Below is the build I've been having much more success with compared to the RG zoo-style builds. I find that the deck is much more resilient and can grind out matches much better than the normal RG build despite being slightly slower.
While I'm personally much more of a fan of my build than the RG one, a card I've not seen much is Ghor-Clan Rampager, which I find odd. Unless you combine it with Become Immense, it's almost always better than Temur Battle Rage as no creature exceeds 4 power and it is very unlikely to be countered as it is not cast. It can also be cast as a creature. I feel like if you're connecting with combination of Become Immense and either GCR or TBR, you're pretty much going to win.
New T1 dechs like D-shadow, vizier combo, UR-gifts and eldrazi tron are all pretty rough matchups for us.
Why is Eldrazi Tron a bad match up for Tooth and Nail? I've had no problem beating it.
Going to concur with MiSickler here too. I almost never lose to Jund DS (I honestly consider it one of our easiest matchups) and Grixis DS is pretty even. I haven't found Eldrazi Tron to be much of an issue either. UR Storm feels like a 40/60 matchup in theory even though I have a 67% winrate against it. I haven't gotten to face much Vizier but I imagine it is pretty rough.
@UEGJO. How have you been finding the black splash? Do you prefer it? And what's up with the 1x Leyline in the board?
Scryb Ranger as a replacement for Fertile Ground = bad. It only works with 6 creatures and you need at least 1 unenchanted forest. The number of unenchanted forests shrinks heavily if you've evenly distributed your enchantments or if you have Blood Moon out. It was occasionally used to get an additional 1 mana per turn but I found I would have just preferred Fertile Ground every time I had it out.
I've played tooth and nail for a while, why does he run Hornet queen, PrimeTime, in the main with Atarka in the side?
Is it for the off chance someone either exiles emrakul or nevermore naming emrakul etc? Also why Atarka in sideboard?
The thing about Tooth and Nail is that you only have about a 52.8% chance of drawing it by Turn 3/4 (Draw/Play). And there aren't effective ways of tutoring the card itself. As such, having tutorable, alternate wincons such as Primeval Titan and Hornet Queen (arguably the best 6 and 7 cmc creatures respectively) provides versatility and a much more likely chance of having a wincon. Some decks fold to these creatures. With Primal Command, you effectively have 4x Primeval Titans or 4x Hornet Queens. For the same reason we run 1x Nissa, Worldwaker, as replacing 1 Garruk Wildspeaker with her does not hamper consistency and many decks cannot face 4/4 Trample, Vigilance, Haste creatures (choosing a land that has been in play before this turn = haste, and any untapper gives the land vigilance).
Regarding Dragonlord Atarka in the sideboard, there are some decks that Hornet Queen is terrible against, such as Merfolk. Casting Dragonlord Atarka can wipe a Merfolk board if you distribute the damage right.
I'm curious if these changes are experimental. I tried the B splash for Fatal Push a couple of months ago and did not find it to be particularly useful. I feel as though mainboard Blood Moon hurts almost every deck we'd want Fatal Push in, aside from UR Storm and Merfolk. Maybe Death & Taxes? My winrate against Death & Taxes has been abysmal, and it's the only matchup I consider an automatic loss. Merfolk is a 40/60 matchup and has been relegated to Tier 3 because it's poorly positioned in the meta. UR Storm is a weird matchup because while my personal winrate is relatively high, I consider a decent number of my round wins to be because they drew poorly.
On some of the other changes:
Mainboard +1 Khalni Garden: This is an odd one. I don't like lands automatically coming in tapped because we sometimes have to run on 1 land. You also cannot untap it with Arbor Elf or Nissa, Worldwaker. Perhaps Sapseep Forest would be better? I'm just not sure how many matchups a single chump blocker will help us in, especially when we cannot fetch it.
+2 Green Fetchlands: Necessary if you splash elsewhere. Not a fan of the ratio if you're sticking to RG.
-1 Fertile Ground: Sure, I side this one out like 90% of the time. It's just good for round 1 consistency.
Sideboard:
+1 Courser of Kruphix: Neat. I might try swapping my Fertile Ground for this Mainboard. A portion of my losses are purely to drawing lands in this might help with that. Also a good blocker.
+1 Leyline of Sanctity: Not a choice I understand. You either need Birds of Paradise or Utopia Sprawl to play it. And I'm not sure if we need it for the matchups that run hand disruption, as these are fair to favored matchups anyway.
-1 Bonfire of the Damned: A useful card in CoCo and Merfolk matchups. Perhaps a meta-dependent choice.
-2 Lightning Bolt: I guess because he put in Fatal Push. Preferred if you're not splashing for B.
-1 Spellskite: I almost never bring this in anymore.
For the Tooth and Nail enthusiasts. I've yet to test it, but I wonder if Weirding Wood can replace Overgrowth[/card] because of the card draw, or if that 1 mana difference really makes a DIFFERENCE.
A lot of these big green decks can run out of gas, and you hope to topdeck a route to victory or hope that your opponent can't counter a key piece. Any card draw that doesn't deduct from ramping is great for these decks.
It does make a significant difference. Not sure how to accurately describe but the neat thing about Tooth & Nail is how well the costs of the cards line up with the ramp. That's part of why Death & Taxes hurts so much. And you have to remember, it's not just 1 mana per turn, but 2 or 3 or 4 depending upon what other cards you have on the field. The probability of topdecking something that will win or give gas (such as Harmonize) if you've run out of gas is already pretty high and the deck is surprisingly good at durdling. Being able to consistently cast high cost cards isn't worth being able to pay to draw an extra card, in my opinion.
The card that really needs a good replacement is Fertile Ground. It's the third best ramp enchantment out there for our purposes but it's still terrible.
So I just picked up this deck (Devotion tooth and nail) using SaffronOlive's decklist:
--deck list removed for space--
Loving this deck so far, wondering if anyone has any tweaks I can make to it, it seems very draw dependent right now, which I know Selkes would help with.
Also in one of my first games I played against Possibility storm, made a birds into a Emerakul.... felt good.
I own Uegjo's exact list and have been playing it almost exclusively for the past few months. The weakest cards in the 75 are Fertile Ground and Spellskite in the board. I'd call Spellskite meta dependent. I personally like having Fertile Ground, though, because the added consistency has saved me in a few games. This list is actually extremely consistent, unlike many lists which fill up on unnecessary utility cards. Knowing how to turn your Planeswalkers into wincons is extremely important (using untap abilities on Nissa's elementals for vigilance trample 4/4s and ulting Garruk on dorks is often enough to win). If you're just picking this deck up, here are my recommendations:
Get your ramp sequencing down first. Your turn 1 play should always be a 1 cmc dork if you have one in hand. Slow ramp (dorks) should generally be played before enchantments unless you've got a few down already. Once you get ramp down
Learn when to play E-wit and what to target. E-wit should usually not be played until necessary (recovering a removed card or needed for attacking/blocking).
Learn your Primal Command modes. They resolve from top to bottom. You can use this to recover cards from your GY, shuffle a card on the battlefield into an opponent's library (useful versus Jeskai Nahiri) or even gain your opponent life (rip DS decks). Knowing which creature to summon is also very useful.
Learn when and how to use your PW modes like above. I win quite often just by ulting Garruk.
Learning the sideboard takes some practice. Know that Baloth is for players running discard (LotV, K's Command, 8Rack) and also which matchups to swap out Hornet Queen for Dragonlord Atarka. Don't overboard.
Avoid enchanting your Stomping Grounds with Utopia sprawl unless you have to. Blood Moon causes them to fall off. Don't stack enchantments if your opponent is running Ghost Quarter or Spreading Seas. Learning to bait Ghost Quarters and Spreading Seas is also pretty important for these matchups.
Kessig Wolf Run + BoP is a hilarious way to beat Ensnaring Bridge decks.
I have found this deck to be extremely strong in the current meta, with the only unwinnable matchup being D&T. Almost all of the Tier 1 matchups are extremely easy (we have so much tech against DS decks that it's absurd - resolving a Primal Command is GG). Other tempo decks + Bant Eldrazi are tricky but not unwinnable (40-60 I'd say). All-in aggro (Revolt Zoo) and meme combo (Cheeri0s, Storm, Ad Naus) are generally a race given our limited interaction, although post-board we are better.
The only change I'm currently considering is swapping out Spellskite for Grafdigger's Cage, but that's a meta-dependent decision. Note that cage does not hurt Tooth & Nail, as the cards go into our hand AND THEN onto the battlefield.
What you didnt mention is what splash cards are you playing. Are you running both command and boros? Do you also have Helix? What 3 fastlands? 2 vantage/1 gorge?
Edit: Without knowing any of the above I would still personally go up to 11 fetches and I dont even run GLM.
After testing I believe dropping Rest in Peace and going up to 4 Flagstones of Trokair is the best move as Dredge is only lower tier 2 . My math may be wrong but here we go: 2 Darksteel, 0 Flagtones -> P(Able to mana fix by turn 2|Ghost Quarter in opening hand) = approx. 25% 2 Darksteel, 2 Flagtones -> P(Able to mana fix by turn 2|Ghost Quarter in opening hand) = approx. 45% 2 Darksteel, 4 Flagtones -> P(Able to mana fix by turn 2|Ghost Quarter in opening hand) = approx. 60%
One of this deck's biggest weaknesses is its inconsistent mana base (we should ideally be running 20 lands that can produce W). Additionally, any painless thinning is good, regardless of how tiny the advantage is, since we do not want to be topdecking lands midgame. It also makes the rare land destruction matchup slightly better.
I'm not a huge fan of Tormod's Crypt. I feel like hitting both graveyards is important in BGx matchups. Further, I am a huge fan of the card draw + slow removal when total removal isn't urgently needed. I'd argue that if Dredge is big in your meta, use Wheel of Sun and Moon. If not, use Relic of Progenitus.
I'm currently running 10 fetches, 3 fastlands, 5 shocks, and 2 basics playing catless Naya. I have 1 Lava Man and 3 Searing MB and 1 Searing SB. Should I go up to 11 fetches and drop a fastland?
Changes I'm considering making: replacing Rest in Peace with Relic of Progenitus or Wheel of Sun and Moon and upping the Flagstones of Trokair to 4. I've never liked how RiP nonbo's with our card draw from Stone Haven Outfitter. Relic has the advantages of being an artifact, costing 1 cmc, and getting us a card draw. The downside is that opponents can choose which cards they exile and it doesn't hit certain archetypes anywhere near as hard as RiP. Wheel of Sun and Moon performs similarly to RiP but is harder to cast and doesn't exile the GY upon entering. I definitely feel that the card draw from Outfitter is a significant advantage to us and being able to minimizing the number of situations where having a Ghost Quarter out makes Puresteel Paladin and other WW cards difficult to cast is important.
@Parendhil_Sang
There's almost never a situation where Disenchant performs better than Fragmentize. The only card I'd ever replace Fragmentize with is Aura of Silence but Affinity isn't a hard enough matchup for us.
If Auriok Champion were better than Kor Firewalker, other decks would run it. The lifegain is extremely effective and Burn is only running 12-14 creatures currently. Kor Firewalker also has synergy with Auriok Steelshaper.
2 more days until what? MM3 doesn't come out until March 17th.
Spoilers start.
Fetches won't be in MM3 because WOTC has shareholders they have to attend to. Khans and BFZ were bestsellers due to: fetchlands, expeditions, and full-art lands. A set with the first two will be the best selling set ever released and WOTC knows that.
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Blood Crypt
1x Stomping Ground
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Swamp
Creatures - 25
4x Hollow One
4x Insolent Neonate
4x Death's Shadow
4x Street Wraith
4x Vengevine
3x Grim Lavamancer
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2x Lightning Bolt
3x Temur Battle Rage
Sorceries - 12
4x Cathartic Reunion
4x Faithless Looting
4x Thoughtseize
3x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Big Game Hunter
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Destructive Revelry
3x Collective Brutality
Sideboard is currently WIP. Thinking about testing Claim // Fame and Driven // Despair to shore up the Junk and Control matches. I've also been testing Call to the Netherworld, which can be busted with the right nut draws (had 3 Hollow Ones out Turn 1 when comboing this with Street Wraith and Insolent Neonate.
There was a build similar to mine that went 5-0 running a reanimator package that I don't think has been discussed:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-brg-40658#paper
While I'm personally much more of a fan of my build than the RG one, a card I've not seen much is Ghor-Clan Rampager, which I find odd. Unless you combine it with Become Immense, it's almost always better than Temur Battle Rage as no creature exceeds 4 power and it is very unlikely to be countered as it is not cast. It can also be cast as a creature. I feel like if you're connecting with combination of Become Immense and either GCR or TBR, you're pretty much going to win.
Creature (16)
4x Arbor Elf
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3x Eternal Witness
4x Hope Tender
3x Primeval Titan
1x Xenagos, God of Revels
Sorcery (5)
1x Harmonize
4x Tooth and Nail
Enchantment (11)
3x Blood Moon
4x Overgrowth
4x Utopia Sprawl
4x Garruk Wildspeaker
3x Kiora, Master of the Depths
Land (21)
2x Breeding Pool
6x Forest
1x Island
1x Kessig Wolf Run
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Mountain
2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2x Stomping Ground
4x Wooded Foothills
1x Ancient Grudge
2x Anger of the Gods
2x Arbor Colossus
1x Beast Within
2x Bonfire of the Damned
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x Creeping Corrosion
1x Nature's Claim
1x Obstinate Baloth
1x Privileged Position
1x Spellskite
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
More information on the matches can be found in the post linked above.
Going to concur with MiSickler here too. I almost never lose to Jund DS (I honestly consider it one of our easiest matchups) and Grixis DS is pretty even. I haven't found Eldrazi Tron to be much of an issue either. UR Storm feels like a 40/60 matchup in theory even though I have a 67% winrate against it. I haven't gotten to face much Vizier but I imagine it is pretty rough.
@UEGJO. How have you been finding the black splash? Do you prefer it? And what's up with the 1x Leyline in the board?
I'll be trying Courser of Kruphix in its spot next.
The thing about Tooth and Nail is that you only have about a 52.8% chance of drawing it by Turn 3/4 (Draw/Play). And there aren't effective ways of tutoring the card itself. As such, having tutorable, alternate wincons such as Primeval Titan and Hornet Queen (arguably the best 6 and 7 cmc creatures respectively) provides versatility and a much more likely chance of having a wincon. Some decks fold to these creatures. With Primal Command, you effectively have 4x Primeval Titans or 4x Hornet Queens. For the same reason we run 1x Nissa, Worldwaker, as replacing 1 Garruk Wildspeaker with her does not hamper consistency and many decks cannot face 4/4 Trample, Vigilance, Haste creatures (choosing a land that has been in play before this turn = haste, and any untapper gives the land vigilance).
There are some specific corner cases where Emrakul cannot win you the game, such as an Ensnaring Bridge lock. In these scenarios, I tutor Birds of Paradise and Primeval Titan to grab Kessig Wolf Run and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, and then use the land combo on Birds of Paradise after it has been declared as an attacker.
Regarding Dragonlord Atarka in the sideboard, there are some decks that Hornet Queen is terrible against, such as Merfolk. Casting Dragonlord Atarka can wipe a Merfolk board if you distribute the damage right.
Changes from his previous list:
Mainboard:
+3 Fatal Push
+1 Khalni Garden
+1 Overgrown Tomb
+2 Green Fetchlands
-2 Blood Moon
-1 Fertile Ground
-2 Forest
-2 Stomping Ground
Sideboard:
+2 Blood Moon
+1 Courser of Kruphix
+1 Leyline of Sanctity
-1 Bonfire of the Damned
-2 Lightning Bolt
-1 Spellskite
I'm curious if these changes are experimental. I tried the B splash for Fatal Push a couple of months ago and did not find it to be particularly useful. I feel as though mainboard Blood Moon hurts almost every deck we'd want Fatal Push in, aside from UR Storm and Merfolk. Maybe Death & Taxes? My winrate against Death & Taxes has been abysmal, and it's the only matchup I consider an automatic loss. Merfolk is a 40/60 matchup and has been relegated to Tier 3 because it's poorly positioned in the meta. UR Storm is a weird matchup because while my personal winrate is relatively high, I consider a decent number of my round wins to be because they drew poorly.
On some of the other changes:
Mainboard
+1 Khalni Garden: This is an odd one. I don't like lands automatically coming in tapped because we sometimes have to run on 1 land. You also cannot untap it with Arbor Elf or Nissa, Worldwaker. Perhaps Sapseep Forest would be better? I'm just not sure how many matchups a single chump blocker will help us in, especially when we cannot fetch it.
+2 Green Fetchlands: Necessary if you splash elsewhere. Not a fan of the ratio if you're sticking to RG.
-1 Fertile Ground: Sure, I side this one out like 90% of the time. It's just good for round 1 consistency.
Sideboard:
+1 Courser of Kruphix: Neat. I might try swapping my Fertile Ground for this Mainboard. A portion of my losses are purely to drawing lands in this might help with that. Also a good blocker.
+1 Leyline of Sanctity: Not a choice I understand. You either need Birds of Paradise or Utopia Sprawl to play it. And I'm not sure if we need it for the matchups that run hand disruption, as these are fair to favored matchups anyway.
-1 Bonfire of the Damned: A useful card in CoCo and Merfolk matchups. Perhaps a meta-dependent choice.
-2 Lightning Bolt: I guess because he put in Fatal Push. Preferred if you're not splashing for B.
-1 Spellskite: I almost never bring this in anymore.
EDIT:
Also interested in testing Scryb Ranger as a replacement for Fertile Ground.
It does make a significant difference. Not sure how to accurately describe but the neat thing about Tooth & Nail is how well the costs of the cards line up with the ramp. That's part of why Death & Taxes hurts so much. And you have to remember, it's not just 1 mana per turn, but 2 or 3 or 4 depending upon what other cards you have on the field. The probability of topdecking something that will win or give gas (such as Harmonize) if you've run out of gas is already pretty high and the deck is surprisingly good at durdling. Being able to consistently cast high cost cards isn't worth being able to pay to draw an extra card, in my opinion.
The card that really needs a good replacement is Fertile Ground. It's the third best ramp enchantment out there for our purposes but it's still terrible.
I own Uegjo's exact list and have been playing it almost exclusively for the past few months. The weakest cards in the 75 are Fertile Ground and Spellskite in the board. I'd call Spellskite meta dependent. I personally like having Fertile Ground, though, because the added consistency has saved me in a few games. This list is actually extremely consistent, unlike many lists which fill up on unnecessary utility cards. Knowing how to turn your Planeswalkers into wincons is extremely important (using untap abilities on Nissa's elementals for vigilance trample 4/4s and ulting Garruk on dorks is often enough to win). If you're just picking this deck up, here are my recommendations:
The only change I'm currently considering is swapping out Spellskite for Grafdigger's Cage, but that's a meta-dependent decision. Note that cage does not hurt Tooth & Nail, as the cards go into our hand AND THEN onto the battlefield.
I began a winrate spreadsheet last week which can be found here.
Here is my list:
//13 Creature
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Monastery Swiftspear
// 19 Instant
4 Atarka's Command
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Searing Blaze
2 Lightning Helix
2 Skullcrack
2 Arid Mesa
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Mountain
3 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Inspiring Vantage
// 8 Sorcery
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Deflecting Palm
3 Destructive Revelry
2 Path to Exile
1 Searing Blaze
1 Lightning Helix
1 Molten Rain
2 Darksteel, 0 Flagtones -> P(Able to mana fix by turn 2|Ghost Quarter in opening hand) = approx. 25%
2 Darksteel, 2 Flagtones -> P(Able to mana fix by turn 2|Ghost Quarter in opening hand) = approx. 45%
2 Darksteel, 4 Flagtones -> P(Able to mana fix by turn 2|Ghost Quarter in opening hand) = approx. 60%
One of this deck's biggest weaknesses is its inconsistent mana base (we should ideally be running 20 lands that can produce W). Additionally, any painless thinning is good, regardless of how tiny the advantage is, since we do not want to be topdecking lands midgame. It also makes the rare land destruction matchup slightly better.
I'm not a huge fan of Tormod's Crypt. I feel like hitting both graveyards is important in BGx matchups. Further, I am a huge fan of the card draw + slow removal when total removal isn't urgently needed. I'd argue that if Dredge is big in your meta, use Wheel of Sun and Moon. If not, use Relic of Progenitus.
4 Bone Saw
3 Bonesplitter
3 Flayer Husk
1 Infiltration Lens
2 Mortarpod
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
Instant (8)
4 Path to Exile
4 Strength of Arms
4 Auriok Steelshaper
4 Kor Duelist
4 Puresteel Paladin
4 Stone Haven Outfitter
3 Vault Skirge
Land (18)
2 Darksteel Citadel
2 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Ghost Quarter
12 Plains
2 Dispatch
1 Fragmentize
2 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Kor Firewalker
1 Mortarpod
2 Patrician's Scorn
2 Rest in Peace
1 Runed Halo
1 Spellskite
Changes I'm considering making: replacing Rest in Peace with Relic of Progenitus or Wheel of Sun and Moon and upping the Flagstones of Trokair to 4. I've never liked how RiP nonbo's with our card draw from Stone Haven Outfitter. Relic has the advantages of being an artifact, costing 1 cmc, and getting us a card draw. The downside is that opponents can choose which cards they exile and it doesn't hit certain archetypes anywhere near as hard as RiP. Wheel of Sun and Moon performs similarly to RiP but is harder to cast and doesn't exile the GY upon entering. I definitely feel that the card draw from Outfitter is a significant advantage to us and being able to minimizing the number of situations where having a Ghost Quarter out makes Puresteel Paladin and other WW cards difficult to cast is important.
@Parendhil_Sang
There's almost never a situation where Disenchant performs better than Fragmentize. The only card I'd ever replace Fragmentize with is Aura of Silence but Affinity isn't a hard enough matchup for us.
If Auriok Champion were better than Kor Firewalker, other decks would run it. The lifegain is extremely effective and Burn is only running 12-14 creatures currently. Kor Firewalker also has synergy with Auriok Steelshaper.
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=14640&d=287917&f=MO
Spoilers start.
Fetches won't be in MM3 because WOTC has shareholders they have to attend to. Khans and BFZ were bestsellers due to: fetchlands, expeditions, and full-art lands. A set with the first two will be the best selling set ever released and WOTC knows that.