MTG Salvation

Hey guys, second sum-up of my testing session with The Rock.
To begin my decklist :




I am currently 41-19 on MTGO Comp Leagues and lazy report of my last paper event :
Side Event MagicFest Strasbourg :
Burn 2-0
Red Phoenix 2-1
Goryo combo 0-2
Mardu 2-1
FrenzAffinity 1-2
BW Hatebears 2-0
Mardu 2-1
GR Drazi 2-1
Abzan Devoted Company 2-0
GW Tron 2-1
4C Saheli Combo 0-2
Bant Spirits 2-0

My points :
-liliana the last hope disappoint me a lot, it's insane 20% and average or very bad the reste of time but i have to keep at least 1.
-16 creatures is probably one too much for me but all lists are on 2 kalitas so i respect that guy but i will probably cut 1 kalitas or 1 tireless tracker and put in sideboard instead of eternal witness or kitchen finks or collective brutality.
-damnation is ok but less and less impressive, maybe 4th LotV against death shadow and unfair decks is far better, damnation is only really good against hollow one, it's not always good against GDS, humans or spirits.
-disfigure was very ok and the classic BGX is better with that kind of card (you increase your chances to do a good interaction t1 and then slam threat)

@Akalah : Ugly sum-up, assassin's trophy is rarely play in sultai in standard and when it's play it's only 1 MD and sometimes 1 in SB so it's a bad card for modern ? By the way nissa, vital force was never played in standard so it's bad in modern i guess x) ?

@user-11102155 : i think it's a little bit too cut when opponent plays burn, dredge or phoenix (28% of Toronto day 2).
In general, i think c.brutality is better than wrench mind 90% of the time. bitterblossom may be good in a grindy/control metagame it's not the case now. Vraska is harder to judge for me, i will be not surprised if garruk relentless is better by example but vraska give us a unique effect, i guess it's nice if you expect any affinity deck, boggles, control or whir control.

Ps : i will go to play some modern side events in GP Strasbourg and go back to modern mtgo after the GP to train Bilbao. After i see Toronto decklists and metagame, i will play/test that :

@Ceaucesu : scavenging ooze, nihil spellbomb, jund charm exist

https://www.channelfireball.com/grand-prix-toronto-top-8-deck-lists/?fbclid=IwAR2ytK7862f0qC8D7e521MeiR1BH5oe53G8Mh7UaCPI47_H-gkwN4o7vwlE

I am little bit surprised to see 2 kalitas in MD because i think America metagame was less aggro than Europe and MTGO. I just cut my second kalitas 1 week ago, now i want obviously put in back. I guess i will cut my 2nd liliana the last hope by the way.

Any thoughts on this list ? (7 discards and 3 push is strange if kalitas is great..)

I played it a little in Jund side board, i think it is pretty good if you expect BGX, mardu, UWX control but that's not the case right now. Actually i want to test eternal witness in SB as a value card, it's better against death shadow by example imo.

@pzbw7Z : i did the samething in some version of BGX before trophy, now i am ok to have 4 trophy only to interact on lands OTD, field of ruin is so much better the rest of time.

@MeetJSquared : well i hate tron too but the match-up seems really 50/50 with rock, maybe you can play that last field of ruin ! (i have that and no damping sphere and i think it's fine for that match-up)
Your match-ups here are very very hard by the way, keep that in mind. Only storm and phoenix are very good match-ups.
My only big advice is work on your tilting, when you have 0 easy victory it's very important to stay focus at each second, others decks like timmy-tron can just reveal their hand to win sometimes, BGX never :(.
I agree 2 kalitas is probably too much (i just cut my second one yesterday or 3rd tracker MD) kalitas is the best random card but the worst card to have in opening hand in g1.

@Grim_Flayer : ok that's fair if you think BG can race merfolk, i don't agree on that because harbinger/trickster/spreading seas/master of waves/relic. And bob, ooze, tracker, kalitas don't need to attack to win, you can just wait a discard one day before attack.

@FlyingDelver : i agree LotV is not totally bad but kill a 1-drop merfolk, a silvetgill adept, mutavault or just be countered by a spell pierce is not very impressive.

@Grim_Flayer : well thanks for answer but don't board in Engineered Explosives against a deck with a bunch of 2-drop and master of waves token is strange.
When my opponent have trickster AND harbinger of tides and graveyard hate ( i am quite surprised if merfolk players go play a tournament with 0 sb card against graveyard ) tarmogoyf power slow down a lot because attack is bad, block is harder so your goyf can make good attack and block only when you have manage the rest of your opponent deck, i don't see in which world BGX can race merfolk. I don't agree with your vision of "midrange merfolk", in top deck war BGX win very easily, you just need to reach that moment.

@RochiTomRochi : it's clearly a very special metagame-call :
Storm is a favorable maatch-up
In general fulminator mage is a better card against ramp deck and collective brutality is powerful against scapeshift
Chord of calling.deck can be managed very efficiencly by grafdigger's cage but that kind of match-up is pretty favorable too because graveyard hate, wrath, removal, discard are usefull.

I think Spawn of Mayhem is a bad idea, it's just a slower goyf with fly and it deals damage to us too, i don't see when it's a good card.

Moreover, anyone have any side board tech against Artifact Prison deck ? In general i always loose 1-2. Now i start to want replace EE by gaze of granit :(. creeping corrosion is bad because it allows regeneration, maybe any stupid anti-artifacts card exist somewhere.

If your are a sneaky person, you ask "can i put a zombie in play ?"

Approved article ! Thanks again FlyingDelver

Well,
i just want to write a short sum-up about my Rock testing. I try to do ~~100 games and after i see if i go back to Jund or another deck.
My decklist


I am currently 18-7 on MTGO Comp Leagues and lazy reports of my last paper event :
Side Event GP :
Jund 2-1
Jund 1-2
Abzan 0-2
Rock 2-1
Rock 2-1
UR Phoenix 2-0
Esper Delver 1-2
Humans 0-2
Spirits 2-0
Amulet Titan 2-0
8-Whack 2-1

Local 90 players tournament :
Death Shadow (my teammate, loose g1 on missland) 1-2
Dredge 2-0
Jund 1-2
Burn 2-0
Burn 2-1
Merfolk 0-2
Burn 2-0

I explained it in one of my previous post, i test a draw-first SB plan against BGX mirror by keeping all discards, up to now it seems ok for me but not impressive.
We will test with my teamate the draw-first in the Grixis shadow match-up, for me it's a play first but i respect the idea.
Some of my choices which can be interesting :
-urborg, it impressed me a lot, sometimes i don't want to fetch early to keep my lifepoint maybe or keep the fetch for tracker or to up 1% of draw a land next turn or just help to cast lilianas sometimes, this land was very great for me. I very shortly test twilight mire and i cut it after 1 league.
-disfigure in SB, it was ok up to now, i was happy to have more cheap interactions against burn, humans or spirits. Sometimes against hollow one it's nice to block a gurmag and just play a combat trick, not insane but an ok sideboard card. If deathmark was an instant, i probably not try disfigure.
-hissing quagmire was not so bad, i have to play it to keep a high manland count and have 17 black sources (need 18 in a normal world :/), sometimes this land was cool, yes i talk to you zombie fish.
-i am not disappointed of assassin's trophy but i should try a split with decay just to have a feedback.
-no nissa, vital force. well two reasons for me : actually i test my sb plan against mirror and a 5 cmc sorcery against control ? Meh, not for me.
-[troll]keep thoughtseize against burn post SB, i am 15-7 with jund and 4-1 with rock[/troll]

One question :
i think my SB plan against merfolk should be :
-4 tarmogoyf, -3 LotV
+1 disfigure +1 tracker +1 EE +1 maelstrom pulse
+1 kitchen finks +1 damnation +1 languish
Merfolk trickster + islandwalker + harbinger of the tides or to many ways to manage goyf i think. (and sometimes SB relic of progenitus)

I will probably make an other sum-up after more leagues.
Thanks for reading and any answers.

@Davidalb : "fun" is just what you think, some people like tron and others don't. We can't help you for that (my heart says "just don't pick tron even if you life matters, instead just die with honour" :D)

Quote from B2M »

Hi all,

I have been playing the rock (switched from abzan) for a while now. I recently decided to play 4 leyline of the void in sideboard. The reason is having a good SB plan vs phoenix,kci and dredge (and maybe mardu, storm and hollow one). I've had a few games where I drew it late or hit leyline onto my dark confidant trigger which mostly results in a game loss(I know it happens but it feels so bad). My question is is it still viable now that KCI has been banned to play four leyline of the void ( it still hits atleast 5 decks hard) or should I try and go for a more interactive way and maybe use those slots for other SB options ?

My sideboard now is:
4x leyline of the void
2x surgical extraction
1x nissa vital force
1x engeneered explosives
1x damnation
1x languish
3x fulminator mage
1x collective brutality
1x kalithas

I played leyline in jund some months, it was very good if you are really sure about the metagame, now i think have a split between spellbomb/cage/extraction is the safest choice if you are not sure about the metagame. I would cut the leyline for 3 spellbomb or 2 spellbomb/1 cage and add any cheap interaction (duress, deathmark, disfigure by example).

I play jund a lot of time and rock seems a little easier to play than jund because your mana is less complex, i played death shadow only during some short test session and it seems really hard to play and optimize all your choices so i think BGX if far easier to play than death shadow (death shadow is 9/10 and BGX 6/10 for me). For big mana or combo deck, it just depend of what do you like aha ! I am a fan of vizier postmortem combo and it's very easy to play.