Just came back from Saturday Modern. It was a small turn out since there was an SCG event a couple hours away. Believe ~12 people in total. I ended up going 2-1-1. This is the list I played. I was testing out a few cards which actually never saw play.
Game 1 - Not sure what I was initially facing and but figure out it is some form of Grixis control. A lot of battling counter spells and cantriping with relics. I manage to get some souls going and a herder and I am clearly leading. I did manage to get him to discard some main deck damnation. Eventually cast an Ulamog and got a concede out of that.
Game 2 - I forget how I boarded. But much of the same. Eldrazi are good against control decks. I play some souls, followed by a TKS in play and take a damnation. He gets JoAT in play and Pluses him. I swing in with TKS. Next turn he does the -2 and finds another damnation. Fires it off and draw a card. Next turn I get a Smasher, followed by more souls. A second smasher sealed the deal
Match 2 - Abzan Midrange 1-1-1
Game 1 - This is against my main magic buddy. He helped me build my deck and I helped tune his. He gets 2 vents in play with a Lily on turn 3. I have a somewhat slow hand and I start taking damage. I forget the exact order, but I get TKS, lily makes me sac him. I get 4 souls in play. I get another TKS and eventually a strangler. He starts flooding at this point and I get there with my 4 souls vs his 2.
Game 2 - I board out discard again. Bring in Tendrils, memoricide, extraction and sorin. Not sure this was right either. I have a slow hand, as does he, but he gets souls going. I have a ton of removal, but drops a Gavony Township and here come the rhinos. I manage to dismember them and path them but it is 6 damage. I TKS with his lily on the field. Get another rhino. He makes me sac it. I find a smasher and gets rid of lily. But he still has tokens and makes them big and kills me. At this point there is 4 minutes left in the round and game 3 will be long. We decide to ID to keep things moving.
Match 3 - U/W Turbo Fog Mill 2-0
Game 1 - I am on the play and turn 1 IoK him I see he has Sphinx's Tutelage and some other xUU draw x or discard x spell and a bunch of land. He plays a land and passes. I play a turn 2 strangler followed by turn 3 souls. He has just been playing lands. I get a turn 4 TS and see his hand full of Fogs. I start swinging, he fogs. He plays Mill Jace and gets rid of 10 cards. He is tapped out and I play a Smasher. Clear the Jace and get some damage in. Eventually he runs out of fog and I win.
Game 2 - I board in all my extractions and memoricides. Turn 1 land and he passes. I play a turn 1 discard and get one fog out and extract it. I get a turn 3 TKS and pull out a jace. He has one fog and land. I start beating down and eventually he runs out of ways to stall. Could have been a good game if he could stall longer and stabilize with a jace.
Match 4 - Mono-B Eldrazi 0-2
Game 1 - The guy was 3-0 and I have played him before. He is on the play. Wastes and a Map. I fetch to 15 to TS. He has Urborg, Herder, Sower, Ulamog and TS. I feel this is a really tough choice. I went with Herder, but in retrospect I should have picked Sower as he hand no exiling effects. Next turn he plays his urborg and plays TS and takes a sower from my hand (I had herder, sower, relic, GQ and 2 other lands). I play a temple and start with relic and pass. He manages to top deck a temple and passes. I GQ his Urborg, and he fetches an Eye. Proceed to play sower and finds a Vents and Plains from me. I play my herder with tokens. He top decks a temple and plays a turn 5 Ulamog exiling my eye and temple. I concede from there.
Game 2 - I side out my discard for Memoricide, Sorin and SE. I should have left TS probably. I have to mulligan but I get a decent hand with 3 lands, path, memoricide and strangler with Sower on top. I start playing lands, I get TS turn 1 and lose the Memoricide. I eventually get a Strangler in play and start the beat down. He has better lands than me and gets a Sower in play and hits 3 lands including an Eye. I path it, and manage to get an Sower in play for me. I hit 2 lands. He has enough land to play an ulamog from his hand, but surgically extracts paths from my deck. Then he plays Ulamog and exiles my creatures. I top deck and eye and have enough to search. We got to combat I search up my own ulamog and I take 10. Next turn I play Ulamog and exile his and his (my) eye. He searches up another ulamog. He top decks an eye plays ulamog and exiles mine and my eye. I draw another land, and only have 19 cards in my library. He just had the cards, and reinforced my belief that in the mirror, first Sower wins. I found out that he runs 2 main and 2 in the board.
I ended up taking 3rd, played for free and got 2 packs. I am really happy with how the deck play even in the face of my misplays. I think am going to try playing without fetches as Oath cards starting to show up online. I think 4 souls is right, and I will move the the SE to the board. I never got to play with warping wail at all so I really don't have any thoughts on it. Never really wanted it, but could have helped vs damnation and scapeshift or assorted other cards. I don't know. The deck is very strong and resilient. My only loss was to amazing draws and just getting out eldrazi'd and I am ok with that.
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I am only playing 1 map main and I have no idea what else to cut to get the second in. I really want to keep 1 surgical extraction main and 2 removal spells above the set of paths. Everything else is pretty standard.
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Thanks again for the report. What is your discard suite looking like?
Because I didn't want to spend $30 a pop on Inquisitions, I have 3 Thoughtseize 1 Inquisition and 3 TKS (if you want to count those). I have 2 duress out of the SB currently as well. Honestly I might go down to a 2/2 split of inquisition and TS but probably won't flip it completely. My burn matchup suffers a bit but TS does help against a lot of other decks since you can rob just about anything from their hand.
I looked back and couldn't find your list. Do you mind reposting it?
I have a cavern that I kind of want to put in, but I can't find a spot. But that being said I am not sure how needed it is. There aren't a lot of pure control running around and the processors already hurt control. But i guess with Oath, we have fewer on cast triggers. I am not running maps, but I guess if I was I would drop an eye. I just can't find a place to squeeze them in.
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JAoT is a pain. But he isn't played that much, especially since twin is gone now. He may make a big of a come back though. Sorin is a good counter for him, as is zealous persecution. Smasher is a very good way to deal with him, as are any of your larger creatures. UW decks normally don't clog the field. Some decks also field pithing needle out of the board, which is something to consider.
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This is what I am currently thinking. I really would like Warping Wail in there, but I just don't feel I have room. I did drop down to 3 souls, but souls is such a house against so many decks. My only concern with this list is compared to pre oath is the total removal has dropped if you don't consider TKS.
Im playing a pretty standard list. However I am unsure about the full 2 Thoughtseize and 4 Inquisition of Kozilek along side 3 Thought-Knot Seer. I could see myself cutting Dismember and something else for 2 Reality Smasher. The manabase feels pretty consistent. I'm going to put in Marsh Flats when I get them. Any improvements anyone would make to my list?
Very close to what I plan to be running (haven't had a chance to play in paper since release). I was planning on putting 2 smashers in the list as well. I would drop 1 IoK and 1 Extraction. Depending on the meta I might consider dropping 1 Map for another Strangler. If the meta that SCG Atlanta showed continues, strangler will just be an all star in combo with TKS and path.
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Obviously it's somewhat tuned towards aggro, since that's what I'm anticipating people to fall back on and because I'm hoping Eye + Ulamog is enough lategame inevitability
Your list looks good. However, I would change a few things. Herders should be a 4x. They are easily the most powerful creature in the deck if you can process with them. I would drop sower to 3 before herder. I don't like Go for the Throat personally. It sucks against affinity which is likely going to have a large meta share. I am a fan of dismember because you can cast it off of scions (people don't expect this) also it hits most major players in the format outside of prime time.
In your board with Twin gone I think you can reduce celestial purge to 1 and I am not sure what the purpose of NoSB is as it really hurts your token plan. I would recommend memoricide as it really helps in the scapeshift matchup and in he mirror.
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The reason I brought up sorin, is he is a great parity breaker for grindy match ups. I know we are favored to win vs BGx, but there are times when your souls stare down their souls. And doing 8 dmg a turn from souls is much different than 4 damage a turn from souls. I was thinking of him as more of a SB card.
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I think you will find that Sculler is hard on the mana base and with playing TKS, sculler and ashiok, you will lose out on a lot of the processors just because you might not have room. I tested out playing a sultai build of the deck, and a lot of times half my hand would be unplayable because of missing a mana type. Please test it out, but most people here have found that CBW already makes mana very tight and play another color on top of that will make things very unreliable as far as mana goes.
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Been talked about quite a bit in earlier posts. Long story short, Thought-Knot Seer is much better than Tidehollow Sculler and easier on the mana base. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is a nice card, but splashing a 4th color for the 3 drop is not where we want to be. There are better exiling effects out there, and the generalized open meta is turning to aggro and Ashiok is just not strong in the case. TKS on turn 2 or 3, followed by herder, sower or smasher is a much better sequence.
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Thanks for the write up. In the Kiki chord match up taking Kiki with the first memoricide is normally the correct play from my play testing. Taking Chord reduces their flexibility, but Kiki (normally 2 copies) is what makes their deck do obscene things. You saw some of the issues with Pia. But remember they can also do Kiki + voice/wall of omens/witness to create an engine you won't dig out of and they will eventually find the combo.
The whole deck is based on out valuing you and Kiki just makes the value take off.
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2 Wasteland Strangler
3 Oblivion Sower
3 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Reality Smasher
4 Blight Herder
1 Ulamog, Ceaseless Hungerer
Spells
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Path to Exile
1 Dismember
1 Surgical Extraction
3 Lingering Souls
1 All is Dust
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Expedition Map
Lands
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Eye of Ugin
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Godless Shrine
3 Caves of Koilos
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Vault of the Archangel
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Shambling Vents
3 Marsh Flats
2 Disenchant
1 Celestial Purge
2 Memoricide
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Warping Wail
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Flaying Tendrils
3 Rest for the Weart
1 Spellskite
2 Stony Silence
Match 1 - Cruel Control 2-0
Game 1 - Not sure what I was initially facing and but figure out it is some form of Grixis control. A lot of battling counter spells and cantriping with relics. I manage to get some souls going and a herder and I am clearly leading. I did manage to get him to discard some main deck damnation. Eventually cast an Ulamog and got a concede out of that.
Game 2 - I forget how I boarded. But much of the same. Eldrazi are good against control decks. I play some souls, followed by a TKS in play and take a damnation. He gets JoAT in play and Pluses him. I swing in with TKS. Next turn he does the -2 and finds another damnation. Fires it off and draw a card. Next turn I get a Smasher, followed by more souls. A second smasher sealed the deal
Match 2 - Abzan Midrange 1-1-1
Game 1 - This is against my main magic buddy. He helped me build my deck and I helped tune his. He gets 2 vents in play with a Lily on turn 3. I have a somewhat slow hand and I start taking damage. I forget the exact order, but I get TKS, lily makes me sac him. I get 4 souls in play. I get another TKS and eventually a strangler. He starts flooding at this point and I get there with my 4 souls vs his 2.
Game 2 - I board out discard again. Bring in Tendrils, memoricide, extraction and sorin. Not sure this was right either. I have a slow hand, as does he, but he gets souls going. I have a ton of removal, but drops a Gavony Township and here come the rhinos. I manage to dismember them and path them but it is 6 damage. I TKS with his lily on the field. Get another rhino. He makes me sac it. I find a smasher and gets rid of lily. But he still has tokens and makes them big and kills me. At this point there is 4 minutes left in the round and game 3 will be long. We decide to ID to keep things moving.
Match 3 - U/W Turbo Fog Mill 2-0
Game 1 - I am on the play and turn 1 IoK him I see he has Sphinx's Tutelage and some other xUU draw x or discard x spell and a bunch of land. He plays a land and passes. I play a turn 2 strangler followed by turn 3 souls. He has just been playing lands. I get a turn 4 TS and see his hand full of Fogs. I start swinging, he fogs. He plays Mill Jace and gets rid of 10 cards. He is tapped out and I play a Smasher. Clear the Jace and get some damage in. Eventually he runs out of fog and I win.
Game 2 - I board in all my extractions and memoricides. Turn 1 land and he passes. I play a turn 1 discard and get one fog out and extract it. I get a turn 3 TKS and pull out a jace. He has one fog and land. I start beating down and eventually he runs out of ways to stall. Could have been a good game if he could stall longer and stabilize with a jace.
Match 4 - Mono-B Eldrazi 0-2
Game 1 - The guy was 3-0 and I have played him before. He is on the play. Wastes and a Map. I fetch to 15 to TS. He has Urborg, Herder, Sower, Ulamog and TS. I feel this is a really tough choice. I went with Herder, but in retrospect I should have picked Sower as he hand no exiling effects. Next turn he plays his urborg and plays TS and takes a sower from my hand (I had herder, sower, relic, GQ and 2 other lands). I play a temple and start with relic and pass. He manages to top deck a temple and passes. I GQ his Urborg, and he fetches an Eye. Proceed to play sower and finds a Vents and Plains from me. I play my herder with tokens. He top decks a temple and plays a turn 5 Ulamog exiling my eye and temple. I concede from there.
Game 2 - I side out my discard for Memoricide, Sorin and SE. I should have left TS probably. I have to mulligan but I get a decent hand with 3 lands, path, memoricide and strangler with Sower on top. I start playing lands, I get TS turn 1 and lose the Memoricide. I eventually get a Strangler in play and start the beat down. He has better lands than me and gets a Sower in play and hits 3 lands including an Eye. I path it, and manage to get an Sower in play for me. I hit 2 lands. He has enough land to play an ulamog from his hand, but surgically extracts paths from my deck. Then he plays Ulamog and exiles my creatures. I top deck and eye and have enough to search. We got to combat I search up my own ulamog and I take 10. Next turn I play Ulamog and exile his and his (my) eye. He searches up another ulamog. He top decks an eye plays ulamog and exiles mine and my eye. I draw another land, and only have 19 cards in my library. He just had the cards, and reinforced my belief that in the mirror, first Sower wins. I found out that he runs 2 main and 2 in the board.
I ended up taking 3rd, played for free and got 2 packs. I am really happy with how the deck play even in the face of my misplays. I think am going to try playing without fetches as Oath cards starting to show up online. I think 4 souls is right, and I will move the the SE to the board. I never got to play with warping wail at all so I really don't have any thoughts on it. Never really wanted it, but could have helped vs damnation and scapeshift or assorted other cards. I don't know. The deck is very strong and resilient. My only loss was to amazing draws and just getting out eldrazi'd and I am ok with that.
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Caves if Koilos
2 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Godless Shrine
2 Eye of Ugin
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Eldrazi Temple
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
1 Vault of the Archangel
I am only playing 1 map main and I have no idea what else to cut to get the second in. I really want to keep 1 surgical extraction main and 2 removal spells above the set of paths. Everything else is pretty standard.
I looked back and couldn't find your list. Do you mind reposting it?
I have a cavern that I kind of want to put in, but I can't find a spot. But that being said I am not sure how needed it is. There aren't a lot of pure control running around and the processors already hurt control. But i guess with Oath, we have fewer on cast triggers. I am not running maps, but I guess if I was I would drop an eye. I just can't find a place to squeeze them in.
2 Wasteland Strangler
3 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Reality Smasher
4 Blight Herder
3 Oblivion Sower
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Spells (20)
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Dismember
4 Lingering Souls
1 All Is Dust
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Godless Shrine
2 Plains
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Eye of Ugin
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Marsh Flats
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Celestial Purge
2 Disenchant
2 Rest for the Weary
2 Spellskite
2 Stony Silence
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Memoricide
Very close to what I plan to be running (haven't had a chance to play in paper since release). I was planning on putting 2 smashers in the list as well. I would drop 1 IoK and 1 Extraction. Depending on the meta I might consider dropping 1 Map for another Strangler. If the meta that SCG Atlanta showed continues, strangler will just be an all star in combo with TKS and path.
Your list looks good. However, I would change a few things. Herders should be a 4x. They are easily the most powerful creature in the deck if you can process with them. I would drop sower to 3 before herder. I don't like Go for the Throat personally. It sucks against affinity which is likely going to have a large meta share. I am a fan of dismember because you can cast it off of scions (people don't expect this) also it hits most major players in the format outside of prime time.
In your board with Twin gone I think you can reduce celestial purge to 1 and I am not sure what the purpose of NoSB is as it really hurts your token plan. I would recommend memoricide as it really helps in the scapeshift matchup and in he mirror.
I think you will find that Sculler is hard on the mana base and with playing TKS, sculler and ashiok, you will lose out on a lot of the processors just because you might not have room. I tested out playing a sultai build of the deck, and a lot of times half my hand would be unplayable because of missing a mana type. Please test it out, but most people here have found that CBW already makes mana very tight and play another color on top of that will make things very unreliable as far as mana goes.
Been talked about quite a bit in earlier posts. Long story short, Thought-Knot Seer is much better than Tidehollow Sculler and easier on the mana base. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is a nice card, but splashing a 4th color for the 3 drop is not where we want to be. There are better exiling effects out there, and the generalized open meta is turning to aggro and Ashiok is just not strong in the case. TKS on turn 2 or 3, followed by herder, sower or smasher is a much better sequence.
The whole deck is based on out valuing you and Kiki just makes the value take off.