Yea, anyone that's been reading the thread for a while knows that I've been a fan of MD Thragtusks. It's just very good in the deck and Ballista and WB are fairly medium at the moment, so I think that list is solid. As for the manabase, going below 4 Forest is still too much for me to stomach. UW may be on a downswing but it's still present, and I run into BG Rock regularly enough that I want those basics. Though the Tusks in the main do help mitigate the low basic count a bit.
Anyone have any SB tech options vs Whir Prison? It's too bad that Creeping Corrosion doesn't have the anti-regenerate clause. Was wondering if you guys had any other viable options.
Perilous Vault. It's a great additional Ostone effect that exiles so it gets around those pesky Welding Jars out of Whir and Hardened Scales which is not an easy matchup either. It's also just good as an additional sweeper against Humans, Spirits, Dredge, etc. The main issue is it's a bit slower than Ostone because it costs 4, then 5 to activate, but this would not matter against Whir Prison in particular. Against the faster decks, you can still activate it on turn 4 like Ostone, but it requires you to play it on turn 3 which gives them a window to disrupt/destroy it.
Wail is good if you have it, but otherwise no major changes as the matchup is already good. I don't like Thragtusk because it doesn't block anything profitably and the lifegain doesn't matter as much as against Mono Red. I still think Karn is great as we have enough graveyard hate to control the Phoenixes and he is exactly what we want against TiTi and Crackling Drake. Most lists aren't even playing hard counters for him - generally just 1-2 Spell Pierce so play around that if you can and you'll be fine.
I'll update the guide with these matchups when I get a sec - should have done it sooner.
EDIT: Also interesting that you're still on 4 Claim as well. I've been toying with the idea of going back down to 2 now that Stony Silence is basically non-existent again. The main thing stopping me is this Wilderness Reclamation deck lurking around in the MTGO queues - Claim is the best card there.
Elder-Deep Fiend is rad. Do you tweak your mana base to go for the merge cost too? Probably don't need to hehe, just curious if you'd do that.
I have almost all the cards I need to build this deck properly, I just still need to get the expensive cards like 4 Aether Vial, big Karn and stuff like that. I have all the eldrazi, ballistas, tron lands, wurmcoil and stuff like that. Just need to really expensive cards hehe.
I'm just still deciding which deck to go for in modern. This deck in general has just been having it rough the last year or so, so I'm not sure if it'd be worth the money to get the final pieces to make it competitive worthy (aka take it to FNM hehe, that's as competitive I get)
What do you need Aether Vials for? FWIW Karn Liberated is not essential at all, it's just an option for going big. Many lists don't play him.
Hey, thanks for the post. This was beginning to feel like my own personal blog
On that run I lost to Tron, Titan Shift and Counters Company. Not hard to understand why I lost to the first 2, though I actually beat each of them on the same run as well. In the Counters Company match my opponent was on the play and blew up my Map with Knight of Autumn on turn 2 and just got way ahead. In game 2 I mulled and my 6 was mediocre but keepable and just didn't get there.
If that's your meta you should just play Burn instead But for this deck those matchups are just fine. I wouldn't be running to sleeve it up in that field.
I had a pretty good run with this list today - 12-3 (5-0, 2-3, 5-0) in 3 leagues. Theres a few notable things here. Firstly the Leylines that I just mentioned. As it turned out I didn't run into Dredge or any other matchups where I'd want them, so they never came in.
The other big thing is that I cut all the Endbringers and replaced them with Wurmcoils. Wurmcoil is just fantastic right now and there's really not many scenarios where you'd rather have Endbringer. Obviously Endbringer is a bit easier to cast due to Temple, but I did not find this to be super relevant. I don't think the difference between 5 and 6 is that big in this deck because once you're at that stage of the game, you're more and more likely to have Tron available anyway so the boost from Temple becomes moot. And it gives you the ability to have the "nut draw" of turn 3 Wurmcoil which, like I alluded to before, is just a lot better than Endbringer these days.
So with the Coils in that slot the lifelink from Batterskull becomes less relevant, plus it becomes harder to justify playing more clunky spells so I opted for the Baby Karns instead. Just 4 generic mana is pretty easily attainable in any game. I can't say they really won me any games but they did reasonable work. I'd definitely consider them the 59th and 60th cards though - they could be some mix of Warping Wail, Mind Stone or Dismember as well.
I also played the Ulamog/Sanctum of Ugin package. I wanted more game against Tron and obviously it's good in a lot of other scenarios like control, combo, and just going over the top in general. Sanctum is actually fairly easy to trigger because you can just fire off a huge Chalice for it, All is Dust, in addition to the Ballistas. In one game against Titan Shift I actually won by casting All is Dust killing nothing just to trigger Sanctum, and grabbed a Reality Smasher to swing for lethal when I would have been dead to the Scapeshift on the top of his deck the following turn. So it's definitely a nice tool to have.
So I abandoned the above list pretty quickly. I knew Dredge would be tough with that configuration but it's more than tough. You really need Relics to have a shot cause like I said earlier Surgical is pretty impotent against them nowadays. Even Grafdigger's Cage isn't amazing because they can still Chill through it. With Grudges plus Trophy and Nature's Claim it's really easy for them to destroy our lifegain artifacts as well. I think if you wanna have a good shot of winning the matchup you want to be playing Leyline of the Void or Ravenous Trap, in addition to Relics. I'll be trying something like this soon.
Tron still feels really tough too. Somehow I actually had a positive record in the matchup during my 2017 run, but right now it just feels hopeless. The games I win are super-close nailbiters, and the ones I lose are just complete blowouts. It's never easy.
Despite this I'm still doing pretty well overall though - about 64% winrate in Friendly over 115 matches since the end of Jan. So the deck is still good enough for me to justify continuing to tinker with it.
Also @agattuso have you considered playing Tectonic Edges with 1-2 Crucible of Worlds in the side instead of Caverns/Sower/Ulamog? This is a great plan against control I've used a lot in my time playing Eldrazi Tron. Edge is also great against Tron, Amulet, and Valakut which can be problematic matchups for this deck. It's not as good of a plan as Cavern against control specifically, but I think it hits more of the field better, and it would make it easier to consider not playing Sower or Ulamog which are harder to use against the field, freeing up SB space for more useful things.
Hey all, I've picked up this deck and have been having a lot of fun with it. Thanks to Jordan for all the awesome content. The question I have right now is does anyone have any strong opinions on the land count? It seems like 23 is standard, but I also see lists with 22 winning. I picked up a 22 list and it has felt fine so far. Thoughts?
This is where I'm at with the deck right now. The 2 Batterskulls main - I like this a lot better than Karn, Scion in that slot. It plays the same role against midrange and control, while being better against a lot of the field. In matchups like Hollow One and Spirits it allows you to race where the tokens from Karn don't do a great job of blocking. It's great against Burn and Dredge, where Karn doesn't do much at all, and it's solid against the Phoenix decks too. Lifegain is just really good in general right now, hence the Collar and Wurmcoil staying main in addition to the BSkulls. Up to 2 Mind Stone to help cast them.
2 Tectonic Edge in the land flex slots. This is a real effective plan against Tron which is a tough matchup, especially with the Crucible in the side. Also very good against control and Amulet/Valakut. The Radiant Fountain was kind of an emergency measure vs Burn but now it has died down a bit so I like the powerhouse card in Tec Edge. I think 1/1 Tec Edge/Buried Ruin split would also be good but I've been losing to Tron a lot so I want to shore that up.
Decided on Surgicals over Relics for GY hate, at least for now. I'm losing Relic against Shadow and BGx but I don't actually think this matters much as this build already has enough good cards for those matchups. Against Phoenix Relic is probably better but it's not a huge difference. The main downside is Surgical is definitely worse than Relic against Dredge, but Surgical is better against Tron, Amulet and Valakut, so I think Surgical wins out. I'm relying more on the lifegain plan to beat Dredge with this build.
Tons of tools for creature decks rounding out the SB, with Warping Wail doing double duty as a counterspell vs Dredge, Burn, Phoenix, Valakut, Living End, etc.
For Izzet:
+1 Cage, +2 Surgical, +2 Nature's Claim
-2 Ballista, -1 Ugin, -1 Ostone, -1 Ulamog
Wail is good if you have it, but otherwise no major changes as the matchup is already good. I don't like Thragtusk because it doesn't block anything profitably and the lifegain doesn't matter as much as against Mono Red. I still think Karn is great as we have enough graveyard hate to control the Phoenixes and he is exactly what we want against TiTi and Crackling Drake. Most lists aren't even playing hard counters for him - generally just 1-2 Spell Pierce so play around that if you can and you'll be fine.
I'll update the guide with these matchups when I get a sec - should have done it sooner.
EDIT: Also interesting that you're still on 4 Claim as well. I've been toying with the idea of going back down to 2 now that Stony Silence is basically non-existent again. The main thing stopping me is this Wilderness Reclamation deck lurking around in the MTGO queues - Claim is the best card there.
On that run I lost to Tron, Titan Shift and Counters Company. Not hard to understand why I lost to the first 2, though I actually beat each of them on the same run as well. In the Counters Company match my opponent was on the play and blew up my Map with Knight of Autumn on turn 2 and just got way ahead. In game 2 I mulled and my 6 was mediocre but keepable and just didn't get there.
The other big thing is that I cut all the Endbringers and replaced them with Wurmcoils. Wurmcoil is just fantastic right now and there's really not many scenarios where you'd rather have Endbringer. Obviously Endbringer is a bit easier to cast due to Temple, but I did not find this to be super relevant. I don't think the difference between 5 and 6 is that big in this deck because once you're at that stage of the game, you're more and more likely to have Tron available anyway so the boost from Temple becomes moot. And it gives you the ability to have the "nut draw" of turn 3 Wurmcoil which, like I alluded to before, is just a lot better than Endbringer these days.
So with the Coils in that slot the lifelink from Batterskull becomes less relevant, plus it becomes harder to justify playing more clunky spells so I opted for the Baby Karns instead. Just 4 generic mana is pretty easily attainable in any game. I can't say they really won me any games but they did reasonable work. I'd definitely consider them the 59th and 60th cards though - they could be some mix of Warping Wail, Mind Stone or Dismember as well.
I also played the Ulamog/Sanctum of Ugin package. I wanted more game against Tron and obviously it's good in a lot of other scenarios like control, combo, and just going over the top in general. Sanctum is actually fairly easy to trigger because you can just fire off a huge Chalice for it, All is Dust, in addition to the Ballistas. In one game against Titan Shift I actually won by casting All is Dust killing nothing just to trigger Sanctum, and grabbed a Reality Smasher to swing for lethal when I would have been dead to the Scapeshift on the top of his deck the following turn. So it's definitely a nice tool to have.
Tron still feels really tough too. Somehow I actually had a positive record in the matchup during my 2017 run, but right now it just feels hopeless. The games I win are super-close nailbiters, and the ones I lose are just complete blowouts. It's never easy.
Despite this I'm still doing pretty well overall though - about 64% winrate in Friendly over 115 matches since the end of Jan. So the deck is still good enough for me to justify continuing to tinker with it.
2 Tectonic Edge in the land flex slots. This is a real effective plan against Tron which is a tough matchup, especially with the Crucible in the side. Also very good against control and Amulet/Valakut. The Radiant Fountain was kind of an emergency measure vs Burn but now it has died down a bit so I like the powerhouse card in Tec Edge. I think 1/1 Tec Edge/Buried Ruin split would also be good but I've been losing to Tron a lot so I want to shore that up.
Decided on Surgicals over Relics for GY hate, at least for now. I'm losing Relic against Shadow and BGx but I don't actually think this matters much as this build already has enough good cards for those matchups. Against Phoenix Relic is probably better but it's not a huge difference. The main downside is Surgical is definitely worse than Relic against Dredge, but Surgical is better against Tron, Amulet and Valakut, so I think Surgical wins out. I'm relying more on the lifegain plan to beat Dredge with this build.
Tons of tools for creature decks rounding out the SB, with Warping Wail doing double duty as a counterspell vs Dredge, Burn, Phoenix, Valakut, Living End, etc.