Plus blood moon isn't debilitating enough anyway. Its not choking tje format, in fact this is the only deck thst attempts to power it out on turn 1 and yes while that will sometimes win game 1 a smart opponent can and should be able to play around it games 2 and 3. Nothing about the card in the meta says it could be on the chopping block unless WotC just decided to randomly cut it which logically they wont.
Hello Mountaineers, just a small report from my FNM. The store I am attending is currently running free win a box modern for the next 3 months so I will have plenty of practice with this deck in the coming months.
Round 1 - Jund living end
game 1: Play mountain and pass. He starts off by cycling a few wraiths and other things, I casually drop a rabble t2 with a chalice on 0 and he scoops
Game 2: he does more cycling things play a rabble and another chalice on 0, he evokes a ingot chewer on chalice I uptick a chandra next turn and find another chalice for 0 while he is stuck on 3 lands get the scoop
1-0
Round 2 - GB elves
game 1: my hand is slow and i cant get rid of it fast enough to activate my bridge and promptly get ran over.
game 2: t1 chalice for one and he only has 1 forest. I over time play every single lock piece in the deck with a spyglass on ezuri and a torpor orb out never find a win con but opponent realizes he has no answer to my lock.
game 3: I power out an abrade on his LLanowar he has only 1 land again , 3 sweepers later and a chandra on board he scoops.
2-0
Round 3 - Jeskai Control
game 1: he has an answer to almsot all my early plays, but multiple paths on my goblins set me up for a charbelcher. He freezes and reads it a few times before allowing it in. I get to have 2 activations 1 for 5 hitting a gemstone, the other for 5 with a mountain hitting him for 10, on the second activations he cryptics it back to my hand and has another cryptic ready when i go to redrop the next turn. End up losing the ma, oh if only I could of flipped a mountain instead.
game 2: I start with a quick rabble, it gets pathed 2nd one gets helixed but it opened the way for magus of the moon to drop, opponent gets stuck on 3 lands with jsut 1 basic mountain and im able to slowly grind out a win. Though I relized I had messed up and hadn't put in my Eidiolons. fixed that before g3
game 3: he fetches an island and serum visions, I power out a t1 magus he only has fetches now and I am able to drop a chalice on 1 to protect from bolt. ritual ritual a Ballista for 3 and a turn later he scoops
3-0
Round 4 - AD Nauseum Storm
game 1: land a blood moon and try to aggro him out dosnet work
game 2: land then get thought seized and he takes my SSG, I then blood moon him. he thought seizes again and takes a chalice while i rabble master. I am able to drop a chalice on 2 over the next few turns and drop a rabblemaster and jsut eek out a win when he stumbles on lands.
game 3: t1 thoughtsiezes me taking a chalice, i drop a rabble followed next turn by a blood moon, he drops 2 prisms and i abrade 1 with 2 counters so he cant combo out. he gets a unlife down and I drop him into the negatives he then rips his 1 of swamp off the top, Adnausems and just goes off, I had a spyglass on lightning storm but could never finda chalice to look him out of his 2 drops so he jsut hyrkull's my spyglass.
3-1
Quarterfinals- D&T
Game 1: I keep quick moons. he plays Plains and chalice I let it go a few more turns and just play a rabble master to let him think I am on aggro with a bad hand and then just scoop after he paths Rabble.
Game 2: Bring in the full control plan able to empty hand to brige and chandra, next turn chandra flips torpor orb. and he had brought in no artifact hate scoops when chandra ults.
Game 3: Able to land a spellskite and a bridge with chandra, have multiple slag/angers and he just frustration scoops when i redirect his flicker trigger to my spell skite.
1 guy refuses to split in the semis I get matched up with him.
Semifinals - Grixis Death shadow
Game 1: he opens up on fetch and passes, I mountain and pass eot he cracks and I state "Watery Grave thought scour?" he flinches for a second then proceeds to pull out a steam vents and thought scour. his turn he plays another fetch and passes. so i play rabble and get in there for 1. he fetches up a Grave this time scours again. his turn he plays an untapped blood crypt snaps in targeting a milled fatal push trades with a gobbo and pushes the Rabble. I just drop a chandra and uptick her for a ballistia on 1. he land drops kologhans command a angler to hand and destroy's ballista so i ping him. next turn jsut drop a bridge with an near empty hand and ride chandra to the win.
Game 2: He fetches untapped Grave into thoughtseize and sees 2 lands, spirit guide, 2 rituals, Charbelcher and Eidolon. takes the Eidolon and passes. I rip a blood moon and slam it on turn 1. he plays a fetch. I rip a chalice and play it on 1, He repeats his last turn. I ritual out the chrabelcher on 3 lands and pass. He repeats again. Activate belcher hitland, next turn the same but all my opponent has is fetches out so i Jsut belcher him for 4-6 damage next few turns and end it. The finals opponent is my R1 opponent wants to draw and as it is now 1:30 am i am more than willing to split this box. come in first from pairings and was able to bring my first Prison win home in my 3rd event with it. Completely LOVING this deck.
So Saw belcher twice the first time would have been amazing had I flipped a Mountain the first activation. the second time it jsut ran away the game with a locked board state. I woundn't bring it to an open or GP (maybe I would I am a legacy belcher player after all) but a 1 of for FNM and maybe a pptq could work.
so Russ, I tested out Molten rain with a friend. played 2 matches with him 1 versus scapeshift the other versus big green tron.
in all 4 games i was able to get out a turn 1-2 blood moon and destroy his forest, with the scoop each time. I dont know if I would want to go the hard planeswalker control route. I think it really weakens us up for our control match up but it might be something to look into for your meta.
I dont really like it, it isnt a hard lock like moon and powering it out just for them to play shocks seems like a waste of resources. I can see it for some things like vs affinity or uw control when they try to beat us up with collonade. If anything i wpuld just replace magus with it.
Yeah that black/white zombie list is something new that the tcgplayer crew is pushing I think. Clearly we should be in the control suite and grafdiggers cage seems to be a strong tool against them, possibly spyglass for lili so she cant split our locks and the angers mostly feel like what we should be sideboarding in for them. Not all sure what to bring out, rabbles and magus maybe? Sidenote the current deck runs 0 plains and no way to remove enchantments besides a single unmaking out the side, which quickly becomes useless when you have your moon.
Hello Mountaineers quick report ive been writing between games of one of my LGS's mega modern monthly event. A little smaller at 20 people cause of the holidays but still a good learning grounds. Here are my 5 rounds while i wait to see if i top 8ed
R1
4C kiki
G1 mull to 5 and my turn 2 moon dosemt faze him at all through 2 birds. Lose to angel/felidar with phophoros
G2 I mess up and try to play aggro and he floods the board through everything. Need to learn to reevalute my opponents deck better
0-1
R2
Grixis Death shadow
G1 going in blind i go fora t1 rabble hit him then he dismembers, my little creatures and no bridge gets me run over.
G2 i turn 4 boil him when he is tapped out and 1 sided armegeddon him drop a bridge after that and ride chandra to a win
G3 i have a rather nuts mull with 2 SSG, mountain, chandra, chalice, and bridge he lighting axes hiself to grab my chalice, i turn 2 bridge him into a t3 moon with a spellskite to block his 1/1 shadows finally find a 4th land to chandra his shadows to 3/3 and koth cleans up with his ult
1-1
R3
Affinity
G1 drops hand kills with plating
G2 hard locks with double moon, double spyglass chalice on 0 and 1 and a angers made for a fun game
G3 stained the mind me on turn me on turn 4 for bridges when i had 2 in hand having just played a bloodmoon earlier instead of one of them. Came entirely out of left field
1-2
R4
Devoted Abzan
G1 he starts off on pilgrim i chalice for 1 off a gemstone cavern. He then plays quasali pride mage followed by rhonas i drop a magus of the moon and he tried to pride mage it but of course thst dosent work. Plays out a finks and i tale beats searching for a 4th land for the 2 Chandra in hand. Get a ballista on 1 he blows my chalice up then rip the 4th land and start to clear his board with blocks and get a lock with bridge slowly killing him with rabblemaster tokens tell he scoops
G2 he plays BG fastland i had the gemstone again and ritual into turn 1 moon, turn 2 torpor orbs 4 chandra and 5 koth he only has 2 mountains and scoops from there.
R5
Taking turns
G1 I keep a hanf 1 mana short of t1 rabble and never find a 2nd land 18 cards deep he took turns and beat down with thassa
Opponent is a friend of mine and part of my team he finally got his deck togehter for this tourney and looks at me during sideboarding with a pleading "please dont boil me bro" I tell him no promises.
G2 I on the play drop a turn 1 rabble and bring it home from there only having 1 land again
G3 I keep a slower hand and he gigadrowse for a few turns. In t3 i land SSG and serve in turn 4 at end of my turn he flashes in dictate of kruphik and in response i just boil him leaving him with just a halimar depths. He blinks picks up the card and states "huh its an instant" 1 turn latter rabble robbles him over. Time to see if my 3-2 can eek into the top8
Edit: sadly I lost on breakers coming in at 9th. Had a blast piloting the deck and each game I get under the belt the better im feeling about the next. Sadly once again i only ever saw Hammer once and it was at a spot that i didn't need to cast it unless i really just wanted to but my opponent would of been dead the next turn either way. But it still feels solidish sofar Russ.
Hello Disciples of the Mountain. After the banning of Gitaxian Probe earlier this year i have been in the search for a new deck to fill the void of Infect. Having decided I wanted to sleeve up my Koth's again I went searching for a deck and stumbled upon Free Win and Skred. After a bit of testing and playing I didnt really feel comfortable with either one and almost hung up the red control dream all together until I saw Russ's list the other week. It Immediately set my Johnny wheels spinning at the ability to play multiple roles so easily in just a few quick slots in and out in the SB so what else was I to do but to pull the trigger on the missing Chalices I needed and sleeve up for the next Modern event in my area.
After reading Russ's guide on siding and roles I managed to do rather well having a first round loss to Death and taxes never finding a Bridge plus a surprise Mark of Asylum in g2 on t2 negating my grip full of Slag/Angers. ROund 2 I handily took out WU fishes with an easy chalice on 1 followed up by a bridge g1 with a bit of deja-vu in game 2. Round 3 was versus Rakdos burn that I barely managed to eek out a win in both games ending both of them with my opponent just needing to topdeck a bolt to finish me off. Final round of the night before cutoffs was a easy loss to mono green tron where honestly I am not 100% sure of my position with the deck and I am sure I made multiple misplays but i managed to barely squeak into the top 8 the store had for the event in the 8th seed. quarterfinals opponent was a weird GB deck that was half the rock/half 8 rack. Game 1 he turn 1 Inquisitions and grabs my ritual for the moon I had planned to play leaving me to scrabble to place a lock piece but not before he had a bob and goyf on field making for a clean kill from behind. Game 2 I enact plan "aggro" and drop in the t1 rabble followed by a turn 2 chalice for 1, he draws for his turn 3 and just scoops remarking how he had side-boarded most his removal out placing me on Free Win and never saw that coming. Game 3 his own bob plus 2 eidolons seals his fate quickly as i hide behind a bridge. and in the semifinals I again fall to r4 opponent of Mono Green Tron while I flail and try my best. Game 1 i made a fatal error of going for the turn 1 moon instead of rabblemaster completely playing the wrong role for the matchup. and in game 2 i do get the turn 1 rabble but he swiftly followed up with a dismember on his t1 followed by a o-stone for my Moon. It was an awesome night though I am completely enthralled with this deck and although i know i made a ton of mistakes I plan on conquering this big red hill of a deck.
Some tips from the experts about the tron matchup would be amazing as well as there are a few Mono U turn decks in my meta and im not 100% sure on how to properly play versus it. I am assuming going for the full aggro but i feel if they start going off there will be nothing I can do. ALSO I dropped the Mamma and papa for the Hammer only ever saw it in one of my tron games when it didnt matter but it just feels like a good fit if i ever drew it in any of my other matches I would have been stoked to see it at nearly any time. Will be playing in another event on sunday and I will run my results back to you guys. hopefully with more of a breakdown as a total new acolyte attempts to join the ranks of the masters. Thanks to Ray for the beautiful Incarnation of a red prison deck, and Congrats again to Russ for his well earned finish of this machine.
Round 1 - Jund living end
game 1: Play mountain and pass. He starts off by cycling a few wraiths and other things, I casually drop a rabble t2 with a chalice on 0 and he scoops
Game 2: he does more cycling things play a rabble and another chalice on 0, he evokes a ingot chewer on chalice I uptick a chandra next turn and find another chalice for 0 while he is stuck on 3 lands get the scoop
1-0
Round 2 - GB elves
game 1: my hand is slow and i cant get rid of it fast enough to activate my bridge and promptly get ran over.
game 2: t1 chalice for one and he only has 1 forest. I over time play every single lock piece in the deck with a spyglass on ezuri and a torpor orb out never find a win con but opponent realizes he has no answer to my lock.
game 3: I power out an abrade on his LLanowar he has only 1 land again , 3 sweepers later and a chandra on board he scoops.
2-0
Round 3 - Jeskai Control
game 1: he has an answer to almsot all my early plays, but multiple paths on my goblins set me up for a charbelcher. He freezes and reads it a few times before allowing it in. I get to have 2 activations 1 for 5 hitting a gemstone, the other for 5 with a mountain hitting him for 10, on the second activations he cryptics it back to my hand and has another cryptic ready when i go to redrop the next turn. End up losing the ma, oh if only I could of flipped a mountain instead.
game 2: I start with a quick rabble, it gets pathed 2nd one gets helixed but it opened the way for magus of the moon to drop, opponent gets stuck on 3 lands with jsut 1 basic mountain and im able to slowly grind out a win. Though I relized I had messed up and hadn't put in my Eidiolons. fixed that before g3
game 3: he fetches an island and serum visions, I power out a t1 magus he only has fetches now and I am able to drop a chalice on 1 to protect from bolt. ritual ritual a Ballista for 3 and a turn later he scoops
3-0
Round 4 - AD Nauseum Storm
game 1: land a blood moon and try to aggro him out dosnet work
game 2: land then get thought seized and he takes my SSG, I then blood moon him. he thought seizes again and takes a chalice while i rabble master. I am able to drop a chalice on 2 over the next few turns and drop a rabblemaster and jsut eek out a win when he stumbles on lands.
game 3: t1 thoughtsiezes me taking a chalice, i drop a rabble followed next turn by a blood moon, he drops 2 prisms and i abrade 1 with 2 counters so he cant combo out. he gets a unlife down and I drop him into the negatives he then rips his 1 of swamp off the top, Adnausems and just goes off, I had a spyglass on lightning storm but could never finda chalice to look him out of his 2 drops so he jsut hyrkull's my spyglass.
3-1
Quarterfinals- D&T
Game 1: I keep quick moons. he plays Plains and chalice I let it go a few more turns and just play a rabble master to let him think I am on aggro with a bad hand and then just scoop after he paths Rabble.
Game 2: Bring in the full control plan able to empty hand to brige and chandra, next turn chandra flips torpor orb. and he had brought in no artifact hate scoops when chandra ults.
Game 3: Able to land a spellskite and a bridge with chandra, have multiple slag/angers and he just frustration scoops when i redirect his flicker trigger to my spell skite.
1 guy refuses to split in the semis I get matched up with him.
Semifinals - Grixis Death shadow
Game 1: he opens up on fetch and passes, I mountain and pass eot he cracks and I state "Watery Grave thought scour?" he flinches for a second then proceeds to pull out a steam vents and thought scour. his turn he plays another fetch and passes. so i play rabble and get in there for 1. he fetches up a Grave this time scours again. his turn he plays an untapped blood crypt snaps in targeting a milled fatal push trades with a gobbo and pushes the Rabble. I just drop a chandra and uptick her for a ballistia on 1. he land drops kologhans command a angler to hand and destroy's ballista so i ping him. next turn jsut drop a bridge with an near empty hand and ride chandra to the win.
Game 2: He fetches untapped Grave into thoughtseize and sees 2 lands, spirit guide, 2 rituals, Charbelcher and Eidolon. takes the Eidolon and passes. I rip a blood moon and slam it on turn 1. he plays a fetch. I rip a chalice and play it on 1, He repeats his last turn. I ritual out the chrabelcher on 3 lands and pass. He repeats again. Activate belcher hitland, next turn the same but all my opponent has is fetches out so i Jsut belcher him for 4-6 damage next few turns and end it. The finals opponent is my R1 opponent wants to draw and as it is now 1:30 am i am more than willing to split this box. come in first from pairings and was able to bring my first Prison win home in my 3rd event with it. Completely LOVING this deck.
So Saw belcher twice the first time would have been amazing had I flipped a Mountain the first activation. the second time it jsut ran away the game with a locked board state. I woundn't bring it to an open or GP (maybe I would I am a legacy belcher player after all) but a 1 of for FNM and maybe a pptq could work.
so Russ, I tested out Molten rain with a friend. played 2 matches with him 1 versus scapeshift the other versus big green tron.
in all 4 games i was able to get out a turn 1-2 blood moon and destroy his forest, with the scoop each time. I dont know if I would want to go the hard planeswalker control route. I think it really weakens us up for our control match up but it might be something to look into for your meta.
R1
4C kiki
G1 mull to 5 and my turn 2 moon dosemt faze him at all through 2 birds. Lose to angel/felidar with phophoros
G2 I mess up and try to play aggro and he floods the board through everything. Need to learn to reevalute my opponents deck better
0-1
R2
Grixis Death shadow
G1 going in blind i go fora t1 rabble hit him then he dismembers, my little creatures and no bridge gets me run over.
G2 i turn 4 boil him when he is tapped out and 1 sided armegeddon him drop a bridge after that and ride chandra to a win
G3 i have a rather nuts mull with 2 SSG, mountain, chandra, chalice, and bridge he lighting axes hiself to grab my chalice, i turn 2 bridge him into a t3 moon with a spellskite to block his 1/1 shadows finally find a 4th land to chandra his shadows to 3/3 and koth cleans up with his ult
1-1
R3
Affinity
G1 drops hand kills with plating
G2 hard locks with double moon, double spyglass chalice on 0 and 1 and a angers made for a fun game
G3 stained the mind me on turn me on turn 4 for bridges when i had 2 in hand having just played a bloodmoon earlier instead of one of them. Came entirely out of left field
1-2
R4
Devoted Abzan
G1 he starts off on pilgrim i chalice for 1 off a gemstone cavern. He then plays quasali pride mage followed by rhonas i drop a magus of the moon and he tried to pride mage it but of course thst dosent work. Plays out a finks and i tale beats searching for a 4th land for the 2 Chandra in hand. Get a ballista on 1 he blows my chalice up then rip the 4th land and start to clear his board with blocks and get a lock with bridge slowly killing him with rabblemaster tokens tell he scoops
G2 he plays BG fastland i had the gemstone again and ritual into turn 1 moon, turn 2 torpor orbs 4 chandra and 5 koth he only has 2 mountains and scoops from there.
R5
Taking turns
G1 I keep a hanf 1 mana short of t1 rabble and never find a 2nd land 18 cards deep he took turns and beat down with thassa
Opponent is a friend of mine and part of my team he finally got his deck togehter for this tourney and looks at me during sideboarding with a pleading "please dont boil me bro" I tell him no promises.
G2 I on the play drop a turn 1 rabble and bring it home from there only having 1 land again
G3 I keep a slower hand and he gigadrowse for a few turns. In t3 i land SSG and serve in turn 4 at end of my turn he flashes in dictate of kruphik and in response i just boil him leaving him with just a halimar depths. He blinks picks up the card and states "huh its an instant" 1 turn latter rabble robbles him over. Time to see if my 3-2 can eek into the top8
Edit: sadly I lost on breakers coming in at 9th. Had a blast piloting the deck and each game I get under the belt the better im feeling about the next. Sadly once again i only ever saw Hammer once and it was at a spot that i didn't need to cast it unless i really just wanted to but my opponent would of been dead the next turn either way. But it still feels solidish sofar Russ.
After reading Russ's guide on siding and roles I managed to do rather well having a first round loss to Death and taxes never finding a Bridge plus a surprise Mark of Asylum in g2 on t2 negating my grip full of Slag/Angers. ROund 2 I handily took out WU fishes with an easy chalice on 1 followed up by a bridge g1 with a bit of deja-vu in game 2. Round 3 was versus Rakdos burn that I barely managed to eek out a win in both games ending both of them with my opponent just needing to topdeck a bolt to finish me off. Final round of the night before cutoffs was a easy loss to mono green tron where honestly I am not 100% sure of my position with the deck and I am sure I made multiple misplays but i managed to barely squeak into the top 8 the store had for the event in the 8th seed. quarterfinals opponent was a weird GB deck that was half the rock/half 8 rack. Game 1 he turn 1 Inquisitions and grabs my ritual for the moon I had planned to play leaving me to scrabble to place a lock piece but not before he had a bob and goyf on field making for a clean kill from behind. Game 2 I enact plan "aggro" and drop in the t1 rabble followed by a turn 2 chalice for 1, he draws for his turn 3 and just scoops remarking how he had side-boarded most his removal out placing me on Free Win and never saw that coming. Game 3 his own bob plus 2 eidolons seals his fate quickly as i hide behind a bridge. and in the semifinals I again fall to r4 opponent of Mono Green Tron while I flail and try my best. Game 1 i made a fatal error of going for the turn 1 moon instead of rabblemaster completely playing the wrong role for the matchup. and in game 2 i do get the turn 1 rabble but he swiftly followed up with a dismember on his t1 followed by a o-stone for my Moon. It was an awesome night though I am completely enthralled with this deck and although i know i made a ton of mistakes I plan on conquering this big red hill of a deck.
Some tips from the experts about the tron matchup would be amazing as well as there are a few Mono U turn decks in my meta and im not 100% sure on how to properly play versus it. I am assuming going for the full aggro but i feel if they start going off there will be nothing I can do. ALSO I dropped the Mamma and papa for the Hammer only ever saw it in one of my tron games when it didnt matter but it just feels like a good fit if i ever drew it in any of my other matches I would have been stoked to see it at nearly any time. Will be playing in another event on sunday and I will run my results back to you guys. hopefully with more of a breakdown as a total new acolyte attempts to join the ranks of the masters. Thanks to Ray for the beautiful Incarnation of a red prison deck, and Congrats again to Russ for his well earned finish of this machine.