Gearhulk won me a game the other night against UW where their only counter for a fatty was ceremonious rejection. I'd say if you are iffy on the card just give it a try and see if it fits your play style
I would urge everyone to at least try Shok's Trinket Mage build. I played it at my last modern tourney and having access to MD Explosives and Ballista felt great. Ballista won me a couple of games that night. I really like that you can hold up mana for interaction, and then at the end of turn if they don't cast a relevant spell you can pump ballista. I had one game where a 2/2 ballista dealt 13 damage over three turns.
I think for my next tournament I'll be trying out a few more of them in the main and side
I agree with dmflo, if you want to keep the same feel but make the deck as competative as possible then I would check out the UW tron thread. It will be hard to start discussion on a white splash here as the community hasn't been very welcoming to it in the past.
Definitely, its a super unique card. We don't get any blue wrath effects that I know of, but most people play Oblivion Stone, or you could also try Perilous Vault. I think the cards are very close in play ability as they are both slower than turn 3. They each have ups and downs though.
I also thought about something for us : have you guys tried out Psionic Blast as a removal / burn? It nets 2 damages, can remove things, avoid the black splash, gets creatures that Spatial Contortion can't, etc. I don't say it's heaven sent, but I thought about it and would like to know is any tried it or is willing to do so?
Cheers!
I haven't tried it, but it doesn't sound very exciting. I just imagine playing against burn when they have turn one goblin guide and only having psionic blast as an answer. I think spatial contortion hits all of the cheap creatures we would like to kill, and the rest we can try to play around with counterspells.
They win off the back of their cast triggers on their eldrazi. Mostly new Ulamog, but world breaker Is great too. Just Imagine them casting an ulamog, and the only counter In your hand being a remand. If you counter it they still get to exile two of your lands, and then do it again next turn.
I play one summary dismissal in my sideboard specifically for the tron matchup, and then 3 spreading seas. I don't see tron a whole lot, but I don't feel it is that terrible of a matchup.
Most decks already likely play expedition map, engineered explosives, and dismember as turn one plays. One of the big draws to the deck however is that we don't play many spells with converted mana cost=1 so that we can capitalize on chalice of the Void x=1.
I know it may seem important to hit very powerful cards on curve to win games, but being a mostly reactive deck we aren't winning many games based off of our turn one plays. So much so that I have only been playing expedition map as a 3 of for the past few months and I haven't missed the fourth copy.
I think the deck feels most powerful when we focus on being live with disruption on turns 2-4, and then finding ways to close out the game afterwards. And to deal with our opponents turn 1 plays I have a mix of dismember and spatial contortion MB that are solely dependant on what our opponents are doing.
Also, on an unrelated note I played against GR Valakut the other night for the first time. My opponent was very aware of the deck I was on and insisted it was a terrible matchup, if not unwinnable for me.
Game one I let all of his ramp resolve, he cast a prime time to fetch up his valakuts 2 and 3. End of turn I had double spatial contortion for the prime, and was able to cast and sac mindslaver on my turn. When I took my opponents turn I was able to play and mountain to deal 9 to my opponent, and then summoner's pact for another titan to deal 18.
Game two I worked my way up to Mindslaver again, when I took his turn I sacrificed all of his lands to a scapeshift, and then cast a summoner's pact that he could not pay for on his next turn.
I have only played one MU against GR Valakut, but I can imagine few better matchups in the modern format.
I hadn't even thought of Kalitas in Jund, I figured them pickin up Grim flayer and collective brutality was enough. It seems that 2016 was very good for them. I think the matchup should still be about 50/50 though.
RG tron is tough. I have been playing summary dismissal in my sideboard for them and it has been good when I have drawn it.
It's interesting to see Jund and rg tron with such low percentages. I've always thought of those as fairly good matchups. The rest of it seems like it makes sense.
Padeem seems sweet as a budget "alternative" to chalice. I kind of want to try a build with 4x talisman, 2x Padeem, and 2x Solemn simulacrum for fun. I'm not sure if it could be as competative though. I really wish the guy wasn't legendary
So I have been wanting to pick up a set of foil RTR/Gatecrash shocks recently. I was wondering what everyone thinks the likely hood of them getting a reprint in MM17? I noticed Wizards has been highlighting innistrad/RTR blicky where there really isn't a ton of value reprints (aside from a few select cards.) I would be very surprised to see them reprinted, but I wouldn't put anything past wizards at this point.
Definitely! I agree everyone should just play a 75 that fits their style.
I don't have too much trouble dealing with early creatures because I play 4 Spatial Contortion main, and one dismember. So even when I did play snappy I don't think I ever ambush vipered him.
My meta has a lot of infect, affinity, burn, and company so that's why I play a lot of early removal.
I cut snapcaster mage for gearhulk. I just thought when you cast snapcaster for any value you are already paying double blue + two or three generic mana. And snapcaster is so slow for us that I never found it to be an efficient attacker. Everything I've cast gearhulk it has been very good for me.
Admittedly I took a break from the deck for a while, but did we ever play gearhulk? It hits thirst and remand and I guess cyclonic rift? Doesn't do anything with x spells.
Heya guys I´m back after a break for couple of months. Wondering why Torrential Gearhulk is fallen out of favor again?
Any ideas?
I like the Gearhulk a lot for our deck. I think it just being a huge flash creature is enough. It's also great with dismember, and spatial contortion. It does lose a bit of value with X spells, but they aren't completely dead. Condescend with x=2 let's you scry 2, and repeal on 0 let's you bounce tokens(voice of resurgence and lingering souls come to mind) and our own Chalice of the Void in fringe cases.
I already have the whole deck foiled out, so I am kin of sad to see most of these from a monetary standpoint. I really like the new artwork for platinum angel and oblivion stone though!
I think for my next tournament I'll be trying out a few more of them in the main and side
I haven't tried it, but it doesn't sound very exciting. I just imagine playing against burn when they have turn one goblin guide and only having psionic blast as an answer. I think spatial contortion hits all of the cheap creatures we would like to kill, and the rest we can try to play around with counterspells.
I play one summary dismissal in my sideboard specifically for the tron matchup, and then 3 spreading seas. I don't see tron a whole lot, but I don't feel it is that terrible of a matchup.
I know it may seem important to hit very powerful cards on curve to win games, but being a mostly reactive deck we aren't winning many games based off of our turn one plays. So much so that I have only been playing expedition map as a 3 of for the past few months and I haven't missed the fourth copy.
I think the deck feels most powerful when we focus on being live with disruption on turns 2-4, and then finding ways to close out the game afterwards. And to deal with our opponents turn 1 plays I have a mix of dismember and spatial contortion MB that are solely dependant on what our opponents are doing.
Also, on an unrelated note I played against GR Valakut the other night for the first time. My opponent was very aware of the deck I was on and insisted it was a terrible matchup, if not unwinnable for me.
Game one I let all of his ramp resolve, he cast a prime time to fetch up his valakuts 2 and 3. End of turn I had double spatial contortion for the prime, and was able to cast and sac mindslaver on my turn. When I took my opponents turn I was able to play and mountain to deal 9 to my opponent, and then summoner's pact for another titan to deal 18.
Game two I worked my way up to Mindslaver again, when I took his turn I sacrificed all of his lands to a scapeshift, and then cast a summoner's pact that he could not pay for on his next turn.
I have only played one MU against GR Valakut, but I can imagine few better matchups in the modern format.
RG tron is tough. I have been playing summary dismissal in my sideboard for them and it has been good when I have drawn it.
I don't have too much trouble dealing with early creatures because I play 4 Spatial Contortion main, and one dismember. So even when I did play snappy I don't think I ever ambush vipered him.
My meta has a lot of infect, affinity, burn, and company so that's why I play a lot of early removal.
I like the Gearhulk a lot for our deck. I think it just being a huge flash creature is enough. It's also great with dismember, and spatial contortion. It does lose a bit of value with X spells, but they aren't completely dead. Condescend with x=2 let's you scry 2, and repeal on 0 let's you bounce tokens(voice of resurgence and lingering souls come to mind) and our own Chalice of the Void in fringe cases.