Distended Mindbender.
Saw this in two sideboard this week-end.
In guess this usefull against Tron. But isn t this to slow.
I've had this for a while. It's great against tron, Ad Nauseam and control. I've also seen people play tidehollow scullers in side, not sure which is best. Mindbender has instantly won me many games when I've cast it though.
jsonstutz: That coco player made me cringe:P First not realizing Ad Nauseam can beat infinite life, then chording for spellskite? I guess he's unfamiliar with the matchup, not knowing that running a slaughter pact is common.
People often assume spellskite will do something when it usually doesn't..
Seems like lists have lately been opting to drop Redcap. Lets be honest, it's mostly in there to give the deck a way to finish off opponents who don't concede to infinite life. It might have something to do with the fact that there are not as many infinite damage combo matchups in the meta now that Twin was banned. Twin was one of the few decks that could beat the first half of our deck, and Cryptic gave it a way to stall attack steps, so it made it more imperative to be able to finish the following turn with direct damage. Now, however, I cannot think of a deck in the meta that goes infinite on damage, so the first half is generally enough.
I go back and forth on the redcap as well.. The matchups where you "need" it (doesn't scoop to infinite life), are Tron, Mill, Esper control, Ad Nauseam, Anything with Emrakul, Infect, Affinity, Lantern, Mirror.
Those are the matchups that can win through infinite life. I might have forgot a couple, especially fringe decks.
Of those, it's at its best against lantern, tron and the mirror imo. The other decks can be beat by scrying to infinite bolsters, and melira is naturally good against infect anyway. Infinite scries will win against lantern in almost all situations.
Against decks with emrakul, or white sun's Zenith (esper), they sometimes just boardwipe you after infinite life and win while you run out of cards.
This post is not really a for or against a redcap, both with or without is viable imo, depends what you think you will meet. It's good to know where you'd want it though.
Aegis actually works, since triggers need to have a target to be put on the stack, and with Aegis out, you are not a valid target.
However, that means they will kill all your creatures, maybe including the Aegis, so you're left with nothing and they can probably just as well win next turn..
You can chord for it when they chose their targets and buy yourself a turn though..
I think Eternal Witness is far better than both. It's necessary to make Collected Company truly great in the deck, as there aren't a high number of impactful hits. The logic os you get a reroll when Company hits Eternal Witness + blank. Neither Tracker or Rallier can have the same effect. I always felt that for game1 the deck is combo first and grind second, and Eternal Witness help with the combo part by making Company better when trying to race another deck (by helping see more cards and find combo pieces). The deck doesn't need the ramp (main upside of Rallier) or has enough disruption to make a long game with Tracker a great option against an open field, at least not in game 1.
For me, running less than 3 Eternal Witness in the main is a big deck constructionmistake, and running any copies of Rallier or Tracker in the maindeck can only be justified as metagame calls or trying to open up sideboard slots. Those two cards don't help with your main game plan for game 1.
Modern is fast. In any but the most grindy matchups I simply never have time to eternal witness anything back, so i have to board them out. Rallier also gives you free mana along with a card.
Does anyone know how this deck is supposed to win against a resolved Blood Moon? There are Skred Red decks that are played regularly at my local's, and one of them in particular is a weird homebrew that can accelerate into T2 Blood Moon and T3 Mwonvuli Acid Moss to get rid of any non-mountain basic lands in play. It is probably my worst matchup with this deck and Cryptic Command's are too slow to deal with them.
I find playing grixis in modern without at least 3 mana leaks very difficult. So I suggest that.
It's not the best card, but it is necessary to not die to random stuff.
Guys, I really like Rallier and I think its a great modern looking card, but dont you think its somehow weird to each time u fire off CoCo, sac a creature and then pray to see Rallier in first 6 cards? I mean, if you hit Rallier, then you will get huge value, but if you dont, you just ruin yourself.. I personaly dont like the way how it looks this line of play.
That's not something you should do. Instead play a couple more fetches and try to time your fetchlands to when you are casting coco.
I have a question on the revolt ability. For example, I have a Visera Seer in play then I cast Collected Company resolving a Renegade Rallier in play. Can I sacrifice a creature using the Seer in response to the revolt trigger to bring back a permanent from my graveyard?
I had the following come up in testing yesterday, not sure if I handled it correctly:
Board = Seer + BoP + Saffi, 3 lands + 1 Fetch. Yard is empty of creatures with cmc2 or less.
End of their turn, fetch, cast CoCo, find Rallier + Voice. Put those on the board, trigger Rallier. In response on the trigger sac Saffi targeting the Rallier, scry 1. Return Saffi with the Rallier trigger, sac immediately to protect VoR, scry 1. Sac Voice, scry 1, get token (1), return VoR due to Saffi replacement. Sac Saffi to protect VoR, scry 1. Sacrifice Rallier, scry 1. Return Rallier to the board with Saffi protection, trigger Rallier , return Saffi to the board. Sacrifice VoR, scry 1, get token (2), return VoR with protection. Sac Saffi, scry 1, protect VoR. Sac VoR, scry 1, get token (3). Return VoR, sac again, scry 1, get token (4) and proceed to take the turn.
Not sure if this is all according to the rules and I've been deliberating it but there is no way to get more out of this right? As if 4 VoR tokens + a 3/2 is not enough value for 4 mana and 1 card
You can't do this, it was an illegal play.
You have to Target something with renegade rallier right away when it hits the battlefield to even put the trigger on the stack.
You can't respond to the ability with sacrifice and then return the saffi.
For all the people using tireless tracker how do you feel about two congregation at dawn MB?
I was thinking EoT put missing pieces of the combo on top,draw on draw step for one,sac clue,draw,play both.
Congregation at dawn is card disadvantage. Not sure why you'd compare it to tireless tracker, which comes in for grindy matchups where the card advantage is the important part. You're not comboing against control anyway.
Just a note, I've played this deck during dredge season, with a lot of local players here on dredge, and much graveyard hate.
However, my plan game 2/3 is often to move away from combo and graveyard synergies, taking out either chords or coco's and combo pieces go more value/hate.
I mean, grafdiggers cage is still a good card against us, but often I have the option of destroying it and chose not to, because I'm less reliant on the graveyard anyway, and just beat down.
Also, I find maelstrom pulse to be an amazing card and I bring it in almost every game 2/3, as it can answer any hate card, and is never dead.
I have no experience with the deck. But feeder is very bad on his own, spending 3 mana on him is a huge investement for a 2/2 chump blocker with lifegain. The angel does not seem all that impressive. Expensive and slow, you need to have some lifegain on the table the turn you play her. Or get some payoff 2 turns later. That sounds very slow for a format like modern.
Saying you have no experience with the deck and then proceding to tell that spike feeder is bad without having tried it.
Spike feeder is a much better creature than you think. You can move counters around, reset finks, make your finks big enough to trade with colonades in combat, small uses that messes with your opponent, as well as being a combo creature, and good against aggressive decks.
There is value in having a combo that doesn't use the graveyard, only uses 2 cards and attacks on a different axis than the normal combo. Archangel is also a replacement for melira/anafenza in the normal combo. She is also a must answer asap threat.
I mean, there is an argument for dropping the combo, and if graveyard hate gets played less it might be ok, but for now imo it's great.
Another spoiler of interest -- Hope of Ghirapur. I'm not really convinced by it, but I can think of worse things to be boarding in against Scapeshift / Tron, and it's noteworthy that we can recur it with Witness (or Renegade Railer).
Actually, I had two questions pressing my mind when building the this particular deck. The first is about Arena. I've noticed that not a lot of decks in green devotion run it, but it seems like a premium piece of removal tech for the other side since going big often means that everything being run will outgun their side of the board, so why isn't it showing up more often? The other question I have is if Summoning Trap is worth considering for the deck as at least a sideboard against control. I was looking at big hexproof and it seems like you have to give up trample going that route.
Arena needs a creature, which you might not have. It's also mana intensive and it doesn't tap for mana intself.. Many reasons to not include it.
Hey, company player in a small meta. I've been getting hammered recently by bant eldrazi and his sideboard is just better than mine (cages and RIP).
Advice on fixing this matchup? I'm mostly a standard list (no angelfeeder), except I'm short the Noble Heirarchs because they're prohibitively expensive
Game 1 we have the advantage, just combo out asap, they don't run that much removal.
Game 2/3 gets harder, but this is my plan:
Board in hard removal, like path and maelstrom pulse. Pulse is great here as it can both remove their hate and their threats. Thrun can also do work, as he can block well and give you time.
I would take out spellskite (doesn't match up well and can't block), scavenging ooze, redcap, and a few chord/collected.
The chord and collected companies are good, but you don't want to get stuck with too many if they have hate, this is something I often do. It's not that they are bad, they are great cards, but if you get stuck with 3 chord/company in hand against a grafdiggers cage it's disaster.
In almost every matchup I expect heavy hate, I take out some of them. I prefer to have coco against control. Against eldrazi I think I'd prefer coco. You're not looking to tutor out a specific hate piece, you just want to flood the board.
If you're bringing out a lot of creatures and bringing in a lot of non creature spells, you might want to remove a couple of coco's because your hit rate will be too inconsistent.
I played like 20 matches vs Bant eldrazi and won all. I think its one of the easiest Matchup we can get (I even beat the double Eldrazi Temple double TKS Hands).
I agree that its easy to win game 1 if you keep a reasonable hand your combo is way faster than their clock.
Game 2&3 I would NEVER board out Spellskite! Its one of the best cards in this Matchup - the game goes long (both sides have removal) and their only way to grind as much as we do is Displacer drowner or TNS or our blocker.
Bant Eldrazi cant beat the combo nor can they beat township. NEVER cut the companys in this MU (cut 3-4 Chords). Bring in Reclamation Sage, Pridemage, Path to Exile, Voice of Resurgence and 1-2 Decay. Board out some Combo pieces (1-2 Seer, 1-2 Melira, 3 Noble hierarchs, Redcap) I would recomend to keep in Ooze and pontiff.
I want at least 3 answers Maindeck to RiP or Cage (and go up in game 3 if i see alot of it).
I prefer maelstrom pulse to decay these days. I just think decay is a bit awkward and pulse is like a swiss army knife that will come in in so many matchups. Everything from Kalitas to Nahiri, to TKS to leylines or tokens/lingering souls it will deal with.
If your hand is full of abrubt decay and they don't happen to have a lot of hate, but instead play TKS into smasher, you will look silly.
I can agree abit about the spellskite, it's a great way to fight Displacer. The problem is that spellskite matches up poorly against their fast starts and doesn't block anything relevant against their faster starts either. Both TKS and smasher just ignores it and smashes in.
Ooze is not great in the matchup as most removal from both side is exiled based, and it can often just be a liable bear.
I agree it's a good matchup, my eldrazi playing friend hate playing against melira coco.
I've had this for a while. It's great against tron, Ad Nauseam and control. I've also seen people play tidehollow scullers in side, not sure which is best. Mindbender has instantly won me many games when I've cast it though.
People often assume spellskite will do something when it usually doesn't..
I used to play Ad Nauseam, now I play coco:)
I go back and forth on the redcap as well.. The matchups where you "need" it (doesn't scoop to infinite life), are Tron, Mill, Esper control, Ad Nauseam, Anything with Emrakul, Infect, Affinity, Lantern, Mirror.
Those are the matchups that can win through infinite life. I might have forgot a couple, especially fringe decks.
Of those, it's at its best against lantern, tron and the mirror imo. The other decks can be beat by scrying to infinite bolsters, and melira is naturally good against infect anyway. Infinite scries will win against lantern in almost all situations.
Against decks with emrakul, or white sun's Zenith (esper), they sometimes just boardwipe you after infinite life and win while you run out of cards.
This post is not really a for or against a redcap, both with or without is viable imo, depends what you think you will meet. It's good to know where you'd want it though.
However, that means they will kill all your creatures, maybe including the Aegis, so you're left with nothing and they can probably just as well win next turn..
You can chord for it when they chose their targets and buy yourself a turn though..
Modern is fast. In any but the most grindy matchups I simply never have time to eternal witness anything back, so i have to board them out. Rallier also gives you free mana along with a card.
I find playing grixis in modern without at least 3 mana leaks very difficult. So I suggest that.
It's not the best card, but it is necessary to not die to random stuff.
That's not something you should do. Instead play a couple more fetches and try to time your fetchlands to when you are casting coco.
You can't do this, it was an illegal play.
You have to Target something with renegade rallier right away when it hits the battlefield to even put the trigger on the stack.
You can't respond to the ability with sacrifice and then return the saffi.
Congregation at dawn is card disadvantage. Not sure why you'd compare it to tireless tracker, which comes in for grindy matchups where the card advantage is the important part. You're not comboing against control anyway.
However, my plan game 2/3 is often to move away from combo and graveyard synergies, taking out either chords or coco's and combo pieces go more value/hate.
I mean, grafdiggers cage is still a good card against us, but often I have the option of destroying it and chose not to, because I'm less reliant on the graveyard anyway, and just beat down.
Also, I find maelstrom pulse to be an amazing card and I bring it in almost every game 2/3, as it can answer any hate card, and is never dead.
Saying you have no experience with the deck and then proceding to tell that spike feeder is bad without having tried it.
Spike feeder is a much better creature than you think. You can move counters around, reset finks, make your finks big enough to trade with colonades in combat, small uses that messes with your opponent, as well as being a combo creature, and good against aggressive decks.
There is value in having a combo that doesn't use the graveyard, only uses 2 cards and attacks on a different axis than the normal combo. Archangel is also a replacement for melira/anafenza in the normal combo. She is also a must answer asap threat.
I mean, there is an argument for dropping the combo, and if graveyard hate gets played less it might be ok, but for now imo it's great.
This is not a card for abzan company.
Arena needs a creature, which you might not have. It's also mana intensive and it doesn't tap for mana intself.. Many reasons to not include it.
I prefer maelstrom pulse to decay these days. I just think decay is a bit awkward and pulse is like a swiss army knife that will come in in so many matchups. Everything from Kalitas to Nahiri, to TKS to leylines or tokens/lingering souls it will deal with.
If your hand is full of abrubt decay and they don't happen to have a lot of hate, but instead play TKS into smasher, you will look silly.
I can agree abit about the spellskite, it's a great way to fight Displacer. The problem is that spellskite matches up poorly against their fast starts and doesn't block anything relevant against their faster starts either. Both TKS and smasher just ignores it and smashes in.
Ooze is not great in the matchup as most removal from both side is exiled based, and it can often just be a liable bear.
I agree it's a good matchup, my eldrazi playing friend hate playing against melira coco.