Aye, trying to fix the truly horrible MU's is just not worth it, especially in the main. We can get quite a lot of hate from the SB, and our ability to recur stuff with Witness is pretty powerful. Even then, stuff like Titanshift will mostly stay bad, we're just buying ourselves a tiny fighting chance, which feels like crap but is a thing we gotta accept.
...unless they start being everywhere, then it's mainboard Fulminators, Mindcensors and tons of Surgicals and Memoricides
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I've tested a Tracker in Naya Evolution/Chord before and wasn't overly impressed. Doesn't help stabilize the board when playing against aggressive decks and against anything with lots of removal, it's just going to cycle, which may not be worth it. I prefer the pure Finks route, but I could see a Courser being a little better than Tracker. It does something somewhat similar, has a larger butt, and can help stabilize with life gain. That's my experience anyway.
Aye, trying to fix the truly horrible MU's is just not worth it, especially in the main. We can get quite a lot of hate from the SB, and our ability to recur stuff with Witness is pretty powerful. Even then, stuff like Titanshift will mostly stay bad, we're just buying ourselves a tiny fighting chance, which feels like crap but is a thing we gotta accept.
...unless they start being everywhere, then it's mainboard Fulminators, Mindcensors and tons of Surgicals and Memoricides
What's your opinion on Hoogland's Black splash for Collective Brutality and Orzhov Pontiff in Kiki Chord? Do you think he's just weakening his mana base for cards that just aren't worth it? I don't see how only 2 Brutality give you back many percentage points versus non-creature combo, but then again I'm not Hoogland.
I think Courser is less reliable than Finks and less aggressive, which I like with Tracker. She can be a fast clock against non-interactive combo while providing value in grindy games as well. I'mma report back once I've gave her a shot.
Regarding Hooglands list... we gotta remember that already cut Evolutions and added 3 Bolts in addition to 4 Path before adding 2 Brutality. He's going for a more interactive list, and from what I've seen from the list it seems to play fairly well. He's running 2 Witness, 3 Resto, 1 Kiki and 1 Reveillark, all of which can potentially rebuy him interaction while also building up to a combo kill. Kiki is very good at those value plays, so it seems fine to me.
A big thing to remember about Brutality is that it's pretty much never a dead card. It has uses in pretty much every matchup, which makes it's inclusion so much easier than Inquisition or Thoughtseize in the main. Pontiff provides an effect that's very strong and very much needed against wide strategies, and since Kiki Chord can run Slaughter Games (and now Brutality), the black splash just seems stronger than blue for Staticaster.
All that said, the spell/land based decks still seem like bad matchups pre-board.
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Alrighty, went 4-0-1 yesterday Beat Mono U Turns (2-0, couldn't beat Teeg), RG Tron (2-1), Naya Burn (2-0), Lantern Control (2-0) and drew with UWR Control in the finals (wafo tapa style, loads of card draw and Verdicts).
List was the same as 4 posts back, but -1 Horizon Canopy, -1 Kitchen Finks, +1 Noble Hierarch, +1 Tireless Tracker.
The 22 lands played surprisingly smoothly, Tracker was drawn only once - against Burn, where Finks would've been better, but in the end it didn't matter. Gonna test her further.
Gaddock Teeg also felt pretty good. Being able to lock out the occasional unexpected combo deck and slowing down control decks heavy on Supreme Verdict or Cryptic Command is nice. First time so fa he felt actively bad was against Lantern, where I absolutely needed to be able to draw and cast Chord of Calling (the Lantern guy also extracted all my Evolutions, so I couldn't kill Teeg myself later), apart from that he never was a problem.
Pretty happy with this current iteration of the deck. Except for Tracker and the Brutality in the board all cards feel like they have a purpose in the deck, the 22 lands + 7 dorks feel very consistent, Wall of Roots doing a lot of work to make the Chords better... also beating Tron and spell combo always feels nice
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Getting ready to play at MKM Series Prague this weekend, testing some last minute ideas and changes.
Switched back to 23 Lands/4 Birds of Paradise/2 Noble Hierarch after having some very frustrating test runs where I was mainly drawing 1-landers. Variance most likely, but I still feel safer with 23 lands, especially with the additional land being another Horizon Canopy. Dual Hierarch seems necessary to cast Eldritch Evolution T2 if needed. Also swapped the Razorverge Thicket for a Blooming Marsh due to sideboard changes.
I cut the Tireless Tracker and got the 3rd Kitchen Finks back into the main, due to Tracker not generating nearly enough value in the MU's she supposed to help with (midrange and control).
For the sideboard, I got rid of 1 Ghostly Prison (2+Windborn Muse seemed a bit excessive) and 1 Collective Brutality, replacing them with 1 Lost Legacy and 1 Runed Halo to fight combo and ramp strategies a bit more. Not sure if I'mma keep those changes, but especially Lost Legacy seems really powerful.
Alrighty folks, what's your opinion? Did I miss obvious SB bombs? What SB cards are overperforming for you guys?
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I often feel like I want to put 2 Abrupt Decay into the SB, but never find space for it. Everything else just seems a lot more impactful than killing a single something.
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Back again!
Went 5-1-3 in the Modern Main Event in Prague, finishing 67th of 293 players 3-0'd a trial the day before, so I came in with a bye as well.
Didn't face much aggro, zero Infect (most likely due to my early losses) and only 1 Dredge deck, so the deck wasn't exactly what you'd call "tuned for the meta", but it performed pretty well. Gonna do a proper report later today or the coming days.
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We started the weekend with a modern trial on friday, which was mostly decided between me and the other 3 guys I traveled with. I can't remember many details because the first match against a friend of mine who was on Grixis Midrange took over an hour - every single other game that could've been played out in our trial was finished at that point, with another one of our group waiting for his opponent in the finals
Grixis Midrange2-1 - matchup was obviously insanely grindy. We knew each others decklists pretty well, including most sideboard cards, so that was an interesting experience. I brought in all my discard plus Surgicals plus the Eidolon of Rhetoric, which won me game 3 after I paired it with a Gavony Township. UG Fish2-1 - Mulled to 5 G1, never found a third land or was able to keep my Bird out for a turn due to Harbinger of the Tide and quickly died. Opened with T2 Ghostly Prison into lots of dudes into Angelfeeder combo in game 2. Game 3 the bad luck had turned and he kept a hand of 6 with 1 land. Didn't find a second one for 3 or 4 turns. By then I had Windborn Muse and a couple of other dorks out. Took some time playing around everything he could do with his two Aether Vial, but eventually he died to flying beats and Siege Rhino. Grixis Delver 2-0 - Another friend of mine, who played the deck for quite a long time by now. He said he really hoped for me to lose to Fish because that MU was easier, which I wasn't so sure about. Then he died to value creatures in game 1 and made the mistake of not killing the lonely Bird during the middle stages of game 2 where I was screwed on lands and was pretty far behind. A turn later Bird evolved into a Witness, buying back Path, killing his Gurmag Angler and everything went to crap for him after that. It's still great to see how swiftly the deck can turn around games if we get to resolve things for a turn.
3-0 in the trial, winning me some boosters, free entry for the main event as well as a bye for the first round. Games against Grixis are always interesting because they have so much interaction and can grind extremely well.
After the trial everyone went Foil Hunting which got me a Selfless Spirit, a Siege Rhino, a Blooming Marsh, a Scavenging Ooze, one Stony Silence and a Temple Garden in chinese foil (trying to chinese foil pimp everything at this point, which is... challenging) I also bought a Lost Legacy and replaced the Collective Brutality in my board with it. Razorverge Thicket was also cut for the Blooming Marsh, giving me this configuration for the main event on saturday:
So... after some stressful and quick scribbling of decklists on my part a few minutes before the main event start (figured I could do it during round 1 due to the bye and was dead wrong with that :D) and freshly sleeving the deck, round 2 started and I was hyped to play in a big tournament again
Round 1 - 2-0 vs Empty Chair
Round 2 - 1-2 vs UW Control
Game 1 the guy can't find a boardwipe for Sigarda to (quite literally) save his life after Cryptic Command-tapping me three or four times. Theeeen I got crushed in games 2 & 3. Brought in discard, Lilis, boarded out 2 Evos and some random guys. Playing the hard control MU's more and more (plenty Wraths, Cryptics, etc.) I found that it's just really, really bad for us. Discard and especially the Extraction effects help, but only so much. Mulligan to 5 game 2 didn't help, but I don't think my chances were amazing either way. We need an answer to control decks, but more to that later.
Round 3 - 0-2 vs Bant Knightfall
The match was really weird. He was on the play game 1, opened with land, Noble Hierarch. I didn't have a one-drop. He plays a second land and passes. He was already in Bant colours, but for some reason I didn't put him on Spell Queller. So I play a Voice of Resurgence, he Quellers it. Next turn I play a Kitchen Finks, he Quellers again. I play another guy, he Paths it. Next turn I'm dead due to Gavony Township. Didn't feel good, let me tell you.
So here's a big mistep on my side. I put him on Bant Spirits, as all I've seen so far was Noble, Queller, Path and Selfless Spirit. I brought the two Ghostly Prison, figuring he wouldn't have that much mana around, especially if I could wipe out his army of dorks with Pontiff. I expected to face a lot of flyers, probably some Collected Company, but a fair game plan all considered, which I should be able to outmaneuver. Then he starts dropping Finks, Witness's and Knight of the Reliquary. Due to the possibility of "untap, Retreat, kill you" I had to start fighting around the Knight. He Quellers my Path, I have to trade badly to post-combat go Pontiff, kill Queller, Path Knight, but my board is worthless at that point. He continues to beat me down with Gavony+Dudes until I find a Chord. I then Chord for 3, get Spike Feeder and sac him to survive the attack. Except I wasn't dead on board. He had to pay for the Prison on the field, so he couldn't have killed me that turn, so I completely ruined my chances of winning, as topdeck Archangel would've been the best of only a few outs. After that I was quite frustrated with myself, not a good start.
Round 4 - 2-1 vs RG Stompy
I tried my best to calm down and relax before the next round, as frustration isn't exactly helping with making the right decisions, and this deck isn't very forgiving with those. Worked... so-so. I get paired against a seemingly new-ish and somewhat frustrated opponent who opens with basic forest, basic forest, Strangleroot Geist. Stompy is an easy deck to underestimate and die to if they have a good hand. Mull to 6 on his side didn't help his morale or game, neither did him not asking about what my cards were actually doing. I'm running quite a lot of weird cards and many of them in chinese. I announced the cards by name as I played them, he acknowledged them, but then was killed by Siege Rhino having trample. I bring double Prison... otherwise I can't really remember, but shouldn't be much else. I then mulligan to a Prison, never find the third mana to cast it and get overrun. Game 3 he mulls to 6, keeps a bad hand, gives me two Voice tokens for free and dies to massive beats backed up by a Prison.
Round 5 - 2-1 vs Jeskai Aggro
This matchup is weird and always looks bad without really being all that bad. Game 1 I get Vapor Snag'd a bunch but somehow am able to kill a few of his guys and stabilize with Kitchen Finks and Spike Feeder while he floods out like crazy. Eventually I combo him out after recurring the Feeder with Witness. Board in Prison, Lili, Eidolon, drop Teeg, a Chord, Sage, Pontiff and 1 Horizon Canopy. This is an interesting point - with 3 Canopy and 23 lands we are able to cut one of them in fast, aggressive MU's, since we don't need to grind for super long and don't want to take a lot of damage from our lands. Should've probably brought out Sigarda as well since I was cutting down to 22 lands against a deck that can kill our dorks pretty easily. Game 2 I get screwed (obviously :D) and die swiftly with Prison and Muse in hand. I bring the land back in and take out Linvala, then I Prison him, stabilize and combo him out after a pretty long game 3. Think I should've kept the land out G3. Have to experiment more with boarding out a land, seems it has a lot of potential.
Round 6 - 2-0 vs Dredge
Being in the positives again, I felt a lot better and was very happy to see my opponent being on Dredge. G1 he mulls to 5 and has a mediocre hand while I drop a T2 Gaddock Teeg (my opponent reading him and noting he's just a 2/2 in this MU :D). He keeps dreding for a while with Loam but can't find anything relevant until I'm overwhelming him with Finks, Rhino and Voices. Noteworthy - if not for Teeg my opponent could've probably gotten back into the game with a Conflagrate he found after a few dredges. G2 I bring Lost Legacy, double Surgical Extraction, double Prison, taking out 1 Voice, Linvala, Sigarda, 1 Witness and Sage. Maybe wrong to take out Witness, but I didn't had enough testing to optimize the "what comes out" portion of sideboarding yet. I keep a hand of 3 Lands, Noble, Surgical, Lost Legacy, Witness. He plays Looting, bins Troll and Imp. I play Noble, pass. He dredges, hits Narcomoeba. Surgical it, he does nothing relevant. Go to my turn, cast Lost Legacy, exile all Bloodghasts, stranding two Amalgam in his grave. Next turn I Witness-Surgical his Conflagrates. The game goes on for a while, he starts dropping 8/8 and 10/10 Trolls, but a mix of good topdecks and a pretty strong board brings him down eventually.
Round 7 - 1-1-1 vs Grixis Control
Alright. This. Probably the most fun match all day. Opponent was a very funny, friendly guy who was able to focus on the game while also keeping the jokes running (to a degree ofc), which I really like. Makes for a fun game, no matter what happens. Can't remember too many details as the games were extremely grindy and full of decisions. I brought 2 Lili, 2 Surgical, Eidolon, taking out 2 Evo, Linvala, Sage and Pontiff. I win game 1, get Tasigur'd game 2 and game 3 ended with a draw after the 5th extra turn with a Damnation and a handshake from my opponent. If the game had continued I would've been in a pretty good position to win after I managed to stabilize with Scavenging Ooze during the last couple turns, but sadly we didn't get to find out. Geat match, shoutout to my opponent
Round 8 - 0-2 vs RUG Moon
So... after the best match of the day to something a lot less enjoyable. I eat Blood Moon t3 after resolving a Voice. After a few turns of trading and no plays from my side (no basic forest, Reclamation Sage in hand) he starts leaving his Tarmogoyf back, locking the game down for a turn or two more. I finally find the Forest, resolve Rec Sage and kill the Moon, making his Goyf huge. THEN I overlook the fact that his Goyf is untapped and run my Voice token (voice died to bolt a bit earlier) right into it's death. I can't handle Goyf + Remand/Cryptic backup and die a few turns later. I bring the discard, 2 Surgicals, 2 Lilis, taking out 2 Evo, 1 Chord, Pontiff, Teeg, Muse and Linvala. Game 2 I take away his Moon, run into a few counterspells and eventually can't handle his Huntmaster of the Fells.
Round 9 - 2-1 Kiki Chord
Last round and of course we get this MU in right at the end
Game 1 he locks me out of the game pretty hard for a few turns with the best Aven Mindcensor I've seen yet (1 Fetch in play, 1 in hand, together with 3 Evo and 1 Chord). I kill it eventually, start coming back and eventually combo him out after barely dodging death by Siege Rhino from his side. Bring in 2 Lili, discard, Extractions, can't remember if I brought Prisons. Game 2 he manages to combo me out after I couldn't break his chord value chain. Made a big mistake there as well by immediately trying to extract a thoughtseize'd Chord of Calling... while he had an untapped Relic of Progenitus in play. G3 I Lili him early and start locking him down really hard with Linvala, Muse, Witness+Path and other fun things. Game was a lot of fun and a very fine ending for the day
All in all... the deck was poorly set up for the meta I faced. Considering that I'm pretty pleased with the performance. The deck does very powerful things and feels like it always has a potential out. My play wasn't as tight as it should've been, but I'm not used to big tournaments, so I guess some of that was to be expected. There's a lot of things I want to try, and I just Top8'd a GPT with a build with 2 Lili mainboard (Linvala in the board, no Teeg, 2nd Lost Legacy in the board), so there'll be another small report and some thoughts coming in the next days, but for now that's enough nerdery from my side. Lets hope there aren't too many typos and such in here
The trip was immense fun, got some foils, a signed print of Stifle, got to give my Legacy Elves deck a run on Sunday, meet Julian Knab and a whole bunch of other great people that were playing in the tournament and just generally have a great time
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
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Sounded like you had a lot of fun, especially when hunting for foils. Control decks are definitely the bane of this archetype. I have a Thrun and a playset of Thoughtseize in my sideboard for them, but it's definitely a bad matchup.
Do you sometimes think the deck needs the 2nd Archangel of Thune? I'm playing with 2 Thunes right now and I find it to be an okay number. If my Thune gets path'd, Spike Feeder won't be totally useless.
And how was Windborn Muse? The body seems really weak, but a tutorable propaganda effect seems pretty good. Would you still keep it?
I'm having trouble deciding on whether we need more than one Siege Rhino too. I just wish there were more 4 drops in Abzan that are super amazing off an evo'd Voice. I was thinking of adding Ranger of Eos as a value card as well as a tutor for Viscera Seer so that we could assemble Seer/Finks/Archangel as another combo out. And maybe a Burrenton Forge-Tender in the sideboard as another Ranger target as well. What do you think?
Last question! Is 3 Chords a good number to play without Wall of Roots? I'm playing 4 Paths and 2 Chords myself, but 2 might not be enough.
Thanks for the report and I'll look forward to reading about your GPT one as well in the future.
I'm going to test Athreos in the board in addition to discard and extraction effects. Not sure if it'll work, but I always wanted to give the card a shot, so there's that.
I don't feel a second Archangel of Thune is necessary. The combo isn't that important in interactive matchups and usually can be forced through in non-interactive ones. Spike Feeder does plenty of work on his own, gaining us life, turning Birds of Paradise into a threat, resetting Kitchen Finks and drawing removal that should probably hit something else. Sure, he ain't the best 3-drop in the world, but he's a lot better than he would seem.
Windborn Muse is very good in the MU's where you want her. If we're up against an aggressive deck without much interaction (Dredge, 8Whack, Affinity, Infect), she can often buy us enough time to stabilize and start a counterattack or set up Angelfeeder. Being a flying blocker is also crazy useful.
I ran 2 Siege Rhino for a while and I'm not the biggest fan. Almost every creature in the deck is there to fulfill a very specific role. Rhino's role is to Lightning Helix someone after we beat them up a bunch. It's also a good blocker in some situations, but if we just wanted a good body we could run Polukranos, the World Eeater or Desecration Demon as well.
Ranger of Eos has the problem of basically being a tutor for Viscera Seer (tutoring up 1 SB card is not worth a 4cmc slot). Seer has the problem that he doesn't really have text when he isn't comboing, and I'm not big on focusing on the combo elements of the deck as Kiki Chord and Melira Company do that so much better than us.
3 Chord of Calling felt fine, Wall or no wall. We often just Chord for 3cmc or less, which is easy enough, and the 4 Eldritch Evolution do a great job of getting us our 4 or 5 drops. The biggest thing for me is to have as much access to certain haymakers as possible. 8 tutors is probably too much, but 7 seems good in this build.
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
Quick follow-up. Made Top 8 at a GPT on Saturday. Was a bit weird, as the REL was just regular and a lo of people (including myself) didn't now that there was a GPT and that we needed decklists. Also I had D&D in the evening, so I didn't take it very seriously anyhow
Either way, I tried a build where I replacced Gaddock Teeg and Linvala, Keeper of Silence with 2 Liliana, the Last Hope. Linvala went to the sideboard while Teeg was replaced by a second Lost Legacy in the board. Nobody at my store plays Dredge, and I wanted to see if I'll miss the little annoying Kithkin.
Round 1 - 2:1 vs Affinity
He mulled to 5 g1, I was on the play with a T2 Liliana. Didn't end well for him. Game 2 he crushes me with a fast Etched Champion and a Cranial Plating. I kept a hand of.. just random cards really. Lands and spells, but no hate. Wanted to see if it would work and it didn't - as expected. Game 3 I mull to 5, he mulls to 4. I have a hand of 3 land, Chord and Path. Draw Spellskite, draw Evolution, make a Windborn Muse that he can't kill (opponent was running Thoughtcast over Galvanic Blast due to the heavy presence of BGx midrange strats in the store). We both grind a bit until I get Liliana + Eternal Witness + Restoration Angel online and start recurring EVERYTHING. He couldn't get out and eventually was murdered by flying attackers.
Round 3 - 2:1 vs Skred
Game 1 he floods like crazy while I beat him down with Muse + Resto. Game 2 I Thoughtseize aggressively and die to Lightning Bolt. Game 3 he is screwed like crazy and dies to Sigarda, Host of Heron beats. Weird games with lots of bad luck I feel.
Round 4 - 2:1 GW Humans (Budget)
Make no mistake when reading "budget", that deck was kicking the living crap out of me. G1 he had a near to perfect curve of Champion of the Parish into Thalia's Lieutenant into more Champions. I stabilize barely (Windborn Muse so fricking good!) and manage to combo him out. Game 2 I get stuck on 3 lands with Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse in hand - he has a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in play and I die. Game 3 he has a slow start and I can stabilize very early and stop him from doing anything.
Round 5 - ID (1:2) vs UR Fiend
We can draw into T8, so we do. We play it out with me winning G1 after dropping lots of Kitchen Finks, then lose G2 to keeping a hand full of mana and G3 to a bit of screw and opponent having a fast draw.
Quarterfinals - 0:2 vs Grixis Delver
At this point the entire Top 8 knew that nobody would actually go to the GP, so everyone just played for the fun. We had Grixis Delver, Grixis Control, UWR Control, 2x Jund, Kiln Fiend, RUG Delver and me. I lose G1 after some grinding and flooding out in the mid-game. G2 was a bit closer, but still no cigar as I couldn't handle his second Tasigur, the Golden Fang, after killing the first one as well as 2 Delver of Secrets. Never got to ramp into Sigarda or the like, so keeping a board advantage was difficult.
Now, about that mainboard Liliana.
I don't know if she's better than more bullet creatures. The grinding potential of the deck is beyond ridiculous now, and she can completely wreck certain strategies, making her very attractive. BB is pretty easy now with the Blooming Marsh, and she's a decent or good topdeck often enough, so I will test her some more for sure. The second Lost Legacy felt unnecessary and will be replaced by Athreos, God of Passage for the next tournament.
Also kinda wanna slam Thalia, Guardian of Thraben somewhere in here... that card is just so annoying, it feels wrong not running her
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Usually the style of hard control decks that I'm having trouble with stabilize with some sort of Wrath after letting us build up a board (and then Wrath again if we rebuild). Taking 9+ damage in the process might put them low enough to give us a fighting chance afterwards. But yeah, he might not be what we need, definately - only one way to find out
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
So, went 1-2-1 yesterday, winning against GW Humans (2-0), losing against Madcap Moon (1-2) and UWR Flash (0-2) and drawing with Affinity (probably would've won in a few turns, but guy took his sweet time). Didn't get to test Athreos at all, as I don't think he's worth it against UR, with Anger being their main problematic card (after Moon). Kinda crappy performance on my part I guess, although I'm not sure what the mistakes were. Gonna adapt to the meta more as well, as it feels like my entire LGS is on blue control of some sorts, be it Grixis or UWR. No idea how exactly, but I feel like brewing up something either way, so I'mma throw something new in here over the next week I guess.
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
I've been running a variant of this deck, which I started building over the last few weeks. Back in the days when "Extended" was the format most closely resembling "Modern," I played a Recurring Nightmare and Survival of the Fittest deck that was really fun, and employed much of the "toolbox" quality that was later exemplified in Birthing Pod decks and decks like this using Eldritch Evolution. I often find when playing that type of deck that the "toolbox" aspect could be both a blessing and a detriment, as I would often spend time being so reactive to other decks' threats, that I failed to establish my own threats, and if a person played with Islands and counterspells, that I was losing more than I liked...
Anyway, fast forward 15 years, and I get a set of "Eldritch Evolution." I start playing around with various ideas and devise a rougher draft of the following list, which has now been fine-tuned and tweaked a bit, and is a blast to play. I play with a less toolbox-oriented approach, opting for high value beaters (that pair well with Eldritch Evolution), mana dorks for acceleration, and a nice removal package, and the deck has been surprising resilient in my recent matches for Friday Night Magic. I like that it comes across as fairly "rogue" in the current meta, and that it has surprisingly explosive qualities.
I guess my notable changes would be the use of Congregation at Dawn over Chord of Calling, a heavier reliance on the Archangel/Spike Feeder "Death Peaches" combo, and use of Path to Exile in the sideboard. My intuition tells me that I should use them main deck, but I just got the 3 Paths Friday, and haven't had a chance to figure what to take out. Anguished Unmaking is probably the card to go from main deck to sideboard, but I do like that Anguished targets any non-land permanent, and not just creatures. I imagine that many lists use Hierarch or Wall of Roots instead of the Caryatid, but I do find the "hexproof" quality of the Caryatid to be extra nice in Modern, and I like that I can get some black mana out of the Sylvan Caryatid, while the Bant-y Hierarch, only taps for white, blue and green. The black in this deck is pretty light, but I do like being able to hard cast Siege Rhinos, and black is critical, of course, for the Abrupt Decay and Maelstrom Pulse.
Anyway... I love putting out a second turn Leatherback Big-Butt, and applying pressure in the early game from a beat down perspective. If the Baloth loses superiority in the Power/Toughness arena, the Baloth is also a great Eldritch sacrifice, netting me anything in the deck, but especially the Gearhulk, a Baneslayer if needed, or Archangel to complete the "combo" for ultimate lifegain. Couple really large creatures, infinitely large at times, with a nice removal package, and it's not unusual to get in for a TON of damage, and to do it quickly.
The deck is a rough draft, but has "placed" in my last 4 FNM's, in a pretty diverse, competitive meta, and I get lots of props from all the "rogues" in the store who like seeing a fresh take on this deck. The deck proves to be pretty explosive, remarkably resilient, and seems to have "game" against most of the decks I see in my respective arena. Sure, there are bad matchups, but this deck is focused enough that it can still win, even against decks it should conceivably have a poor match-up.
I played this Jund deck on Friday; the deck look like it cost Eleventy Billion dollars... All the Lili's, the Tarmos, expensive lands, everything... As a card lover, it was really fun to see the cards my opponent was dropping, and the deck was beautiful. We battled to a true "draw," with us going to time in the third game, and no winner. At the end, we complimented each other on our decks, and shared congratulations for a really fun matchup, full of interaction. I got a lot of satisfaction in taking that deck "to time," considering it probably cost $2000, to the roughly $200 mine cost.
This deck has game, especially as sort of a rogue deck out of left field. There is something very fun about casting huge creatures, and being able to do so in the early turns of the game. I love playing this deck, and it has become my "pet deck" in Modern over the last month.
Sideboard to be determined tomorrow, probably some more planeswalkers in there, we'll see how testing goes.
Loads of blue control and tempo decks in my area, so Thrun mainboard instead of whatever else.
Not sure about the mainboard Brutality, but so far it was pretty decent. Gives more reach, mainboard discard, removal... quite flexible, which generally should fit the deck very well. Triple Liliana is working great so far, does a lot of stuff the deck wants. Considered 4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar instead, but haven't gotten around to test her out yet. Probably worse than Lili in this deck, but seems fun to brew around with.
@StumbleMuse
Interesting approach for sure. I like the Congregations, never got around to test them in a deck though, so I'm glad someone did
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
So, ran a list pretty close to what I last posted, went 1-4 against Storm (1-2, probably lost g3 to a misplay), Bogles (0-2, 3 paths and lili in hand g1, yay), Grishoalbrand (2-1, surgicals and lost legacy are champs), Bogles (1-2, had skite out, opp topdecks stony into Coronet next turn) and Mardu Tokens (0-2 never saw a single liliana or brutality). Now, as much as I want to complain about the matchups (which were horrible and bad and not good), I made a mistake in g3 vs Storm which put me up against Bogles next round, etc. So I'mma blame my bad MU's on that mistake. All together tho, I played around with the list a bit more and wasn't very happy with certain things.
@broesl66:
Glad to see someone else giving Windborn Muse a shot How did you like the 3/3 split between Chord and Evo? Would you change it for the next tournament?
Now to watch and reflect on that Hoogland list...
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
I actually love the idea of 1 Evo in the SB. My meta is so full of UWR and Grixis that it's just not fun to Evo anymore around here
I also like him going to 3 Witness. I'm currently building something with 3 Witness, 2 Liliana, which gives us crazy amounts of recursion for our Paths and SB cards. Not so sold on Brutality... I personally like to build the deck more hatebear-y, so I don't have a lot of slots for "random good interaction", but the card is very powerful, no doubt. Especially with triple Witness.
I feel that 1) Birds + Township is extremely important in this deck (and just having flying blockers can be lifesaving against Affinity and Infect) and 2) that 4 1-drop dorks are too few. I kinda want more Wall of Roots as well, but I think that 5-6 1-drops and 1-2 walls should do the trick. Gonna try 6/1 in my new build.
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
Ooze + Archangel is pretty strong if you get it online, yeah. Lifegain in general is very powerful in the deck 'cause of that synergy (on top of giving us a good aggro/burn matchup).
Second Ooze could be cool, depending on what decks you expect, three seems excessive unless you're on plenty Wall of Roots and have means of destroying creatures (my list runs 4 Path only, so Ooze loses some of it's value).
Worth noting Hoogland went 1-2 in the Modern portion. I'm sure he has testing to back up his deck selection but it wasn't an impressive showing regardless.
Game 2 was somewhat silly, yeah. I feel that the absence of Birds makes the MU quite a bit worse (same for Affinity). Chump blocking flyers saves many a game, especially since we have Gavony and Feeder to force trades.
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
...unless they start being everywhere, then it's mainboard Fulminators, Mindcensors and tons of Surgicals and Memoricides
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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Current list for reference
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Wall of Roots
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Spellskite
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Eternal Witness
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Spike Feeder
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 Restoration Angel
1 Windborn Muse
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Siege Rhino
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
(10)
4 Eldritch Evolution
3 Chord of Calling
3 Path to Exile
Lands (23)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Razorverge Thicket
2 Gavony Township
3 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Stony Silence
2 Ghostly Prison
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Fulminator Mage
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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What's your opinion on Hoogland's Black splash for Collective Brutality and Orzhov Pontiff in Kiki Chord? Do you think he's just weakening his mana base for cards that just aren't worth it? I don't see how only 2 Brutality give you back many percentage points versus non-creature combo, but then again I'm not Hoogland.
Regarding Hooglands list... we gotta remember that already cut Evolutions and added 3 Bolts in addition to 4 Path before adding 2 Brutality. He's going for a more interactive list, and from what I've seen from the list it seems to play fairly well. He's running 2 Witness, 3 Resto, 1 Kiki and 1 Reveillark, all of which can potentially rebuy him interaction while also building up to a combo kill. Kiki is very good at those value plays, so it seems fine to me.
A big thing to remember about Brutality is that it's pretty much never a dead card. It has uses in pretty much every matchup, which makes it's inclusion so much easier than Inquisition or Thoughtseize in the main. Pontiff provides an effect that's very strong and very much needed against wide strategies, and since Kiki Chord can run Slaughter Games (and now Brutality), the black splash just seems stronger than blue for Staticaster.
All that said, the spell/land based decks still seem like bad matchups pre-board.
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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List was the same as 4 posts back, but -1 Horizon Canopy, -1 Kitchen Finks, +1 Noble Hierarch, +1 Tireless Tracker.
The 22 lands played surprisingly smoothly, Tracker was drawn only once - against Burn, where Finks would've been better, but in the end it didn't matter. Gonna test her further.
Gaddock Teeg also felt pretty good. Being able to lock out the occasional unexpected combo deck and slowing down control decks heavy on Supreme Verdict or Cryptic Command is nice. First time so fa he felt actively bad was against Lantern, where I absolutely needed to be able to draw and cast Chord of Calling (the Lantern guy also extracted all my Evolutions, so I couldn't kill Teeg myself later), apart from that he never was a problem.
Sideboard feels very solid, the only thing I'm not sure about is the Collective Brutality. It's nice to have more discard and something against Burn, but I kinda want something to get rid of Grafdigger's Cage and the likes, so maybe another Reclamation Sage or a Maelstrom Pulse/Anguished Unmaking would be nice. Preferably a creature, so we can recur it with Liliana, the Last Hope.
Pretty happy with this current iteration of the deck. Except for Tracker and the Brutality in the board all cards feel like they have a purpose in the deck, the 22 lands + 7 dorks feel very consistent, Wall of Roots doing a lot of work to make the Chords better... also beating Tron and spell combo always feels nice
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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Switched back to 23 Lands/4 Birds of Paradise/2 Noble Hierarch after having some very frustrating test runs where I was mainly drawing 1-landers. Variance most likely, but I still feel safer with 23 lands, especially with the additional land being another Horizon Canopy. Dual Hierarch seems necessary to cast Eldritch Evolution T2 if needed. Also swapped the Razorverge Thicket for a Blooming Marsh due to sideboard changes.
I cut the Tireless Tracker and got the 3rd Kitchen Finks back into the main, due to Tracker not generating nearly enough value in the MU's she supposed to help with (midrange and control).
For the sideboard, I got rid of 1 Ghostly Prison (2+Windborn Muse seemed a bit excessive) and 1 Collective Brutality, replacing them with 1 Lost Legacy and 1 Runed Halo to fight combo and ramp strategies a bit more. Not sure if I'mma keep those changes, but especially Lost Legacy seems really powerful.
Alrighty folks, what's your opinion? Did I miss obvious SB bombs? What SB cards are overperforming for you guys?
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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Went 5-1-3 in the Modern Main Event in Prague, finishing 67th of 293 players 3-0'd a trial the day before, so I came in with a bye as well.
Didn't face much aggro, zero Infect (most likely due to my early losses) and only 1 Dredge deck, so the deck wasn't exactly what you'd call "tuned for the meta", but it performed pretty well. Gonna do a proper report later today or the coming days.
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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I'd love to hear a report from you. This deck isn't very popular but I think it does have some potential.
Modern:RGWNaya BurnRGW|WBGAbzan Angel ChordWBG|WUUW ControlWU|UBUB FaeriesUB
Standard:GWGW HumansGW
Legacy:WBGAbzan MaverickWBG
Commander:WUBRBreya, Etherium ShaperWUBR|GWSelvala, Explorer ReturnedGW
360 Cube:http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/7000
We started the weekend with a modern trial on friday, which was mostly decided between me and the other 3 guys I traveled with. I can't remember many details because the first match against a friend of mine who was on Grixis Midrange took over an hour - every single other game that could've been played out in our trial was finished at that point, with another one of our group waiting for his opponent in the finals
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Spellskite
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Eternal Witness
1 Spike Feeder
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 Restoration Angel
1 Windborn Muse
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Siege Rhino
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
Spells (10)
4 Eldritch Evolution
3 Chord of Calling
3 Path to Exile
Lands (23)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Razorverge Thicket
2 Gavony Township
3 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
2 Surgical Extractions
2 Stony Silence
2 Ghostly Prison
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Fulminator Mage
Grixis Midrange 2-1 - matchup was obviously insanely grindy. We knew each others decklists pretty well, including most sideboard cards, so that was an interesting experience. I brought in all my discard plus Surgicals plus the Eidolon of Rhetoric, which won me game 3 after I paired it with a Gavony Township.
UG Fish 2-1 - Mulled to 5 G1, never found a third land or was able to keep my Bird out for a turn due to Harbinger of the Tide and quickly died. Opened with T2 Ghostly Prison into lots of dudes into Angelfeeder combo in game 2. Game 3 the bad luck had turned and he kept a hand of 6 with 1 land. Didn't find a second one for 3 or 4 turns. By then I had Windborn Muse and a couple of other dorks out. Took some time playing around everything he could do with his two Aether Vial, but eventually he died to flying beats and Siege Rhino.
Grixis Delver 2-0 - Another friend of mine, who played the deck for quite a long time by now. He said he really hoped for me to lose to Fish because that MU was easier, which I wasn't so sure about. Then he died to value creatures in game 1 and made the mistake of not killing the lonely Bird during the middle stages of game 2 where I was screwed on lands and was pretty far behind. A turn later Bird evolved into a Witness, buying back Path, killing his Gurmag Angler and everything went to crap for him after that. It's still great to see how swiftly the deck can turn around games if we get to resolve things for a turn.
3-0 in the trial, winning me some boosters, free entry for the main event as well as a bye for the first round. Games against Grixis are always interesting because they have so much interaction and can grind extremely well.
After the trial everyone went Foil Hunting which got me a Selfless Spirit, a Siege Rhino, a Blooming Marsh, a Scavenging Ooze, one Stony Silence and a Temple Garden in chinese foil (trying to chinese foil pimp everything at this point, which is... challenging) I also bought a Lost Legacy and replaced the Collective Brutality in my board with it. Razorverge Thicket was also cut for the Blooming Marsh, giving me this configuration for the main event on saturday:
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Spellskite
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Eternal Witness
1 Spike Feeder
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 Restoration Angel
1 Windborn Muse
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Siege Rhino
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
Spells (10)
4 Eldritch Evolution
3 Chord of Calling
3 Path to Exile
Lands (23)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Blooming Marsh
2 Gavony Township
3 Thoughtseize
2 Surgical Extractions
1 Lost Legacy
2 Stony Silence
2 Ghostly Prison
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Fulminator Mage
So... after some stressful and quick scribbling of decklists on my part a few minutes before the main event start (figured I could do it during round 1 due to the bye and was dead wrong with that :D) and freshly sleeving the deck, round 2 started and I was hyped to play in a big tournament again
Round 1 - 2-0 vs Empty Chair
Round 2 - 1-2 vs UW Control
Game 1 the guy can't find a boardwipe for Sigarda to (quite literally) save his life after Cryptic Command-tapping me three or four times. Theeeen I got crushed in games 2 & 3. Brought in discard, Lilis, boarded out 2 Evos and some random guys. Playing the hard control MU's more and more (plenty Wraths, Cryptics, etc.) I found that it's just really, really bad for us. Discard and especially the Extraction effects help, but only so much. Mulligan to 5 game 2 didn't help, but I don't think my chances were amazing either way. We need an answer to control decks, but more to that later.
Round 3 - 0-2 vs Bant Knightfall
The match was really weird. He was on the play game 1, opened with land, Noble Hierarch. I didn't have a one-drop. He plays a second land and passes. He was already in Bant colours, but for some reason I didn't put him on Spell Queller. So I play a Voice of Resurgence, he Quellers it. Next turn I play a Kitchen Finks, he Quellers again. I play another guy, he Paths it. Next turn I'm dead due to Gavony Township. Didn't feel good, let me tell you.
So here's a big mistep on my side. I put him on Bant Spirits, as all I've seen so far was Noble, Queller, Path and Selfless Spirit. I brought the two Ghostly Prison, figuring he wouldn't have that much mana around, especially if I could wipe out his army of dorks with Pontiff. I expected to face a lot of flyers, probably some Collected Company, but a fair game plan all considered, which I should be able to outmaneuver. Then he starts dropping Finks, Witness's and Knight of the Reliquary. Due to the possibility of "untap, Retreat, kill you" I had to start fighting around the Knight. He Quellers my Path, I have to trade badly to post-combat go Pontiff, kill Queller, Path Knight, but my board is worthless at that point. He continues to beat me down with Gavony+Dudes until I find a Chord. I then Chord for 3, get Spike Feeder and sac him to survive the attack. Except I wasn't dead on board. He had to pay for the Prison on the field, so he couldn't have killed me that turn, so I completely ruined my chances of winning, as topdeck Archangel would've been the best of only a few outs. After that I was quite frustrated with myself, not a good start.
Round 4 - 2-1 vs RG Stompy
I tried my best to calm down and relax before the next round, as frustration isn't exactly helping with making the right decisions, and this deck isn't very forgiving with those. Worked... so-so. I get paired against a seemingly new-ish and somewhat frustrated opponent who opens with basic forest, basic forest, Strangleroot Geist. Stompy is an easy deck to underestimate and die to if they have a good hand. Mull to 6 on his side didn't help his morale or game, neither did him not asking about what my cards were actually doing. I'm running quite a lot of weird cards and many of them in chinese. I announced the cards by name as I played them, he acknowledged them, but then was killed by Siege Rhino having trample. I bring double Prison... otherwise I can't really remember, but shouldn't be much else. I then mulligan to a Prison, never find the third mana to cast it and get overrun. Game 3 he mulls to 6, keeps a bad hand, gives me two Voice tokens for free and dies to massive beats backed up by a Prison.
Round 5 - 2-1 vs Jeskai Aggro
This matchup is weird and always looks bad without really being all that bad. Game 1 I get Vapor Snag'd a bunch but somehow am able to kill a few of his guys and stabilize with Kitchen Finks and Spike Feeder while he floods out like crazy. Eventually I combo him out after recurring the Feeder with Witness. Board in Prison, Lili, Eidolon, drop Teeg, a Chord, Sage, Pontiff and 1 Horizon Canopy. This is an interesting point - with 3 Canopy and 23 lands we are able to cut one of them in fast, aggressive MU's, since we don't need to grind for super long and don't want to take a lot of damage from our lands. Should've probably brought out Sigarda as well since I was cutting down to 22 lands against a deck that can kill our dorks pretty easily. Game 2 I get screwed (obviously :D) and die swiftly with Prison and Muse in hand. I bring the land back in and take out Linvala, then I Prison him, stabilize and combo him out after a pretty long game 3. Think I should've kept the land out G3. Have to experiment more with boarding out a land, seems it has a lot of potential.
Round 6 - 2-0 vs Dredge
Being in the positives again, I felt a lot better and was very happy to see my opponent being on Dredge. G1 he mulls to 5 and has a mediocre hand while I drop a T2 Gaddock Teeg (my opponent reading him and noting he's just a 2/2 in this MU :D). He keeps dreding for a while with Loam but can't find anything relevant until I'm overwhelming him with Finks, Rhino and Voices. Noteworthy - if not for Teeg my opponent could've probably gotten back into the game with a Conflagrate he found after a few dredges. G2 I bring Lost Legacy, double Surgical Extraction, double Prison, taking out 1 Voice, Linvala, Sigarda, 1 Witness and Sage. Maybe wrong to take out Witness, but I didn't had enough testing to optimize the "what comes out" portion of sideboarding yet. I keep a hand of 3 Lands, Noble, Surgical, Lost Legacy, Witness. He plays Looting, bins Troll and Imp. I play Noble, pass. He dredges, hits Narcomoeba. Surgical it, he does nothing relevant. Go to my turn, cast Lost Legacy, exile all Bloodghasts, stranding two Amalgam in his grave. Next turn I Witness-Surgical his Conflagrates. The game goes on for a while, he starts dropping 8/8 and 10/10 Trolls, but a mix of good topdecks and a pretty strong board brings him down eventually.
Round 7 - 1-1-1 vs Grixis Control
Alright. This. Probably the most fun match all day. Opponent was a very funny, friendly guy who was able to focus on the game while also keeping the jokes running (to a degree ofc), which I really like. Makes for a fun game, no matter what happens. Can't remember too many details as the games were extremely grindy and full of decisions. I brought 2 Lili, 2 Surgical, Eidolon, taking out 2 Evo, Linvala, Sage and Pontiff. I win game 1, get Tasigur'd game 2 and game 3 ended with a draw after the 5th extra turn with a Damnation and a handshake from my opponent. If the game had continued I would've been in a pretty good position to win after I managed to stabilize with Scavenging Ooze during the last couple turns, but sadly we didn't get to find out. Geat match, shoutout to my opponent
Round 8 - 0-2 vs RUG Moon
So... after the best match of the day to something a lot less enjoyable. I eat Blood Moon t3 after resolving a Voice. After a few turns of trading and no plays from my side (no basic forest, Reclamation Sage in hand) he starts leaving his Tarmogoyf back, locking the game down for a turn or two more. I finally find the Forest, resolve Rec Sage and kill the Moon, making his Goyf huge. THEN I overlook the fact that his Goyf is untapped and run my Voice token (voice died to bolt a bit earlier) right into it's death. I can't handle Goyf + Remand/Cryptic backup and die a few turns later. I bring the discard, 2 Surgicals, 2 Lilis, taking out 2 Evo, 1 Chord, Pontiff, Teeg, Muse and Linvala. Game 2 I take away his Moon, run into a few counterspells and eventually can't handle his Huntmaster of the Fells.
Round 9 - 2-1 Kiki Chord
Last round and of course we get this MU in right at the end
Game 1 he locks me out of the game pretty hard for a few turns with the best Aven Mindcensor I've seen yet (1 Fetch in play, 1 in hand, together with 3 Evo and 1 Chord). I kill it eventually, start coming back and eventually combo him out after barely dodging death by Siege Rhino from his side. Bring in 2 Lili, discard, Extractions, can't remember if I brought Prisons. Game 2 he manages to combo me out after I couldn't break his chord value chain. Made a big mistake there as well by immediately trying to extract a thoughtseize'd Chord of Calling... while he had an untapped Relic of Progenitus in play. G3 I Lili him early and start locking him down really hard with Linvala, Muse, Witness+Path and other fun things. Game was a lot of fun and a very fine ending for the day
All in all... the deck was poorly set up for the meta I faced. Considering that I'm pretty pleased with the performance. The deck does very powerful things and feels like it always has a potential out. My play wasn't as tight as it should've been, but I'm not used to big tournaments, so I guess some of that was to be expected. There's a lot of things I want to try, and I just Top8'd a GPT with a build with 2 Lili mainboard (Linvala in the board, no Teeg, 2nd Lost Legacy in the board), so there'll be another small report and some thoughts coming in the next days, but for now that's enough nerdery from my side. Lets hope there aren't too many typos and such in here
The trip was immense fun, got some foils, a signed print of Stifle, got to give my Legacy Elves deck a run on Sunday, meet Julian Knab and a whole bunch of other great people that were playing in the tournament and just generally have a great time
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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Sounded like you had a lot of fun, especially when hunting for foils. Control decks are definitely the bane of this archetype. I have a Thrun and a playset of Thoughtseize in my sideboard for them, but it's definitely a bad matchup.
Do you sometimes think the deck needs the 2nd Archangel of Thune? I'm playing with 2 Thunes right now and I find it to be an okay number. If my Thune gets path'd, Spike Feeder won't be totally useless.
And how was Windborn Muse? The body seems really weak, but a tutorable propaganda effect seems pretty good. Would you still keep it?
I'm having trouble deciding on whether we need more than one Siege Rhino too. I just wish there were more 4 drops in Abzan that are super amazing off an evo'd Voice. I was thinking of adding Ranger of Eos as a value card as well as a tutor for Viscera Seer so that we could assemble Seer/Finks/Archangel as another combo out. And maybe a Burrenton Forge-Tender in the sideboard as another Ranger target as well. What do you think?
Last question! Is 3 Chords a good number to play without Wall of Roots? I'm playing 4 Paths and 2 Chords myself, but 2 might not be enough.
Thanks for the report and I'll look forward to reading about your GPT one as well in the future.
Modern:RGWNaya BurnRGW|WBGAbzan Angel ChordWBG|WUUW ControlWU|UBUB FaeriesUB
Standard:GWGW HumansGW
Legacy:WBGAbzan MaverickWBG
Commander:WUBRBreya, Etherium ShaperWUBR|GWSelvala, Explorer ReturnedGW
360 Cube:http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/7000
I don't feel a second Archangel of Thune is necessary. The combo isn't that important in interactive matchups and usually can be forced through in non-interactive ones. Spike Feeder does plenty of work on his own, gaining us life, turning Birds of Paradise into a threat, resetting Kitchen Finks and drawing removal that should probably hit something else. Sure, he ain't the best 3-drop in the world, but he's a lot better than he would seem.
Windborn Muse is very good in the MU's where you want her. If we're up against an aggressive deck without much interaction (Dredge, 8Whack, Affinity, Infect), she can often buy us enough time to stabilize and start a counterattack or set up Angelfeeder. Being a flying blocker is also crazy useful.
I ran 2 Siege Rhino for a while and I'm not the biggest fan. Almost every creature in the deck is there to fulfill a very specific role. Rhino's role is to Lightning Helix someone after we beat them up a bunch. It's also a good blocker in some situations, but if we just wanted a good body we could run Polukranos, the World Eeater or Desecration Demon as well.
Ranger of Eos has the problem of basically being a tutor for Viscera Seer (tutoring up 1 SB card is not worth a 4cmc slot). Seer has the problem that he doesn't really have text when he isn't comboing, and I'm not big on focusing on the combo elements of the deck as Kiki Chord and Melira Company do that so much better than us.
3 Chord of Calling felt fine, Wall or no wall. We often just Chord for 3cmc or less, which is easy enough, and the 4 Eldritch Evolution do a great job of getting us our 4 or 5 drops. The biggest thing for me is to have as much access to certain haymakers as possible. 8 tutors is probably too much, but 7 seems good in this build.
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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Either way, I tried a build where I replacced Gaddock Teeg and Linvala, Keeper of Silence with 2 Liliana, the Last Hope. Linvala went to the sideboard while Teeg was replaced by a second Lost Legacy in the board. Nobody at my store plays Dredge, and I wanted to see if I'll miss the little annoying Kithkin.
Round 1 - 2:1 vs Affinity
He mulled to 5 g1, I was on the play with a T2 Liliana. Didn't end well for him. Game 2 he crushes me with a fast Etched Champion and a Cranial Plating. I kept a hand of.. just random cards really. Lands and spells, but no hate. Wanted to see if it would work and it didn't - as expected. Game 3 I mull to 5, he mulls to 4. I have a hand of 3 land, Chord and Path. Draw Spellskite, draw Evolution, make a Windborn Muse that he can't kill (opponent was running Thoughtcast over Galvanic Blast due to the heavy presence of BGx midrange strats in the store). We both grind a bit until I get Liliana + Eternal Witness + Restoration Angel online and start recurring EVERYTHING. He couldn't get out and eventually was murdered by flying attackers.
Round 2 - 0:2 vs UWR Control
I don't see a single Voice of Resurgence game 1 and can't pressure him fast enough. G2 I mull to 5, Thoughtseize + Surgical Extraction his Cryptic Commands and die to double Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Can't beat them walkers :/
Round 3 - 2:1 vs Skred
Game 1 he floods like crazy while I beat him down with Muse + Resto. Game 2 I Thoughtseize aggressively and die to Lightning Bolt. Game 3 he is screwed like crazy and dies to Sigarda, Host of Heron beats. Weird games with lots of bad luck I feel.
Round 4 - 2:1 GW Humans (Budget)
Make no mistake when reading "budget", that deck was kicking the living crap out of me. G1 he had a near to perfect curve of Champion of the Parish into Thalia's Lieutenant into more Champions. I stabilize barely (Windborn Muse so fricking good!) and manage to combo him out. Game 2 I get stuck on 3 lands with Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse in hand - he has a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in play and I die. Game 3 he has a slow start and I can stabilize very early and stop him from doing anything.
Round 5 - ID (1:2) vs UR Fiend
We can draw into T8, so we do. We play it out with me winning G1 after dropping lots of Kitchen Finks, then lose G2 to keeping a hand full of mana and G3 to a bit of screw and opponent having a fast draw.
Quarterfinals - 0:2 vs Grixis Delver
At this point the entire Top 8 knew that nobody would actually go to the GP, so everyone just played for the fun. We had Grixis Delver, Grixis Control, UWR Control, 2x Jund, Kiln Fiend, RUG Delver and me. I lose G1 after some grinding and flooding out in the mid-game. G2 was a bit closer, but still no cigar as I couldn't handle his second Tasigur, the Golden Fang, after killing the first one as well as 2 Delver of Secrets. Never got to ramp into Sigarda or the like, so keeping a board advantage was difficult.
Now, about that mainboard Liliana.
I don't know if she's better than more bullet creatures. The grinding potential of the deck is beyond ridiculous now, and she can completely wreck certain strategies, making her very attractive. BB is pretty easy now with the Blooming Marsh, and she's a decent or good topdeck often enough, so I will test her some more for sure. The second Lost Legacy felt unnecessary and will be replaced by Athreos, God of Passage for the next tournament.
Also kinda wanna slam Thalia, Guardian of Thraben somewhere in here... that card is just so annoying, it feels wrong not running her
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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Anyway, fast forward 15 years, and I get a set of "Eldritch Evolution." I start playing around with various ideas and devise a rougher draft of the following list, which has now been fine-tuned and tweaked a bit, and is a blast to play. I play with a less toolbox-oriented approach, opting for high value beaters (that pair well with Eldritch Evolution), mana dorks for acceleration, and a nice removal package, and the deck has been surprising resilient in my recent matches for Friday Night Magic. I like that it comes across as fairly "rogue" in the current meta, and that it has surprisingly explosive qualities.
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Leatherback Baloth
3 Archangel of Thune
3 Spike Feeder
2 Siege Rhino
2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Siege Rhino
1 Verdurous Gearhulk
REMOVAL
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Anguished Unmaking
4 Eldritch Evolution
2 Congregation at Dawn
LANDS
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Murmuring Bosk
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Godless Shrine
2 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Plains
3 Path to Exile
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Ruinous Path
1 Flaying Tendrils
4 Naturalize
4 flex spots
I guess my notable changes would be the use of Congregation at Dawn over Chord of Calling, a heavier reliance on the Archangel/Spike Feeder "Death Peaches" combo, and use of Path to Exile in the sideboard. My intuition tells me that I should use them main deck, but I just got the 3 Paths Friday, and haven't had a chance to figure what to take out. Anguished Unmaking is probably the card to go from main deck to sideboard, but I do like that Anguished targets any non-land permanent, and not just creatures. I imagine that many lists use Hierarch or Wall of Roots instead of the Caryatid, but I do find the "hexproof" quality of the Caryatid to be extra nice in Modern, and I like that I can get some black mana out of the Sylvan Caryatid, while the Bant-y Hierarch, only taps for white, blue and green. The black in this deck is pretty light, but I do like being able to hard cast Siege Rhinos, and black is critical, of course, for the Abrupt Decay and Maelstrom Pulse.
Anyway... I love putting out a second turn Leatherback Big-Butt, and applying pressure in the early game from a beat down perspective. If the Baloth loses superiority in the Power/Toughness arena, the Baloth is also a great Eldritch sacrifice, netting me anything in the deck, but especially the Gearhulk, a Baneslayer if needed, or Archangel to complete the "combo" for ultimate lifegain. Couple really large creatures, infinitely large at times, with a nice removal package, and it's not unusual to get in for a TON of damage, and to do it quickly.
The deck is a rough draft, but has "placed" in my last 4 FNM's, in a pretty diverse, competitive meta, and I get lots of props from all the "rogues" in the store who like seeing a fresh take on this deck. The deck proves to be pretty explosive, remarkably resilient, and seems to have "game" against most of the decks I see in my respective arena. Sure, there are bad matchups, but this deck is focused enough that it can still win, even against decks it should conceivably have a poor match-up.
I played this Jund deck on Friday; the deck look like it cost Eleventy Billion dollars... All the Lili's, the Tarmos, expensive lands, everything... As a card lover, it was really fun to see the cards my opponent was dropping, and the deck was beautiful. We battled to a true "draw," with us going to time in the third game, and no winner. At the end, we complimented each other on our decks, and shared congratulations for a really fun matchup, full of interaction. I got a lot of satisfaction in taking that deck "to time," considering it probably cost $2000, to the roughly $200 mine cost.
This deck has game, especially as sort of a rogue deck out of left field. There is something very fun about casting huge creatures, and being able to do so in the early turns of the game. I love playing this deck, and it has become my "pet deck" in Modern over the last month.
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Voice of Resurgence
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Spellskite
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Eternal Witness
1 Spike Feeder
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Siege Rhino
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
Spells (10)
4 Chord of Calling
4 Path to Exile
2 Collective Brutality
Planeswalker (3)
3 Liliana, the Last Hope
Lands (23)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Gavony Township
1 Blooming Marsh
Sideboard to be determined tomorrow, probably some more planeswalkers in there, we'll see how testing goes.
Loads of blue control and tempo decks in my area, so Thrun mainboard instead of whatever else.
Not sure about the mainboard Brutality, but so far it was pretty decent. Gives more reach, mainboard discard, removal... quite flexible, which generally should fit the deck very well. Triple Liliana is working great so far, does a lot of stuff the deck wants. Considered 4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar instead, but haven't gotten around to test her out yet. Probably worse than Lili in this deck, but seems fun to brew around with.
@StumbleMuse
Interesting approach for sure. I like the Congregations, never got around to test them in a deck though, so I'm glad someone did
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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@broesl66:
Glad to see someone else giving Windborn Muse a shot How did you like the 3/3 split between Chord and Evo? Would you change it for the next tournament?
Now to watch and reflect on that Hoogland list...
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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I also like him going to 3 Witness. I'm currently building something with 3 Witness, 2 Liliana, which gives us crazy amounts of recursion for our Paths and SB cards. Not so sold on Brutality... I personally like to build the deck more hatebear-y, so I don't have a lot of slots for "random good interaction", but the card is very powerful, no doubt. Especially with triple Witness.
I feel that 1) Birds + Township is extremely important in this deck (and just having flying blockers can be lifesaving against Affinity and Infect) and 2) that 4 1-drop dorks are too few. I kinda want more Wall of Roots as well, but I think that 5-6 1-drops and 1-2 walls should do the trick. Gonna try 6/1 in my new build.
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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Second Ooze could be cool, depending on what decks you expect, three seems excessive unless you're on plenty Wall of Roots and have means of destroying creatures (my list runs 4 Path only, so Ooze loses some of it's value).
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Wall of Roots
1 Selfless Spirits
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Spellskite
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Eternal Witness
1 Spike Feeder
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 Restoration Angel
1 Siege Rhino
1 Archangel of Thune
Spells (8)
4 Chord of Calling
4 Path to Exile
Planeswalkers (2)
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
Lands (23)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Gavony Township
1 Blooming Marsh
1 Stirring Wildwood
2 Thoughtseize
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Lost Legacy
2 Stony Silence
2 Ghostly Prison
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Eldritch Evolution
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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- Yeva, Nature's Herald
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4x Birds of Paradise
1x Noble Hierarch
3x Voice of Resurgence
1x Wall of Roots
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Spellskite
1x Orzhov Pontiff
3x Eternal Witness
1x Fulminator Mage
1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Spike Feeder
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Restoration Angel
1x Siege Rhino
1x Archangel of Thune
Lands:
1x Blooming Marsh
3x Forest
2x Gavony Township
1x Godless Shrine
2x Horizon Canopy
1x Plains
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Swamp
2x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Verdant Catacombs
Sorcery:
2x Collective Brutality
Instant:
4x Chord of Calling
4x Path to Exile
2x Liliana, the Last Hope
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Eldritch Evolution
1x Fulminator Mage
1x Gaddock Teeg
2x Ghostly Prison
1x Lost Legacy
1x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Reclamation Sage
2x Runed Halo
2x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
The deck runs pretty smooth, 22 Lands didn't get me screwed more often than 23 would and at the moment I have a pretty high win rate with it.
I'll also consider posting further explanation for my card choices.