You run Hurkyl's Recall on their end step, and they bring 8, 9, 12 cards back to their hand, and they have to discard down to 7. You'll know exactly what is in their hand, so a Surgical/Extract gives a double whammy.
Hurkyl's Recall on their end step may trap them with more than 7 cards in hand, and they have to discard down. As a bonus, you will know exactly what is in their hand, so a timely Surgical/Extirpate can be a double whammy. I'd focus on Mox Opal or Retract, if they discard one it's a sure bet they have a 2nd in hand. Even exiling an equipment means they are more likely to fizzle when trying to combo off. The article you linked warns to never sideboard below 19 copies. If we can help them get below that number, our odds apparently improve.
The writer of the article anticipates a lot of Cheerios at the GP. As much as the 3 staples (Paladin, Retract and Opal) have risen the past month, I have to agree.
I'm a fan of overboarding to the losses (melira x4 and Hurkyl's x4) in order to even the playing field. The first defense is understanding the deck and how it works so we can effectively deconstruct it.
I dont think there will be a lot of cheerios
Mtgo showed its not that great (while its certainly good vs unresisting opponent)
Also people adjusted their mains and sideboards, chalice spiked
I would say the main exile target is grapeshot while Retract and Mox tie for second
Just dont tap out if you have an answer in hand
Also Cheerios is naturally valnurable to mill as they draw half of their library plus use fetches.
I played in the Early Riser GP Trial today in prep for tomorrow. 5 rounds, single elimination (lose and you're out). Go 5-0 and you get 2 byes for the tournament tomorrow!
I should note: I couldn't find a Nihil Spellbomb in time, so I have a Relic of Progenitus in there. And I couldn't find Lost Legacy, so I stuck Infinite Obliteration in there. C'est la vie.
It's tough to recall all the plays here, but I think I made few errors except against Affinity. Here's my best recap!
Match 1: Bant Eldrazi
Game 1 on the play:
Kept a solid hand with 2 lands, Archive, Glimpse, Push, Orb and Visions I think. Led with a swamp and pass. Saw the Windswept Heath come down and made me breathe a sigh of relief that my Trap would get through - cracked it for a Hierarch, so I figured they were on Bant Eldrazi or Infect... ugh, neither are good matches. Either way, Fatal Push the Hierarch, landed my Trap, T2 glimpse, T3 Visions and basically sped my way out from there to the win via a pretty big Mind Funeral (21 cards I think it was).
SB: Out 2 x IoK, in 2 x Dispel I think (or Logic Knot)
Game 2 on the draw:
He landed a Skyspawner on T2 and a Thought Knot on T3, forget what he took. I landed a Go for the Throat on his TKS, but he landed another one. I went for Damnation on T5 with 5 lands but his TKS gave his Stubborn Denial Ferocious so I got beat in.
Game 3 on the play:
I drew and landed an Ensnaring bridge T4 that he had no answer for that held his TKS at bay. From there, Mesmeric Orb did the job and I just cruised my way out.
1-0
Round 2: Bant Eldrazi! Before this match we had typical banter "Oh ya, what did you play against last round?" He was against Burn, I told him I was against Bant Eldrazi, haha.
Game 1 on the draw:
T2 Matter Reshaper into T3 Reality Smasher was trouble, but I was milling him decently with a Crypt Incursion in hand. In my turn 3 I had options: Crypt Incursion for 9 life now, or Glimpse this turn, survive 8 more damage and get a bigger CI next turn. So I went with that, saw a TKS and extracted it to go down to 9 life (if he TKSed my CI I'm toast). Next turn he topdecks a second Reality Smasher and I'm done.
Same sideboarding
Game 2 on the play:
Matter Reshaper got Fatal Pushed and turned into a Hierarch. Ah well. He landed TKS and had Vines of Vastwood for it to put me down to 9 on T4. I got a Damnation then a bridge down and he had no response for it, me at 4 life. Whew.
Game 3:
Getting in tight towards the end of the game, I'd landed a Crypt Incursion to gain 15, but am now back down to 17 life. He has 2 TKS on board, I have a Snap, and Archive Trap in hand, push in the yard, and Orb on the table. I counted his library, 20 cards, 5 tapped lands to play his third TKS. In response I Snapcaster targeting my Push. He took my Archive Trap from hand. I blocked a TKS, took 4 from the other TKS, and pushed his TKS (his tapped one, oops!). My next turn I topdeck mind funeral for the win.
I forget which game it was in here, but I Surgicalled his Reality Smashers and saw 2 Vines of Vastwood in hand, so I Snap-Surgicalled both Vines out of his hand. Score.
Both Bant Eldrazi players didn't know what to bring in against me but I think they brought the same things; Stubborn Denial, the green artifact destruction, and Rest in Peace for 1 of them, Grafdiggers cage for the other, which I think are bad moves on their part. Advantages to running a deck people aren't used to playing against - my second opponent said it was the first time he's ever been milled out.
2-0
Round 3: Abzan Company
Game 1 on the play:
I started with IoK, Push, 2x Crypt Incursions, an Orb and 2 land so I kept - a solid control type hand with an Orb is good in my books. IoK showed me what he was up to, a mitt full of fetches in abzan colours. Landed the first CI for 15 early, he got me on the beatdown with a Voice of Resurgence token, Eternal Witness, something else, dealing me 9 damage per turn, but I knew I could outlast him with my second incursion. Landed it near the end of the game for 33 life (going from 8 to 41), game over.
Sideboard:
+2 Collective Brutality, -1 Orb, -1 Go for the Throat I think?
Game 2 on the draw:
Can't even remember what I had, another IoK and saw Collected Company. He got a Hierarch down, I Fatal Pushed his Voice to give him a 2/2 token, which got buffed up to 5/5 the following turn with a Collected Company. He tried to Eternal Witness it back, I Surgical Extraction his Cocos in response. I landed an Ensnaring Bridge, but he had the Qasali Pridemage in hand to take it out and continue the beats to go for the win. I had a snapcaster and Push in the yard to target but he barely had lethal that turn.
I think I put my Go for the Throat back in just cuz spot removal is pretty good against him. Can't recall what I took out.
Game 3 on the play:
I kept a hand with IoK, Crypt Incursion, Push, and I think Glimpse or Mind Funeral. IoK on the play, see Coco and a Tidehollow Sculler, Saffi Eriksdottir, some other stuff. Took the Sculler knowing I can Push one of the other threats. He drops Saffi and has some other creatures down, I snapcaster-block Saffi and target my Fatal Push in the yard, and he lets Saffi die instead of saccing her to save one of his other creatures that I ended up pushing. I hit a Crypt Incursion early for 12 life in response to Eternal Witness trying to bring back Melira or Voice of Resurgence. He got a Bird of Paradise, Wall of Roots, and Noble Hierarch out but not really any other threats. Anafenza, Kin tree Spirit came down and bolstered his birds, so he was beating me with a 2/1 witness and 1/2 Birds slowly. I got an Orb down and proceeded with the mill plan, we ended up going to time. He topdecked a Gavony Township, tapped 5 lands to pump all his guys and swing at me for 9 (taking me from 20 to 11), I just took it, glimpsed him, and the Orb did the final kill for me thanks to him tapping out.
3-0!!
Round 4: Affinity
The opponent mentions he is a Judge for the main event tomorrow and playing in this one today, so clearly a very experienced player.
Game 1 on the Draw:
We both Mulligan to 6 to start, I get 2 lands and keep a Glimpse on top. He leads with Vault Skirge and Opal T1. T2 he drops Blinkmoth and uses it to cast Cranial Plating - dang. I got my mill plan on with an orb and some spells, Ghost Quartered 2 Blinkmoth Nexus, hit an IoK and saw Steel Overseer and Arcbound Ravager in hand - stole the overseer and Surgicalled the Ravager. I managed to deal with all his threats, he had the Cranial Plating and like, 3 Springleaf drums but no creatures to get mana.
Sideboard:
-1 Go for the Throat -1 Mesmeric Orb, +2 Chalice
DOH I SHOULD'VE BOARDED OUT ARCHIVE TRAPS.
Game 2 on the Draw:
I started with IoK, Chalice, Glimpse, Funeral, Ghost Quarter and 2 other lands - sweet, good hand. Vault skirge T1 again for him. I went T1 IoK, got spell pierced, so I drop Chalice on 0 (he already had an Opal and Memnite out). Cranial T2 with opal and other artifacts down. Equip skirge, swing for 6. I landed a bridge with 4 cards in hand T3, promptly gets hit with Ancient Grudge and he swings in to kill.
Game 3 on the play:
I forget what I kept here but it was pretty solid. It came down to him with less than 10 cards in library, staring down my bridge on 2 cards in my hand. I had Snapcaster Glimpsed him with a mind Funeral in hand, so lethal. He had Etched Champion, Arcbound Ravager and a bunch of artifacts on the board. Champion gets through my bridge, he sacks all his artifacts to his ravager, sacks the ravager to pump his Champion up to lethal after declare blockers. Sneaky combat tricks by Affinity! If I hadn't snap-glimpsed, I could've snap-pushed during upkeep to take out his ravager, and he wouldn't have been able to pull the sneaky combat move through my bridge. Grrrr, misplay by me.
3-1 knocked me out of the tournament but I was pretty impressed with the deck performance! The Affinity player said he was legit scared of my deck, said he'd never actually played against mill, and said I would take a lot of people by surprise in the main event and any side events ("Play as many side events as you can, noone will expect you and you should do really well!").
Main event starts tomorrow, will keep you all posted with that one too
Edit to add: My performance scored me 200 GameKeeper Tix (prize tickets), which is enough to buy 20 packs of Aether Revolt if I wanted - pretty good score. I've got my eye on the 270 Tix foil Glimpse the Unthinkable though... gonna save up from tomorrow and Sunday stuff too.
Also, artists on site included rk post (Mind Funeral artist), Mark Tedin (Shelldock Isle), and Jason Felix (Archive Trap). I splurged and grabbed 3x foil Archive Trap and 4x foil Mind Funeral so I could get them signed by the artist. I got Mark Tedin to do a small alter on a Shelldock Isle; he drew a turtle head coming out of the isle itself, haha. Pretty great set of artists for me to have at the tournament!
Good luck tomorrow
dont bring Chalices on the draw vs Affinity
Go for the Throat seems a bit underwhelming, I like singleton Merderous Cut, but in your build id use Fatal Push or Dismember
Pretty good! 3-1 is very impressive, and you learned a valuable anti-affinity lesson in a no pressure situation. That will help tomorrow. Thanks for sharing that with us so we can be on the lookout for it!
I'm cheering for you. Leaving in 15 minutes to play a $7 win-a-box Legacy tourney (I'm playing Leylines. I can't wait! First Legacy tourney.)
A write-up from a 2-boxer at the local shop today. Ended up being a 21-header. My decklist is 2/3 the way down page 68 of this thread if anyone feels curious. Kudos to all the tournament write-ups that this thread has seen recently. Gives great insight into specific matches and the cards that shined.
Round 1 - GR Eldrazi Tron
1) She opens with a tron piece and expedition map. I reply crab. She 'nuther tron pieces and fetches the last one. I fetchland for a mill 6 aaaaaaaand Emrakul, the Aeons Torn shows up. Crap. She hits tron, drop a Karn Liberated and proceeds to thwart my beatdown via Jace's Phantasm. I scoop.
-1 Crypt Inc, -2 Mes Orb, -2 G Prison
+3 Surg Ex, +2 Rav Trap
2) I play it very slow, waiting for an extraction effect to show up. She is a bit slow out of the gates, but ends up mapping for her final tron piece. I extract it, hoping not to see Emmy too soon. Turns out, she was in her hand. I proceed to mill with extreme prejudice.
3) I play it slow again, extract a tron piece, but gas out bad. She starts ramping one by one into a Karn. I top-deck a Surgical Extraction to stop Karn from dropping to pound through a Phantasm beatdown.
1-0
Round 2 - Esper Midrange
1) Souls and Tasigur and lotsa counterspells and stuff. A good matchup for us. He was a bit mana screwed early and I just got rolling on him. Mesmeric Orb and Ghostly Prison did the job mostly.
-1 Path, -2 Crypt Inc
+2 G Prison, +1 Surg Ex
2) We both did our respective things. Mine ended up involving a turn 1 Hedron Crab with piles of fetchlands following AND a Trapmaker's Snare into an Archive Trap when I had another in my hand. So the solid 26 smack. Always fun. I outsped him.
2-0
Round 3 - G Stompy
1) I have actually been wrecked by this exact deck before. Was a tad trepidatious. Caught an early Path to Exile on his T2 Scavenging Ooze and he kinda stalled out after that. By the time he was able to get rolling I could Crypt Incursion for 63 life and put him out of range.
2) He curved out nicely and I flooded. It was bad. He also hit my lone Skite with Unravel the Aether which sucked.
3) Landed a T2 Spellskite. Followed up with a T3 Ghostly Prison. Then another. Eventually a third one hit. He had literally 50+ power on the board and couldn't touch me with a dang thing. Stole all his pump when he tried that path. T'was lovely.
3-0
Round 4 - W Humans
1) Buddy was foiled out. Like, foil Icatian Javelineers level commitment. I ended up with an opener with 3 Jace's Phantasms, a Glimpse the Unthinkable and the land to make it work. I smashed face. He scooped. Never fetched though....
2) Hit a Ghostly Prison turn 3, which was nice. But that was about all that was nice about this game. Gassed out entirely too early. Still managed to beat him down pretty bad. He bashed me to 1 life and I had the savior Mind Funeral which hit for 19. Sadly, he had 1 card left, drew and killed me. Turns out, he told me he runs 61 cards. SO much fail.
3) Drew 2 Prisons opening hand, never hit the white mana I needed for 'em. Got stomped.
3-1
Round 5 - Infect
1) We drew into top 8. Yay for winning. Played for fun anywho. He stuck a Blighted Agent despite me pathing the first and dropping a Phantasm. He got there.
2) I flooded and the one Prison that stuck didn't stop the pain train. Infect is rough.
All day 3 - 2.
Observations:
I hate Mind Funeral so bad. Yes, you can set it up by letting them fetch or extracting lands or Ghost Quartering stuff, but even then it still does not fail to disappoint me. Today hit for 6, 10, 8, 6, and 19. Garbage for consistency. Conversely, Startled Awake has put in work as a good curve topper and viable Shelldock Isle target. Probably gonna switch one for the other soon. May go a full 3 SA/0 MF.
Spellskite is a dang powerhouse. Probably gonna find room for a fourth in my side.
Trapmaker's Snare hs been AOK thus far. Still experimenting, but it gets the Archive Traps pretty nicely and opens fun sideboard options.
Thanks, Greg. Even though our decks have some differences, it is always nice to observe how you attack their deck, and specifically how you board against them. Valuable info.
Leylines didn't show up today. 0-2, 0-2, and never went off a single time. The highlight was an ~18 yo girl pulling a Masterpiece Platinum Angel. Shrieked, running around and jumping up and down excited. Turns out she plays angels and has wanted one for years. Now she has The. Best. One. Watching wins like that is fun.
Waiting for Keith's report. I hope the silence means he is grabbing all the sleep he can for day 2.
@KeithsGenome
Btw I want to note that Bridge worked 2 of the 5 times you used it. Maybe there were cases when you drew it but couldnt use it profitably. This is exactly why I abandoned it. Its not reliable, often it doesnt do what it is supposed to do.
Thanks, Greg. Even though our decks have some differences, it is always nice to observe how you attack their deck, and specifically how you board against them. Valuable info.
Leylines didn't show up today. 0-2, 0-2, and never went off a single time. The highlight was an ~18 yo girl pulling a Masterpiece Platinum Angel. Shrieked, running around and jumping up and down excited. Turns out she plays angels and has wanted one for years. Now she has The. Best. One. Watching wins like that is fun.
Waiting for Keith's report. I hope the silence means he is grabbing all the sleep he can for day 2.
I wish! Sleep would be nice. Between the 1am bedtime on Friday after playing hockey, getting up twice to help feed the baby, and being on site by 8:30am, I was fatigued. I can point back to fatal or near fatal misplays in every match. I ended up going 1-4 drop.
Brief summary:
Match 1 Cheerios:
G1: he mulliganed to 5 and scooped to my IoK to keep his deck secret
G2: I cast a Damnation T4 to kill Paladin on board, instead of just waiting for him to combo off and use my Mind Funeral under Shelldock to get him with a draw trigger on the stack. Also had an Archive Trap in hand that he made active for me. Big misplay and he storm 42ed me
G3: Lots of creature control, got 3 Sram and 2 Pallys in the yard, then dropped Chalice on 0. Staring down Paladin beats from 15 to 3 life, I was dead next turn. Topdecked a Visions into Fetch, Glimpse, Glimpse with 2 black mana, 1 blue, and 1 ghost quarter on the field - not enough to double glimpse. Play fetch, GQ my own land for my last island and double glimpse for the win. Super tight but it shouldn't have been that close.
Match 2: Zoo
Fast zoo with Narnam Renegades and that new revolt: add GG to your pool guy.
G1 sped me out of nowhere, I landed an orb and a glimpse before dying.
G2 mulligan to 6, keep Crypt Incursion, Glimpse Glimpse Orb Fetch Darkslick Shore. Scry a GQ to the bottom (idiot.) Didn't draw a land for 4 turns and was 1 short of CI for 66 life.
Match 3: Eldrazi Tron
G1 got an Orb out and milled all his cards but 1, which he drew on the turn he killed me. I died with his library empty, dang.
G2 he dropped Chalice on 1, then 2, then 3. I had a Bridge down, he dropped a Ratchet Bomb that got countered by his own chalice. He landed Kozilek the Great Distortion, then a Walking Ballista but they were held back by my Bridge on 1. He shot twice with the Ballista, attached with a 1/1 through my bridge with me on 8 life, then went to add 2 counters before combat damage. I shot my Slaughter Pact at it, he blasted my with the counters in response, putting me down to 5. I forgot my pact trigger, judge was about to hand me game loss, but a spectator said the Ballista died before Pact hit it, so spell fizzled, phew. I topdecked a lethal Archive Trap but he discarded Reality Smasher to Kozilek to counter it. From there it was a draw-go until he landed Karn, exiled my bridge, and Kozilek to my face.
Match 4: Faeries
Wasn't familiar with this matchup but I managed to take Game 1 somehow.
SB: in 2 x Dispel, out 2 x Surgical Extraction
Game 2 he just held up for counters on everything. I boarded in my dispels to fight back, but dispel doesn't do anything to a Spellstutter Sprite. Cryptic Command, Cryptic command, Bitterblosson and Mistbind Clique finished it out for him.
Game 3 he landed 3 bitter blossoms and countered Damnation and I got rocked.
After the game he told me his deck is threat-light and I should've aimed an Extraction at Bitterblossom or Mistbind Clique and all he'd have would be little pesky flyers. Good to know.
Match 5: Abzan Value
Game 1 on the draw: T2 Goyf followed by T3 Goyf at 5/6 got me real dead real quick.
Game 2: Extracted his goyfs T2 and hit one in his hand. Landed an orb and managed to keep his big creatures off the board, but 4x lingering souls tokens put a real clock on me for the loss.
Dropped after going 1-4
I played in a GP Rebound side event after:
Match 1 vs Skred Red
Game 1 he landed a Chandra, Torch of Defiance that I had no way to answer. Once Chandra ulted he cast a couple 1 drop spells for 15 damage to my face.
Game 2: Boarded in Set Adrifts, Spellskite, and Dispels, but it wasn't enough. Blood moon on T2 kept me one black mana short of Damnation, but Koth, of the Hammer got it done with him pounding 4/4 mountains into my face that my Spellskite couldn't block more than once.
Match 2 vs Madcap Titan Shift:
This just seemed like an easy matchup to me. Turn 1 IoK from me, no legal targets (Primetime, Madcap, something else, 4 lands). I cast a few mill spells T2 and T3 (Mind funeral for 6...). T4 he eventually fetched and landed Madcap, so I Archived Trap in response. See one of his Madcaps go to the yard, his second comes out. Next turn Slaughter Pact on the Madcap. He followed it up by landing a Primeval Titan that I hit with Go for the Throat and Mesmeric Orb carried me to victory.
Out: 3x Push, 2x IoK, in 1x Infinite Obliteration (he mentioned Emrakul but I figured he was joking - however it's better to have this than a Push or IOK with no targets, even IO on Primetime or Madcap is fine by me), 3x Set Adrift, 1x Spellskite (blocker in the absence of a better card to bring in).
Game 2 went similarly, took him down pretty easily, didn't even need to land a surgical on anything.
Match 3 vs Affinity:
Similarly to the day before, got pounded in with beats Game 1 after keeping a 2-lander with mill spells and an Orb.
Out: GFFT, Orb x 3, in 2x Spellskite, 2x Chalice - Should've boarded out my Archive Traps!
Game 2: I drew an opener with 2 fatal push, visions, Crypt Incursion, Glimpse, Ensnaring Bridge and an Island. I kept it cuz at this point I'd done a lot of losing. The hand was good cards and all I needed was to draw into black mana and I'd be set, so figured I'd play the gamble at this point - if it's meant to be, so be it. T1 Visions to cycle, gets me a shelldock isle. Sad face. He went T1 Vaultskirge, opal, springleaf drum, memnite, Signal Pest. T2 Master of Etherium, T3 swing for 11 or something crazy. Game over.
Not the performance I was hoping for from my deck after a promising Friday! I wish I managed to get more sleep, I definitely felt a little underperforming mentally trying to think through plays. It sucks to look back and say "oh yea, that was a misplay" in almost every game in the match. I won against Cheerios despite the misplay. Eldrazi Tron should be an easy matchup for us too in my opinion.
I also need to mulligan more aggressively, and I think I might put a third Crypt Incursion in the deck, probably main but maybe side - you really need to land that if you want to win against most decks. On the weekend, if I landed CI I generally won, and if I didn't I lost. It's clearly that important.
I echo Greg's Mind Funeral frustration. Well over half my funerals ended up dropping less than 10 cards. I mean, it paid off sometimes in a 21 or 23, but usually less than 10 and that really sucks. Is Breaking better at a guaranteed 8? It leaves us without a three-drop mill spell, so it might be T3 mill 8 instead of T3 Mind Funeral. Maybe more aggressive Surgicals targeting lands or something? I'm not sure.
My creatureless list had promise I thought, but seeing the GP Brisbane list that did well with Scribes and Ashiok, I might try something up that vein a bit more. Cut down on some of my spells, probably Snapcasters out, and throw the Crabs, Phantasms, Manic Scribes and possibly some Ashioks in and see how it goes. From creatureless to lots of creatures. Big playstyle change for me.
In the meantime I might take a short break from Mill and work on my idea for a Jund-Eldrazi list. Jund disruption suite with mana dorks and TKS/Smasher, and Scooze/Wasteland Strangler synergy to generate bonus value. We'll see! Mill has always been and probably always will be my main deck though
I've been toying with the idea of abusing Mesmeric Orb. The only problem is, the only decent tap effect that I can find is War's Toll. All of the blue 'Tap creature' or 'tap land' cost too much for the effect gained.
If we could find something like Mana Drain (and that is even banned in Legacy!) that gives us a cost effective way to tap creatures or lands. Training Grounds and Eldrazi Displacer would work, but is slow.
War's Toll could be devastating. Basically traps them into casting all their spells in one, and only one phase. No holding up mana for your turn, either. Could be something we look at splashing to stop control, or other reactive decks. Probably protects a Crab very well, as they commit all their mana on just that one spell, making Orb really pay off. I'm going to be taking a close look at this one for the sideboard.
Does anyone know of a cheap (3 cmc or less) card that taps all of an opponents creatures and/or even better, lands?
Best if it is in blue or black.
So this was my first time playing Mill with Orbs, Scribes, or Phantasms, but I'd played other versions and was pretty comfortable with it.
I went 4-1 in a grinder on Friday, but I can't recall everything I faced so I'm not going to try to write a report on that. (I know I lost to Abzan and beat Elves, Skred, and Eldrazi Tron, but I can't remember my other win.) I played three more after that but lost first round each time, to WU Control, RWU Nahiri, and Merfolk. I do remember that in the Skred matchup I won game 3 by racing Goblin Rabblemaster with Mesmeric Orb; the last turn saw me cast a second Orb into ten tapped permanents when he had 18 cards left. "You untap, Ulamog you?"
And it's been a few (crazy) days, so sorry for the lack of detail.
So I had no byes going into the GP...
Round 1: Mardu Warriors
The deck looked to me like a Modern port of the Standard deck, with a better mana base and removal. I raced him pretty well, and Crypt Incursion and (postboard) Profane Memento stabilized, while Mesmeric Orb kept him from attacking. Win.
Round 2: Grixis Delver
This was a rough match. All the countermagic, plus the fact that I'm giving him plenty of stuff to delve for his Tasigurs and Anglers, made it difficult for me to race. Loss.
Round 3: RW Burn
Game 1 he got me to 2 life but was tapped out, so I fetched to 1, fired off a Crypt Incursion for 12 life and won a turn or two later. Game 2 he never really threatened my life total, partly thanks to Memento, and when I baited a Skullcrack in response to Memento triggers I responded with an Incursion to which he scooped. Win.
Round 4: GW Hatebears (this might've been round 5, I can't honestly remember)
Preboard he kept me low on lands with a Leonin Arbiter and multiple Ghost Quarters, but I'd gotten off a Breaking before Thalia came down and thanks to his own Quarters Jace's Phantasm beat down to win. Postboard I think it was Mesmeric Orb doing most of the work with Profane Memento keeping me stable; Hedron Crab was pretty well shut off because of his Aven Mindcensor. Win.
Round 5: BR Planeswalkers (might've been round 4)
Game 1 I milled him out somehow or other. Game 2 I couldn't find enough Set Adrifts for his walkers and he beat me down with Kalitas and managed to ultimate Chandra, Torch of Defiance. Game 3 I did find the Set Adrifts and won. Win.
Round 6: GU Infect
Game 1 I got his library low, but then he landed a Wild Defiance followed by Become Immense on a Blighted Agent. Game 2 I had Ensnaring Bridge with an empty hand, but couldn't mill him fast enough to race the pumps he was drawing for his Noble Hierarch, and, like an idiot, I'd taken out Crypt Incursion and not brought in Profane Memento (even though I'd brought in the rest of my board). Loss.
Round 7: RW Nahiri
RW Nahiri isn't as bad a matchup as RWU is because of the lack of countermagic. Nonetheless Emrakul reshuffles killed me in game 1, and then Chandra, Torch of Defiance went ultimate. Game 2 I managed--eventually--to hit Emrakul (and all his Simian Spirit Guides) with a Crypt Incursion, Set Adrift and mill away his walkers (and a Leyline of Sanctity he eventually cast) and win, but IIRC he was on a mull to 5 (or maybe even 4) so that definitely helped. By this time we were almost out of time and Game 3 ended in a draw. Draw.
Round 8: Abzan Delirium
I honestly don't much remember the first two games, except that we split them, and in the game that I won I did a ton of milling with Nephalia Drownyard. Game 3 Profane Memento gave me just enough life to survive one more turn against a Goyf, letting me find Visions of Beyond, which netted Set Adrift and a fetchland. He misplayed by not killing my Crab with Abrupt Decay while Set Adrift on his Goyf was on the stack, so I got to mill that away to stabilize. A Crypt Incursion a few turns later saw him Surgical his own Grim Flayers to deny me 12 life, and as time had just been called as he did that (but we'd made a judge call right before time went so we got a bit of an extension) we raced through turns, trying to get a result, and eventually I found Glimpse the Unthinkable for the last cards. Win.
Round 9: Eggs
I won Game 1 after a flurry of mill led him to scoop. Game 2 I could've won, but I hit Codex Shredder with Extirpate, forgetting that Krark-Clan Ironworks is his only sacrifice outlet. Game 3 I never really had a chance; I'd taken out his Open the Vaults but not his Faith's Rewards, and he fired off a Reward in response to a Crypt Incursion, eventually shooting me for infinite with Banefire. Loss.
So that was that for the main event for me. All in all I wasn't too sore about not making day 2; my first three non-wins were tough matchups and the last one was purely my fault for hitting the wrong card with Extirpate.
On the Sunday I played their last rebound event.
Round 1: Cheerios
Game 1 he scooped after a flurry of mill. Game 2 he went off on turn 3 with two Paladins. Game 3 he mulled to five, found Leyline of Sanctity (though he wasn't looking for it specifically), but I used Breaking on myself on turn 2 to get the cards I needed to delve Set Adrift and cast a Glimpse, and he never really recovered, scooping after I fired off Crypt Incursion in response to his Noxious Revival on a Puresteel Paladin. Win.
Round 2: Enduring Ideal
Oh boy. Imagine my dismay when, game 1, Leyline of Sanctity hits the table. Well, when you've got Manic Scribe and Mesmeric Orb, you don't let something like that get you down, and, indeed, Orb did all the work in milling him just enough for a win. He'd had some scrylands, and he'd had to cast Porphyry Nodes to deal with Manic Scribe and later Jace's Phantasm. I did misplay later in the game when I fired off a Visions of Beyond to try to find another Phantasm or Scribe, but they'd all been milled away by my own Orbs. Game 2 Leyline came down again, but this time I was ready with Set Adrift and Mesmeric Orb, with a turn 2 Orb into turn 3 Set Adrift getting rid of that annoying enchantment. He had Runed Halo on Glimpse the Unthinkable, stranding two of those in my hand, but it didn't matter. Win.
Round 3: Ad Nauseam
Game 1 I milled and milled, but unfortunately he had an Ad Nauseam in hand and I never hit his Laboratory Maniac, so that won him the game after he used Angel's Grace the previous turn to avoid a Pact of Negation trigger and an empty-library draw, and cast the Maniac. Game 2 I milled him out. Game 3 when I Extirpated his Angel's Graces I saw a Grave Titan in his hand with two Lotus Blooms about to come out of suspend, but then I topdecked a Set Adrift, got rid of the Titan, and raced the zombies with Mesmeric Orbs. I do remember firing off three Visions of Beyond in one turn somewhere in this match. Drawing nine cards is sweet. Win.
So all in all I may not have the optimal build of the deck, but I like what I've got. I still like Oboro because it's a blue source that always enters untapped and can't be hit by Choke, even if Fatal Push has made the Crab-Oboro combo less likely to keep going. Drownyard did a lot of work in the grindier games. I never had a moment where I thought, "I wish I had Shelldock Isle" or "I wish I had Mind Funeral," and anyway I've played with both of those and found them too inconsistent for my taste. I could maybe take out a Breaking for a Startled Awake, but with Visions of Beyond I like being able to threaten a game-ending flurry of mill.
Anyway I think this is definitely my go-to deck for Modern. I just wish Wizards would print more good mill spells.
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Rules Advisor (as of the last time they offered that certification).
Quote from "William Lyon Mackenzie King" »
There are few men in this Parliament for whom I have greater respect than the leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. I admire him in my heart, because time and again he has had the courage to say what lays on his conscience, regardless of what the world might think of him. A man of that calibre is an ornament to any Parliament.
I don't play decks. I solve optimization problems.
Currently solving:
Standard: Too poor for this format.
Modern: GW Auras, Living End, WB TurboFog, UB Mill, UR Storm
Legacy: R Burn, GU Infect, RG Lands, B Contamination
I think I was sitting next to you in the Friday morning/afternoon grinder when you were playing against Eldrazi Tron. I asked if you run Crabs and you said "Of course, why wouldn't I? They're like the goblin guide of our deck". Glad to see you did well!
I think I was sitting next to you in the Friday morning/afternoon grinder when you were playing against Eldrazi Tron. I asked if you run Crabs and you said "Of course, why wouldn't I? They're like the goblin guide of our deck". Glad to see you did well!
Yeah, I remember that. I recall you were running Damnations, which I guess makes sense if your only creatures are Snapcasters. I personally found him too slow (especially since you can't use him to flashback a free Archive Trap). I also don't like Darkslick Shores, because it's really sad when you fire off a Visions and don't have the mana to cast what you draw because your only land in hand enters tapped. (I also don't like Drowned Catacomb for the same reason--I can't drop a turn-one Crab, Phantasm or, post-board, Memento off of it.) I'm generally looking to maximise Crab value, which has the added benefits of fixing my mana the way I want while still getting to run 6 basics (I hate Blood Moon) and getting more cards into my graveyard for eventual Set Adrift delving and delirium enabling. The downside is that I don't get Shelldock Isle, but then I don't particularly like that card and having 9 fetches and 11 untapped colour sources (though I tend to be conservative with my life total if I can and generally have Grave enter tapped) leaves me room to run Drownyard, which means I can have things to do with my mana even when I'm in topdeck mode and drawing lands.
I haven't read through the whole thread, so I'm sorry if this point has been made before, but I noted something interesting about how I was playing Mesmeric Orb. (Note: for obvious reasons none of this applies if you're keeping an Ensnaring Bridge lockdown.) The first Orb is fine to run out on turn two. It'll deter your opponent from adding to his board or doing much attacking (or at least make him think twice about it), while having only a minimal effect on you as you cast your mill spells. It's also useful with the rise in the number of Temples--at least, I don't recall seeing quite as many Temples in Modern as I did over the weekend--because, unless they can follow it up with a draw spell (even just a cantrip like Serum Visions), their scry is just "do I want this card in the graveyard or not?" But the second (and later) Orbs are not for deterrence. Don't run them out if your opponent's got nothing tapped. They're for punishment--hold them up until your opponent taps enough stuff to make it worth dropping them. (Sometimes this can even be just one tapped land--sure, you're going to be milling four for casting the second Orb and your opponent's only going to lose one more card, but combined with everything else you've done that can be a fine rate of exchange.) Looking over that "White Paper" from a page ago, then, I'd classify Orb as both an aggro and a control card--the first one is proactive, the second one is reactive.
EDIT:
Another thing I'd note is that we're not trying to do 60 damage instead of 20; we're generally trying to do 50. This still isn't such that we can get reasonably consistent turn 4 kills, so we still need the control elements like Crypt Incursion. But I find it provides a good benchmark for comparing mill spells to burn spells: Archive Trap is (a free, instant-speed) Lava Axe, Glimpse the Unthinkable is Boros Charm, Hedron Crab (with enough fetches) is Goblin Guide. Of course, burn being pure aggro and mill being somewhere between aggro and control means that there are differences to take into account; I'm not sure if burn would want the equivalent of Manic Scribe (1 damage on ETB, 1 damage per upkeep if delirium is online) or Mesmeric Orb (1 damage for every three permanents untapped).
And if they bring in their whole board, they're often going to find themselves getting mana-screwed. (A few decks can handle it, though, like Scapeshift, because they run 26 lands, so watch for that.)
Rules Advisor (as of the last time they offered that certification).
Quote from "William Lyon Mackenzie King" »
There are few men in this Parliament for whom I have greater respect than the leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. I admire him in my heart, because time and again he has had the courage to say what lays on his conscience, regardless of what the world might think of him. A man of that calibre is an ornament to any Parliament.
I don't play decks. I solve optimization problems.
Currently solving:
Standard: Too poor for this format.
Modern: GW Auras, Living End, WB TurboFog, UB Mill, UR Storm
Legacy: R Burn, GU Infect, RG Lands, B Contamination
Just for giggles, I modified Cheeri0s into a mill deck. I think it's even faster now? Seems like it's a T2 deck pretty consistently. It's mono-white using Opals for U when necessary. I'd put it together, but my wallet is tapped out from MM17. I'll proxy it up and test it nevertheless.
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I'm a fan of overboarding to the losses (melira x4 and Hurkyl's x4) in order to even the playing field. The first defense is understanding the deck and how it works so we can effectively deconstruct it.
Mtgo showed its not that great (while its certainly good vs unresisting opponent)
Also people adjusted their mains and sideboards, chalice spiked
I would say the main exile target is grapeshot while Retract and Mox tie for second
Just dont tap out if you have an answer in hand
Also Cheerios is naturally valnurable to mill as they draw half of their library plus use fetches.
G Green Stompy
RG Shamans
UB Mill
UG Infect
WUBRG Slivers!
Decklist:
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Marsh Flats
2 Shelldock Isle
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Oboro Palace in the Clouds
2 Watery Grave
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Island
3 Swamp
3 Visions of Beyond
2 Damnation
4 Mind Funeral
4 Archive Trap
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Fatal Push
2 Crypt Incursion
1 Go for the Throat
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Mesmeric Orb
2 Spellskite
2 Chalice of the Void
3 Set Adrift
2 Logic Knot
2 Dispel
2 Collective Brutality
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Infinite Obliteration
I should note: I couldn't find a Nihil Spellbomb in time, so I have a Relic of Progenitus in there. And I couldn't find Lost Legacy, so I stuck Infinite Obliteration in there. C'est la vie.
It's tough to recall all the plays here, but I think I made few errors except against Affinity. Here's my best recap!
Match 1: Bant Eldrazi
Game 1 on the play:
Kept a solid hand with 2 lands, Archive, Glimpse, Push, Orb and Visions I think. Led with a swamp and pass. Saw the Windswept Heath come down and made me breathe a sigh of relief that my Trap would get through - cracked it for a Hierarch, so I figured they were on Bant Eldrazi or Infect... ugh, neither are good matches. Either way, Fatal Push the Hierarch, landed my Trap, T2 glimpse, T3 Visions and basically sped my way out from there to the win via a pretty big Mind Funeral (21 cards I think it was).
SB: Out 2 x IoK, in 2 x Dispel I think (or Logic Knot)
Game 2 on the draw:
He landed a Skyspawner on T2 and a Thought Knot on T3, forget what he took. I landed a Go for the Throat on his TKS, but he landed another one. I went for Damnation on T5 with 5 lands but his TKS gave his Stubborn Denial Ferocious so I got beat in.
Game 3 on the play:
I drew and landed an Ensnaring bridge T4 that he had no answer for that held his TKS at bay. From there, Mesmeric Orb did the job and I just cruised my way out.
1-0
Round 2: Bant Eldrazi! Before this match we had typical banter "Oh ya, what did you play against last round?" He was against Burn, I told him I was against Bant Eldrazi, haha.
Game 1 on the draw:
T2 Matter Reshaper into T3 Reality Smasher was trouble, but I was milling him decently with a Crypt Incursion in hand. In my turn 3 I had options: Crypt Incursion for 9 life now, or Glimpse this turn, survive 8 more damage and get a bigger CI next turn. So I went with that, saw a TKS and extracted it to go down to 9 life (if he TKSed my CI I'm toast). Next turn he topdecks a second Reality Smasher and I'm done.
Same sideboarding
Game 2 on the play:
Matter Reshaper got Fatal Pushed and turned into a Hierarch. Ah well. He landed TKS and had Vines of Vastwood for it to put me down to 9 on T4. I got a Damnation then a bridge down and he had no response for it, me at 4 life. Whew.
Game 3:
Getting in tight towards the end of the game, I'd landed a Crypt Incursion to gain 15, but am now back down to 17 life. He has 2 TKS on board, I have a Snap, and Archive Trap in hand, push in the yard, and Orb on the table. I counted his library, 20 cards, 5 tapped lands to play his third TKS. In response I Snapcaster targeting my Push. He took my Archive Trap from hand. I blocked a TKS, took 4 from the other TKS, and pushed his TKS (his tapped one, oops!). My next turn I topdeck mind funeral for the win.
I forget which game it was in here, but I Surgicalled his Reality Smashers and saw 2 Vines of Vastwood in hand, so I Snap-Surgicalled both Vines out of his hand. Score.
Both Bant Eldrazi players didn't know what to bring in against me but I think they brought the same things; Stubborn Denial, the green artifact destruction, and Rest in Peace for 1 of them, Grafdiggers cage for the other, which I think are bad moves on their part. Advantages to running a deck people aren't used to playing against - my second opponent said it was the first time he's ever been milled out.
2-0
Round 3: Abzan Company
Game 1 on the play:
I started with IoK, Push, 2x Crypt Incursions, an Orb and 2 land so I kept - a solid control type hand with an Orb is good in my books. IoK showed me what he was up to, a mitt full of fetches in abzan colours. Landed the first CI for 15 early, he got me on the beatdown with a Voice of Resurgence token, Eternal Witness, something else, dealing me 9 damage per turn, but I knew I could outlast him with my second incursion. Landed it near the end of the game for 33 life (going from 8 to 41), game over.
Sideboard:
+2 Collective Brutality, -1 Orb, -1 Go for the Throat I think?
Game 2 on the draw:
Can't even remember what I had, another IoK and saw Collected Company. He got a Hierarch down, I Fatal Pushed his Voice to give him a 2/2 token, which got buffed up to 5/5 the following turn with a Collected Company. He tried to Eternal Witness it back, I Surgical Extraction his Cocos in response. I landed an Ensnaring Bridge, but he had the Qasali Pridemage in hand to take it out and continue the beats to go for the win. I had a snapcaster and Push in the yard to target but he barely had lethal that turn.
I think I put my Go for the Throat back in just cuz spot removal is pretty good against him. Can't recall what I took out.
Game 3 on the play:
I kept a hand with IoK, Crypt Incursion, Push, and I think Glimpse or Mind Funeral. IoK on the play, see Coco and a Tidehollow Sculler, Saffi Eriksdottir, some other stuff. Took the Sculler knowing I can Push one of the other threats. He drops Saffi and has some other creatures down, I snapcaster-block Saffi and target my Fatal Push in the yard, and he lets Saffi die instead of saccing her to save one of his other creatures that I ended up pushing. I hit a Crypt Incursion early for 12 life in response to Eternal Witness trying to bring back Melira or Voice of Resurgence. He got a Bird of Paradise, Wall of Roots, and Noble Hierarch out but not really any other threats. Anafenza, Kin tree Spirit came down and bolstered his birds, so he was beating me with a 2/1 witness and 1/2 Birds slowly. I got an Orb down and proceeded with the mill plan, we ended up going to time. He topdecked a Gavony Township, tapped 5 lands to pump all his guys and swing at me for 9 (taking me from 20 to 11), I just took it, glimpsed him, and the Orb did the final kill for me thanks to him tapping out.
3-0!!
Round 4: Affinity
The opponent mentions he is a Judge for the main event tomorrow and playing in this one today, so clearly a very experienced player.
Game 1 on the Draw:
We both Mulligan to 6 to start, I get 2 lands and keep a Glimpse on top. He leads with Vault Skirge and Opal T1. T2 he drops Blinkmoth and uses it to cast Cranial Plating - dang. I got my mill plan on with an orb and some spells, Ghost Quartered 2 Blinkmoth Nexus, hit an IoK and saw Steel Overseer and Arcbound Ravager in hand - stole the overseer and Surgicalled the Ravager. I managed to deal with all his threats, he had the Cranial Plating and like, 3 Springleaf drums but no creatures to get mana.
Sideboard:
-1 Go for the Throat -1 Mesmeric Orb, +2 Chalice
DOH I SHOULD'VE BOARDED OUT ARCHIVE TRAPS.
Game 2 on the Draw:
I started with IoK, Chalice, Glimpse, Funeral, Ghost Quarter and 2 other lands - sweet, good hand. Vault skirge T1 again for him. I went T1 IoK, got spell pierced, so I drop Chalice on 0 (he already had an Opal and Memnite out). Cranial T2 with opal and other artifacts down. Equip skirge, swing for 6. I landed a bridge with 4 cards in hand T3, promptly gets hit with Ancient Grudge and he swings in to kill.
Game 3 on the play:
I forget what I kept here but it was pretty solid. It came down to him with less than 10 cards in library, staring down my bridge on 2 cards in my hand. I had Snapcaster Glimpsed him with a mind Funeral in hand, so lethal. He had Etched Champion, Arcbound Ravager and a bunch of artifacts on the board. Champion gets through my bridge, he sacks all his artifacts to his ravager, sacks the ravager to pump his Champion up to lethal after declare blockers. Sneaky combat tricks by Affinity! If I hadn't snap-glimpsed, I could've snap-pushed during upkeep to take out his ravager, and he wouldn't have been able to pull the sneaky combat move through my bridge. Grrrr, misplay by me.
3-1 knocked me out of the tournament but I was pretty impressed with the deck performance! The Affinity player said he was legit scared of my deck, said he'd never actually played against mill, and said I would take a lot of people by surprise in the main event and any side events ("Play as many side events as you can, noone will expect you and you should do really well!").
Main event starts tomorrow, will keep you all posted with that one too
Edit to add: My performance scored me 200 GameKeeper Tix (prize tickets), which is enough to buy 20 packs of Aether Revolt if I wanted - pretty good score. I've got my eye on the 270 Tix foil Glimpse the Unthinkable though... gonna save up from tomorrow and Sunday stuff too.
Also, artists on site included rk post (Mind Funeral artist), Mark Tedin (Shelldock Isle), and Jason Felix (Archive Trap). I splurged and grabbed 3x foil Archive Trap and 4x foil Mind Funeral so I could get them signed by the artist. I got Mark Tedin to do a small alter on a Shelldock Isle; he drew a turtle head coming out of the isle itself, haha. Pretty great set of artists for me to have at the tournament!
dont bring Chalices on the draw vs Affinity
Go for the Throat seems a bit underwhelming, I like singleton Merderous Cut, but in your build id use Fatal Push or Dismember
G Green Stompy
RG Shamans
UB Mill
UG Infect
WUBRG Slivers!
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Creature (6)
4 Hedron Crab
2 Manic Scribe
Sorcery (7)
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
3 Mind Funeral
Instant (18)
4 Archive Trap
4 Visions of Beyond
2 Thought Scour
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Crypt Incursion
3 Fatal Push
2 Mesmeric Orb
2 Ensnaring Bridge
Land (23)
4 Polluted Delta
4 Marsh Flats
3 Watery Grave
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Shelldock Isle
4 Island
3 Swamp
2 Echoing Truth
1 Whelming Wave
3 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Spell Pierce
1 Damnation
G Green Stompy
RG Shamans
UB Mill
UG Infect
WUBRG Slivers!
Good luck in the main!
I'm cheering for you. Leaving in 15 minutes to play a $7 win-a-box Legacy tourney (I'm playing Leylines. I can't wait! First Legacy tourney.)
Round 1 - GR Eldrazi Tron
1) She opens with a tron piece and expedition map. I reply crab. She 'nuther tron pieces and fetches the last one. I fetchland for a mill 6 aaaaaaaand Emrakul, the Aeons Torn shows up. Crap. She hits tron, drop a Karn Liberated and proceeds to thwart my beatdown via Jace's Phantasm. I scoop.
-1 Crypt Inc, -2 Mes Orb, -2 G Prison
+3 Surg Ex, +2 Rav Trap
2) I play it very slow, waiting for an extraction effect to show up. She is a bit slow out of the gates, but ends up mapping for her final tron piece. I extract it, hoping not to see Emmy too soon. Turns out, she was in her hand. I proceed to mill with extreme prejudice.
3) I play it slow again, extract a tron piece, but gas out bad. She starts ramping one by one into a Karn. I top-deck a Surgical Extraction to stop Karn from dropping to pound through a Phantasm beatdown.
1-0
Round 2 - Esper Midrange
1) Souls and Tasigur and lotsa counterspells and stuff. A good matchup for us. He was a bit mana screwed early and I just got rolling on him. Mesmeric Orb and Ghostly Prison did the job mostly.
-1 Path, -2 Crypt Inc
+2 G Prison, +1 Surg Ex
2) We both did our respective things. Mine ended up involving a turn 1 Hedron Crab with piles of fetchlands following AND a Trapmaker's Snare into an Archive Trap when I had another in my hand. So the solid 26 smack. Always fun. I outsped him.
2-0
Round 3 - G Stompy
1) I have actually been wrecked by this exact deck before. Was a tad trepidatious. Caught an early Path to Exile on his T2 Scavenging Ooze and he kinda stalled out after that. By the time he was able to get rolling I could Crypt Incursion for 63 life and put him out of range.
-3 Archive Trap, -2 Trap Snare
+3 Spellskite, +2 G Prison
2) He curved out nicely and I flooded. It was bad. He also hit my lone Skite with Unravel the Aether which sucked.
3) Landed a T2 Spellskite. Followed up with a T3 Ghostly Prison. Then another. Eventually a third one hit. He had literally 50+ power on the board and couldn't touch me with a dang thing. Stole all his pump when he tried that path. T'was lovely.
3-0
Round 4 - W Humans
1) Buddy was foiled out. Like, foil Icatian Javelineers level commitment. I ended up with an opener with 3 Jace's Phantasms, a Glimpse the Unthinkable and the land to make it work. I smashed face. He scooped. Never fetched though....
-3 Archive Trap, -2 Trap Snare
+3 Spellskite, +2 G Prison
2) Hit a Ghostly Prison turn 3, which was nice. But that was about all that was nice about this game. Gassed out entirely too early. Still managed to beat him down pretty bad. He bashed me to 1 life and I had the savior Mind Funeral which hit for 19. Sadly, he had 1 card left, drew and killed me. Turns out, he told me he runs 61 cards. SO much fail.
3) Drew 2 Prisons opening hand, never hit the white mana I needed for 'em. Got stomped.
3-1
Round 5 - Infect
1) We drew into top 8. Yay for winning. Played for fun anywho. He stuck a Blighted Agent despite me pathing the first and dropping a Phantasm. He got there.
-2 Mes Orb, -2 Trap Snare, - 2 Crypt Inc
+3 Spellskite, +3 Surg Extract
2) I flooded and the one Prison that stuck didn't stop the pain train. Infect is rough.
All day 3 - 2.
Observations:
I hate Mind Funeral so bad. Yes, you can set it up by letting them fetch or extracting lands or Ghost Quartering stuff, but even then it still does not fail to disappoint me. Today hit for 6, 10, 8, 6, and 19. Garbage for consistency. Conversely, Startled Awake has put in work as a good curve topper and viable Shelldock Isle target. Probably gonna switch one for the other soon. May go a full 3 SA/0 MF.
Spellskite is a dang powerhouse. Probably gonna find room for a fourth in my side.
Trapmaker's Snare hs been AOK thus far. Still experimenting, but it gets the Archive Traps pretty nicely and opens fun sideboard options.
Good times. Hope this helps.
Leylines didn't show up today. 0-2, 0-2, and never went off a single time. The highlight was an ~18 yo girl pulling a Masterpiece Platinum Angel. Shrieked, running around and jumping up and down excited. Turns out she plays angels and has wanted one for years. Now she has The. Best. One. Watching wins like that is fun.
Waiting for Keith's report. I hope the silence means he is grabbing all the sleep he can for day 2.
Btw I want to note that Bridge worked 2 of the 5 times you used it. Maybe there were cases when you drew it but couldnt use it profitably. This is exactly why I abandoned it. Its not reliable, often it doesnt do what it is supposed to do.
G Green Stompy
RG Shamans
UB Mill
UG Infect
WUBRG Slivers!
I wish! Sleep would be nice. Between the 1am bedtime on Friday after playing hockey, getting up twice to help feed the baby, and being on site by 8:30am, I was fatigued. I can point back to fatal or near fatal misplays in every match. I ended up going 1-4 drop.
Brief summary:
Match 1 Cheerios:
G1: he mulliganed to 5 and scooped to my IoK to keep his deck secret
G2: I cast a Damnation T4 to kill Paladin on board, instead of just waiting for him to combo off and use my Mind Funeral under Shelldock to get him with a draw trigger on the stack. Also had an Archive Trap in hand that he made active for me. Big misplay and he storm 42ed me
G3: Lots of creature control, got 3 Sram and 2 Pallys in the yard, then dropped Chalice on 0. Staring down Paladin beats from 15 to 3 life, I was dead next turn. Topdecked a Visions into Fetch, Glimpse, Glimpse with 2 black mana, 1 blue, and 1 ghost quarter on the field - not enough to double glimpse. Play fetch, GQ my own land for my last island and double glimpse for the win. Super tight but it shouldn't have been that close.
Match 2: Zoo
Fast zoo with Narnam Renegades and that new revolt: add GG to your pool guy.
G1 sped me out of nowhere, I landed an orb and a glimpse before dying.
G2 mulligan to 6, keep Crypt Incursion, Glimpse Glimpse Orb Fetch Darkslick Shore. Scry a GQ to the bottom (idiot.) Didn't draw a land for 4 turns and was 1 short of CI for 66 life.
Match 3: Eldrazi Tron
G1 got an Orb out and milled all his cards but 1, which he drew on the turn he killed me. I died with his library empty, dang.
G2 he dropped Chalice on 1, then 2, then 3. I had a Bridge down, he dropped a Ratchet Bomb that got countered by his own chalice. He landed Kozilek the Great Distortion, then a Walking Ballista but they were held back by my Bridge on 1. He shot twice with the Ballista, attached with a 1/1 through my bridge with me on 8 life, then went to add 2 counters before combat damage. I shot my Slaughter Pact at it, he blasted my with the counters in response, putting me down to 5. I forgot my pact trigger, judge was about to hand me game loss, but a spectator said the Ballista died before Pact hit it, so spell fizzled, phew. I topdecked a lethal Archive Trap but he discarded Reality Smasher to Kozilek to counter it. From there it was a draw-go until he landed Karn, exiled my bridge, and Kozilek to my face.
Match 4: Faeries
Wasn't familiar with this matchup but I managed to take Game 1 somehow.
SB: in 2 x Dispel, out 2 x Surgical Extraction
Game 2 he just held up for counters on everything. I boarded in my dispels to fight back, but dispel doesn't do anything to a Spellstutter Sprite. Cryptic Command, Cryptic command, Bitterblosson and Mistbind Clique finished it out for him.
Game 3 he landed 3 bitter blossoms and countered Damnation and I got rocked.
After the game he told me his deck is threat-light and I should've aimed an Extraction at Bitterblossom or Mistbind Clique and all he'd have would be little pesky flyers. Good to know.
Match 5: Abzan Value
Game 1 on the draw: T2 Goyf followed by T3 Goyf at 5/6 got me real dead real quick.
Game 2: Extracted his goyfs T2 and hit one in his hand. Landed an orb and managed to keep his big creatures off the board, but 4x lingering souls tokens put a real clock on me for the loss.
Dropped after going 1-4
I played in a GP Rebound side event after:
Match 1 vs Skred Red
Game 1 he landed a Chandra, Torch of Defiance that I had no way to answer. Once Chandra ulted he cast a couple 1 drop spells for 15 damage to my face.
Game 2: Boarded in Set Adrifts, Spellskite, and Dispels, but it wasn't enough. Blood moon on T2 kept me one black mana short of Damnation, but Koth, of the Hammer got it done with him pounding 4/4 mountains into my face that my Spellskite couldn't block more than once.
Match 2 vs Madcap Titan Shift:
This just seemed like an easy matchup to me. Turn 1 IoK from me, no legal targets (Primetime, Madcap, something else, 4 lands). I cast a few mill spells T2 and T3 (Mind funeral for 6...). T4 he eventually fetched and landed Madcap, so I Archived Trap in response. See one of his Madcaps go to the yard, his second comes out. Next turn Slaughter Pact on the Madcap. He followed it up by landing a Primeval Titan that I hit with Go for the Throat and Mesmeric Orb carried me to victory.
Out: 3x Push, 2x IoK, in 1x Infinite Obliteration (he mentioned Emrakul but I figured he was joking - however it's better to have this than a Push or IOK with no targets, even IO on Primetime or Madcap is fine by me), 3x Set Adrift, 1x Spellskite (blocker in the absence of a better card to bring in).
Game 2 went similarly, took him down pretty easily, didn't even need to land a surgical on anything.
Match 3 vs Affinity:
Similarly to the day before, got pounded in with beats Game 1 after keeping a 2-lander with mill spells and an Orb.
Out: GFFT, Orb x 3, in 2x Spellskite, 2x Chalice - Should've boarded out my Archive Traps!
Game 2: I drew an opener with 2 fatal push, visions, Crypt Incursion, Glimpse, Ensnaring Bridge and an Island. I kept it cuz at this point I'd done a lot of losing. The hand was good cards and all I needed was to draw into black mana and I'd be set, so figured I'd play the gamble at this point - if it's meant to be, so be it. T1 Visions to cycle, gets me a shelldock isle. Sad face. He went T1 Vaultskirge, opal, springleaf drum, memnite, Signal Pest. T2 Master of Etherium, T3 swing for 11 or something crazy. Game over.
Not the performance I was hoping for from my deck after a promising Friday! I wish I managed to get more sleep, I definitely felt a little underperforming mentally trying to think through plays. It sucks to look back and say "oh yea, that was a misplay" in almost every game in the match. I won against Cheerios despite the misplay. Eldrazi Tron should be an easy matchup for us too in my opinion.
I also need to mulligan more aggressively, and I think I might put a third Crypt Incursion in the deck, probably main but maybe side - you really need to land that if you want to win against most decks. On the weekend, if I landed CI I generally won, and if I didn't I lost. It's clearly that important.
I echo Greg's Mind Funeral frustration. Well over half my funerals ended up dropping less than 10 cards. I mean, it paid off sometimes in a 21 or 23, but usually less than 10 and that really sucks. Is Breaking better at a guaranteed 8? It leaves us without a three-drop mill spell, so it might be T3 mill 8 instead of T3 Mind Funeral. Maybe more aggressive Surgicals targeting lands or something? I'm not sure.
My creatureless list had promise I thought, but seeing the GP Brisbane list that did well with Scribes and Ashiok, I might try something up that vein a bit more. Cut down on some of my spells, probably Snapcasters out, and throw the Crabs, Phantasms, Manic Scribes and possibly some Ashioks in and see how it goes. From creatureless to lots of creatures. Big playstyle change for me.
In the meantime I might take a short break from Mill and work on my idea for a Jund-Eldrazi list. Jund disruption suite with mana dorks and TKS/Smasher, and Scooze/Wasteland Strangler synergy to generate bonus value. We'll see! Mill has always been and probably always will be my main deck though
Hope the report was helpful!
If we could find something like Mana Drain (and that is even banned in Legacy!) that gives us a cost effective way to tap creatures or lands. Training Grounds and Eldrazi Displacer would work, but is slow.
War's Toll could be devastating. Basically traps them into casting all their spells in one, and only one phase. No holding up mana for your turn, either. Could be something we look at splashing to stop control, or other reactive decks. Probably protects a Crab very well, as they commit all their mana on just that one spell, making Orb really pay off. I'm going to be taking a close look at this one for the sideboard.
Does anyone know of a cheap (3 cmc or less) card that taps all of an opponents creatures and/or even better, lands?
Best if it is in blue or black.
4 Hedron Crab
4 Jace's Phantasm
4 Manic Scribe
Sorcery (8)
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
4 Breaking/Entering
Instant (11)
4 Archive Trap
4 Visions of Beyond
3 Crypt Incursion
Artifact (6)
4 Mesmeric Orb
2 Ensnaring Bridge
Land (23)
4 Polluted Delta
4 Watery Grave
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
3 Island
3 Swamp
4 Darkness
1 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Extirpate
4 Profane Memento
3 Set Adrift
So this was my first time playing Mill with Orbs, Scribes, or Phantasms, but I'd played other versions and was pretty comfortable with it.
I went 4-1 in a grinder on Friday, but I can't recall everything I faced so I'm not going to try to write a report on that. (I know I lost to Abzan and beat Elves, Skred, and Eldrazi Tron, but I can't remember my other win.) I played three more after that but lost first round each time, to WU Control, RWU Nahiri, and Merfolk. I do remember that in the Skred matchup I won game 3 by racing Goblin Rabblemaster with Mesmeric Orb; the last turn saw me cast a second Orb into ten tapped permanents when he had 18 cards left. "You untap, Ulamog you?"
And it's been a few (crazy) days, so sorry for the lack of detail.
So I had no byes going into the GP...
Round 1: Mardu Warriors
The deck looked to me like a Modern port of the Standard deck, with a better mana base and removal. I raced him pretty well, and Crypt Incursion and (postboard) Profane Memento stabilized, while Mesmeric Orb kept him from attacking. Win.
Round 2: Grixis Delver
This was a rough match. All the countermagic, plus the fact that I'm giving him plenty of stuff to delve for his Tasigurs and Anglers, made it difficult for me to race. Loss.
Round 3: RW Burn
Game 1 he got me to 2 life but was tapped out, so I fetched to 1, fired off a Crypt Incursion for 12 life and won a turn or two later. Game 2 he never really threatened my life total, partly thanks to Memento, and when I baited a Skullcrack in response to Memento triggers I responded with an Incursion to which he scooped. Win.
Round 4: GW Hatebears (this might've been round 5, I can't honestly remember)
Preboard he kept me low on lands with a Leonin Arbiter and multiple Ghost Quarters, but I'd gotten off a Breaking before Thalia came down and thanks to his own Quarters Jace's Phantasm beat down to win. Postboard I think it was Mesmeric Orb doing most of the work with Profane Memento keeping me stable; Hedron Crab was pretty well shut off because of his Aven Mindcensor. Win.
Round 5: BR Planeswalkers (might've been round 4)
Game 1 I milled him out somehow or other. Game 2 I couldn't find enough Set Adrifts for his walkers and he beat me down with Kalitas and managed to ultimate Chandra, Torch of Defiance. Game 3 I did find the Set Adrifts and won. Win.
Round 6: GU Infect
Game 1 I got his library low, but then he landed a Wild Defiance followed by Become Immense on a Blighted Agent. Game 2 I had Ensnaring Bridge with an empty hand, but couldn't mill him fast enough to race the pumps he was drawing for his Noble Hierarch, and, like an idiot, I'd taken out Crypt Incursion and not brought in Profane Memento (even though I'd brought in the rest of my board). Loss.
Round 7: RW Nahiri
RW Nahiri isn't as bad a matchup as RWU is because of the lack of countermagic. Nonetheless Emrakul reshuffles killed me in game 1, and then Chandra, Torch of Defiance went ultimate. Game 2 I managed--eventually--to hit Emrakul (and all his Simian Spirit Guides) with a Crypt Incursion, Set Adrift and mill away his walkers (and a Leyline of Sanctity he eventually cast) and win, but IIRC he was on a mull to 5 (or maybe even 4) so that definitely helped. By this time we were almost out of time and Game 3 ended in a draw. Draw.
Round 8: Abzan Delirium
I honestly don't much remember the first two games, except that we split them, and in the game that I won I did a ton of milling with Nephalia Drownyard. Game 3 Profane Memento gave me just enough life to survive one more turn against a Goyf, letting me find Visions of Beyond, which netted Set Adrift and a fetchland. He misplayed by not killing my Crab with Abrupt Decay while Set Adrift on his Goyf was on the stack, so I got to mill that away to stabilize. A Crypt Incursion a few turns later saw him Surgical his own Grim Flayers to deny me 12 life, and as time had just been called as he did that (but we'd made a judge call right before time went so we got a bit of an extension) we raced through turns, trying to get a result, and eventually I found Glimpse the Unthinkable for the last cards. Win.
Round 9: Eggs
I won Game 1 after a flurry of mill led him to scoop. Game 2 I could've won, but I hit Codex Shredder with Extirpate, forgetting that Krark-Clan Ironworks is his only sacrifice outlet. Game 3 I never really had a chance; I'd taken out his Open the Vaults but not his Faith's Rewards, and he fired off a Reward in response to a Crypt Incursion, eventually shooting me for infinite with Banefire. Loss.
So that was that for the main event for me. All in all I wasn't too sore about not making day 2; my first three non-wins were tough matchups and the last one was purely my fault for hitting the wrong card with Extirpate.
On the Sunday I played their last rebound event.
Round 1: Cheerios
Game 1 he scooped after a flurry of mill. Game 2 he went off on turn 3 with two Paladins. Game 3 he mulled to five, found Leyline of Sanctity (though he wasn't looking for it specifically), but I used Breaking on myself on turn 2 to get the cards I needed to delve Set Adrift and cast a Glimpse, and he never really recovered, scooping after I fired off Crypt Incursion in response to his Noxious Revival on a Puresteel Paladin. Win.
Round 2: Enduring Ideal
Oh boy. Imagine my dismay when, game 1, Leyline of Sanctity hits the table. Well, when you've got Manic Scribe and Mesmeric Orb, you don't let something like that get you down, and, indeed, Orb did all the work in milling him just enough for a win. He'd had some scrylands, and he'd had to cast Porphyry Nodes to deal with Manic Scribe and later Jace's Phantasm. I did misplay later in the game when I fired off a Visions of Beyond to try to find another Phantasm or Scribe, but they'd all been milled away by my own Orbs. Game 2 Leyline came down again, but this time I was ready with Set Adrift and Mesmeric Orb, with a turn 2 Orb into turn 3 Set Adrift getting rid of that annoying enchantment. He had Runed Halo on Glimpse the Unthinkable, stranding two of those in my hand, but it didn't matter. Win.
Round 3: Ad Nauseam
Game 1 I milled and milled, but unfortunately he had an Ad Nauseam in hand and I never hit his Laboratory Maniac, so that won him the game after he used Angel's Grace the previous turn to avoid a Pact of Negation trigger and an empty-library draw, and cast the Maniac. Game 2 I milled him out. Game 3 when I Extirpated his Angel's Graces I saw a Grave Titan in his hand with two Lotus Blooms about to come out of suspend, but then I topdecked a Set Adrift, got rid of the Titan, and raced the zombies with Mesmeric Orbs. I do remember firing off three Visions of Beyond in one turn somewhere in this match. Drawing nine cards is sweet. Win.
So all in all I may not have the optimal build of the deck, but I like what I've got. I still like Oboro because it's a blue source that always enters untapped and can't be hit by Choke, even if Fatal Push has made the Crab-Oboro combo less likely to keep going. Drownyard did a lot of work in the grindier games. I never had a moment where I thought, "I wish I had Shelldock Isle" or "I wish I had Mind Funeral," and anyway I've played with both of those and found them too inconsistent for my taste. I could maybe take out a Breaking for a Startled Awake, but with Visions of Beyond I like being able to threaten a game-ending flurry of mill.
Anyway I think this is definitely my go-to deck for Modern. I just wish Wizards would print more good mill spells.
I don't play decks. I solve optimization problems.
Currently solving:
Standard: Too poor for this format.
Modern: GW Auras, Living End, WB TurboFog, UB Mill, UR Storm
Legacy: R Burn, GU Infect, RG Lands, B Contamination
I think I was sitting next to you in the Friday morning/afternoon grinder when you were playing against Eldrazi Tron. I asked if you run Crabs and you said "Of course, why wouldn't I? They're like the goblin guide of our deck". Glad to see you did well!
Yeah, I remember that. I recall you were running Damnations, which I guess makes sense if your only creatures are Snapcasters. I personally found him too slow (especially since you can't use him to flashback a free Archive Trap). I also don't like Darkslick Shores, because it's really sad when you fire off a Visions and don't have the mana to cast what you draw because your only land in hand enters tapped. (I also don't like Drowned Catacomb for the same reason--I can't drop a turn-one Crab, Phantasm or, post-board, Memento off of it.) I'm generally looking to maximise Crab value, which has the added benefits of fixing my mana the way I want while still getting to run 6 basics (I hate Blood Moon) and getting more cards into my graveyard for eventual Set Adrift delving and delirium enabling. The downside is that I don't get Shelldock Isle, but then I don't particularly like that card and having 9 fetches and 11 untapped colour sources (though I tend to be conservative with my life total if I can and generally have Grave enter tapped) leaves me room to run Drownyard, which means I can have things to do with my mana even when I'm in topdeck mode and drawing lands.
I haven't read through the whole thread, so I'm sorry if this point has been made before, but I noted something interesting about how I was playing Mesmeric Orb. (Note: for obvious reasons none of this applies if you're keeping an Ensnaring Bridge lockdown.) The first Orb is fine to run out on turn two. It'll deter your opponent from adding to his board or doing much attacking (or at least make him think twice about it), while having only a minimal effect on you as you cast your mill spells. It's also useful with the rise in the number of Temples--at least, I don't recall seeing quite as many Temples in Modern as I did over the weekend--because, unless they can follow it up with a draw spell (even just a cantrip like Serum Visions), their scry is just "do I want this card in the graveyard or not?" But the second (and later) Orbs are not for deterrence. Don't run them out if your opponent's got nothing tapped. They're for punishment--hold them up until your opponent taps enough stuff to make it worth dropping them. (Sometimes this can even be just one tapped land--sure, you're going to be milling four for casting the second Orb and your opponent's only going to lose one more card, but combined with everything else you've done that can be a fine rate of exchange.) Looking over that "White Paper" from a page ago, then, I'd classify Orb as both an aggro and a control card--the first one is proactive, the second one is reactive.
EDIT:
Another thing I'd note is that we're not trying to do 60 damage instead of 20; we're generally trying to do 50. This still isn't such that we can get reasonably consistent turn 4 kills, so we still need the control elements like Crypt Incursion. But I find it provides a good benchmark for comparing mill spells to burn spells: Archive Trap is (a free, instant-speed) Lava Axe, Glimpse the Unthinkable is Boros Charm, Hedron Crab (with enough fetches) is Goblin Guide. Of course, burn being pure aggro and mill being somewhere between aggro and control means that there are differences to take into account; I'm not sure if burn would want the equivalent of Manic Scribe (1 damage on ETB, 1 damage per upkeep if delirium is online) or Mesmeric Orb (1 damage for every three permanents untapped).
And if they bring in their whole board, they're often going to find themselves getting mana-screwed. (A few decks can handle it, though, like Scapeshift, because they run 26 lands, so watch for that.)
I don't play decks. I solve optimization problems.
Currently solving:
Standard: Too poor for this format.
Modern: GW Auras, Living End, WB TurboFog, UB Mill, UR Storm
Legacy: R Burn, GU Infect, RG Lands, B Contamination
Just for giggles, I modified Cheeri0s into a mill deck. I think it's even faster now? Seems like it's a T2 deck pretty consistently. It's mono-white using Opals for U when necessary. I'd put it together, but my wallet is tapped out from MM17. I'll proxy it up and test it nevertheless.