Just a quick update. Went 2-2 drop yesterday with my list from the last page. Lost to Tron which is by far the worst matchup and Fairies due to variance. I had milled more than half of my deck and hit no Vengevines. All good and it happens. Not that upset.
Anyways, I realized yesterday that the Viscera Draggers are truly not required and they were the first cards that I sided out each game (this is normal though). The 4 Dregscape Zombies are more than enough to help recur the Gravecrawlers. This will open up 2 slots in the list. I'm thinking on trying out 2 Drown in Filth in their spot to start and going from there. There's another smaller Modern tournament in a couple weeks that I will most likely be taking this to again.
Been a little while guys, but I haven't given up on the deck in the meantime. Still really happy with my old mainboard and with the banning of DRS, I'm very interested in devoting some more time to the deck again. There hasn't been a whole lot of Modern events locally or within a few hours of me worth going too, so that's contributed as well. Anyways, going to be taking old faithful to a tournament this weekend and will let you know how it goes. The list for reference:
Just a couple sideboard changes. Have always been really happy with the mainboard and will keep it that way for the moment. I'm interested to see how the meta starts to shape with the unbannings and will adjust accordingly afterwards.
Scavenging Ooze should be mentioned too. One turn untapped with Ooze is enough to ruin us: I'm running lightning axes, they can deal with goyf, deathrites on turn 1, and the discard is hardly a drawback in this deck.
Yup. Not sure why I forgot that one. It's pretty important too, but as you mentioned, Lightning Axe deals with it nicely already. If it gets bigger than a 5/5, you've probably already lost that one. Big Game Hunter and Vengeful Pharaoh out of the sideboard also help if it gets out of control.
The better question for this deck is not whether or not it is competitive... but rather is it consistent enough?
With Eggs gone and Gifts getting little spotlight, I believe that specific graveyard hate is probably at the lowest point it will be.
Right now, there are three cards that you have to be prepared to fight:
Deathrite Shaman
Rest in Peace
Grafdigger's Cage
Only Deathrite Shaman is run in the main, and if you don't have answers to it, then you're doing it wrong. This means that typically you *should* be walking away with game one. Games 2 and 3 are going to be the most difficult, so you must decide whether or not to fight it or ignore it. I don't believe we have the tools to ignore the hate or speed up our deck, so we're left with fighting it. Plan accordingly.
-I believe I mentioned the following before, but remember that you can respond to Rest in Peace's ETB exile trigger by flashing back Ray of Revelation. You still lose your graveyard, but have the ability to hopefully rebuild.
-Remember during your upkeep you can cast a Darkblast, dredge it back during your draw and cast it again to eliminate a 2 toughness creature.
-Don't be afraid to darkblast your own creatures if you need the ability to cast a Gravecrawler a 2nd time to trigger Vengevines.
-It is often correct to hold your Lotleth Trolls till turn 3 to ensure your have regeneration mana up.
-Mulligan aggressively with this deck. If you're missing an enabler, ship it.
-etc.
These come with time and practice. I honestly believe that this deck is not on a lot of radars at the moment and you can use that to your advantage. I personally find this deck a lot of fun to play and I always used to scoff at the people who would say "Oh, just play something that your enjoy and are familiar with if you're undecided for a tournament", but after playing this for over a year I finally understand.
This deck isn't for everyone, but you really have to play it inside and out to appreciate it.
Dragger is great and I'm currently running him as well as Dregscape. For an extra unearth mana you get an extra damage while still maintaining the ability to recur your Gravecrawlers. They're better in the late game where presumably you have a couple extra mana, didn't hit a fast start with Vengevines, your board was wiped/bolted/helixed, etc.
As far as Burning Inquiry goes, just make sure you test it A LOT. It's very easy to skew your results when you cast a T1/2 Inquiry and hit their land drops and then win against a mana screwed opponent. Other times you discard their bolts and they just Snapcaster them back and you really aren't that far ahead. It's a card with very high variance and I stopped testing it because I wanted a more consistent and controllable game plan.
The decks seems to be running pretty well so far but I havn't play-tested enough. I'm really trying to fit in 3-4 Slitherhead but I don't know what to take out. The sideboard could also use some finetuning. Any suggestions?
I found Grisly Salvage to be a bit to slow. If you're having trouble hitting 2 cheap creatures for Vengevines, I think you need to cut Salvage, the Demons and Haakon and either increase Dregscape Zombie and/or add Slitherhead. I'm still on the fence about the little zombie, but he does provide for some fast starts and obviously helps recur your Crawlers while still giving a small bonus even when in the graveyard.
Your sideboard is pretty generic and if I went into an unknown meta, this would probably be fine.
What I've been running. Sideboard needs some room for Ground Seal
Would personally run at least 10 fetch to ensure the utmost value off of crabs. I don't like 2 Leyline in the SB though (approx 22% chance of having it in your opener), and would be the first thing I'd cut to make room for Ground Seal. Memory's Journey also loses value in this case, so I'd probably cut 1 to ensure 3 Ground Seals in the side.
Other than that I like it. I'm just not a fan of running DRS with Ground Seals, because assuming you're siding them out for the Ground Seals, you're reducing your chances of casting cheap creatures to recur Vengevines and if you aren't, there are better things than a 1/2 Squire... especially when you're only on 19 lands.
Been a little while, sorry guys. Haven't had much reason to play Modern recently unfortunately, but with GP Detroit coming up in a month or so, I imagine some GPTs will start cropping up. Here's my current list:
I'm pretty solid on the maindeck. Any changes would probably require quite an overall. As far as the sideboard goes, I feel like the 3 flex slots would be 2 Big Game Hunter and 1 Vengeful Pharoh. I like the rest where it sits. Trying to shore up the UWR match, the Ground Seals definitely help. Wretch Mind is nice as well as Delirium Skeins. I'd like to fit in an Abrupt Decay because of its wide application, so that's a possibility as well. Lifebane Zombie also gets an honourable mention as well but I'm not sure how much steam GW hatebears is gaining.
Hopefully some additional testing will help make these decisions easier.
I have some new tech that I am dying to share with you guys, but with my participation in the July Lantern IQ, I'm afraid that I must withhold some information, at least until after my first match and the element of surprise is lost. However, I can say that I am in the process of a third major OP overhaul, including some graph's comparing speed, as well as a best case scenario playout.
Sounds good. I haven't done much with the deck in the last month unfortunately. Have been busy with standard and legacy. Still running what I had before which closely matched what Levy ended up running. Running Ground Seal in the sideboard again, but nothing else crazy. Almost have the deck foiled out too.
I don't think that Scavenging Ooze will make this deck anywhere near unplayable. If anything, we're only going to see it as a 1-2 of in SBs. Deathrite will still be much more prevalent. I like the idea of 1 Ground Seal MB and 1-2 SB. Ray to deal with RiP. Grudge for Cage.
Thanks for the deckification. Am just on my mobile for the time being. Ground Seal shouldnt be to bad imo as long as you arn't running Deathrites and are off the unburial plan.
Anyways, I realized yesterday that the Viscera Draggers are truly not required and they were the first cards that I sided out each game (this is normal though). The 4 Dregscape Zombies are more than enough to help recur the Gravecrawlers. This will open up 2 slots in the list. I'm thinking on trying out 2 Drown in Filth in their spot to start and going from there. There's another smaller Modern tournament in a couple weeks that I will most likely be taking this to again.
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Slitherhead
4 Gravecrawler
4 Faithless Looting
4 Vengevine
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Viscera Dragger
2 Golgari Thug
3 Lightning Axe
3 Darkblast
4 Marsh Flats
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Stomping Ground
2 Gemstone Mine
2 Dakmor Salvage
1 Swamp
4 Ancient Grudge
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Ray of Revelation
1 Darkblast
1 Lightning Axe
3 Ground Seal
2 Gnaw to the Bone
Just a couple sideboard changes. Have always been really happy with the mainboard and will keep it that way for the moment. I'm interested to see how the meta starts to shape with the unbannings and will adjust accordingly afterwards.
Yup. Not sure why I forgot that one. It's pretty important too, but as you mentioned, Lightning Axe deals with it nicely already. If it gets bigger than a 5/5, you've probably already lost that one. Big Game Hunter and Vengeful Pharaoh out of the sideboard also help if it gets out of control.
With Eggs gone and Gifts getting little spotlight, I believe that specific graveyard hate is probably at the lowest point it will be.
Right now, there are three cards that you have to be prepared to fight:
Deathrite Shaman
Rest in Peace
Grafdigger's Cage
Only Deathrite Shaman is run in the main, and if you don't have answers to it, then you're doing it wrong. This means that typically you *should* be walking away with game one. Games 2 and 3 are going to be the most difficult, so you must decide whether or not to fight it or ignore it. I don't believe we have the tools to ignore the hate or speed up our deck, so we're left with fighting it. Plan accordingly.
-I believe I mentioned the following before, but remember that you can respond to Rest in Peace's ETB exile trigger by flashing back Ray of Revelation. You still lose your graveyard, but have the ability to hopefully rebuild.
-Remember during your upkeep you can cast a Darkblast, dredge it back during your draw and cast it again to eliminate a 2 toughness creature.
-Don't be afraid to darkblast your own creatures if you need the ability to cast a Gravecrawler a 2nd time to trigger Vengevines.
-It is often correct to hold your Lotleth Trolls till turn 3 to ensure your have regeneration mana up.
-Mulligan aggressively with this deck. If you're missing an enabler, ship it.
-etc.
These come with time and practice. I honestly believe that this deck is not on a lot of radars at the moment and you can use that to your advantage. I personally find this deck a lot of fun to play and I always used to scoff at the people who would say "Oh, just play something that your enjoy and are familiar with if you're undecided for a tournament", but after playing this for over a year I finally understand.
This deck isn't for everyone, but you really have to play it inside and out to appreciate it.
As far as Burning Inquiry goes, just make sure you test it A LOT. It's very easy to skew your results when you cast a T1/2 Inquiry and hit their land drops and then win against a mana screwed opponent. Other times you discard their bolts and they just Snapcaster them back and you really aren't that far ahead. It's a card with very high variance and I stopped testing it because I wanted a more consistent and controllable game plan.
I found Grisly Salvage to be a bit to slow. If you're having trouble hitting 2 cheap creatures for Vengevines, I think you need to cut Salvage, the Demons and Haakon and either increase Dregscape Zombie and/or add Slitherhead. I'm still on the fence about the little zombie, but he does provide for some fast starts and obviously helps recur your Crawlers while still giving a small bonus even when in the graveyard.
Your sideboard is pretty generic and if I went into an unknown meta, this would probably be fine.
Would personally run at least 10 fetch to ensure the utmost value off of crabs. I don't like 2 Leyline in the SB though (approx 22% chance of having it in your opener), and would be the first thing I'd cut to make room for Ground Seal. Memory's Journey also loses value in this case, so I'd probably cut 1 to ensure 3 Ground Seals in the side.
Other than that I like it. I'm just not a fan of running DRS with Ground Seals, because assuming you're siding them out for the Ground Seals, you're reducing your chances of casting cheap creatures to recur Vengevines and if you aren't, there are better things than a 1/2 Squire... especially when you're only on 19 lands.
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Slitherhead
4 Gravecrawler
4 Faithless Looting
4 Vengevine
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Viscera Dragger
2 Golgari Thug
3 Lightning Axe
3 Darkblast
4 Marsh Flats
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Stomping Ground
2 Gemstone Mine
2 Dakmor Salvage
1 Swamp
2 Big Game Hunter
2 Ray of Revelation
1 Darkblast
1 Vengeful Pharoh
3 Ground Seal
2 Gnaw to the Bone
I'm pretty solid on the maindeck. Any changes would probably require quite an overall. As far as the sideboard goes, I feel like the 3 flex slots would be 2 Big Game Hunter and 1 Vengeful Pharoh. I like the rest where it sits. Trying to shore up the UWR match, the Ground Seals definitely help. Wretch Mind is nice as well as Delirium Skeins. I'd like to fit in an Abrupt Decay because of its wide application, so that's a possibility as well. Lifebane Zombie also gets an honourable mention as well but I'm not sure how much steam GW hatebears is gaining.
Hopefully some additional testing will help make these decisions easier.
Sounds good. I haven't done much with the deck in the last month unfortunately. Have been busy with standard and legacy. Still running what I had before which closely matched what Levy ended up running. Running Ground Seal in the sideboard again, but nothing else crazy. Almost have the deck foiled out too.
4 Dregscape Zombie
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Slitherhead
4 Gravecrawler
4 Faithless Looting
4 Vengevine
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Viscera Dragger
2 Golgari Thug
3 Lightning Axe
3 Darkblast
4 Verdant Catacomb
4 Marsh Flats
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Stomping Ground
1 Gemstone Mine
2 Dakmor Salvage
1 Swamp
1 Urborg
4 Ancient Grudge
4 Big Game Hunter
2 Ray of Revelation
1 Memory's Journey
1 Darkblast
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Lightning Axe
1 Vengeful Pharoh
No Blasting Station.
http://www.twitch.tv/magicprotour/b/402304431
No Deathrites either, forgot about that.