Hi stompy team,
I've recently had some good results with the deck (19-3-2 winrate for the last 6 FNMs). Keep in mind that I can't play this game properly, so it must mean that this deck is great.
Then yesterday I've won a 120-players premium modern tournament without dropping a match with the following list:
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=22368&f=MO
Matches were:
R1 2-1 Burn
R2 2-1 Restore Balance
R3 2-1 Burn
R4 2-0 UB Faeries
R5 2-1 Storm
R6 id (Copycat)
R7 id (Hogaak)
Q: 2-0 Hogaak (featured on camera)
S: 2-1 UW Control
F: 2-1 Hollow One (piloted by reigning national champion, featured on camera)
I plan to write a report, but likely will do it in Russian, so here are some random thoughts:
1) I must admit I don't like Karn, TGC after tests - I really like the concept of the card and wanted it to be playable, but I don't think it belongs to this deck anymore. Logic is simple: when we are ahead Karn is a classic winmore. When we are behind, Karn is 4-mana tutor with an option to soak in 3 damage. Then yes, there are 10% of cases when Karn actually changes course of the game. Can't say it's bad, but also don't think it's good enough.
2) Karn, SoU is a great grind card. I've played with one in SB and was impressed. Now trying it MB. Don't think we need 2, though. If you don't want to play it I would play Relic MB as an occasional gravehate / grind option. I never liked copter and don't want to return to it. Looks like we've yet to find a bullet for this flex slot.
3) Hogaak is a good matchup - I've never lost a match against it.
4) SB Torpor Orb is a tool to fix atrocious Human matchup. I won't play it unless you have a high share of Humans in your meta.
5) I don't like LotV in this deck. Nobody cares about single Leyline anymore. There are a million of matches for which relic would come in, but Leyline won't (e.g. UW / Jund).
Let me know if anybody wants a link to top-8 VODs - coverage is in Russian, but could be interesting for somebody, I guess.
And keep playing Stompy!
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- deaddrift
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Jun 13, 20191
dcovino posted a message on Modern HumansPosted in: Aggro & TempoQuote from ketoglutarato »i wonder if we can build humans in bant colors only: the losses of freebooter and mantis rider are so bad that not even collected company and better sideboard can equal?
I'm looking at a list like this:
btw, we could make a splash for a color, but i personally like the manabase
Dropping the best card in the deck in Mantis Rider for a card that's been generally awful in my experience in Collected Company is not where I would want to be. Additionally, you're going to be taking a ton more damage from that manabase as well. Can't count the number of times where I won games at a life total where having to fetch once would have equated to a loss. Finally, I have always questioned various spirits decks running Collected Company along with Aether Vial, so I'd do that here, too.
Maybe the question to ask here isn't "can this be done?" (of course, it can) - the question is "what does the removal of my best aggressive creature and a decent disruptive creature for a card that maybe gets two random things in my top 6 cards while having to take more damage from my lands solve for me?" -
Jun 3, 20192
Mikefon posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 20/05/2019)Wizards said they see from data that there isn't much difference in the mw%, so I don't know how it can be said that it would be a disaster. They also said that if there will be a problem bans could address it.Posted in: Modern Archives
One can complain about this policy, but surely it won't make modern fall.
I personally like the change for what is worth. -
Jun 3, 20192
StreexIT posted a message on Modern SpiritsI personally do not like the way Discord is done, nor messenger chats nor facebook or whatsapp/telegram groups. I'll stick to any forum where we get access to hyper links and stuff like this.I need to have the discussion organized in pages with dates. I have tried almost everything else but I ended up finding them too messy, the content gets diluted too much, people spam a lot or they just write too many unnecessary messages because it's easy to type and send, you get eventually ovewhelmed with crap so the quality of the discussion is lower overall.Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
I like any format where some reasoning behind a deckbuilding choice gets presented and people take the time to think about it and answer if they feel like so, instead of throwing the first thing crossing their mind in the chat. This is why I ve always sticked to these forums.
I'll wait for the staff to present the new formula, then I'll consider all of the non-chat options available. -
May 30, 20191
headminerve posted a message on Modern HumansI'm not sold on the idea to cut Thalias. Many decks don't target us but we want to prevent them from casting spells anyway. Infect, Storm, Phoenix, Tron, UW Control, etc...Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
This dude is just here to stop removal spells, while our deck is designed to overcome 1 for 1s on our creatures (we play 36, how many targeted interaction do they have ?). The cards that beat us are sweepers + prisons and big dumb threats. In those tricky spots, Thalia helps but the changeling does almost nothing.
My guess is that they've been cautious not to push Humans and they managed to design cards that are not good enough for the deck.
I have no doubts players will test those cards, and the changeling might be great in a Burn metagame, but I think it has better applications in other archetypes. -
Apr 15, 20199
tronix posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 11/03/2019)the win rate is just an average taken over players of varying skill levels. it isnt a literal representation of how much any given person can win with the deck. the more players piloting a deck means that range of skill levels likely widens, thus pulling win rates towards some expected value around 50/50. its why win rates for decks usually always float in that area given enough match data; yet we arent here claiming 10+ decks are '50/50'. this is also why decks like kci, amulet, or whir that have a smaller population have frequently shown top win rates; because the influence of any one highly skilled player is greater. couple that with barriers, perceived or otherwise, that keep less skilled players away and the difference is only more pronounced.Posted in: Modern Archives
so the GP results are what they are; the reality we have to rationalize/explain. right now im seeing claims that a deck that presumably can win only half the time is coincidentally posting these level of results because the number of players.
according to tobi henke's GP analysis articles going back 4-5 months, where he tries to measure representation of the day 1 fields, UR phoenix started out near 5% in dec-jan, increased to around 8% in feb, and broke into 11-13% range in march making it the most played deck. in the case of GP calgary burn actually beat out phoenix as the most played. note the consistency of the GP placements during this period of ramping popularity.
the stellar day 2 representation that meets those day 1 numbers, and in cases exceeding them by a good amount, therefore is probably because of the decks day 2 conversion rate. which would in turn explain the abnormally high top8 conversions.
so consider a deck roughly 1 in 10 GP attendants are bringing to the event, with a 50% win-rate, placing multiple copies in the top 8 on average for 8 consecutive events (where the environment is increasingly hostile towards the strategy no less). i dont know about you but at face value that seems absurdly improbable. more likely there is something else going on.
granted i think there are plenty of justifications for UR phoenix's success that go beyond the decks power level, most of which deal with the decks qualities that tournament grinders find attractive and the timeline of the events themselves. that said, i believe anything along the lines of 'look at its 50% win rate, its just a lot of players' does little to nothing to explain what the deck has accomplished.
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Apr 15, 2019
2
tronix posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 11/03/2019)Posted in: Modern ArchivesQuote from Offhisgame »
2 copies in top 8 is compeletely fine. Twin and pod were much worse for years.
ur phoenix has had an average of 2 copies per top 8 in 8 consecutive GPs since Ross Merriam popularized the current build at the beginning of december last year.
GP Sao Paulo (04/12) - 2 copies
GP Calgary (03/31) - 1 copy
GP Tampa (3/15) - 4 copies
GP Bilbao (3/15) - 2 copies
GP LA (3/02) - 2 copies
GP Toronto (2/10) - 2 copies
GP Oakland (1/06) - 1 copy (KCI legal)
GP Portland (12/08) - 2 copies (KCI legal)
we can debate whether phoenix is too good or if anything can or should be done about it. however it doesnt change the reality that no deck has done something like this since DRS gbx (maybe delver cruise). yes that includes both twin and pod. -
Nov 13, 20185
FlyingDelver posted a message on The RockPosted in: Midrange
Welcome to The Rock!
The Rock represents one of the possible variants of known GBx decks. GBx essentially is any midrange deck having green and black as their main colour. Whether the deck splashes for a third colour (like red in Jund or white in Abzan) or not, all those 3 versions are considered to be GBx decks. In this primer, The Rock is presented and described. GBx decks are powerful and efficient decks, which basically all have one property in common: They can beat any opponent if the deck is well tuned and well piloted. In other words, if you put in enough effort, the deck becomes a flexible weapon suited for almost any metagame. Let alone this makes the deck a powerful choice to run. The deck is characterized by so-called goodstuff cards, which are basically strong individual cards, not relying on other cards or any synergies. Each card can operate on its own and get you further ahead in the game. One key to the success of this deck is interaction. If you want to interact with your opponent, stop them from executing their gameplan and win the game with some powerful threats, then Rock is the right choice for you. Since you have to interact with your opponent in every single game, games tend to offer different experiences for the players. The Rock is not a deck which just works with itself and does the same thing every game. Decision making processes and skill are very crucial to be successfull with playing this deck.
The deck is defined by its natural "One for one" approach. By trading with your opponents, you can advance by thin margins step by step, until your endgame threats take over the game. The Rock is a deck that has a big advantage over the three colour version in its ability to interact with the opponents lands. Ghost Quarter and Field of Ruin are both well supported in a two colour manabase. In addition to that, Rock's big advantage is the almost painfree manabase, which really helps getting an advantage over any aggressive strategies.
Knowledge is key in this deck. It rewards every player who is willing to practise and accommodate more and more knowledge of the modern format and its decks. Ultimately, if you know how to play against a given deck, you will be granted the most win-percentage to win and this couldn't be more true for The Rock. Without further ado, let's Grind 'em out!
Below you can find the link to my discord channel, where everyone is invited to discuss about Rock. You can also discuss every other deck I made Primers for in there as well. If you are interested in an downloadable compact SB Guide in printform, you can also find that in my discord!
Modern Rock Discord: https://discord.gg/guSNj7s
Rock Compact SB Guide made by me: https://docdro.id/NC1bINa
I have converted the Primer over to my website, which you can find here: Greatness At Any Cost.
"Cradle of the Golgari's new kingdom. Grave of those who wronged its queen."
Throughout Magic's history, several decks stand out for having clever or humorous names. Golgari as guild is just the colour combination for this deck though. While some people refer to this deck as "Golgari Midrange", its most recognizable name is "GB Rock" or simply "The Rock". The deck got its name by its creator Sol Malka, which used to play a green black midrange deck in Standard (formerly known as Type 2) around the Urza block. The deck utilized mana acceleration tools like Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise which helped accelerating quickly into card advantage generating cards like Yavimaya Granger or Yavimaya Elder. Those cards should help clearing the path to the endgame finisher Phyrexian Plaguelord which took over games all on himself.
There is a common misconception that Sol Malka typically referred to the Plaguelord as "The Rock", which is not true. Sol actually does reference Deranged Hermit as "The Rock". Also the "Millions" refers to Deranged Hermit which was able to produce a big amount of tokens. He said that Phyrexian Plaguelord refers to being the "Undertaker" though: Link.
Decks with the name "The Rock" didn't follow a very close trend as some other decks may have over the years, but it was the most popular name of the Green/Black GB wedge up until now. A deck like Rock doesn't really have a single strategy or plan, it's just a pile of good cards usually. Thus the Rock decks differed from block to block completely.
The Rock and His Millions - Sol Malka - T2 Tempest-6th-UrzasMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Lands [23]
4 Treetop Village
2 Dust Bowl
6 Swamp
11 Forest
Creatures [25]
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Llanowar Elves
4 Albino Troll
3 Yavimaya Elder
4 Yavimaya Granger
4 Deranged Hermit
1 Woodripper
4 Phyrexian PlaguelordNoncreature Spells [12]
4 Duress
2 Vampiric Tutor
1 Tranquil Grove
3 Rapid Decay
2 Diabolic Servitude
The biggest shift of the Rock was when it was transferred to Extended and Apocalypse brought Pernicious Deed and Spiritmonger to the archetype. Michael Pustilnik won the GP Las Vegas 2001 with a Rock deck.
The Rock and His Millions - Michael Pustilnik - GP Las Vegas 2001Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Lands [23]
4 Bayou
2 Dust Bowl
8 Forest
5 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
Creatures [22]
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
4 Spike Feeder
2 Spike Weaver
4 Spiritmonger
3 Wall of Roots
4 Yavimaya ElderNoncreature Spells [15]
1 Choke
4 Duress
1 Living Death
4 Pernicious Deed
2 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Reccuring Nightmare
2 Vampiric TutorSideboard [15]
1 Choke
3 Diabolic Edict
1 Dust Bowl
2 Emerald Charm
1 Massacre
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Rank and File
1 Stench of Evil
1 Tsunami
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Volrath's Stronghold
As Cabal Therapy, Eternal Witness or Ravenous Baloth were printed, they quickly got adopted in the Rock decks.
The Rock - Ernie Marcheso - GP Seattle 2005Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Lands [23]
8 Forest
6 Swamp
3 Treetop Village
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Dust Bowl
1 Volrath's Stronghold
Creatures [20]
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Blossoms
3 Ravenous Baloth
3 Eternal Witness
3 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Troll Ascetic
1 Withered WretchNoncreature Spells [17]
3 Smother
3 Vampiric Tutor
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Pernicious Deed
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Chainer's EdictSideboard [15]
3 Naturalize
3 Duress
4 Engineered Plague
1 Rude Awakening
2 Chainer's Edict
2 Coffin Purge
Some lists also had different takes by including powerful equipments like Sword of Fire and Ice or Umizawa's Jitte.
Soon enough with the printing of powerful dual lands in the form of Shocklands with the support of fetchlands, splashing a third colour was more easy to do. Lists started to adapt a little white here and there, which should mark first little steps into the Junk midrange deck category.
BGW Rock - Javier Dominguez - Worlds 2005Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Lands [22]
4 Windswept Heath
2 Polluted Delta
2 Yavimaya Coast
1 Watery Grave
1 Temple Garden
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Island
5 Forest
4 Overgrown Tomb
Creatures [16]
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Eternal Witness
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Withered Wretch
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Genesis
1 Carven CaryatidNoncreature Spells [22]
4 Putrefy
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Gifts Ungiven
3 Smother
3 Living Wish
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Duress
1 Haunting Echoes
1 Sensei's Divining TopSideboard [15]
2 Withered Wretch
2 Naturalize
2 Duress
1 Carven Caryatid
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Eternal Witness
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Stabilizer
1 Llanowar Wastes
The deck began to evolve and ignited the possibility to create new archetype, such as Junk or Abzan and later Jund by different splashing colours. Rock overall remains a solid strategy still up to this day and with the printing of Field of Ruin it got some new tools to play around with.
"A retreat to nature can inspire even the most jaded inventor."
One of the most important aspects of playing Rock successfully, is to be able to pilot the deck according to the player's expected meta. Sometimes this means you have to change some cards in the deck, even if it might be odd. Don't be afraid to test "odd" things out by yourself. Rock is generally no deck, which has the perfect 75 cards at all times. However, there are certain guidelines for deck construction, which, over the past, have shown to be pretty helpful when it comes to deck building. If you start from scratch with a Rock deck and haven't played it before, its recommended to stick to those guidelines at first and adjust accordingly afterwards. In the sections below, you will find suggestions for how many copies of a given card you want to run. However, this changes from build to build.
The Landbase is the fundamental part of every deck, and for Rock this is no exception. Having a well tuned and working Landbase is the first key to success, and often times one of the most important ones when it comes down to deck piloting. I often see people not paying enough attention to the landbase! We have high requirements for coloured mana in order to cast our spells, and therefore its extremeley important to have the required amounts of mana sources for the deck. The Rock utilized an advantage of being able to run colourless lands which can destroy opposing lands. By doing so though, the manabase gets really tight! And you don't want to stumble due to an improper manabase. Live by this mantra in mind:
"When you stumble you lose"
Please read through my article "Building A Consistant Manabase" at MTGRock.com, it explains every detail needed to build a proper manabase for Rock. I will only state the most important facts here to keep things simple. Generally, considering colour requirements: black > green. The standard amount of lands for Rock is 23-25 lands. Whether to run 23 or 25 lands, simply depends on the manacurve. Before I start going into detail, one highly important thing to mention will be added. When building a manabase, the most important aspect of it is consistancy. You want to be able to cast that Liliana on turn 3, cast a discard spell on turn 1 and so on. As a general guideline (taken from Frank Karsten's Article: "How many lands do you need to consistantly cast your spells?") we need:
- 18 black sources to cast Liliana PWs on turn 3
- 14 black sources to cast discard on turn 1
- 18 green sources to cast Kitchen Finks on turn 3
- 14 green sources for a turn 2 Decay/Trophy/Grim Flayer
Please always consider this numbers when building a manabase for Rock. Among the lands, which are absolutely required to run this deck, are the following:
Verdant Catacombs (4 copies)
This is Rocks fetchland of choice. Fetches the 2 basic lands and grants us access to our dual land for mana fixing purposes. It also helps to pump up our Goyfs too. Absolutely play 4 copies of this land, there is no exception to this rule.
Marsh Flats (0-2 copies)
Marsh Flats sometimes sees play as additional fetchland, sometimes as a one of, sometime as a two of. Technically it doesn't matter which black fetchland you choose here. It can't get basic Forest though, for which reason we always want to maximize Verdant Catacombs first before playing this land. This land helps to add both a black and green source to our manasources, which is a needed thing to have if you want to run many colourless lands or Treetop Villages.
Windswept Heath (0-1 copy)
This land sees sometimes play, but only as a one of usually. Its a different fetchland which is able to fetch for a basic forest as well. Technically it doesn't matter which green fetchland you choose for this slot. But always max out first on Catacombs. This land helps to add both a black and green source to our manasources, which is a needed thing to have if you want to run many colourless lands or Treetop Villages.
Blooming Marsh (4 copies)
Blooming Marsh is an auto 4-of for our deck. We need to have access to painfree green and black for any turn between turn 1 and 3. It really helps casting our spells on time and while also retaining lifetotals against aggressive strategies. In any manabase of Rock you want 4 copies of this land.
Hissing Quagmire (2-4 copies)
Hissing Quagmire is our main creature land we are running. The reason for that is actually purely based on mana sources. We need the black sources for our deck in order to support colourless lands as well. Usually for that reason you see about 3 to 4 copies in the deck. It is possible to run fewer copies and more treetop villages, if you decide to cut down on colourless lands. But always, follow the rules about basic mana sources and basic manabase construction from my article.
Treetop Village (1-3 copies)
Treetop Village is the best manland available to any GBx deck. However, as it only produces one colour (and also not the maincolour, which is always black) its quite tough to play in more than 2 or 3 copies. It puts too much pressure on the manabase. However, it is possible to run up to 3-4 copies of that card if you reduce the amount of colourless lands you run. But do not mix both. You don't want to be erring on the greedy side of things. And its up to you if you want to sacrifice colourless lands in order to have more treetops.
Overgrown Tomb (2 copies)
The big reason why fetchlands are so good. The shockland is a solid unconditional land, which always helps with developing our mana. We don't want too many copies of this land as the damage taken adds up, but 2 copies is a fine number which is the total standard.
Swamp (3-5 copies)
Since we are only a two colour deck, basics can be played in a bigger amount compared to other GBx decks. Especially if we play Field of Ruin in our deck, a proper amount of basics is required. However, even if we don't play FoR, at least play 3 Swamps in your deck. If you play FoR, at least play 4 copies. Sometimes it is seen to run 5 copies to make sure we have 18 black sources total. The most common number for the standard build is 4 copies though.
Forest (2 copies)
The second basic we need to have in our deck. In general we always want 2 copies of this land. This is overall enough to be fetched a reasonable number of times, but not too much to get screwed in the opening few turns, as a basic Forest is not the best land to have here.
Twilight Mire (0-1 copy)
Twilight Mire is another fantastic tool to have in our manabase. It is a bit awkward in the opening hands and in the early turns, but really powerful when we have one or two other lands to go with it. Twilight Mire is especially strong in the Rock, as all our other lands enable Twilight Mire except for the colourless lands only. You can decide to not run it, but usually you will find one copy being played.
Field of Ruin (0-4 copies)
Having a description of 0-4 copies might sound a bit strange at first. But as the desire to run colourless lands are quite different, you can basically decide to not run any of them if you wish, or decide to run only 1-2 copies, play the full playset, or go with Ghost Quarter instead. One remark should be given here though. Overall it is pretty much impossible to support 4 Field of Ruins in a 24 landbase only. You need to have 25 lands in order to fulfill your mana source requirements. Field of Ruin as a land really shines in attrition based matchups where utility lands and creature lands are being played. FoR is also decent enough against Big Mana strategies as well. But for that purpose specifically, Ghost Quarter is usually stronger.
Ghost Quarter (0-4 copies)
Having a description of 0-4 copies might sound a bit strange at first. But as the desire to run colourless lands are quite different, you can basically decide to not run any of them if you wish, or decide to run only 1-2 copies, play the full playset, or go with Field of Ruin instead. One remark should be given here though. Overall it is pretty much impossible to support 4 Ghost Quarter in a 24 landbase only. You need to have 25 lands in order to fulfill your mana source requirements. Ghost Quarter as a land really shines in Big Mana matchups where speed and early interaction matters a lot. It is also pretty strong against some aggro or combo strategies, as it doesn't require any activation cost as opposed to FoR.
Our creaturebase represent our powerful, valuable threats able to take over the game on their own and grind out the opponent. Rock utilizes the best/most efficient creatures available in the modern format to trump the opponent. Ideally, it is considered best to run about 14-15 creatures in a Rock deck, however, sometimes this number varies.
Tarmogoyf (4 copies)
This is arguably the best creature in modern historically. With only 2 mana, you can get up to an 8/9 creature, which will be able to finish the game fast. It is absolutely crucial to run 4 copies in a competitive Rock deck, without any exceptions.
Dark Confidant (3-4 copies)
Dark Confidant, or “Bob” (The name Bob for Dark Confidant originally came from the name of its designer, Bob Maher), is the best source of card advantage available to us. Bob especially shines in matchups where the opponent is trying something unfair. This way you have a great tool to dig for answers and disruption to prevent that from happening. Having a strong source of card advantage that can attack for 2 dmg or block if you're under pressure is phenomenal in the deck. Dark Confidant is almost always a "kill" or "die" card for your opponent as, unless they take him out straight away, you will bury your opponent is card advantage. In todays a standard list you will see 4 copies of Bob. It is possible to run only 3 copies in Rock, which would be a small hedge against aggressive strategies. Here drawing multiple Bobs can be hurting. However, having one copy in aggro matchups is still fine! Except for Burn of that matter.
Scavenging Ooze (3 copies)
Scooze covers many bases in Rock, primarily Ooze acts as main deck graveyard hate against grave-centric decks and an answer to opposing Tarmogoyfs and Snapcaster Mages. While performing graveyard disruption, Ooze acts as both a tool for gaining life while becoming bigger and becoming a massive threat to our opponent, especially in the mid to late game if not dealt with early enough. Ooze is sometimes great, but can sometimes be mediocre overall. For this reason we do not run that many copies, the exact number depends simply on the metagame. For details please read the sideboard guide!
Tireless Tracker (1-3 copies)
Tireless Tracker is a grind machine on its own and can grow into a gigantic threat. Its basically all we ever want from a creature. However, it is quite slow and very vulnerable in the first turns. Usually it is correct to play Tracker as a virtual 4-drop, ensuring a Clue Token with the landdrop on turn 4. If you play a fetchland on that turn, you can potentially ensure 2 Clues right away, which is amazing. However do not fetch preemptively, since opponents can cast a removal spell in response to the fetch trigger and then you wont get a clue from the land hitting the battlefield off of the fetchland. Please, please, always remember, Tracker =/= Bob. In my article "The Tireless Tracker Misconception" you can read all about that.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet (0-1 copy)
Kalitas is a strong creature which shines against GY based creature combo decks such as Dredge, aggro decks in general as well in midrange mirrors. He is only weak to control and to a certain extent against Big Mana. Specifically against Tron he is still alright though, as he is able to deal with a Wurmcoil Engine pretty easily for example. Its a nice option to run, but not a must. If you decide to run it, cut a Tireless Tracker for it.
Besides these core creature suite Rock has, many other options are possible, which are the following:
- Tasigur, the golden Fang
: Tasigur is essentially what the love child of Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant would look like (Ironically, who both essentially don't have great synergy with him, at least while he's not in play anyway). While at first Tasigur seems fairly underwhelming, he has the potential to really swing games in your favor. Due to Delve, he basically reads, exile 0-5 jank cards from your GY and pay the difference plus B to cast him. Once in play he he reads 2GG put the top 2 cards of your library into your graveyard and your opponent chooses the worst non-land card in your graveyard for you to get back, you return that card to your hand. The thing is, his Delve ability allows you to exile all the jank cards in your graveyard so you tend to force your opponents to, at least, give you back a mediocre card, either way Tasigur is pure card advantage and a 4/5 beatstick. With Fatal Push being very predominant in the meta, this card is very likely to stick. However, due to Bob being overall stronger and more impactful, Tasigur naturally falls out of favour due to CMC. - Eternal Witness
: Loved by the creator of Rock Sol Malka, E-Witt pretty much always sees play in his lists. Its also almost never a dead card. In some way its a green Snapcaster Mage. However, since it requires double green and has sometimes a little unimpactful body, E-Witt does see limited play. Its a value card to have in mind though. If you run it, run it as a one or max two of. - Grim Flayer : Grim Flayer is another option card to run, but it should generally not be instead of your other 2 most important powerful two drops, Bob and Goyf. It can help to support the creatures and round out a more lower to the ground type of mana curve, which shines against aggro strategies. Overall Grim Flayer is a bit underwhelming in Rock though, as there is not Lingering Souls present for extra value. Its conditional ability is also very tricky to evaluate. Just have in mind that Grim Flayer needs 2 conditions to fulfill in order to get some card selection going. It needs to stay alive and also connect. Sometimes this is very hard to do. I would advise, if you want to run it, to play anywhere between 1-2 copies.
In order to support our creatures and disrupt our opponents, Rock utilizes one of the best and most efficient removals and disruption spells available. These spells are crucial to the deck and therefore, for some spells, there is no flexibility possible as their powerlevel will always be great in the modern format.
Fatal Push (4 copies)
Strong, cheap, flexible and efficient. Right now, Fatal Push is one of the best removal spells in modern, if not the best. With only 1 mana, it can kill the biggest threats in the modern format, it is needed to play this card in the deck. The complete modern format has been restructured singlehandedly due to this card. Its cheap, its efficient, and hits a vast majority of creatures in the modern format. Remember that Revolt can be triggered with Fetchlands, FoR/GQ and Clues. Since we do not have any other comparable one mana removal spell, we need to have 4 copies of this card for creature based matchups.
Inquisition of Kozilek (3-4 copies)
A very solid, but conditional, CMC 1 discard spell. IoK allows you to take any nonland card with a cmc of 3 or less. Although there is no additional life cost to playing IoK like there is with Thoughtseize, there are a few match-ups that it’s bad against. Generally, 6 discard spells are playing in the MB of Rock. Among this 6 discard both IoK and TS should be played, most of the time either in a 4/2 split of IoK/TS or a 3/3 of both.
Thoughtseize (2-3 copies)
The most powerful 1cmc discard spell in the game. Allows you to take any nonland card in their hand and gives you information on their game plan. It can be suicidal though, costing an additional 2 life to cast. Generally, 6 discard spells are playing in the MB of Rock. Among this 6 discard both IoK and TS should be played, most of the time either in a 4/2 split of IoK/TS or a 3/3 of both.
Assassin's Trophy (2-4 copies)
With Guilds of Ravnica hitting the modern format, GBx decks got a huge tool for keeping up with the powerlevel of other decks in the format. Assassin's Trophy provides us a highly flexible tool which really improves game 1 against a bunch of matchups. You can destroy an opposing Urza land from Tron, you can more easily fight PWs from Control decks or answer any hard to answer permanents in the maindeck now. The downside is almost the same as Path, the only difference is that the land comes into play untapped. This tool should absolutely be in the main of every Rock deck now, at least as a 3 of, if not a 4 of.
Collective Brutality (1-2 copies)
While sometimes very clunky, CB is a very flexible card that we need in our deck to supplement the lack of cheap removal spells. It helps against aggro, burn, control, combo. I think it is correct to play at least 1 copy maindeck, but you can run up to 2 copies if you want.
Abrupt Decay (1-2 copies)
One of the strongest removal cards ever printed in MTG. It’s amazingly flexible and hits nearly all problematic permanents in the format. Furthermore, it’s uncounterable, and an instant - unfortunately, it doesn't hit manlands or cards with cmc of 4 or greater. Trophy makes this card fall out of favor a little bit. Its still a good enough card to run. Sometimes you can even run 2 copies.
Maelstrom Pulse (0-2 copies)
The strengths of Pulse are in its ability to deal with problematic permanents and their multiples. Its weakness is that it’s a Sorcery and can’t hit Manlands. With Trophy being introduced to modern, Pulse falls a little out of favor. It is fine as a 1 of though and most of the time you will see it as a 1 of in decklists. But its fine to skip or transfer to the SB now.
Liliana of the Veil (3-4 copies)
The second best planeswalker ever printed (But the best in modern). Lillys’ -2 is strong against Aggro and Midrange, her +1 is solid against Control and Combo, her -6 is amazing against any deck, and you get all this for 3cmc. LotV is just a potent planeswalker that gives most decks nightmares when she lands. She’s almost always a 2(+) for 1 and is one of the only ways we have of taking out Hexproof, Regenerating or Protection from our removal creatures. LoTV is a card that you sometimes want close to none copies of in certain matchups. This is especially true for go-wide strategies. If you expect many of those, it is better to just run 3 copies. Otherwise run the full 4.
Liliana, the Last Hope (1-2 copies)
Being both a form of Liliana and with the same cmc as Liliana of the Veil has led to LtLH being unfavorably compared to LotV. While not being as strong as LotV in the deck, Last Hopes' +1 (giving a creature -2/-1 until our next turn) has the ability to kill some key creatures in the format and shrink other larger, more problematic, threats until our next turn, which is nothing to be taken lightly - although notably a dead ability against a few decks in Modern. Last Hopes' -2 (Put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard, then you may return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand) has synergy with our Goyfs, Scoozes as well as giving us the ability to return a creature to our hand can really overwhelm an opponent over the course of a game. People testing Last Hope having said that they've managed to return and play trump creatures like: Bob, Kalitas, Goyf and Tracker multiple times in a game which is incredibly back breaking for an opponent to have to deal with. Liliana, the Last Hopes' -7 (You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your end step, put X 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is two plus the number of Zombies you control".) mounts up quickly over a few turns to churn out an army of 2/2 Zombies which will make quick work of an opponent from that point on. All in all, Last Hope offers us a cheap tool that can swing games against many decks in our favor if left on the battlefield for a few turns or longer.
A few conditional and flex spot type of spells are also available to us:
- Cast Down : This card also serves as extra hard removal to compensate a lack of Path/Terminate. This card's downside is that it misses a few creatures. The most important ones to name are Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Vendilion Clique, Tasigur the Golden Fang and Baral, Chief of Compliance.
- Traverse the Ulvenwald : Popularily seen in Traverse builds of Abzan, this card is the engine card and can also be run in Rock. Its flexible and powerful, but can be awkward if you don't have delirium. It can be run in a lower curve with 23 lands, as typical as Sol Malka does. Its not more than a one of usually.
- Mishra's Bauble : When you are running a lower to the ground curve, having a couple of Mishra's Bauble can be run. It offers some advantage in card selection in combination with fetchlands (for which reason running Baubles is recommended to be accommodated with more than 4 fetchlands) and it pumps Tarmogoyf, as well as helps for achieving delirium for Traverse the Ulvenwald.
In order to have a starting point for building a Rock deck, here is a basic decklist template anyone can use to get a feeling which cards are generally played and more importantly, how often. This list is not meant to be perfect, nor is it meant to be the "best" solution for any meta, but, according to the latest results, the safest lists for an unknown meta.
Note: Feel free to ask for any feedback on your own decklist in this threat. However, pls, always state the reasoning and the purpose of a specific decklist, otherwise we won't be able to help accordingly. The reason behind this is, that specific metas sometimes require odd card choices. However, every meta is different. Therefore it is important for us to know in which meta a certain deck will be played in order to help the most effective way possible.
Rules of Thumb
Here are some general rules of thumb when it comes to building the deck, which you should more or less stick to. Don't consider them to be strict like anything, you can break the rules to a certain extend, but especially for new players the rules are highly recommended to stick to.
- The Landbase consists of 23-25 lands. Among them, 4-6 cards make up fetchlands, 4 cards make up fastlands, 2 make up shocklands, 5-7 are basics, 0-4 are GQ/FoR and 4 are manlands.
- The creaturebase is 14-15 creatures, whereas 14 is the most common number. 4 cards make up Tarmogoyf always. There are 3 Scavenging Oozes and 2-4 Tireless Trackers and 3-4 Dark Confidant. The rest is flexible.
- How many Spells you want to run depends on your landbase and creaturebase together. So consider this formula: 60 - (Creatures + Lands) = Noncreature Spells. Among them there are 6-8 discard spells (8 if you run two Collective Brutality main), 10-11 one mana spells (including the discard, and depending on if you run Traverse the Ulvenwald or not) and about 9-10 three mana spells. The rest is usually 2 mana spells.
Here is a link to my personal current decklist, which I keep updated as often as possible: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1440365#paper
Basically 2 different standard decklists are common right now. First we have the general FoR build, which seems to be the most used one and standard one of the two and the other is the most current list of the creator of Rock himself, Sol Malka. All in all, here are the standard decklists which you can start to play with:
Standard FoR BuildMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Lands [24]
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Blooming Marsh
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Swamp
2 Forest
3 Hissing Quagmire
1 Treetop Village
3 Field of Ruin
1 Twilight MireCreatures [14]
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Non-creature Spells [22]
4 Fatal Push
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
3 Assassin's Trophy
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
The next template is the current version of Sol Malka
The Rock, Sol MalkaMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Lands [23]
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
4 Blooming Marsh
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Swamp
2 Forest
3 Hissing Quagmire
3 Ghost QuarterCreatures [15]
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
3 Scavenging Ooze
1 Eternal Witness
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Tireless Tracker
Noncreature Spells [22]
2 Fatal Push
2 Mishra's Bauble
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
3 Assassin's Trophy
2 Collective Brutality
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Liliana of the Veil
"Let the rest of Ravnica sneer. One way or another, they all end up in the undercity. - Jarad"
In Rock, when it comes to sideboarding, experience and knowledge are really key to it. There are many thing to consider, and in some cases, opinions differ on a specific sideboard decision. Because of this, I want to extract the most important aspects of sideboarding and write them down into an detailed guide here, which will hopefully help every new person and experienced player as well.
To get an idea of what to cut in which matchup, it’s important to recognize an opposing deck for what it is. For this purpose, I am going to categorize different deck types and will be dividing our deck into different categories of tools available for us, and then explain, what is good and what is bad.
The following kinds of decks are out there:
- Swarm aggro decks based on creatures (Zoo, Goblins, Humans)
- Aggro decks based on mostly non creature spells (Infect, Death’s Shadow, Burn, Grixis Shadow)
- Synergistic aggro decks (Affinity, Elves, Merfolk, BR Hollow One)
- Midrange decks based on goodstuff cards (Jund, Junk, Mardu Pyromancer)
- Midrange decks including swingy/payoff cards (Abzan Company, Counters Company, GW Company)
- Big Mana decks (Tron, RG Breach, RG Titanshift, Amulet Titan, Eldrazi Tron)
- Combo decks based on spells mostly (Ad Nauseam, Storm)
- Combo decks based on the GY (Goryo’s Vengeance, Living End)
- Control decks with an heavy endgame (Grixis Control, Jeskai Control, UW Control)
Of course, each deck functions somewhat differently and attacks the opponent on a different axis, so it is hard to throw them all into one box and then play the same way against them every time, this just does not work. Always, always knowledge is key in order to beat a deck. We just have to know what our opposing deck wants to do, in order to stop it. In addition, we have to know what the SB plan of our opposing decks will be. Only by knowing this, we can squeeze the most win percentage out of being up against a given deck.
Our deck has certain tools to interact with the opponent, which are the following:
- Targeted discard (IOK, TS, CB)
- Non targeted discard (Liliana of the Veil)
- Single target removal (Push, Decay, CB…)
- Edict effects (Liliana of the Veil)
- Mass removal (Flaying Tendrils, Damnation, potentially Maelstrom Pulse)
- Burn (CB)
- Grindy cards (Tracker, LotV, LtlH, Ooze)
- Threats (Tarmogoyf, Ooze, Grim Flayer, creature lands)
- CA engine (Bob, Tracker)
- Graveyard Hate (Ooze, Nihil Spellbomb, Surgical Extraction)
- Land Destruction (Fulminator Mage)
Our deck can attack the opponent on a lot of different axis, which gives us game against potentially every opponent. There is no single card which completely shuts down our strategy, which is the reason why Rock overall performs great.
Let’s see what (in general) is useful against which kind of deck:
This chart should generally show, which tools are good against which kind of strategy. Here is a little bit of explanation for each matchup:
- For swarm aggro, discard is generally not the best thing we have, as these decks empty the hands rather quickly and doesn’t help with dealing with the threats the opponents have on board. Single target removal is okay, but not the greatest thing, we generally are seeking for big impactful mass removal cards like Damnation or Engineered Explosives. Of course, threats are very impactful in this matchup. Cards like Tarmogoyf hold off opposing creatures, as they tend to be bigger than the creatures of the swarm aggro player.
- Spell based aggro decks as Infect and Death’s Shadow often only have few creatures, but more non-creature spells to support them. For this reason, targeted discard is great against them, as well as single target removal. Sweeper are less good here, but still reasonable, when the sweeper is not too over costed. A good example would be: Playing Engineered Explosives against Burn is ok, but Damnation is too clunky and therefore not wanted. This decks are rather fast, and can also be seen as combo decks in some way, so finding answers for their threats is crucial.
- Synergistic aggro decks shine when they can combine a lot of cards which all support each other, among these decks like Affinity or Elves are the best examples. Targeted Discard is not completely bad against them, as there are a few key cards, which you may be able to snatch off their hand. For example: If you can, you want to discard Collected Company from the Elves player’s hand. You also do want to snatch Cranial Plating or Etched Champion from the Affinity player’s hand. However, it does not mean we should increase the amount of discard by sideboarding, since those can still wreck you if you topdeck them later on.
- In Midrange mirrors value, attrition and great topdecking are the most important aspects. For this reason we certainly want to cut all cards which could be potential bad topdecks later in the game. Some people say that discard can be kept in in these mirrors, which might be also an alternative way to sideboard in these matchups. However, the way I see it, is that, even if discard sounds great theoretically (like to discard the opponents removal so that your Tarmogoyf lives), I think more often than not discard is going to wreck you. The simple reason of this is, that discard is only good in the early game. You want to discard their most potent card against your hand right at the beginning of the game. Nevertheless, the start of the game is only a small part of the whole game. Midrange decks tend to be slower decks, which play longer games generally and in those matchups, ultimately, it comes down to which player topdecks best at the end of the game. For this reason, threats and grindy cards are of most value in these matchups.
- Midrange swingy decks tend to similarly work like good stuff midrange decks, but they do play payoff cards like Collected Company. The most present example these days would be Abzan Company. This decks uses mana dorks to quickly ramp into bigger threats, which are sticky most of the time, to outclass the opponent. Collected Company is a great card in this deck, especially combined with the manadorks. For this reason discard is good against these decks. However, only targeted discard! Non targeted discard can seriously wreck you due to shenanigans like Loxodon Smiter.
- Big Mana decks are generally very difficult for us to deal with. The best strategy we have is put up a fast clock so that our opponent can’t get to a point where the decks just steamrolls. In the early game these kind of decks are weak, so we have to use this fact as an advantage. Nevertheless, our deck is usually not fast enough to close out the games very fast, although cards like Damping Sphere and Treetop Village certainly help in this matchup. Targeted discard is great here, as well as burn and putting up a big threat.
- Combo spell based decks are decks like Ad Nauseam for example. The best thing we have against them is disruption combined with a fast clock. These decks can go off quite fast, but our job is to prevent or hinder the deck to combo off that fast. Each combo deck works differently, so figuring out how to disrupt the opponent is key here.
- Combo GY based decks are basically like spell based combo decks, but using the GY for their advantage. Obviously attacking their graveyard is important here, and for this reason, non-targeted discard is awful in this matchup. Targeted discard on the other hand, is much better.
- Control decks are generally decks, which are weak in the early game, but the longer the game goes, the easier it is for them to take over the game. As we are generally not that fast at closing out games, control decks can often times take the upper hand against us. The absolutely best thing we can do against them is trying to stick a Dark Confidant or Liliana of the Veil and start to dilute their resources. Targeted discard is phenomenal here, as hand information is incredibly useful here.
As a general advice for side boarding, always go for the question: “What can I cut from my main deck?” first rather than “What cards can I bring in?”. This applies to every matchup. For this reason, this guide is more focused on the cards to cut, whether on the cards to bring in, because generally, this is easier to determine.
With that general knowledge we got now from the last section of the primer, we should be able to create our own guide to sideboarding. I believe one key to success in sideboarding is the right approach to it. I think for proper sideboarding, it is not adviseable to simply learn cuts and bring ins for each matchup and call it a day. I guarantee that you will more often than not face an unexpected matchup which you don't prepared for preemptively. In such a case, correct sideboarding warrants great success. I want you to look at a card and know what it fundamentally does for us and against which type of deck we want that. If you learn to think that way, you can figure out each matchup by yourself. I can show you how I do it and what has brought me best success in my experience playing the deck. I’ll always go with the approach of creating a gauntlet with the most popular sideboard cards. It is the same gaunlet you will find in the Sideboard Guide section of the primer by the way. In the last section, explaining general guidelines for sideboarding, you saw a more general and theoretical approach of evaluating different areas of attack for all matchups. This theory is taken up as a next step here, to create this gauntlet and divide it into its own sections of use. In the following box you will see the sideboard gauntlet.
Now, this is simply an accomodation of most often used sideboard cards. Its a pile of cards. Not very helpful as of now. However, as a next step, we are gonna divide this pile of cards into 5 fundamental sections of areas of attack. By doing so, we can already distinguish all cards from another and also see which cards are doing similar things. These are the fundamental areas of attack:
- Graveyard Hate: This category explains itself. All cards that interact with the GY fall into this one.
- Destruction: Cards for the pure sake of destroying (or dealing with certain types of cards) specific problematic permanents/cards, which goes beyond simple creature removal.
- Lifegain: Obviously all cards that gain certain amounts of life.
- Discard: Cards that discard cards from opponents hands.
- Grind: A special category, since it defines the philosophy of our deck. Every card you would want in attrition based games, fall into that category, including removal.
If we take those categories, we will be able to put every common sideboard card in one, or even more of those sections:
Now that we divided all cards among the sections we created, we have to see what types of decks there are, to see what tools available to us are effective against a given deck. The simplest way to divide decktypes is according to the following way:
- Aggro: The most fundamental way to play magic, the only purpose of playing that sort of deck is getting the opponent dead fast. Games involving an aggro deck tend to focus on the early game and is characterized by efficiency and tempo. Synergies are very important here to create an early big advantage from which the opposing deck should not recover or hold up to.
- Midrange: When talking about midrange, terms like value, attrition or good topdecks come to mind. Midrange decks don't seek to kill the opponent fast naturally, it wants to go over the top of other decks and outvalue or outgrind them. This type of deck focuses on mid game primarily, its where the deck shines the most.
- Control: Control decks have only one purpose in mind: Controlling everything the opposing player might want to do and prevent that. Control decks are reactive by nature and run very few actual winconditions. Control decks shine in the mid to late game, and have a weakness for the early game. Its goal is to go from the early into mid and late game quite fast.
- Combo: Combo is a weird type of deck. In a certain way, combo decks are like aggro decks, in which they want to kill the opponent fast, through a certain combination of cards though, rather than simply attacking with creatures. Its primary focus is the early to mid game, focusing on card synergy.
- Big Mana: Big Mana is one type of deck that assembles huge amounts of mana by assembling certain types of lands or a big amount of lands fast. Those decks then try to win through powerful overcosted spells which are hard to deal with. This kind of deck focuses on the mid and late game and also on synergy.
Now that we defined the basic types of decks, we will divide our sideboard gauntlet among the different types of decks:
And there you have it. We completely divided our gauntlet in different areas of attack as well as uses for each type of deck. This should help you to identify your best sideboard for your own metagame. For determining the own metagame, I suggest reading Reid Duke's article: The Metagame. Last but not least, here is a recommended sideboard for the overall meta, kept up to date:
Standard FoR buildMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Sideboard [15]
2 Damnation
1 Collective Brutality
1 Nissa, Vital Force
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Deathmark
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Duress
1 Choke
1 Damping Sphere
1 Liliana, the Last HopeThe Rock, Sol MalkaMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Sideboard [15]
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Fulminator Mage
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Duress
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Damnation
1 Golgari Charm
1 Slaughter Pact
To conclude, these are the general guidelines for sideboarding in a given game. However, in specific cases, specific strategies are needed. For this reason, I want to go over all matchups present in this meta right now and go into a little bit more detail. In order to do so, I want to introduce you to my concept of Priority Lists. Since GBx decks are fairly different from meta to meta, I design a gauntlet of most popular cards run in common decks. From that cards I create a list (the priority list) which contains cards I would cut in which matchup (and how often) and also in which order. The same goes for bringing in cards. If you dont have a certain card from that list in your 75, then simply skip it. Information on the matchup itself will be in the information text attached to the list. Next you can find the Gauntlet:
Gauntlet for RockMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Creatures Maindeck
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Dark Confidant
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Grim Flayer
1 Eternal Witness
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Noncreature Spells Maindeck
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
1 Fatal Push
1 Cast Down
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Mishra's Bauble
1 Traverse the UlvenwaldCreatures Sideboard
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Obstinate BalothNoncreature Spells Sideboard
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Flaying Tendrils
1 Damnation
1 Golgari Charm
1 Choke
1 Deathmark
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Cast Down
1 Gaze of Granite
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Damping Sphere
1 Nissa, Vital Force
Board Out- Thoughtseize
- Liliana of the Veil
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Tireless Tracker
Board In- Damnation
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Slaughter Pact
- Gaze of Granite
- Flaying Tendrils
- Engineered Explosives
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Golgari Charm
- Fulminator Mage
Affinity is a synergistic aggro deck, which empties the hand blisteringly fast. Often times this deck drops their hand on turn 2 or 3 going into the top deck mode. For this reason, discard is usually not the best against them. In addition, this deck has several creatures, which are not real threats on its own (well except for Cranial Plating, this card turns every creature into a threat), but all work together to a difficult board of synergy, which we will have to deal with. Edict effects are the worst kind of removal we have against them, usually removing a lone Memnite won’t do much. Subsequently, Liliana of the Veil is one of the worst card against them we have. Mass removal and multiple single target removal is what we are looking for.
This deck runs hardly cards which have higher CMC than 3. For this reason, Inquisition of Kozilek is mostly better than Thoughtseize. Since we generally don’t want discard, we will cut all Thoughtseizes from our deck after game 1. I personally find IOKs sometimes very useful, as the Affinity player tends to drop all his small cheap cards in the first turn, and will hold the payoff cards in the hand for another turn. Even if we are on the draw, snapping this payoff card is great. Still, I wouldn’t bring in more discard because of this. This is just a reason why some numbers of IOK are fine to keep in the MB. Next, cutting some Liliana of the Veil is the priority. In addition, to note, Ooze might seem like a bad card in that MU, since this deck does not use the GY. However, I really do not recommend cutting Ooze in that matchup. Why? Simply because the GY is not the important factor, but the life gain and the body of Ooze. Affinity plays many creatures, which tend to fill up the graveyard, so Ooze will often times grow to a giant ass threat. As Affinity is an artifact based synergy deck, obviously, we will bring all artifact hate in this MU. Next, Sweepers are what is needed. Four main choices do we have: Flaying Tendrils, Damnation and Engineered Explosives or Gaze of Granite.
Your main gameplan is to be on defense the whole time until you can stabilize and control the board safely. Do not make heedless attacks if you could potentially get blown out by a topdecked Cranial Plating. Play it safe and remove every problematic card on sight (Overseer, Ravager, Champion, Plating) if possible. As for Ravager, it really is not worth it to let it live and target your removal spells on other creatures. If the opponent plays a turn 2 Ravager, and you have a Push in hand immediatly point it onto Ravager, unless there is something more problematic on the field. Dont let your opponent work with Ravager, it can get ugly quite fast.Board Out- Dark Confidant
- Thoughtseize
- Liliana, the Last Hope
Board In- Collective Brutality
- Kitchen Finks
- Duress
- Obstinate Baloth
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Engineered Explosives
- Cast Down
- Fulminator Mage
Burn generally is a spell based aggro deck. It still runs a fair amount of creatures nonetheless. Against this deck, you want to take as little dmg as possible, so be careful with fetching and thoughtseizing the opponent. Discard is great in this matchup, especially IOK which can strip of a burn card from the opponents hand without taking dmg.
One of the most common misconceptions involveds around Thoughtseize vs. Burn. Its incredibly bad to leave TS in. But why is that? I often hear people arguing that TS is not as bad against Burn, because you can potentially snatch a Boros Charm or Atarkas Command, effectively gaining 2 life, right? Well, its not that simple.
I look at Burn as being a combo deck, which just has to resolve 6-7 spells in order to win the game. Generally, each spell will do 3 or sometimes 4 dmg to the opponent, so for 20 life --> 7 spells with 3 dmg per spell or 6 spells with two spells dealing 4 dmg are needed. Burn is a very consistant deck. It will more often than not draw the needed spells and just win. Now, when you are playing TS and taking Boros Charm out of the opponent’s hand, you annul the effect of Boros Charm which would have otherwise dealt 4 dmg to your face. But what you also did through this, is effective casting a free Shock on yourself. Combines this with a simple fetch you potentially did prior to this (even if you only fetched for 1) you effectively cast a free Lightning Bolt on yourself. So what did TS actually do for you? Nothing. You took Boros Charm, but bolted you alongside. You gave the opponent 1 of the 7 spells needed to kill you. (And to note, even if you don’t fetch for 1, you effectively cast a combo spell piece on yourself by casting TS, going down to 18 life and the burn player now just needs 6 instead of 7 3-dmg spells) So to conclude, if you TS the Burn player, you take away one spell they have but they simply have to draw one less spell alongside, which is just doing nothing.Board Out- Inquisition of Kozilek
- Thoughtseize
- Collective Brutality
- Liliana of the Veil (2 against Abzan)
- Basic Forest (1 on the draw)
Board In- Nissa, Vital Force
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Fulminator Mage
- Kitchen Finks
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Thrun, the Last Troll
- Obstinate Baloth
- Damnation
- Gaze of Granite
- Engineered Explosives
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Cast Down
- Deathmark
- Nihil Spellbomb
Playing against midrange decks ultimately comes down to who topdecks better, if you want to win or not. Therefore, what has worked for me in the past is that cutting all cards, which are potential bad top deck give you the best win % against Junk/Jund.
In general the rule is: Threat > Removal. Bring in all threats you have and afterwards extra removal. Of course, knowledge of the deck is also important to win the MU. For example, I rate Scavenging Ooze higher than Tarmogoyf in this MU, because Ooze can generally grow to a much bigger threat over time (grinding) and can strip away opposing Lingering Souls copies from the opposing Junk player for example. Speaking of Lingering Souls, it is basically correct to cut some LoTV if you expect Souls from the opponent. Besides this, CA in form of Dark Confidant is also highly important, try to bait removal spells by playing other stuff first and playing Bob afterwards, you really want Bob to live in these matchups. Of course, also, playing Tarmogoyf only when he is bolt proof against Jund is self-explanatory.Board Out- Fatal Push
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Scavenging Ooze
- Collective Brutality
Board In- Damping Sphere
- Fulminator Mage
- Surgical Extraction
- Thoughtseize
- Duress
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Nissa, Vital Force
Tron is our second worst matchup we can face (the worst being Valakut decks). Reid Duke is on the opinion that a good GBx pilot can win nearly half the matches against Tron. What is important in this MU? Generally, the best sequence we have against them is: Turn 1 discard Turn 2 goyf and then potential turn 3 Fulminaotr + Surgical and finish them off before they get to cast one of their threats. For this reason, slow and grindy cards are bad in this MU, they won’t grant the value they have. I would generaly advise to go for their threats with your discard spells rather than trying to choke them on their ability to find tron lands. (Unless they keep a hand without tron lands and just a Stirrings/Map or whatever).Board Out- Grim Flayer
- Inquisition of Kozilek
- Thoughtseize
- Collective Brutality
Board In- Kitchen Finks
- Damnation
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Engineered Explosives
- Cast Down
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Fulminator Mage
- Tireless Tracker
Death’s Shadow aggro similarily works like spells based decks such as Burn and Infect. They can win out of nowhere with a giant Death’s Shadow with a Temur Battle Rage attached to it. Lately, Death’s Shadow decks kinda turned into a more grindy strategy, using a few of Jund’s best cards like LoTV or KCommand to have the ability to grind out the opponent. With the inclusion of Traverse the Ulvenwald and its piloting to be a easy to reach delirium deck its amazingly consistant. Discard is usually not very good here as the game is directed by attrition. You can treat the matchup just like a mirror matchup. Out of all option out there, Fulminator Mage, Nihil Spellbomb and Sweeper provide ok options to bring in. Death’s Shadow will dmg themselves quite a bit to grow Death’s Shadow, and thus fetching for many shocklands. Fulminator can potentially screw them quite hard. Please do only bring in Nihil Spellbomb as GY hate for the matchup, if you have it. All other cards (Surgical, Leyline) will be horrendus topdecks later in the game. Spellbomb only replaces itself, therefore you can run it.
Removal is king in that matchup, and cards that trade 2-for-1 most likely (Lingering Souls, Liliana, the Last Hope) are great. Be careful with your lifetotal, chip in for dmg when you safely can but be aware of Temur Battle Rage at all times. After sideboarding they will board it out, so here you can focus more on grindy cards.Board Out- Grim Flayer
- Inquisition of Kozilek
- Collective Brutality
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Liliana, the Last Hope
Board In- Damnation
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Cast Down
- Slaughter Pact
- Fulminator Mage
- Surgical Extraction
- Damping Sphere
- Kitchen Finks
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Eldrazi Tron is a deck that combines the unfair elements of the tron lands with the big creatures of Eldrazi. This deck is a bit vulnerable to LD, but its not a blowout due to stuff like Mind Stone and them playing some number of Wastes Fulminator Mage is not automatically game over. Generally I would try to lower cards which are potential bad topdecks, so cutting some discard is good, however, leaving in TS to snap gaint ass threats like Ulamog is surely worth it. You want to draw your threats quickly to finish the opponent off. The key to this match are your hard removals (Path, Pulse...) combined with a 5/6 Tarmogoyf to hold off threats.The best card to bring in is Damnation. Fulminator might shut them off of Tron, if you get to hit a land and extract it with Surgical Extraction. On its own, Fulminator is not that impressive though. I personally value Damnation higher than any LD here because of these reasons. If you got those in, you can also bring in stuff like Finks and extra removal. Try not to play the long game against this MU. Generally, you want to close games as fast as you can, with Fulminator only buying you time.Board Out- Abrupt Decay
- Fatal Push
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Liliana, the Last Hope
Board In- Fulminator Mage
- Surgical Extraction
- Collective Brutality
- Thoughtseize
- Duress
- Kitchen Finks
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Deathmark
- Slaughter Pact
RG Valakut is the worst matchup for GBx decks. Generally, it doesn’t depend on the version, all are really bad, however its good to note that RG Titanshift is more consistant that Breach, but Breach can potentially be faster than Titanshift. Of course, like against every Big Mana deck, LD is important here. Fulminator is the best option. Bring in all copies you have. After this, bring in Kitchen Finks, which not only provide a relevant body to race the opponent, but also gains life which can potentially help getting out of the 18 life threshold for a 7 land shapeshift (also relevant against Breach) Bring in Duresses as well as Collective Brutalities. As an quick note on Abrupt Decay, it might be correct to leave those in to have an answer for Chalice of the Void, which is a card that Valakut decks sometimes run in their SB. If you expect this, maybe leave in Decay.
One note concerning Fulminator and Scapeshift: If the opponent plays Scapeshift and wants to sacrifice 7 lands, obviously destroy a land in response, so they can only sac 6 lands. If they scapeshift for 8 lands however, you can't deny the valakut triggers, as 7 lands will also be enough, however, you can reduce the dmg from 36 to 6, if you destroy one mountain in response to the valakut triggers (6 mountains and 2 Valakuts usually, which would normally grant 6 x 6 = 36 dmg). The other 5 mountains won't "see" the other 5 mountains required to deal damage, so those will fizzle. Only the land which was destroyed sees 5 other mountains in order to be triggered, which is just 6 dmg, 3 dmg from each valakut. Generally, if the Valakut player knows this as well, they will scapeshift for 7 mountains and only 1 Valakut generally. In that case its better to destroy one land pre-scapeshift, in order reduce dmg from 36 to 18. So its up to you to decide whether to take the risk of letting it resolve and potentially get rewarded or get screwed. If you would die to 18 dmg nonetheless, then its of course safe to just hope they mess up. You would die anyways otherwise.Board Out- Inquisition of Kozilek
- Liliana of the Veil (2 on the draw)
- Grim Flayer
- Blooming Marsh (1 on the draw)
Board In- Damnation
- Flaying Tendrils
- Deathmark
- Cast Down
- Slaughter Pact
- Engineered Explosives
- Grafdigger's Cage
- Collective Brutality
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Kitchen Finks
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Fulminator Mage
Abzan Company is generally a midrange deck, which does contain some combo and go-wide elements in it. It is known for playing sticky creatures and big payoff spells like Collected Company or Chord of Calling to find those threats and junk up the battlefield. In order to do this fast, it plays manadorks along those bigger creatures. As for us, we can't compete with this race of creature build up onto the battlefield, since we don't run these payoff cards. For us it is important to snap those payoff cards before they get to resolve, which means: targeted discard. However, I would still treat this matchup like an attrition matchup, this means that cutting of some discard good. Since the deck is creature based, obviously, sweepers are phenominal here.
Liliana the Last Hope is usually very good in this matchup, because it can kill manadorks, shrink their threats while ticking up an heading towards a win condition on her own. Among the best cards available for us is definitely Damnation and Flaying Tendrils. It will deal with the majority of their threats without them coming back, which is really good value. Note though, that some lists play Sigarda, Host of Herons which could potentially shut down Liliana of the Veil, and you can only remove her with Damnation. Speaking of which, LotV can sometimes be very bad, as you can't plus her safely and also her edict effect can be mediocre if you face Voice of Resurgence or pesky manadorks. With the inclusion of Vizier of Remedies the deck became more combo centered, which can sometimes just get you. Remember that you should always kill Devoted Druid first before you kill Vizier, since Druid as a topdeck wont be able to get the combo online right away due to summoning sickness.Board Out- Fatal Push
- Cast Down
- Abrupt Decay
- Scavenging Ooze
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Blooming Marsh (1)
Board In- Choke
- Thrun, the Last Troll
- Fulminator Mage
- Tireless Tracker
- Thoughtseize
- Duress
- Collective Brutality
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Nissa, Vital Force
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Kitchen Finks
- Nihil Spellbomb
Jeskai Control has a really respectful and powerful endgame when unchecked. Jeskai mostly utilizes powerful Planeswalker and its signature manland Celestial Colonnade to finish off. Jeskai is a pain in the ass to deal with. Generally, if you want to increase your win percentage points against this MU, it not only comes down to sideboard correctly, it also depends on the piloting of the deck. Certain cards like additional copies of Maelstrom Pulse really help with dealing with those pesky planeswalkers. However, the biggest problem seems to be Snapcaster Mage and Cryptic Command, hands down. Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil and single target discard are your greatest friends, alongside hard to deal with threats. You need them to use their resources to deal with your stuff, and eventually being left with a Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf or Liliana of the Veil will grant you the win. In theory. Practically, this can be though to do. I think its generally a good idea to not seek long games, try not to outgrind them, as you will just loose. I think deploying a quick threat after counters/removal are taken out of their hands with discard, will grant more win percentage than going for a longer game. You want to put them on the backfoot as soon and as often as you can. The help of Lingering Souls really goes a long way in that matchup. You can avoid getting timewalked less often by cards like Remand/Cryptic Command by running less clunky spells. Lastly, Liliana, the Last Hope is a real great card, as recursion of creatures is relevant and her being a planeswalker is a hard to deal with threat which can win a game on her own. She is just a must answer card, because the control player is usually not fast enough to win beforehand. We also bring in Fulminator Mage and Finks, which are potential 2 for 1s and which will help diluting the Jeskai players answers so that eventually one threat of ours can stick. The biggest threat in the late topdeck war is their manland, and Fulminator is great here at dealing with it cleanly.Board Out- Assassin's Trophy
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Tireless Tracker
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Cast Down
- Abrupt Decay
Board In- Damping Sphere
- Leyling of the Void
- Grafdigger's Cage
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Surgical Extraction
- Collective Brutality
- Thoughtseize
- Duress
- Choke
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Golgari Charm
- Engineered Explosives
- Gaze of Granite
- Flaying Tendrils
Storm is a deck which has seen play in the past. Before the Gitaxian Probe ban, obviously this card was included in the deck and often builds using Pyromancer Ascension have been played. After the bans, a new version came up, including cards like the newly print Baral, Chief of Compliance and Gifts Ungiven. Pyromancer Ascension seemed to be disappeared as of now, the builds tend to focus more on Past in Flames now. So this means, our best cards against them are discard, GY hate and a quick threat. We also have a huge amount of single target removal to get rid of any Goblin Electromancer of Baral right away. Due to this, Storm usually is a good matchup. Removal is great, discard is great and a quick threat is great.
The reason to bring in Sweepers like EE, is because their biggest threat against us is an early Empty the Warrens. A huge amount of small creatures is hard for us to answer. Before that, however, extra discard and GY hate comes in, those are the main priorities. Don't sideboard too much here if you don't have anything to bring in. Usually siding 3-4 cards should be sufficient. We leave Maelstrom Pulse in also for the Tokens. Side out a couple of clunky removal like Decay, since experiences Storm players will side out all Electromancers and maybe Barals against you, to blank your removal. However, sometimes they could try to play mindgames and side them in and out, hoping you sided out removal. Be a little causios about this.Board Out- Fatal Push
- Abrupt Decay
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Liliana of the Veil
Board In- Leyline of the Void
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Surgical Extraction
- Thoughtseize
- Collective Brutality
- Damnation
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Fulminator Mage
Living End is generally a very tough matchup for us. Removal from us will certainly be blanked at some point due to creatures returning to the battlefield through Living End. Since removal is a big proportion of our deck, many cards just won't do enough generally. Obviously grinding and going for a longer game is not the best idea here. The best thing we can do preboard is using targeted discard to snap all their cascaders which could potentially buy us enough time to finish them off quickly with an early Tarmogoyf. Scavenging Ooze is an allstar in this matchup. Living End does not play much removal, which makes it so that Ooze often sticks for a while. If you combine this with discard for cascaders, then Ooze can potentially take over the game if you build up enough mana to exile every creature they cycle away. For graveyard hate, everything is good except Grafdigger's Cage. This does absolutely nothing against Living End, keep that in mind. I think generally Leyline of the Void and Nihil Spellbomb are more or less on the same powerlevel and if I expect much Living End decks going around, I would consider running either or both of these cards in the sideboard. Surgical Extraction is a card I really like against Living End, as you can extract Living Ends from the yard. But I would not use this as primary GY hate for that matchup as it can be weak and sometimes does only extract one creature when there is a Living End on the stack. Also be aware of Faerie Macabre. That card can screw extractions up. The reason why I would bring in Fulminator is because you can also make use of Living End potentially, by getting as many creatures into the GY as possible. Try to really hard mulligan for some kind of interaction with their GY.Board Out- Liliana of the Veil
- Tireless Tracker
- Assassin's Trophy
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Abrupt Decay
Board In- Leyling of the Void
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Grafdigger's Cage
- Surgical Extraction
- Flaying Tendrils
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Collective Brutality
- Liliana, the Last Hope
Dredge is a deck which operates on the graveyard and can be very explosive in a way, that you likely face a 10-15 power creature army as early as turn 2 or onward if things go well for them. Killing their creatures one by one is one thing, but does not solve the problem at all. Bloodghasts and Prized Amalgams tend to return back to the battlefield rather easily, which requires other measurements to beat them. Obviously, our single target removal are quite bad here. They can still win you games for sure, but it just doesn't feel good pushing a Bloodghast. The graveyard is what's the scary part. Therefore any form of Graveyard hate is great here (Leyline of the Void > Nihil Spellbomb > Grafdigger's Cage > Scavenging Ooze > Surgical Extraction). Luckily we do have mainboard GY hate for the matchup: Scvenging Ooze. The problem with Ooze is, its very slow, and you can't exile all cards from the gy since we never got enough green mana to compensate for their dredging. The goal here is to exile the right cards. When you do see only one dredger in the graveyard you want to exile the dredger, since you will prevent dredging most likely for the next draw step. If you see too many dredgers, this does not make much sense though. If, however, you see only a few creatures they can reanimate you want to exile the threats. Also, if they trigger a bloodghast or amalgam or narcomoeba, you want to exile it. If they don't have bloodghasts in the gy, but they dredged a narcomoeba and some amalgams, you want to exile the narcomoeba with its trigger on the stack in order to prevent amalgams hitting the battlefield. Next to gy hate, targeted discard in early turns is decent against them. If you can snap Cathartic Reunions, Faceless Lootings or Insulent Neonates, then you will slow the opponent down significantly. The last thing to keep in mind is their damage source in the form of Conflagrate. They will utilize Life from the Loam in order to gather a bunch of cards to discard to build up a huge conflagrate. A thing to note is that the spell is sorcery speed, which makes it so that the dredge player will have restricted possibilities to use it. But its still a threat which can potentially kill you out of nowhere, so always track life totals.
It is fine to bring in Damnation and Liliana the Last Hope since both can help reducing the clock of the dredged creatures and buy potential turns in order to set up a wall of blockers or simply win by yourself. Flaying Tendrils is of course the premium card to have for this matchup, and will always be welcomed. The matchup on its own is rather difficult and unfavoured, since half of your deck can get blanket or significantly leveraged in its powerlevel since they creatures of the dredge player will return again and again. That combined with its explosiveness often just means we have to operate with clunky hands and try to squeeze out wins.Board Out- Grim Flayer
- Collective Brutality
- Abrupt Decay
- Inquisition of Kozilek (2-3)
- Treetop Village (1 on the draw)
Board In- Kitchen Finks
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Damnation
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Engineered Explosives
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Tireless Tracker
- Fulminator Mage
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Choke
Grixis Death Shadow is one of the most popular versions of DS decks out there and its been quite successful recently. I think we are the control player in this matchup as we do generally grind a bit more. Depenging on the skills of each player, this matchup is more or less favourable. Grixis Shadow's strenghts ultimately are delve creatures and/or Snapcaster Mage. With your discard, in doubt, you want to target those cards. Do not burn your Trophies/Pulses on low impact Snappies on the field, safe them for Tasigur or Gurmag Angler. LoTV is one of the best cards we have against them, for which reason you should watch out for Stubborn Denial.
Bringing in GY hate is a good idea for that matchup. Generally, Leyline is the best hate we have in terms of effectiveness when you manage to have it on the bf as early as the start of the game. However, there is more to it. Leylines are completely devastating topdecks. Keep that in mind if you want to board them in. I personally like Nihil Spellbomb more as my gy hate for that matchup, as it is not a bad topdeck. I am personally willing to sacrifice the possibility of having Leyline on the board at the start by reducing the number of bad topdecks later in the game. Next to this, removal and grindy cards are a good choice.Board Out- Fatal Push
- Abrupt Decay
- Cast Down
- Scavenging Ooze (1-2)
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Blooming Marsh (1)
Board In- Nissa, Vital Force
- Fulminator Mage
- Choke
- Tireless Tracker
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Thrun, the Last Troll
- Collective Brutality
- Thoughtseize
- Duress
- Maelstrom Pulse
UW Control can be of the tougher matchups for us, depending on the skilllevel of both players. The plan is to get as many 2-for-1s as possible. A very resiliant plan is to resolve a Liliana of the Veil and start stripping resources out of the UW Control player's hand for that reason. Tireless Tracker is also really good vs Control, as it likely trades 2-for-1 at least. Try to really trade resources in your favor. Assassin's Trophy does help to not die to an resolved PW on an empty board quite a bit.
Bringing in GY hate is not the best idea for that matchup. This deck often runs some copies of Rest in Piece by themselves and only a few Snapcaster. It shows that they don't rely on the graveyard like Grixis variants do. Bring in Fulminator for their Colonnades, Nissa for having access to a grind machine, LtLH as threat and recursion, and Pulse for their PWs and Detention Spheres.Board Out- Thoughtseize
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Grim Flayer
- Tireless Tracker
- Dark Confidant (2-3 on the draw)
- Liliana of the Veil (2 on the draw)
Board In- Damnation
- Deathmark
- Engineered Explosives
- Flaying Tendrils
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Slaugher Pact
- Collective Brutality
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Golgari Charm
- Kitchen Finks
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Humans is a deck that recently popped up due to probably its autowin against Storm. Its deck only consisting of creatures and Vials to bring them in fast. This deck similarily operates like a Death and Taxes deck, but focusing on the Human archetype here. Generally, it can be very annoying if you get overrun by massive creatures fast. The strategy to follow here is that you need to be conservative with your lifetotals at all times, be on defense and chip in for dmg only when you can safely do so. As for sideboarding, bring in every card you have access to that can kill a creature.Board Out- Inquisition of Kozilek
- Thoughtseize
- Collective Brutality
- Liliana of the Veil (2)
- Abrupt Decay
- Blooming Marsh (1 on the draw)
Board In- Nihil Spellbomb
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Nissa, Vital Force
- Kitchen Finks
- Tireless Tracker
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Obstinate Baloth
- Damnation
- Flaying Tendrils
- Engineered Explosives
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Golgari Charm
- Cast Down
- Slaugher Pact
Mardu Pyromancer is an attrition based deck, which can go-wide fast and create a good amount of CA thanks to cards like Bedlam Reveler and/or the synergy between Faithless Looting and Lingering Souls. The deck generally contains a lot of X/1 type of creatures, which means its very susceptible to small sweepers. Flaying Tendrils, Golgari Charm and EE come to mind. Since the deck uses Bedlam Reveler and has a good amoung to flashback cards in it, its highly susceptible to GY hate. So we want Nihil Spellbombs for sure. If we get to exile the GY and strand them with uncastable Revelers in their hand, we are usually in a good shape. Note that they do not run many hard removals, the have Terminate and Dreadbore only usually. Be aware of Blood Moon, it can catch you offguard sometimes. So grab your basics when you can.Board Out- Grim Flayer
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Collective Brutality
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Fatal Push (1-2) (1 on the draw)
Board In- Thoughtseize
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Damnation
- Slaughter Pact
- Cast Down
Ponza is a deck which can get us sometimes, if we happen to be on the draw and don't have early interaction. The fact that Blood Moon and Chalice is not the best against us the matchup is usually favourable. If we survive the first few turns either by having discard spells or removal for their mana creatures, then we are in a good shape. Often a Tarmogoyf alone can win the matchup as Ponza has a hard time dealing with it. When it comes down to a topdeck war, we are also miles ahead as Ponza has a huge number of dead draws. Overall this matchup is very favourable.Board Out- Thoughtseize
- Abrupt Decay
- Liliana of the Veil
- Tireless Tracker (1)
Board In- Leyline of the Void
- Grafdigger's Cage
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Surgical Extration
- Damnation
- Collective Brutality
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Duress
BR Hollow One is a bad matchup for us in general. Their Burning Inquiry can screw our hand pretty badly possibly. On the other hand, since all discard is happening randomly, they can also just loose to their own deck, if they discard their key cards like delve threats and Hollow Ones. GY hate is good here, as well as targeted discard for their enablers, which are the mentioned Burning Inquiry as well as Goblin Lore. Sometimes you will face 2 Hollow Ones before you even put your first land into play, thats just the deck, we cant do much about it. Having extra hard removal in the form of Path or Murderous Cut can help here, but its still bad. We are just soo slow and our interaction does not particularly line up very well with their deck. This sideboard strategy showed here is from Reid Duke. In this plan cutting all LoTV is the strategy.Board Out- Grim Flayer
- Fatal Push
- Cast Down
- Collective Brutality
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Liliana, the Last Hope
Board In- Engineered Explosives
- Gaze of Granite
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Golgari Charm
- Damnation
- Thoughtseize
- Duress
- Fulminator Mage
Bogles is usually a favourable matchup, as we have many great ways to interact with the opponent. The only thing that is pretty much dead against them is our targeted removal. Their scariest card out of the SB is Leyline of Sanctity, which shuts off our discard spells and LoTV edict effects. With Assassin's Trophy being introduced into the gauntlet, we have more ways to deal with a Leyline now. The sideboarding is fairly unspectacular as we have very obvious choices for cards to cut.Board Out- Tireless Tracker
- Grim Flayer
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Scavenging Ooze
Board In- Fulminator Mage
- Thoughtseize
- Collective Brutality
- Slaughter Pact
- Cast Down
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Liliana, the Last Hope
Infect is a very favourable matchup in general. Due to the amount of live cards we have, and them being really impactful, Infect has a hard time winning through our interaction. They have some scary tools though. There is the possibility to face a Shaper's Sanctuary which makes our removal spells less of a problem for them. Another thing to keep in mind is Spellskite which can protect their infect creatures. Lastly, you should expect Invisible Stalker out of the sidebaord, which is able to dodge all our targeted removal spells. With Stalker, they also shift their strategy to not kill via Infect, but via regular damage instead.
Against Infect, you need to be aware of the fact that usually fighting over a creature mid-combat is wrong. The first person to initiate is gonna be disadvantaged. Generally, if you have a removal spell for a creature, either do it on your own turn, or at the end of the opponents turn, so that pump and protection spells won't kill you. Often times you are actually trading a removal spell for a protection spell, which is very fine! Its a 1-for-1 exchange, and if you can make sure that you can prevent them from killing you with a single removal spell, then its fine to trade a second removal spell for a protection spell. And you should not be too scared about taking a few poison counters. Play mindful and conservatively, don't risk anything unneccesarily, and you should be fine.Board Out- Inquisition of Kozilek
- Thoughtseize
- Liliana of the Veil (1-2 on the draw)
- Blooming Marsh (1 on the draw)
Board In- Deathmark
- Damnation
- Nissa, Vital Force
- Thrun, the Last Troll
- Tireless Tracker
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Kitchen Finks
- Obstinate Baloth
- Fulminator Mage
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Collective Brutality
- Slaughter Pact
- Cast Down
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Flaying Tendrils
- Engineered Explosives
GW Company, or also known as GW Value Town, is a midrange deck which seeks to grind out opponents with resiliant and sticky creatures, as well as powerful utility lands and impactful spells like Collected Company. For that reason, the matchup is usually very tough for us. We are naturally seeking for 1-for-1 trades and then win with impactful CA engines like Tracker or Bob, but GW Company has many creatures which naturally trade 2-for-1 like Voice of Resurgance. For that reason we are in a tough spot if we cannot establish a solid CA engine. For that reason strong sweepers like Damnation can really help to get ahead in the game. But overall it is tough fighting through all their grindy creatures.Board Out- Tireless Tracker
- Collective Brutality
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Cast Down
- Fatal Push (1)
- Liliana of the Veil
Board In- Damping Sphere
- Leyline of the Void
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Surgical Extraction
- Duress
- Thoughtseize
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Engineered Explosives
- Gaze of Granite
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
KCI is a resiliant and fast artifact based combo deck, which evolves around the engine card Klark-Clan Ironworks. The goal of this deck is to create infinite loops which all evolve their engine creatures Scrap Trawler and Myr Retriever. The interaction to notice here is that during casting a spell (like a Chromatic Sphere), when you have both those mentioned creatures on the BF, you can use KCI to pay for the spell and sacrifice both those creatures for the spell. This creates a situation where both creatures enter the GY at the same time and therefore Myr Retriever is able to recur the Scrap Trawler who just went into the GY alongside Myr Retriever. Scap Trawler is then able to recur the Myr and as well as another artifact, as Scap Trawler generates 2 triggers, one from itself and one from the Myr when sacrificing them to KCI. That way you can recur Mox Opal or another 1 mana artifact, which enables to get infinite mana with Opal and draw infinite cards with a Chromatic Star or Sphere. The deck is susceptible to GY hate for that reason. The goal is to disrupt their combo with discard and a fast clock, as well as GY hate and potential removal spells for their artifact creatures. Also note, post sideboarding most KCI decks will have Sai, Master Thopterist as alternative wincon in the deck. For this reason, having all a healthy amount of removal is surely not wrong.Board Out- Tireless Tracker
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Liliana of the Veil
- Inquisition of Kozilek (1-2)
Board In- Engineered Explosives
- Damnation
- Flaying Tendrils
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Golgari Charm
- Deathmark
- Collective Brutality
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Slaughter Pact
- Cast Down
- Gaze of Granite
- Grafdigger's Cage
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Kitchen Finks
Elves is a creature based swarm decks with combo elements in it. While single creatures of their deck are not very scary, multiples of them can quickly overwhelm you. Especially when payoff cards like Ezuri, Renegade Leader or Elvish Clancaller are involved. Fighting them with our one for one removal spells will be a hard mission to accomplish, as this deck runs so many creatures. This deck can basically win out of nowhere, as one overrun pump from Ezuri quickly turns a bunch of elves into a deadly horde. In addition to that this deck often splashes for black to support Shaman of the Pack which provides fearful reach. In order to beat this deck, we need to be careful of our lifetotals at all times. Generally we don't loose life in incremental ways, which a normal aggro deck would do, but if we fall below a certain lifetotal (which may differ) you can be dead by one swing or one Shaman of the Pack trigger. Sweepers and recurring removal in the form or Liliana, the Last Hope are phenominal in this matchup. Basically the go-to strategy for sideboading against this deck is to get every card that can kill a creature and bring it into the maindeck. The only exception would be Liliana of the Veil, she is mostly too expensive for your troubles and you are trading down on mana and tempo, which is really bad. She gets better on the play though.Board Out- Tireless Tracker
- Thoughtseize
- Dark Confidant (1-2 on the draw)
- Liliana of the Veil (1-2 on the draw)
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Nihil Spellbomb
Board In- Deathmark
- Collective Brutality
- Cast Down
- Damnation
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Flaying Tendrils
- Engineered Explosives
- Slaughter Pact
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Grafdigger's Cage
Bant Spirits is a tempo based aggro control deck which is able to establish a quick clock through cards like Supreme Phantom or Geist of Saint Draft while disrupting the opponent with cards like Mausoleum Wanderer, Spell Queller or Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Being very careful with our removal spells against them is very crucial. You need to play around Spell Queller if possible and accomplish to keep the board as clean as possible. For that reason I think having cheap interaction in the form of IOK is very important. If you clunk up your deck too much, Spell Queller becomes to impactful and we get tempoed out. Cards like Selfless Spirit make our removal spells worse, except for Collective Brutality and Liliana, the Last Hope. This is one big reason why those cards are strong in that matchup. CB has a nice bonus of getting to discard a Collected Company alongside removing a creature. Dark Confidant and LoTV are cards which are weak on the draw, but good to strong on the play. I would side out more or all copies out on the draw for that reason. We don't want to miss our landdrops against an tempo driven aggro deck, for which reason we keep our lands, even if we are on the draw.Board Out- Dark Confidant
- Thoughtseize
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Grim Flayer
Board In- Cast Down
- Assassin's Trophy
- Fatal Push
- Slaughter Pact
- Maelstrom Pulse
- Leyline of the Void
- Surgical Extraction
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Damping Sphere
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Duress
- Collective Brutality
Izzet Phoenix is a tempo based aggro deck similar to delver decks. It seeks to cast multiple spells a turn which fuels Arclight Phoenix and which is able to generate extra mana to enable explosive draws. By casting multiple spells a turn, the chance to recur an Arclight Phoenix is very high. By casting a high amount of cheap spells, this deck invests many resources for its payoffs. The problematic cards to watch out are Thing in the Ice and Crackling Drake which can easily win the game by themselves if they stay on the battlefield for one turn or so. Therefore we want to have multiple ways of destroying those threats. The deck is usually very threat light, which means discard can help to punch a hole in their sequencing which gives us a big advantage.
"Burn, suffer, and trouble me no more."
In this last section of the primer, I want to point out some aspects about technical play of certain cards, how to handle them and also covering some tips and tricks here. In Rock, sequencing is one of the most important aspects when it comes to playing the deck well. Really don't mess up stuff just because you did them in the wrong order. The following tips should help you avoid this, as I am confidant that these mistakes happened already before (myself included).
- Discard vs. Push?: The question is, if the opponent has played a turn 1 creature, should we use our turn 1 to push it or to play a discard spell? In most cases, always go for the push first. Turn 1 creatures in modern are often mana dorks or aggressive creatures which either help the opponent to quickly ramp into much more threating stuff or to beat you down quickly. We should stop both those things by pushing the creature right away.
- Scavenging Ooze: When do you play ooze and when you activate its ability? If you expect a Lightning Bolt from you opponent to kill your ooze, then wait to play it until turn 4, where you should be able to safe the ooze in case he gets bolted right away by using the other two lands (have to be green) in order to pump ooze out of bolt range (but check creature count in graveyards first!). If you expect a bolt, and you correctly played ooze on turn 4, holding up 2 mana, don't fall into the trap and activate oozes ability at the end of the opponents turn. In response to the first activation ooze is again succeptible to bolt, keep that in mind! And also, please, if you have enough mana, its of course correct to activate oozes ability at the end of the opponents turn to use up the left untapped lands and to exile something, but always, always, activate the ability once and wait for the confirmation of the opponent that it resolves. After that you can still activate it a second time. If you activate the ooze all at once with all lands you have, it can still get bolted if all those abilities are on the stack.
- Tarmogoyf: When should you play Tarmogoyf? Tarmogoyf should always be played when he is bolt proof (against decks where you expect bolt). Note that this is done the easiest way by turn 1 fetch + discard (putting 2 types into the GY) followed up by a turn 2 goyf. Your 2/3 goyf, if he gets bolted right away, will, due to state based effects, be a 3/4 upon the bolt's resolution, which doesn't kill the goyf! Also, if you want to attack with your goyf on a given turn, and have a Liliana of the Veil on the board which you also want to activate on that turn, activeate her first, which might make the goyf bigger through her discard.
- Tarmogoyf vs. Dark Confidant: Sometimes the question comes up, what should I play fist on turn 2, Goyf or Bob? Well, generally speaking, it depends on the matchup of course. If you expect much removal from a given deck, then play the creature first which you value the least. If you don't expect much removal and need e.g. a fast clock (e.g. against Tron) then play Goyf first. As we disrupt our opponent's gameplans, you generally wanna play Bob first to start your CA engine. However, if Bob is valued greatly in a given matchup, then play less important stuff first so that you eventually can stick a bob. In matchups where its about tempo, speed and efficiency, play the creature what you need in a given scenario.
- Field of Ruin: Be aware that the search ability of FoR is a must. With that in mind you can mess up your opponents scries and deck manipulation in general. When you use FoR, consider using it in the drawstep of your opponent. That way the chance is at the highest that your oppoent drew the basic they would want to get off of FoR, which denies them a mana more potentially. Also keep in mind that FoR enables revolt for Fatal Push.
- Liliana of the Veil: You really don't need to activate Liliana's abilities every turn. Its totally fine to just let Liliana stay if you need all the cards in your hand.
- What to take with discard on turn 1?: This is question, which is very hard to answer. If you play Abzan for a long time, you will get a feeling for what to take in given matchup. In short, it depends on the cards you have in your hand (e.g. if I have removal for a creature in my opponents hand, its not necessarily needed to discard the creature), on the cards which are on the battlefield (is my opponent manascrewed? Do I need to take an expensive card out of my opponent's hand? Or does my opponent have a powerful spell which interacts with a permanent on the field which could harm me (Like Become Immense + an Infect creature)) as well as the strategy of the opponent's deck (taking key cards for a certain combo etc.). Its hard to find the correct decision, but practise and experience do help a lot for this! As a general order of priority, I would suggest the following:
- Take the card you can't deal with
- Take the card that's next on the opponents manacurve
- Take removal that kills Dark Confidant
- Fetchlands: Generally, Verdant Catacombs is our best fetchland since it can get both our basic lands. If it comes down to getting any shockland in our deck, its doesn't matter which fetchland to use. So, if your intentions are to get a shockland anyway, then always use other fetchlands first for that. Think about the colour requirements we have in our deck. We want to have double black on turn 3 for Liliana basically. Don't mess this up by fetching for the wrong lands in the first few turns and then you are stranded with a couple of tapped black mana sources (like a Blooming Marsh) which prevent you from casting a potentially needed LotV. I would recommend that you start thinking through your fetching sequencing during looking at the opening hand. Does my hand get all colours I need in time? Does it produce a mana every turn? Do lands enter the BF tapped at some point? When is the best option to play my tapped lands (e.g. Hissing Quagmire)?
- Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet + Flaying Tendrils: I think that some people might not know the interaction of Kalitas and Flaying Tendrils. If you have Kalitas on board and play Tendrils, with the intention of exiling the opponents board and getting a bunch of tokens, then I have to let you down here. If two replacement effects occur at the same time, the owner of the cards which the effects both have an effect on gets to choose which effect will take place! So, simply said, your opponent owns the creatures and therefore the opponent decides which exiling effect will take place. Obviously they will choose the one from Tendrils to prevent you getting a bunch of tokens from Kalitas.
- Discard or Creature land first?: If you are up against an unknown opponent, always go for turn 1 discard if you can. It doesn't matter all that much if your next land drop is just a tapped creature land, but discard is such an important tool to us to win the game against many decks, so don't just let the opponent do what they want to do and start interacting as early as possible.
- Maelstrom Pulse: Little interaction here, but Maelstrom Pulse kills both Wurmcoil Engine Tokens at once.
- Fatal Push: You are able to target any creature with Fatal Push, not only possible ones due to the current revolt status. So Fatal Push can target a Tasigur for example. But due to its if clause, the creature just won't be destroyed. Most of the time this is not of technical interest, but sometimes you might need to get an instant into the graveyard to maybe make your goyf bigger than opposing tasigurs. So Fatal Push checks the CMC only upon resolution.
- "Thoughtseize You" by Reid Duke. A great article evolving around what to take with discard, which is one of the key disciplines when playing Rock. Every Rock player should have read this article.
- "Who's the Beatdown" by Michael Flores. This is the article which is considered to be the fundamental article of magic. Maybe its the best article in the whole history of competitive Magic. Its about your role in the current status of the game. Knowing when you need to attack and when you need to defend, is crucial when playing Rock, yet any deck even. There are also follow up articles, "Eight Core Principles of Who's the Beatdown" also by Michael Flores, as well as "Who's the Beatdown II" by Zvi Mowshowitz. Both these articles are also great reads and I can only recommend reading them.
- "Technical Play" by Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa. Its a really great article about the term Technical Play itself and what it encompasses.
- "The False Tempo Archetype" by Gerry Thompson. This is a great article about the tempo archetype and how it is easy to misunderstand them and therefore play badly against them.
- "Level One: The Full Course" by Reid Duke. Its pretty basic stuff linked here, but its still worth mentioned and to have a look at. I specifically want to point out "The Metagame", which is a great article describing how to identify, handle and fight a certain metagame in magic. Specifically for Rock, this is very important to understand.
- "How many coloured manasources do you need to consistantly cast your spells?" by Frank Karsten: A great article I personally refer to many times. When building a manabase, this is fundamentally important, but is often overlooked by many people. Manabases tend to get greedier and greedier over time, which might lead to frustration due to easily avoidable losses caused by a bad manabase. Don't be that guy, always put enough coloured sources in your deck! An update to the original article was also made: "How many mana sources do you need to consistantly cast your spells - a guilds of ravnica update" by Frank Karsten. This is the new version of the mana source article and should be referred to when talking about mana bases.
- "How many lands do you need to consistantly hit your landrops?" by Frank Karsten: A great article as well, just like the one above. It is fundamental to deckbuilding and always a gold piece of information I refer to when talking about manabases.
- "Tempo and Card Advantage" by Eric: When playing Rock, we are often dealing with the term "Card Advantage". But what does it actually mean and how can you abuse it? Read this article for more information about it. Further there is an article by Michael Flores which explaines Virtual Card Advantage and when it is mistaken as Card Advantage: "The End of Virtual Card Advantage" by Michael Flores.
- "Playing to win versus playing not to loose" by PVDR: This article is closely related to "Who's the Beatdown", and explains, what you should do, in order to win a difficult match in time. Some matches will end in extra turns, and often times you have the option to play for the win or play not to loose. Great read there.
- "Tight Plays" by Jeremy Neeman: A great article explaining the term "Tight Play" what is often referred to by us. Another great article is about taking risks at the right time: "Risky Move" by Jeremy Neeman. Both articles are also very useful and important when playing Rock.
- "6 Tips to Play Faster" by PVDR, a great article which helps to avoid get timed often. Sometimes we tend to go into extra turns, for which reason this is useful information.
- "Thoughtseizes and Fatal Pushes, Part I" by Reid Duke, is a series of articles that evaluate how to best utilize Thoughtseize and Fatal Push in the current state of modern (As of end 2017) this is generally a great way to enhance ones piloting ability and interesting read.
- "Understanding Standings, Part I: Tournament Structure (The Basics)" by Reid Duke, is a series of articles that explains how a typical tournament is executed. It is imperative to know how standings, pairings etc. work, to know best how you can advance and finish with a better record.
- "3 Tips to Mulligan Smarter" by PVDDR, is a great article about mulligan decisions. He explains in a sufficient way, why mulliganing is never only a matter of which 7 seven or lower cards you have in your hand, but also a huge matter in other contexts as well.
- "Sideboarding traps: Boarding in narrow cards too often" by LSV, is directed to all people feeling the need to always bring in Surgical against basically any deck. This is a standard article every GBx player should have in mind.
- "What did happen and what could happen" by Reid Duke, is a mind opening article for every long time GBx player. Maybe at some point you startet autopiloting the deck and didn't give decicions enough time to reconsider? Give this article a read.
- "How many copies of any given card should you put in your deck" by Frank Karsten, is a follow up article to the "how many" series Frank made and talks about how many copies of a given card you need to have in order to draw one or multiples by a given turn. Very important resource when it comes to deckbuilding!
- "Creating a Fearless Magical Inventory" by Sam Stoddard, is a really great article showing the trap an experienced player can fall into. Ego can be a very bad thing, and really hurt your gameplan. I really recommend giving this article a read.
- "Coping With Loosing" is a podcast with sports psychologist Will Jonathan, Lance Austin and BBD. Its a great article to understand everything about loosing and its state in the game.
- The articles of Will Jonathan are a great source of understanding everything about the personal mental game within magic. They explain how you should deal with things such as bad luck, loosing, ego and sportsmanship. Great resource which is certainly helpful beyond magic as well.
- "How many games do you need for statistical significance" by Frank Karsten, is another article in the "How many" series. It greatly shows that results should always been taken with a grain of salt, and when talking about matchup win%, one should really have a feeling what 5 % up or down means. You may be surprized.
- "Getting a read isn't enough" by Reid Duke. This article greatly illustrates a good pathway how to deal with mental game information you might have gathered over the course of a game. Very valuable information and a must read. Also have a look at the follow up article: "How to smell blood and level up your game".
- "Building A Consistant Manabase" by me, FlyingDelver. This article uses the numbers of Frank Karsten and explains how to build a consistant and proper manabase for a GBx deck. Also visit the other articles from MTGRock.com for more awesome stuff.
- "The Tireless Tracker Misconception" by FlyingDelver. This article discusses the issue of what it really means to replace Dark Confidant with Tireless Tracker. It shows that this swap is not as simple as someone might think.
At this point, I want to hugely thank the community of GBx players to support me. It is great interest for me to provide a solid resource for information about any GBx deck, and this deck should not be excluded. I want to hugely thank Leo Gebel for making that stunning banner, I am happy I can use it as header for the primer. Please remember, if you have any questions just hit me up everywhere I am lurking around: In the forums, my discord server or the FB pages. Thank you! -
Mar 1, 2019
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tronix posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 21/01/2019)Posted in: Modern ArchivesQuote from icehippo »Ideally, I’m hoping Modern Horizons brings in old extended archetypes that don’t have a home in Legacy.
I am fearful though that this product introduces too many new cards too quick and changes Modern more rapidly than usual. For me, I enjoy the slow paced Modern evolution as each Standard set releases a few Modern playables. With this set entirely designed as new cards for Modern, be they old pre 8th Edition or brand new cards entirely, it could change Modern much quicker than ever before. Besides rotation, another aspect of Standard that I dislike is how much of a drastic impact a new set has upon the format so I don’t want to see this happen to my favorite format Modern.
in the interview that the Professor did with Gavin Verhey (wotc product architect) not too long ago the question was posed about a straight-to-modern set and Verhey brought up these very concerns. Specifically he mentions the concern with the format not developing organically over time like you say. He also goes on to mention that the barrier to such a set was the extra resources (man hours designing/testing) that would be required.
Given that he made those statements with full knowledge that such a specific product was soon (relatively) to be announced/released; i think its safe to assume he was recounting what actually happened but just worded to be noncommittal
That isnt to say that there wont be any mistakes; i just think its worth noting that they at least had the stuff youre talking about in mind. how well they pull it off, or whether they ignored it are yet to be seen.
here is the interview link: https://youtu.be/0DUGg9PDnIY?t=2895 -
Feb 5, 2019
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begovicg9 posted a message on Colorless Eldrazi StompyHello @agattuso, congratulations of your last success and on your previous successes with the deck as well.Posted in: Deck Creation (Modern)
Your decklist, and by extension approach to this deck's philosophy seem to differ from the approach Jordan Boisvert is advocating. Most notably, you are swapping relics from leylines, but also missing some key interaction cards from your sideboard, ratchet bomb and gut shot being the most important. You are running some powerful hate cards in their place - I recall seeing damping sphere, torpor orb and thorn of amethyst in your 75 over the past few months. Would you care to comment on these choices - I am very interested in your opinion on r. bomb, as I see that card being the most important sideboard card and I would never register CES list without 3 copies in the SB.
I would also appreciate your comment on the Endbringer. I do not understand the role of that card in the 75, and I am very intrigued by your most recent list featuring 3 copies of that card. The card is very powerful and untapping with it often means winning the game versus large percentage of the field, but do you really need it? It feels like the card you would bring in when you need your deck to have more 'gas', more impactful cards and better topdecks, but from my experience the deck almost never needs to go that route after sideboarding - against jund, junk, mardu etc I am siding in my 4 relics, 3 contortions and 3 ratchet bombs and taking out 4 chalices and 4 guides, and that sideboard plan makes perfect sense and yields excelent results - I really dont think any additional wincons are needed for that MU. I could see 1 endbringer being run MD in a more midrange- and aggro-oriented metagame, but the additional copies in the sb really confuse me.
I would also appreciate any comment on some one-off cards you have registered previously in your decklists - Batterskull, Karn,Scion of Urza, The Immortal Sun, etc.
Cheers! - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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Here is the build I went 4-0-1 with today. I could easily have won the draw, if I hadn't punted hard in G1. The event was a "Golden Ticket for the Portland GP" tourney:
4x Drogskol Captain
2x Geist of Saint Traft
4x Mausoleum Wanderer
1x Nebelgast Herald
4x Rattlechains
1x Remorseful Cleric
4x Selfless Spirit
4x Spell Queller
4x Supreme Phantom
Instant (6)
1x Echoing Truth
4x Path to Exile
1x Remand
2x Cavern of Souls
4x Flooded Strand
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Horizon Canopy
3x Island
1x Moorland Haunt
2x Mutavault
1x Plains
4x Seachrome Coast
Enchantment (2)
2x Curious Obsession
Artifact (4)
4x Aether Vial
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Disdainful Stroke
1x Dispel
2x Echoing Truth
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Negate
3x Rest in Peace
3x Stony Silence
1x Unified Will
Here is my thinking about my choices:
- The Remand is a pet card, and until today I had two in the main, with three Echoing Truth in the side, but I moved one Truth to the main today, and it felt right. I have to admit that Remand doesn't really feel very relevant most of the time.
- I really dig Nebelgast Herald a lot. Playing with its ability at flash speed is very good against a lot of creature decks (ahem *Humans*). It and Rattlechains are a dynamite pairing in many game states. I kind of want a second copy in the side, actually.
- Echoing Truth is an absolute all-star for me. It bounces opponent's stuff (Hi, Bedlam Reveler...Bye!), often getting two-for-one (from a tempo perspective). It's explicitly important against graveyard decks, but also hits so many other troublesome permanents. It also saves our own stuff, whether creatures against Terminus, or a RiP against Dredge. I'm not considering fewer than three in the 75.
- Last night and today were the first rounds I played with Curious Obsession, and I am completely sold on it. I am probably going to take out the Remand for the third copy.
- I side out Geist a lot. The lack of evasion really matters.
- I absolutely do not want to run Worship or Settle the Wreckage in my 20 land list.
- I'm loaded for bear against graveyard and artifact decks right now, which feels correct for the current meta, the way I see it. But I've beaten Dredge 2-0 in the last couple days, including once on a mull to five (on the draw), and also two post-board games where I drew zero hate, so maybe I'm over-prepared. Again, Truth helps a LOT against these decks.
- I waffle back and forth on the Mutavault/Moorland Haunt split.
I am thinking about some minor changes: -1 Remand for +1 Obsession in the main, and -1 Stony, -1 RiP for +1 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Nebelgast Herald in the side. The list feels great to play right now.2
Here's an explanation of my thought process. I used an online hypergeometric calculator to do the math for me. My assumptions:
Test Case: I tried to consider how to minimize live hits and maximize dead ones for this scenario. A very bad situation (worse cases could be imagined of course) for a hit off Bugler would be in the following game:
- We kept an opening seven on the draw with one land, one Vial, and all creatures. We never draw any Mantis Riders, lands or Vials.
- We cast Bugler on T4, off a T1 Vial and only one land in play.
- We cast two one-drops on T2, and another one-drop and a two-drop on T3 (or kept all these in hand, doesn't matter for this, as long as these cards are not in the library).
- The rest of our hand (on the draw, four non-Bugler cards remain in hand) is also only made up of potential hits for Bugler. Now, 18 lands, 4 Mantis Riders, and 3 Vials remain in our library.
- In this scenario, we have 24/49 hits left in our library, which leads to a 92.9% chance to get one or more targets in the top four cards.
Conclusion: Even when the library is skewed towards dead draws, Militia Bugler is still extremely likely to be a two-for-one at a decent rate.Granted, sometimes Bugler is going to bottom a Mantis Rider and whiff; or instead, draw a late-game Champion, Hierarch, or other low-impact card. However, in other cases it will whiff, but by doing so it will bottom four consecutive dead draws.
Running out of threats is this deck's weak point. Digging for more action will make the deck more consistent, and as shown, Bugler can be expected to hit in the large majority of cases. The point about finding sideboard cards is also well said and adds to Bugler's virtues.
Note that Bugler gets worse in decks with Kessig Malcontents, Restoration Angel, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, and the like--though it is also probably in contention with those specific cards for the slots.
If my framing of the problem is useful (criticisms welcome!) then Bugler seems an auto-include, no question. Thoughts?
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I've played a lot of Lingering Souls in Modern (though never in this deck), but it's grindy card in a deck that is trying to win fast. Doesn't seem like a great fit, to me. I would probably want it in a meta with lots of Control decks in it, but right now my local meta is defined by Blood Moon and Ensnaring Bridge... which is exactly why I am playing this deck, with 2x EE and 3x Grudge in the 75.
1
I have considered a second Stomping Grounds but I decided that's not correct. Normally T1 puts us at 17, and then Street Wraith knocks us around too. We definitely want both R and B by T2, and we have only 18 lands. Doubling the chances of a Mountain that hits us for 2 in our opening hand is not good. Abrupt Decay doesn't really seem needed for this deck, and actually casting it would certainly come with a lot of pain. To me, it's not worth the tradeoff of being more resistant to milling our only source of G away (or having it destroyed)--instead I think we just prioritize fetching it right away when we're expecting to need it.
Personally my sideboard is close to yours, but I think you need Brutality instead of Thoughtseize, unless you can be certain you don't have Burn in your local meta. I'm also not sold on Lili, since BB on T3 is far from guaranteed, and I'm not really sure what matches I'd want it in.
1
MM17 was amazing, guys, c'mon.
1
I don't know anything about the overall size of the Modern player base but personally I tend to interpret rising prices (often in the face of reprints) as being pretty fair evidence that Modern is growing, not shrinking.
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2
1
Anyway I am going backwards with the list, to a certain extent. (No Mayors though.) I like Phantasmal as a 4-of since it is so amazingly versatile, and I like Thalia as a 4-of because I want to see her in every game since her effect is so asymmetrical for us and can be a powerful part of the tempo lines we sometimes take. I could see going down to 3 only, but copy #4 gives about a 9% greater chance of landing one on T2 when it matters, which seems like a pretty relevant figure. So for now this is what I am planning for the next couple weeklies I'll attend:
4x Ancient Ziggurat
4x Unclaimed Territory
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Horizon Canopy
2x Seachrome Coast
1x Plains
Creatures (37)
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Kitesail Freebooter
4x Meddling Mage
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
4x Phantasmal Image
4x Reflector Mage
4x Mantis Rider
1x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4x Aether Vial
2x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Dismember
2x Selfless Spirit
2x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Sin Collector
2x Izzet Staticaster
1x Heron's Grace Champion
1x Mirran Crusader
1x Auriok Champion
1