Thanks for the advice, pal. If I had to sum out Montreal's metagame, I'd say it's pretty close to being 1/4 Eldrazi Tron, 1/4 Grixis, 1/4 CoCo and the other quarter is a healthy mix of stuff, but with a prevalence of Evles ATM. So each maindecked silver-bullet really has heavy use. Some nights I run into triple Grixis Shadow / Control and I'm like «thank god I have these Jars maindecked», cutting them off their K-Kommand out to Bridge. However I DO miss the Inquisition of Kozilek bad.
Not sure where this is going forward, I might take a break and dabble with blue Lantern (feat. Whir) or Jund for a while.
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MODERN Blue Lantern, UBx Tezzerator. OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
I am going to see what field of ruin does for the deck's land matchups. I think it does a cool thing in hurting land strats while fixing our blue. Could be fairly painless to maindeck and then I think crucible would work again. Basically seeing what opt/Sorcerous Spyglass and Field of Ruin do for our game. I think being able to predictively blank fetch lands with slyglass will really hurt GDS
I do think the GY decks leaving the meta has swung artifact hate back up in popularity. Also leyline of the void has gotten crazy popular here, so that stings too.
@tugatog Thanks for the tourney report. So close! I feel that's how it usually runs one win out of money hahahaha! I am glad to see this style because I have trimmed the prisms for welding jars and a relic lately. It seems like people are smashing a lot more stuff than they were 4 months ago and prism really exposes you to that type of angle.
How did you feel about 21 lands? How did the collectives feel?
I'm wondering if my maindeck three are overkill. Against red they seem like near guaranteed wins and they feel like trash against most of the reat of the field. Did you feel short on Tez? How did 21 land feel?
I have been mechanically testing with Field of Ruin tonight and it feels really good in the shell with a crucible. It doesn't really hamper the manabase like ghost quarter does. It feels like a nearly custom made fit to our land problems.
Has anyone else been testing IX cards in the build? I really like opt and field of ruin main with sorcerous spyglass in SB.
So how do we feel about Search for Azcanta//Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin? Helps us scry for combo pieces early( or dump Sword) and late game we can Impulse our way to an answer for whatever hate piece is bringing us down. I don't know where it goes in the "standard" list, but I'm looking to drop my 2x Muddle the Mixtures to give it a whirl.
I think Search is much too slow at first glance, looks more like a SB card for grindy matchups. Field of Ruin on the other hand looks potentially strong to me. The drawback of not being able to use it for free after casting crucible is a huge liability. Non-crucible decks might prefer it over GQ.
Against Scapeshift, they've overperformed my expectations. Naming Primeval Titan shuts down a lot of their consistency, making Summoner's Pact basically an expensive disenchant (the lone Rec Sage being the only good target). Then, if you draw the second Lost Legacy, naming scapeshift turns them into a slow burn deck. I've played a few UR Breach decks recently, and naming breach or Emrakul is pretty much GG (they have to beat down with snappy and clique). Legacy helped me almost beat Amulet Titan, but not quite - and that is because in games 2 + 3 I named Titan instead of the much-more-deadly Tireless Tracker, which can just snowball so quickly for them. Lesson learned, name tracker there.
I've played a couple matches with UR storm, and Legacy is a huge beating for them, helping me get quick concessions. I lost a match recently vs UR storm, though, in games 2 + 3 while holding multiple legacies, but that was because I randomly couldn't get to 3 lands before they cast a blood moon each game. If your lands are all nonbasic, naming Moon first is key.
Now against Tron. I recently lost a game 3 after a turn-4 Legacy on All is Dust, because he had a Karn in hand and exiled my sword while I was tapped out. I think the thing to learn here is to play your valuable permanents after playing legacy, so that you can keep them safe from Karn, or at least have mana open with a foundry to turn Karn's minus into a flier for you. Or just play a needle first. Legacy feels decent but not great here, just because Eldrazi are usually pressuring your life total to some degree while you take a turn to get rid of All is Dust, but after bridge, Legacy is what I'd want to draw multiples of in the mid-game.
I haven't played any counters-company with my current sideboard, but I think Legacy would be fine against them (especially on the play), naming druid or vizier before they can come down.
So to sum up, I'm going to stick with the 4 Lost Legacy for now. Having that many helps them appear in hands in the early game, and allows you to proactively address the problem cards this deck wants to avoid. I haven't brought them in against Stony Silence, because that is what the fragmentize are there for, and because SS can come down before legacy, but it is worth considering.
Back from a hiatus and also a PPTQ. I have the results to share with you! Did a quick update of the list the week before based off of my local meta and anticipating travelers to the event. I have been playing Grixis Control for the past month so I figured I would give the locals the ol' switch-a-roo.
Round 1: Mardu Burn (SB: -1 Bridge, -1 Relic, -1 Needle, -1 Serum, -1 Time Sieve; +1 CotV, +2 ADecay, +1 Witchbane, +1 Damnation)
A good friend of mine and a list we brewed together for the event. Basically the RB Burn deck with Claim//Fame, but with a hint of Boros.
G1: Lost - Had a bad case of drawing every 3+ drop and couldn't make the Bridge work.
G2: Won - Fought through 2 Smash to Smithereens and a Wear//Tear, but still assembled combo.
G3: Lost - A very close game, but sadly I couldn't cobble together a way to stop the burn to the face, raise dead the Eidolon of the Great Revel, and the threats in play already. I just needed more mana to do all of it at once. Something my friend didn't give me the chance to do.
Round 2: Naya Burn (SB: -1 Relic, -1 Needle, -1 Cage, -1 Serum, -1 Time Sieve; +1 CotV, +2 ADecay, +1 Witchbane, +1 Damnation)
Jeez, Burn twice in a row and against another friend! Either way a stock list. Was almost an inverse of round 1.
G1: Won - Emptied hand for bridge, proceeded to topdeck combo pieces.
G2: Lost - Opponent drew all of the hate and I didn't draw ways to stop it.
G3: Won - Finally drew a copy of Collective Brutality from the past 6 games and does it work. Take over the game from there with combo.
Round 3: Slivers (SB: -1 Relic, -1 Needle, -3 CBrutality; +1 Damnation, +1 Padeem, +2 ADecay, +1 MPulse)
Surprisingly enough this turnout was real strange for decks. This was one of 2 Sliver players! There was an 8-Rack guy next to me as well. It was the battle of the obscure.
G1: Won - Mutavault + Aether Vial pass turn1. I draw Pithing Needle. Opponent proceeds to show that he isn't a Fish deck, but was Slivers. After some 15+ turns of doing nothing I finally draw some action and win.
G2: Won - His Harmonic Sliver met a quick death to Abrupt Decay and the game ends up like the first.
Round 4: Dredge (SB: -1 Needle, -3 CBrutality; +1 Relic, +1 Witchbane, +1 Padeem, +1 Damnation)
A local that has had favorable match-ups all day...till now.
G1 and 2: Won - Turn 1 Relic for both games and proceed to assemble combo within the next few turns. My fastest games of the day (I finally got to get up before round and get a bite to eat!)
Round 5: GW Ramunap Company (SB: -1 Tezz, -1 Foundry, -1 Sword, -3x CBrutality, -1 Serum, -1 WJar, -1 TimeSieve; +1 Needle, +2 ADecay, +1 MPulse,+1 Padeem, +1 Damnation, +2 Herald, +1 Ghirapur)
A friend of mine that shifts decks around a lot and sadly I wasn't certain what he was on. Arguably the hardest match of the day, but if I won I would be locked for Top 8.
G1: Won - We go back and forth trading resources, but eventually I get combo online with bridge. He concedes to preserve time.
G2: Won - The best match of the day. He must have drawn 15 more cards than me with Horizon Canopy. Fought through Qasali Pridemage and Kataki, War's Wage lock for as long as I could. I finally draw Relic and Pulse and his value town was all gone. Proceed to drop both Heralds after rebuilding. He admits he boarded out all of his Path to Exile. Down to one life and constrained on mana (Had both Spires in play), I was lucky enough to draw Steam Vents so I could finally cast the Grid in hand. He finally loses after many turns and I lock TOp 8.
Top 8 Round 1: Jeskai Control (SB: +2 Herald, +1 Padeem, +1 MPulse, +2 ADecay, +1 Canoist, +1 Relic; -1 Tezz, -1 Bridge, -1 Foundry, -1 Sword, -1 WJar, -3 CBrutality)
Alright the beginning to the top.
G1: Lost - Made my first play mistake. I was playing around Mana Leak the whole game and a Brutality showed he had multiple Snapcaster Mage. All I had to do was play the Cage in hand WHILE also holding up 3 extra mana. I draw Whir thinking "Jeez, if I do it now he will have to Leak it" He counters Whir with Leak. I go to play Cage only to realize that he still had all of those Snaps...walk right into the counter I knew of. He proceeds to go on the Snap-Beats and kills me. Felt bad.
G2: Lost - He switches from being Burn focus to Creature focus and kills me with Queller, Geist, and Colonade. I just didn't draw a hand that could fight against all of his threats and answers. If I went for Bridge he had Negate. If I had Decay he had Queller. It was like playing against someone who got to DTutor every turn instead of drawing.
So I went 4-1 in rounds and ended 5th-8th place. Lost to 2 major play mistakes against my last opponent knocking me out. Overall was a good experience. I managed to dodge both Tron players and the TitanBreach player so my Lost Legacy never saw play. Hopefully Ixalan brings us good fortune.
@TugaTog, @boomforest
I'l try two to start with; while I don't necessarily think two is the right number, I just want a higher chance of seeing it on time.
I feel that most of our game ones (against fair decks) are either won quickly with ThopSword or slower grinds with Bridge. We're also incentivised to go heck/hellbent fairly often, so being able to bin those extra lands or mana rocks before they hit our hand seems worth trying out at least.
On other Ixalan cards, Field of Ruin seems really bad, guys. Effectively paying 3 mana to GQ our Tron opponent seems kinda weak when we lack the pressure to follow it up. Field of Ruin feels like a real mediocre tempo play when we really want to be the beatdown. Our fastest way to win from there is T4 Tezz, make two 5/5s over the course of two turns then win on the next turn for a T6 kill against goldfish. It gets better if you pack Surgical, but we still lack pressure. Maybe Wanted Scoundrels is something we can look at to help beat face in this sort of matchup, but with only 15 sideboard slots I think we're stuck waiting for WotC to print decent Tron/Valakut hate.
Though I'm not sure that Search for Azcanta is the right fit for this deck, I am really high on the card generally speaking. Decks that do want it can play 2 just fine since the flip clause is a may the second copy is never really dead. I also think the front side's GYscry is underrated, especially in decks that can use the graveyard. One of the reasons you might not want search in this deck is that we aren't necessarily trying to go super long game, which I think is where Azcanta shines. In that sense, it doesn't really contribute to the gameplan of assembling a lock, other than the GYscry, which is certainly not negligable, but probably not worth a full card on it's own merit. On the other hand, one of the reasons this deck might want Search is that it can played into any game state, meaning that it helps you empty your hand in any situation while providing marginal value that doesn't refill your hand. The may clause on the impulse ability is also relevant for times you have a bridge out and are just searching for a Tezz/combo piece.
It does give some hope for crucible and Trash for treasure/spine of Ish Sah type shenanigans to go along with sword. I'll have to brew, but I don't think it plays well with Whir as a do-nothing turn 2.
Well, field of ruin is definitely better than GQ for us because it doesn't net loss us a land. If you're on the play you can knock out tron or eldrazi temple and still stay on curve. I'm also running 4 spreading seas because the land matchup is so bad and also land decks are like 75% of my meta.
Has anyone been considering Opt for this deck? I know the card is not very powerful but it is likely better than Sleight of Hand for us. Normally we are looking for something very specific with our cantrips, therefore only seeing 1 card before making a decisions instead of 2 is less relevant. However the instant speed gives us an extra turn of information from our opponent. In testing I have been wanting to play more cantrips in the deck but the options have not been quite good enough to justify the slots. Going forward I'm going to try a few new things, including Opt. The last couple months have lead to a few conclusions about the deck which have influenced the direction I'm going to be taking.
- Pentad Prism, although powerful in niche situations I'd prefer not to be playing it. Exactly 1 copy in your opening hand is usually great but you never want to see another one. It's not a card you will be retrieving with Whir and does little to nothing when draw mid-late game. I'm going to cut them for more high impact cards.
- Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, I was once a big advocate for always play 4. However that was in an environment where he was vulnerable to our opponents strategy. Typically I cast a Tezzeret and win with it, or lose with it in play. Rarely is it removed. Now that we are playing 4x Whir of Invention in a low to the ground strategy we can't justify that many 4+ mana cards.
- Fatal Push, Previously I wanted to play zero copies of this card. And honestly I still want to play zero copies of this card. However I have found it important to remove niche creatures that can quickly ruin our day. Kataki, Thalia, Scooze, Walking Balista, etc. That being said I want to play as few as possible in game one.
- Crucible of Worlds, Eldrazi Tron and Valakut decks are omnipresent. Without any meaningful interaction both of these match ups are very difficult. I sacrifice very little to run 1 Expedition Map, 1 Crucible of Worlds and 1 Ghost Quarter in the deck. This gives us some game 1 and significantly better games 2-3 when we can bored in additional disruptive lands.
- Opt, Cantrips have been the best feeling cards in the deck (Serum Visions). Smoothing out early land drops and filtering for gas in the late game has been instrumental to my recent success with the deck and I would like to play 2-3 more of this effect.
- A cohesive 75. I am regularly finding that I want to board in a handful of cards but only remove half as many. In addition to that I want to remove artifacts for non-artifacts and you simply can't do that and allow Whir and Tezzeret to be effective. I'd rather board fewer powerful cards than a wide array of medium cards due to the nature of the deck not wanting to cut any cards from the initial 60.
As you can see I am playing 61 cards. Normally when I see a deck with 61 cards I immediately dismiss the deck as a dumpster fire and move on with my life. Therefore I need to cut 1 card. Suggestions welcomed! It is Modern season and I am looking to get out and crush some PPTQ's!
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Has anyone been considering Opt for this deck? I know the card is not very powerful but it is likely better than Sleight of Hand for us. Normally we are looking for something very specific with our cantrips, therefore only seeing 1 card before making a decisions instead of 2 is less relevant. However the instant speed gives us an extra turn of information from our opponent. In testing I have been wanting to play more cantrips in the deck but the options have not been quite good enough to justify the slots. Going forward I'm going to try a few new things, including Opt. The last couple months have lead to a few conclusions about the deck which have influenced the direction I'm going to be taking.
- Pentad Prism, although powerful in niche situations I'd prefer not to be playing it. Exactly 1 copy in your opening hand is usually great but you never want to see another one. It's not a card you will be retrieving with Whir and does little to nothing when draw mid-late game. I'm going to cut them for more high impact cards.
- Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, I was once a big advocate for always play 4. However that was in an environment where he was vulnerable to our opponents strategy. Typically I cast a Tezzeret and win with it, or lose with it in play. Rarely is it removed. Now that we are playing 4x Whir of Invention in a low to the ground strategy we can't justify that many 4+ mana cards.
- Fatal Push, Previously I wanted to play zero copies of this card. And honestly I still want to play zero copies of this card. However I have found it important to remove niche creatures that can quickly ruin our day. Kataki, Thalia, Scooze, Walking Balista, etc. That being said I want to play as few as possible in game one.
- Crucible of Worlds, Eldrazi Tron and Valakut decks are omnipresent. Without any meaningful interaction both of these match ups are very difficult. I sacrifice very little to run 1 Expedition Map, 1 Crucible of Worlds and 1 Ghost Quarter in the deck. This gives us some game 1 and significantly better games 2-3 when we can bored in additional disruptive lands.
- Opt, Cantrips have been the best feeling cards in the deck (Serum Visions). Smoothing out early land drops and filtering for gas in the late game has been instrumental to my recent success with the deck and I would like to play 2-3 more of this effect.
- A cohesive 75. I am regularly finding that I want to board in a handful of cards but only remove half as many. In addition to that I want to remove artifacts for non-artifacts and you simply can't do that and allow Whir and Tezzeret to be effective. I'd rather board fewer powerful cards than a wide array of medium cards due to the nature of the deck not wanting to cut any cards from the initial 60.
As you can see I am playing 61 cards. Normally when I see a deck with 61 cards I immediately dismiss the deck as a dumpster fire and move on with my life. Therefore I need to cut 1 card. Suggestions welcomed! It is Modern season and I am looking to get out and crush some PPTQ's!
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Racing089 - I agree with many of your thoughts, especially on Pentad Prism, Tezzeret and Fatal Push. If I were to cut a card from your list it would be a Thopter Foundry. I have been messing around with many non-traditional Tezz/Whir/Foundry builds and I hate running more than 1 Foundry. That said, I understand it's basically the only win condition in your list and the same is generally not true of my lists, so more than 1 is necessary for you, but I still don't think 4 is the right way to go. I would also like to urge you to run an Academy Ruins. It just fits your Crucible/Map package so nicely - as does something like Tolaria West.
@racing089 I like your current list. I'm also playing a lot of cantrips recently, (4 Serum Visions and 2 Sleight of Hand that will probably become opt). I'd definitely be trying out Sorcerous Spyglass in place of a needle, I dunno about you. I feel you're a little weak to burn with this current list, with only 2 brutalities SB. I'm playing 3 Brutalities maindeck, and 3 Contraband Kingpin in the board, and the matchup still feels like a coinflip. BTW, I'd suggest people try kingpin out of the board - scry is really good. Are 3 bridges really necessary? With all the cantrips and Whir, I've never felt the need for more than 2, and sometimes I think 1 main 1 side might be the correct split.
I like the negates out of the board. I kind of forgot that countermagic can be played in this deck.
How are the Relics main for you? I often think they're lackluster in a lot of matchups, and never dominant. Keeping GDS off an angler for a few turns doesn't really ever seem worth the spot, and Storm can play around them fairly easily.
Really curious to see how your crucible plan goes. I would definitely play 1 GQ and 1 Ruinous if you're going to play crucible.
I agree with a lot of your points. I think the meta has drastically shifted and artifact hate is in vogue now.
Opt: incredible. At least a two of, maybe a 4 of.
Prism: weak in this meta. I've cut.
Tezzeret: not back breaking in current meta, I'm down to 2.
Crucible: seems good again. I'm running Field of Ruin too (almost no-brainer better than your SB tec edge?). The map/GQ/crucible package seems too far fetched. You basically need a card that interacts with lands within the first three turns to have a chance against any tron build. Spreading Seas man. Very good, almost never bad g1.
Push: a very relevant card. If more cards are interacting with us it probably makes sense to be prepared to take care of one problem creature per game.
61 cards: interesting. The real question is if any one card in our deck is powerful enough by itself to demand to be drawn. With more cantrips we might be able to do something like this.
My main question to you,( and to myself and the forum) is: mishra's bauble. Does it deserve a spot? I have felt very boned by it over the last few months and with the improved cantripping for our deck I think those spots might be better suited for interactive stuff like welding jar/relic
Second question: Sorcerous Spyglass? Worth a spot or two?
@Racing: what I'd miss most with your list is MB Cage (in place of 2nd Relic? -- Very high ceiling) and the ability to go infinite with Sieve (looking at it as a silver bullet). It really has saved my artifact ass many times.
Is it too much to say that the deck is DOA unless it integrates something to answer Tron/Valakut?
We've all seen the deck is powerful but there needs to be an active plan from the get go to have a chance against these decks, which are 25-30% of the meta.
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Not sure where this is going forward, I might take a break and dabble with blue Lantern (feat. Whir) or Jund for a while.
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
I do think the GY decks leaving the meta has swung artifact hate back up in popularity. Also leyline of the void has gotten crazy popular here, so that stings too.
How did you feel about 21 lands? How did the collectives feel?
I'm wondering if my maindeck three are overkill. Against red they seem like near guaranteed wins and they feel like trash against most of the reat of the field. Did you feel short on Tez? How did 21 land feel?
Has anyone else been testing IX cards in the build? I really like opt and field of ruin main with sorcerous spyglass in SB.
SB:
Against Scapeshift, they've overperformed my expectations. Naming Primeval Titan shuts down a lot of their consistency, making Summoner's Pact basically an expensive disenchant (the lone Rec Sage being the only good target). Then, if you draw the second Lost Legacy, naming scapeshift turns them into a slow burn deck. I've played a few UR Breach decks recently, and naming breach or Emrakul is pretty much GG (they have to beat down with snappy and clique). Legacy helped me almost beat Amulet Titan, but not quite - and that is because in games 2 + 3 I named Titan instead of the much-more-deadly Tireless Tracker, which can just snowball so quickly for them. Lesson learned, name tracker there.
I've played a couple matches with UR storm, and Legacy is a huge beating for them, helping me get quick concessions. I lost a match recently vs UR storm, though, in games 2 + 3 while holding multiple legacies, but that was because I randomly couldn't get to 3 lands before they cast a blood moon each game. If your lands are all nonbasic, naming Moon first is key.
Now against Tron. I recently lost a game 3 after a turn-4 Legacy on All is Dust, because he had a Karn in hand and exiled my sword while I was tapped out. I think the thing to learn here is to play your valuable permanents after playing legacy, so that you can keep them safe from Karn, or at least have mana open with a foundry to turn Karn's minus into a flier for you. Or just play a needle first. Legacy feels decent but not great here, just because Eldrazi are usually pressuring your life total to some degree while you take a turn to get rid of All is Dust, but after bridge, Legacy is what I'd want to draw multiples of in the mid-game.
I haven't played any counters-company with my current sideboard, but I think Legacy would be fine against them (especially on the play), naming druid or vizier before they can come down.
So to sum up, I'm going to stick with the 4 Lost Legacy for now. Having that many helps them appear in hands in the early game, and allows you to proactively address the problem cards this deck wants to avoid. I haven't brought them in against Stony Silence, because that is what the fragmentize are there for, and because SS can come down before legacy, but it is worth considering.
Round 1: Mardu Burn (SB: -1 Bridge, -1 Relic, -1 Needle, -1 Serum, -1 Time Sieve; +1 CotV, +2 ADecay, +1 Witchbane, +1 Damnation)
A good friend of mine and a list we brewed together for the event. Basically the RB Burn deck with Claim//Fame, but with a hint of Boros.
G1: Lost - Had a bad case of drawing every 3+ drop and couldn't make the Bridge work.
G2: Won - Fought through 2 Smash to Smithereens and a Wear//Tear, but still assembled combo.
G3: Lost - A very close game, but sadly I couldn't cobble together a way to stop the burn to the face, raise dead the Eidolon of the Great Revel, and the threats in play already. I just needed more mana to do all of it at once. Something my friend didn't give me the chance to do.
Round 2: Naya Burn (SB: -1 Relic, -1 Needle, -1 Cage, -1 Serum, -1 Time Sieve; +1 CotV, +2 ADecay, +1 Witchbane, +1 Damnation)
Jeez, Burn twice in a row and against another friend! Either way a stock list. Was almost an inverse of round 1.
G1: Won - Emptied hand for bridge, proceeded to topdeck combo pieces.
G2: Lost - Opponent drew all of the hate and I didn't draw ways to stop it.
G3: Won - Finally drew a copy of Collective Brutality from the past 6 games and does it work. Take over the game from there with combo.
Round 3: Slivers (SB: -1 Relic, -1 Needle, -3 CBrutality; +1 Damnation, +1 Padeem, +2 ADecay, +1 MPulse)
Surprisingly enough this turnout was real strange for decks. This was one of 2 Sliver players! There was an 8-Rack guy next to me as well. It was the battle of the obscure.
G1: Won - Mutavault + Aether Vial pass turn1. I draw Pithing Needle. Opponent proceeds to show that he isn't a Fish deck, but was Slivers. After some 15+ turns of doing nothing I finally draw some action and win.
G2: Won - His Harmonic Sliver met a quick death to Abrupt Decay and the game ends up like the first.
Round 4: Dredge (SB: -1 Needle, -3 CBrutality; +1 Relic, +1 Witchbane, +1 Padeem, +1 Damnation)
A local that has had favorable match-ups all day...till now.
G1 and 2: Won - Turn 1 Relic for both games and proceed to assemble combo within the next few turns. My fastest games of the day (I finally got to get up before round and get a bite to eat!)
Round 5: GW Ramunap Company (SB: -1 Tezz, -1 Foundry, -1 Sword, -3x CBrutality, -1 Serum, -1 WJar, -1 TimeSieve; +1 Needle, +2 ADecay, +1 MPulse,+1 Padeem, +1 Damnation, +2 Herald, +1 Ghirapur)
A friend of mine that shifts decks around a lot and sadly I wasn't certain what he was on. Arguably the hardest match of the day, but if I won I would be locked for Top 8.
G1: Won - We go back and forth trading resources, but eventually I get combo online with bridge. He concedes to preserve time.
G2: Won - The best match of the day. He must have drawn 15 more cards than me with Horizon Canopy. Fought through Qasali Pridemage and Kataki, War's Wage lock for as long as I could. I finally draw Relic and Pulse and his value town was all gone. Proceed to drop both Heralds after rebuilding. He admits he boarded out all of his Path to Exile. Down to one life and constrained on mana (Had both Spires in play), I was lucky enough to draw Steam Vents so I could finally cast the Grid in hand. He finally loses after many turns and I lock TOp 8.
Top 8 Round 1: Jeskai Control (SB: +2 Herald, +1 Padeem, +1 MPulse, +2 ADecay, +1 Canoist, +1 Relic; -1 Tezz, -1 Bridge, -1 Foundry, -1 Sword, -1 WJar, -3 CBrutality)
Alright the beginning to the top.
G1: Lost - Made my first play mistake. I was playing around Mana Leak the whole game and a Brutality showed he had multiple Snapcaster Mage. All I had to do was play the Cage in hand WHILE also holding up 3 extra mana. I draw Whir thinking "Jeez, if I do it now he will have to Leak it" He counters Whir with Leak. I go to play Cage only to realize that he still had all of those Snaps...walk right into the counter I knew of. He proceeds to go on the Snap-Beats and kills me. Felt bad.
G2: Lost - He switches from being Burn focus to Creature focus and kills me with Queller, Geist, and Colonade. I just didn't draw a hand that could fight against all of his threats and answers. If I went for Bridge he had Negate. If I had Decay he had Queller. It was like playing against someone who got to DTutor every turn instead of drawing.
So I went 4-1 in rounds and ended 5th-8th place. Lost to 2 major play mistakes against my last opponent knocking me out. Overall was a good experience. I managed to dodge both Tron players and the TitanBreach player so my Lost Legacy never saw play. Hopefully Ixalan brings us good fortune.
UBx Tezzeret: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/18-06-17-ub-tezzeret/
I'l try two to start with; while I don't necessarily think two is the right number, I just want a higher chance of seeing it on time.
I feel that most of our game ones (against fair decks) are either won quickly with ThopSword or slower grinds with Bridge. We're also incentivised to go heck/hellbent fairly often, so being able to bin those extra lands or mana rocks before they hit our hand seems worth trying out at least.
On other Ixalan cards, Field of Ruin seems really bad, guys. Effectively paying 3 mana to GQ our Tron opponent seems kinda weak when we lack the pressure to follow it up. Field of Ruin feels like a real mediocre tempo play when we really want to be the beatdown. Our fastest way to win from there is T4 Tezz, make two 5/5s over the course of two turns then win on the next turn for a T6 kill against goldfish. It gets better if you pack Surgical, but we still lack pressure. Maybe Wanted Scoundrels is something we can look at to help beat face in this sort of matchup, but with only 15 sideboard slots I think we're stuck waiting for WotC to print decent Tron/Valakut hate.
Has anyone tried Mindcrank/Duskmantle Guildmage as an alternate wincon out of the board?
Will test post list and keep you posted.
- Pentad Prism, although powerful in niche situations I'd prefer not to be playing it. Exactly 1 copy in your opening hand is usually great but you never want to see another one. It's not a card you will be retrieving with Whir and does little to nothing when draw mid-late game. I'm going to cut them for more high impact cards.
- Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, I was once a big advocate for always play 4. However that was in an environment where he was vulnerable to our opponents strategy. Typically I cast a Tezzeret and win with it, or lose with it in play. Rarely is it removed. Now that we are playing 4x Whir of Invention in a low to the ground strategy we can't justify that many 4+ mana cards.
- Fatal Push, Previously I wanted to play zero copies of this card. And honestly I still want to play zero copies of this card. However I have found it important to remove niche creatures that can quickly ruin our day. Kataki, Thalia, Scooze, Walking Balista, etc. That being said I want to play as few as possible in game one.
- Crucible of Worlds, Eldrazi Tron and Valakut decks are omnipresent. Without any meaningful interaction both of these match ups are very difficult. I sacrifice very little to run 1 Expedition Map, 1 Crucible of Worlds and 1 Ghost Quarter in the deck. This gives us some game 1 and significantly better games 2-3 when we can bored in additional disruptive lands.
- Opt, Cantrips have been the best feeling cards in the deck (Serum Visions). Smoothing out early land drops and filtering for gas in the late game has been instrumental to my recent success with the deck and I would like to play 2-3 more of this effect.
- A cohesive 75. I am regularly finding that I want to board in a handful of cards but only remove half as many. In addition to that I want to remove artifacts for non-artifacts and you simply can't do that and allow Whir and Tezzeret to be effective. I'd rather board fewer powerful cards than a wide array of medium cards due to the nature of the deck not wanting to cut any cards from the initial 60.
My current list:
1 Breeding Pool
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
3 Spire of Industry
1 Swamp
3 Watery Grave
Artifacts:
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Expedition Map
3 Mox Opal
1 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Sword of the Meek
4 Thopter Foundry
Spells:
2 Fatal Push
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Opt
4 Serum Visions
2 Thoughtseize
Payoff Cards:
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Whir of Invention
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Collective Brutality
1 Flaying Tendrils
1 Go for the Throat
1 Golgari Charm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Lost Legacy
2 Negate
1 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
As you can see I am playing 61 cards. Normally when I see a deck with 61 cards I immediately dismiss the deck as a dumpster fire and move on with my life. Therefore I need to cut 1 card. Suggestions welcomed! It is Modern season and I am looking to get out and crush some PPTQ's!
Sultai Midrange
Anything Innovative
- Pentad Prism, although powerful in niche situations I'd prefer not to be playing it. Exactly 1 copy in your opening hand is usually great but you never want to see another one. It's not a card you will be retrieving with Whir and does little to nothing when draw mid-late game. I'm going to cut them for more high impact cards.
- Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, I was once a big advocate for always play 4. However that was in an environment where he was vulnerable to our opponents strategy. Typically I cast a Tezzeret and win with it, or lose with it in play. Rarely is it removed. Now that we are playing 4x Whir of Invention in a low to the ground strategy we can't justify that many 4+ mana cards.
- Fatal Push, Previously I wanted to play zero copies of this card. And honestly I still want to play zero copies of this card. However I have found it important to remove niche creatures that can quickly ruin our day. Kataki, Thalia, Scooze, Walking Balista, etc. That being said I want to play as few as possible in game one.
- Crucible of Worlds, Eldrazi Tron and Valakut decks are omnipresent. Without any meaningful interaction both of these match ups are very difficult. I sacrifice very little to run 1 Expedition Map, 1 Crucible of Worlds and 1 Ghost Quarter in the deck. This gives us some game 1 and significantly better games 2-3 when we can bored in additional disruptive lands.
- Opt, Cantrips have been the best feeling cards in the deck (Serum Visions). Smoothing out early land drops and filtering for gas in the late game has been instrumental to my recent success with the deck and I would like to play 2-3 more of this effect.
- A cohesive 75. I am regularly finding that I want to board in a handful of cards but only remove half as many. In addition to that I want to remove artifacts for non-artifacts and you simply can't do that and allow Whir and Tezzeret to be effective. I'd rather board fewer powerful cards than a wide array of medium cards due to the nature of the deck not wanting to cut any cards from the initial 60.
My current list:
1 Breeding Pool
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
3 Spire of Industry
1 Swamp
3 Watery Grave
Artifacts:
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Expedition Map
3 Mox Opal
1 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Sword of the Meek
4 Thopter Foundry
Spells:
2 Fatal Push
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Opt
4 Serum Visions
2 Thoughtseize
Payoff Cards:
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Whir of Invention
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Collective Brutality
1 Flaying Tendrils
1 Go for the Throat
1 Golgari Charm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Lost Legacy
2 Negate
1 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
As you can see I am playing 61 cards. Normally when I see a deck with 61 cards I immediately dismiss the deck as a dumpster fire and move on with my life. Therefore I need to cut 1 card. Suggestions welcomed! It is Modern season and I am looking to get out and crush some PPTQ's!
Sultai Midrange
Anything Innovative
Cheers
I like the negates out of the board. I kind of forgot that countermagic can be played in this deck.
How are the Relics main for you? I often think they're lackluster in a lot of matchups, and never dominant. Keeping GDS off an angler for a few turns doesn't really ever seem worth the spot, and Storm can play around them fairly easily.
Really curious to see how your crucible plan goes. I would definitely play 1 GQ and 1 Ruinous if you're going to play crucible.
I agree with a lot of your points. I think the meta has drastically shifted and artifact hate is in vogue now.
Opt: incredible. At least a two of, maybe a 4 of.
Prism: weak in this meta. I've cut.
Tezzeret: not back breaking in current meta, I'm down to 2.
Crucible: seems good again. I'm running Field of Ruin too (almost no-brainer better than your SB tec edge?). The map/GQ/crucible package seems too far fetched. You basically need a card that interacts with lands within the first three turns to have a chance against any tron build. Spreading Seas man. Very good, almost never bad g1.
Push: a very relevant card. If more cards are interacting with us it probably makes sense to be prepared to take care of one problem creature per game.
61 cards: interesting. The real question is if any one card in our deck is powerful enough by itself to demand to be drawn. With more cantrips we might be able to do something like this.
My main question to you,( and to myself and the forum) is: mishra's bauble. Does it deserve a spot? I have felt very boned by it over the last few months and with the improved cantripping for our deck I think those spots might be better suited for interactive stuff like welding jar/relic
Second question: Sorcerous Spyglass? Worth a spot or two?
Nice list.
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
We've all seen the deck is powerful but there needs to be an active plan from the get go to have a chance against these decks, which are 25-30% of the meta.