So I'd like to put up my list but I'm short on time. I think the only question I have left to answer with my list is the correct amount of Pentad Prism, if hand disruptions worth it and whether I want to be at 3 or 4 Fatal Push.
Right now I'm at 2 prism 3 whir. With 3 I was adding to the terrible top decking but with 2 I'm not sure I see it enough. As for fatal push, I think I'll be cutting one for either the third prism or a welding jar. I already have spellskites and I won't drop those but getting them pushed/terminated or pathed feels bad.
Hand disruption seems like the right choice, but sometimes playing a thoughtsieze and not being able to back it up with a play other than an artifact that isn't doing anything that turn makes me think otherwise.
Anyway I'll post my list and get opinions buy I've been having success with the current iteration and I think it's almost fine tuned, for my meta at least.
@CausticKorg hand disruption isn't amazing for UB Tezz cause we don't follow it up quickly with a threat. It can be good out of the sideboard if you're trying to rip hate cards out of your opponent's opener. This may go hand in hand with boarding in threats, as this deck often does to replace the combo. Disruption followed by Bitterblossom seems pretty good, if not in the spirit of the deck.
Fatal Push at 3 is fine. If you run collective brutality main, that bolsters your anti-aggro plan, so you're not relying purely on push to stay alive.
Agreed on the prism/whir counts.
Am I the only person clinging to Cranes and avoiding Whir? Now that LotV is affordable, I'm running the good old Crane into Foundry-Sword plan main with LotV to help grind. I have 4 Conjurer's Bauble in right now as *****ty artifact cantrips--to help find combo, for curve reasons, to "hide" a card in hand from Lili's +1, and they provide marginal protection from extraction effects.
Ensnaring bridge is a broken and unfair card against most of the decks in the format. Often if you get to Whir for bridge on turn 3 against creature decks the game ends. You can win quickly through the lock with either Tezz or Thopter/sword and there is not a lot of mainboard artifact hate.
The deck slows the opponent down through a combination of discard to stop early plays, bridge to lock out combat, and a couple one-of whir targets like pithing needle to turn off problem spells and permanents.
After slowing the opponent down it tries to win through thopter/sword combo or Tezz ults.
Probably the deck most likely to cannibalize its meta share is lantern control, who uses basically the same suite of artifacts to prevent the opponent from operating at all, and then controlling the draw step so they can never draw an answer.
So I have been dabbling this in a proxied format. I'm still very up in the air with this compared to lantern (which I have a lot of pilot time with).
I really, really like the tutor action that Whir provides, which means there way fewer matches lost to not being able to find a bridge. But it seems more fragile than lantern's lock too.
Thoughts? I dont have the seat time with this one - how's it matchup with a lot of tier 1 stuff?
So I have been dabbling this in a proxied format. I'm still very up in the air with this compared to lantern (which I have a lot of pilot time with).
I really, really like the tutor action that Whir provides, which means there way fewer matches lost to not being able to find a bridge. But it seems more fragile than lantern's lock too.
Thoughts? I dont have the seat time with this one - how's it matchup with a lot of tier 1 stuff?
It is more fragile than Lantern's lock. But unlike Lantern, once you have locked them you should be able to move in for the kill in 2-4 turns. I am going to expand on the primer and add some matchup numbers for tier 1-2 when I have more time however real quick I would say it goes like this for the match, including post board games:
Bant Eldrazi: 65-35. Easily our best tier 1 match up. They need EE or lose.
Deaths Shadow: 55-45. Difficult for them to beat any of our value cards but the immense discard can break us down before we set up.
Burn: 40-60 Push and Brutality help but they are still too fast.
Affinity: 50-50 Neither of us pack hate for each other. The combo is great but bridge is unreliable. If they have a fast hand your dead, otherwise you lock them down on turn 3-4.
Tron: Unwinnable. 0-100. Kidding. But 30-70 isn't unreal either. Very hard to interact with them.
Abzan/Jund Midrange: 50-50. Tezzeret goes a long way in this match but none of our stuff will stick for too long. Fatal Push has helped a lot here to slow the Gofy clock.
Valakut: 40-60. Not as bad as tron but not great either. Very hard to interact with them before they kill you.
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U/B Tezzeret Control
Sultai Midrange
Anything Innovative
I have to say I think affinity is definitely better than 50/50. Foundry, even without sword, is just so good against them. If you can avoid a plating swing on turn two, it's fairly easy to stabilize. Overseer is slow and can risk making bridge better. If I lose matches to affinity it's usually misplay or mulligans.
I have to say I think affinity is definitely better than 50/50. Foundry, even without sword, is just so good against them. If you can avoid a plating swing on turn two, it's fairly easy to stabilize. Overseer is slow and can risk making bridge better. If I lose matches to affinity it's usually misplay or mulligans.
You could be right. It annoys me when people say their pet deck has a 70-30 match up against tier 1 so I attempt to be on the low side.
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I've been enjoying trinket mage a lot so i deceided to put two main deck. I can't really play whir of invention because of triple blue, but so far they do a decent impression. They can get any of the xx costed robots if i need a win condition.
Thinking of playing basilisk collar x1 main deck, so great with ballista. When you get one of the two you can search up the other with mage and start sniping stuff down. Also can turn glint-nest crane into a pseudo baleful strix.
Utilizing Herald post-board (and taking out most of the combo) I've actually had many games where stony silence did stone-cold nothing and I cruised to victory. They also mull aggressively until they find it thereby minimizing pressure and bridge still does it's thing. I actually hope they bring in Stony's now. Rest in Peace on the other hand is surprisingly brutal as it stops the combo, crucible-lock, and academy.
After more playtesting I really prefer the Mishra's bauble version: I've taken out trading post, executioner's bauble, spellskite, and expedition map in favor of a playset. Also cut collective brutality and 1 of my relics for 2 more opals. The deck is miles faster and a little more consistent. Between the Opals, Prisms, and singleton Steam Vents I'm able to utilize aether grid in addition to slaughter games to improve my worst matchups. Bauble is scry 1 in combination with fetches/Whir and triggers revolt for Fatal push. I only crack them if I have no action in hand or need a land drop. It's better to sit on them until you need the card.
@Ace & @Trav : thanks for the update! Keep us posted. Ace, can you account for some situations where having a Baleful Crane online came up and was relevant?
Have re-worked my list, and will be taking this turbo variant to MegaModern FNM tonight (bigger payoff and turnout):
Am expecting lots of Abzan company and Hatebear business (expected MVPs: Brutality, Push, then Cage, Seize, Tendrils/Damnation, Grid, Padeem and Herald --- Torpor Orb would be amazing but I feel tight on slots) but also lots of Grixis Control (Relic, Jar and Ruins for Bridge, Cage, Thoughtseize, Slaughter Games, Padeem, Clique and Herald --- I only feel soft to Tasigut. Suggestions?) and some Tron and Titanshift representation also, which is why I'm packing the GQ + Crucible AND the Fountain package. What do y'all think? Hope I won't mess up the sequencing of Baubles and Whirs!
Also, Herald of Anguish always seems to be one turn too slow for me, I can never power it out before my opponent gets to open Cryptic command mana. Don't you feel that way, Trav??
@Ace & @Trav : thanks for the update! Keep us posted. Ace, can you account for some situations where having a Baleful Crane online came up and was relevant?
Have re-worked my list, and will be taking this turbo variant to MegaModern FNM tonight (bigger payoff and turnout):
Am expecting lots of Abzan company and Hatebear business (expected MVPs: Brutality, Push, then Cage, Seize, Tendrils/Damnation, Grid, Padeem and Herald --- Torpor Orb would be amazing but I feel tight on slots) but also lots of Grixis Control (Relic, Jar and Ruins for Bridge, Cage, Thoughtseize, Slaughter Games, Padeem, Clique and Herald --- I only feel soft to Tasigut. Suggestions?) and some Tron and Titanshift representation also, which is why I'm packing the GQ + Crucible AND the Fountain package. What do y'all think? Hope I won't mess up the sequencing of Baubles and Whirs!
Also, Herald of Anguish always seems to be one turn too slow for me, I can never power it out before my opponent gets to open Cryptic command mana. Don't you feel that way, Trav??
@Racing089: Thanks for the pointers. I'll sure report back.
You're right, regarding Orb. I had thought of GftT. Push is much more mana-efficient to deal with ALL THE REST OF MODERN though. And with all the Revolt enablers I run, I think it's worth gambling on that. I'll ponder taking out the second SB Needle for a GftT, as it's also insurance again any Primeval Titan without a Bridge. But then I'm noticing that my SB is becoming alarmingly low on artifacts, so I'll have to be on the look-out for not over-sideboarding. Anyways.
I suggest we collectively work on a Primer's sub-section where we literally dissect Mishra's Bauble use in our deck. Then we'll have solid guidelines to refer to. Trav had already started a couple of posts up. What do y'all think?
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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.
This has been my favorite list and has done the most work for me. The only decks that it feels weak to are the decks Tezz will always be weak to: combo. Tron is obviously horrible and there's not a lot to do about that. I was running two spreading seas in the side but they don't help enough and it feels like I'm dedicating too many slots to a lost cause. I replaced them with Herald and Padeem to shore up grindy mid-range matchups so I'm excited to see how that works out.
The deck itself is pretty much exactly where I wanna be I think. I considered taking cranes out now that I'm going with Whir, but top-decking hoping for an answer happens so much that I'm not willing to drop it. Of course I could just go up to 4 Whirs and tutor what I need but Crane's a good turn 2 body and I like them both in the same deck. The numbers on the combo could probably be tested to see if I could get away with 3/2 or 2/2 split but I have yet to do so.
Does anyone else feel like Chalice and EE are awkward for this deck? I want to be able to throw them in the main because they're some of the best artifacts in the format, but in reality they work terribly with the deck. Chalice on 1 or 2 clashes with the deck hard, the only reason I have one in the board is for burn/zoo/affinity/cheerios (if that's still a thing). As for EE, maybe it needs more testing now that Pentad Prism gives access to all colors. It was in the same boat as Chalice for me where I would never main it in fear of drawing it after throwing down 1 or more Thopter Foundries.
Anyway sorry for the rant, I rarely get to talk about this deck.
I hadn't thought about switching Darksteel Citadel for Ghost Quarter. I had them in place of Flooded Strand but on adding Whir needed more access to Blue. I think I would be willing to make that switch if I were only trading Tezz beats out. But mostly I use DC for that last artifact for Opal/Fair or a Tezz ult to win. Definitely something I'll consider.
I guess what I'll be testing next will be cutting down on the combo. I'll try a Ratchet Bomb and maybe another Mox or a Crucible if I decide to put GQ in. Is anyone else playing spell snare to bring in against control? Lot of Mana Leak in my meta...
So i ended up cutting the splash color in favor of UB consistency. Also, i took the gamble of cutting 22nd land for a third C-Brut. With 4x Baubles, 4x Prism and 3x Opals, i figured i'd be allright. I just had to be hyper-careful on the mulliganing and Bauble management and especially postboard when artifact count usually decreases. I did, and it paid off!! List:
Round 1 vs UW Emeria grindfest. Game 1 she answers some of my stuff with counterspells, D-Sphere and Flickerwisp shenanigans, but I outgrind her when I get the chance to crack Fair and get Crucible, which gives me unlimited tutoring and also turns off her Emeria engine. G2 is another grindfest, nobody draws any disruption so we both end up developing stupid board presence fast. I end with online Bridge, Thopter-Sword, Earl (lol) and a Tezz online but am stuck on 4 mana so can't quite go over the top while still under pressure as she Flickers my Bridge many turns in a row so I gots to be careful. Accounting for the chumping she can do, many times even ult'ing Tezz I would only bring her down to 1 life. Then before Emeria comes online and she starts recurring more stuff (incouding Flickerwisps, red flag) I topdeck Whir and ballsy-ly opt to grab Quicksliver Fountain! Well this tempo play will give me the game within a couple turns, which is all I needed. 1-0.
Round 2 am paired against RW Burn. "Uh-oh". He's on the play. Luckily my opener features Brutality, which gets full value killing a Guide, snatching a Bolt and draining two. But he's still got more Burn and critters, and topdecks more. I shortly drop a Bridge, cast another Brutality and throw out my hand to stop the remaining creature onslaught. I take out a Helix and stabilize at 1 single life point in the process! Topdeck Thopter Foundry, sac all the Prisms, Baubles and Opal to get 5 Troopers and 5 life put him on a 3 turn clock FTW.
G2 I see him fetch a basic Plains so I am weary and fetch a basic Swamp off my only Delta to T2 Brutality him again. REWARDED: double Blood Moon hand!! I shortly cast Trading Post and will gain 12-16 life off it while pushing all the critters off cliffs. With Jar backup, he concedes when I resolve Witchbane Orb. 2-0.
Round 3 up against Grixis Shadow-Goyf. This guy just decided to cram everything in one deck lol, and is undefeated so far. Long story short, we shred each other's hand apart til he T3 Tasigurs. I stumble on lands, but dear lord! What a sequence I pull off Crucible: T3 Crucible (stuck on only D-Shore and GQ, using the single counter off my Prism to resolve this). Take a hit. T4 no land drawn dammit; GQ the Shore with floating mana, get Island. Play Shore from grave. Cast Sword off floating mana to set up next turn Whir into Foundry. Take a hit to 8 life. T5 still no land. No land? No problem. Re-play GQ, float U from Island, GQ it, get another one, tap Shores, tap a bunch of artifacts to get combo (Jar backup turns off K-command). Never knew Crucible could get you out of mana-screw toward a triple-blue costing spell two turns later!!!
For G2 I see him siding in up to 8 cards! My opening seven is weak, so I mull to six. Then, it's stone cold nuts: Grave, Grave, Sword, Foundry, Whir, Bridge. Snapkeep. Scry to top: GQ. T2 topdeck is Thoughtseize, which nabs Shatterstorm out of his hand. My follow-up topdecks are Welding Jar, land and Tezz. Just what. 3-0, and undefeated!
So undefeated and 3-0 in matches, I won 60$ in store credit. Guess I'll be foiling this new version out!
Regarding card choices and configuration, couple notes:
Seeing Tezz and Whir all night (both 4-of's) felt mighty powerful, like stupid powerful.
Opals and Baubles and Prisms work together to make the build real fast. There's a couple of games where I was on the short side of mana, BUT Bauble always drew me into more mana in time. From an alternative point of view, it felt like the deck is packing so much action, that you can never get enough mana; HOWEVER you also never need all you cards to outplay the opponent as you are packing such bombs, really. I still suspect that the 3rd Brutality or 3rd Opal slots could be given to a 22nd land, but you'd lose an edge (Burn/speed) and potentially flood a couple % points more often. Will keep build as is and being super careful about mulliganing.
Baubles specifically were great. They let me see I had another turn to live against the Burn opponent (revealing a fetchland on top) so I could take a turn setting up that Foundry that won me the game. They enabled T2 online Opal in 2+ games. I scryed off them often, even leaving fetches untapped for later scrying, or casting main phase Whir so I wouldn't draw topdeck card I didn't want. They are hard to play a sequence right but the payoff is real in terme of velocity and consistency points. We're one of the decks that benefit the most from it.
Quicksilver Fountain: while I only cast it once (and it gave me the game that, between her Wisps and D-Sphere and Disenchant, really could've swung either way otherwise), I regularly asked myself "how would it perform on this board state?" and it's really looking good. Also, I've talked about it to a lot of spikes around. For it's fast effect, single SB slot use granting us an effective 5 Blood Moon on board, and for its synergy w/ Thopter Foundry for perma-Spreading Seas effect, pilots agreed left and right this seriously deserves testing
Removal: 4x Push (easy Revolt!), 3x Brut and a Capsule make for a solid suite of removal that complement very well the Bridge, Thopter and Tezz plans. They also relieve a great deal of pressure off us, on finding Bridge, which I could appreciate. And while we still can't technically remove Tasigur, pre and postboard I counted all these ways to effectively "deal" with it, which add up to plenty IMO: Ensaring Bridge, Combo & not Thopter chumps, Artifact 5/5s, Damnation, Earl of Anguish, Goat tokens!!!
Bottom line: i think the deck is more powerful, and fast, than it has ever been. While the meta has slowed down quite a bit. This is good for us. Keep it up.
Coming back to modern after a LONG layoff. As a mtgo only player I am considering buying this deck in paper before trying it. It seems crazy but MAN is this deck sweet! I always loved the archetype but Whir really brings it to that next level. Few comments looking over a few lists...
4 Mishras bauble should be base in the deck. It makes mulligans a bit harder but the interactions with both Tezz minus(get your card back) and Improvise are pretty insane. It just seems like a free artifact that turns on mox opal also(2-3 seems right if you play 4 Bauble). Yeah it feels gross knowing itll get reprinted and lose 90% of its value but its worth it to improve the deck imo.
Also Crucible+Ghost Quarter seems insane right now. Lots of greedy deaths shadow decks/decks dependent on tron lands. PLus the cycle lands should bring some loam decks out or more valakut decks.
Love your list radouf. Thats pretty much exactly what I was thinking in my head that i would test from. What are everyones thoughts on liliana of the veil? Just unnecessary?
Right now I'm at 2 prism 3 whir. With 3 I was adding to the terrible top decking but with 2 I'm not sure I see it enough. As for fatal push, I think I'll be cutting one for either the third prism or a welding jar. I already have spellskites and I won't drop those but getting them pushed/terminated or pathed feels bad.
Hand disruption seems like the right choice, but sometimes playing a thoughtsieze and not being able to back it up with a play other than an artifact that isn't doing anything that turn makes me think otherwise.
Anyway I'll post my list and get opinions buy I've been having success with the current iteration and I think it's almost fine tuned, for my meta at least.
Fatal Push at 3 is fine. If you run collective brutality main, that bolsters your anti-aggro plan, so you're not relying purely on push to stay alive.
Agreed on the prism/whir counts.
Am I the only person clinging to Cranes and avoiding Whir? Now that LotV is affordable, I'm running the good old Crane into Foundry-Sword plan main with LotV to help grind. I have 4 Conjurer's Bauble in right now as *****ty artifact cantrips--to help find combo, for curve reasons, to "hide" a card in hand from Lili's +1, and they provide marginal protection from extraction effects.
Ensnaring bridge is a broken and unfair card against most of the decks in the format. Often if you get to Whir for bridge on turn 3 against creature decks the game ends. You can win quickly through the lock with either Tezz or Thopter/sword and there is not a lot of mainboard artifact hate.
The deck slows the opponent down through a combination of discard to stop early plays, bridge to lock out combat, and a couple one-of whir targets like pithing needle to turn off problem spells and permanents.
After slowing the opponent down it tries to win through thopter/sword combo or Tezz ults.
Probably the deck most likely to cannibalize its meta share is lantern control, who uses basically the same suite of artifacts to prevent the opponent from operating at all, and then controlling the draw step so they can never draw an answer.
I really, really like the tutor action that Whir provides, which means there way fewer matches lost to not being able to find a bridge. But it seems more fragile than lantern's lock too.
Thoughts? I dont have the seat time with this one - how's it matchup with a lot of tier 1 stuff?
It is already in Modern. This changes nothing.
Sultai Midrange
Anything Innovative
It is more fragile than Lantern's lock. But unlike Lantern, once you have locked them you should be able to move in for the kill in 2-4 turns. I am going to expand on the primer and add some matchup numbers for tier 1-2 when I have more time however real quick I would say it goes like this for the match, including post board games:
Bant Eldrazi: 65-35. Easily our best tier 1 match up. They need EE or lose.
Deaths Shadow: 55-45. Difficult for them to beat any of our value cards but the immense discard can break us down before we set up.
Burn: 40-60 Push and Brutality help but they are still too fast.
Affinity: 50-50 Neither of us pack hate for each other. The combo is great but bridge is unreliable. If they have a fast hand your dead, otherwise you lock them down on turn 3-4.
Tron: Unwinnable. 0-100. Kidding. But 30-70 isn't unreal either. Very hard to interact with them.
Abzan/Jund Midrange: 50-50. Tezzeret goes a long way in this match but none of our stuff will stick for too long. Fatal Push has helped a lot here to slow the Gofy clock.
Valakut: 40-60. Not as bad as tron but not great either. Very hard to interact with them before they kill you.
Sultai Midrange
Anything Innovative
You could be right. It annoys me when people say their pet deck has a 70-30 match up against tier 1 so I attempt to be on the low side.
Sultai Midrange
Anything Innovative
3 hangarback walker
1 walking ballista
4 glint-nest crane
2 scrap trawler
2 trinket mage
2 herald of anguish
Artifacts: 14
1 engineered explosives
2 pithing needle
2 nihil spellbomb
2 executioner's capsule
4 thopter foundry
2 sword of the meek
1 ratchet bomb
4 fatal push
sorceries: 2
2 damnation
planeswalkers: 2
2 tezzeret, agent of bolas
Lands: 24
4 polluted delta
3 bloodstained mire
2 watery grave
1 island
4 swamp
1 drowned catacomb
2 spire of industry
1 Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth
1 inventors' fair
1 academy ruins
4 darksteel citadel
4 duress
2 battle at the bridge
2 echoing truth
2 hope of ghirapur
2 grafdigger's cage
2 basilisk collar
1 welding jar
Artifact count = 24
I've been enjoying trinket mage a lot so i deceided to put two main deck. I can't really play whir of invention because of triple blue, but so far they do a decent impression. They can get any of the xx costed robots if i need a win condition.
Thinking of playing basilisk collar x1 main deck, so great with ballista. When you get one of the two you can search up the other with mage and start sniping stuff down. Also can turn glint-nest crane into a pseudo baleful strix.
Finally got my hand on engineered explosives, which is obviously awesome. I'm thinking of adding an overgrown tomb for it and also sideboard cards, like naturalize type effects. I'd love to try out glissa, the traitor but double green seems to ambitious.
After more playtesting I really prefer the Mishra's bauble version: I've taken out trading post, executioner's bauble, spellskite, and expedition map in favor of a playset. Also cut collective brutality and 1 of my relics for 2 more opals. The deck is miles faster and a little more consistent. Between the Opals, Prisms, and singleton Steam Vents I'm able to utilize aether grid in addition to slaughter games to improve my worst matchups. Bauble is scry 1 in combination with fetches/Whir and triggers revolt for Fatal push. I only crack them if I have no action in hand or need a land drop. It's better to sit on them until you need the card.
Ready to rock this thing for GP Vegas.
Have re-worked my list, and will be taking this turbo variant to MegaModern FNM tonight (bigger payoff and turnout):
4x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4x Whir of Invention
3x Thopter Foundry
2x Sword of the Meek
4x Mishra's Bauble
Bullets
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Pithing Needle
2x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Crucible of Worlds
2x Welding jar
Disruption
1x Executioner's Capsule
4x Fatal Push
2x Collective Brutality
3x Mox Opal
4x Pentad Prism
2x Ghost Quarter
1x Inventors' Fair
1x Academy Ruins
4x Polluted Delta
3x Flooded Strand
3x Watery Grave
1x Steam Vents
4x Darkslick Shores
2x Island
1x Swamp
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Pithing Needle
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Quicksilver Fountain
1x Witchbane Orb
2x Thoughtseize
1x Flaying Tendrils
1x Damnation
1x Ghirapur Aether Grid
1x Slaughter Games
1x Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1x Vendilion Clique
2x Herald of Anguish
Am expecting lots of Abzan company and Hatebear business (expected MVPs: Brutality, Push, then Cage, Seize, Tendrils/Damnation, Grid, Padeem and Herald --- Torpor Orb would be amazing but I feel tight on slots) but also lots of Grixis Control (Relic, Jar and Ruins for Bridge, Cage, Thoughtseize, Slaughter Games, Padeem, Clique and Herald --- I only feel soft to Tasigut. Suggestions?) and some Tron and Titanshift representation also, which is why I'm packing the GQ + Crucible AND the Fountain package. What do y'all think? Hope I won't mess up the sequencing of Baubles and Whirs!
Also, Herald of Anguish always seems to be one turn too slow for me, I can never power it out before my opponent gets to open Cryptic command mana. Don't you feel that way, Trav??
Wish me luck, input most appreciated.
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
Let us know how 3 Mox Opal and 4 Mishra's Bauble works out.
Don't play Torpor Orb! It shuts off Thopter/Sword!
Tasigur? I always find the real threat to be Kolghan's Command. But if you feel threatened by him try Go for the Throat.
Sultai Midrange
Anything Innovative
You're right, regarding Orb. I had thought of GftT. Push is much more mana-efficient to deal with ALL THE REST OF MODERN though. And with all the Revolt enablers I run, I think it's worth gambling on that. I'll ponder taking out the second SB Needle for a GftT, as it's also insurance again any Primeval Titan without a Bridge. But then I'm noticing that my SB is becoming alarmingly low on artifacts, so I'll have to be on the look-out for not over-sideboarding. Anyways.
BAUBLE PROJECT: I just saw this http://www.5colorcombo.com/article/2017/03/30/death-jund.html
I suggest we collectively work on a Primer's sub-section where we literally dissect Mishra's Bauble use in our deck. Then we'll have solid guidelines to refer to. Trav had already started a couple of posts up. What do y'all think?
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
3 Whir of Invention
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
4 Thopter Foundry
3 Sword of the Meek
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Pentad Prism
1 Mox Opal
1 Welding Jar
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
2 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Watery Grave
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Creeeping Tar Pit
1 Academy Ruins
1 Inventors' Fair
3 Darksteel Citadel
2 Spell Snare
1 Damnation
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Herald of Anguish
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Witchbane Orb
2 Ghost Quarter
This has been my favorite list and has done the most work for me. The only decks that it feels weak to are the decks Tezz will always be weak to: combo. Tron is obviously horrible and there's not a lot to do about that. I was running two spreading seas in the side but they don't help enough and it feels like I'm dedicating too many slots to a lost cause. I replaced them with Herald and Padeem to shore up grindy mid-range matchups so I'm excited to see how that works out.
The deck itself is pretty much exactly where I wanna be I think. I considered taking cranes out now that I'm going with Whir, but top-decking hoping for an answer happens so much that I'm not willing to drop it. Of course I could just go up to 4 Whirs and tutor what I need but Crane's a good turn 2 body and I like them both in the same deck. The numbers on the combo could probably be tested to see if I could get away with 3/2 or 2/2 split but I have yet to do so.
Does anyone else feel like Chalice and EE are awkward for this deck? I want to be able to throw them in the main because they're some of the best artifacts in the format, but in reality they work terribly with the deck. Chalice on 1 or 2 clashes with the deck hard, the only reason I have one in the board is for burn/zoo/affinity/cheerios (if that's still a thing). As for EE, maybe it needs more testing now that Pentad Prism gives access to all colors. It was in the same boat as Chalice for me where I would never main it in fear of drawing it after throwing down 1 or more Thopter Foundries.
Anyway sorry for the rant, I rarely get to talk about this deck.
I guess what I'll be testing next will be cutting down on the combo. I'll try a Ratchet Bomb and maybe another Mox or a Crucible if I decide to put GQ in. Is anyone else playing spell snare to bring in against control? Lot of Mana Leak in my meta...
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
4x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4x Whir of Invention
3x Thopter Foundry
2x Sword of the Meek
4x Mishra's Bauble
Bullets
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Pithing Needle
2x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Crucible of Worlds
2x Welding jar
Disruption
1x Executioner's Capsule
4x Fatal Push
3x Collective Brutality
3x Mox Opal
4x Pentad Prism
2x Ghost Quarter
1x Inventors' Fair
1x Academy Ruins
4x Polluted Delta
3x Flooded Strand
3x Watery Grave
4x Darkslick Shores
2x Island
1x Swamp
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Pithing Needle
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Quicksilver Fountain
1x Trading post
1x Witchbane Orb
2x Thoughtseize
1x Flaying Tendrils
1x Damnation
1x Lost Legacy
1x Padeem, Consul of Innovation
2x Herald of Anguish
Report, MegaModern FNM @ Valet d'Coeur:
Round 2 am paired against RW Burn. "Uh-oh". He's on the play. Luckily my opener features Brutality, which gets full value killing a Guide, snatching a Bolt and draining two. But he's still got more Burn and critters, and topdecks more. I shortly drop a Bridge, cast another Brutality and throw out my hand to stop the remaining creature onslaught. I take out a Helix and stabilize at 1 single life point in the process! Topdeck Thopter Foundry, sac all the Prisms, Baubles and Opal to get 5 Troopers and 5 life put him on a 3 turn clock FTW.
G2 I see him fetch a basic Plains so I am weary and fetch a basic Swamp off my only Delta to T2 Brutality him again. REWARDED: double Blood Moon hand!! I shortly cast Trading Post and will gain 12-16 life off it while pushing all the critters off cliffs. With Jar backup, he concedes when I resolve Witchbane Orb. 2-0.
Round 3 up against Grixis Shadow-Goyf. This guy just decided to cram everything in one deck lol, and is undefeated so far. Long story short, we shred each other's hand apart til he T3 Tasigurs. I stumble on lands, but dear lord! What a sequence I pull off Crucible: T3 Crucible (stuck on only D-Shore and GQ, using the single counter off my Prism to resolve this). Take a hit. T4 no land drawn dammit; GQ the Shore with floating mana, get Island. Play Shore from grave. Cast Sword off floating mana to set up next turn Whir into Foundry. Take a hit to 8 life. T5 still no land. No land? No problem. Re-play GQ, float U from Island, GQ it, get another one, tap Shores, tap a bunch of artifacts to get combo (Jar backup turns off K-command). Never knew Crucible could get you out of mana-screw toward a triple-blue costing spell two turns later!!!
For G2 I see him siding in up to 8 cards! My opening seven is weak, so I mull to six. Then, it's stone cold nuts: Grave, Grave, Sword, Foundry, Whir, Bridge. Snapkeep. Scry to top: GQ. T2 topdeck is Thoughtseize, which nabs Shatterstorm out of his hand. My follow-up topdecks are Welding Jar, land and Tezz. Just what. 3-0, and undefeated!
Regarding card choices and configuration, couple notes:
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
4 Mishras bauble should be base in the deck. It makes mulligans a bit harder but the interactions with both Tezz minus(get your card back) and Improvise are pretty insane. It just seems like a free artifact that turns on mox opal also(2-3 seems right if you play 4 Bauble). Yeah it feels gross knowing itll get reprinted and lose 90% of its value but its worth it to improve the deck imo.
Also Crucible+Ghost Quarter seems insane right now. Lots of greedy deaths shadow decks/decks dependent on tron lands. PLus the cycle lands should bring some loam decks out or more valakut decks.
Love your list radouf. Thats pretty much exactly what I was thinking in my head that i would test from. What are everyones thoughts on liliana of the veil? Just unnecessary?