What is the general opinion of Hangarback walker in this deck? I'm considering testing a couple instead of my Thought Knot Seers.
Hangarback Walker is really slow in this format. You don't have enough ways to get it to a good value early on, so it's rarely blocking efficiently. Hangarback Walker was great in Standard, but you need to consider that:
1. Removal was more expensive, and less decks had prime removal for it. Modern has stuff like Path and Abrupt Decay, Path especially because you get 0 value out of it.
2. You could block a lot of creatures at 2 or 3, and the format was slow enough to be able to wait a turn to pump it.
3. Dromoka's Command was very good with it because of the counter ability.
Affinity decks tried it out, they decided it was way too slow. Sure, we're not a hyper-aggressive deck, but the same sort of principle applies. If we can't afford to wait for it to get big enough, it'll never do.
Guys, I'm working on comeback version of the uw gifts tron deck. I saw that many players use wall of omens insted of remands (especialy in aggro metas where remand is bad).
My idea is, why not to use painter's servant in place of wall of omens? Ofc it won't fech us a card and dies to bolt - but other then this it's better blocker for small aggros, we can dump it for thirst and we can achive hard lock with Iona (against decks with more then 1-2 colors).
Anyone tested this idea?
Painter's Servant has always been rather gimmicky, and generally not worth it. The fact that it dies to so many things is actually really important, especially when they bring in artifact hate post-board. I think trying to replace Wall of Omens with it points out exactly what makes Wall good. Wall at 4 toughness blocks an insane amount of things, where Painter's Servant doesn't necessarily. On top of that, the whole reason people traded Remand for Wall of Omens is that both draw cards. The deck really needs to see more cards to avoid the clunky draws it produces naturally, and Painter's Servant just makes it so you're more all-in on the Iona combo.
Don't get me wrong, the combo is obviously very powerful. That being said, I don't think that best-case scenario offsets how inconsistent you make the deck. Don't forget that in many cases, Iona or Elesh Norn outright win the game on their own. You typically don't need additional support for it, you just reanimate and proceed to win after a few turns. When you look at decks like Burn, Affinity, Infect, Jund, all of them are losing to one of the two and the Painter's Servant is just a "win-more" type of card.
I see Your point Darkateel - but servant is good not only for iona combo. It blanks GR tron ancient stirrings (which is much better then wall of omens in this matchup) it blanks eldrazi temples against eldrazi decks. Ofc it can eat bolt or pte but if I will get 3 dmg less in face I like it
I understand that wall od omens is just remand and give us a card but I thought about more specified card to the deck which will work against small aggro (blocks) eldrazis and more strategies with iona or Ugin (we can wipe lands with ugin and servant in Play).
Dunno but I want to try them in the deck i think that this isnt "win more" type of card beacuse it does things on its own (even dump for thirst which wall cannot offer to us). Maybe I'm wrong but testing will give me answers
I played at a weekly yesterday, here's the results:
Round 1 vs Grixis Delver (a more controlling variant with Cryptics)
Game 1 he leads with Delver but has trouble flipping it. I'm able to control the early game well enough. We both get grinded out of cards but I draw into Sundering Titan and resolve it. I end up eating all his lands except an Island, and he has trouble doing much. While he does resolve some small creatures, Ugin comes and eats them. Shortly after, I play Sphinx's for x=10 with Ugin at 11 counters and he concedes. Game 2 it's just not close, I get rolled by turn 1 Delver (flipped on 2) into early Tasigur and counters. Game 3 is super close, he puts me very low and I have to Sphinx's Rev for 4 to just get ahead on life. I eventually just cast Emrakul and he ends up losing to it, he was left with two lands and nothing to kill me.
Record: 1-0
Round 2 vs Affinity
Game 1 he he leads off with triple Ornithopter + Memnite into Steel Overseer, something I really don't want to see. I end up having to Gifts for triple Wrath + Gifts, and he gives me Gifts + Wrath for whatever reason. After I clear the board, I Gifts for the combo and he loses. Game 2 goes similarly except he's not as fast. I end up going to 9 poison and then resolving Elesh Norn, which ends the game.
Record: 2-0
Round 3 vs UG Eldrazi (running Elder Deep Fiend and Vapor Snag, no white)
Game 1 I forget about a Spacial Contortion in his hand and lose to the extra damage. I had to Sphinx's Rev for 6 to make sure I gained enough life (he was attacking for 8), but I was actually supposed to Rev for 5 and hope for a Path. Even if I hit the Path, I think I'm still behind and need to hope I draw well. Game 2 he just crushes me, turn 3 Reality Smasher into turn 4 Reality Smasher and that was the game. I didn't draw what I needed to answer the aggressive start and that was that.
Record: 2-1
Round 4 vs Grixis Delver
I don't actually remember what happened, I just remember playing against another Grixis Delver and the games being not close. Crushed him in both games, I think he had slow draws which are horrible against us.
Record: 3-1
I think I'm changing Sunlance for Condemn. I think overall, I'd rather have the flexibility to kill things from Eldrazi than to kill things like Birds or Bob. I think both are about equal against Eldrazi. It's also possible this should be that Escalate spell from Eldritch Moon that makes them sac an attacking creature.
Planar Bridge
6
Legendary Artifact
8, T: Search your library for a permanent card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
Fresh off the spoiler page, I'm curious about people's opinions on this new artifact. Obviously it's powerful if it lands and we can untap with it, and unless I counted wrong, I think for us it's about the same speed as a turn 4 (sorcery speed) Gifts Turn 5 reanimate in one card on the best draw. It has the benefit of being able to fetch a planeswalker or a land, and gets brought back with Academy if it get removed. I couldn't ever seeing running more than one, but depending on pre-sale prices, I might pick one up for the funzies. It seems like it might be easier in MonoU Tron, where they have a little more versatility in searching for artifacts, but I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks on it!
It seems like it's probably worth testing. It gives you a non-graveyard based way to get out something threatening early on. Granted you more or less need Tron, but it also gives options to Tron-based starts. It's also interesting with Gifts because it acts as a threat itself while allowing you to keep threats in your library. Another key thing about it is that you can grab any card, including Emrakul and Ugin. It gives you options against matchups where Iona/Elesh Norn are bad and it gives you a Wrath mode as well.
I do agree it seems better in Mono U Tron, mostly because their ability to get Tron early or to keep Tron-heavy hands (i.e. two Tron pieces and no Islands) is much higher. I'm not sure you want to be searching for this card, I'm sure there are situations but it's probably fairly few in number. Mono U Tron stops at about 8 mana for cards and then resumes at 13 for the Mindslaver combo. Since the activated ability costs 8, I imagine they could fetch whatever they wanted instead of this. It'd take a matchup where they needed multiple threats to win and time to play them all.
It's an Aether Revolt Invention, meaning it'll be in the set as probably a mythic rare. I would anticipate pre-sale prices being low because it's a card that doesn't immediately display how broken it is, especially since it doesn't combo with Emrakul's cast trigger.
Nasty Terrasty: Good in the matchups where both Iona/Elesh feel bad, Probably redundant with sundering titan but what you can you
Sword Combo: Don't love the combo main deck because it just feels hard to assemble at 1/1 and I don't feel like running more than that.
Mindslaver: I like it as a card but most matchups it's just so slow that It's only really worth bringing in against control
Emrakul: Adds in the ability to shuffle graveyard, best finisher in the game, all around good.
Disenchant/Celestial Purge: They do the things they've always done
Mana leak/ Remand: for the matchups we want to be more controling. they might should be negates or I maybe I should only run remand but it just feels bad sometimes
Sundering titan: A bigger elephant!
Timely: for burn mostly. It maybe should be another blessed for the slightly cheaper cost but I don't know.
So I'm going to my local FNM tonight, I'll be playing my tron list at a competitive level for the first time in a while. Usually I'm working Friday nights and don't have any idea what the metagame for this area might be, so for my sideboard I tried to keep it as general as possible. I'll try and take lots of notes on the matches, and provide a breakdown afterwards. I should mention that I live in a pretty small town in Japan, so I'm pretty interested to find out what kind of meta this area has for players. I know that in my limited previous experience with Japanese players, there isn't a lot of brewing going on, and a lot of net-decking, so my hypothesis for tonight is the meta is going to be lots of tier 1 Jund Infect Affinity, and probably some hatebear / eldrazi stuff as well to tax those decks. What I might have to my advantage is that if this is a small group of players, their decks might be meta'd for themselves only. This is the list as it stands right now, I might fiddle with some numbers before this evening:
4 Flooded Strand is a lot, and I've always been inclined to play a 1-of black source when playing Explosives in the mainboard. I think with the amount of coloured sources we have in these lists, it's not as punishing. Maybe you could swap one Flooded Strand for a Watery Grave or Godless Shrine.
Ceremonious Rejection is great when you're expecting decks like Affinity and Eldrazi, and I've been pleased with it in the board. I feel like 2 Negate and 2 Dispel seems like a lot, and I'd probably change one of them into a Ceremonious Rejection. While Negate/Dispel are better against Infect, Ceremonious Rejection is just so good against Affinity and Eldrazi.
@Darksteel, what you've suggested makes a lot of sense, and I've toyed around with having a black source before, as well as sideboarding with Ceremonious Rejection, I actually took the one I had out of board for I can't remember what now, but I'll be putting it back in, I think. The reason I had four fetches was because I wanted to have as little available for bloodmoons to be able to hit, focusing more on fetching basics, and the broad general counterspell suite was just to defend myself from as wide a set of threats as possible. Like I said, I had no idea what to expect tonight, so I tried to make it as general as I could to metagame for later FNMs. It didn't, however, turn out quite like what I expected.
It turns out that I was the only one to show up for the Modern FNM toinght. I guess my area just isn't into the eternal formats, because Standard and Draft FNMs were poppin, with about a dozen people in each. I looked crazy out of place being the only foreigner there to play the only format no one else was playing, it was a little disconcerting. I was smart enough to plan ahead however, and bring my EDH decks as well, so after getting over that initial bad feeling, I stuck around, bought a Strip Mine for my Nekusar, The Mindrazer deck, and played a couple games of EDH. All in all, it was a fun night, but it really reaffirmed my desire to buy into MTGO and grind on there instead of buying more paper cards for the foreseeable future.
It's probably too late but you 100% bottom it. The Painter's Servant does nothing for you and you need to hit blue mana sources or else you just lose the game. Also, that probably isn't a keepable hand considering you need to draw into coloured sources to do anything. You essentially need to draw a blue source in the next two draws which is just shy of 50%, even in the next three is only 63%.
Your list seems fine, I always question how good Batterskull is but the core of the deck is okay. You might want a sideboard Terastodon or something for the Tron decks. Speaking of which, Tron is a bad matchup, and if I was anticipating playing multiple RG Tron opponents, I'd probably not want to play this deck if I could avoid it.
The games were both pretty uneventful. I didn't really draw much interaction, I lost to a Spell Pierce in game one when he swung for 10, then lost in game two to a mulligan and not drawing any good interaction. In game two specifically, he just beat me down over a few turns, one Hierarch, two Hierarchs, then I died the next turn to a pump spell. That's how the matchup goes sometimes, if I don't draw decent stuff it's over really fast.
Record: 0-1
Round 2 Bye
Round 3 vs Abzan:
Game 1 is actually a really close and fun game. He gets me super low but then I get to Gifts into triple Wrath (getting two) and keep the board clear. Eventually I end up casting Sphinx's Rev for 10 when I was at one life and that seals the game. I answer the board and then just go to town, casting multiple Gifts per turn. He ends up scooping at some point, nothing to do when I have as many cards as I do. Game 2 does not go as well for me, I kept a mediocre hand (5 lands, Map, Thirst) and he Thoughtseizes me twice in the first two turns. While I manage to Detention Sphere his Lili, I just don't draw enough ways to interact with his creatures and run out of cards to do anything with. Game 3 I get stuck on three lands after he Fulminator Mages me, it really wasn't close with his explosive start.
I will note that in these games, the black source actually mattered a lot. It actually prevented me from casting Wrath because I'm playing a Watery Grave. I may try out a Godless Shrine instead, because hitting second white is more important than second blue.
Record: 1-2
Round 4 vs Lantern:
Game 1 was actually very interesting. Since he had early Lantern, I ended up knowing his whole hand. We got to a board state where I could Gifts for Iona + Unburial Rites while his hand was Abrupt Decay and Infernal Tutor. More importantly, the field had two Bridges and I had Detention Sphere in hand, which he knew about. After resolving Iona naming black, he scooped on the next turn to Detention Sphere. Usually games don't go that nicely, but it was really nice to just have draws go in my favour. In game 2, I simply drew really well, forcing him to sac Lantern multiple times to shuffle my deck. I hedged not to be on a Colonnade plan given I had Hurkly's and Ceremonious Rejection in hand with no Bridges in play, and went for Tron instead of a second Colonnade. You might argue Colonnade is better, but I ended up casting Sphinx's Rev for 10 to which he scooped to after I cast Surgical Extraction (I had enough to cast Emrakul, even if I didn't draw it, I don't think he can win when I have as many answers as I do). Our games used to go to turns almost all the time, but this one match went really well for me.
Of note, I cast Pithing Needle naming Pyxis of Pandemonium hedging that I'd be able to discard Emrakul. I feel like that's the right card to name with it, but perhaps I ought to wait longer. Abrupt Decay and Nature's Claim are problematic in that scenario.
Record: 2-2
The Infect games are more in line with how I think that matchup is supposed to be. Other than that, I think the Watery Grave actually hurt me a fair bit, and so I'm going to change it to a Godless Shrine. I'll probably also end up testing Blessed Alliance on top of a Condemn for more Infect answers.
Maybe Wraths are just not needed in our maindeck these days. I have very rarely found myself in a position where the Gifts-for-3-wraths plan is the right play, and I've been content stalling with Path until I can assemble a dominant position and functioning like Mono U Tron in that regard.
Other thoughts I've had recently involve running more Snapcasters or rearranging the deck to better accommodate New Emrakul (More Serum Visions, maybe 3x Oring type effects). No data on whether either of those would improve anything, but could be fun to try.
Maybe others have had different experiences than me, but I've been happy with Wraths lately. I've played Gifts for triple Wrath a few times and had situations where I actively wanted to draw Wraths. I personally would not cut them.
I dunno, my own recent experience has definitely had me pretty happy about fewer Wraths in the main and more instant speed interaction and Serum Visions, but the MTGO "Tournament Practice Room" is hardly indicative of any great truths. Having fewer 2+ colored mana symbols has been generally good and makes it easier to run 4x Colonnade and more copies of Seachrome Coast because hitting that 2nd white or blue source is never imperative after Turn 3. I think we lose some % vs Elves, Affinity, and Hatebears, but get more card velocity and better opening hands against most other decks (particularly combo). I'd rather run 4x of each Tron land than 3x of the Mines and Powers anyways, which also makes fewer double white cards a "Good" thing. Just try sticking them in the SB and see how it treats you!
Darksteel, I look forward to your analysis of any cards that are worth discussion for our archetype whenever a new set is completely spoiled. Is one on the way?
There isn't much in this set for us, but here's what I found that I'll talk about:
While it does cost double blue, it's significantly better than Cancel. More importantly, countering activated abilities from Planeswalkers like Liliana can be really helpful for us. I'm not sure if the card is good enough given it costs 3 mana and double blue, but it's at least interesting. There's Voidslime that's the same card, but it costs GUU, and this is strictly better and playable for us because of it.
I have no idea what 3 mana card you're interesting in getting, all I can think of off my head is Crucible and Oblivion Stone (not that we play it). Still, these type of search effects are usually powerful enough to talk about. It's clearly the weakest of the others like Trinket Mage, but it hits a cmc we otherwise can't. I doubt it's something we play, but in a set with very few cards that interest me, search for an artifact card has potential.
Maybe this is a stretch, but a way to consistently tap down permanents with no coloured activation doesn't seem that bad. The fact that it's something to do on turns 1 and 2 is what intrigues me the most. You can get it online early and then use it to stall out the game. It seems particularly good against a deck like Eldrazi that tends to go tall instead of wide (i.e. this answers one creature better than many). There are similar cards to this, but they have casting costs of 1WW or 1WU, which make them too slow to do anything with, while this one being online on turn 2 is really good, even if the activation is 2 instead of the 1 the others have. It being completely colourless with the ability to stall gives you additional ways to keep hands with no coloured sources.
This card is really the one that looks interesting. There are lots of cards we play or have played that tutoring for could be really powerful. Not triggering Emrakul's cast trigger sucks, but Elesh Norn and Iona both work with this card, as does Ugin, Sundering Titan, new Kozilek, Mindslaver, etc. There's just a lot of ways to make this work. Now, the downside is that it's slow. It's 6 mana where Gifts is 4, and you need 8 to activate it. Unlike Gifts, you can't play this end of their turn and finish the combo on your turn right away. I'm sure everyone sees the potential with it, I just fear that it's really expensive to do anything, and we often don't have the chance to do that. What excites me the most is more the flexibility of it to get whatever I need in whatever matchup. I'd probably try it out if I opened one or got it at a good deal. My gut tells me it's overrated.
1. Removal was more expensive, and less decks had prime removal for it. Modern has stuff like Path and Abrupt Decay, Path especially because you get 0 value out of it.
2. You could block a lot of creatures at 2 or 3, and the format was slow enough to be able to wait a turn to pump it.
3. Dromoka's Command was very good with it because of the counter ability.
Affinity decks tried it out, they decided it was way too slow. Sure, we're not a hyper-aggressive deck, but the same sort of principle applies. If we can't afford to wait for it to get big enough, it'll never do.
Painter's Servant has always been rather gimmicky, and generally not worth it. The fact that it dies to so many things is actually really important, especially when they bring in artifact hate post-board. I think trying to replace Wall of Omens with it points out exactly what makes Wall good. Wall at 4 toughness blocks an insane amount of things, where Painter's Servant doesn't necessarily. On top of that, the whole reason people traded Remand for Wall of Omens is that both draw cards. The deck really needs to see more cards to avoid the clunky draws it produces naturally, and Painter's Servant just makes it so you're more all-in on the Iona combo.
Don't get me wrong, the combo is obviously very powerful. That being said, I don't think that best-case scenario offsets how inconsistent you make the deck. Don't forget that in many cases, Iona or Elesh Norn outright win the game on their own. You typically don't need additional support for it, you just reanimate and proceed to win after a few turns. When you look at decks like Burn, Affinity, Infect, Jund, all of them are losing to one of the two and the Painter's Servant is just a "win-more" type of card.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
I understand that wall od omens is just remand and give us a card but I thought about more specified card to the deck which will work against small aggro (blocks) eldrazis and more strategies with iona or Ugin (we can wipe lands with ugin and servant in Play).
Dunno but I want to try them in the deck i think that this isnt "win more" type of card beacuse it does things on its own (even dump for thirst which wall cannot offer to us). Maybe I'm wrong but testing will give me answers
Round 1 vs Grixis Delver (a more controlling variant with Cryptics)
Game 1 he leads with Delver but has trouble flipping it. I'm able to control the early game well enough. We both get grinded out of cards but I draw into Sundering Titan and resolve it. I end up eating all his lands except an Island, and he has trouble doing much. While he does resolve some small creatures, Ugin comes and eats them. Shortly after, I play Sphinx's for x=10 with Ugin at 11 counters and he concedes. Game 2 it's just not close, I get rolled by turn 1 Delver (flipped on 2) into early Tasigur and counters. Game 3 is super close, he puts me very low and I have to Sphinx's Rev for 4 to just get ahead on life. I eventually just cast Emrakul and he ends up losing to it, he was left with two lands and nothing to kill me.
Record: 1-0
Round 2 vs Affinity
Game 1 he he leads off with triple Ornithopter + Memnite into Steel Overseer, something I really don't want to see. I end up having to Gifts for triple Wrath + Gifts, and he gives me Gifts + Wrath for whatever reason. After I clear the board, I Gifts for the combo and he loses. Game 2 goes similarly except he's not as fast. I end up going to 9 poison and then resolving Elesh Norn, which ends the game.
Record: 2-0
Round 3 vs UG Eldrazi (running Elder Deep Fiend and Vapor Snag, no white)
Game 1 I forget about a Spacial Contortion in his hand and lose to the extra damage. I had to Sphinx's Rev for 6 to make sure I gained enough life (he was attacking for 8), but I was actually supposed to Rev for 5 and hope for a Path. Even if I hit the Path, I think I'm still behind and need to hope I draw well. Game 2 he just crushes me, turn 3 Reality Smasher into turn 4 Reality Smasher and that was the game. I didn't draw what I needed to answer the aggressive start and that was that.
Record: 2-1
Round 4 vs Grixis Delver
I don't actually remember what happened, I just remember playing against another Grixis Delver and the games being not close. Crushed him in both games, I think he had slow draws which are horrible against us.
Record: 3-1
I think I'm changing Sunlance for Condemn. I think overall, I'd rather have the flexibility to kill things from Eldrazi than to kill things like Birds or Bob. I think both are about equal against Eldrazi. It's also possible this should be that Escalate spell from Eldritch Moon that makes them sac an attacking creature.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Planar Bridge
6
Legendary Artifact
8, T: Search your library for a permanent card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
Fresh off the spoiler page, I'm curious about people's opinions on this new artifact. Obviously it's powerful if it lands and we can untap with it, and unless I counted wrong, I think for us it's about the same speed as a turn 4 (sorcery speed) Gifts Turn 5 reanimate in one card on the best draw. It has the benefit of being able to fetch a planeswalker or a land, and gets brought back with Academy if it get removed. I couldn't ever seeing running more than one, but depending on pre-sale prices, I might pick one up for the funzies. It seems like it might be easier in MonoU Tron, where they have a little more versatility in searching for artifacts, but I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks on it!
I do agree it seems better in Mono U Tron, mostly because their ability to get Tron early or to keep Tron-heavy hands (i.e. two Tron pieces and no Islands) is much higher. I'm not sure you want to be searching for this card, I'm sure there are situations but it's probably fairly few in number. Mono U Tron stops at about 8 mana for cards and then resumes at 13 for the Mindslaver combo. Since the activated ability costs 8, I imagine they could fetch whatever they wanted instead of this. It'd take a matchup where they needed multiple threats to win and time to play them all.
It's an Aether Revolt Invention, meaning it'll be in the set as probably a mythic rare. I would anticipate pre-sale prices being low because it's a card that doesn't immediately display how broken it is, especially since it doesn't combo with Emrakul's cast trigger.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
2 Remand
4 Path to Exile
3 Azorius Signet
2 Expedition Map
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Unburial Rites
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Wall of Omens
1 Academy Ruins
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Day of Judgment
1 Wrath of God
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Gifts Ungiven
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Godless Shrine
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Negate
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Blessed Alliance
3 Urza's Mine
3 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
3 Glacial Fortress
4 Flooded Strand
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Mana Leak
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Terastodon
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Mindslaver
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Disenchant
2 Celestial Purge
1 Mana Leak
1 Remand
1 Sundering Titan
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Timely Reinforcements
Sideboard Reasons:
Pithing Needle: Hits opposing man-lands/ nahari/lotv
Relic: Dredge
Nasty Terrasty: Good in the matchups where both Iona/Elesh feel bad, Probably redundant with sundering titan but what you can you
Sword Combo: Don't love the combo main deck because it just feels hard to assemble at 1/1 and I don't feel like running more than that.
Mindslaver: I like it as a card but most matchups it's just so slow that It's only really worth bringing in against control
Emrakul: Adds in the ability to shuffle graveyard, best finisher in the game, all around good.
Disenchant/Celestial Purge: They do the things they've always done
Mana leak/ Remand: for the matchups we want to be more controling. they might should be negates or I maybe I should only run remand but it just feels bad sometimes
Sundering titan: A bigger elephant!
Timely: for burn mostly. It maybe should be another blessed for the slightly cheaper cost but I don't know.
1x Academy Ruins
2x Celestial Colonnade
4x Flooded Strand
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Island
1x Plains
1x Seachrome Coast
1x Snow-Covered Island
1x Snow-Covered Plains
3x Urza's Mine
3x Urza's Power Plant
4x Urza's Tower
Enchantment (1)
1x Detention Sphere
Instant (15)
2x Condescend
1x Cyclonic Rift
4x Gifts Ungiven
4x Path to Exile
4x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Sundering Titan
4x Wall of Omens
Artifact (7)
3x Azorius Signet
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Expedition Map
1x Talisman of Progress
Sorcery (4)
1x Day of Judgment
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Unburial Rites
1x Wrath of God
Planeswalker (1)
1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Disenchant
2x Dispel
1x Faith's Fetters
2x Ghostly Prison
2x Negate
2x Pithing Needle
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Timely Reinforcements
4 Flooded Strand is a lot, and I've always been inclined to play a 1-of black source when playing Explosives in the mainboard. I think with the amount of coloured sources we have in these lists, it's not as punishing. Maybe you could swap one Flooded Strand for a Watery Grave or Godless Shrine.
Ceremonious Rejection is great when you're expecting decks like Affinity and Eldrazi, and I've been pleased with it in the board. I feel like 2 Negate and 2 Dispel seems like a lot, and I'd probably change one of them into a Ceremonious Rejection. While Negate/Dispel are better against Infect, Ceremonious Rejection is just so good against Affinity and Eldrazi.
PS. がんばってください
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
It turns out that I was the only one to show up for the Modern FNM toinght. I guess my area just isn't into the eternal formats, because Standard and Draft FNMs were poppin, with about a dozen people in each. I looked crazy out of place being the only foreigner there to play the only format no one else was playing, it was a little disconcerting. I was smart enough to plan ahead however, and bring my EDH decks as well, so after getting over that initial bad feeling, I stuck around, bought a Strip Mine for my Nekusar, The Mindrazer deck, and played a couple games of EDH. All in all, it was a fun night, but it really reaffirmed my desire to buy into MTGO and grind on there instead of buying more paper cards for the foreseeable future.
Also, send Japanese cards lol. My エムラクール is getting lonely. One day, I'll be able to read it.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
http://i.imgur.com/pfj4JHB.png
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Round 1 vs Infect:
The games were both pretty uneventful. I didn't really draw much interaction, I lost to a Spell Pierce in game one when he swung for 10, then lost in game two to a mulligan and not drawing any good interaction. In game two specifically, he just beat me down over a few turns, one Hierarch, two Hierarchs, then I died the next turn to a pump spell. That's how the matchup goes sometimes, if I don't draw decent stuff it's over really fast.
Record: 0-1
Round 2 Bye
Round 3 vs Abzan:
Game 1 is actually a really close and fun game. He gets me super low but then I get to Gifts into triple Wrath (getting two) and keep the board clear. Eventually I end up casting Sphinx's Rev for 10 when I was at one life and that seals the game. I answer the board and then just go to town, casting multiple Gifts per turn. He ends up scooping at some point, nothing to do when I have as many cards as I do. Game 2 does not go as well for me, I kept a mediocre hand (5 lands, Map, Thirst) and he Thoughtseizes me twice in the first two turns. While I manage to Detention Sphere his Lili, I just don't draw enough ways to interact with his creatures and run out of cards to do anything with. Game 3 I get stuck on three lands after he Fulminator Mages me, it really wasn't close with his explosive start.
I will note that in these games, the black source actually mattered a lot. It actually prevented me from casting Wrath because I'm playing a Watery Grave. I may try out a Godless Shrine instead, because hitting second white is more important than second blue.
Record: 1-2
Round 4 vs Lantern:
Game 1 was actually very interesting. Since he had early Lantern, I ended up knowing his whole hand. We got to a board state where I could Gifts for Iona + Unburial Rites while his hand was Abrupt Decay and Infernal Tutor. More importantly, the field had two Bridges and I had Detention Sphere in hand, which he knew about. After resolving Iona naming black, he scooped on the next turn to Detention Sphere. Usually games don't go that nicely, but it was really nice to just have draws go in my favour. In game 2, I simply drew really well, forcing him to sac Lantern multiple times to shuffle my deck. I hedged not to be on a Colonnade plan given I had Hurkly's and Ceremonious Rejection in hand with no Bridges in play, and went for Tron instead of a second Colonnade. You might argue Colonnade is better, but I ended up casting Sphinx's Rev for 10 to which he scooped to after I cast Surgical Extraction (I had enough to cast Emrakul, even if I didn't draw it, I don't think he can win when I have as many answers as I do). Our games used to go to turns almost all the time, but this one match went really well for me.
Of note, I cast Pithing Needle naming Pyxis of Pandemonium hedging that I'd be able to discard Emrakul. I feel like that's the right card to name with it, but perhaps I ought to wait longer. Abrupt Decay and Nature's Claim are problematic in that scenario.
Record: 2-2
The Infect games are more in line with how I think that matchup is supposed to be. Other than that, I think the Watery Grave actually hurt me a fair bit, and so I'm going to change it to a Godless Shrine. I'll probably also end up testing Blessed Alliance on top of a Condemn for more Infect answers.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Here is what I've been playing on MTGO lately :
4x Thirst for Knowledge
2x Condescend
4x Gifts Ungiven
4x Path to Exile
1x Blessed Alliance
3x Remand
Planeswalker
1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Artifact
3x Expedition Map
1x Mindslaver
4x Azorius Signet
Creature
1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Unburial Rites
2x Serum Visions
Land
1x Academy Ruins
1x Flooded Strand
3x Seachrome Coast
1x Plains
1x Island
4x Celestial Colonnade
2x Hallowed Fountain
4x Urza's Tower
4x Urza's Mine
4x Urza's Power Plant
1x Timely Reinforcements
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Negate
1x Pithing Needle
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Tectonic Edge
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Celestial Purge
1x Blessed Alliance
1x Disenchant
2x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Wrath of God
1x Day of Judgment
1x Noxious Revival
Other thoughts I've had recently involve running more Snapcasters or rearranging the deck to better accommodate New Emrakul (More Serum Visions, maybe 3x Oring type effects). No data on whether either of those would improve anything, but could be fun to try.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
While it does cost double blue, it's significantly better than Cancel. More importantly, countering activated abilities from Planeswalkers like Liliana can be really helpful for us. I'm not sure if the card is good enough given it costs 3 mana and double blue, but it's at least interesting. There's Voidslime that's the same card, but it costs GUU, and this is strictly better and playable for us because of it.
I have no idea what 3 mana card you're interesting in getting, all I can think of off my head is Crucible and Oblivion Stone (not that we play it). Still, these type of search effects are usually powerful enough to talk about. It's clearly the weakest of the others like Trinket Mage, but it hits a cmc we otherwise can't. I doubt it's something we play, but in a set with very few cards that interest me, search for an artifact card has potential.
Maybe this is a stretch, but a way to consistently tap down permanents with no coloured activation doesn't seem that bad. The fact that it's something to do on turns 1 and 2 is what intrigues me the most. You can get it online early and then use it to stall out the game. It seems particularly good against a deck like Eldrazi that tends to go tall instead of wide (i.e. this answers one creature better than many). There are similar cards to this, but they have casting costs of 1WW or 1WU, which make them too slow to do anything with, while this one being online on turn 2 is really good, even if the activation is 2 instead of the 1 the others have. It being completely colourless with the ability to stall gives you additional ways to keep hands with no coloured sources.
This card is really the one that looks interesting. There are lots of cards we play or have played that tutoring for could be really powerful. Not triggering Emrakul's cast trigger sucks, but Elesh Norn and Iona both work with this card, as does Ugin, Sundering Titan, new Kozilek, Mindslaver, etc. There's just a lot of ways to make this work. Now, the downside is that it's slow. It's 6 mana where Gifts is 4, and you need 8 to activate it. Unlike Gifts, you can't play this end of their turn and finish the combo on your turn right away. I'm sure everyone sees the potential with it, I just fear that it's really expensive to do anything, and we often don't have the chance to do that. What excites me the most is more the flexibility of it to get whatever I need in whatever matchup. I'd probably try it out if I opened one or got it at a good deal. My gut tells me it's overrated.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Probably nothing right?