Not good enough here. PtE is too prevalent. Rock decks are looking to get to into top-deck mode ASAP so cards need to have an immediate impact and this is pretty slow. Liliana, the Last Hope is probably better.
Without a reliable sac outlet the enchantment isn't great. It may mean your guy becomes unblockable or you just board stall with it. With PtE as mentioned and no way to fully control when your guys die without losing value to do so makes it a no from me. I mean, using a removal on your own guy to trigger it isn't the worst but you are still using a card where as you might just get free value with a sac outlet or forcing them to kill it. I think it's interesting and perhaps in certain matchups it's good. It could be a decent mirror breaker kind of card. It doesn't help our bad matches which is the biggest problem I have with it.
I'm late to the discussion on the Red v Black but I personally don't think red adds much but it is a different take on the deck. I do actually like the obligator it's a very strong aggressive card and if you can maintain momentum it's hard to lose which is what the deck aims to do vs BG inherently is more controlly midrange. And for that purpose, having a mana dork t1 ups the chance of being able to play a 4 drop t2 and smashers t3. Obligator is also very good against tron. Deck does seem soft to storm but it does have tools to fight pretty much everything. There's certainly another forum for this deck style I'm sure. I certainly prefer what black has to offer. Interesting side note, we are much better vs boggles then they are, too bad that's not really a thing. I guess it comes down to the meta as this deck is better vs some decks than others.
I have tried out nobles and birds before and sometimes they were fine sometimes they weren't. Being able to accelerate is not to be underestimated and I have waffled back and forth thinking about adding them back again. Being able to play your stuff ahead of curve is the only reason decks like these can compete. I think for me it's hard to remove that interaction with our bad matchups, at least some, in g1. Sometimes t1 discard into goyf just wins where as t2 reshaper does not, or at least not nearly as often.
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The more I discuss and talk about Journey to Eternity, the more I like it. It certainly doesn't help in our bad matchups which is legit but there are a lot of decks like grixis, jund, etc that would have a hell of a hard time with instant speed goyfs or hell smashers.
If you can put it on a reshaper the value you get is just insane as long as it sticks and you can kill it. There is value in even using removal on your own guy as it comes back. Wonderful mirrorbreaker card. I'll try it in my 75 but I'm not overly optimistic about it. I hope I'm wrong.
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The more I discuss and talk about Journey to Eternity, the more I like it. It certainly doesn't help in our bad matchups which is legit but there are a lot of decks like grixis, jund, etc that would have a hell of a hard time with instant speed goyfs or hell smashers.
If you can put it on a reshaper the value you get is just insane as long as it sticks and you can kill it. There is value in even using removal on your own guy as it comes back. Wonderful mirrorbreaker card. I'll try it in my 75 but I'm not overly optimistic about it. I hope I'm wrong.
"It's a trap!"
Try 1 in the 75 as a fun-of or something. The Cave half is fine. The aura half is terrible. Let me know what you cut for it. I highly doubt it will be good enough to grind back your own removal spell. And if you do, wouldn't you just be winning that game anyway? I suspect D90Dennis14 is right. But it's definitely worth throwing 1 or 2 in to try out, to definitively know. You'll learn a bit about the shell along the way.
It's nice to see Golgari get one of these flip cards though and great that its good enough to come up in conversation.
Went 3-1 at my 33 man FNM. No changes to my list. Certainly some sb woes I think. More into that later
r1 GR ponza
Did my best to play around his LD and just did what my deck does, disrupt and beat down. g2 he took me to pound town and blood moon shut me out long enough to drop a titan and I couldn't get back in while sitting with a pulse in hand g3 I hit lost legacy on blood moon on my t3 and managed to snag one from hand and from there it was no problem as I had not a ton to fear.
1-0
r2 mono black devotion
I had enough discard and such that I was able to race through an obliterator and discard anything else of relevance he drew. g2 was much the same. This felt pretty easy but things just lined up well for me. I have a feeling it's probably a pretty good matchup for me long as we can dodge the grey merchant for too much.
2-0
r3 life from the loam value dredge
This is just an aggro, value town, smallpox, squee, goblin nabob, zombie infestation dredge build. It can grind like you wouldn't believe but it's also really slow which I think is it's greatest weakness. It can't just explosive nut draw into a million amalgams and ghasts. g1 scooze sealed the deal for me. Glad I had it. g2 I didn't have too much and he was able to hide behind zombie infestation for so long with a squee and loam making 2 zombies every turn for "free". He forgot about hissing quagmire for the entire game which allowed me to dodge the GQ he wasn't using on me. Honestly had he just been GQ me every turn I would have eventually lost for sure since he just had infinite blockers. Well his huge missplay means his alpha went short by 1 attacker allowing me to just swing back when he had essentially nothing on board.
3-0
r4 storm
I was facing none other than Dr. Rich Shay and he put me in the dirt. g1 he's on the play and storms me on his t3 my t2, sweet. I played a scooze and thought I would be fine. nope. g2 I had my SB cards and legacied his gifts. Easy. g3 he storms me again on his t3 my t2 after I thoughtseized him on my t2. He had essentially nothing but a baral in play, baral and a past in flames in hand. He rips pieces of the puzzle into 2 rituals and goes off from there. I had a tks coming down the next turn which I feel would have sealed my victory but that didn't happen. sigh.
3-1
I ended top 4 but everyone wanted to split and cube so I didn't get any more matches in which I'm sad about. I still can't decide on SB GY hate. So far I like grafdiggers cage so those will stay but I dunno on surgicals. Either I need to add a 3rd or dump them and add back in leylines. Maybe 2 surgical, 2 lost legacy 2 cage is enough. If only I could have a 1-2 more SB slots. I just need to grind some matches vs these kind of decks I think to know for sure.
as in go 3 scooze total? Bog still seems too random for me. I feel like I need something faster than scooze in the SB. Storm can certainly kill you before scooze matters as it did to me. I know that's not the norm but still. I did love having scooze main.
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Yes, a 3/3 split. The idea is to pre-SB a bit. By going down 1 Scooze in the SB (so up to 4 G 2-3) you'll be able to pick up a faster GY hate card in addition, since the GY slots in the SB stay the same. You'll lose a bit of equity in G1 but I think what you'll pick up post board will make up for it, especially in the GY matches.
I really think this deck can be a favorite vs Storm but only if it is the more controlling version. Reshapper just seems more mid-rangey.
Interesting thoughts. I like the idea of another scooze honestly. Storm isn't huge in my meta but I know it's picking up steam in general. I think upping my chances of getting one actually would help out other matches as well in game 1. I can't justify 4 though. I've lost games even through a scooze so I don't think my SB would change but means I can diversify and not have to use leylines. I'm not a huge fan of surgical but I do like cage.
This deck should be decent against storm outside nut draws from them. We certainly do have the tools.
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I just feel like even our average draw should beat their nut draw. At least the first 6 or 7 cards. After that it's up in the air. But again, Disruption + Clock is so good.
I was on the receiving end of their nut draw vs above average hands and lost quickly and decisively. Average hand vs average hand, ours are better overall I'd say but we need a very tailored hand to beat combo in general, something like t1 disruption into t2 scooze. Or multiple discard/removal spells over first 2 turns. If we are taking a turn off it's a pretty decent chance we may lose vs a competent player. I guess that's basically every midrange deck though haha.
I've played storm about 5 times now with my current setup and I think I'm 2-3 vs it. I would say pilot error on my part and I'm sure there were decisions I could have made to win those games like more aggressive mulling or taking card X over card Y. Storm has gotten extremely resilient too depending on the build. Most of the games they just found the remaining pieces they need and I can't stop a top deck.
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The resiliency/top deck is the worse problem. Play vs Draw matters too but we can deal with a T2 Baral/Electromancer and can interact at instant speed. 4 ooze is huge in this MU. I think you need another hate card and getting that into the main seems to be the way to go.
placed 1st at fnm!. We split top 4 due to it being too close to the midnight prerelease so that kinda stinks, I was hoping to get in a couple more matches but what can you do.
r1 GR Ponza. Played 3 games. I got completely screwed g2 as I expected. G3 he played strangely. I guess he wanted to aim to develop his board as opposed to just stone raining me over an over and turns out that was a super bad decision for him. I was able to untap, lost legacy his blood moon. then untap, pulse his arbor elves then surgical his stone rains, snagging one from his hand. From there he rips a bunch of lands and I was able to get out of my mana issues to secure victory.
1-0
r2 mono blue living end
g1 I was able to disrupt him long enough to get out some threats and a scooze. g2 he just rips perfect after I thought it was an easy win. I guess visions will do that along with a million cyclers. I didn't see my damnation. g3 he draws a lot of as foretold and not a lot of relevant things and I was able to slow him long enough that as foretold didn't matter through surgicals and scooze, etc.
2-0
r3 GWb counters company
long super exciting games. I drew pretty well and I think overall made solid choices although I'm sure I made plenty of non-optimal plays. Just so many decisions vs that deck. I have a TON of SB cards to make this match in theory pretty good but it never felt easy. Grafdiggers and night of souls betrayal were mvps this match.
3-0
r4 eldrazi tron
we drew this match to get into top 4 but we played a 2 preboard games for fun. I bricked pretty hard in this match but it wasn't due to anything I could control. Although I will say, in g1 I went for t2 tks and ended up getting locked out from a chalice on 1. I drew 4 1 drops in a row to end my hand as 3 oath, 2 inquisition, 1 push and 2 lili LOL. Had I played a little slower and went t1 oath I would have been fine as I could at least cast liliana. It's so hard to turn down t2 tks though. Liliana though is probably my best card in this match. Maybe vs that deck it was worth it to play t3 tks. I'm not sure to be honest. Usually chalice on 1 isn't that bad but sometimes you just draw the wrong half of your deck haha.
Pulse was super mvp last night as was surgical. It was nice to actually have surgical be good. I still plan to go up to 3 scooze main. I've been toying though instead of a 3rd scooze for a tireless tracker but that's probably not right. I picked up a treetop but played quagmire instead. Honestly it's probably worth keeping in the quagmire over the more aggressive treetop. Being able to kill huge dudes is worth it for me as I don't have the best removal for cmc 4+. While I didn't have it in e-tron and living en it excels a lot on those matches. Also it was relevant keeping a large scooze at bay for a bit in my r3 match.
I really really love this deck. This is the longest I've ever been on a deck and I have no intentions to change anytime soon. I'm almost done foiling it out too but only mega expensive things left.../cheer for sketti monsters!
I lost to none other than Dr. Rich Shay in top 8 on pieces of the puzzle storm. Let me tell you having played storm about 6+ times now. This is in no way shape or form a good match up at least in my experience. I'll admit, I'm not sure pieces is in every storm list but it wrecks me. g1 I had t1 thoguhtseize, t2 scooze, t3 brutality + scooze activation and went into t4 with 2 activations up and I still lost. g2 I had a little more fight but I just drew extremely mediocre. I drew 3 oath of nissa (which surprisingly hasn't happened to me yet) and not enough disruption. He had a remand for my tks then He found an echoing truth for cage and then comboed off to kill me. Post board I have a solid 8 cards to fight them but not a single one is a guaranteed win. I feel like I just need to be lucky in that match and draw the right cards at the right time.
Played a bonus round against 5c tribal flames aggro deck. The guy has been doing well with it and I thought he was just lucky. Well, it's actually pretty solid. Sure the mana is greedy as hell and no way he can beat a blood moon but good lord that deck hits hard. I lost eventually g3 as I was stuck on 2mana for way too long. Had I been able to curve out it would have been a very different game. Pretty sweet deck though. Nothing like a 2 mana lava axe...
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Top 4 finish for me last night. We all split top 4 so no further games. I added in the 3rd scooze main and I like it I think.
r1 mardu reveler
Not super hard games. Just dodge lingering or save my mass removal for it. He got stuck on 2 lands for a while but he's only running like 19 lands which seems super low but I get his curve is tiny also. No big deal, I'm kind of set up to beat decks like this.
1-0
r2 storm
Dr Rich Shay again put me in the dirt. Every time I start t1 thoughtseize into t2 scooze and still lose. I at least took him to a game 3 but good lord I just cannot beat him. So it means my SB cards just aren't impactful enough on their own. I need multiple pieces of hate it seems. It's possible he is also just lucky but I'm going to assume I am just making tiny mistakes or just not choosing the right things even though I don't think I was making any real misplays. The deck is just so resilient/\.
1-1
r3 RUG moon
This was gerard fabiano list I believe with value town deck with blood moons. We played 3 games for fun but I went 2-1 winning the first 2. He's got the tools to get me for sure but my top end is so much better especially if I can find cavern. Not much to report out of hte ordinary.
2-1
r4 affinity
We played a total of 2 matches as I needed all the experience I can get since affinity is no longer a big deck in my lgs. I won both matches fairly easily. I know first hand though how hard affinity can be and I'm not sure I can ever beat their nut draw but long as I can keep parity I'm usually fine. I just ripped all of my removal when I needed it and brought the beats.
3-1
top 8 GR Ponza
Oh boy was I worried about this match. Got crushed game 1. game 2 I made sure to play around moon and got rewarded. After a couple of discard I just kept dropping big dudes and eventually even his guys couldn't get around. Stormbreath dragon isn't very good when it's forced to block haha. g3 I kept a semi greedy hand with oath and a wastes and a llanowar wastes. I played oath and sandbagged the wastes. He slams moon but I play my wastes and proceed to just keep slamming thought-knots and kill him lol. He got stuck on 3 lands for a pivotal couple of turns (I killed a bird t1) which let me take his acid moss with TKS. Had he ripped it killing my wastes I was probably screwed. I think he made a couple of mistakes this game which really cost him like risk exposing the bird t1 when he probably could have used sprawl instead.
4-1
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Lost my win an in to top 4 to a total bonehead play. I beat Storm (Woo finally!), mono blue living end, drew to jeskai isochron scepter, silence and then lost to tron.
In the Tron match He had an active relic and I have a decay and surgical in hand and just GQ his tower. He passes and then we go back so he can fetch after a judge call. It's fine no biggy but it screwed up my train of thought and totally blew my surgical in response to his map activation forgetting I had to bait his relic with my decay. So as you would expect eh relics himself. DOH. I'll try not to do that again I guess. I'm not saying I would have been able to as I need him to basically tap out and use his relic, so it might have been too late regardless but I didn't even give myself the chance.
I've made the decision to firstly go back and start a spreadsheet of all my matches so far and see where I'm at. Secondly, I'm going to rent this deck online for the next month to start seriously testing for GP Hartford.
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I got a streamer play this deck through a league. Wasn't able to get the entire match but here's a great clip of a mono U tron. The list is very similar to what I've been toting except he changed a couple of the cards in the mana due to card availability.
I'll spare you all the details of my awesome FNM where I went 4-0 I have put together a spreadsheet of all the matches I've played from last feb to this feb. I cut out any budget decks or new players. This is obviously just FNM results so gleam what you will but my FNM is competitive.
On friday I made a couple very small changes. Changed 1 cavern to a treetop village and 1 inquisition to a nihil spellbomb. Overall I like the changes but I'm unsure if I want the second cavern. I'll keep treetop for now as it was good but it's for sure one of my flex slots. I beat jund, tron, 8 rack and storm. I happened to draw the spellbomb g1 vs storm and it basically won me the game by itself...so dumb. I think It's going to keep it's slot haha.
My slots are basically My land flex slots are:
1 cavern
1 treetop
1 GQ
1 field
Well Given the unbanning of Jace seems I may need to invest in a couple more cavern and find a way to get that 4th smasher in there. Jace in modern, what a time to be alive.
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well It's been a while and GP hartford is rapidly approaching! Here are the last few tournies I've been to:
3-2 (discard version)
3-2 (mana dork version)
4-1 (mana dork version)
Not spectacular results since the unbannings but not terrible. I'm currently deciding between discard version or mana dorks. Really the only difference is 5 dorks vs 5 discard. Also been playing around with 1 endbringer, 1 brutality vs 2 brutality in my dork version. I think i will playing the dork version for Hartford.
I cannot decide which version I like better. Both have strengths and about the same weaknesses but I think mana dorks slightly edge out discard in general I think. I just don't know. Discard has served me well for such a while.
GP didn't go great. I started off beating ponza, then got crushed by blue moon with kiki-jiki. Beat 4c bring to light scapeshift, lost a mega close one to mardu pyro with MD blood moons. I then went to play some side events with my buddy. After playing 3 main deck blood moon matches I had enough even though I was 2-2.
Here's a new variant I am trying out. So far I like it but still to be determined if it's better than the mana dork version. I'm pretty sure trackers and tasigur are certainly better than matter reshaper but that card is still good. I got lucky in my placement on friday but here is my latest FNM report. The week previous I went 2-2 but that one had more discard/removal and no oaths. I had to add oath back, card is just too important for me.
So far liliana is been essential. Yes I would love more removal and I think adding back 4 discard main helps. I don't think I can remove liliana from my list. It's possible she's not needed but in some of my weaker matches like control she's just so good. at worse, she's a 3mana removal spell.
r1: jeskai nahiri
g1: he doesn't do much and I discard some of his removal, make sure to never play too much into sweepers and manage to dodge nahiri for easy win. g2 he was able to land nahiri and I couldn't get to her. That lady closes games quick. g3 long drawn out game but came down to top decks and i drew 3 lands in a row and he didn't
0-1
r2 GW death and taxes
g1 he lands a quick gavony and I couldn't race it. Never saw my eldrazi and mirran crusader closed the game very quick. G2 and 3 were just total slaughters. I have 4 sweepers coming in on top of a bunch of removal. FoR took care of gavony when relevant and since all my guys are huge there's not much cards like Thalia and voice of resurgence are going to do for him. Kalitas was mvp.
1-1
r3 jund
These were quick games. He kinda stumbles on mana but it didn't matter my removal lined up well and none of his did. TKS would remove things like terminate and everything else was too big. my deck doesn't care too much about lightning bolts and usually fatal push.
2-1
r4 humans
g1 I mull to 5 but manage to stall with a couple huge goyfs and a tracker. Tracker ended up drawing me like 5 cards. He was drawing irrelevant stuff and I just managed to draw the removal I needed for mantis rider while chipping in with a 5/6 goyf. g2 was hilarious. I just drew like a god and had all the removal in the world. My deck shut him down and smasher took it home easy.
3-1
Lucked into top 4
Semis burn
g1 I think he got flooded as he didn't do much. THankfully he was on mostly creature plan which my deck has no problem with. Was still close but I got there without too much anxiety. g2 I keep a semi slow hand but he gets stuck on 1 land for a few turns which gives me all the time I need. I slam kalitas and he gains me 9 life to close out the game.
4-1
finals mono U tron
This is a very competent player and while the deck is far from mainstream he plays it well and it is still very strong. g1 I manage to have a solid hand of discard and multiple field of ruins. He also drew too many power plants and I was able to shut him off tron lol. I was able to close out the game before he was able to find huge idiots thanks to liliana. g2 was a very long game. I was able to ruin and surgical him off tron but he had so many ways to slow me down that eventually a huge ballista ended me. I punted hard that game but I'm not sure it mattered. g3 went the opposite I end up getting a very early TKS when he didn't have an island and took his threat and thoughtseized his other threat. he assembles tron but it doesn't matter as he has nothing to play. I slam smusher and gg friend. tracker was MVP, drew me like 6+ cards in the match. turns out card is great who knew.
5-1
I think the only real change I may make is -1 tasigur +1 treetop village (this is a maybe I really want to get a second manland in there). Honestly I want more but that's probably too hard to do. Mana feels solid as is right now, I can't decide on 23 vs 24 lands. Other change would be -1 push +1 cast down. I think having a nice catch all removal is better than a 4th push as I can't always trigger revolt but tracker goes a long way in making sure I have revolt triggers (clues).
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Very minor changes to the list for last friday. Didn't get around to putting up the report until now. TL:DR +1 treetop village, +1 cast down, -1 tasigur, -1 fatal push
r1: serum powder colorless eldrazi
we had an epic g1 which ended at us both at 1 for many turns. If either of us draw a smusher we just die. He had sea gate wreckage active for a few turns till I found the field of ruin for it. Eventually I got there after he started to run out of gas. Thankfully outside of smusher his guys are actually smaller than mine. g2 he has a t2 smasher and well I couldn't race it. g3 I had a t2 TKS into a second so it was good to give him a taste of his own medicine. Turns out neither deck can really beat 2 temple draws haha. Magic is a silly game sometimes.
1-0
r2: abzan
we had 3 epic games as one would expect from 2 GB decks. g3 8 goyfs were seen and 7 were played (I chose a traker over goyf early on from oath). He ended up having a scooze for way too long and that ultimately won him the game as it chipped in and was able to gain him enough life. No regrets were fun games. I was 1 turn off damnation haha.
1-1
r3: jund
Jund is a much easier match than abzan. we exchanged a lot of resources but my guys are bigger and typically faster. My removal in general lines up much better. Having access to field of ruin was absolutely key in this match. g3 came down to a very close smasher+treetop for the win and I was dead on the swing back with his HUGE raging ravine. I couldn't find any removal for it so my line was I just swing in for lethal and make him have the removal to kill me. Turns out he didn't this time.
2-1
r4 mono green enchantress
This is actually a very brutal deck for other decks that don't have interaction and a clock. Well mine has both and i drew what I needed for a COMICALLY hilarious stomping of this deck. One highlight was g2 I t1 inquisition. t2 goyf, t3 field of ruin his nykthos + push his eidolon of blossoms and swing in for 5. Being so far ahead at that point there was nothing he could do but I follow up with TKS the next turn for good measure.
3-1
I wasn't lucky this week and missed on top4 from beakers. Had some solid and fun games of magic so I can't complain. I sure love this deck. So close to foiling it all out too.
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r1: hollow one
Lets put it this way, when hollow one doesn't just nut draw you with huge early fatties, it's not that hard of a deck to beat. Phoenix is still really annoying but I have things to fight it SB.
1-0
r2: Jeskai ascendancy
discard and fast clock made this match very easy. I got kinda lucky he bricked off the turn he tried. He didn't have a choice as he was dead next turn but perhaps he could have gotten there. g2 he boarded into lingering souls but I had a cage anyways. super sweet tech but in this instance it didn't matter.
2-0
r3: sultai control/midrange
Another match that went well for me. As another GB deck it basically whoever comes out ahead early will win and he was drawing cards and stuff but I had threats and discard so it didn't matter much. That's the one issue I have with adding blue. Azcanta, jace and visions and snaps are fantastic cards but when behind they kinda suck (except snap)
3-0
r4: naya bushwhacker zoo
I will admit I got hella lucky in this match. I've played this guy before and not only is he a great player but I'm a dog in this matchup. Turns out the 1 way I can beat him is if he floods and or doesn't have an insane burning-tree turn. He did flood enough so that he could never effectively apply pressure. Since my guys are huge there's only so much he can do after a certain point.
4-0
r5 top 4 mardu pyromancer
I thought this was a great matchup post SB and maybe that's true. The problem is game 1 outside a nut draw from me, I just can't deal with the souls and go wide strategy. plus MD moons doesn't help. In game 3 I kept a great hand but turns out he just has a blood moon he will slam on his t3 (my t2) and I had no way to answer it with no basics. It's amazing how punishing being on the draw can be in modern. I had everything I needed but sometimes you just get shut down. I have so much in SB for this match oh well. I think my takeaway is I need some number of early discard for just that problem.
4-1
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r1: hollow one
g1 he gets t1 hollow one but I'm able to beat through that but flamewake phoenix eventually kills me. g2 we have a mega long staredown but I end up getting there with removal, night of soul's betrayal and larger dudes. g3 i t1 thoughtseize and see 2 street wraith, burning inquiry, gurmag, some lands and something else. I take gurmag hoping that he doesn't have much action. I think this is a mistake as he has a flameblade on the field. his t2 he plays another flameblade, land and passes i play a goyf. he then untaps, cycles 3x street wraith and then casts 2x burning inquiry me and swings for 20..........
0-1
r2: jeskai control
g1 I just lay the beats and avoid over committing. smusher is so good. g2 we have a mega long game of dancing around teferi and thrun but eventually he finds his outs and a second teferi takes it home. g3 I have a fast hand with some disruption. I take his counter then tks him to take his removal then smusher him and that was that.
1-1
r3 humans
i mull to 5 and proceed to get stomped. g2 I have a decent hand but there's exactly 1 hand I lose to and he has it. t1 noble, t2 mantis rider, t3 mantis rider. now I'm still ok I have live draws if i can find a sweeper or pulse. I don't and TKS him to see a 3rd mantis rider and an image. I was totally screwed even if I had a sweeper. well. that's modern for you I guess. This is my first loss to humans in 6 matches.
1-2
r4 sultai midrange
we have 3 very excellent games of a lot of back and forth. It's gbx vs gbx those mirrors are always exciting. As I've found over and over with these GBx matches is, if I can maintain some kind of parity with them I will always win as my top end is so much better. Jund is slightly different as bbe can either be gamebreaking or nothing. His counters are annoying game 1 and wasn't really expecting 2 legic knots and then snapcaster to then keep me off more things but what can ya do. g3 we have a wonderful back and forth with board wipes and removal galore but smusher man. hell of a card.
2-2
not sure if I would change anything going forward. I really want to try goreclaw in my 75 but not sure that will happen. He seems great in fair deck fights but 4cmc is a lot. Kalitas has been stellar everytime so it's highly unlikely he will find a spot. Otherwise I don't think m19 adds anything to this deck. It's a fantastic set though, I'm mega hyped.
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Current Decks:
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange BWG Abzan value evolution BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
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I'm late to the discussion on the Red v Black but I personally don't think red adds much but it is a different take on the deck. I do actually like the obligator it's a very strong aggressive card and if you can maintain momentum it's hard to lose which is what the deck aims to do vs BG inherently is more controlly midrange. And for that purpose, having a mana dork t1 ups the chance of being able to play a 4 drop t2 and smashers t3. Obligator is also very good against tron. Deck does seem soft to storm but it does have tools to fight pretty much everything. There's certainly another forum for this deck style I'm sure. I certainly prefer what black has to offer. Interesting side note, we are much better vs boggles then they are, too bad that's not really a thing. I guess it comes down to the meta as this deck is better vs some decks than others.
I have tried out nobles and birds before and sometimes they were fine sometimes they weren't. Being able to accelerate is not to be underestimated and I have waffled back and forth thinking about adding them back again. Being able to play your stuff ahead of curve is the only reason decks like these can compete. I think for me it's hard to remove that interaction with our bad matchups, at least some, in g1. Sometimes t1 discard into goyf just wins where as t2 reshaper does not, or at least not nearly as often.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
If you can put it on a reshaper the value you get is just insane as long as it sticks and you can kill it. There is value in even using removal on your own guy as it comes back. Wonderful mirrorbreaker card. I'll try it in my 75 but I'm not overly optimistic about it. I hope I'm wrong.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
"It's a trap!"
Try 1 in the 75 as a fun-of or something. The Cave half is fine. The aura half is terrible. Let me know what you cut for it. I highly doubt it will be good enough to grind back your own removal spell. And if you do, wouldn't you just be winning that game anyway? I suspect D90Dennis14 is right. But it's definitely worth throwing 1 or 2 in to try out, to definitively know. You'll learn a bit about the shell along the way.
It's nice to see Golgari get one of these flip cards though and great that its good enough to come up in conversation.
r1 GR ponza
Did my best to play around his LD and just did what my deck does, disrupt and beat down. g2 he took me to pound town and blood moon shut me out long enough to drop a titan and I couldn't get back in while sitting with a pulse in hand g3 I hit lost legacy on blood moon on my t3 and managed to snag one from hand and from there it was no problem as I had not a ton to fear.
1-0
r2 mono black devotion
I had enough discard and such that I was able to race through an obliterator and discard anything else of relevance he drew. g2 was much the same. This felt pretty easy but things just lined up well for me. I have a feeling it's probably a pretty good matchup for me long as we can dodge the grey merchant for too much.
2-0
r3 life from the loam value dredge
This is just an aggro, value town, smallpox, squee, goblin nabob, zombie infestation dredge build. It can grind like you wouldn't believe but it's also really slow which I think is it's greatest weakness. It can't just explosive nut draw into a million amalgams and ghasts. g1 scooze sealed the deal for me. Glad I had it. g2 I didn't have too much and he was able to hide behind zombie infestation for so long with a squee and loam making 2 zombies every turn for "free". He forgot about hissing quagmire for the entire game which allowed me to dodge the GQ he wasn't using on me. Honestly had he just been GQ me every turn I would have eventually lost for sure since he just had infinite blockers. Well his huge missplay means his alpha went short by 1 attacker allowing me to just swing back when he had essentially nothing on board.
3-0
r4 storm
I was facing none other than Dr. Rich Shay and he put me in the dirt. g1 he's on the play and storms me on his t3 my t2, sweet. I played a scooze and thought I would be fine. nope. g2 I had my SB cards and legacied his gifts. Easy. g3 he storms me again on his t3 my t2 after I thoughtseized him on my t2. He had essentially nothing but a baral in play, baral and a past in flames in hand. He rips pieces of the puzzle into 2 rituals and goes off from there. I had a tks coming down the next turn which I feel would have sealed my victory but that didn't happen. sigh.
3-1
I ended top 4 but everyone wanted to split and cube so I didn't get any more matches in which I'm sad about. I still can't decide on SB GY hate. So far I like grafdiggers cage so those will stay but I dunno on surgicals. Either I need to add a 3rd or dump them and add back in leylines. Maybe 2 surgical, 2 lost legacy 2 cage is enough. If only I could have a 1-2 more SB slots. I just need to grind some matches vs these kind of decks I think to know for sure.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
I really think this deck can be a favorite vs Storm but only if it is the more controlling version. Reshapper just seems more mid-rangey.
As I said, just try it out for a couple weeks.
This deck should be decent against storm outside nut draws from them. We certainly do have the tools.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
I've played storm about 5 times now with my current setup and I think I'm 2-3 vs it. I would say pilot error on my part and I'm sure there were decisions I could have made to win those games like more aggressive mulling or taking card X over card Y. Storm has gotten extremely resilient too depending on the build. Most of the games they just found the remaining pieces they need and I can't stop a top deck.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
4 matter reshaper
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
spells
3 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
3 fatal push
2 abrupt decay
1 collective brutality
3 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
4 oath of nissa
4 llanowar wastes
2 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
2 swamp
1 forest
1 wastes
1 twilight mire
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
1 ghost quarter
1 field of ruin
2 cavern of souls
2 Blooming marsh
2 surgical extraction
2 grafdigger's cage
2 fulminator mage
2 lost legacy
1 pithing needle
1 collective brutality
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 night of souls' betrayal
1 ratchet bomb
r1 GR Ponza. Played 3 games. I got completely screwed g2 as I expected. G3 he played strangely. I guess he wanted to aim to develop his board as opposed to just stone raining me over an over and turns out that was a super bad decision for him. I was able to untap, lost legacy his blood moon. then untap, pulse his arbor elves then surgical his stone rains, snagging one from his hand. From there he rips a bunch of lands and I was able to get out of my mana issues to secure victory.
1-0
r2 mono blue living end
g1 I was able to disrupt him long enough to get out some threats and a scooze. g2 he just rips perfect after I thought it was an easy win. I guess visions will do that along with a million cyclers. I didn't see my damnation. g3 he draws a lot of as foretold and not a lot of relevant things and I was able to slow him long enough that as foretold didn't matter through surgicals and scooze, etc.
2-0
r3 GWb counters company
long super exciting games. I drew pretty well and I think overall made solid choices although I'm sure I made plenty of non-optimal plays. Just so many decisions vs that deck. I have a TON of SB cards to make this match in theory pretty good but it never felt easy. Grafdiggers and night of souls betrayal were mvps this match.
3-0
r4 eldrazi tron
we drew this match to get into top 4 but we played a 2 preboard games for fun. I bricked pretty hard in this match but it wasn't due to anything I could control. Although I will say, in g1 I went for t2 tks and ended up getting locked out from a chalice on 1. I drew 4 1 drops in a row to end my hand as 3 oath, 2 inquisition, 1 push and 2 lili LOL. Had I played a little slower and went t1 oath I would have been fine as I could at least cast liliana. It's so hard to turn down t2 tks though. Liliana though is probably my best card in this match. Maybe vs that deck it was worth it to play t3 tks. I'm not sure to be honest. Usually chalice on 1 isn't that bad but sometimes you just draw the wrong half of your deck haha.
Pulse was super mvp last night as was surgical. It was nice to actually have surgical be good. I still plan to go up to 3 scooze main. I've been toying though instead of a 3rd scooze for a tireless tracker but that's probably not right. I picked up a treetop but played quagmire instead. Honestly it's probably worth keeping in the quagmire over the more aggressive treetop. Being able to kill huge dudes is worth it for me as I don't have the best removal for cmc 4+. While I didn't have it in e-tron and living en it excels a lot on those matches. Also it was relevant keeping a large scooze at bay for a bit in my r3 match.
I really really love this deck. This is the longest I've ever been on a deck and I have no intentions to change anytime soon. I'm almost done foiling it out too but only mega expensive things left.../cheer for sketti monsters!
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
I lost to none other than Dr. Rich Shay in top 8 on pieces of the puzzle storm. Let me tell you having played storm about 6+ times now. This is in no way shape or form a good match up at least in my experience. I'll admit, I'm not sure pieces is in every storm list but it wrecks me. g1 I had t1 thoguhtseize, t2 scooze, t3 brutality + scooze activation and went into t4 with 2 activations up and I still lost. g2 I had a little more fight but I just drew extremely mediocre. I drew 3 oath of nissa (which surprisingly hasn't happened to me yet) and not enough disruption. He had a remand for my tks then He found an echoing truth for cage and then comboed off to kill me. Post board I have a solid 8 cards to fight them but not a single one is a guaranteed win. I feel like I just need to be lucky in that match and draw the right cards at the right time.
Played a bonus round against 5c tribal flames aggro deck. The guy has been doing well with it and I thought he was just lucky. Well, it's actually pretty solid. Sure the mana is greedy as hell and no way he can beat a blood moon but good lord that deck hits hard. I lost eventually g3 as I was stuck on 2mana for way too long. Had I been able to curve out it would have been a very different game. Pretty sweet deck though. Nothing like a 2 mana lava axe...
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
r1 mardu reveler
Not super hard games. Just dodge lingering or save my mass removal for it. He got stuck on 2 lands for a while but he's only running like 19 lands which seems super low but I get his curve is tiny also. No big deal, I'm kind of set up to beat decks like this.
1-0
r2 storm
Dr Rich Shay again put me in the dirt. Every time I start t1 thoughtseize into t2 scooze and still lose. I at least took him to a game 3 but good lord I just cannot beat him. So it means my SB cards just aren't impactful enough on their own. I need multiple pieces of hate it seems. It's possible he is also just lucky but I'm going to assume I am just making tiny mistakes or just not choosing the right things even though I don't think I was making any real misplays. The deck is just so resilient/\.
1-1
r3 RUG moon
This was gerard fabiano list I believe with value town deck with blood moons. We played 3 games for fun but I went 2-1 winning the first 2. He's got the tools to get me for sure but my top end is so much better especially if I can find cavern. Not much to report out of hte ordinary.
2-1
r4 affinity
We played a total of 2 matches as I needed all the experience I can get since affinity is no longer a big deck in my lgs. I won both matches fairly easily. I know first hand though how hard affinity can be and I'm not sure I can ever beat their nut draw but long as I can keep parity I'm usually fine. I just ripped all of my removal when I needed it and brought the beats.
3-1
top 8 GR Ponza
Oh boy was I worried about this match. Got crushed game 1. game 2 I made sure to play around moon and got rewarded. After a couple of discard I just kept dropping big dudes and eventually even his guys couldn't get around. Stormbreath dragon isn't very good when it's forced to block haha. g3 I kept a semi greedy hand with oath and a wastes and a llanowar wastes. I played oath and sandbagged the wastes. He slams moon but I play my wastes and proceed to just keep slamming thought-knots and kill him lol. He got stuck on 3 lands for a pivotal couple of turns (I killed a bird t1) which let me take his acid moss with TKS. Had he ripped it killing my wastes I was probably screwed. I think he made a couple of mistakes this game which really cost him like risk exposing the bird t1 when he probably could have used sprawl instead.
4-1
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
silence and then lost to tron.
In the Tron match He had an active relic and I have a decay and surgical in hand and just GQ his tower. He passes and then we go back so he can fetch after a judge call. It's fine no biggy but it screwed up my train of thought and totally blew my surgical in response to his map activation forgetting I had to bait his relic with my decay. So as you would expect eh relics himself. DOH. I'll try not to do that again I guess. I'm not saying I would have been able to as I need him to basically tap out and use his relic, so it might have been too late regardless but I didn't even give myself the chance.
I've made the decision to firstly go back and start a spreadsheet of all my matches so far and see where I'm at. Secondly, I'm going to rent this deck online for the next month to start seriously testing for GP Hartford.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/226788659
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
On friday I made a couple very small changes. Changed 1 cavern to a treetop village and 1 inquisition to a nihil spellbomb. Overall I like the changes but I'm unsure if I want the second cavern. I'll keep treetop for now as it was good but it's for sure one of my flex slots. I beat jund, tron, 8 rack and storm. I happened to draw the spellbomb g1 vs storm and it basically won me the game by itself...so dumb. I think It's going to keep it's slot haha.
My slots are basically My land flex slots are:
1 cavern
1 treetop
1 GQ
1 field
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I7tAKH_KeCpAibz0EKfcF4s4RXVxR8D0NGnPJQbyORs/edit?usp=sharing
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
3-2 (discard version)
3-2 (mana dork version)
4-1 (mana dork version)
Not spectacular results since the unbannings but not terrible. I'm currently deciding between discard version or mana dorks. Really the only difference is 5 dorks vs 5 discard. Also been playing around with 1 endbringer, 1 brutality vs 2 brutality in my dork version. I think i will playing the dork version for Hartford.
I cannot decide which version I like better. Both have strengths and about the same weaknesses but I think mana dorks slightly edge out discard in general I think. I just don't know. Discard has served me well for such a while.
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 matter reshaper
4 thought-knot seer
4 reality smasher
spells
3 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
3 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
2 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
2 swamp
2 forest
1 wastes
1 twilight mire
1 hissing quagmire
1 treetop village
1 cavern of souls
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
3 surgical extraction
1 choke
1 night of souls' betrayal
1 grafdigger's cage
2 fulminator mage
1 lost legacy
1 pithing needle
1 collective brutality
1 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 thrun, the last troll
1 ratchet bomb
3 birds of paradise
2 noble heirarch
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 matter reshaper
4 thought-knot seer
4 reality smasher
spells
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
3 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
2 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
2 swamp
2 forest
1 wastes
1 twilight mire
1 hissing quagmire
1 treetop village
1 cavern of souls
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
3 surgical extraction
1 choke
1 golgari charm
1 grafdigger's cage
2 fulminator mage
1 pithing needle
1 collective brutality
1 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 thrun, the last troll
1 engineered explosives
1 ratchet bomb
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
Here's a new variant I am trying out. So far I like it but still to be determined if it's better than the mana dork version. I'm pretty sure trackers and tasigur are certainly better than matter reshaper but that card is still good. I got lucky in my placement on friday but here is my latest FNM report. The week previous I went 2-2 but that one had more discard/removal and no oaths. I had to add oath back, card is just too important for me.
So far liliana is been essential. Yes I would love more removal and I think adding back 4 discard main helps. I don't think I can remove liliana from my list. It's possible she's not needed but in some of my weaker matches like control she's just so good. at worse, she's a 3mana removal spell.
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
2 Tasigur, the golden fang
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
1 surgical extraction
1 choke
1 grafdigger's cage
1 lost legacy
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 night of souls' betrayal
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 ratchet bomb
2 damping sphere
r1: jeskai nahiri
g1: he doesn't do much and I discard some of his removal, make sure to never play too much into sweepers and manage to dodge nahiri for easy win. g2 he was able to land nahiri and I couldn't get to her. That lady closes games quick. g3 long drawn out game but came down to top decks and i drew 3 lands in a row and he didn't
0-1
r2 GW death and taxes
g1 he lands a quick gavony and I couldn't race it. Never saw my eldrazi and mirran crusader closed the game very quick. G2 and 3 were just total slaughters. I have 4 sweepers coming in on top of a bunch of removal. FoR took care of gavony when relevant and since all my guys are huge there's not much cards like Thalia and voice of resurgence are going to do for him. Kalitas was mvp.
1-1
r3 jund
These were quick games. He kinda stumbles on mana but it didn't matter my removal lined up well and none of his did. TKS would remove things like terminate and everything else was too big. my deck doesn't care too much about lightning bolts and usually fatal push.
2-1
r4 humans
g1 I mull to 5 but manage to stall with a couple huge goyfs and a tracker. Tracker ended up drawing me like 5 cards. He was drawing irrelevant stuff and I just managed to draw the removal I needed for mantis rider while chipping in with a 5/6 goyf. g2 was hilarious. I just drew like a god and had all the removal in the world. My deck shut him down and smasher took it home easy.
3-1
Lucked into top 4
Semis burn
g1 I think he got flooded as he didn't do much. THankfully he was on mostly creature plan which my deck has no problem with. Was still close but I got there without too much anxiety. g2 I keep a semi slow hand but he gets stuck on 1 land for a few turns which gives me all the time I need. I slam kalitas and he gains me 9 life to close out the game.
4-1
finals mono U tron
This is a very competent player and while the deck is far from mainstream he plays it well and it is still very strong. g1 I manage to have a solid hand of discard and multiple field of ruins. He also drew too many power plants and I was able to shut him off tron lol. I was able to close out the game before he was able to find huge idiots thanks to liliana. g2 was a very long game. I was able to ruin and surgical him off tron but he had so many ways to slow me down that eventually a huge ballista ended me. I punted hard that game but I'm not sure it mattered. g3 went the opposite I end up getting a very early TKS when he didn't have an island and took his threat and thoughtseized his other threat. he assembles tron but it doesn't matter as he has nothing to play. I slam smusher and gg friend. tracker was MVP, drew me like 6+ cards in the match. turns out card is great who knew.
5-1
I think the only real change I may make is -1 tasigur +1 treetop village (this is a maybe I really want to get a second manland in there). Honestly I want more but that's probably too hard to do. Mana feels solid as is right now, I can't decide on 23 vs 24 lands. Other change would be -1 push +1 cast down. I think having a nice catch all removal is better than a 4th push as I can't always trigger revolt but tracker goes a long way in making sure I have revolt triggers (clues).
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
1 Tasigur, the golden fang
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 cast down
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 treetop village
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
1 surgical extraction
1 choke
1 grafdigger's cage
1 lost legacy
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 night of souls' betrayal
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 ratchet bomb
2 damping sphere
r1: serum powder colorless eldrazi
we had an epic g1 which ended at us both at 1 for many turns. If either of us draw a smusher we just die. He had sea gate wreckage active for a few turns till I found the field of ruin for it. Eventually I got there after he started to run out of gas. Thankfully outside of smusher his guys are actually smaller than mine. g2 he has a t2 smasher and well I couldn't race it. g3 I had a t2 TKS into a second so it was good to give him a taste of his own medicine. Turns out neither deck can really beat 2 temple draws haha. Magic is a silly game sometimes.
1-0
r2: abzan
we had 3 epic games as one would expect from 2 GB decks. g3 8 goyfs were seen and 7 were played (I chose a traker over goyf early on from oath). He ended up having a scooze for way too long and that ultimately won him the game as it chipped in and was able to gain him enough life. No regrets were fun games. I was 1 turn off damnation haha.
1-1
r3: jund
Jund is a much easier match than abzan. we exchanged a lot of resources but my guys are bigger and typically faster. My removal in general lines up much better. Having access to field of ruin was absolutely key in this match. g3 came down to a very close smasher+treetop for the win and I was dead on the swing back with his HUGE raging ravine. I couldn't find any removal for it so my line was I just swing in for lethal and make him have the removal to kill me. Turns out he didn't this time.
2-1
r4 mono green enchantress
This is actually a very brutal deck for other decks that don't have interaction and a clock. Well mine has both and i drew what I needed for a COMICALLY hilarious stomping of this deck. One highlight was g2 I t1 inquisition. t2 goyf, t3 field of ruin his nykthos + push his eidolon of blossoms and swing in for 5. Being so far ahead at that point there was nothing he could do but I follow up with TKS the next turn for good measure.
3-1
I wasn't lucky this week and missed on top4 from beakers. Had some solid and fun games of magic so I can't complain. I sure love this deck. So close to foiling it all out too.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
r1: hollow one
Lets put it this way, when hollow one doesn't just nut draw you with huge early fatties, it's not that hard of a deck to beat. Phoenix is still really annoying but I have things to fight it SB.
1-0
r2: Jeskai ascendancy
discard and fast clock made this match very easy. I got kinda lucky he bricked off the turn he tried. He didn't have a choice as he was dead next turn but perhaps he could have gotten there. g2 he boarded into lingering souls but I had a cage anyways. super sweet tech but in this instance it didn't matter.
2-0
r3: sultai control/midrange
Another match that went well for me. As another GB deck it basically whoever comes out ahead early will win and he was drawing cards and stuff but I had threats and discard so it didn't matter much. That's the one issue I have with adding blue. Azcanta, jace and visions and snaps are fantastic cards but when behind they kinda suck (except snap)
3-0
r4: naya bushwhacker zoo
I will admit I got hella lucky in this match. I've played this guy before and not only is he a great player but I'm a dog in this matchup. Turns out the 1 way I can beat him is if he floods and or doesn't have an insane burning-tree turn. He did flood enough so that he could never effectively apply pressure. Since my guys are huge there's only so much he can do after a certain point.
4-0
r5 top 4 mardu pyromancer
I thought this was a great matchup post SB and maybe that's true. The problem is game 1 outside a nut draw from me, I just can't deal with the souls and go wide strategy. plus MD moons doesn't help. In game 3 I kept a great hand but turns out he just has a blood moon he will slam on his t3 (my t2) and I had no way to answer it with no basics. It's amazing how punishing being on the draw can be in modern. I had everything I needed but sometimes you just get shut down. I have so much in SB for this match oh well. I think my takeaway is I need some number of early discard for just that problem.
4-1
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
r1: hollow one
g1 he gets t1 hollow one but I'm able to beat through that but flamewake phoenix eventually kills me. g2 we have a mega long staredown but I end up getting there with removal, night of soul's betrayal and larger dudes. g3 i t1 thoughtseize and see 2 street wraith, burning inquiry, gurmag, some lands and something else. I take gurmag hoping that he doesn't have much action. I think this is a mistake as he has a flameblade on the field. his t2 he plays another flameblade, land and passes i play a goyf. he then untaps, cycles 3x street wraith and then casts 2x burning inquiry me and swings for 20..........
0-1
r2: jeskai control
g1 I just lay the beats and avoid over committing. smusher is so good. g2 we have a mega long game of dancing around teferi and thrun but eventually he finds his outs and a second teferi takes it home. g3 I have a fast hand with some disruption. I take his counter then tks him to take his removal then smusher him and that was that.
1-1
r3 humans
i mull to 5 and proceed to get stomped. g2 I have a decent hand but there's exactly 1 hand I lose to and he has it. t1 noble, t2 mantis rider, t3 mantis rider. now I'm still ok I have live draws if i can find a sweeper or pulse. I don't and TKS him to see a 3rd mantis rider and an image. I was totally screwed even if I had a sweeper. well. that's modern for you I guess. This is my first loss to humans in 6 matches.
1-2
r4 sultai midrange
we have 3 very excellent games of a lot of back and forth. It's gbx vs gbx those mirrors are always exciting. As I've found over and over with these GBx matches is, if I can maintain some kind of parity with them I will always win as my top end is so much better. Jund is slightly different as bbe can either be gamebreaking or nothing. His counters are annoying game 1 and wasn't really expecting 2 legic knots and then snapcaster to then keep me off more things but what can ya do. g3 we have a wonderful back and forth with board wipes and removal galore but smusher man. hell of a card.
2-2
not sure if I would change anything going forward. I really want to try goreclaw in my 75 but not sure that will happen. He seems great in fair deck fights but 4cmc is a lot. Kalitas has been stellar everytime so it's highly unlikely he will find a spot. Otherwise I don't think m19 adds anything to this deck. It's a fantastic set though, I'm mega hyped.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster