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- germanturkey
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Member for 12 years, 8 months, and 22 days
Last active Fri, Nov, 24 2017 17:53:13
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izzetmage posted a message on [[Official]] Current Modern Banlist Discussion (7/14/2014 - 1/19/2015)Posted in: Modern Archives -
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Lord Seth posted a message on [[Official]] Current Modern Banlist Discussion (7/14/2014 - 1/19/2015)Posted in: Modern Archives -
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NoUndies posted a message on [[Official]] Current Modern Banlist Discussion (7/14/2014 - 1/19/2015)The format would be stuffed without bolt. I was trying to make UW work for a long time, but I just didn't have the density of removal to survive. In legacy it's not so bad, you can get by with 7 maindeck removal cards with a few extra in the side, and still have the consistency to deal with threats thanks to brainstorm and ponder. In modern, even running snapcasters, I needed to go into red to get enough good removal spells to reliably keep the board clear. At this stage, black removal is straight up inferior to red removal, and what red can't remove, you can path. Black removal is generally more expensive than path and bolt, or it punishes you too heavily. You can't afford to pay 4 life removing something, because red is so prevalent for its larger suite and utility that -- combined with damage from your land base -- you're going to be at severe risk of being burned out.Posted in: Modern Archives
The format suffers from a few interesting design flaws. The weakness of the answers pushes the format hard into creature-based strategies (the best deck runs 26-30 creatures), which means that anyone trying to control the flow of the game needs to run a lot of removal (this is only exacerbated by the lack of card selection). Shock lands make red better than it ordinarily would be, and there's little penalty to running it given the format's focus on cheap, efficient creatures. Red also has the highest density of removal spells in the game, and it doubles as reach, so it makes sense to run it. White is an easy include because it gives you the ability to negate the damage caused to you by your own lands (keeping you safe from all of the other players running red) and because it gives you path to remove anything that bolt can't kill. The only reason to run black is to play abrupt decay, which also requires that you run green. If that's the case, you're playing an overgrown tomb deck, and are likely going midrange to lean on superior threats.
Bolt is a necessary evil however, because without it, we would all be playing various iterations of midrange and the associated grindy, stalled board states that come with it. I'd rather take a format in which 50% of decks have to run bolt than the alternative. -
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Spooly posted a message on Worlds 2014 - Modern DiscussionPosted in: ModernQuote from germanturkey »so the channel fireball list beats people to death with conclaves in a WUR tempo shell? are you serious?
I mean, it makes fatestitcher or conclave a 20+ power dude and in the process finds another fatestitcher to tap the opponent out with so it can attack for the win. It's not really a tempo deck, though a plan B is conclave beatdown I suppose. It's much closer to Scapeshift than tempo - the control cards just buy it time, especially against what would otherwise be an awful matchup, Delver. -
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ThatStoryTeller120 posted a message on [Primer] U/R DelverWith no other factors to go on I personally think you go Delver first because the possibility of flipping delver with a spell that pumps swiftspear gets you in for 5 and the deck is currently built to maximize damage on turns where there is minimal risk.Posted in: Aggro & Tempo -
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Valanarch posted a message on [[Official]] Current Modern Banlist Discussion (2/2014 - 7/2014)Posted in: Modern ArchivesQuote from germanturkeyi am unfamiliar with what card from AVR made a splash in modern (cavern of souls?). m14 gave us archangel? that's all i can think off.
Avacyn Restored's big card was Restoration Angel. That card is the centerpiece of the majority of white decks in Modern right now. Avacyn Restored is the only reason why Kiki Pod exists as it gave it Zealous Conscripts as well as Restoration Angel. Same goes for Amulet of Vigor and Slayers' Stronghold and Griselbrand Reanimator and Griselbrand. It also gave us some less played cards like Pillar of Flame, Vexing Devil, Desolate Lighthouse, and Bonfire of the Damned.
M14 gave Modern several cards. In addition Archangel of Thune, there was Scavenging Ooze, which managed to hate out the last remnants of Storm with DRS's help and is what pushed Jund over the edge, Chandra, Pyromaster, which has become the main 4 drop in Jund, and Young Pyromancer, which brought UR Delver to prominence. -
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Eyron posted a message on [Primer] UB/x FaeriesPosted in: Aggro & TempoQuote from UdrewGuys stop saying Serum Visions helps us finding bitterblossom, it's a good card ideed but even Ponder wasn't good at it during Lorwyn block, why Serum would be Modern material for us... If you have only 2 in the deck you are thinking at it as late draw not as turn1... Now that a decklist did top16 everybody are good on SOFAF while I said always it's the best sword for us if you want to run any sword...
The manabase is good vs Blood Moon but quite hard to cast a turn 1 discard spell, that's why he's playing spell snare and even more from sideboard. This setup is exposed to affinity even in postboarded games... Spellskite is a target for the same spells coming in for bitterblossom, at least remember it...
You....really make my brain hurt.
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Eyron posted a message on [Primer] UB/x Faeries4-0'd modern night. Played v Burn, Hatebears, Twin, and Kiki Pod. Dropped a game to Burn from mulling to 5, a game to Hatebears having the nuts of triple Wiltleaf. Deck still feels pretty unbeatable. Splinter Twin matchup is MASSIVELY fun.Posted in: Aggro & Tempo -
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Eyron posted a message on [Primer] UB/x FaeriesJust got back from a GPT for Richmond. 23 players, 5 rounds. I took a UB Fae list I've been tweaking since the unbanning. Before the start I decided to drop the maindeck Scions I had been playing for 2 Swords and an Agony Warp. I also didn't get my River of Tears in time, so I threw in Watery Graves to make sure I could cast t1 discard. Registered the following:Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
Round 1 - Mono-G Devotion
Game 1: Get a pretty good opening, 3 lands, Bitterblossom, Spellstutter, double Mistbind. On the play, drop the turn 2 Bitterblossom when he only plays a Forest turn one. He plays an Elvish Visionary t2. I draw an Inquisition, look at his hand and see 2 Garruks, an E-Witness, and some inconsequential spells. Pull the E-Witness. Next turn draw a 3rd Mistbind with 4 mana up. Pretty easy lockout from there.
Sideboard: +2 Spreading Seas, +2 Deathmark, +1 Damnation
Game 2: Mulligan to 6. He drops a turn 2 Utopia Sprawl, which I promptly Spreading Seas (value!). Next turn I V-Clique to see among other things a Garruk, Genesis Wave, E-Witness. Throw back the Garruk. He gets stuck on 4 mana for a couple of turns while I run out a Bitterblossom and a Sword of Light and Shadow. I draw a second V-Clique and actually wind up looping them thanks to Sword of Light and Shadow, and I won the game because of it. 4 V-Clique triggers throw back a Genesis Wave, a Primeval Titan, a Garruk, and a Craterhoof. Win the game with a few tokens and a sworded-up V-Clique.
Overall 1-0
Round 2 - Splinter Twin
Game 1: Mulligan to 6. Keep a decent hand with 3 lands, Spellstutter, V-Clique, and Mistbind. My opponent plays out a fetch to a Steam Vents, into a Steam Vents, into an Island. I mess this game up by playing a Tar Pit turn 3, thinking I'm against UWR Control (had seen the guy going through a UWR Control list earlier). He EOTs a Pestermite to tap my Glen, then follows it up with a Splinter Twin. Lesson learned.
Sideboard: +2 Spellskite, +2 Negate, -1 Sword of Light and Shadow, -1 Agony Warp, -1 Agony Warp, -1 Spellstutter Sprite
Game 2: Get t1 discard, t2 Bitterblossom, curving into a Mistbind+Sword of Feast and Famine. He makes it close with burn and snapcasters, but Mistbind isn't really something the deck can deal with. Get there pretty quickly.
Game 3: Fairly close to game 2. No Mistbind to start with, and an overall slower start, but early discard and a V-Clique gets rid of the Twin combo and it turns into a grindy game. This is honestly in our favor, because once we land a Bitterblossom, they have no real outs and we only have to worry about the combo or being burned out. Towards the end I have 6 Faerie tokens (1 with SoFaF) and Mistbind out, down to only 4 life. He flashes in Pester to join his board of Pester+Deceiver at my attack phase phase, I respond with a Smother on his Pester and am tapped. He blocks sworded token and drops to 5, then draws an Electrolyze, shoots, me, then blanks. Very close game and emphasized that a) this matchup is one where they can just go for the face instead of the combo and b)SoFaF should be SoFaI.
Overall 2-0
Round 3 - UWR Control
Cocky local player. Knew he was on Control, wasn't worried before the match though as it's a pretty good matchup. Turns out, it feels pretty unloseable.
Game 1: Wind up mulling to 4. 7 was close to keepable, but 2 lands and double Mistbind is too shaky for my liking. 6 and 5 have no lands. Keep a 4 of Mutavault, Blossom, Thoughtseize, and Spellstutter to his 6 card hand. He plays a fetch, I draw a swamp and play Thoughtseize. He only has lands, a bolt, and a Cryptic. Rip the cryptic, next turn slam Blossom. He has literally nothing to interact with it and all I have to worry about is boardwipes, so I sit back and load the hand up. Beat him without much difficulty even with him drawing a load of cards off cantrips.
Sideboard: +2 Negate, -1 Mana Leak, -1 Vapor Snag
Game 2: Keep an opener of double Blossom, double V-Clique, double Glen, Mutavault. I know that his only outs to blossom are boardwipes and probably wear/tear in the board. Drop a t2 Blossom, he Spell Snares. EOT turn 3, V-Clique to make sure the coast is clear, then slam the second Blossom t4. At this point he and I both know he has to get to his answers or it's over. Unfortunately for him, Cryptic, Negate, and Spellstutter are all pretty good against him. I counter the wear/tear and Anger he draws, and he scoops em up.
Overall, I think this matchups is pretty much a free-roll unless they are running maindeck GosT, and I expect less of that with Zoo being a deck.
Round 4 - Grixis Delver
I get paired down as the 3rd undefeated, so I have to play. No idea what my opponent is playing though.
Game 1: Mull to 6 out of a junky hand. Play a Tar Pit turn 1, opponent plays a Delver off of a Watery Grave. Well crap. Draw, play a land and pass. opponent swings and plays a second Delver. I have no removal in hand and stall out at 2 land for a turn or two. My opponent doesn't flip his Delvers til turn 5, but it doesn't matter. His entire deck is under 3 mana, so he has a stocked hand of burn, kill spells, and counters.
Sideboard: +2 Spellskite,+1 Negate, +1 Engineered Explosives, -2 Mana Leak, -1 Mistbind Clique, -1 SoFaF
Game 2: Get a t1 Inquisition, t2 Blossom with Spellstutter and Clique in hand. He doesn't have nearly as much of an explosive start, so I can play the grindy game against him. Once I draw into a SoLaS and a Spellskite he's pretty much done, as his deck is SUPER soft to Spellskites short of Terminate.
Game 3: Pretty much a mirror of game 2. Not even really close. I have the Smother for his Young Pyromancer and just play draw-go after resolving a t2 Bitterblossom.
This was the matchup I was scared of besides Zoo, simply because his entire deck is burn. I think we're fine here as long as they don't have a massively aggro start.
Overall 4-0
Round 5 - vs Kiki Pod (ID)
Top seed going into top 8 at 13 points. Rest of the top 8 is: 1 Kiki Pod, 1 Splinter Twin, 1 Jund, 1 GW Hatebears, 1 Zoo, 1 Mono-G Devotion, 1 unknown
Overall 4-0-1
Top 8 - vs Hatebears
Game 1: Get a nuts opening on the play, t2 blossom, t3 SoFaF, t4 equip+swing. Unfortunately, two things happen: t3 he has Leonin Arbiter+ double tec edge, so I wind up with 2 mana on t4. Whatever, equip and start swinging right? Solid plan, except over the course of three turns he discards 2 wilt-leaf lieges and a smiter. I wind up getting a SoLaS online as well, but he actually wins a turn before me thanks to just getting free value from SoFaF.
Sideboard: -3 Thoughtseize, -1 Inquisition, -1 SoFaF, +2 Deathmark, +2 Damnation, +1 Engineered Explosives
Game 2: I mull to 5, he mulls to 6. I turn 1 Inquisition and manage to rip a Hierach, he's soft until a t3 Smiter. I have blossom+Mistbinds+Smother, and wind up Mistbinding him 3 turns in a row and then Cryptic tapping his team for the kill.
Game 3: Again, t1 discard hits a non-nuts card, slows him down. Get to counter a Hierarch with a Spellstutter Sprite, then when he attempts to Pridemage a Bitterblossom I champion it with Mistbing and go to town with it and a Tar Pit.
I feel like this is a pretty good matchup for us. The deck is slower than Zoo or Affinity, and we can crush them down. If I had SoFaI in game 1 like I wanted, it wouldn't have been close either, even with him having a Vial online.
Overall 5-0-1
Top 4 - Splinter Twin (round 2 opponent)
Game 1: I know the matchup now and get the Blosssom out after a t1 discard. Get to control the game thanks to him only really getting Snaps and Serum Visions, while I sit on counter magic. Cryptic and Mana Leak show up big by keeping his combo pieces down.
Sideboard: Same as round 2
Game 2: Pretty much a repeat of game 1. He doesn't get any absurd starts, and on a mull to 6 I get V-Clique+Blossom and draw Thoughtseize on t1 to clear the way. Negate+maindeck counters is too much for him to fight through, and a single faerie token just holds off all his x/1s. After the match we both agree that this is a very good Faerie matchup, and his best bet is honestly to try to lavamancer+burn spell me out. The Twin combo is just too hard to try to get while fighting through all of Faeries removal and counters.
Overall 6-0-1
Finals - vs Kiki Pod (split)
My opponent already had his buys for the GP, so he agrees to split. We talked briefly about the match and I think it would be a good one for Fae, since its a bit more susceptible to interruption than Melira Pod. I definitely want to test the matchup though, seems fun.
Final Record - 6-0-2
Thoughts
For one, I really liked the list. As I said above, the only thing I really didn't like were the Sword of Feast and Famine and the two Watery Grave, and all 3 were there simply because I didn't have the things I wanted. I felt like the deck was tuned pretty well, and I never really felt cold to anything. Mistbind Clique is still utterly insane, and if Bitterblossom wasn't so broken it would hands-down be the best card in the deck. I think running less than 4 is a giant mistake. Overall I liked the removal suite. Agony Warp might be dropable for a third Smother, but I still thinks it a good call for Zoo matchups as it lets you effectively trade 2 for 1. I got to test against two different Zoo decks in between rounds, and I only dropped one game out of about 5. That game he went turn 1 Nacatl, t 2 Nacatl+Guide, t3 Ghor-Clan and second Guide. I think they have an edge game 1 if they're on the play, but post-board we have good stuff to bring in between EE and Damnation. This is the only matchup where I think we take out a Mistbind or two, since the tapout doesn't really effect them and Cryptic is just better against them.
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i-never-smile posted a message on Temp Banlist Thread: DRS Banned, BB/Nacatl Unbanned!Posted in: ModernQuote from DantehWhat whas like playing against fully powered Bitterblossom faeries?? I've heard nightmarish stories about some of the most frustrating games ever, but wanted to know first hand
When AV was legal, almost every single game started with a turn 1 Thoughtseize or AV, except in post-board situations when the Faeries player would turn 1 Peppersmoke or Deathmark on the draw against aggro. If none of these things happened, the Faeries player was probably an idiot who didn't understand how to mulligan.
On turn 2, a large amount of the time a Bitterblossom would come down. There were decent counters in the format, but most of the time it would resolve anyways because there wasn't a Spell Snare, and because Mana Tithe was ridiculously hard to cast for a blue deck (the tribal duals were freaking random colors, and the UW dual lands at the time were the painland and Nimbus Maze). So if Blossom was on the play, it always resolved, and if Blossom was on the draw against countermagic, the Thoughtseize probably took away the Rune Snag on turn 1 anyways, so Blossom probably resolved. But even if there was no Blossom on turn 2, there probably was an AV on turn 1 so the Faeries player could just sit back and draw 3 cards.
Then you factor in that the deck was made from tricks and 2-for-1s, so if the opponent wasn't a very knowledgeable and experienced pilot who has played with Faeries a lot himself, he probably was going to run into Spellstutters for countering or into Mistbind Clique traps (upkeep or in combat) or into Scion traps, not to mention all the things that can always go wrong against Cryptic Command. And if you ever played a removal spell on a Faerie while the opponent has 4 mana open, he could hide it under a Clique and 2-for-1 you that way, too. So, with all of these tricks, and then the fact that ~7/25 of the manabase were manlands, the learning curve for facing Faeries was astronomically sloped.
And then, on top of that, Cryptic Command and Mistbind Clique were both full-blown Time Walks. So if the Faeries player had a clock on board and wanted to race, he probably could win the race very easily--anybody can win a race when their opponent's car is broken down on the side of the road.
Think about what it's like to die to a Snapcaster Mage and a Pestermite clocking you for a few turns each, from Splinter Twin. That's Faeries, every single game where it doesn't have a Bitterblossom. When it does have a Bitterblossom, they don't even have to cast other spells in many scenarios because Blossom already does so much to the game state. Want an example of how that works? Look at Standard. Pack Rat owns a large chunk of that format (before Born of the Gods changes things), and Pack Rat makes you pay more mana for each token. Blossom just does it for free. And in that Standard, the best enchantment removal was literally Wispmare. I'm not kidding. That was it. Eventually, the next block rotated out AV and brought in Esper Charm and Volcanic Fallout, but that still wasn't enough, so they printed Great Sable Stag for one core set only to end the reign of terror--but then Faeries still was an amazing deck. Oh, you have a 3/3 guy I can't counter, remove with my blue/black spells, or block with my blue/black creatures? I'll just race it, tap it with Cryptic, block with 2 Mutavaults, block with a Mutavault and then save it with Mistbind Clique (by the way, you don't get to cast spells in your second main phase now), or cast these Lightning Bolts that I easily splashed red for.
And then, in addition to everything else, if Faeries is a deck you can kiss planeswalkers goodbye. They never stick around. I'm actually a big fan of this effect; I hate the Hell out of planeswalkers, but for anyone who enjoys playing with them--well, most of them are going to get the tar beaten out of them within a turn or two of landing, if they even resolve.
Blossom at least has answers now, but if you don't have that answer quickly the card gets way out of hand. Even if it just makes 3 guys, gets removed, and the 3 guys get removed by a sweeper, that's a 2-for-1 that took less mana than whatever you used to clean it up. Even if you 1-for-1 with Blossom and the tokens chump 3 times, it's still probably going to put the Faeries player in a very safe position.
You guys know about how Stoneforge and Jace TMS got banned in Standard? Well, when Faeries was around, they tried the "let's print a bunch of hosers and see if they work" method, and that's how they learned that method doesn't work. (That, and Jund...whoever invented Cascade should be taken out back and shot by General Dreedle.) Sure, Stoneforge/Jace Standard had the lowest tournament attendance, but the game had been declining for a while because of Faeries and then Jund.
Maybe Bitterblossom could be fair in Modern. Or, maybe it could just ruin the format. Either way, I have a theory that the only people who want it back are old Faeries players. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Serum Visons
3 Fatal Push
2 Go for the throat
1 Dismember
2 Mana leak
1 Logic knot
2 Spell Snare
4 Cryptic Command
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Mistbind Clique
24 Lands
The deck piloted exactly the same as I remember it. Games with BB on turn 2 play completely different from games where you don't have it. snare does a lot of work against affinity, storm, d&t, and to a lesser extent, coco. the removal suite is fine if you don't run into affinity, which i unfortunately did. i guess an alternative would be like victim of night or something, but i'm not a big fan of that.
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