You don't actually need to win G2 in paper if you win G1, and your G1 is going to be better than your G2 the majority of the time, just like in a ThopterSword build. That and I think it's largely trivial to win in a lot of cases, just like with Lantern. I've started asking people if they'd like to concede at a certain point, and usually they say yes.
I think Needle is also not a huge deal, but it depends. If you absolutely need a specific card to win (likely Explosives), then it's a problem. Even under Stony, you would need a Needle on Tezz+Grid+Rivulet+Ruins to be locked out of winning if you had less cards in library. EE is definitely the most relevant, since otherwise it's an out to Needle.
It would be cool if the meta did something about tron, it's just a little concerning that green is the main color of the deck and our incoming option is a two mana artifact. Blood moon did almost nothing to them, but hopefully this card is cheap and accessible enough thatevery deck has a few in the SB
A cool thing about the Ur Tezz deck vs Tron is that you want Chalice on 1 against them anyway and that blanks basically all of their post-board interaction. Surgical, Nature's Claim, Relic. All covered by Chalice. I imagine if this deck or other Chalice decks became popular it would require Tron decks to adapt Krosan Grip or something.
I'm not sure that the deck will actually be re-tooled to include Damping Sphere and have less Tron hate. I don't really feel like any of the cards are specifically anti-Tron, the deck just happens to be very good against it. You want Crucible, Chalice and GQs anyway.
I've won a surprising amount of games vs Lantern that I had no right winning either because they don't always have it, they play poorly, or our myriad of disruption+ways to win gets us there.
Sometimes their draw is just nuts - the last game I played, I had Clique for their bridge they were drawing, but whir was on top - they were DOB otherwise. I still ended up winning thanks to Exalted beats after I got a tracker through, ensuring I could draw Hierarchs. Sometimes their draw isn't nuts and we play T1 dork T2 Queller and beat them in holding up permission all game. It's a somewhat miserable MU, especially if they aren't proficient in their own deck, but a very winnable one. Mostly, if they can't land a Bridge they very likely aren't winning, and even then we have outs in Jace, potentially pridemage, and Hierarch.
I went 3-0-1 last night running the latest Chew 5-0 list with the changes mentioned above: -1 VoR +1 Pridemage, -1 JTMS -2 Will +1 Elspeth +2 Negate in the board.
Round 1 vs RUG Kiki Moon 2-0
Opponent was playing a RUG Moon deck with Krasis+Kiki. I didn't see either of these cards in two games. G1 he got a T3 Moon, but I had a Noble and Plains out and landed a Pridemage the turn after he moon'd. Ended up just beating him down, IIRC he played like... Goyf, Pyre, Snap->Pyre and that's basically it.
I remember sideboarding fairly poorly, but it didn't really matter. I had a 10/10 Knight and a Scooze which was keeping his Goyfs tiny and eliminating Pyre as an out. He dismembered my Scooze the one turn I tap out to Gavony, but it didn't really matter. Got a second Knight with Queller backup and he shows me the Krasis that can't save him.
Round 2 vs 4C Reveler 2-0
My opponents deck was essentially the Mardu reveler deck with green for Grim Flayer and Traverse. G1 he got kind of mana screwed and died fairly easily after I path'd his Reveler.
I bring in Reflector Mages, Scooze, Elspeth and Bojuka Bog over a Bird, Pridemage, Field of Ruin, both Cliques (bad vs souls) and a Meddling Mage. G2 is very long and drawn out. He plays 3 of his souls and all four Revelers. He probably had 10-15 cards left in library at the end of the game. I had lethal one turn where he was at two with two souls and a Reveler. He attacked with one of the souls vs my board of IIRC Voice and Tracker. I could have Jace bounced the other souls and killed him, but cast company instead since by that time I am very likely to hit a Mage and clearly this guy didn't leave himself DOB intentionally (he knew about Jace). I hit solo bird which felt awful and he draws Duress for my Jace, but Tracker ends up pulling it out after drawing like four cards.
Round 3 vs G Tron 1-1-1
I was playing against a friend I hadn't seen in a bit, and we basically drew because we spent too much time shooting the *****. Despite how much I hate playing against Tron, the games were pretty good and I think all of them could have gone either way with slightly better draws on either of our part.
G1 I am on the draw with T1 noble + flash dudes. No Knight but I manage to disrupt him from getting Tron with Field and Clique. I end up taking a Scrying out of his hand and using Queller on an O-Stone. I get a pretty mediocre company of Birds + Pridemage He gets to six mana and casts a Wurmcoil, but I have pridemage to stop lifegain for a turn. I've got lethal but he draws his seventh land to cast All is Dust. I throw out triple VoR, which he kills with O-Stone and then has the second O-Stone to wipe my lethal board again. He gets a Coil before I draw another relevant card and kills me.
I sideboard 4 counters, 2 stony, & 2 mage for 4 Path, 1 Scooze, 2 Tracker, 1 bird. G2 I mulligan into a medium hand of two land no blue source, stony, and blue three drops. Stony happens to be amazing this game and basically carries me to victory. I make a misplay where he has a 2/2 ballista and I don't reflector mage it because I forget about my own Stony. I end up winning anyway, Jace Fatesealing to ensure he doesn't draw any more lands.
G3 I have an amazing tempo hand with T1 Noble into Queller, Field, & Clique. I also have a Negate. He doesn't really have any gas, and I clique a Cage since I have company in hand. Time is called and I have just enough gas to kill him on the fifth turn. Unfortunately, I get a terrible company hitting Bird+Hierarch. I clique him and he has Scryings to hit Tron and an Ancient Stirrings. I am supposed to take Stirrings here, since it's 5 deep vs one when I CLique it. I don't and he finds Ulamog. Oops. He was dead anyway if my company wasn't so trash, but I still have outs. I missed trying to Jace into GQ, but I wouldn't have found it anyway. Ulamog eats my two fliers. If I had Unified Will instead of Negate in hand, I could stop his follow-up Ballista and out-race Ulamog with Birds+Exalted, but since it was Negate he decides not to concede. I think I could have earned a concession or actually won had I played tighter.
Round 4 vs Jeskai control 2-0
My opponent is playing a fairly top-end heavy Jeskai deck. I don't think he had JTMS, since I saw an Architect of Thought in G2. He had Rev, Torrential Gearhulk, & Secure the Wastes. G1 he buys a lot of time with Secure for 4-5, but he can't get an answer to my Knight which just beats in every turn. Jace was also pretty good, though he could actually pressure him well thanks to the Secure and bolt/electrolyze. He revs for 5 but draws into nothing and I win.
I board in 4 counters, scooze and Elspeth for 4 path & 2 birds. G2 I have a Knight that gets remanded, and then I decide to play on his turn since i have Clique/Queller/Company/Will. Finally I decide to cast a VoR and he casts Secure for 3... well, there goes the Unified Will plan! I manage to get ahead on board and he gets a board wipe. I follow up with Clique, which is bolted, and see Elspeth and Rev! I take Elspeth and untap to play a Knight. I am at seven and he has colonnades, so I am at risk to just dying if he has bolt and my follow up company doesn't hit a flier. He mainphase revs for 4, leaving a single U/W source open. I EoT company into Knight + Mage naming Path and win the game.
I think going forward I am going to try dropping Mage from the MB for +1 Scooze, +1 VoR and +1 Pridemage or Courser, and then having 2x Mage in the board. I might experiment with running Retreat again... likely would go to 1 Jace MB and drop the Pridemage/Course for 2x Retreat.
It's overall fairly solid. I don't mind not playing the combo, though I do miss Kessig sometimes. That card is just so good with KotR.
I think the Field of Ruin is a bit greedy and I think I'm going to just play a second GQ in the board and play either another shock or a second Sanctum in place of Field of Ruin. I also might cut a Clique and replace it with the second Scooze - could be wrong but I keep drawing multiples. Jace has been solidly medium. I definitely need more practice playing with the card.
I'm also really not impressed with Blessed Alliance. I feel like without Courser (maybe I can make room for one) we're super weak to Burn and Alliance just isn't a good card in that MU - two mana gain four is just so weak. It's great against stuff like Boggles and Infect, but against most midrangey decks I never bring in the card because there's really not much to board out and we want CoCo to remain relevant. I feel like it just rots in my sideboard most of the time.
Played the 25 land build tonight and damn burn is an absolute beating. I find myself missing the pushes dearly. Also lost to Grixis Shadow whom the pilot told me he built the sideboard to beat Jund. He had LOTV, Dreadbore, even Lilianas Defeat coming out which he snapped to kill my third LOTV. Brutal beating tonight.
I did manage to 2-0 BR hollow call so ended on a sweet note at least.
If idiots are going to over sideboard you can't do much about it. I hate morons like that. Things like that don't work well when they go to something bigger than an FNM, they will be severely punished for that.
I got to 2-1 a Grixis control deck with 4x Direfleet Daredevil the other night. That card ******* destroys us. G1 my opponent was at 3 with no cards in hand facing down Lili+BBE. He topdecks Snap IIRC and snap commands into Direfleet hitting my Kommand.... it was gross.
Felt awesome to beat him. One of the few times Cage is amazing vs Grixis.
Boarding in Ancient Grudge against an Aether Vial deck doesn't mean that you shouldn't be playing Grudge, it means you need to learn how to sideboard correctly. Playing worse cards (not that Shatterstorm is bad, but I'd play 2x Grudge before a shatter any day) so that you don't make poor sideboarding decisions is putting a bandaid over the problem, not solving it.
Remember that the posted list could be from any number of Jund 5-0s, we have no idea. It would be pretty rare to see a Jund list that's over 20 cards different from another, so I would expect we just see one Jund list every update from now until Wizards changes the way they handle MTGO data.
Regaridng the Sam Black video, it's worth noting that Match 1 was very close - Gideon was really the best card for getting Sam out of the double Lili situation (though Elspeth probably works too... but that card is basically unbeatable anyway) and had he drawn slightly worse - i.e. not finding a removal spell in that one-turn window - he could have easily lost. Match 2 was really Sam winning one game, as Matt misplayed G1. Likely would have lost anyway, but given Sam didn't have an answer to confidant, it is feasible that T2 Bob could have pulled Matt out of the color screw.
The reality is these matchups are pretty bad for Jun. However, I don't really think the bannings make the matchup worse. I think BBE does more for Jund in the MU than Jace does for UWx. That being said, it's still a bad matchup. The issue isn't really Jace himself, it's that Jace is going to make blue control decks super popular.
To be fair, KotR has always been bad in Modern until Retreat was printed, and the deck found its place only recently when the format got weakened by bans. The most common SB hate in Modern is RIP effects, so KotR unfortunately suffers collateral damage. That being said, the card is now playable. If she's the only creature that takes advantage of the graveyard in the deck, the opponents may not bring in GY hate, which is appreciable.
I'm usually pretty jazzed if people bring GY hate in against me on Knightfall. It's very low impact - just shrinks Knight and maybe shuts off Scooze.
In your UWGr build, why are you not running Reflector Mage? Just value Skyknight's evasion over Mages improved tempo swing?
In general I've been surprised by the lack of discussion on the lists that did well on MTGO for a bit. Seems like people are really dedicated to Mantis Rider here.
Played the Challenge winning list last night at a four round Modern event. Unfortunately got paired against BW Smallpox twice. I played against my R1 opponent to a quick 2-0 before the event started, and in the actual match went 0-2. Being on the draw is a huge liability. Round 2 I played against Smallpox again. I won G1, then in G2 I had my opponent at 2 life. Damnation->Liliana->Gideon->Sorin were my opponents' draws. Bad beats. G3 I was doing well but ended up flooding and hitting a bad company and lost. R3 I played against a mono red moon deck. Ran him over in G1 and G2 was surprised by Hazoret after boarding out paths. Managed to win with a combination of Chandra + huge Knights and Goyfs. R4 was against WB Eldrazi. G1 I just ran over my opponent with a double Nacatl draw. We both flooded hard but I had the board presence and thus won. G2 we both flooded hard again, but I hit a Moon which prevent him from casting the majority of his spells. Ended up winning with a 5/5 Knight.
I typically don't like playing Company in Naya and last night was a good reminder why. A combination of just less impactful companies and wanting to run more non-creature spells compared to the Bant decks make our Companies way worse. When the floor and ceiling are lower than in Knightfall or Humans and we have so many other good cards we could play instead, I think it's worth passing on the card.
Izzet Staticaster is a great sideboard card against Affinity. Many lists are also running MB Qasali Pridemage.
You can definitely run Stony Silence, Kataki, Reclamation Sage and Manglehorn has additional sideboard cards against Affinity and other Artifact decks. When I last played the deck I had 2 Staticaster, 1 Manglehorn & 1 Rec Sage in the board in addition to 1 MB Qasali Pridemage.
I've never played against Dredge with this deck (no one plays it locally, never see it on cockatrice), but I believe our plan is to gum up the board and prevent them from casting Conflagrate via exiling it with Scooze. Since the banning dredge has lost both speed and consistency, so a deck like ours that just plays a bunch of dudes and fliers can actually outgrind them if we don't let them board wipe us. Some people have advocated running Rhox War Monk for the dredge matchup, basically because Dredge can't race it.
What I'm saying is that sacrificing a creature and blowing 3 mana is only worth it if it wins you the game.
We'll just have to disagree with this. Sacrificing a mana dork for something better, even on T2, is fine with me in a lot of cases.
The comment on improving the combo game is a relevant one as well. In a matchup like Burn/Affinity/Storm/Whatever, the Evo isn't just your Finks/RecSage/Eidolon - it's another KotR. The card pulls double-duty in these MUs.
Regarding Bento's talk about tons of silver bullets: this is kind of presumptive. Running Evo doesn't in any way mean you butcher your sideboard for it. It's a one-of that gives me a bit more space/flexibility. I don't have to fill that space with a ton of dudes that I wouldn't be playing otherwise, and I don't. It's just solid because we're already pushed in the direction of playing creature sideboard cards. A great example of this is Kelvin's posted list, where none of his fetchable cards are even one-ofs. Still extra copies.
We also shouldn't avoid running a card because it's 'bad' against GDS. What about the other 88% of the format?
Not playing the card is 100% defensible. It certainly has an opportunity cost to run. But it's also a totally playable and solid card in our strategy.
1. There aren't really many creatures that straight up win a matchup. As such, the sacrifice clause on eldritch evolution is very onerous. By running Evo, you're running an extremely bad version of the creature that would have taken that slot. A yugioh creature that requires a tribute.
2. It gets especially bad when we consider that Eldritch Evo is borderline unplayable against decks like GDS or UW Control.
3, You can't always bank on creatures sticking to the board in late game scenarios. In top-deck wars, Eldritch has the potential to be just as dead as a land draw.
Evo being unplayable against blue decks isn't something I care about at all, though. It's a sideboard card, not a mainboard one. You're also typically not boarding in the card in matchups where you expect to go into topdeck mode quickly, with the exception of some midrange matchups where I think the trade off is worth having a pseudo extra copy of Knight/Tracker/Courser.
I think you guys are both asking Evo to do too much (aka win the game on its own, which it actually will do sometimes) and undervaluing it. I agree that having a second copy of the hate-dude you're boarding in is likely better than having one hate-dude and one evo. However, you usually don't need the second actual copy of the card (and if you do, you need to draw/CoCo into both) and Evo still has value even when you already found the card you're boarding it in with.
It has performed very well for me both in Knightfall and in Naya Midrange - a deck that is hurting for sideboard space far more than we are, to be fair.
Responding to this a bit late, haven't been following the thread recently, but:
I also dropped the Eldritch Evolution sideboard plan entirely. It seems so foolish to believe that it's a good game plan to have only a single tutor card act as the "second copy" of the creature. I feel that having a more solid sideboard composed of 2-of creatures was a much more reliable strategy over a larger sample size of games.
Why is that foolish? Evolution literally is an additional copy of any creature you have post-board, assuming you have a creature in play (very easy to facilitate, not something at risk in most MUs you bring in Evo for) and that your target isn't already in play (in which case, that's great).
By running Evo, you increase the amount of effective sideboard slots you have at, IMO, very little cost.
I think Needle is also not a huge deal, but it depends. If you absolutely need a specific card to win (likely Explosives), then it's a problem. Even under Stony, you would need a Needle on Tezz+Grid+Rivulet+Ruins to be locked out of winning if you had less cards in library. EE is definitely the most relevant, since otherwise it's an out to Needle.
A cool thing about the Ur Tezz deck vs Tron is that you want Chalice on 1 against them anyway and that blanks basically all of their post-board interaction. Surgical, Nature's Claim, Relic. All covered by Chalice. I imagine if this deck or other Chalice decks became popular it would require Tron decks to adapt Krosan Grip or something.
I'm not sure that the deck will actually be re-tooled to include Damping Sphere and have less Tron hate. I don't really feel like any of the cards are specifically anti-Tron, the deck just happens to be very good against it. You want Crucible, Chalice and GQs anyway.
Sometimes their draw is just nuts - the last game I played, I had Clique for their bridge they were drawing, but whir was on top - they were DOB otherwise. I still ended up winning thanks to Exalted beats after I got a tracker through, ensuring I could draw Hierarchs. Sometimes their draw isn't nuts and we play T1 dork T2 Queller and beat them in holding up permission all game. It's a somewhat miserable MU, especially if they aren't proficient in their own deck, but a very winnable one. Mostly, if they can't land a Bridge they very likely aren't winning, and even then we have outs in Jace, potentially pridemage, and Hierarch.
Round 1 vs RUG Kiki Moon 2-0
Opponent was playing a RUG Moon deck with Krasis+Kiki. I didn't see either of these cards in two games. G1 he got a T3 Moon, but I had a Noble and Plains out and landed a Pridemage the turn after he moon'd. Ended up just beating him down, IIRC he played like... Goyf, Pyre, Snap->Pyre and that's basically it.
I remember sideboarding fairly poorly, but it didn't really matter. I had a 10/10 Knight and a Scooze which was keeping his Goyfs tiny and eliminating Pyre as an out. He dismembered my Scooze the one turn I tap out to Gavony, but it didn't really matter. Got a second Knight with Queller backup and he shows me the Krasis that can't save him.
Round 2 vs 4C Reveler 2-0
My opponents deck was essentially the Mardu reveler deck with green for Grim Flayer and Traverse. G1 he got kind of mana screwed and died fairly easily after I path'd his Reveler.
I bring in Reflector Mages, Scooze, Elspeth and Bojuka Bog over a Bird, Pridemage, Field of Ruin, both Cliques (bad vs souls) and a Meddling Mage. G2 is very long and drawn out. He plays 3 of his souls and all four Revelers. He probably had 10-15 cards left in library at the end of the game. I had lethal one turn where he was at two with two souls and a Reveler. He attacked with one of the souls vs my board of IIRC Voice and Tracker. I could have Jace bounced the other souls and killed him, but cast company instead since by that time I am very likely to hit a Mage and clearly this guy didn't leave himself DOB intentionally (he knew about Jace). I hit solo bird which felt awful and he draws Duress for my Jace, but Tracker ends up pulling it out after drawing like four cards.
Round 3 vs G Tron 1-1-1
I was playing against a friend I hadn't seen in a bit, and we basically drew because we spent too much time shooting the *****. Despite how much I hate playing against Tron, the games were pretty good and I think all of them could have gone either way with slightly better draws on either of our part.
G1 I am on the draw with T1 noble + flash dudes. No Knight but I manage to disrupt him from getting Tron with Field and Clique. I end up taking a Scrying out of his hand and using Queller on an O-Stone. I get a pretty mediocre company of Birds + Pridemage He gets to six mana and casts a Wurmcoil, but I have pridemage to stop lifegain for a turn. I've got lethal but he draws his seventh land to cast All is Dust. I throw out triple VoR, which he kills with O-Stone and then has the second O-Stone to wipe my lethal board again. He gets a Coil before I draw another relevant card and kills me.
I sideboard 4 counters, 2 stony, & 2 mage for 4 Path, 1 Scooze, 2 Tracker, 1 bird. G2 I mulligan into a medium hand of two land no blue source, stony, and blue three drops. Stony happens to be amazing this game and basically carries me to victory. I make a misplay where he has a 2/2 ballista and I don't reflector mage it because I forget about my own Stony. I end up winning anyway, Jace Fatesealing to ensure he doesn't draw any more lands.
G3 I have an amazing tempo hand with T1 Noble into Queller, Field, & Clique. I also have a Negate. He doesn't really have any gas, and I clique a Cage since I have company in hand. Time is called and I have just enough gas to kill him on the fifth turn. Unfortunately, I get a terrible company hitting Bird+Hierarch. I clique him and he has Scryings to hit Tron and an Ancient Stirrings. I am supposed to take Stirrings here, since it's 5 deep vs one when I CLique it. I don't and he finds Ulamog. Oops. He was dead anyway if my company wasn't so trash, but I still have outs. I missed trying to Jace into GQ, but I wouldn't have found it anyway. Ulamog eats my two fliers. If I had Unified Will instead of Negate in hand, I could stop his follow-up Ballista and out-race Ulamog with Birds+Exalted, but since it was Negate he decides not to concede. I think I could have earned a concession or actually won had I played tighter.
Round 4 vs Jeskai control 2-0
My opponent is playing a fairly top-end heavy Jeskai deck. I don't think he had JTMS, since I saw an Architect of Thought in G2. He had Rev, Torrential Gearhulk, & Secure the Wastes. G1 he buys a lot of time with Secure for 4-5, but he can't get an answer to my Knight which just beats in every turn. Jace was also pretty good, though he could actually pressure him well thanks to the Secure and bolt/electrolyze. He revs for 5 but draws into nothing and I win.
I board in 4 counters, scooze and Elspeth for 4 path & 2 birds. G2 I have a Knight that gets remanded, and then I decide to play on his turn since i have Clique/Queller/Company/Will. Finally I decide to cast a VoR and he casts Secure for 3... well, there goes the Unified Will plan! I manage to get ahead on board and he gets a board wipe. I follow up with Clique, which is bolted, and see Elspeth and Rev! I take Elspeth and untap to play a Knight. I am at seven and he has colonnades, so I am at risk to just dying if he has bolt and my follow up company doesn't hit a flier. He mainphase revs for 4, leaving a single U/W source open. I EoT company into Knight + Mage naming Path and win the game.
I think going forward I am going to try dropping Mage from the MB for +1 Scooze, +1 VoR and +1 Pridemage or Courser, and then having 2x Mage in the board. I might experiment with running Retreat again... likely would go to 1 Jace MB and drop the Pridemage/Course for 2x Retreat.
It's overall fairly solid. I don't mind not playing the combo, though I do miss Kessig sometimes. That card is just so good with KotR.
I think the Field of Ruin is a bit greedy and I think I'm going to just play a second GQ in the board and play either another shock or a second Sanctum in place of Field of Ruin. I also might cut a Clique and replace it with the second Scooze - could be wrong but I keep drawing multiples. Jace has been solidly medium. I definitely need more practice playing with the card.
I'm also really not impressed with Blessed Alliance. I feel like without Courser (maybe I can make room for one) we're super weak to Burn and Alliance just isn't a good card in that MU - two mana gain four is just so weak. It's great against stuff like Boggles and Infect, but against most midrangey decks I never bring in the card because there's really not much to board out and we want CoCo to remain relevant. I feel like it just rots in my sideboard most of the time.
I got to 2-1 a Grixis control deck with 4x Direfleet Daredevil the other night. That card ******* destroys us. G1 my opponent was at 3 with no cards in hand facing down Lili+BBE. He topdecks Snap IIRC and snap commands into Direfleet hitting my Kommand.... it was gross.
Felt awesome to beat him. One of the few times Cage is amazing vs Grixis.
The reality is these matchups are pretty bad for Jun. However, I don't really think the bannings make the matchup worse. I think BBE does more for Jund in the MU than Jace does for UWx. That being said, it's still a bad matchup. The issue isn't really Jace himself, it's that Jace is going to make blue control decks super popular.
I'm usually pretty jazzed if people bring GY hate in against me on Knightfall. It's very low impact - just shrinks Knight and maybe shuts off Scooze.
In your UWGr build, why are you not running Reflector Mage? Just value Skyknight's evasion over Mages improved tempo swing?
In general I've been surprised by the lack of discussion on the lists that did well on MTGO for a bit. Seems like people are really dedicated to Mantis Rider here.
I typically don't like playing Company in Naya and last night was a good reminder why. A combination of just less impactful companies and wanting to run more non-creature spells compared to the Bant decks make our Companies way worse. When the floor and ceiling are lower than in Knightfall or Humans and we have so many other good cards we could play instead, I think it's worth passing on the card.
You can definitely run Stony Silence, Kataki, Reclamation Sage and Manglehorn has additional sideboard cards against Affinity and other Artifact decks. When I last played the deck I had 2 Staticaster, 1 Manglehorn & 1 Rec Sage in the board in addition to 1 MB Qasali Pridemage.
I've never played against Dredge with this deck (no one plays it locally, never see it on cockatrice), but I believe our plan is to gum up the board and prevent them from casting Conflagrate via exiling it with Scooze. Since the banning dredge has lost both speed and consistency, so a deck like ours that just plays a bunch of dudes and fliers can actually outgrind them if we don't let them board wipe us. Some people have advocated running Rhox War Monk for the dredge matchup, basically because Dredge can't race it.
We'll just have to disagree with this. Sacrificing a mana dork for something better, even on T2, is fine with me in a lot of cases.
The comment on improving the combo game is a relevant one as well. In a matchup like Burn/Affinity/Storm/Whatever, the Evo isn't just your Finks/RecSage/Eidolon - it's another KotR. The card pulls double-duty in these MUs.
Regarding Bento's talk about tons of silver bullets: this is kind of presumptive. Running Evo doesn't in any way mean you butcher your sideboard for it. It's a one-of that gives me a bit more space/flexibility. I don't have to fill that space with a ton of dudes that I wouldn't be playing otherwise, and I don't. It's just solid because we're already pushed in the direction of playing creature sideboard cards. A great example of this is Kelvin's posted list, where none of his fetchable cards are even one-ofs. Still extra copies.
We also shouldn't avoid running a card because it's 'bad' against GDS. What about the other 88% of the format?
Not playing the card is 100% defensible. It certainly has an opportunity cost to run. But it's also a totally playable and solid card in our strategy.
Evo being unplayable against blue decks isn't something I care about at all, though. It's a sideboard card, not a mainboard one. You're also typically not boarding in the card in matchups where you expect to go into topdeck mode quickly, with the exception of some midrange matchups where I think the trade off is worth having a pseudo extra copy of Knight/Tracker/Courser.
I think you guys are both asking Evo to do too much (aka win the game on its own, which it actually will do sometimes) and undervaluing it. I agree that having a second copy of the hate-dude you're boarding in is likely better than having one hate-dude and one evo. However, you usually don't need the second actual copy of the card (and if you do, you need to draw/CoCo into both) and Evo still has value even when you already found the card you're boarding it in with.
It has performed very well for me both in Knightfall and in Naya Midrange - a deck that is hurting for sideboard space far more than we are, to be fair.
Why is that foolish? Evolution literally is an additional copy of any creature you have post-board, assuming you have a creature in play (very easy to facilitate, not something at risk in most MUs you bring in Evo for) and that your target isn't already in play (in which case, that's great).
By running Evo, you increase the amount of effective sideboard slots you have at, IMO, very little cost.