Anyone else prefer Lead over chord in this Jund heavy meta? I run 3 lead 4 company in my GB build and find the Jund matchup to be very one sided. They really have no response for a lead that has resolved. With no real silver bullets in the side minus the rec sages (which you can win without against most of the decks you bring them in against because of SOTP) does GB even realistically need chords?
Since the other thread was necro'd and I was trying to find a place for discussion about this deck, I figured I would start one. This thread will be for the all in combo version of Seismic Swans, not for discussion of the control list or the Skred list.
Once we have enough testing and time to share and try different lists, we can use our info to start a primer. Thanks in advance for clean and fun discussions about this deck.
So without further ado, here is Gracen Atkinson's list that won Idaho TCG States:
Wow, what a list! I'd just like to say thank you to Gracen for putting this deck into the spotlight by winning a tournament who's reults were posted online. This has been such a fun deck to play on MTGO.
So for those of you who are looking at the list and saying..."uh, how can this deck win with 42 lands?", lets get down to how the deck works.
42 Lands Swans is an all in combo deck. The deck runs by abusing the interaction between Swans of Bryn Argoll and Seismic Assault. You get Seismic Assault on the battlefield and cast a Swans of Bryn Argoll, next you discard a land card to Seismic Assault and deal 2 damage to your Swans of Bryn Argoll. Because of Swans ability you get to draw 2 cards and because of the deck having 42 lands, your chance of drawing atleast 1 land card is excellent and the chance of drawing 2 lands is good. So you keep pitching lands to assault the Swans and draw cards until you have enough lands to use Seismic Assault to deal lethal to the opponent.
The rest of the cards in the deck are there to facilitate the main game plan.
Actually SRAM says cast, so setting it on zero is bad. If you test the match, 1 is actually the best number to cast it on because of Serum Visions and Retract.
3-1 at a Modern win a box going 2-0, 2-0, 1-2, 2-1. All games were played on the draw. My round 3 opponent was Tron in which all games were very very close. Round 4 was Merfolk and I lost game 1 on mana flood, drawing 5 lands in a row without outlets to discard them to. I never felt behind in any of the games and I think being on the draw made my opponents keep weaker hands than they normally would because of the knowledge of what deck I was on after game 1. You could see in their faces they didn't want to Mulligan. Rounds 1 and 2 were against B/W Tokens and Abzan Company respectively.
Also how is coddex shredder a wincon if you are trying to mill them out? If there is only one in the list does that mean you loop with blooms, ironworks, a draw one egg, and bauble to keep producing more mana than you need and putting Faith's reward back in your library with bauble and saving and bringing back shredder to mill once a cycle after you've established infinite mana and drawn your deck?
Question: where do you get the white mana for the codex shredder-faiths reward loop? If someone could go into more detail on the loop it would be greatly appreciated!
The RG Ponza deck. I think there is a primer on Manasource somewhere. It's a sweet deck, Blood Moon mixed with Stone Rain and Acid Moss. Seems like it could be viable.
Awww, how sweet it is to be home I've been advocating a thread just for the Mono B crowd for a while. I still think Bw will be viable when the new set hits, but I want to test both decks to see where I land going forward.
This is the link to Saffron Olive explaining the deck with a deck tech and playing the deck
Once we have enough testing and time to share and try different lists, we can use our info to start a primer. Thanks in advance for clean and fun discussions about this deck.
So without further ado, here is Gracen Atkinson's list that won Idaho TCG States:
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Day's Undoing
4 Seismic Assault
1 Serum Visions
4 Treasure Hunt
1 Lightning bolt
2 Molten Vortex
Creatures
4 Swans of Bryn Argoll
7 Island
20 Mountain
1 Izzet Guildgate
4 Shivan Reef
1 Steam Vents
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
4 Temple of Epiphany
1 Wandering Fumarole
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Mana Leak
1 Molten Vortex
1 Rending Volley
3 Smash to Smithereens
2 Spell Pierce
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
2 Tormod's Crypt
Wow, what a list! I'd just like to say thank you to Gracen for putting this deck into the spotlight by winning a tournament who's reults were posted online. This has been such a fun deck to play on MTGO.
So for those of you who are looking at the list and saying..."uh, how can this deck win with 42 lands?", lets get down to how the deck works.
42 Lands Swans is an all in combo deck. The deck runs by abusing the interaction between Swans of Bryn Argoll and Seismic Assault. You get Seismic Assault on the battlefield and cast a Swans of Bryn Argoll, next you discard a land card to Seismic Assault and deal 2 damage to your Swans of Bryn Argoll. Because of Swans ability you get to draw 2 cards and because of the deck having 42 lands, your chance of drawing atleast 1 land card is excellent and the chance of drawing 2 lands is good. So you keep pitching lands to assault the Swans and draw cards until you have enough lands to use Seismic Assault to deal lethal to the opponent.
The rest of the cards in the deck are there to facilitate the main game plan.
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Raven's Crime
4 Smallpox
4 Thoughtseize
3 Wrench Mind
Enchantment (4)
4 Shrieking Affliction
4 Liliana of the Veil
Land (24)
4 Mutavault
16 Swamp
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Instant (5)
4 Dismember
1 Funeral Charm
4 The Rack
1 Asylum Visitor
1 Bile Blight
1 Disfigure
1 Flaying Tendrils
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
3 Nyxathid
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Smother
3-1 at a Modern win a box going 2-0, 2-0, 1-2, 2-1. All games were played on the draw. My round 3 opponent was Tron in which all games were very very close. Round 4 was Merfolk and I lost game 1 on mana flood, drawing 5 lands in a row without outlets to discard them to. I never felt behind in any of the games and I think being on the draw made my opponents keep weaker hands than they normally would because of the knowledge of what deck I was on after game 1. You could see in their faces they didn't want to Mulligan. Rounds 1 and 2 were against B/W Tokens and Abzan Company respectively.
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
1 Codex Shredder
1 Conjurer's Bauble
4 Ichor Wellspring
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Lotus Bloom
1 Mind Stone
4 Terrarion
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Island
1 Plains
Sorcery (12)
1 Banefire
3 Open the Vaults
4 Reshape
4 Serum Visions
4 Faith's Reward
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Dispel
3 Echoing Truth
2 Pithing Needle
4 Silence
2 Tormod's Crypt
Or should I drop the banefire for a 4th open the vaults?
Also how is coddex shredder a wincon if you are trying to mill them out? If there is only one in the list does that mean you loop with blooms, ironworks, a draw one egg, and bauble to keep producing more mana than you need and putting Faith's reward back in your library with bauble and saving and bringing back shredder to mill once a cycle after you've established infinite mana and drawn your deck?
4x Eldrazi Temple
3x Eye of Ugin
2x Ghost Quarter
4x Godless Shrine
3x Plains
1x Swamp
3x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of the Archangel
4x Blight Herder
3x Oblivion Sower
4x Thought-Knot Seer
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4x Wasteland Strangler
1x Slaughter Pact
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Lingering Souls
2x Expedition Map
4x Relic of Progenitus
2x Celestial Flare
2x Disenchant
2x Duress
1x Ghost Quarter
3x Rest for the Weary
2x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
In testing this has given me the most stable plays, I'm pretty settled on this as a list for Bw going forward if I decide to move away from mono B.
I myself like 4xDragon's Claw in my list. I said it was very, very close...not exactly what I will build.
This is very, very close to the list I plan on testing when OGW is out. Looks really good.
Not sure if they'll end up in my final list, but better safe than sorry!!!