Samyou3I streamed some tonight, i think he's going to be looking to stream it some more. He went 4-1 narrowly losing to abzan. The deck looks very good
I think storm is supposed to be a decent matchup. Spell queller is really good. Our postboard counters are good. Eidolon of rhetoric is also great if you are playing it. Or Thalia. And i don't really want to the combo in my deck either. Too many grindy decks packing a bunch of removal. I'd rather just play a value deck
Blessed Alliance is ok, but it's generally not where you want to be as it doesn't really fit into the aggro plan. Our goal is essentially to overload their removal. I would never side out path, but killing their threats isn't the goal. We are not the control deck. You can bring one blessed alliance in for their stuff, but, past that, you'll end up with too much removal in hand and no board (personal experience).
I would say its quite useful. You wont always outlast them. However most of the times they attack with one creature late game and that's when the big swing comes. Taking out of their very few threats can make you win games. For me it has been awesome.
I think the issue with it is it's best as a surprise card, jund often operates with full information and it's not like you can just kill their creatures at will so it'll often eat a discard spell late or forcibly removed through a liliana. I think it is probably fine, i'm just not overthrilled about it
i think retreats and pridemages are definitely not where you want to be vs jund so those are easy cuts. I think i like the quellers just as flash threats. Plus it's another way to stop a board wipe. I know they play a ton of removal but the upside is probably there. Reflector mage and kitchen finks seem very good. I'm not certain on blessed alliance. i feel like we just want to be threat dense. A couple birds would be my next choice to side out
I've been dabbling in this archetype a bit. Of note i made it to be very similar to jund/abzan. I wanted to be more proactive so i skipped out on the counters in the main deck. That being said i'm also opting for Jace, Vryn's Prodigy over snapcaster mage because the discard spells are much better with Jace. Here's my list.
The card that sticks out in the sideboard is rain of tears. I like it more than fulminator mage simply because of jace. Should make for multiple land destroys a game vs tron along with counter spells.
I've been dabbling in this archetype a bit. Of note i made it to be very similar to jund/abzan. I wanted to be more proactive so i skipped out on the counters in the main deck. That being said i'm also opting for Jace, Vryn's Prodigy over snapcaster mage because the discard spells are much better with Jace. Here's my list.
The card that sticks out in the sideboard is rain of tears. I like it more than fulminator mage simply because of jace. Should make for multiple land destroys a game vs tron along with counter spells.
When Knightfall creates a board stall, it usually ends up winning. Between the fliers, tireless tracker drawing cards, and knight of the reliquary fetching gavony township and other value lands, we can usually break through. The same can't be said for Bant Eldrazi. They have drowner of hope, eldrazi displacer, and not much else (sometimes a post-board walker). Furthermore, it's worth noting that bant eldrazi is a better aggro deck. They will usually beat us if we start racing.
Therefore, in order to beat them, I want to play the role of the control deck because I can win the long game. One way to ensure this is to try to save path to exile for eldrazi displacer (and pridemage on their skite protecting it). Thereby, if you can drop a huge knight and they don't path him, you can usually end up winning by stalling with him (and to lesser extent a giant voice token). Once again, we tend to be favored in the long game if you can get rid of eldrazi displacer.
Tireless tracker helps you get to the late game faster and break board stalls before they find an EE.
Izzet Staticaster is surprisingly good in this matchup. It kills all the scion tokens (making drowner just a big 5/5), kills their hierarchs (stopping them from getting an ever so slightly larger creature to break board stalls), kills eldrazi skyspawner, adds a level of combat math to blocking, is a decent blessed alliance target, and let's us fake a spell queller.
Blessed Alliance is just useful. It gains life making the game go longer, it forces them to sac an attacking creature (which will probably be a real threat given that we can favorably block the little guys). Lastly, it untaps two creatures allowing for surprise blocks or fetching wolfrun (though don't forget spellskite can redirect wolfrun).
I'll admit that it might be wise to bring in Ghost Quarter, but I rarely find myself hitting one of their lands with the main deck GQ so I doubt that I would rather have a second one over a utility land that breaks board stalls.
I have lost many games against bant eldrazi but I rarely lose a match. So, I hope this helps.
Just want to say that staticaster isn't that good vs the scions, they can sacrifice them to fizzle the staticaster main effect. It might still be fine, it's hard to say. I personally don't like it in that matchup
So i played bant company in the modern classic yesterday. It was my first time playing the deck in a tournament. I've just been playing kitchen table magic with it. I learned quite a bit, particularly about mana base and how fragile it can be if your bird dies. I started out really well at 6-0 beating Affinity, Storm, Green White Value Creatures, Grixis delver/shadow (Ryan Overturf), Eldrazi Tron (Todd Stevens), and merfolk. Then i ran into tron and lost in 3 games. The 2 games i lost were not close. Lost to breaking entering griselbrand/emrakul deck. I got emrakuled turn 3 both games. Then i lost to Danny Jessup playing death's shadow aggro and he had everything. I liked the deck a lot, i didn't feel disadvantaged in the 6 matchups i won. Felt like they were close. I don't think the death's shadow matchup is that bad i just had no creatures either game because he killed them all lol. Here is the list i played. I did not play retreat to coralhelm. The open the previous day was basically a grind fest vs removal heavy decks. (I played abzan). I ended up 27th. (If i won the last round i would have got 9th, my breakers were insane). I played 3 of the top 8 players.
Couple notes on the deck. Reflector mage was very good. It was nice to be able to have a removal out on a company. It is a little awkward if you are responding to a creature cast hoping to find a queller and find a mage though. I had courser in here originally but i wanted to hedge against the death's shadow deck where it is very good against it. I felt like tireless tracker and courser of kruphix are basically the same card. I didn't see any of my counterspells in the 2 unfair matchups i played, felt bad. Counters would definitely have helped. I didn't like Gideon that much (Probably because i didn't play against a grindy deck lol), Eidolon of rhetoric was GREAT, i may even want a 2nd in my board. Same with stony silence, i thought staticaster would be enough to only play 1 stony. I wanted it in a couple matchups that staticaster did nothing. I may shave on one of those. I'm still learning how to sideboard with this deck, i feel like i sided out too many creatures often.
Thanks for the tips. I wasn't sure if damnation was what i wanted to be doing. I think stony silence is an obvious board in. Damnation is probably worth it. I'm playing 1 in my board
How are we beating Eldrazi tron? I haven't had a chance to play against it. What cards are we looking to bring in vs them? Do you think surgical extraction is something i should be boarding in (i have 2 in my board) along with 3 fulminator or is it not worth it? Could also randomly extract threats like smashers. Thoughts?
My view on adding planeswalkers is: why bother? I's not like our deck is weak to grindy strategies. Collected Company is one of the most powerful cards in the format against those strategies, our fliers tend to be able to get in for damage (except maybe against Lingering Souls), and some of our 2-drops such as Voice and Scooze really thrive in those sorts of games. Not to mention, grindy games tend to come down to an exchange of resources. If, after exchanging 1 for 1, we're left with something like a 7/7 Knight, we're likely to just win. Every Planeswalker you add to your sideboard is one less card you can find with collected company or with Knight tutoring. There are some sideboard cards like this that we need because they fill gaps in our gameplan (i.e.: Stony Silence, counterspells, Blessed Alliance), but I really don't think we need to add cards that dilute our gameplan unless absolutely necessary.
I'm more concerned about the tron matchup and the other matchups where we need to end the game quickly tbh
Elspeth is another option. I hadn't thought about the Knight errant. I thought Gideon's anthem effect might be a little more valuable with the number of dorks we are playing.
How do we feel about Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in our sideboards? Seems we will be able to power him out turn 3 pretty quickly for the grindy matchups and the fast combo matchups where we will have to win pretty quickly. Thoughts?
I think the issue with it is it's best as a surprise card, jund often operates with full information and it's not like you can just kill their creatures at will so it'll often eat a discard spell late or forcibly removed through a liliana. I think it is probably fine, i'm just not overthrilled about it
yeah yours looks sweet too, a lot of the cards you have in that i don't i wish i could find room for lol
1 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Grim Flayer
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
2 Serum Visions
4 Fatal Push
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Go for the Throat
1 Victim of Night
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Breeding Pool
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Forest
1 Hissing Quagmire
1 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
3 Ancestral Vision
1 Collective Brutality
1 Damnation
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Negate
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
3 Rain of Tears
The card that sticks out in the sideboard is rain of tears. I like it more than fulminator mage simply because of jace. Should make for multiple land destroys a game vs tron along with counter spells.
Just want to say that staticaster isn't that good vs the scions, they can sacrifice them to fizzle the staticaster main effect. It might still be fine, it's hard to say. I personally don't like it in that matchup
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Voice of Resurgence
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Selfless Spirit
2 Reflector Mage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Spell Queller
2 Tireless Tracker
4 Collected Company
4 Path to Exile
4 Windswept Heath
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Strand
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Gavony Township
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
3 Izzet Staticaster
1 Stony Silence
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Negate
2 Unified Will
1 Reflector Mage
2 Blessed Alliance
Couple notes on the deck. Reflector mage was very good. It was nice to be able to have a removal out on a company. It is a little awkward if you are responding to a creature cast hoping to find a queller and find a mage though. I had courser in here originally but i wanted to hedge against the death's shadow deck where it is very good against it. I felt like tireless tracker and courser of kruphix are basically the same card. I didn't see any of my counterspells in the 2 unfair matchups i played, felt bad. Counters would definitely have helped. I didn't like Gideon that much (Probably because i didn't play against a grindy deck lol), Eidolon of rhetoric was GREAT, i may even want a 2nd in my board. Same with stony silence, i thought staticaster would be enough to only play 1 stony. I wanted it in a couple matchups that staticaster did nothing. I may shave on one of those. I'm still learning how to sideboard with this deck, i feel like i sided out too many creatures often.
I'm more concerned about the tron matchup and the other matchups where we need to end the game quickly tbh