MTG Salvation

dark ritual is way too good for modern, absolutely bonkers.

I won a medium size tournament (for my city), 24 players, I finished 5-0-1. I closely followed Michael Siembor quide for the matchs as well as for the sideboard as much as I could, since I don't have fetchlands I couldn't play hidden stockpile but I did include the 3rd Sorin, SV and exchanged Raise the Alarm with Secure the wastes. I couldn't find all the sideboard cards on time so I adapted with whatever I could: Damping Matrix for Stony Silence, Kaya's Wrath and Settle the Wreckage for Wrath of God and EE. The final list was:

(A little background about me: I am a returning player, my last big tournament was 14 years ago in a PTQ for kamigawa standard, at the time I also played Tinker and Oath/Morphling in extended, I started playing around Nemesis. I have been playing modern since november of last year, first with White weenie and 3 weeks with BW tokens)



Here the tournament report:

Match 1 vs Jeskai Control, 2-1
First game I start quite aggressive with turn 2 virtue-Spectral procession and 4th turn Sorin and he struggles to stabilize, doesn't found terminus and I win.
Second game turns long and he gets a Lyra, comeback seems far so I concede.
Third game, very similar to game one, but I draw my discard spells and he can't find more answers.

Match 2 vs dredge, 2-0
With this list this match up really feels totally one sided for BW Tokens, an early Auriok champion (and another one 3 turns later) makes racing us very very hard for dredge, it takes a while to be able to go on the offensive but you eventually draw a Sorin and turn the tide, he got all his creatures out, he brought me down to 13, but I went up to 61 with Sorin and Intangible Virtue on the board. Both games were quite similar, and in the second one I didn't even see my SB.

Match 3 vs GR Eldrazi (not tron): 2-1
So this a Rogue deck or at least I was not aware, a ramp deck with mana dorks that deploys different Eldrazis and other creatures like Bloodbraid Elf and Hazoreth.
This games had a lot of combat, I just exchanged my creatures for his until I had an intangible virtue out and could go on the offensive with the flying tokens.
In the second game he boards in Basilisk Collar and the games go quite long with big life swing, but eventually the card advantage produced by the tokens is too much. A couple of times in this games Secure the Wastes totally surprised him when he thought I didn't have enough blockers making trades quite favorable to me.

Match 4 vs Rock: 2-1
First game his spot removal can't keep up with the tokens, I rapidly ooverrun him with fliers.
Game 2 he boards in 2 maelstrom pulse, damnation, Languish and Liliana, The last Hope. I start quite aggressive and even after all the sweepers I manage to being him to 1 life, but he is able to stabilize and I mana flood, a Tireless Tracker allows him to refill his hand all game long and I didn't draw removal for it, it goes up to 13/13 and kills me.
Third game is close, I start again with an aggressive offensive, he sweeps the board a couple of times but Adanto, The first Fort and Bitterblossom allow me rebuild fast.

Match 5 vs Whir of Invention/Tezzerator: 2-1
The first game he starts quite fast and strong deploying a Chalice of the void for 1 on first turn, he knows I have discard spells but I didn't draw them. I deploy quite a few spirits, Sorin and when he is at 5 he finds an ensnaring bridge, then Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and I concede.
Game 2, My opening hand has 2 disenchants and even if it lacks discard I keep it, the game starts similar but instead of Chalice he gets 2 Engineered Explosives on the board, then he makes quite a big mistake tapping out to play Tezzeret, agent of bolas (I guess he wanted to find the bridge fast) and on my turn I am able to cast stony silence making those EE useless. I put in some beats and kill tezzeret, he eventually finds 2 ensnaring bridge but my disenchant's are ready to blow them.
Game 3, Both of us mulligan to 5 since I didn't get SB cards, I open with Inquisition of Kozilek and duress turn one and two to get rid of Whir and tezzeret, he plays a chalice for 2 on turn 3, so I pray to the gods of Magic he doesn't find the bridge, they hear me and I am able to overrun him, I did make a big mistake, he drew and played another Tezzeret, on my turn I was aware I didn't have lethal damage but didn't kill the planeswalker with only two loyalty points, so I gave him one more chance to find bridge, fortunately he didn't. I had lot of luck this game and felt quite hopeless in game 2 at some point.
While my opponent was a nice guy but he was a bit cocky when I asked if I could cast Lingering souls flashback with his Chalice in the board for 2, I had to call the judge to have a definitive answer.

Match 5, vs Jeskai control, 1-1

I start quite strong with discard followed with BB on turn 2, then sorin and beats start to get in, in turn 6 I have 6 tokens with Virtue and Sorin out and he is on 12, he also has a teferi on board, I make the mistake to divide attackers and send 2 to Teferi and 4 to face thinking that in the worst case he would loose Teferi and will go down to 3 life, but he casts double Lighting Helix and is able to save him self and teferi. The games goes quite long after than. Another mistake I made is that I forgot to flip Legion's Landing for 3 turns, even with that error I get him down to two, but in the meanwhile he cast a Jace, The mind sculptor and is able to respond to all my threats, he gets teferi emblem and I concede. This game took 40 minutes.
In game two I open up with turn 1 IoK, turn 2 Duress getting a counter and a terminus and turn 3 Lost legacy for snapcaster mage, I also cast Rest in Peace, he runs out of answers and a Secure the wastes for 5 followed by Sorin gets me the game. there are only 4 minutes left to finish the round so we draw.

Obviously I am very happy with the deck performance and I had lot of luck avoiding MU vs Tron (there were two players with it, one blue and one green) and nobody played combo decks so I had quite a favorable meta but even then the deck surprised me with its stellar performance.

MVP's:

• Sorin, Solemn Visitor is a hell of a card for the deck (can't imagine how the deck did without him).
• Auriok Champion is really a great call for the current meta, the struggle to remove her is very real.
• Secure the wastes gets enemies by surprise, a card that definitely runs under the radar.

Cards I am not sure about/under performed
Legion's landing I don't think I flip it once before turn 4, it provided valuable blockers and life gain to grind out games and force them to use their land destruction on Adanto leaving Shambling vents free to beat and block for several turns. But maybe Hidden stockpile is just better since the mana investment and conditions are way lower in the long term and it also provides card filtering which the decks really needs.
Gideon, ally of zendikar , he didn't have a big impact as Sorin, he sure drew the attention of opponents making them took quite inefficient decisions with their removal. But most of the time you make a token and it dies.
Zealous Persecution, I had it on hand from the SB in a few games but it wasn't that back breaking, maybe I need more testing with it but I feel there could be something better for my worst match ups.

Some cards I wished I had:
Anguished unmaking After the Chalice of the void for 2 I felt really bad I didn't got this card, even as one to have an out, it also would come useful to get rid of planeswalkers vs Jeskai.
Cleansing Nova this is a card I had in my SB when I arrived at the tournament but I finally left it out in favor of lost legacy which I bought from a dealer at the place, I definetely going to bring it to the SB instead of Kaya's wrath or a disenchant to have a versatile answer.

Last thoughts:

All games went long, quite long so I am really considering to exchange Gideon for either Sword of fire and Ice or Elspeth, Sun's champion, I now both could hurt me in more fast MU but I honestly feel I need a big thing that seals the deal vs Jeskai or that can turn things around in a big way.

Anyway, thank for reading and hope you find it useful.

"From the vault: Fetchlands", each one with 1 of each fetch, so you buy 4!, each pack for 15 USDD

Anyone saying Arena is more expensive is nuts.

Arena had a hard start unlike other CCG because it went live with 5!!! sets, so for many the initial start was rough. I spent 150 USD, played a hell lot of sealed events and along with the gold, drafts and what not I had ALL tier 1 decks in week 2 after open beta started. For Allegiance I spent 50 USD for drafting and already have 5, or even more, decks.

SO I think going forward 50 USD per set is going to be enough, specially if you extend that value with good sealed runs and later with drafts.

Arena is better for standard from a pure cost POV. I also enjoy farming limited.

One thing I hate about paper is not finding people to play with at my LGS when I have free time, and some times we don't reach 8 players to play modern.

Actually, the F2P aspect is way ahed of many other CCG online, it is the cheapest way to play magic.

I think I will be spending around 50 USD each new expansion to play sealed (I got more than double the value each expansion GRN and RNA).

Once you have a good deck you can farm events, traditional constructed has a good payout structure. SO there are various ways to maxmize the gold they give you and build a collection fast.

And yes, when old expansions are incorporated people might have to invest a bit to get that many cards, but WotC has to make money.

Quote from user-100025592 »

OK so all my posts are deleted because I live in retarded region. Whatever.

Problem is I still don't see any good stuff to swap them for right now. Hero of Bladehold was suggested by the Jeskai player but he doesn't impact the board immediatly and that sucks. Ranger of Eos is my idea but there aren't any crucial 1 drops to make it relevant. Thought about going Gideon package as Kytheon is already in the deck and they are decent beaters that have some nice utility and relevant abilities, mostly about Gideon of the Trials - he's strong against combo decks and shuts down a relevant beater. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is very flexible being either an anthem or token maker but he's more questionable.
I'll try 1 Gideon of the Trials in spot of 1 WLL next friday.
Leonin Relic-Warder has to stay for now.

In case you didn't know you have to make a post with your name in a dedicated topic about account migration.

As for the 4 drop on the deck, I also tested Hero of bladehold and while it is very powerful if you get to untap and by that point of the game it is hard for them to get rid of (bolt doesn't kill it and they probably already used some removal) it is still a whole turn to come "online".

The options I am testing and playing in that slot are: Elspeth, Knight-errant and Gideon, Ally of zendikar, and I am liking elspeth more, both can impact the board immediately, both pumping your creatures or creating a creature, but if I want to get through with the last points of damage Elspeth is better because of the evasion and it tick up, gideon dies in that moment if you ulti,

As for my FNM, I played this deck:



I went 3-1.

MU 1 vs GDS 0-2, I play this guy for the last 3 weeks and for the frist time I lost, I kept a hand with one land and 4 1 drops, but well I must learn not to try it ever again.
Second game I lost to the spell that gives DS trample.

MU 2 vs The rock (GB control) 2-0, both games I drew Mirran crusader and it was fast.

Mu 3 vs Grixis )without DS) 2-0, a more traditional U control deck, lots of counters and damnation, but I eventually played elspeth in game 1 after his lotV made me sacrifice an Auriok Champion and the token soldiers just were too many for him to respond.
Game 2 went quite fast, with a very agroo hand with me.

MU 4 vs Reanimator 2-0 (goryos vengance, emrakul, griselband) both games little thalia anooyed him a lot, in the frist game he killed one and I frew a second one, and in the second game it was protected twice with brave the elements.

So, while my meta is heavy on black decks and II ran Auriok champion Main it didn't had a great impact, I think it is best when it comes out of the sideboard since it just slows me in game one, I am going to replace it for the time being with Gather the townsfolk. BUt I will also try getting one kytheon and one student of warfare.

Mutavault underperformed also, and a couple of games it got in the way of white mana for benalish marshal, I am removing it.

Benalish marshal is great, and while testing I was using 3 and 1 honor of the pure I soon realized that sometime I need HotP because of the cost, so it is now 3-2 split.

I tried militia bugler, not bad, but it is one more than Smuggler copter and I feel creatures costing 3 have to have a big impact on the board, maybe I am biased bow but the copter is an annoying creature that is not that easy to interact with.

I want to try Legion's landing here, the lack of synergy is a concern but getting it to flip becoming the 4th mana would make the deck so consistent (like the mono W decks I am playing in Arena). Love the card and is one very cheap way to get a token producing land without almost any drawback.

Given how heavy my meta is on black I am even considering including Nephalia Academy instead of ghost quarter, would really mess with the LotV and the rest of the discard spells. But maybe I am just desperate for a Land that brings some value instead of just being a land, shame that Westvale Abbey is so expensive to activate, the human tokens could come handy.

@Magic geek, thanks for the analysis and suggestions.

I for sure try dropping honor of the pure and bringing Benalish marshal.

Reciprocate is there because I don't have the 4th path currently, might even cut it now and add another creature.

Definitely looking into tweaking the one drops, more Kytheons does seem the way to go.

Other cards I just started testing yesterday: Hero of bladehold, but I just don't like that as a 4 drop doesn't have an instant impact on the board, unlike Elspeth, Knight-errant which gives evasion and buffs to a creature, continues to apply pressure and create a new thing to respond to. But after some testing Hero of bladehold is very impressive if I get to attack with it.

Also, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, seems quite versatile to create more board presence or just getting an anthem right away for lethal.

My version is more WW, sorry if I am out of place but since the decklist is very similar and this is one of the most active topics around WW in the forum I still think it is the best place to discuss about it.

This is the version I am running:





So, I agree the 2 CMC drop is one of the hardest spots, Thalia and Thalia lieutenants are the best, recently dropped Paladin en-vec from the main list to bring Auriok Champion, smoothing the mana curve and making the match vs grixis, jund and burn more favorable. (these are the most popular decks in my LGS FNM).

The main thing I have been trying to concentrate is playing creatures with protection, normally this kind of deck hits the opponent hard for the first 3 turns but then blockers and removal allow them to stabilize, protection allow for the last damage to come through, either mirran cursader, auriok champion or Brave the Elements which is one hell of a finisher most of the time.

Another card that I have liked a lot is Smuggler's copter, allows for some land filtering and the evasion is nice.

1Magic geek, from your list I took the idea of including Benalish marshal and so far it has been excelent.

My last FNM 3-1

2-1 vs Grixis
1st game 0-1, he opens with thoughtsize, then another one and death shadow next turn, the board gets kind of stale with some bloackers on my side but he ultimately counters my Elspeth and a mirran crusader and gives trample to his Death shadow.
2nd Game, 1-1, Auriok Champion comes in to play earlier and makes the game very hard for him, he scoops.
3rd Game, he opens up with grim lavamancer, since it can kill all my early threats I had to Path it, later another auriok champion closes the game

2-0 vs some green/white combo deck, I don't know the name of this deck but it makes some combo around sun titan creating lots of tokens.
In both games my deck is much faster and I drew mirran crusader to finish it.

0-2 vs Mono white death and taxes
In both games the combination of Eldrazi displacer and big thalia is just too much, I made some errors not taking his eldrazi temple sooner with my ghost quarter and in the 2nd game I brought Auriok champion to exploit displacer effect, it was working well but I missed around 5 triggers and lost the race, lessons learned about paying more attention to Auriok champion triggers.

2-0 vs Jund
Soldier of the pantheon shines in this matchup since a few of their spells are multicolored, along mirran crusader he couldn't contest the board in both games.

Since tribal decks are popular on my meta (not only eldrazi but also humans, spirits and even vampires) I am including riders of gavony to close out games with stale board states, hope to be able to test them this FNM.

Also considering bringing wither WLL or hero of bladehold for Elspeth as the finisher.

Also considering going green for Gaddock since Tron has been my worst matchup, or maybe blue for meddling mage and the new BW legend.

Finally, what do you think of aether vial for this deck?

For the record, I’m fairly certain the War of the Spark novel by Greg Weisman was actually the absolute worst thing I’ve ever read, MtG related or otherwise.

I wonder what kind of equipment swords, aura and enchantments are we getting here?

I just hope the theme would reflect the those cards appeal and abilities.

I'm glad Modern Horizons brought some variation to the format. I still can't wrap my head around how people have fun playing busted combos/decks. But I guess it's less about fun at that point, and more about leaderboards and prizes right?

Quote from leslak »

Glad they took Bridge now the bridgeless decks can all be more fair on being mostly agro decks. I m not even sure if Altar Of Dementia(the other problem card) will be that good, i mean it still can outrun a ensnaring bridge prison deck and also can make the deck too fast and resilient but at the same time it is not the auto win that it was before this ban. Lets be fair the deck lost a bit of power but will still be a really fast and good deck.

Quote from Sephon19 »

I've followed the YouTuber Magic_Aids (and others) recently so I've seen this in action a few times. I have little understanding of the Modern metagame, but when people start maindecking black leylines, you know you done goofd.

(I'll recommend him, btw, he's quite charming, although content warning, he's not always kosher in regards to his commentary. Who'd know from such a username?)

Also it's my birthday so this is a weird birthday present lol

I mean, Aids can mean some number of Aid (Help) while Aids can be confused with AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) or better named HIV, but lets be true alot of people write AIDS as Aids, but HIV as Hiv is less common.

Off topic, but in response to this real quick. AIDS is not another name for HIV. AIDS is what you have when HIV is left untreated for years and progresses to the last stage of immunodeficiency caused by HIV. Just fyi, so you don't go around thinking HIV+ people have AIDS. That's a huge and important difference. Especially in this day where living with treated HIV allows a normal lifespan. You'd be worse off being out of shape, with diabetes or cancer, and many other degenerative diseases.

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buying this set basically feels like getting mugged by a cop. a few cool cards I want to play with, but a lot of filler.

The set is called "Modern Horizons".

You can lawyer it all you want that they tEcHnIcAlLy never said it was purely a Modern set, but when we get cards that are clearly designed for commander, people will feel robbed. I've seen plenty of people make the "Commander Horizons" joke, which although I think is way too cynical shows that there are a lot of people who are disappointed in sharing the spotlight. Commander gets their own product every year; those cards aren't even Modern legal AND have brought Legacy cards like True-Name Nemesis, Council's Judgment and Leovold which are design disasters for a 1v1 format. Add to that the two-month silence between the spoilers of Serra/Cabal Therapist and the rest and you fuel false expectations even if you don't set it black on white.

I don't even really want to argue this point because as I said I'm satisfied with the set, but these apparent 5c Commander precon rejects are a blight on an otherwise good product.

EDIT: Leovold and Council's Judgment actually weren;t in commander precons now I think about it, but they were originally in sets designed for multiplayer

Guys, seeing that this thread is in desperate need of a discord server and as multiple requests came in, I created a starting point to build from.
Here is a link to the discord server:

https://discord.gg/PAusNqU

I will grant admin rights to the most active members is this thread so far, so that I am not the one having all the rights to the server (I don't recall posting anything in this thread, I only follow it to improve my deck from time to time).

Lets go

Blood Moon, eat your heart out.