The list above was the list I ended up taking to the event. The base list was designed by ElfKid who had a 5-0 comp league with his list. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1428945#paper
The design of the list seemed to lean on redundancy and aggression more so than powerful cards like Hazoret and Chandra. That appealed to me for legacy, maybe more so than modern, because explosive hands are not as punishable in legacy due to less removal and more reliance on cantrips. Also the deck has a lot less all in hands because we don’t need to all in on a 4 drop.
In the main deck the card that jumped out at me the most was the inclusion of walking ballista. This card is the perfect bridge card, no pun intended. Balista is almost always the best top deck late game, and is even fine in the early game. However, I would never keep a hand with this deck that plays ballista with nothing else to do the turn before or after.
The second important part about this list in the manabase, we went down on the top end however we went up a land, why you ask? Because nineteen lands in inconsistent for casting your four drops or trying to play two, three drops in a turn. We also included two copies of ramunap ruins because it helps make sure you can cast thought-knot seer out of the board.
Talking about the sideboard for the deck there were a lot of different tested cards. Cards like abrade and sulfur elemental were hugely popular in a lot of lists as well as scab-clan. These cards seemed okay but are match up dependant so we began looking into other options.
Cratermaker, my personal favorite card in this board, was an all star. The creature can come in against decks where we just want another dude, or come in for match ups where we want extra removal.
The second card I added that isn’t played much was Jitte. Jitte is a card that when talking to people seemed to be either well liked or completely hated. I feel the card gives you versatility that you want. Much like cratermaker you can bring the card in for match ups where you want removal but also in match ups where you need a faster clock. The card is one of the most versatile equipment in the game and can make even a goblin token a real threat.
My overall idea for the sideboard is to make the deck as versatile as possible. We don’t have a lot of card advantage engines so the cards we have need to have better blanket interactions outside of maybe faerie macabre that i believe you 100% need in the sideboard.
Now let's get into the event itself.
Round 1 miracles (local player assumed he was on UB Shadow)
Pregame he already knew what he was on, I assumed he was on shadow, had a rough seven with no lands and a rough six with no threats, kept a medium 5, played an early rabble because it was all I had. It made one token before eating a swords. Later he landed a mentor and closed the game out quickly, but not before seeing 2 snapcasters and a vendilion clique.
Sideboard plan was bring out bridge, bring out moon, and mom and pop. Bring in three cratermakers, two kozilek's return, 1 sulfur elemental, 1 Jitte, 2 thought-knot.
Game two and three the plan is to overwhelm them with 1-2 threats at a time and force them to answer them.
Game two my opponent kept his seven, I resolved a turn one rabble, my rabble on two got countered and he swords my first rabblemaster. I resolved a third rabble on three and it went unanswered cleaning the game up quickly.
Game three I mulled to six keeping a very strong hand with the option of turn one and two rabble or turn two thought-knot. I talked it over with our modern player who thought the correct line was the rabble on one rabble on two, my opponent mulled to five this game. personally I felt thought-knot was better but we ended up drawing a magus turn 1 so decided the magus into rabble plan was better due to my opponent not having a fetch in play and only having 1 blue mana. Our magus kept him off the white as we wanted, however my first rabble got countered. I later resolved a second magus and a Jitte and still had a rabble in hand for a safe way to the finish.
Round 1 record, 1-0 (2-1) this match up feels favored prison 60-40
Round 2 (more locals no idea what they are on due to being edh players.)
Game one I kept a very strong six, resolving a rabble on turn one and a rabble on turn two. Only seeing a fetchland and a scrubland i assumed my opponent was on reanimator? Sure let's go with that.
Sideboard plan for reanimator is either kill them quick or try to get behind a bridge. Just make sure you have a plan in your hand. Sb out all seven moons including magus as moon is not the greatest against them. Brought in four mecrebe, two thought-knot, and one spyglass.
Game two he had a thoughtseize on into another discard spell on turn 1 and reanimated a iona on turn 2 naming red, our hand was sub par but we had a bridge so we played it out. Two turns later he reanimated his tidespout and bounced my bridge. Sad days.
Game three was sad. We misplayed turn one by playing our chalice into his Chancellor of the Annex he showed me pregame, I ended up throwing this game because of this due to him having four more pieces of interaction, i conceded on turn seven when i had drawn zero threats and a total of nine lands. Kinda a sad game but not one to tear us down.
Record after round 2, 1-1 (1-2) this matchup feels kinda rough, most likely 45-55 not in our favor.
Round 3 (not a local player, very friendly, one of the nicest people i played all weekend.)
Pregame my modern player noticed a card from my opponent's deck and whispered to me that it might be infect. Much like modern infect the matchup is a wonderful for our list so it was exciting.
Game one i mulled to six keeping a strong blood moon hand. He landed a few threats we resolved a moon and eventually a bridge when we were at seven poison. Such a close game thankfully we got under our bridge.
Sideboarding is interesting we get a lot of things and for once i take out seven of the eight rabbles. I brought in the abrade, three cratermakers, one jitte, two kozilek’s return.
Game two we mulled to five keeping a very weak five with a blood moon on turn one so maybe we get lucky off it. Sadly he countered our moon. We managed to play a cratermaker that gave us a good blocker for a few turns before he drew inkmoth. We got to 7 poison before resolving Mom and Pop sadly he drew the beserk to kill us.
Game three we kept a strong seven and resolved a bridge into our last remaining warboss in the deck. He didn’t have an answer for the warboss and we were safe behind our bridge with our chalice on one.
Record after round 3, 2-1 (2-1) match up is great my opponent told me his notes for our match up said worst match up hope to dodge. We went out to smoke together and when we came back we couldn’t comment on the game that was going on letting our standard player win game three.
Round 4 (opponent was very loud and talkative, we talked about modern and both had an idea the other might be on combo.)
Game one I kept a very strong opening hand. Landed an early rabble that he answered while he was at about 5, later he cheated into play a griselbrand to block, however three rabblemaster effects were to strong for the sneak and show start.
Sideboarding plan for this match up is take out six moons leaving one magus. Bring in three cratermakers, one spyglass, two thought-knot.
Game two went exactly the same as game one cept he had a force on my second rabble. We resolved a trinisphere on turn three and felt safe to win the game off our rabbles since we had a bridge in hand for a show and tell.
Record after round 4, 3-1 (2-0) yay we beat our second worst match up.
Round 5 (our modern player spotted another card from my opponents 75 so we put him on turbo depths)
Kept a good seven, turn 1 rabble turn 2 rabble. Opponent didn't cast a spell just played 2 lands that definitely put him on turbo depths.
Sideboard plan is aggressive and moon chalice is very medium so I changed 2 out for a spyglass and our good ok faithful jitte, maybe we can snag a hex mage or get a good clock idk just felt right.
Game two mulled to 5 kept an aggressive hand however no moon died on turn 3 to a 20/20 sad day.
Game three we had a good seven turn 1 rabble plus a magus on two seems good. We play rabble, opponent takes the bait assuming he can't beat the rabble and abrades it off an elvish spirit guide. Played magus on two ran away with the game. After my opponent made a comment on how he should have seen the magus coming with how aggressive I mullagain the deck.
Record after round 5, 4-1 (2-1) this matchup is super easy. Blood moon and bridge both make game one free and they don't get more basics game two. 65-35
Round 6 last round for our team sadly (my opponent gave me no inkling of a deck and my modern seat saw nothing in the blind sadly)
Kept a great seven had a turn one chalice on 1 locking my opponent out of his hand. Followed up with two back to back rabble closing game one out. He seemed salty so we used this to continue to salt him out.
Sideboard plan same as round two. Moons out mecrabes thought-knots and spyglass in.
Game two we played tightly landed a turn one bridge turn two moon. He decayed my chalice in response to a thought-knot taking his other decay from his hand. He assassin's trophied my thought-knot and tried to exhumed his Iona, responded with discarding mecrabe hitting both his threats and got a free 2/2. We ended up winning the game with a bridge chalice on one and two and a rabble in play. Great end to the day and a great end to my run.
Final record after round 6, 5-1 (2-0) this matchup as said earlier feels poor but when we have interaction its normally game breaking for us.
Overall I loved my list and would have loved to have a deeper run however our modern player was on a really rough streak with his elf deck going 1-5 and our standard player not quite having the reps in with his list I had hoped. Thanks for the read and hope everyone found this helpful.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1326717#paper this is the list i am thinking of taking to a pptq. im not 100% on the main or sideboard but i came to the conclusion with this deck that i never really want more than 5 sb cards for any match up. so i started tinkering to try to find the 5 i want... is trinisphere good in the board? what is it good against and what should i be looking at as my worst match ups? tron/storm?
I still haven't tried out Sarkhan. Lil Bomat Courier gets me the cards i need. Well,, other than that one time it gave me 3 mountains. Cheeky bum. I'll test out Sarkhan regardless, so you can have another opinion on him.
I love Ramunap Ruins. I've had it in my list since i found out about it.
Question: do you guys ever have problems against first strike and/or lifelink in game 1? I lost a match (1-2) against mono-white vial knights because i didn't have my sideboard with me, which had my angers and slagstorms. So i was just curious about how you handle them. Fiendslayer Paladin Tore me up both games i played against it, but once again, no sweeper access screwed me on that front.
I am extremely happy to see someone is testing the bomat courier. to many people write if off because it costs 1 mana, however when you look at legacy and other chalice decks they do not always skip 1 mana. bomat courier fills the same shoes as a planeswalker in this deck to me when i play it because it gives you a huge amount of versatility in the game. the last tested that played courier was this:
3 Ramunap Ruins
4 Darksteel Citadel
11 Mountain
1 Inventors' Fair
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Bomat Courier
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Karn, Scion of Urza
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Abrade
4 Blood Moon
4 Mox Opal
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Slagstorm
SB: 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
SB: 1 Hazoret the Fervent
SB: 1 Spellskite
SB: 1 Uba Mask
SB: 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil
SB: 1 Sorcerous Spyglass
SB: 1 Torpor Orb
SB: 1 Shattering Spree
SB: 1 Anger of the Gods
SB: 1 Sweltering Suns
SB: 1 Kozilek's Return
SB: 1 Damping Matrix
As for match ups the first strike is relevant players like Ray will occasionally play a 1 of, of the land that lets you give a legendary creature first strike. as for lifelink I feel that we have lost enough games to wurmcoil that we can say but life gain itself doesn't seem to be the largest issue on earth. eventually you will land a bridge and that bridge will be able to provide you with a way to stop the LifeLink and stabilize you to the win. Also, if you want a creature with first strike i would suggest playing Goblin Chain Whirler, him + abrade kill almost all creatures in modern right now.
When it comes to the Sarkhan debate I am not 100% sold either way. I believe like chain whirler or koth, there is a meta call that's for this planeswalker and control is the meta.
Ray shouldn't you also bring daredevil in against storm for the games where they "mow the lawn" to kill an early rabblemaster allowing you to exil the grapeshot and can use their bolts to kill their bears.
Thanks for clearing that one up fellas. I feel like half of the format runs through that deck.. but the most common wincon for them has to be, like Butterynugs put it, "scoop out of frustration" lol
wrong that deck crushes every creature deck and every midrange deck in the format it loses to control, burn and titan shift.
Going to be partaking in a PPTQ this Sunday and I'm not feeling good about my Tron match up. Wanted to know what your game plan, besides praying for Blood Moon.
So the main plan against tron is speed. when playing against them side out your bridges if they land wormcoil hopefully abrade and mom/pop token block sacs help. chalice on 1 is important stops their cantrips and maps. if you play matrix this is one of the match ups for it. stops ostone and map, blood moon is a great card and if you can turn 1 or 2 a rabble master that is most likely the best play you can make.
Crazy Idea. So for those who don't know me. I am currently one of the few players who actively work on the Steel Moon or Full Metal Pyro list. This version has the worst control match up out of all of them due to conceding good threat count to artifacts for opal. tonight i was looking at a kuldotha rebirth list i used to play in standard... turn 1 rebirth turn 2 rabble turn 3 kill potential...
When you play the deck for the first time basically every deck is a bad match up. At least thats what it feels like right? the reason is because you don't quite know what to do with your cards and tend to keep generically bad hands/ pitch hands that are fine looking for flashy plays. once you learn the match ups, almost every match up becomes easily winnable with the right 75.
The other reason I like sarkhan is it means we can consistently get to 5 mana... I feel 5 cmc is becoming more relevant nowadays.... dragons, hour of devastation, maybe siege gang gets a little better now over p n k
Unfortunately the mana acceleration only works for dragons, so he doesn't really help with other 5 drops. However his rummaging ability is very good mostly because it's repeatable.
I was not talking about the mana execration. Because the Sarhkan has looting it makes getting 5 land in play more consistent.
The other reason I like sarkhan is it means we can consistently get to 5 mana... I feel 5 cmc is becoming more relevant nowadays.... dragons, hour of devastation, maybe siege gang gets a little better now over p n k
In all honesty we don't have the best tron match up always. I think the skred deck is fine, they give up bridge and chalice package for bolt and skred. They have bad combo match ups but control and midrange is easy and we have seen a lot of jeskai lately.
Also remember that they are our mountainfolk brothers too.
Have we ever tested shrine of burning rage or fulminator mage in the board? Idk how good shrine is, but as for fulminator or maybe molten rain helps keep tron off 5 to pop ostone or stops tron with a rit, can help against cryptic out of control, kill a drawn basic from jund or abzan, could come in handy against scapeshift too I guess idk.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1480035#paper
The list above was the list I ended up taking to the event. The base list was designed by ElfKid who had a 5-0 comp league with his list. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1428945#paper
The design of the list seemed to lean on redundancy and aggression more so than powerful cards like Hazoret and Chandra. That appealed to me for legacy, maybe more so than modern, because explosive hands are not as punishable in legacy due to less removal and more reliance on cantrips. Also the deck has a lot less all in hands because we don’t need to all in on a 4 drop.
In the main deck the card that jumped out at me the most was the inclusion of walking ballista. This card is the perfect bridge card, no pun intended. Balista is almost always the best top deck late game, and is even fine in the early game. However, I would never keep a hand with this deck that plays ballista with nothing else to do the turn before or after.
The second important part about this list in the manabase, we went down on the top end however we went up a land, why you ask? Because nineteen lands in inconsistent for casting your four drops or trying to play two, three drops in a turn. We also included two copies of ramunap ruins because it helps make sure you can cast thought-knot seer out of the board.
Talking about the sideboard for the deck there were a lot of different tested cards. Cards like abrade and sulfur elemental were hugely popular in a lot of lists as well as scab-clan. These cards seemed okay but are match up dependant so we began looking into other options.
Cratermaker, my personal favorite card in this board, was an all star. The creature can come in against decks where we just want another dude, or come in for match ups where we want extra removal.
The second card I added that isn’t played much was Jitte. Jitte is a card that when talking to people seemed to be either well liked or completely hated. I feel the card gives you versatility that you want. Much like cratermaker you can bring the card in for match ups where you want removal but also in match ups where you need a faster clock. The card is one of the most versatile equipment in the game and can make even a goblin token a real threat.
My overall idea for the sideboard is to make the deck as versatile as possible. We don’t have a lot of card advantage engines so the cards we have need to have better blanket interactions outside of maybe faerie macabre that i believe you 100% need in the sideboard.
Now let's get into the event itself.
Round 1 miracles (local player assumed he was on UB Shadow)
Pregame he already knew what he was on, I assumed he was on shadow, had a rough seven with no lands and a rough six with no threats, kept a medium 5, played an early rabble because it was all I had. It made one token before eating a swords. Later he landed a mentor and closed the game out quickly, but not before seeing 2 snapcasters and a vendilion clique.
Sideboard plan was bring out bridge, bring out moon, and mom and pop. Bring in three cratermakers, two kozilek's return, 1 sulfur elemental, 1 Jitte, 2 thought-knot.
Game two and three the plan is to overwhelm them with 1-2 threats at a time and force them to answer them.
Game two my opponent kept his seven, I resolved a turn one rabble, my rabble on two got countered and he swords my first rabblemaster. I resolved a third rabble on three and it went unanswered cleaning the game up quickly.
Game three I mulled to six keeping a very strong hand with the option of turn one and two rabble or turn two thought-knot. I talked it over with our modern player who thought the correct line was the rabble on one rabble on two, my opponent mulled to five this game. personally I felt thought-knot was better but we ended up drawing a magus turn 1 so decided the magus into rabble plan was better due to my opponent not having a fetch in play and only having 1 blue mana. Our magus kept him off the white as we wanted, however my first rabble got countered. I later resolved a second magus and a Jitte and still had a rabble in hand for a safe way to the finish.
Round 1 record, 1-0 (2-1) this match up feels favored prison 60-40
Round 2 (more locals no idea what they are on due to being edh players.)
Game one I kept a very strong six, resolving a rabble on turn one and a rabble on turn two. Only seeing a fetchland and a scrubland i assumed my opponent was on reanimator? Sure let's go with that.
Sideboard plan for reanimator is either kill them quick or try to get behind a bridge. Just make sure you have a plan in your hand. Sb out all seven moons including magus as moon is not the greatest against them. Brought in four mecrebe, two thought-knot, and one spyglass.
Game two he had a thoughtseize on into another discard spell on turn 1 and reanimated a iona on turn 2 naming red, our hand was sub par but we had a bridge so we played it out. Two turns later he reanimated his tidespout and bounced my bridge. Sad days.
Game three was sad. We misplayed turn one by playing our chalice into his Chancellor of the Annex he showed me pregame, I ended up throwing this game because of this due to him having four more pieces of interaction, i conceded on turn seven when i had drawn zero threats and a total of nine lands. Kinda a sad game but not one to tear us down.
Record after round 2, 1-1 (1-2) this matchup feels kinda rough, most likely 45-55 not in our favor.
Round 3 (not a local player, very friendly, one of the nicest people i played all weekend.)
Pregame my modern player noticed a card from my opponent's deck and whispered to me that it might be infect. Much like modern infect the matchup is a wonderful for our list so it was exciting.
Game one i mulled to six keeping a strong blood moon hand. He landed a few threats we resolved a moon and eventually a bridge when we were at seven poison. Such a close game thankfully we got under our bridge.
Sideboarding is interesting we get a lot of things and for once i take out seven of the eight rabbles. I brought in the abrade, three cratermakers, one jitte, two kozilek’s return.
Game two we mulled to five keeping a very weak five with a blood moon on turn one so maybe we get lucky off it. Sadly he countered our moon. We managed to play a cratermaker that gave us a good blocker for a few turns before he drew inkmoth. We got to 7 poison before resolving Mom and Pop sadly he drew the beserk to kill us.
Game three we kept a strong seven and resolved a bridge into our last remaining warboss in the deck. He didn’t have an answer for the warboss and we were safe behind our bridge with our chalice on one.
Record after round 3, 2-1 (2-1) match up is great my opponent told me his notes for our match up said worst match up hope to dodge. We went out to smoke together and when we came back we couldn’t comment on the game that was going on letting our standard player win game three.
Round 4 (opponent was very loud and talkative, we talked about modern and both had an idea the other might be on combo.)
Game one I kept a very strong opening hand. Landed an early rabble that he answered while he was at about 5, later he cheated into play a griselbrand to block, however three rabblemaster effects were to strong for the sneak and show start.
Sideboarding plan for this match up is take out six moons leaving one magus. Bring in three cratermakers, one spyglass, two thought-knot.
Game two went exactly the same as game one cept he had a force on my second rabble. We resolved a trinisphere on turn three and felt safe to win the game off our rabbles since we had a bridge in hand for a show and tell.
Record after round 4, 3-1 (2-0) yay we beat our second worst match up.
Round 5 (our modern player spotted another card from my opponents 75 so we put him on turbo depths)
Kept a good seven, turn 1 rabble turn 2 rabble. Opponent didn't cast a spell just played 2 lands that definitely put him on turbo depths.
Sideboard plan is aggressive and moon chalice is very medium so I changed 2 out for a spyglass and our good ok faithful jitte, maybe we can snag a hex mage or get a good clock idk just felt right.
Game two mulled to 5 kept an aggressive hand however no moon died on turn 3 to a 20/20 sad day.
Game three we had a good seven turn 1 rabble plus a magus on two seems good. We play rabble, opponent takes the bait assuming he can't beat the rabble and abrades it off an elvish spirit guide. Played magus on two ran away with the game. After my opponent made a comment on how he should have seen the magus coming with how aggressive I mullagain the deck.
Record after round 5, 4-1 (2-1) this matchup is super easy. Blood moon and bridge both make game one free and they don't get more basics game two. 65-35
Round 6 last round for our team sadly (my opponent gave me no inkling of a deck and my modern seat saw nothing in the blind sadly)
Kept a great seven had a turn one chalice on 1 locking my opponent out of his hand. Followed up with two back to back rabble closing game one out. He seemed salty so we used this to continue to salt him out.
Sideboard plan same as round two. Moons out mecrabes thought-knots and spyglass in.
Game two we played tightly landed a turn one bridge turn two moon. He decayed my chalice in response to a thought-knot taking his other decay from his hand. He assassin's trophied my thought-knot and tried to exhumed his Iona, responded with discarding mecrabe hitting both his threats and got a free 2/2. We ended up winning the game with a bridge chalice on one and two and a rabble in play. Great end to the day and a great end to my run.
Final record after round 6, 5-1 (2-0) this matchup as said earlier feels poor but when we have interaction its normally game breaking for us.
Overall I loved my list and would have loved to have a deeper run however our modern player was on a really rough streak with his elf deck going 1-5 and our standard player not quite having the reps in with his list I had hoped. Thanks for the read and hope everyone found this helpful.
I am extremely happy to see someone is testing the bomat courier. to many people write if off because it costs 1 mana, however when you look at legacy and other chalice decks they do not always skip 1 mana. bomat courier fills the same shoes as a planeswalker in this deck to me when i play it because it gives you a huge amount of versatility in the game. the last tested that played courier was this:
3 Ramunap Ruins
4 Darksteel Citadel
11 Mountain
1 Inventors' Fair
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Bomat Courier
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Karn, Scion of Urza
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Abrade
4 Blood Moon
4 Mox Opal
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Slagstorm
SB: 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
SB: 1 Hazoret the Fervent
SB: 1 Spellskite
SB: 1 Uba Mask
SB: 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil
SB: 1 Sorcerous Spyglass
SB: 1 Torpor Orb
SB: 1 Shattering Spree
SB: 1 Anger of the Gods
SB: 1 Sweltering Suns
SB: 1 Kozilek's Return
SB: 1 Damping Matrix
As for match ups the first strike is relevant players like Ray will occasionally play a 1 of, of the land that lets you give a legendary creature first strike. as for lifelink I feel that we have lost enough games to wurmcoil that we can say but life gain itself doesn't seem to be the largest issue on earth. eventually you will land a bridge and that bridge will be able to provide you with a way to stop the LifeLink and stabilize you to the win. Also, if you want a creature with first strike i would suggest playing Goblin Chain Whirler, him + abrade kill almost all creatures in modern right now.
When it comes to the Sarkhan debate I am not 100% sold either way. I believe like chain whirler or koth, there is a meta call that's for this planeswalker and control is the meta.
I was not talking about the mana execration. Because the Sarhkan has looting it makes getting 5 land in play more consistent.
Also remember that they are our mountainfolk brothers too.