I'm working on the sideboard for GW at the moment. I've got one slot left to shore up my matchup v scapeshift (and also splash hate Burn). Would people recommend Orbs of Warding or Spellskite?
The rest of the SB is:
2x Thragtusk
2x Rule of Law
2x Warping Wail
2x Pithing Needle
2x Nature's Claim
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Ratchet Bomb
1x Relic of Progenitus
What are thoughts on the Etron matchup? Is it good? bad? what works well out of the side? I've played Bant Eldrazi, but haven't had any opportunity to fight Etron yet
So it looks like there's a lot of ghost quarter and path running around at the moment, so I've been considering upping my basic count (I currently run 2 forests main). Thoughts on playing one basic of the off-color as well? I'm wary of giving up duals, but having an untapped white source for path or blessed alliance at the right moment seems really crucial against a lot of the field right now, and I frequently find myself burning all of my stars/spheres getting onto tron through hand attack.
Given the prevalence of Death's Shadow and ETron, Has anyone looked at going back to a grindier, more value-oriented version with combo as backup? The format is much less linear than it has been in the past and most people seem to be packing a premium of the most efficient removal, so they might be weak to a wider strategy. Death's Shadow especially. Finks and voice can block all day long (and getting some value out of a stubborn denial-ed company would be nice) and something like Big Game Hunter kills everything of consequence in both DS and ETron. And, if all else fails, wait until they've spent all their removal killing and re-killing finks before jamming an infinite combo off company/chord
I admit I haven't had the opportunity to test this, but it seems strong against the current field
Why aren't more lists playing mainboard thought knot seer? I have been testing it for a bit now and it seems really strong against a wide variety of decks. Its utility is obvious against combo decks and control decks, but it has also been strong against creature aggro decks and death shadow variants as it has been useful in removing game ending threats or some of death shadow's disruption while also providing a body to protect against combat. It has been a strong turn 4 play when we don't have tron assembled (usually hands that involve using brutality and other removal the turns before) and even when tron is assembled turn 3. The only matchup where I found it lacking was affinity, and that is because they both dump their hand too quickly and have evasive attackers.
Primarily because (as I understand it) our early turns without Tron are best spent trying to acquire Tron. That's not to say it's not still a good card, I'm considering it and also walking ballista in my main, but only as one or two-ofs. Can't afford to cut much of the rest of the shell
Yeah, hand attack combined with early pressure puts my GW build on topdecks pretty quick. Tron topdecks really well compared to a lot of the rest of modern, but relying on it feels bad. Just apply a decent clock to limit the amount of topdecking we can do.
The counterspells are nice, but enough of our Eldrazi have cast triggers that things will slip through. Hand attack is a bit cleaner and safer all around
I'm thinking of using Ratchet Bomb. It gets around chalice on 1 and also deals with Ballista and anyone who plays tokens. Bonus points if you kill multiple Death's Shadow's by cracking it on 1
White gets access to Blessed Alliance, which is a phenomenal spell against death's shadow. Newmrakul is phenomenal as well because there is no spell in their deck which can answer her. My biggest issue was drawing her, though. In almost every game I've played, I manage to assemble tron while they pick the threats out of my hand, then I topdeck maps, sylvan scrying and more lands while they casually kill me
My list is still running a maindeck Spellskite, though. Should I swap that out? I'm considering a singleton Walking Ballista
I had a friend suggest Nephalia Academy as a one of to replace a utility land, but I think that's a little too gimmicky and is unlikely to come down fast enough to be relevant
Played a bunch of test games against Grixis Shadow recently (I'm on GW). Most of the games he picked my hand apart and then I would topdeck to either victory or defeat. Defeat was frequently more likely. Does anyone else have experience with this matchup and advice for game 1 and/or sideboarding? He has multiple ceremonious rejections, so I don't think the matchup is getting better for me after game 1
My friend and i went 5-0 in mtgo competitive last week running gw tron
Round 1: Esper Beck//callcall 2-1
Game 1 cast Karn on turn 3 and started exiling lands. Never saw any real spells so no clue what he was on
Game 2 was close. He cast Beck//call multiple times off Brain and sram's expertise. Ugin couldn't clean up the servos so we died.
Game 3 we cast pithing needle naming Brain and rule of law. He conceded.
Over the round he cast multiple esper charms and never chose to make us discard. MU might be harder against someone who knows our deck.
Round 2 BG rock 2-1
Game one was a fight for Tron against multiple tectonic edges. We didn't win.
Game 2 he brought in fulminator but didn't find enough to keep us off ugin
Game 3 we cast Karn on 3 and he couldn't catch up
Round 3 Burn 2-0
Thus began the luck train. Game 1 he played swiftspear and every turn after cast lightning bolt and attacked... But never saw a second land. T4 ulamog took the land and the swiftspear promoting a concession.
Game 2 he played 3 eidolons, but we had answers for all in the form of nature's claim, path, and ostone he proceeded to flood out.
Round 4 Storm 2-1
Game 1 we got turn 3 tron and then he stormed us to death.
Game 2 he had a counter for every one of our threats... So he didn't have one when we cast rule of law. Ggwp
Game 3 was the most incredible game I've ever played. We mulled to 4 and kept 0 lands. Our scry wasn't a land but our topdeck was. We proceeded to play lands when we're drew them, eventually holding up warping wail to prevent the combo kill. It never came. Our opponent continued to dig through his deck while we found tron and started attacking his hand with karn while keeping warping shields up the entire time. Turns out we didn't need them. Ugin landed alongside the karn and he had no cards in hand. We think he'd been holding a bunch of answers to rule of law and not much else. Don't over sideboard and never concede game 3!
Round 5 GB tron 2-0
Anticlimactic compared to the previous round. Game 1 we got tron first so we cast karn first.
Game 2 he mulled to 2 and we kept our opening 7
Overall, we got incredibly lucky. Warping wail was incredible against both of the blue decks and was nice vs. BG as well. Thragtusk keeps under performing for me, which is sort of annoying. Beyond that, all I can really authoritatively say is get lucky and always play to your outs. We top deck surprisingly well.
Considering that death's shadow seems to be winning mainly on the title card and tarmagoyf, I'm planning on jamming a bunch of blessed alliance in the side. 3 of those, 3 path and 4 ostone and hope that's enough
The rest of the SB is:
2x Thragtusk
2x Rule of Law
2x Warping Wail
2x Pithing Needle
2x Nature's Claim
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Ratchet Bomb
1x Relic of Progenitus
I admit I haven't had the opportunity to test this, but it seems strong against the current field
Primarily because (as I understand it) our early turns without Tron are best spent trying to acquire Tron. That's not to say it's not still a good card, I'm considering it and also walking ballista in my main, but only as one or two-ofs. Can't afford to cut much of the rest of the shell
The counterspells are nice, but enough of our Eldrazi have cast triggers that things will slip through. Hand attack is a bit cleaner and safer all around
My list is still running a maindeck Spellskite, though. Should I swap that out? I'm considering a singleton Walking Ballista
Round 1: Esper Beck//callcall 2-1
Game 1 cast Karn on turn 3 and started exiling lands. Never saw any real spells so no clue what he was on
Game 2 was close. He cast Beck//call multiple times off Brain and sram's expertise. Ugin couldn't clean up the servos so we died.
Game 3 we cast pithing needle naming Brain and rule of law. He conceded.
Over the round he cast multiple esper charms and never chose to make us discard. MU might be harder against someone who knows our deck.
Round 2 BG rock 2-1
Game one was a fight for Tron against multiple tectonic edges. We didn't win.
Game 2 he brought in fulminator but didn't find enough to keep us off ugin
Game 3 we cast Karn on 3 and he couldn't catch up
Round 3 Burn 2-0
Thus began the luck train. Game 1 he played swiftspear and every turn after cast lightning bolt and attacked... But never saw a second land. T4 ulamog took the land and the swiftspear promoting a concession.
Game 2 he played 3 eidolons, but we had answers for all in the form of nature's claim, path, and ostone he proceeded to flood out.
Round 4 Storm 2-1
Game 1 we got turn 3 tron and then he stormed us to death.
Game 2 he had a counter for every one of our threats... So he didn't have one when we cast rule of law. Ggwp
Game 3 was the most incredible game I've ever played. We mulled to 4 and kept 0 lands. Our scry wasn't a land but our topdeck was. We proceeded to play lands when we're drew them, eventually holding up warping wail to prevent the combo kill. It never came. Our opponent continued to dig through his deck while we found tron and started attacking his hand with karn while keeping warping shields up the entire time. Turns out we didn't need them. Ugin landed alongside the karn and he had no cards in hand. We think he'd been holding a bunch of answers to rule of law and not much else. Don't over sideboard and never concede game 3!
Round 5 GB tron 2-0
Anticlimactic compared to the previous round. Game 1 we got tron first so we cast karn first.
Game 2 he mulled to 2 and we kept our opening 7
Overall, we got incredibly lucky. Warping wail was incredible against both of the blue decks and was nice vs. BG as well. Thragtusk keeps under performing for me, which is sort of annoying. Beyond that, all I can really authoritatively say is get lucky and always play to your outs. We top deck surprisingly well.