I am playing in a small, fun modern tourney tonight of only about 10 - 15 people. It's a good chance to try new strategy and play different lists than you normally do.
Would love it if someone could break down this deck for me and explain how it is supposed to play... aside from the obvious play creatures, gain life with martyr and transform the Ascendant .. =P~ I would REALLY appreciate it. I looked around but didn't find anything like that yet. Also are the Ghost Quarters JUST to take out your own Flagstones to get all the plains out quickest? It would allow you to get 2 plains, correct?
This is what the list looks like that I am using. Suggestions are also welcome.
Thank you in advance, very much!
Also, if you have personal ideas in how DA can be used to improve it as of tomorrow, would love to hear those too.
Also what do you think about refraction trap in the sideboard? There are a lot of decks like Jund and Boros that could help against? Or is it not as useful.
Also what would you sideboard in and take out against the popular decks like Jund, Affinity, Storm, Splinter Twin, B/U control and etc..?
I really do appreciate the help, I am really new to the format, only started playing this August, so I was not playing during the time all of these sets came out.
The list I have tested with is a bit different than that, but close enough...
Its all about outlasting your opponent. The turn 1 ascendant, turn two play and crack martyr for 12+ life then attack with ascendant hands are aweomse, but not really the plan of the deck.
You have so much recursion, its hard to take you out permanently, and most decks will just run out of removal. The deck isn't usually explosive, its just ridiculously resilient.
The forecast on proclamation of rebirth rarely comes up, you usually just play it to get back 3 ascendants that your opponent has killed.
The maindeck you have there looks like it is just fine for smashing anything that is aggressive.
The deck is generally soft to combos, but thats why the sideboard is so loaded with combo hate. I would not advise touching the sideboard until you have done extensive playtesting. You really need as much as you can get vs combos, and against everyone else, usually just jamming out your maindeck is just fine even in games 2 and 3, if you can't find anything to bring in.
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I support WotC's goal of shaping Modern in favor of diversity.
I ran a thought experiment on my blog Modern in a Nuclear Wasteland
of an extreme case of banning 20 more cards to make sure they get everything, then scaling back where appropriate. WotC seems to be on a slowly build up approach. Both ways probably reach similar end points.
The post Gatecrash metagame is proving to be closer to the endpoint than I estimated, so its very possible that few (if any) more cards need to be banned.
Ok cool thanks for the info that's great. What cards would you take out of the deck to sideboard in combo hate after game 1?
the cards that are dead against that combo. (for example) Wrath effects should be the first to go unless you know a storm deck is running empty the warrens. You can still use path and random creature to mana ramp to get your hate out faster or to give you a higher mana count against soft counters.(path is still not optimal against storm, so if you have extra hate go ahead and replace it)
However against twin(creature based combo) path is still good, but wrath will essentially always be dead. Just ask yourself "if I am playing [deck name] will I want to have this card"
Then if when you pick from your cards try to find the ones that can be used for some purpose other than using them on the opponent(my pathing for mana ramp is a good example of this) Replace the ones that have little or less use first.
Which card is more efficient should also be looked at. (For example) you have a RW control deck with both Pyroclasm and wrath of god and your playing against a storm deck that you know has empty the warrens. You keep the pyroclasm(if you don't have sideboard cards to replace it) instead of the wrath of god because it is more efficient and is easier to get around counterspells.
I don't know if your new to the game, or like you have been playing for a while and are just getting into the tournament scene. If your not I am not trying to offend or anything, but in this link you can find a whole lot of articles on magic theory and such. One of these will have basic fundamentals of sideboarding. TBQH even players who have been playing in tournaments for a while could use with reading about sideboard as it is one of the most crucial points to winning tournaments.
this is one of the best threads on all of these forums, but unfortunately it is quite buried.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
the cards that are dead against that combo. (for example) Wrath effects should be the first to go unless you know a storm deck is running empty the warrens. You can still use path and random creature to mana ramp to get your hate out faster or to give you a higher mana count against soft counters.(path is still not optimal against storm, so if you have extra hate go ahead and replace it)
However against twin(creature based combo) path is still good, but wrath will essentially always be dead. Just ask yourself "if I am playing [deck name] will I want to have this card"
Then if when you pick from your cards try to find the ones that can be used for some purpose other than using them on the opponent(my pathing for mana ramp is a good example of this) Replace the ones that have little or less use first.
Which card is more efficient should also be looked at. (For example) you have a RW control deck with both Pyroclasm and wrath of god and your playing against a storm deck that you know has empty the warrens. You keep the pyroclasm(if you don't have sideboard cards to replace it) instead of the wrath of god because it is more efficient and is easier to get around counterspells.
I don't know if your new to the game, or like you have been playing for a while and are just getting into the tournament scene. If your not I am not trying to offend or anything, but in this link you can find a whole lot of articles on magic theory and such. One of these will have basic fundamentals of sideboarding. TBQH even players who have been playing in tournaments for a while could use with reading about sideboard as it is one of the most crucial points to winning tournaments.
this is one of the best threads on all of these forums, but unfortunately it is quite buried.
I play 4x Leyline in my main board. My sideboard has 4x Nevermore, 3x Rule of law to combat storm.
Do not side out Wrath of God against storm. Storm decks are notorious for their ability to switch strategies. They will show you grapeshot in G1 and then play Empty the Warrens in G2 just to throw you off / render your sb dead.
Would love it if someone could break down this deck for me and explain how it is supposed to play... aside from the obvious play creatures, gain life with martyr and transform the Ascendant .. =P~ I would REALLY appreciate it. I looked around but didn't find anything like that yet. Also are the Ghost Quarters JUST to take out your own Flagstones to get all the plains out quickest? It would allow you to get 2 plains, correct?
This is what the list looks like that I am using. Suggestions are also welcome.
Thank you in advance, very much!
Also, if you have personal ideas in how DA can be used to improve it as of tomorrow, would love to hear those too.
4 Martyr of Sands
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Squadron Hawk
2 Sun Titan
2 Student of Warfare
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Ghostly Prison
4 Path to Exile
3 Proclamation of Rebirth
2 Wrath of God
1 Day of Judgement
4 Flagstones of Trokair
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Mistveil Plains
12 Plains
1 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Relic of Progenitus
1 Rule of Law
4 Suppression Field
Also what do you think about refraction trap in the sideboard? There are a lot of decks like Jund and Boros that could help against? Or is it not as useful.
Also what would you sideboard in and take out against the popular decks like Jund, Affinity, Storm, Splinter Twin, B/U control and etc..?
I really do appreciate the help, I am really new to the format, only started playing this August, so I was not playing during the time all of these sets came out.
Its all about outlasting your opponent. The turn 1 ascendant, turn two play and crack martyr for 12+ life then attack with ascendant hands are aweomse, but not really the plan of the deck.
You have so much recursion, its hard to take you out permanently, and most decks will just run out of removal. The deck isn't usually explosive, its just ridiculously resilient.
The forecast on proclamation of rebirth rarely comes up, you usually just play it to get back 3 ascendants that your opponent has killed.
The maindeck you have there looks like it is just fine for smashing anything that is aggressive.
The deck is generally soft to combos, but thats why the sideboard is so loaded with combo hate. I would not advise touching the sideboard until you have done extensive playtesting. You really need as much as you can get vs combos, and against everyone else, usually just jamming out your maindeck is just fine even in games 2 and 3, if you can't find anything to bring in.
I ran a thought experiment on my blog
Modern in a Nuclear Wasteland
of an extreme case of banning 20 more cards to make sure they get everything, then scaling back where appropriate. WotC seems to be on a slowly build up approach. Both ways probably reach similar end points.
The post Gatecrash metagame is proving to be closer to the endpoint than I estimated, so its very possible that few (if any) more cards need to be banned.
the cards that are dead against that combo. (for example) Wrath effects should be the first to go unless you know a storm deck is running empty the warrens. You can still use path and random creature to mana ramp to get your hate out faster or to give you a higher mana count against soft counters.(path is still not optimal against storm, so if you have extra hate go ahead and replace it)
However against twin(creature based combo) path is still good, but wrath will essentially always be dead. Just ask yourself "if I am playing [deck name] will I want to have this card"
Then if when you pick from your cards try to find the ones that can be used for some purpose other than using them on the opponent(my pathing for mana ramp is a good example of this) Replace the ones that have little or less use first.
Which card is more efficient should also be looked at. (For example) you have a RW control deck with both Pyroclasm and wrath of god and your playing against a storm deck that you know has empty the warrens. You keep the pyroclasm(if you don't have sideboard cards to replace it) instead of the wrath of god because it is more efficient and is easier to get around counterspells.
I don't know if your new to the game, or like you have been playing for a while and are just getting into the tournament scene. If your not I am not trying to offend or anything, but in this link you can find a whole lot of articles on magic theory and such. One of these will have basic fundamentals of sideboarding. TBQH even players who have been playing in tournaments for a while could use with reading about sideboard as it is one of the most crucial points to winning tournaments.
LINK
this is one of the best threads on all of these forums, but unfortunately it is quite buried.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
I play 4x Leyline in my main board. My sideboard has 4x Nevermore, 3x Rule of law to combat storm.
Do not side out Wrath of God against storm. Storm decks are notorious for their ability to switch strategies. They will show you grapeshot in G1 and then play Empty the Warrens in G2 just to throw you off / render your sb dead.
BRG Loam Control (Assault - Loam) BRG
W Mono White Control (Martyr - Proc) W