Mono R Phoenix is a tricky one. I haven't actually seen the deck very much since its initial burst into the meta but I guess I'd do something like this:
I do think you want as many Thragtusk as you can get. No, it doesn't block Phoenix but it does block Swiftspear, Soul-Scar and Bedlam Reveler and more importantly it gains 5 life which I think matters a lot given how much burn they have.
I like Cage for shutting off Phoenix and Looting but not Surgical because a lot of the time it wont be game-winning and the 2 life matters.
I like keeping a couple Ostone because they're bringing in 3 Blood Moons and it's still just a good card against certain board states they produce. I could see an argument for cutting all of them though.
There's probably an argument for Spatial Contortions as well.
Mainly Grixis Shadow and BGx. Shadow usually only has 1 or 2 threats and Hangarback often represents 3 or more chump blockers, which buys us tons of time. The Thopters can also turn the tables and threaten to kill them quite quickly because they can't block them and they get to a low life total naturally. Against BGx it makes Liliana look really silly which is otherwise their best card against us. It's also fine as a speed bump against Humans, Burn and others, and it's great in the mirror if you ever see it.
Goyf is fine. Certainly is good if BGx becomes the new hotness for a bit after these GP results. I think the card is a bit overrated against Burn though for reasons discussed recently (only good on turn 2, overloading the mana base with colored spells).
REALLY hope Eldrazi Tron doesnt come back. I loathe that deck.
I wouldn't worry much about that. It's been seeing more play recently due to Chalice being pretty good again, but it's still not good enough against the field for it to see widespread play like it used to.
It's still my position that adding a color is a trap. Trying to cast those white spells really puts a strain on your mana because you can only realistically play 2 Horizon Canopy. You will often have to decide between using your Chromatics for white for your sideboard cards or green for the cards that make your deck function properly. It gets messy and isn't worth the potential upside you get from the splash. Against Burn, you want to add Reinforcements to gain life, but you're trying to cast it off a land that does damage to you. It's just so awkward. And what if you don't draw Reinforcements but do draw Canopy? This will happen fairly often as it's probably a 2 Canopy/3 Timely split. Then it's just terrible as Canopy is pinging you for no reason. Overloading the manabase with colored spells is a real thing as well, especially in this matchup when you're already bringing in 6+ green spells in Tusks and Claims. Add 3 more spells of a different color and you're asking too much of the deck.
Access to Path against GDS would be nice, sure, but that matchup is totally fine if you have enough tools that Mono Green has access to ie Dismember, Relics, Thragtusks.
Yeah, EE does help with some tougher matchups. Grixis Whir and Infect as mentioned, also Hardened Scales. Even in Mono-Green where getting more than one color won't be easy, X=1 does work in matchups like Shadow, Humans, Spirits and Burn as well.
Yeah, agree. The cool thing about the deck is it's really customizable so you can potentially tune it to beat a certain local meta or take advantage of a particular trend, but I think it's really hard for it to be good against the field as it stands now, no matter how you construct it.
I think there's room for improvement in the list I posted though. I'm thinking about cutting the Surgicals entirely. The card is just not good enough against Dredge anymore now that they have Creeping Chill - they just have too many cards that matter. Chill makes that matchup a lot harder in general. Surgical can be good against Gx Tron and Phoenix but it's a really bad nonbo with our Chalice plan so I wouldn't feel too bad about losing it. We have enough against Storm already. I would miss it against Amulet though.
Looks to be pretty much strictly anti-Burn tech, due to it's crazy popularity recently. There's not many other decks I'd want it against - Hatebears, sure, mayyybe Ponza. And it's only really good against Burn if you play it exactly on turn 2. It's basically just a worse Tarmogoyf, as it does roughly the same thing in these matchups and has fewer applications against the field. I don't think the fact that it adds mana is particularly relevant. If you're willing to dedicate slots to beat Burn I'd just play Feed the Clan - much more flexible and good at any point in the game (especially if you have TKS or Thragtusk in play!).
This is roughly what I played for the couple weeks or so that I was on the deck. I was actually playing 2 Radiant Fountain for a bit because Burn was like 15% of the MTGO meta. That's also why you see Dragon's Claw. I've never really considered going to 23 lands - I find myself choked on mana enough with 24. But this is with just 1 Mind Stone. Maybe if you were playing 3 I could see playing 23, but again, not something I've ever thought through. I miss the days where we could jam 4 Stone in the deck and have that sweet consistency, but the meta is so degenerate now that I feel we need those slots for the interactive cards like Relic/Collar, or even Wails/Spatials.
Haven't really felt drawn to Karn, Scion in this meta. The matchups where I'd want it most (Humans, UWx) are at low ebbs. I like the 2 Liberated to cover those control bases plus for Gx Tron, Amulet which is popular now, etc.
3 Dismember felt good for killing Shadow/Angler, TiTi/Drake, Devoted Druids/Vannifar nonsense going around right now.
I saw Arch...seems interesting but that list is also playing Oblivion Sowers and Treasure Maps to make extra permanents to get the city's blessing. I feel like Sea Gate is probably still better in an average list.
Overturf with 2 Life Goes On in his sideboard, that's wild. He tweeted it out earlier this week in reference to Burn being so popular (which it is, disgustingly so on MTGO), but I thought it was more tongue-in-cheek. Hilarious and awesome to see him win the tournament with 2 in his deck.
It being a "must-answer situation" doesn't really say very much - they're the control deck, literally all our threats are must answer. When you consider that Blood Sun + O-Stone + Fate Counter is a clunky and time-intensive 2-card combo that they have many ways of breaking up(and that Stony Silence makes look ridiculous), it doesn't sound very impressive.
Obviously Blood Sun is a good card against UW, I don't think anyone is arguing that. And O-Stone is fine, if you don't have a lot of threats, such as your list. Obviously you like your configuration and are sticking with it, so these arguments are kind of moot.
The argument I would make (and I think others are in agreement with this) is that the standard build with Thragtusks is a better plan, not just in the UW matchup, but against the field. The lack of Thragtusks and such minimal graveyard hate are significant holes that Pyroclasm and Blood sun can't plug, nor do they provide enough against the field to make up for the losses - I don't think there's any denying this.
Like I mentioned before, local metas are a thing and different versions can be better positioned as the case may be, but I don't think you're convincing anyone that against the Modern meta at large, your configuration has merit. If that's not your goal, then my bad.
@Avatardante: Nice job on the top 8. Look again at this page, some of the discussion has been for Mono G vs UW. Also there is a sideboard guide in the OP.
Hey guys, I just finished writing a new primer after the previous OP was deleted due to the EU regulations stuff. I've been playing the deck regularly for the past couple weeks and it's been fun. I mostly made the switch from Gx Tron because Burn is super popular online right now and I wanted a better matchup. I wouldn't say the deck is in a great position right now - it kinda got left in the dust after 2018 brought so many wide and fast decks plus powerups for midrange and control, but it's better than it's been in a while with Burn, UR Phoenix and Grixis Shadow all among the top decks and Chalice being very good against them.
-2 Ballista, -2 Ostone, -2 Karn, -1 Ugin, -1 Ulamog
+3 Claim, +4 Thragtusk, +1 Cage
I do think you want as many Thragtusk as you can get. No, it doesn't block Phoenix but it does block Swiftspear, Soul-Scar and Bedlam Reveler and more importantly it gains 5 life which I think matters a lot given how much burn they have.
I like Cage for shutting off Phoenix and Looting but not Surgical because a lot of the time it wont be game-winning and the 2 life matters.
I like keeping a couple Ostone because they're bringing in 3 Blood Moons and it's still just a good card against certain board states they produce. I could see an argument for cutting all of them though.
There's probably an argument for Spatial Contortions as well.
Access to Path against GDS would be nice, sure, but that matchup is totally fine if you have enough tools that Mono Green has access to ie Dismember, Relics, Thragtusks.
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Endbringer
4 Walking Ballista
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Other spells [17]
2 All Is Dust
3 Dismember
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Expedition Map
1 Mind Stone
1 Basilisk Collar
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
1 Cavern of Souls
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Wastes
1 Radiant Fountain
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
1 All Is Dust
2 Spatial Contortion
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Basilisk Collar
2 Karn Liberated
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Dragon's Claw
This is roughly what I played for the couple weeks or so that I was on the deck. I was actually playing 2 Radiant Fountain for a bit because Burn was like 15% of the MTGO meta. That's also why you see Dragon's Claw. I've never really considered going to 23 lands - I find myself choked on mana enough with 24. But this is with just 1 Mind Stone. Maybe if you were playing 3 I could see playing 23, but again, not something I've ever thought through. I miss the days where we could jam 4 Stone in the deck and have that sweet consistency, but the meta is so degenerate now that I feel we need those slots for the interactive cards like Relic/Collar, or even Wails/Spatials.
Haven't really felt drawn to Karn, Scion in this meta. The matchups where I'd want it most (Humans, UWx) are at low ebbs. I like the 2 Liberated to cover those control bases plus for Gx Tron, Amulet which is popular now, etc.
3 Dismember felt good for killing Shadow/Angler, TiTi/Drake, Devoted Druids/Vannifar nonsense going around right now.
I saw Arch...seems interesting but that list is also playing Oblivion Sowers and Treasure Maps to make extra permanents to get the city's blessing. I feel like Sea Gate is probably still better in an average list.
Obviously Blood Sun is a good card against UW, I don't think anyone is arguing that. And O-Stone is fine, if you don't have a lot of threats, such as your list. Obviously you like your configuration and are sticking with it, so these arguments are kind of moot.
The argument I would make (and I think others are in agreement with this) is that the standard build with Thragtusks is a better plan, not just in the UW matchup, but against the field. The lack of Thragtusks and such minimal graveyard hate are significant holes that Pyroclasm and Blood sun can't plug, nor do they provide enough against the field to make up for the losses - I don't think there's any denying this.
Like I mentioned before, local metas are a thing and different versions can be better positioned as the case may be, but I don't think you're convincing anyone that against the Modern meta at large, your configuration has merit. If that's not your goal, then my bad.
@Avatardante: Nice job on the top 8. Look again at this page, some of the discussion has been for Mono G vs UW. Also there is a sideboard guide in the OP.