Against burn you take out dismembers, mitagenic growths, gitaxian probes and twisted images.
You want to block (tarmogoyf is basically a 100 bucks wall that can pressure your opponent) and have access to dispel for defelectig palm (de Mars fails at this in his decklist. Burn matchups go longer when you deploy an esrly tarmogoyf and you want to have access to dispel, also dispel is great against other spells like blessed alliance that is rising in popularity).
I dont like spellskite in Infect. It's a slow reactive card. If you want to beat removal, play more infect creatures and play dispels.
FWIW, I had a clear win if I attacked with my two creatures on g2 of finals but miscounted my opponent's resources and chose not to swing thinking he could crew copter with Hissing Quagmire and block with Gearhulk while he was at 2 life, but he was a land short. I was heavily distracted, in my defense, due to my opponent literally ignoring the game to play with and hold his baby while his wife was standing around... I was pretty tilted that the judge was allowing this to happen while there was absolutely no need since his wife just showed up with the baby. I plan on reporting this occurrence to the DCI and SCG.
It's interesting to see how different your approach to the game is from my own. I would be quite happy if my opponent was distracting himself from the game. If he's taking too long in his turn you can simply ask "can I ask you to make a play?" but mostly I would take the time he's distracted to sharpen my own game plan. Sure, it's rude that he's not focussing on the game, but tilt is the #1 enemy of playing good magic. You want to be calm and collected, considering all your options and identifying the best line of play in every single instance.
You are absolutely correct in that tilt is bad and being calm is good. I am well aware of how to deal with tilt, and how damaging it is to gameplay; it is not something I really deal with- not even when I play my Modern Merfolk vs Affinity!
When I said "pretty tilted" I meant "slightly puzzled and put-off by blatant favortism", not "I got real mad-bad and flustered" as it typically means in this community. I can see how my description did not convey this, my bad! The judge was friends with this gentleman, so I should have expected some level of favoritism. I guess the expectation of clean oversight of the final round must have been out of line
I'll be cutting Gorger, he was sided too often and never felt too strong. I'll probably try Pia and/or Forerunner in the MB. I can see how the Haste on the Scroungers and Copters would help a lot.
Nevelo, when are you bringing in Chandra?
I cutted gorgers from my list, and stuck in 2 Pias and 2 Harness Lightning
Gorgers are pretty good when you want your deck to go the aggro way, but I think that in a world where Weaver Lightning is a sideboard staple, gorgers are pretty terrible.
In regards to Forerunner of slaughter, a friend of mine is running Borderland Marauders, to loose the Black mana constraint.
Pia's mostly relevant because she can crew multiple vehicles (say, 2 copters when you are at topdeck), and +1/+0 / creature can block is very versatile.
So far I think the biggest problem for our deck (both Aggro and Madness version) are more aggressive decks, namely R/G pummeler.
I've been suggested to run To the slaughter in the sideboard to deal against pummeler and also agains Marvel, since you get rid of the big dude right away.
About mulligans: if you cant deal with mulligans, go play chess. This is a card game and no matter what deck you play you'll have goldfish hands and unplayable hands. Deal with it, and enjoy your turn 2-3 kills as much as you hate your mulls to 4-5
I guess my only problem with TitI is that it cannot switch gears at the exact moment I want it to do it. Also, while it is not flipped nothing stops opponent to keep attacking through it.
You forgot mentioning Deflecing Palm. That is Burn's best card against
I side in
+2 spell pierce
+1 dispel (im playing 2 now so i get 2 in)
+4 kitchen finks (i side in tarmogoyf that is waaaaay better)
+2 or 3 natures claim (uncontested eidolon is
game)
+1 dryad arbor
-1 dismember
-2 apostle blessing (counters are better)
-1 corrupter
-4 gprobe
-1 mutagenic growth
-2 twisted image
About kolaghan's command: I know you can redirect both to spellskite, but a good player will almost always do "destroy artifact+discard" 2 damage to a dude es pointless unless you are low in life and dont have blue to redirect without payin phyrexian.
My sideboard against Jund is
-2 twisted image
-2 mutagenic growth
-1 fetchland
+2 spell pierce
+2 dismember (bob is a *****, you HAVE to save dismember for that or for an aggro tarmogoyf)
+1 dryad arbor.
During this modern season I switched from GW auras to Infect to start playing a more consistent deck. I chose infect because I like the idea of finishing games fast, although I ended up noticing that games 2 and 3 sometimes go very long.
Some things I noticed that are very important:
1) 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Dismember, 1 Distortion Strike are awesome. Sometimes depending on the metagame, 2 Distortion Strike are acceptable.
2) I moved out Viridian Corrupter at some tournaments only to notice that I missed it. I'll never take it out from MD.
3) Jund looked like an awful matchup at the beginning. After 3 or 4 tournaments I started switching my sideboard plan until I found myself winning every Jund matchup. The main mistake was oversideboarding. I fell into the trap of using spellskite. DONT. It is just another target for Kolaghan's Command and Ancient grudge.
4) Worst matchups so far are: Burn, Zoo variants (decks that play creatures from turn 1-3 actually) and Grixis control. Kitchen Finks is awful, I started playing tarmogoyfs against burn and zoo, and I am never disappointed of it. If it lands on turn 2 with 3 types of cards it stops anything. Then it applies to much pressure to ignore it. If you have access to tarmogoyfs, switch kitchen finks for them.
5) On the Burn Issue: Tarmgoyf is good, and counterspells are necessary. You can't beat deflecting palm without one. I am playing 3 Spell Pierce 2 Dispels in my 75, and sometimes I wish I had one more dispel (for burn and grixis).
6) this is a question: I haven't figured out the game plan for Bant Eldrazi. Any help would be appreciated.
Lately, I've been playing draconic roar mayself intead of fiery impulse and outnumber instead of wildslash.
No complains so far.
which dragons are you using to empower Draconic Roar, if any?
regarding Outnumber, i am quite skeptical about it. are you on the usual Atarka red plan or do you employ other token producers like Nissa, Voice of Zendikar?
I used to play dragons sideboard but i just wasn ot worth it. My deck's shell is tokens, and draconic roar is still great with zero dragons
Do you just drop bloom titan matchup?
I made the mistake of running spellskite to combat that matchup, and even though I got 1 game at round 9 of GP Porto Alegre, I wasn't able to beat him (and was a terrible player, I noticed I was dead at least 5 or 6 times during the match... against a decent player spellskite would've been awful).
I think we could use some help with a sideboard guide now that creeping chill is a staple.
Does anyone with results, like @Polymorph who eould share his sideboard guide?
Thanks!
Side out G probes, blossoming defense and distortion strikes.
Against desth shadow, say your prayers and sideboard like you do against zoo and burn. Blockers and counterspells, and it wont be enough
You want them to stop attacking, and spellskite doesnt do that.
Aggro/burn is too damn hard, and the tarmo-counterspell plan has been the most effective to me.
You want to block (tarmogoyf is basically a 100 bucks wall that can pressure your opponent) and have access to dispel for defelectig palm (de Mars fails at this in his decklist. Burn matchups go longer when you deploy an esrly tarmogoyf and you want to have access to dispel, also dispel is great against other spells like blessed alliance that is rising in popularity).
I dont like spellskite in Infect. It's a slow reactive card. If you want to beat removal, play more infect creatures and play dispels.
I cutted gorgers from my list, and stuck in 2 Pias and 2 Harness Lightning
Gorgers are pretty good when you want your deck to go the aggro way, but I think that in a world where Weaver Lightning is a sideboard staple, gorgers are pretty terrible.
In regards to Forerunner of slaughter, a friend of mine is running Borderland Marauders, to loose the Black mana constraint.
Pia's mostly relevant because she can crew multiple vehicles (say, 2 copters when you are at topdeck), and +1/+0 / creature can block is very versatile.
So far I think the biggest problem for our deck (both Aggro and Madness version) are more aggressive decks, namely R/G pummeler.
I've been suggested to run To the slaughter in the sideboard to deal against pummeler and also agains Marvel, since you get rid of the big dude right away.
Took out Falkenrsth Gorgers (they are awful), and replaced them with 2 Pias and 2 Harnessed lightning.
So far my problems are faster agro decks (pummeler) and UG/Temur aetherwprks marvel.
I cant find a card that is good for any of those decks. Transgress the mind sort of works against marvel, but it's a long shot.
Any comments?
I side in
+2 spell pierce
+1 dispel (im playing 2 now so i get 2 in)
+4 kitchen finks (i side in tarmogoyf that is waaaaay better)
+2 or 3 natures claim (uncontested eidolon is
game)
+1 dryad arbor
-1 dismember
-2 apostle blessing (counters are better)
-1 corrupter
-4 gprobe
-1 mutagenic growth
-2 twisted image
About kolaghan's command: I know you can redirect both to spellskite, but a good player will almost always do "destroy artifact+discard" 2 damage to a dude es pointless unless you are low in life and dont have blue to redirect without payin phyrexian.
My sideboard against Jund is
-2 twisted image
-2 mutagenic growth
-1 fetchland
+2 spell pierce
+2 dismember (bob is a *****, you HAVE to save dismember for that or for an aggro tarmogoyf)
+1 dryad arbor.
Some things I noticed that are very important:
1) 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Dismember, 1 Distortion Strike are awesome. Sometimes depending on the metagame, 2 Distortion Strike are acceptable.
2) I moved out Viridian Corrupter at some tournaments only to notice that I missed it. I'll never take it out from MD.
3) Jund looked like an awful matchup at the beginning. After 3 or 4 tournaments I started switching my sideboard plan until I found myself winning every Jund matchup. The main mistake was oversideboarding. I fell into the trap of using spellskite. DONT. It is just another target for Kolaghan's Command and Ancient grudge.
4) Worst matchups so far are: Burn, Zoo variants (decks that play creatures from turn 1-3 actually) and Grixis control. Kitchen Finks is awful, I started playing tarmogoyfs against burn and zoo, and I am never disappointed of it. If it lands on turn 2 with 3 types of cards it stops anything. Then it applies to much pressure to ignore it. If you have access to tarmogoyfs, switch kitchen finks for them.
5) On the Burn Issue: Tarmgoyf is good, and counterspells are necessary. You can't beat deflecting palm without one. I am playing 3 Spell Pierce 2 Dispels in my 75, and sometimes I wish I had one more dispel (for burn and grixis).
6) this is a question: I haven't figured out the game plan for Bant Eldrazi. Any help would be appreciated.
I used to play dragons sideboard but i just wasn ot worth it. My deck's shell is tokens, and draconic roar is still great with zero dragons
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/377595#online
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/rptq-top-8-decklists/shadows-over-innistrad-rptq-decklists-tokyo-2016-02-21
No complains so far.
Do you just drop bloom titan matchup?
I made the mistake of running spellskite to combat that matchup, and even though I got 1 game at round 9 of GP Porto Alegre, I wasn't able to beat him (and was a terrible player, I noticed I was dead at least 5 or 6 times during the match... against a decent player spellskite would've been awful).