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  • posted a message on Grixis Death's Shadow
    Quote from Wraithpk »
    Quote from Kozlak »

    Affinity has not been a favorable matchup in my experience with how my deck is built. Sample size might be small (I'm ways away from 500 matches played against every deck) but it is still better than 'what I remember', or 'what I think happened'. I have a pet peeve with people who make claims like "This is / is not a bad matchup" with no back up whatsoever other than it being their own personal opinion. If you know of anyone tracking thousands of matches with the deck I'ld love to see the data.

    That being said, I do agree that Burn is probably not as favorable as it looks in my numbers. I think its a deck that is played by a lot of new players, some even budget conscious, that play poorly in this matchup especially. With 2 good pilots, the matchup is probably 45-55 for them or 50-50.

    On the control matchup front, yeah, its rough. Discard is complicated because discarding a removal and leaving a snap feels awful, and the other way around means we get delayed.
    How are the games going against Affinity for you? In my experience, if they have a god hand there's just nothing we can do, but if they have a more normal hand we often have enough removal to control their board and then start attacking them. The exception to this is when they resolve a Champion, which I prioritize picking with Thoughtseize. You can also change one of your Angers to a Kozilek's Return if you want a little more play in the Affinity matchup. I don't think it's a great matchup, it's probably somewhere around 50/50, so I think your 25% is mostly small sample size.


    I don't think a god hand is the only way we lose. Any Etched Champion that resolves is a pain like you mentioned, since it is already really hard to race, and if they get to resolve a plating or a Ravager, our answers became too few to consistently win. I think the Champion was being dropped from a lot of lists, but lately you will see in MTGGoldfish that the list are running the full 4 in the 75, usually 3 in the 60. Yes, Kozilek's Return would be better in this matchup, but you lose a lot of win% against Dredge which is also a bad matchup. Like I mentioned in my original comment, my issue is that even though for me Merfolk and Affinity have felt unfavorable, I know what changes could be made to combat them. This is not true with the control match up.

    That being said, I do agree that 25% is of course low, I would say that its a 45-55 matchup or somewhere around there.
    Posted in: Midrange
  • posted a message on Grixis Death's Shadow
    Quote from Wraithpk »
    Quote from Kozlak »
    Hi guys,

    What are your thoughts on the Control matchup? In my experience, Affinity, Merfolk and Ux Control are the three worst matchups (Check my results over 120 tracked matches); and Control is the only archetype where I am not sure how to win.

    If we wanted to beat Merfolk or Affinity more consistently, the hate cards are pretty self explanatory: we would run more artifact removal, more wraths (I'm not playing Kozilek's Return, which sounds like a huge upgrade to Anger of the Gods in the Affinity matchup), etc. But what is the answer to a pile of removals and better late game bombs? Trying to go under is the only guess I have come up with, but a ~20% win rate means its probably not the right answer.

    My decklist for reference
    I think your sample sizes are still too small to say anything. Affinity is not a bad matchup. Outside of a resolved Champion you should be able to just kill all their stuff and beat them. On the other hand, you have a really good winrate against Burn, which is not a favorable matchup for us. You're definitely right about control being bad, though. That might be our worse.

    In the matches I've won against control, it's been when I had a lot of discard to pick off all their removal and an early threat to kill them before they found more. That's how you beat them, you have to tempo them out. Trying to play for a long grindy game is a losing proposition, because they will out-card advantage you in the long run. You want all your discard, so board in your Brutalities. You also want all your Denials. In your list, I would board in the Fulminators just cause they are additional threats that net you a 2-for-1 when they eventually have to try to kill it, but I really don't like Fulminator in the deck, Liliana is just better and is a good way to beat control. They only have Detention Sphere and Cryptics to stop her once she resolves. I would board out your battle rage, terminates, pushes, and bolt. Also, you should play 4 Thoughtseize and 2 Inquisition, Thoughtseize is the best card in the deck.


    I find that every time I have any kind of discussion on matchups here or in Reddit, people confound personal perception with reality.

    Affinity has not been a favorable matchup in my experience with how my deck is built. Sample size might be small (I'm ways away from 500 matches played against every deck) but it is still better than 'what I remember', or 'what I think happened'. I have a pet peeve with people who make claims like "This is / is not a bad matchup" with no back up whatsoever other than it being their own personal opinion. If you know of anyone tracking thousands of matches with the deck I'ld love to see the data.

    That being said, I do agree that Burn is probably not as favorable as it looks in my numbers. I think its a deck that is played by a lot of new players, some even budget conscious, that play poorly in this matchup especially. With 2 good pilots, the matchup is probably 45-55 for them or 50-50.

    On the control matchup front, yeah, its rough. Discard is complicated because discarding a removal and leaving a snap feels awful, and the other way around means we get delayed.
    Posted in: Midrange
  • posted a message on Grixis Death's Shadow
    Quote from Tasighoul »
    Kozlak, your win percentage against Eldrazi Tron is higher than mine. Would you explain how you play out that matchup?

    Kozilek's Return is also a lot better against merfolk than Anger of the Gods as long as you keep them from getting two lords on the board, which should be your plan anyway. Instant speed can be helpful, being able to hit Master of the Waves and Mutavault is huge and the friendlier mana cost helps playing around Spreading Seas.

    Anger of the Gods is much better against Dredge, though. I'm not so worried about Merfolk and Affinity, because our spot removal shines against them. I find game 1 against Dredge nearly unwinnable, so having access to Anger of the Gods in game 2 and 3 helps a lot. If I read your data right, you dodged Dredge for the most part, but this won't last forever.

    What's your reasoning behind not including Liliana in your list? Without her, how do you deal with Lingering Souls in the mirror?

    I also noticed that you tracked both "Shadow Jund" and "Jund Shadow", which looks like an oversight.


    Thanks for the Jund Shadow > Shadow Jund debacle. I guess "Death's Shadow Jund" is how it was most commonly named, but in the spirit of consistency I moved it all to Jund Shadow.

    In the Eldrazi Tron matchup, I think how your sideboard is built makes a huge difference. 3 Fulminators + 2 Rejections add a lot of win % in that matchup.

    I would say basic gist of it is that Chalice is the most important card. Discard or Counterspells are the easiest answers, or if on the play, we can just let it resolve and destroy it with Kommand on our 3rd turn, which is not awful if we already dropped a threat on turn 2.

    Objective is to have the following development:

    Keep or Mull: we need at least either 1 discard, or a counter; + a way to put a fast threat on the board, preferably a Delve threat so the Denials become Negates.

    On the play:

    Turn 1: Discard (aiming to discard Chalice > Map > Dismember, unless we don't have removal and they will have a fast big dumb creature, then we can discard those) > Serum > Thoughtscour
    Turn 2: Play a threat OR keep countermagic up if we didn't discard on turn 1.
    Turn 3: Play a threat if we didn't on turn 2 OR Fulminator and kill a temple or Tron piece.
    Turn 4: Repeat turn 3

    On the draw:

    Turn 1: Discard > Keep up countermagic > Thoughtscour on end step
    Turn 2: If we didn't discard and they didn't play Chalice, play a threat and proceed as if they don't have it (if you have a counter do still keep up mana for it after playing the creature, since Dismember can make our clock too clunky).
    Turn 3: Fulminator > more Threats

    That's the typical idea, and it usually makes the matchup very favorable.

    Kozilek's Return is one of the next probably upgrades. It is unfortunately pretty expensive for a card which isn't a strict upgrade since in CoCo and Dredge matchups the 3 damage and exile can be very relevant.

    Liliana is another case of being expensive. I haven't had THAT much trouble against Lingering Souls yet, even in the mirror. It is OK when behind, but if I have 2 big threats, putting 4 1/1 in the field only buys 2 turns while putting you down a card essentially. On parity it is great, but since they never trade and offer a slow clock, a single Death's Shadow can alpha by killing whatever blockers you decided to leave and dealt 8+ damage.

    I'm not arguing that Lingering Souls is not gas, I'm just saying its not THAT big of a threat at this point in the meta.
    Posted in: Midrange
  • posted a message on Grixis Death's Shadow
    That's the problem with anecdotal evidence. How many matches have you played in total and how many against Merfolk?

    My experience is that if the Merfolk player knows what they are doing they have a much larger damage output than we do when you factor that is very easy for them to chump our fat creatures and they can get islandwalk pretty consistently.

    Overall, we play a lot of cards that mess with our life total, and Vial + Mutavault makes them very capable of outputting large amounts of damage from a technically empty board.

    In any case, any input on my question?
    Posted in: Midrange
  • posted a message on Grixis Death's Shadow
    Hi guys,

    What are your thoughts on the Control matchup? In my experience, Affinity, Merfolk and Ux Control are the three worst matchups (Check my results over 120 tracked matches); and Control is the only archetype where I am not sure how to win.

    If we wanted to beat Merfolk or Affinity more consistently, the hate cards are pretty self explanatory: we would run more artifact removal, more wraths (I'm not playing Kozilek's Return, which sounds like a huge upgrade to Anger of the Gods in the Affinity matchup), etc. But what is the answer to a pile of removals and better late game bombs? Trying to go under is the only guess I have come up with, but a ~20% win rate means its probably not the right answer.

    My decklist for reference
    Posted in: Midrange
  • posted a message on Taking Turns
    I would say that AV sort of replace Mine effects. Since it comes off no earlier than turn 5, you essentially draw 3 turns worth of double draws:

    I.e: With a Mine:
    - turn 5: draw 2 cards
    - turn 6: draw 2 cards
    - turn 7: draw 2 cards
    Total: 6 cards
    Without a Mine:
    - turn 5: draw 4 cards
    - turn 6: draw 1 card
    - turn 7: draw 1 card
    Total: 6 cards

    In essence, it allows you to 'go off' with less permanents on the table.
    Posted in: Modern Archives - Established
  • posted a message on Taking Turns
    Quote from xenob8 »
    Quote from Kozlak »
    I play Part The Waterveil, Snap, Colonnade and Thing in The ice. The snaps and Colonnades are very slow win-cons, which force you to take at least 6-9 turns consecutively (to either get to the land count of the Colonnade or hit with snap a bunch of times), which is not always possible, specially to also ensure that the creatures won't die to Push at some point.

    The Things get sideboarded out against decks that are a pile of interaction (discard and removal), so it is not uncommon to be a bit threat light against decks that run Extraction and Push (which is like 30% of the meta right now).

    Ojutai just does so much in this deck.

    Its definitely not good against aggressive decks like Burn, since we don't have the time and we need to be lean.

    Never tried Emrakul. What is the advantage here? If you are getting to 15 mana with a card stuck in hand that is useless until that point you could have won with a sandwich at that point. Is it just the sweet "I just cast Emrakul" feeling.

    Reshuffle effect for jace


    Interesting. Do you find you need to reshuffle a lot? I have never played the version that wins by milling, and have only ever lost to milling myself like 2-3 times in like 200 matches.

    Edit: While we are at it, can I propose two additions to the primer?
    1- I think the matchup section would be pretty intersting to have since it might generate some discussions around the benefits of different versions of the deck. I have my info from ~150 matches that offer at least a starting point.
    2- I was checking the 'card choices' section, and I think it might benefit from a "win conditions" section to discuss what we have been talking in the last few posts.

    Happy to help with either of those.
    Posted in: Modern Archives - Established
  • posted a message on Taking Turns
    I play Part The Waterveil, Snap, Colonnade and Thing in The ice. The snaps and Colonnades are very slow win-cons, which force you to take at least 6-9 turns consecutively (to either get to the land count of the Colonnade or hit with snap a bunch of times), which is not always possible, specially to also ensure that the creatures won't die to Push at some point.

    The Things get sideboarded out against decks that are a pile of interaction (discard and removal), so it is not uncommon to be a bit threat light against decks that run Extraction and Push (which is like 30% of the meta right now).

    Ojutai just does so much in this deck.

    Its definitely not good against aggressive decks like Burn, since we don't have the time and we need to be lean.

    Never tried Emrakul. What is the advantage here? If you are getting to 15 mana with a card stuck in hand that is useless until that point you could have won with a sandwich at that point. Is it just the sweet "I just cast Emrakul" feeling.
    Posted in: Modern Archives - Established
  • posted a message on Taking Turns
    Ojutai is not only a threat. Like I mentioned, most of why it is pretty broken in this deck is that it helps us chain Time Warps. Its a Dictate on steroids that punchs like a mofo and protects itself until you are ready to protect it. If you are running Minamo already it is even better.

    I do think Geist might be an interesting alternative and it definitely is better against removal, but it doesn't help us combo off. Moreover, Ojutai flies over nonchalantly above their blockers.

    Why cast Ojutai when we can take turns? Because if we don't have anything going, taking an extra turn is essentially a cantrip. Playing an Ojutai helps us get back in the game when we are behind.

    This is a deck that needs a critical mass of cards: 5-6 lands at least, at least 1 mine effect in play and at least 1 time walk effect in hand. Ojutai is a one card solution that can pull you back in a game you are losing on its own.
    Posted in: Modern Archives - Established
  • posted a message on Taking Turns
    Has anyone been testing Ojutai?

    I have been testing one in the side after a user in Reddit proposed the idea, and I love it.

    My list:



    https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/610841#online

    Its a high impact top-deck for matchups that cut down your resources (discard), its an additional Mine effect (you can just win by dropping it and Time Warping a couple of times), its a relevant blocker against Taxes (blocks most of their creatures except for Thought-Knot), its a hard to remove threat against decks with a lot of removal (only Path is a 4-of that kills it, Dismember and Terminate do it but are usually never 4-ofs in any deck, and tapped Ojutai can't be killed with Push, Bolt or Abrupt Decay*), its a 4 turn-clock and an efficient additional win condition against weird decks that want to screw you out of them (Extractions or Extirpate effects; its not that difficult to lose because they took the Waterveils and the Colonnade plan is too mana demanding).

    Its a but soft to Liliana, but it is not that hard to play around it.

    Overall, this is a deck that is built to survive until turn 5, and having a card that does SO much when you are time walking is incredible. I think if there ever was a shell where Ojutai might shine its this one.

    *Most used removal in modern: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/modern/full/spells
    1- Path
    2- Fatal Push
    3- Bolt
    4- Abrupt Decay
    5- Liliana of the Veil
    6- Galvanic Blast
    7- Dismember
    8- Engineered Explosives
    9- Searing Blaze, Lightning Helix, Rift Bolt

    Meaning Untapped Ojutai dies to 7 if it is the only creature, and dies to 1, 5, 6 and 7 when tapped.
    Posted in: Modern Archives - Established
  • posted a message on Taking Turns
    Not sure about As Fortold. Just played against a deck online with it and it felt really powerful AGAINST us, since you can tap them out and they can still counter your Time Walks.

    Maybe there is a shell with Ancestral Vision and As Fortold for us, but I don't think it is that likely. It kinda adds a different angle to the deck but feels very win more: if you are Time Walking and have an As Fortold in the field you could have an extra mine and be winning just the same.
    Posted in: Modern Archives - Established
  • posted a message on Taking Turns
    Quote from xenob8 »
    You should go up with gigadrowse and exhaustion, add Laylines, move white stuff in the sideboard, add another mastery


    Hey there,

    Like I mentioned, been testing the list and my feeling is that having too many Gigadrowse / Exhaustion effects seems nice, but leads to a lot of games where you just spin on your wheels and do nothing. Love the 4 Remands in that regard, don't understand how many people doubt their inclusion.

    That being said, just moved the two Timely Reinforcements to the side and moved to 3/3 Giga-Exhaustion: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/610841#online

    Missing the Leylines on MODO so hopefully will be able to get some eventually, but definitely aware that they are essential.

    Did you check my matchups history? Anything looks off? https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yqahQVhj09s9IYV0L3gJc4PYvs_Nyugcdc5IXqRMcjo/edit#gid=923056467

    Trying out Narset a bit. Mixed feelings so far. More of a Win-More card at this point.

    Temporal Mastery is a weird card: I love it, but feel that having the full 4 leads to many clunky hands. Yeah, sometimes its insane, but having 2 in your hand and 5-6 lands and about to die is awful.
    Posted in: Modern Archives - Established
  • posted a message on Taking Turns
    Hi guys!

    Posted a primer on Reddit a few days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/63wwrj/uw_turns_the_primer_you_have_been_waiting_for/

    I'm currently playing a Uw version but missing the Leylines.

    I've been keeping track of match results and archetypes. Currently at exactly 66.67% in over 60 matches with only Shadow variants being a huge boon (Grixis Delver is also rough). Besides those, I have positive matchups almost across the board (Elves is an exception due to only playing 2 Exhaustions and no Hibernations in the side anymore; the mono U version felt unbeatable against them, but Burn became a lot more winnable as a counterpart).

    I'm convinced that 4 Leylines in the side is correct with ~13% of the meta being different Shadow variants which wreck us with discard.

    I'm on mobile so can't exactly format this to have decklist and such, but please check out the list in the Reddit post and also the Spreadsheet with results to compare with your experience.

    Let me know your thoughts!
    Posted in: Modern Archives - Established
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