However, the card does absolutely nothing against Living End. So that means you'd need additional GY hate against living end, and then you'd have too much GY hate in your SB. If you run Cage as your only GY hate, then you'd have a hard time with Living End. What's the solution?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
However, the card does absolutely nothing against Living End. So that means you'd need additional GY hate against living end, and then you'd have too much GY hate in your SB. If you run Cage as your only GY hate, then you'd have a hard time with Living End. What's the solution?
I don't see that as problem. While cage is good, I normal would rather run other graveyard hosers. I like cage against collected company, but if you have a lot graveyard based decks in your meta. I feel there are better cards mainly since Grafdigger's Cage does not exile the graveyard. While it's a bit more multi-purpose, but nothing beats just exiling the problem cards. Grafdigger's is vulnerable also to any artifact hate so I like enchantments more. Beast within can deal with a lot of hate cards so they may still sidestep your board cards.
Grafdigger's Cage is an incredible card against Melira Company without the Devoted Vizier combo (see the OP for all the Company cards it hoses), but it fails to stop the Devoted Vizier combo. If you depend on it as your only Company hate, you're similarly sorta screwed as when you expect the Cage to stop all graveyard decks. (Cage also conveniently forgets to hose Eggs/Ironworks Combo.)
With that being said, if you need not-just-graveyard hate that conveniently forgets to hose your deck (e.g. you're on Eggs/Ironworks Combo and think you can race the Devoted Vizier combo), Cage is your graveyard hate card.
If you expect a significant amount of Living End and you need graveyard hate, but you're still in trouble with Company decks/Nahiri/flashback/etc., try splitting your graveyard hate cards (e.g. a 2-1-1 split between Relic of Progenitus, Cage, and Rakdos Charm).
Short answer: if you're really worried about Living End, then don't play Cage.
Longer answer: With the exception of a few combo decks, the majority of Modern strategies play sideboards full of silver bullets with overlapping utility in multiple matchups. This is basically the model Lectrys is describing above with the suggestion of a 2-1-1 split on Relic, Cage, and Charm. Under that model, you would pick the graveyard hate cards that help in your most matchups (and/or help in the most important or most unfavorable matchups) and run more of those. Or you can punt the unfavorable matchups and shore up better ones. Whatever your approach, you would follow that to fill in the rest of your SB.
In making those adjustments, you want to consider what other cards help you in certain matchups. For instance, let's say you are playing a deck with lots of removal in the maindeck already. You're probably close to 50/50 against Abzan Company strategies, so graveyard hate that hits Abzan Company is less valuable. Dredge is probably tougher because spot removal is less effective here, so that's more of a 45/55 or 40/60 matchup. Now we're leaning more towards anti-Dredge GY hate than anti-Abzan Company hate. Finally, you know Living End is your worst matchup at 35/75 or whatever it is (I don't believe it would be that low, but this just illustrates a point). Based on that, you might want to focus on Living End more than other decks and ditch Cage entirely and prioritize Relics.
To really complicate things, you can also weigh the rough metagame shares of these decks to see which matchups you should prioritize. Maybe LE is a terrible matchup, but it's only 2% of the overall metagame. Now Cage is looking better. Then again, maybe there's this one guy at your store that always plays LE, and you're basically guaranteed to face him every week. Now Cage looks a lot worse and it's back to Relic. Making all those adjustments, you would figure out your ideal GY-hate split.
Of course, you don't need to attack the GY to beat any of those decks. Maybe you can counter LE itself, or sweep the board of creatures, or protect yourself from the worst ones. See Michael Bernat's Jeskai Control from GP Vegas for an example of a deck that totally ditches GY hate for other answers that solve the same problems: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/677700#paper
Of course, you don't need to attack the GY to beat any of those decks. Maybe you can counter LE itself, or sweep the board of creatures, or protect yourself from the worst ones. See Michael Bernat's Jeskai Control from GP Vegas for an example of a deck that totally ditches GY hate for other answers that solve the same problems: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/677700#paper
Not seeing what you mean when you say his list solves the same problems without hate. How does that list beat Dredge? (It doesn't), Living End is also problematic because they can destroy your lands to take you off the counter for living end at the end of turn, fire off a cascade card, and then mainphase another.
It seems to me this list is forgoing the match-up to focus on other strategies, NOT answering the problem with different cards.
Of course, you don't need to attack the GY to beat any of those decks. Maybe you can counter LE itself, or sweep the board of creatures, or protect yourself from the worst ones. See Michael Bernat's Jeskai Control from GP Vegas for an example of a deck that totally ditches GY hate for other answers that solve the same problems: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/677700#paper
Not seeing what you mean when you say his list solves the same problems without hate. How does that list beat Dredge? (It doesn't), Living End is also problematic because they can destroy your lands to take you off the counter for living end at the end of turn, fire off a cascade card, and then mainphase another.
It seems to me this list is forgoing the match-up to focus on other strategies, NOT answering the problem with different cards.
I've heard that UWR Control has a bad time with Dredge because its clock is molasses slow (to the point that Dredge hard-casting Prized Amalgam is a viable strategy), but the match-up was even worse back when Golgari Grave-Troll wasn't banned.
With that being said, that list's Izzet Staticaster is a real money card against Dredge because it continuously takes down hordes of Narcomoebas and Bloodghasts, and Runed Halo naming Prized Amalgam/Conflagrate can definitely fill in the rest of the cracks. More spot removal such as Celestial Purge never hurts (though those are significantly lower-impact). Engineered Explosives can relieve a lot of pressure for a single turn, which might buy enough time for Dredge to deck itself (I've decked myself a few times already between all post-Prized Amalgam Modern Dredge builds, even after I purposefully don't Dredge for the last few turns).
I suspect that list does better against Living End because its post-board counterspells (well, mainly Negate and sorta Vendilion Clique) are good at stopping Living End's explosiveness (and they're also cheap), then it has an easier time handling Living End's one-fatty-a-turn late-game-when-hosed.
These strategies do bank on that list's 12 burn spells, though. Those can provide a surprisingly fast clock when they're not used as removal...
Of course, you don't need to attack the GY to beat any of those decks. Maybe you can counter LE itself, or sweep the board of creatures, or protect yourself from the worst ones. See Michael Bernat's Jeskai Control from GP Vegas for an example of a deck that totally ditches GY hate for other answers that solve the same problems: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/677700#paper
Not seeing what you mean when you say his list solves the same problems without hate. How does that list beat Dredge? (It doesn't), Living End is also problematic because they can destroy your lands to take you off the counter for living end at the end of turn, fire off a cascade card, and then mainphase another.
It seems to me this list is forgoing the match-up to focus on other strategies, NOT answering the problem with different cards.
I've heard that UWR Control has a bad time with Dredge because its clock is molasses slow (to the point that Dredge hard-casting Prized Amalgam is a viable strategy), but the match-up was even worse back when Golgari Grave-Troll wasn't banned.
With that being said, that list's Izzet Staticaster is a real money card against Dredge because it continuously takes down hordes of Narcomoebas and Bloodghasts, and Runed Halo naming Prized Amalgam/Conflagrate can definitely fill in the rest of the cracks. More spot removal such as Celestial Purge never hurts (though those are significantly lower-impact). Engineered Explosives can relieve a lot of pressure for a single turn, which might buy enough time for Dredge to deck itself (I've decked myself a few times already between all post-Prized Amalgam Modern Dredge builds, even after I purposefully don't Dredge for the last few turns).
I suspect that list does better against Living End because its post-board counterspells (well, mainly Negate and sorta Vendilion Clique) are good at stopping Living End's explosiveness (and they're also cheap), then it has an easier time handling Living End's one-fatty-a-turn late-game-when-hosed.
These strategies do bank on that list's 12 burn spells, though. Those can provide a surprisingly fast clock when they're not used as removal...
All the cards you named save (runed halo and Purge) are found in almost every Jeskai list. Those aren't unique to this list. staticaster can be good but it's three mana, often you are taking a lot of damage already at that point. Runed Halo is also just generally a weak sideboard card.
Perhaps, but the pilot's goal is unlikely to be improving the Dredge matchup. He's probably fine where it is now with his removal, Halos, Staticaster, and Purge. He also probably doesn't want to narrow his SB cards to stuff like Sphere that won't be as helpful elsewhere. That's the point of smart Modern sideboarding: not just jamming a bunch of copies of one card to help one matchup.
However, the card does absolutely nothing against Living End. So that means you'd need additional GY hate against living end, and then you'd have too much GY hate in your SB. If you run Cage as your only GY hate, then you'd have a hard time with Living End. What's the solution?
However, the card does absolutely nothing against Living End. So that means you'd need additional GY hate against living end, and then you'd have too much GY hate in your SB. If you run Cage as your only GY hate, then you'd have a hard time with Living End. What's the solution?
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
I don't see that as problem. While cage is good, I normal would rather run other graveyard hosers. I like cage against collected company, but if you have a lot graveyard based decks in your meta. I feel there are better cards mainly since Grafdigger's Cage does not exile the graveyard. While it's a bit more multi-purpose, but nothing beats just exiling the problem cards. Grafdigger's is vulnerable also to any artifact hate so I like enchantments more. Beast within can deal with a lot of hate cards so they may still sidestep your board cards.
Also cards like these cards slow the deck down.
I loathe creatures! Praise Prison and Land Destruction!
My Peasant Cube (looking for feedback)
With that being said, if you need not-just-graveyard hate that conveniently forgets to hose your deck (e.g. you're on Eggs/Ironworks Combo and think you can race the Devoted Vizier combo), Cage is your graveyard hate card.
If you expect a significant amount of Living End and you need graveyard hate, but you're still in trouble with Company decks/Nahiri/flashback/etc., try splitting your graveyard hate cards (e.g. a 2-1-1 split between Relic of Progenitus, Cage, and Rakdos Charm).
Longer answer: With the exception of a few combo decks, the majority of Modern strategies play sideboards full of silver bullets with overlapping utility in multiple matchups. This is basically the model Lectrys is describing above with the suggestion of a 2-1-1 split on Relic, Cage, and Charm. Under that model, you would pick the graveyard hate cards that help in your most matchups (and/or help in the most important or most unfavorable matchups) and run more of those. Or you can punt the unfavorable matchups and shore up better ones. Whatever your approach, you would follow that to fill in the rest of your SB.
In making those adjustments, you want to consider what other cards help you in certain matchups. For instance, let's say you are playing a deck with lots of removal in the maindeck already. You're probably close to 50/50 against Abzan Company strategies, so graveyard hate that hits Abzan Company is less valuable. Dredge is probably tougher because spot removal is less effective here, so that's more of a 45/55 or 40/60 matchup. Now we're leaning more towards anti-Dredge GY hate than anti-Abzan Company hate. Finally, you know Living End is your worst matchup at 35/75 or whatever it is (I don't believe it would be that low, but this just illustrates a point). Based on that, you might want to focus on Living End more than other decks and ditch Cage entirely and prioritize Relics.
To really complicate things, you can also weigh the rough metagame shares of these decks to see which matchups you should prioritize. Maybe LE is a terrible matchup, but it's only 2% of the overall metagame. Now Cage is looking better. Then again, maybe there's this one guy at your store that always plays LE, and you're basically guaranteed to face him every week. Now Cage looks a lot worse and it's back to Relic. Making all those adjustments, you would figure out your ideal GY-hate split.
Of course, you don't need to attack the GY to beat any of those decks. Maybe you can counter LE itself, or sweep the board of creatures, or protect yourself from the worst ones. See Michael Bernat's Jeskai Control from GP Vegas for an example of a deck that totally ditches GY hate for other answers that solve the same problems: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/677700#paper
Not seeing what you mean when you say his list solves the same problems without hate. How does that list beat Dredge? (It doesn't), Living End is also problematic because they can destroy your lands to take you off the counter for living end at the end of turn, fire off a cascade card, and then mainphase another.
It seems to me this list is forgoing the match-up to focus on other strategies, NOT answering the problem with different cards.
I've heard that UWR Control has a bad time with Dredge because its clock is molasses slow (to the point that Dredge hard-casting Prized Amalgam is a viable strategy), but the match-up was even worse back when Golgari Grave-Troll wasn't banned.
With that being said, that list's Izzet Staticaster is a real money card against Dredge because it continuously takes down hordes of Narcomoebas and Bloodghasts, and Runed Halo naming Prized Amalgam/Conflagrate can definitely fill in the rest of the cracks. More spot removal such as Celestial Purge never hurts (though those are significantly lower-impact). Engineered Explosives can relieve a lot of pressure for a single turn, which might buy enough time for Dredge to deck itself (I've decked myself a few times already between all post-Prized Amalgam Modern Dredge builds, even after I purposefully don't Dredge for the last few turns).
I suspect that list does better against Living End because its post-board counterspells (well, mainly Negate and sorta Vendilion Clique) are good at stopping Living End's explosiveness (and they're also cheap), then it has an easier time handling Living End's one-fatty-a-turn late-game-when-hosed.
These strategies do bank on that list's 12 burn spells, though. Those can provide a surprisingly fast clock when they're not used as removal...
All the cards you named save (runed halo and Purge) are found in almost every Jeskai list. Those aren't unique to this list. staticaster can be good but it's three mana, often you are taking a lot of damage already at that point. Runed Halo is also just generally a weak sideboard card.
the Dredge match-up imho.
Declaration in Stone wouldn't be too bad as well (and works with Snapcaster).
Perhaps, but the pilot's goal is unlikely to be improving the Dredge matchup. He's probably fine where it is now with his removal, Halos, Staticaster, and Purge. He also probably doesn't want to narrow his SB cards to stuff like Sphere that won't be as helpful elsewhere. That's the point of smart Modern sideboarding: not just jamming a bunch of copies of one card to help one matchup.
Leyline of the Void