why would you want to even test that. scarab feast seems miles behind relic. Relic you can crack it when it's beneficial to you, you get incremental value out of it every turn and It can be flipped off reshaper. It also can clear the entire GY as lots of times there's way more than 3 cards you need to hit. Plus relic nerfs goys, feast not so much. On top of all of this, relic requires no colored mana. The only good thing about feast is surprise factor. As yet another negative to it, you are forced to do a single GY so random corner-case scenarios come up like they try to scooze a dude in your GY you can't even be that tricksy with it.
Unless I'm missing something, this card seems terrible unless you have a heavy cycling or delerium theme in the deck. Who knows, maybe...
Private Mod Note
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Current Decks:
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange BWG Abzan value evolution BUG BUG Midrange
Got a 3-1 (losing to valakut) and a 4-0 last two tournaments. The deck is feeling pretty solid, however it can be clunky a few times. What I feel is the greatest strength of BW Eldrazi is it's sideboard plans. I am playing with several splits of MB/SB that can cheat a g1 win, and after board things are greatly at our favor. It is hard to sideboard against a deck that has lots of removals, discards, and creatures that removes and discards. Add to it land interactions( GQ and Fulminator) and a great midrange walker (Liliana), and they have lots of things to worry about. Attacking our lands or combining are they best plan to win, and we can play around that after game 1.
Here is my almost fully optimized list:
BW Eldrazi
[/Deck=Zirzhas
Lands
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
3 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
2 Shambling Vent
2 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Cavern of Souls
Sideboard:
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Collective Brutality
2 Fulminator Mage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Stony Silence
1 Yahenni's Expertise
1 Thoughtseize
1 Warping Wail
1 Wrath of God - should be damnation
1 Rest in Peace]
Almost every match I lose game 1 and come back at game 2 and 3 with our SB hosers and topping with powerful attackers. Also, I have almost always won when I played a Liliana.
The metagame I play is always up to date with the GPs and SCG opens. Lately Grixis controls, death shadows Grixis and Jund, lots of valakut variants, Jund, junk, lots of afinity, merfolk, tron... Overall, I am impressed with how much Processors can keep up with almost all those decks!
Im in the tidehollow sculler team too, i love the synergy between tidehollow sculler and wasteland strangler.
My deck is in the signature, the MB is pretty similar, i have a extra fatal push instead a 2nd collectivity brutality and a different mana base. Is good to see BW processor getting some good results in big tournaments.
Nice one!. I just played similar decklist that he played last SCG Open in NJ.. It was a GPT Richmond in my Local area. went top 8th.. 19 players..
This is the Decklist that I played:
Creatures:
3 Blight Herder
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Wasteland Strangler
Planeswalkers:
1 Liliana, The Last Hope
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Spells:
1 Collective Brutality
1 Dismember
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Fatal Push
Lands:
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
4 Shambling Vent
2 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
SIDEBOARD:
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
2 Stony Silence
2 Wrath of God
2 Celestial Purge
1 Fatal Push
1 Timely Reinforecements
1 Rest in Peace
2 Zealous Persecution
Round 1: 2-0 vs Burn
Round 2: 2-0 vs Mono Green Stompy
Round 3: 2-0 vs Grixis Control
Round 4: 2-1 vs Affinity
Round 5: Intentional Draw
why would you want to even test that. scarab feast seems miles behind relic. Relic you can crack it when it's beneficial to you, you get incremental value out of it every turn and It can be flipped off reshaper. It also can clear the entire GY as lots of times there's way more than 3 cards you need to hit. Plus relic nerfs goys, feast not so much. On top of all of this, relic requires no colored mana. The only good thing about feast is surprise factor. As yet another negative to it, you are forced to do a single GY so random corner-case scenarios come up like they try to scooze a dude in your GY you can't even be that tricksy with it.
Unless I'm missing something, this card seems terrible unless you have a heavy cycling or delerium theme in the deck. Who knows, maybe...
I dunno, it was the surprise factor I was thinking of? When I thought about it later, after posting that, it occurred to me that Relic represents a new card AND graveyard hate, while with Feast you have to choose one or the other. In a deck that intentionally runs so many catch-all or multi-purpose cards, that is not the right direction to be going in, agreed.
Got a 3-1 (losing to valakut) and a 4-0 last two tournaments. The deck is feeling pretty solid, however it can be clunky a few times. What I feel is the greatest strength of BW Eldrazi is it's sideboard plans. I am playing with several splits of MB/SB that can cheat a g1 win, and after board things are greatly at our favor. It is hard to sideboard against a deck that has lots of removals, discards, and creatures that removes and discards. Add to it land interactions( GQ and Fulminator) and a great midrange walker (Liliana), and they have lots of things to worry about. Attacking our lands or combining are they best plan to win, and we can play around that after game 1.
Here is my almost fully optimized list:
BW Eldrazi
[/Deck=Zirzhas
Lands
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
3 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
2 Shambling Vent
2 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Cavern of Souls
Sideboard:
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Collective Brutality
2 Fulminator Mage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Stony Silence
1 Yahenni's Expertise
1 Thoughtseize
1 Warping Wail
1 Wrath of God - should be damnation
1 Rest in Peace]
Almost every match I lose game 1 and come back at game 2 and 3 with our SB hosers and topping with powerful attackers. Also, I have almost always won when I played a Liliana.
The metagame I play is always up to date with the GPs and SCG opens. Lately Grixis controls, death shadows Grixis and Jund, lots of valakut variants, Jund, junk, lots of afinity, merfolk, tron... Overall, I am impressed with how much Processors can keep up with almost all those decks!
Hey zirzhas, I'm psyched that you've been having success, thanks for telling us. I had been a little down in the ol' Processors lately before tonight.
I wonder if a clunky thing for you sometimes is having BB for Lili on T3? Cards with BB or WW costs seem much harder to land than the split nana BW cards. With BW the only way to have two colored lands and NOT have the right mana is to only have your two Swamps and need it for a white spell. It's a corner case, but to me it seems that this deck is kinda looking to take advantage of every angle it can--e.g., GY hate, exile hate, hand disruption, land destruction, manlands, etc. etc. You also have Sea Gate Wreckage where I have Concealed Courtyard, making Lili one step harder to cast.
I think you really nailed something crucial with your insight about the SB plan--while playing Bant Eldrazi I found that if I sided in more than 3-4 cards max, then I was messing up my primary all-in gameplan too much; where with BW (are we still calling this thing "Processors"?) we are built around flexibility. I regularly find myself siding in/out 6-7+ cards and feeling good about it: like taking out Relics for more creature removal vs. aggro; or hand siding out disruption for multipurpose removal like Bomb and Unmaking vs. Jund; or losing the creature removal for Needle etc. vs. combo.
Anyway, I went 4-1 last night, losing to a KCI/Eggs/Hangarback Walker/Scrapheap Scrounger/Emrakul combo I'd never encountered before, and beating some fun brews, Ad Nauseam, and Naya Burn. In anticipation of Death's Shadow decks I went with 3x Push and 4x Path maindeck, with both Unmakings in the side. I also went back to 3x Relic and 2x Stone, because even though I really want the reliable GY hate in the main, playing the ramptastic Bant deck made me fully appreciate the utility of Mind Stone anew. Ramp is important in this deck! If we don't have a Temple in play we are at a pretty significant disadvantage. Stone is a strong role-player and the importance of the late-game cantrip cannot be overstated.
I wonder if the new Gideon might be a thing in the sideboard for grindy matches.
Emblem then start plussing on a valakut?
Lantern might not be able to beat an emblem if you can IOK their abrupt decays.
Thank you for your compliment, @Deadrift. I am quite well positioned at my store ranking with this list. The only optimization left is Damnation over wrath. Last tournament I won (with a little luck, I must say) hard matchups against Bant Eldrazi, Griselbrand reanimator, Ad Nauseum and RG Titan Breach.
When I say the deck is clunky I am not referring to mana base. actually I am quite happy with it and don't feel like switching to fast lands so soon - SGW have won me unwinnable games removing lands from top of the deck. But I feel like we are really mana hungry, and sometimes you just started casting "real" spells at turn 3-4, going from relic into mindstone and then not having a TKS or temple to rush into smasher. I miss some cantrips and deck digging, and Liliana sometimes is that digger, looking for or reusing a TKS (disruption) or a Strangler (removal).
Another angle I am feeling good of having relics is that there are lots of situations where I need to process, but doing so Will boost a goyf or give then flashback targets (lingering souls, snapcaster targets, etc). Relic keeps the flow of throwing lands and non reusable I cards on the exile. Because of this, I feel it may be really a bad idea to play herders in a heavy graveyard environment.
Wrath is better than Damnation as usally you are prioritizing white mana for path in matchups where you board it in. Wrath never gets boarded in with Fulminator, but sometimes does with Lilina. However, I may cut 1 Wrath for a Fragmentize, in order to have an answer to some random stuff, but I am not certain. The second Wrath is better against Creature decks which we are already strong against, the Fragmentize would help in some harder matchups like Lantern, Ad Nauseum and Tron.
Otherwise I wouldn't change a card in the maindeck, and I still prefer BW Processors as the deck name if you are, and you should be, playing Blight Herder. The card is unreal, I can't remember the last time I drew it and wished it were a Smasher.
This decks bad hands win so many games it's unreal, I've won plenty games where I've drawn literally 5 spells and 10 lands. Mull to 5 keep something like: souls/strangler land temple herder relic? Sweet!
~Ride the iguana, it's what surfer's say in the Galapagos (probably)
RidetheIguana, Im using now the exact list of your latest version of BW Eldrazi Processor... just want to ask if can you do a sideboard guide? especially against Burn, Merfolk, Grixis Delve, Mardu Conrol and Affinity.... Thanks... and Congrats!... Blight Herder > Reality Smasher in my GPT Experience..=)
Path is solved with a single dual land... Wrath needs two or a dual and a plains, whereas I always lean towards BB for Liliana, for seize+paths and for yahenni expertise. My deck is designed also to play a sweeper under blood moon, with 2 swamps and 1 plains... Therefore damnation is the optimal play.
Regarding herders, it is a strong card, as is smasher. I have won countless games out of nothing drawing a smasher or pulling him back with Lili... Herder fits a more slow gameplay, with sorin as backup, and just isn't my personal style (although all 3 herders are just there waiting to be played again someday xD)
Disenchant shouldn't be better than fragmentize? Instant speed is a need, in particular against nauseum, tron and affinity, where you may need to answer the threats immediately.
Without any card drawing engine, doesn't this deck run out of gas fairly quickly?
It probably would if it didn't have so many card-drawing engines... 3-4x Reshaper, 3-4x Relic, and 1-2x Mind Stone are standard across most builds. 4x Lingering Souls obviously gives good card advantage and threat density, as does Herder when it processes. Decks that play Lili (tLH) can recur from the graveyard, and decks with Sea Gate Wreckage have an additional draw engine.
Congrats RidetheIguana on your recent first place finish at the SCG IQ! Post an event report maybe? Do you still find you are fixing your mana with GQ very often?
Otherwise I wouldn't change a card in the maindeck, and I still prefer BW Processors as the deck name if you are, and you should be, playing Blight Herder. The card is unreal, I can't remember the last time I drew it and wished it were a Smasher.
Blight Herder > Reality Smasher in my GPT Experience..=)
Could you guys shine some light on why Blight Herder is so much better than Reality Smasher? Often I feel like Reality Smasher closes the game where Blight Herder gives your opponent another turn to do something. Or do you mean because of its cast trigger in the more processor type deck? What's your aim with using the Blight Herder decklist, getting scions/souls to buff with Sorin and attack?
3-1 tonight out of 51 players. Lost to Saheeli/Felidar/Sun Titan first round on the draw, due to many, many spreading seas and very bad draws.
In round 2 on the draw I beat Restore Balance in 3; G1 he mulled to 3, I lost G2 to Blood Moon (didn't expect it, sided in no outs for it), and I squeaked out a win in G3 on turn 5. Despite my processing several cards he still got off a lot of Balances, but Pithing Needle on Greater Gargadon was clutch in both G2 and G3. Herder would have been AMAZING in this match, it would have bene embarrassing.
Round 3 saw my Flayer Junk-playing opponent make some unpleasant discoveries (e.g. flipped a Reshaper to a Reshaper from his Decay), and I took an extremely easy two games.
Round 4 was similarly easy but against a BG Shadow deck with Souls in the side, which I also took in two; but he almost got me in G2 only to have me topdeck a Relic at 2 life with only one Spirit token against his two Flayers active with delirium. That allowed me to cast and crack Relic, cast my in-hand Strangler, kill a shrunken Flayer and wall the second one, drawing a Lingering Souls in the process.
Lots of creature removal has obviously been great against the Shadow decks, BG decks, Naya Burn, Zoo, Affinity, etc. But there's also more combo floating around for sure, so I'm kinda wishing for more direct hand disruption. Maybe I'll sleeve up some Scullers and Herders....
Hey guys, have you seen the new enchant that doubles tokens you put into play? It might be the time to fully shift back to herders, with a whooping 11 power out of 5 Mana (that can be cast at turn 3!). Follow it with a sorin and the game is over! You can even use the scions to ramp into emrakul or something like that. Hm just brainstorming some ideas
I like Blight Herder myself (as 2x-of SB card for midrange match-ups) but I'd never replace Reality Smasher with it as it is just a much better creature and a legitimate closer for the deck.
Extra T1 discard is real, real good--I had room for 5 in that build, compared to 3 in my current deck. This helped a lot against some combo decks I played.
Sculler is extremely good as a T2 play followed by T3 Strangler, but it is very greedy in the manabase--I felt I only had room for 6 colorless-only lands (4x Temple and 2x GQ). No Cavern, no Vault, no Wreckage, one less GQ.
When using Herder, it is much harder to side out Relics. Herder is greedy for processing fodder, and it is so hard to get without Relic in play. This leads to keeping Relic in the 60 post-SB even in cases where its only function is to enable Herder instead of to interfere with the opponent's plans. No bueno.
Herder is still an amazing play when it processes. But it is still challenging to turn that on sometimes. Sculler and Path aren't really enough, especially if you're also trying to get value out of Strangler a turn or two before you're trying to also get value out of Herder. This makes me wonder about swapping out one Relic for a main-deck Surgical Extraction which can often get 4 cards into exile very early on, especially with all the hand disruption. It can also occasionally shut an opponent down if they have a key primary wincon (Bridge in Lantern, Titan in RG Valakut decks, etc.)
I definitely missed haste and trample in a couple of situations (against Nahiri and other planeswalkers, when at 3 and topdecking vs. Burn).
Working hypothesis: The choice of 5-drop finisher is meta-dependent. Corollary: Smasher and Sculler don't fit into the same deck. Herder is higher ceiling in some matchups (vs. control, vs. Suspend decks, vs. lots of targeted removal, vs. Blood Moon) and Smasher is higher ceiling in others (vs. Burn, vs. planeswalkers, oftentimes in late-game topdeck wars). Herder is lower floor though overall, because it's really pretty bad compared to Smasher if it doesn't process.
I'll probably keep testing the Sculler/Herder build, right now the jury (in my courtroom at least) is out. The crucial factor might turn out to be how much control and combo I start to see--Herder and lots of hand disruption are both very good against these decks.
I had a lot of fun with it and went 2-1-1 as follows:
1-1 vs Abzan Coco/GW Hatebears rogue brew (tough, actually went to turns and drew) [EDIT: Turns out this was Abzan Cocowisp, another deck under development in the mtgsalvation forums. Can be found here: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/686228-abzan-cocowisp]
2-0 vs Mono White Humans Aggro
2-0 vs Ad Nauseum (seemed like a very favourable match-up. Wasteland strangler ate a lotus bloom and burped it out of the exile zone g1. g2 Inquisition on phyrezian unlife into surgical extraction seemed to do the trick).
1-2 vs Jund (I don't know either. I thought this would be a more favourable match-up but apparently Kalitas messes up our Matter Reshapers and that lifegain puts them back up from behind the game. Found myself wishing I had Anguished Unmaking instead of Oblivion Ring. In future, I will have more dismembers and less discard in the SB and will board out the reshapers purely because of kalitas).
[EDIT: There were around 23 players and I ended up 8th overall.]
I will probably be trying the deck again at the next fnm
If anyone could give me some pointers on sideboarding with this deck or if anyone could lead me to some pointers, it would be very much appreciated.
Otherwise, any tips on improving my list and grinding out Jund/Abzan midrange would be very much appreciated (I'm very aggro oriented and inexperienced with a deck like ours).
I briefly recall seeing Eldrazi Displacer discussed over here but the consensus seemed to be that we want Lingering Souls over it despite the pseudo-lock with thought-knot seer, because Lingering Souls helps us trade more favourably and on our own terms with other midrange decks and helps chump aggro? I can definitely see the logic behind that but I was wondering if someone hasn't tried a version with displacer and found themselves liking it at all? (I saw this video with Corbin Hosler playing a Mardu variant that ran Eldrazi Displacer with Hangarback Walker so that has got my attention: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=13671&writer=Corbin Hosler&articledate=12-12-2016)
Other than that, thank you all for developing this really neat, under-appreciated deck and let's hope we can push this thing closer to the top of the charts!
Unless I'm missing something, this card seems terrible unless you have a heavy cycling or delerium theme in the deck. Who knows, maybe...
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
Here is my almost fully optimized list:
BW Eldrazi
[/Deck=Zirzhas
Lands
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
3 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
2 Shambling Vent
2 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Cavern of Souls
Creatures
2 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Wasteland Strangler
Walkers
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Spells
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Collective Brutality
1 Fatal Push
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
1 Warping Wail
Artifacts
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Mind Stone
Sideboard:
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Collective Brutality
2 Fulminator Mage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Stony Silence
1 Yahenni's Expertise
1 Thoughtseize
1 Warping Wail
1 Wrath of God - should be damnation
1 Rest in Peace]
Almost every match I lose game 1 and come back at game 2 and 3 with our SB hosers and topping with powerful attackers. Also, I have almost always won when I played a Liliana.
The metagame I play is always up to date with the GPs and SCG opens. Lately Grixis controls, death shadows Grixis and Jund, lots of valakut variants, Jund, junk, lots of afinity, merfolk, tron... Overall, I am impressed with how much Processors can keep up with almost all those decks!
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=112661
Im in the tidehollow sculler team too, i love the synergy between tidehollow sculler and wasteland strangler.
My deck is in the signature, the MB is pretty similar, i have a extra fatal push instead a 2nd collectivity brutality and a different mana base. Is good to see BW processor getting some good results in big tournaments.
BWC Processors Eldrazi CWB
UBC Emerge EldraziCBU
C Tron Eldrazi C
RBC Meld Eldrazi CBR
GU Tokens Eldrazi UG
This is the Decklist that I played:
Creatures:
3 Blight Herder
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Wasteland Strangler
Planeswalkers:
1 Liliana, The Last Hope
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Spells:
1 Collective Brutality
1 Dismember
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Fatal Push
Lands:
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
4 Shambling Vent
2 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
SIDEBOARD:
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
2 Stony Silence
2 Wrath of God
2 Celestial Purge
1 Fatal Push
1 Timely Reinforecements
1 Rest in Peace
2 Zealous Persecution
Round 1: 2-0 vs Burn
Round 2: 2-0 vs Mono Green Stompy
Round 3: 2-0 vs Grixis Control
Round 4: 2-1 vs Affinity
Round 5: Intentional Draw
I came 1st after 5 swiss rounds..
I wonder if a clunky thing for you sometimes is having BB for Lili on T3? Cards with BB or WW costs seem much harder to land than the split nana BW cards. With BW the only way to have two colored lands and NOT have the right mana is to only have your two Swamps and need it for a white spell. It's a corner case, but to me it seems that this deck is kinda looking to take advantage of every angle it can--e.g., GY hate, exile hate, hand disruption, land destruction, manlands, etc. etc. You also have Sea Gate Wreckage where I have Concealed Courtyard, making Lili one step harder to cast.
I think you really nailed something crucial with your insight about the SB plan--while playing Bant Eldrazi I found that if I sided in more than 3-4 cards max, then I was messing up my primary all-in gameplan too much; where with BW (are we still calling this thing "Processors"?) we are built around flexibility. I regularly find myself siding in/out 6-7+ cards and feeling good about it: like taking out Relics for more creature removal vs. aggro; or hand siding out disruption for multipurpose removal like Bomb and Unmaking vs. Jund; or losing the creature removal for Needle etc. vs. combo.
Anyway, I went 4-1 last night, losing to a KCI/Eggs/Hangarback Walker/Scrapheap Scrounger/Emrakul combo I'd never encountered before, and beating some fun brews, Ad Nauseam, and Naya Burn. In anticipation of Death's Shadow decks I went with 3x Push and 4x Path maindeck, with both Unmakings in the side. I also went back to 3x Relic and 2x Stone, because even though I really want the reliable GY hate in the main, playing the ramptastic Bant deck made me fully appreciate the utility of Mind Stone anew. Ramp is important in this deck! If we don't have a Temple in play we are at a pretty significant disadvantage. Stone is a strong role-player and the importance of the late-game cantrip cannot be overstated.
Current list in sig for those interested.
Emblem then start plussing on a valakut?
Lantern might not be able to beat an emblem if you can IOK their abrupt decays.
When I say the deck is clunky I am not referring to mana base. actually I am quite happy with it and don't feel like switching to fast lands so soon - SGW have won me unwinnable games removing lands from top of the deck. But I feel like we are really mana hungry, and sometimes you just started casting "real" spells at turn 3-4, going from relic into mindstone and then not having a TKS or temple to rush into smasher. I miss some cantrips and deck digging, and Liliana sometimes is that digger, looking for or reusing a TKS (disruption) or a Strangler (removal).
Another angle I am feeling good of having relics is that there are lots of situations where I need to process, but doing so Will boost a goyf or give then flashback targets (lingering souls, snapcaster targets, etc). Relic keeps the flow of throwing lands and non reusable I cards on the exile. Because of this, I feel it may be really a bad idea to play herders in a heavy graveyard environment.
Otherwise I wouldn't change a card in the maindeck, and I still prefer BW Processors as the deck name if you are, and you should be, playing Blight Herder. The card is unreal, I can't remember the last time I drew it and wished it were a Smasher.
This decks bad hands win so many games it's unreal, I've won plenty games where I've drawn literally 5 spells and 10 lands. Mull to 5 keep something like: souls/strangler land temple herder relic? Sweet!
~Ride the iguana, it's what surfer's say in the Galapagos (probably)
Regarding herders, it is a strong card, as is smasher. I have won countless games out of nothing drawing a smasher or pulling him back with Lili... Herder fits a more slow gameplay, with sorin as backup, and just isn't my personal style (although all 3 herders are just there waiting to be played again someday xD)
Disenchant shouldn't be better than fragmentize? Instant speed is a need, in particular against nauseum, tron and affinity, where you may need to answer the threats immediately.
Congrats RidetheIguana on your recent first place finish at the SCG IQ! Post an event report maybe? Do you still find you are fixing your mana with GQ very often?
https://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comments/4z8160/bw_processors_sb_guide_modern/?ref=search_posts
Congratz to the success RidetheIguana
Thanks and nice results!
In round 2 on the draw I beat Restore Balance in 3; G1 he mulled to 3, I lost G2 to Blood Moon (didn't expect it, sided in no outs for it), and I squeaked out a win in G3 on turn 5. Despite my processing several cards he still got off a lot of Balances, but Pithing Needle on Greater Gargadon was clutch in both G2 and G3. Herder would have been AMAZING in this match, it would have bene embarrassing.
Round 3 saw my Flayer Junk-playing opponent make some unpleasant discoveries (e.g. flipped a Reshaper to a Reshaper from his Decay), and I took an extremely easy two games.
Round 4 was similarly easy but against a BG Shadow deck with Souls in the side, which I also took in two; but he almost got me in G2 only to have me topdeck a Relic at 2 life with only one Spirit token against his two Flayers active with delirium. That allowed me to cast and crack Relic, cast my in-hand Strangler, kill a shrunken Flayer and wall the second one, drawing a Lingering Souls in the process.
Lots of creature removal has obviously been great against the Shadow decks, BG decks, Naya Burn, Zoo, Affinity, etc. But there's also more combo floating around for sure, so I'm kinda wishing for more direct hand disruption. Maybe I'll sleeve up some Scullers and Herders....
This is not a tokens deck anyway.
I like Blight Herder myself (as 2x-of SB card for midrange match-ups) but I'd never replace Reality Smasher with it as it is just a much better creature and a legitimate closer for the deck.
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Marsh Flats
4x Eldrazi Temple
3x Godless Shrine
2x Concealed Courtyard
2x Ghost Quarter
2x Swamp
1x Fetid Heath
1x Shambling Vent
1x Plains
Creature (14)
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Wasteland Strangler
3x Tidehollow Sculler
3x Blight Herder
4x Lingering Souls
3x Thoughtseize
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Collective Brutality
Instant (6)
4x Path to Exile
2x Fatal Push
Artifact (4)
4x Relic of Progenitus
Planeswalker (1)
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2x Damnation
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Pithing Needle
2x Stony Silence
2x Anguished Unmaking
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Rest in Peace
1x Thoughtseize
1x Disenchant
I'll probably keep testing the Sculler/Herder build, right now the jury (in my courtroom at least) is out. The crucial factor might turn out to be how much control and combo I start to see--Herder and lots of hand disruption are both very good against these decks.
3 Plains
2 Swamp
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Godless Shrine
2 Shambling Vent
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmouth
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Eldrazi Temple
Creatures (15):
3 Matter Reshaper
3 Wasteland Strangler
1 Eternal Scourge
4 Thought-knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
1 Collective Brutality
4 Lingering Souls
2 Fatal Push
Enchantments (1):
1 Oblivion Ring
Artifacts (7):
3 Mind Stone
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Duress
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Collective Brutality
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Blessed Alliance
3 Stony Silence
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Dismember
I had a lot of fun with it and went 2-1-1 as follows:
1-1 vs Abzan Coco/GW Hatebears rogue brew (tough, actually went to turns and drew) [EDIT: Turns out this was Abzan Cocowisp, another deck under development in the mtgsalvation forums. Can be found here: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/686228-abzan-cocowisp]
2-0 vs Mono White Humans Aggro
2-0 vs Ad Nauseum (seemed like a very favourable match-up. Wasteland strangler ate a lotus bloom and burped it out of the exile zone g1. g2 Inquisition on phyrezian unlife into surgical extraction seemed to do the trick).
1-2 vs Jund (I don't know either. I thought this would be a more favourable match-up but apparently Kalitas messes up our Matter Reshapers and that lifegain puts them back up from behind the game. Found myself wishing I had Anguished Unmaking instead of Oblivion Ring. In future, I will have more dismembers and less discard in the SB and will board out the reshapers purely because of kalitas).
[EDIT: There were around 23 players and I ended up 8th overall.]
I will probably be trying the deck again at the next fnm
If anyone could give me some pointers on sideboarding with this deck or if anyone could lead me to some pointers, it would be very much appreciated.
Otherwise, any tips on improving my list and grinding out Jund/Abzan midrange would be very much appreciated (I'm very aggro oriented and inexperienced with a deck like ours).
I briefly recall seeing Eldrazi Displacer discussed over here but the consensus seemed to be that we want Lingering Souls over it despite the pseudo-lock with thought-knot seer, because Lingering Souls helps us trade more favourably and on our own terms with other midrange decks and helps chump aggro? I can definitely see the logic behind that but I was wondering if someone hasn't tried a version with displacer and found themselves liking it at all? (I saw this video with Corbin Hosler playing a Mardu variant that ran Eldrazi Displacer with Hangarback Walker so that has got my attention: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=13671&writer=Corbin Hosler&articledate=12-12-2016)
Other than that, thank you all for developing this really neat, under-appreciated deck and let's hope we can push this thing closer to the top of the charts!