value grind but in the end I managed to break through the stalls.
R/G Eldrazi (Win 2-0) – 3-1 Record
Wasn’t sure exactly what I was up against the first 2 turns of game 1 but I bolted the bird and the Hierarch that came out. I top decked a Blood Moon for turn 3 right before he got an Eldrazi Temple down and mana screwed him out of the game.
Game 2 turned into a topdeck war where I eventually got another Blood Moon down and Molten Rained his basic forest to keep him off Natural State. He ended up with 3 Matter Reshapers on the field before the moon hit so it was a tricky game of navigating that race without having to block too early. Eternal Scourge held off the attack for a bit and I finally blocked one Reshaper and Bolted the other one before turning the corner and finishing the game off.
Burn (Win 2-0) – 4-1 Record
The burn matchup is always a stressful one as it’s always a tossup a to whether or not the cards line up properly. Game 1 definitely played out how I wanted it to as I spent the first 3 turns removing his creatures (2 Swiftspears and an Eidolon). I got a blood moon down after killing Eidolon and it stranded some white spells in hand. From there, I closed out the game with both Eternal Scourges.
Game 2 went well with a good amount of removal, both Scourges out again, and a Dragons Claw that I drew into. I got on the beatdown pretty quickly so my opponent ended up having to direct burn spells at my Eternal Scourges. I think I finished the game at 18 life after the Claw Triggers gained about 7 or so.
Hollow One (Win 2-1) – 5-1 Record
This match was against a regular at our LGS and was friendly but also the best game of Magic I had all day. Game 1 I had a hard time catching up and eventually got run down by recursion without a relic available. Game 2 I found the disruption I needed and eventually closed out the game.
Game 3 was one of the best games I’ve played and had a lot of back and forth. I had access to 2 relics (both were eventually popped at the right times) but was choked on 3 mana (2 mountains and 1 stone) with a grip of 5 of my threats in hand. I was stuck doing nothing for a few turns but with the relics available before I finally hit the 4th land drop and the floodgates were open. From there, it was a matter of resource management to get my threats on board as quickly as possible through Koth and Chandra ramping, while preserving my life total through chump blocks and eventually answer most threats through bolts, Skreds and sweepers (including 2 for 3s to finish off Hollow Ones and Anglers). I stabilized at 1 life while chumping a Bloodghast and fading bolt off the top until I closed out the game with a Stormbreath and friends.
Mono Green Tron (ID) – 5-1-1 Record
Drew this round to secure top 8 and grab some food between rounds. Turns out my opponent was on some kind of G/x Tron. Glad I didn’t have to face that!
Bogles (Loss 1-2)
My opponent and I both knew our decks going into this match so we had an idea of how this was going to play out but I still had fun knowing it was probably a 90-10 matchup in his favor.
Game 1 was actually pretty close. Raced him with T3 P&K, and T4 and T5 Stormbreath. He was at 14 the last turn of the game and I had 13 damage + 1 bolt in hand (2 Stormbreaths, one monstrous and 2 thopters swinging in) but turn 0 Leyline made the bolt useless.
Game 2 went about as well as it could’ve. A turn 2 Ratchet Bomb managed to take out a totem armor and then a K-Return finished off 3 of his creatures at once. He didn’t draw many auras after that and I closed the game out quickly.
Game 3 was a loss with relevant cards in hand, but being on the draw made my 3 mana sweepers too slow. Tried to race but a Daybreak Coronet caused him to win the game and finish at 30+ life.
Thoughts/Card choices:
Stormbreath Dragon:
I had considered cutting 1 or 2 in place of Glorybringers and/or a Sarkhan for cuteness/removal factor but, as someone else on Reddit put it, “I’ve never been let down by Stormbreath Dragon.” I think the 3 of is pretty solid, although a singleton Glorybringer could be a reasonable meta call. Also, if you’re ever stuck at 4 mana with a Stormbreath and a P&K in hand, casting mom and pop will immediately result in a path directed at them so you can untap with 5 mana (happened 4 times that I can remember over the course of the tournament).
Eternal Scourge:
I have done a lot thinking about this card’s slot, as I feel other Skred players likely have, too. Sometimes it just feels bad but at the same time, I can’t seem to cut it. I used to run Reckoner when I first started playing the deck and I prefer what it does (walls small dudes, blocks eldrazi successfully and allows you to Skred the face) but I do acknowledge it will often eat their removal spell they’ve been holding and provide a tempo disadvantage. The week leading up to the tournament, I was scrutinizing this slot and was considering running Reckoner or Rabblemaster in its place but in the end I feel it was the right call to play Scourge. One day, something will come to take its place but for now I’ll be keeping them in the MD.
Sideboard:
I’m very happy with the sideboard. K-Return deals with anything pro-red in the format and provides an extra set of sweepers in matchups where that’s needed. I feel the 4 claws are necessary and I never leave home without them. Always seems to be at least 1 burn match anytime I play, even if they’re kinda bad in other matchups. I wish I had 4 Molten Rain when needed but 3 felt like a good number.
Conclusion:
I just can’t stop playing this deck! I feel the meta hasn’t been too friendly to Skred lately (maybe the rason for the lack of 5-0 finishes on MODO) but it still has legs.
1x Dead Weight
4x Dragonlord Atarka
2x Dragonlord Silumgar
1x Ever After
2x Evolving Wilds
2x Grasp of Darkness
6x Island
4x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4x Languish
4x Mindwrack Demon
4x Necromantic Summons
4x Oath of Jace
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
2x Sinister Concoction
4x Sunken Hollow
8x Swamp
2x To the Slaughter
1x Ultimate Price
2x Dispel
1x Dragonlord Kolaghan
2x Duress
1x Linvala, the Preserver
2x Negate
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
1x Ruinous Path
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
2x Sphinx of the Final Word
2x Virulent Plague
Link to deck @ TappedOut.net
Went up against several different decks, including G/B Aristocrats, Mono Red Eldrazi, Mono White Humans, R/B Vampires, B/W Control and B/W Lifegain. None of the matchups were a huge problem for the deck, although the Aristocrats game was definitely the most difficult with every kill spill and Languish providing some kind of benefit to my opponent.
In terms of changes from here, I don't find dead weight to be a very useful card at all. Too many X/3s in the format. I could see myself turning it into a third concoction any day now. Sidisi is so-so. Amazing when I really need it, but not often worth the 4/6 body or tempo loss in exploiting itself. Silumgar was definitely MVP yesterday, providing a very hilarious win condition. The deck is pretty soft to Duress early on, but recovers quickly enough, often getting back whatever was taken via Jace.
The archetype is certainly a blast to play. Luck was on my side a lot of the time yesterday but there are a lot of really awesome ways to swing the back out of nowhere. Probably the most fun I've had playing Magic.
2x Dead Weight
4x Dragonlord Atarka
2x Dragonlord Silumgar
1x Ever After
2x Evolving Wilds
2x Grasp of Darkness
6x Island
4x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4x Languish
4x Mindwrack Demon
4x Necromantic Summons
4x Oath of Jace
2x Sinister Concoction
4x Sunken Hollow
8x Swamp
2x To the Slaughter
1x Ultimate Price
3x Dispel
1x Dragonlord Kolaghan
2x Duress
1x Linvala, the Preserver
2x Negate
2x Ruinous Path
2x Sphinx of the Final Word
2x Void Winnower
I’m packing 4 Languish in the main board as I’m expecting an aggro-heavy local meta and I can always pitch them to GY to get a scorcery for delirium if needed. 24 lands feels like the right amount. Sometimes I have to go digging for them through Jace/Oath of Jace but I end up having to mitigate a lot of flood near the end of the game.
As of this weekend I’ve went from a 1/1 split of Kologhan and Silumgar to just 2 copies of Dragonlord Silumgar in the main as it usually ends up finding a hard to deal with target near the end of a game (Archangel of Tithes, etc), plus it’s just a hilarious card. I was testing on xMage against B/W control and stole someone’s Sorin then immediately ult’d for 19 vampire tokens, which was an amazing way to finish a game. The sideboard is definitely still a work in progress.
In terms of matchups, I’ve found CoCo not to be as terrible as I initially feared, although reflector mage can be quite annoying. He’s a reason why I don’t mind having Silumgars, because I can at least make my opponent regret bouncing it at some point. The 4 Languish really keep CoCo from building too much of a board, but they recover quick. I’ve also done extensive testing against various humans flavors and I’m not at all worried about them. Ojutai can be a bit of a pain with Always Watching but by the time it comes out, the board is usually under control enough that To the Slaughter finds its target.
Control and ramp are a bit difficult because of how reactive the early game is. Ramp is easy enough to disrupt post-board but other control decks are a bit problematic until I can resolve a Sphinx of the Final Word.