Yes he was fine when I found him. One hand I kept was 3 land Bolt Bird Crasher BBE and that led to a quick finish and also confused my opponent on what my deck was. His exert abilty is viable. It can force the opponent into a bad block sometimes as well as pushing damage through. One opponent had to waste removal on him instead of TKS or BBE.
Planning on testing Alpine Moon with Trinisphere on the SB instead of Damping Sphere. Not so sure of Trinisphere in the deck but I think it's better for combo/control matchups than Thorn of Amethyst and alikes. Any thoughts?
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Mostly Modern Player RBridgevineB RGR/G EldraziX UBlue MoonR UU/W TronW
So the latest list to top 8 ran 3 boreal druids and no mind stones. What's everyone's take on it? Seems like it helps more with the early ramp while still protecting us from blood moon. Like mind stone, still not what ya hope to hit off of bbe. Also it seems like an easy kill target.
Hey all! I recently borrowed the deck from a friend and went 3-1 at FNM (with a bye). I crushed Grixis Shadow and a RG stompy homebrew...but got smooshed round 1 against Knightfall. Worship is a hell of a card. This is the list i played:
I managed to dodge the Humans matchup, which i was the most nervous about. The deck felt super strong, but there was literally no way for me to beat the Worship in Round 1. Several primers and TRs later, I and ended up with this:
Boreal Druids should be 2 more Nobles...but I could only get my hands on 2. Oh well. My meta is fairly Blood Moon intensive, so the extra basic comes in over Cavern 4. The sideboard is a bit wonky...Ratchet Bomb is my budget replacement for EE, but cascading into EE against someone not paying tokens feels pretty terrible. Thragtusk should probably be in the sideboard, but I am testing it and Domri Rade in the flex spots this week. I played about 20 test games against Mardu Pyro and UW Control. Mardu's main deck Blood Moon only punished me once in our 7 games, due to some greedy fetching....but it turns out Bloodbraid Elf is a hell of a Magic card. Domri wasn't the best in those two matchups, but he did draw me two cards. UW was a bit of a mixed bag, in practice...flipped Search for Azcanta was the death of me in all the games that i lost (4/7). I may switch out Natural State for Back to Nature, or maybe even the Kessig Wolf Run for a Ghost Quarter.
The pair of ee are a catch all that come in vs humans, value town, or zoo type of decks.
Cage is for coco style decks.
Relic, general graveyard hate.
Feed the clan is clutch against burn. I'm likely packing one too many but there is a lot of burn in my meta right now and that match is so much just a straight race as it is. I really want to see one of these.
The torpor orb is straight up for humans. I will probably go down one feed the clan for another one of these at some point.
Anger, dredge, bridge from below, etc
Nature's claim, General artifact/enchantment hate.
As it stands I pretty much don't want to see tron,don't usually see it locally. But it is around, so my plan is to just try to race it and hope for the best. But I typically have most of the more common decks covered. Working on a more formal sideboard guide currently but most of it is in my head.
Struggling against spirit that is getting more and more popular. Worship hard to manage and they win the race 75% of the time.
Will run 2 back to nature side instead of natural state. Also considering removing my Rhonas the Indomitable and put a World Breaker instead. It is a slow creature but castable turn 5 in most matches. This can fix worship problem and add blocker for flying. Anyone tried it already ???
Hey there!
So Im building this deck, and quite like it so far. Im not currently buying caverns, so I need some advise on what I could substitute Cavern of Souls with.
I know there isnt a card quite like it, but what would you choose for the best substitute if u needed to do so?
My friend recommended gemstone caverns, which seems interesting, but not sure if it quite fits the deck.
Thanks in advance!
I would say Unclaimed territory is the closest you can be to Cavern of Souls, but the anti-counter tech makes a really big difference.
I'm in a similar boat; holding out on Noble Hierarch and Cavern of Souls until I'm sure I want to commit financially to the deck. I've swapped in Birds of Paradise for the Hiearchs and Unclaimed Territory for the Caverns at the moment, but also came across the following lands on Gatherer that may be helpful:
Running more than one Kessig Wolf Run is also an option
I've read all the 2018 posts in this thread and really look forward to hearing from the group. I know that the anti-counter is a HUGE part of playing Cavern, but if you HAD to not play it, what would you replace it with?
Here's the "Budget" list I've put together. I hope to run it this week or next at my LGS. The only Budget considerations have been Noble Hierarch and Cavern of Souls.
With both being reprinted in UMA, they should be much more accessible in a couple months.
It's hard to tell how much removal you need when you're just goldfishing and I may have taken too much out, but I really enjoy the consistency the list above has and the additions of Rhonas the Indomitable, Domri Rade, and Oath of Nissa are quite fun. There's pretty much nothing you hate to hit with BBE. I don't like one-of's and I'm not convinced of the usefulness of Kessig Wolf Run, but I'll give it a shot and see how it goes. Tempted to replace it with Zhalfirin Void though.
UPDATE:
Playing at the LGS went well, I went 2-1 overall.
Match 1 was against a relatively new-to-the-deck Izzet Storm player and was an uneventful 2-0 with him being one mana away from killing me game two which I credit to good/lucky choices for Gifts Ungiven
Match 2 was against a player borrowing 8-Whack. Went almost to time for a 2-1 win. All three games were close and sideboarding-in 2x Kozilek's Return and 1x Pyroclasm made all the difference (as you would expect).
Match 3 was against a VERY experienced Grixis Death Shadow player. After a pretty bad mis-play Game 1 where I -2'd Domri Rade AFTER combat damage targeting my Eldrazi Obligator and his Death's Shadow, we had two exceptionally close games with a lot of math, but I eventually lost Game 3.
Overall, I had a blast and learned a fair bit. I still don't like Kessig Wolf Run and will probably run Zhalfirin Void next time. Wastes is another option, but I don't have reason to think it's necessary in my meta... so far...
Running more than one Kessig Wolf Run is also an option
I've read all the 2018 posts in this thread and really look forward to hearing from the group. I know that the anti-counter is a HUGE part of playing Cavern, but if you HAD to not play it, what would you replace it with?
Still looking forward to what the hive-mind has to think about the above alternate lands as well!
Haven't played in a while and took this deck for a test run against the heavy graveyard meta.
2-0 vs Mono Red Phoenix. I was able to out race him with my larger creatures and take out his prowess creatures. He did not get the Phoenixies out and main decking relic slowed him down.
1-2 vs U/R Phoenix. Game one I just over ran him quickly. Game two was long and I got my answers when I was in burn range. Game three I surgicaled his Phoenixies but could not answer a 7/8 horror and was too slow/unlucky.
2-1 vs Mono Red Burn. Burn can be a game of attrition with this deck. Never got any of my sideboard out against him which made the games extremely close. Game one just out raced him game two he double blood mooned me. Game 3 came down to both of us being low on health and me stealing his Hazoret for the win.
2-0 Soul Sister. We are just bigger faster and badder.
2-1 Naya Breachtitanshift. Game one he just rolled me. Game two a dismember bolt on titan saved the day. Game three Thoughtknot, Kessig Wolf Run, and Birds were a big deal. A timely bolt too was Yuuggee because he drew the Breach to Emarukul the very next turn but that turn didn't happen because his spark was snuffed out.
Conclusion: I feel this deck was fine as a fair deck. Don't let the 4-1 fool you I feel Dredge/Phoenix decks out class this current version. Any thoughts or inputs are always welcomed.
I'm thinking about trying two Domri, Anarch of Bolas instead of the dismembers. It has pseudo removal with the -2, the anthem is pretty strong (allowing our dorks to get in there if needed) and uncounterable creatures seems great against uw control. Anyone have thoughts on this? (or an idea what other cards to cut instead of dismembers)?
I really like that idea, as cascading into a dismember feels really bad. Cascading into a Domri would be awesome. Also thinking of replacing a cavern of souls with a Blast Zone. This is my list after adding the three cards: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/12-04-19-gruul-eldrazi/?cb=1558639272
I really like that idea, as cascading into a dismember feels really bad. Cascading into a Domri would be awesome. Also thinking of replacing a cavern of souls with a Blast Zone. This is my list after adding the three cards: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/12-04-19-gruul-eldrazi/?cb=1558639272
My list is very similar to yours, I decided to cut Kessig Wolf Run for Blast Zone instead of the Cavern of Souls, as I rarely used the pump. I also opted to play 2 Birds of Paradise over Mind Stones now that Domri can buff them to 1/1 flyers (which has come in handy a few times already).
As for my testing with Domri, Anarch of Bolas; I love him a lot in this shell. He always feels really strong and cascading into him or hitting him with matter reshaper is usually a huge swing (fixing mana, fighting their creature or just adding that extra bit of punch to swing for the win).
So I played a weird amalgamation of this deck and the Stompy lists. I started building the deck wanting to play Serum Powder + Eldrazi, but as I was building it, I really didn't like the colorless lists. I was going to go with the mono-red version of it but felt like Ancient Stirrings was just too good to pass up. So I ended up with a more midrangey combination of the two decks.
I ended up going 1-3 (had a bye round as well so "technically" 2-3) overall. I beat UW control and lost to Tron, UTron, and GB Rock. The UW game was honestly one of the most fun rounds I've ever played, I cast at least 8 Eternal Scourges in one of the games. This deck is pretty well geared towards beating UW. Scourge + Relic just makes their board clears useless, and targeting the Scourges just exiles them and allows them to be recast. They also put very little pressure on you so you have a ton of time to set up. There were 6 UW decks brought to the shop so I was sure I'd play against more than one. Unfortunately I didn't. The GB Rock game was interesting though, I heavily misplayed game 1 by cracking a Relic early just to draw a card instead of using it to rebuy Eternal Scourges as the game went on. I saw an opening to try and kill my opponent early and got greedy, if I had just kept the Relic around I probably would've won. Game 2 was a pretty quick victory, but game 3 was lost to early hand hate and poor draws on my part. This is the kind of game that I will probably win going forward as I get more comfortable with the deck. Anyway the Tron game was very close where all 3 games I put him down on life pretty quickly and managed to drag the games out (Crumble to Dust helps). Both his wins ended up being Karn, The Great Creator into Silent Arbiter, then getting Mycosynth Lattice. Without a Reality Smasher, Arbiter is an absolute hosing and I didn't draw into my Ancient Grudges in time. The UTron game was my last match against my friend playing my own deck and I was already out of the running based on my and my opponents' records. He played a Chalice of the Void on 4 then proceeded to play both Karn, the Great Creator and Silent Arbiter through it and neither of us caught it until 3 turns later. Since neither of us were winning any prizes we just played on and I ended up losing. Fun fact, in the game 2 against UTron I drew 17 of my 21 lands (I boarded out the 2 Gemstone Caverns while on the play for 2 Simian Spirit Guides). For my bye round, I watched my friend playing my UTron deck put an Oblivion Stone on top of his deck at least 15 times using Academy Ruins against Grixis Shadow and that was literally the only thing he did that game.
As far as my sideboard goes, I threw it together in a few minutes with what I could pick up at the shop/what I had on hand. The Simian Spirit Guides honestly felt pretty good, I almost always boarded out the Gemstone Caverns while on the play for Guides. Overall though, they are just a wasted sideboard slot for nothing more than a meme. If you can fit them into your deck to power out fast things, then great, but not at the cost of sideboard slots.
Overall thoughts: I really enjoyed the deck, Serum Powder and Ancient Stirrings make it so consistent to just start pumping out Eldrazi on turn 2. Eternal Scourge + Serum Powder/Gemstone Cavern feel so good when the stars all align and you can exile them for value. Scourge + Relic is incredibly powerful if you're going to end up in a grindy matchup. I didn't do well record-wise, but I'm happy with how it played. My local meta just has so much UW and Phoenix/Dredge are pretty prevalent too that I think this version of the deck is well positioned. There are at least 3 Titan decks too but that matchup feels fairly winnable with Obligator. If I were to change anything, I would probably swap the Serum Powders for Noble Hierarchs. Other than that I really liked the Scourges in my deck. Oh and I'd put together a legitimate sideboard.
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RBridgevineB
RGR/G EldraziX
UBlue MoonR
UU/W TronW
GUInfect UMerfolk RW Burn GRWBU Humans GWUBant Eldrazi GR RG EldraziC Serum Powder EldraziC Eldrazi TronGB GB Rock
Legacy:
GUInfect
RGLands
4x Eldrazi Obligator
4x Matter Reshaper
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Reality Smasher
4x Bloodbraid Elf
2x Scavenging Ooze
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Ancient Stirrings
2x Mind Stone
2x Dismember
4x Karplusan Forest
4x Eldrazi Temple
4x Grove of the Burnwillows
4x Cavern of Souls
2x Wooded Foothills
1x Mountain
1x Forest
1x Stomping Ground
1x Kessig Wolf Run
1x Natural State
2x Warping Wail
2x Grafdigger’s Cage
2x Ratchet Bomb
1x Ancient Grudge
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Obstinate Baloth
2x Abrade
2x Anger of the Gods
I managed to dodge the Humans matchup, which i was the most nervous about. The deck felt super strong, but there was literally no way for me to beat the Worship in Round 1. Several primers and TRs later, I and ended up with this:
2x Noble Hierarch
4x Eldrazi Obligator
4x Matter Reshaper
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Reality Smasher
4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Ancient Stirrings
2x Mind Stone
2x Dismember
1x Thragtusk
1x Domri Rade
4x Karplusan Forest
4x Eldrazi Temple
4x Grove of the Burnwillows
3x Cavern of Souls
2x Wooded Foothills
1x Mountain
2x Forest
1x Stomping Ground
1x Kessig Wolf Run
2x Natural State
2x Warping Wail
2x Grafdigger’s Cage
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x All is Dust
1x Pithing Needle
1x Scavenging Ooze
Boreal Druids should be 2 more Nobles...but I could only get my hands on 2. Oh well. My meta is fairly Blood Moon intensive, so the extra basic comes in over Cavern 4. The sideboard is a bit wonky...Ratchet Bomb is my budget replacement for EE, but cascading into EE against someone not paying tokens feels pretty terrible. Thragtusk should probably be in the sideboard, but I am testing it and Domri Rade in the flex spots this week. I played about 20 test games against Mardu Pyro and UW Control. Mardu's main deck Blood Moon only punished me once in our 7 games, due to some greedy fetching....but it turns out Bloodbraid Elf is a hell of a Magic card. Domri wasn't the best in those two matchups, but he did draw me two cards. UW was a bit of a mixed bag, in practice...flipped Search for Azcanta was the death of me in all the games that i lost (4/7). I may switch out Natural State for Back to Nature, or maybe even the Kessig Wolf Run for a Ghost Quarter.
2x graffdigger's cage
3x relic of progenitus
3x feed the clan
1x torpor orb
2x anger of the gods
2x nature's claim
The pair of ee are a catch all that come in vs humans, value town, or zoo type of decks.
Cage is for coco style decks.
Relic, general graveyard hate.
Feed the clan is clutch against burn. I'm likely packing one too many but there is a lot of burn in my meta right now and that match is so much just a straight race as it is. I really want to see one of these.
The torpor orb is straight up for humans. I will probably go down one feed the clan for another one of these at some point.
Anger, dredge, bridge from below, etc
Nature's claim, General artifact/enchantment hate.
As it stands I pretty much don't want to see tron,don't usually see it locally. But it is around, so my plan is to just try to race it and hope for the best. But I typically have most of the more common decks covered. Working on a more formal sideboard guide currently but most of it is in my head.
Struggling against spirit that is getting more and more popular. Worship hard to manage and they win the race 75% of the time.
Will run 2 back to nature side instead of natural state. Also considering removing my Rhonas the Indomitable and put a World Breaker instead. It is a slow creature but castable turn 5 in most matches. This can fix worship problem and add blocker for flying. Anyone tried it already ???
It seems like a good card for an agressive deck with manadorks.
- Sunscorched Desert
- Ramunap Ruins
- Hashep Oasis
- Fire-Lit Thicket
- Ash Barrens
- Zhalfirin Void
Running more than one Kessig Wolf Run is also an optionI've read all the 2018 posts in this thread and really look forward to hearing from the group. I know that the anti-counter is a HUGE part of playing Cavern, but if you HAD to not play it, what would you replace it with?
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Eldrazi Obligator
4x Matter Reshaper
2x Rhonas the Indomitable
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Reality Smasher
Planeswalkers
2x Domri Rade
Noncreature Spells
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Oath of Nissa
2x Wooded Foothills
1x Stomping Ground
4x Grove of the Burnwillows
4x Karplusan Forest
4x Eldrazi Temple
3x Unclaimed Territory
1x Kessig Wolf Run
2x Forest
1x Mountain
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Seal of Primordium
2x Scavenging Ooze
1x Pyroclasm
2x Kozilek's Return
2x Crumble to Dust
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Damping Sphere
UPDATE:
Playing at the LGS went well, I went 2-1 overall.
- Match 1 was against a relatively new-to-the-deck Izzet Storm player and was an uneventful 2-0 with him being one mana away from killing me game two which I credit to good/lucky choices for Gifts Ungiven
- Match 2 was against a player borrowing 8-Whack. Went almost to time for a 2-1 win. All three games were close and sideboarding-in 2x Kozilek's Return and 1x Pyroclasm made all the difference (as you would expect).
- Match 3 was against a VERY experienced Grixis Death Shadow player. After a pretty bad mis-play Game 1 where I -2'd Domri Rade AFTER combat damage targeting my Eldrazi Obligator and his Death's Shadow, we had two exceptionally close games with a lot of math, but I eventually lost Game 3.
Overall, I had a blast and learned a fair bit. I still don't like Kessig Wolf Run and will probably run Zhalfirin Void next time. Wastes is another option, but I don't have reason to think it's necessary in my meta... so far...Still looking forward to what the hive-mind has to think about the above alternate lands as well!
GUInfect UMerfolk RW Burn GRWBU Humans GWUBant Eldrazi GR RG EldraziC Serum Powder EldraziC Eldrazi TronGB GB Rock
Legacy:
GUInfect
RGLands
i can't imagine how he did 5-0.
the new card is fine but the deck is just too slow.
burn, dredge, spirits, humans, phoenix, amulet... you can win if you have a second turn tks.
but standard hands are just not enough for this meta.
https://www.reddit.com/r/EldraziMTG/comments/ank9uw/rg_eldrazi/efudjrs/
2-0 vs Mono Red Phoenix. I was able to out race him with my larger creatures and take out his prowess creatures. He did not get the Phoenixies out and main decking relic slowed him down.
1-2 vs U/R Phoenix. Game one I just over ran him quickly. Game two was long and I got my answers when I was in burn range. Game three I surgicaled his Phoenixies but could not answer a 7/8 horror and was too slow/unlucky.
2-1 vs Mono Red Burn. Burn can be a game of attrition with this deck. Never got any of my sideboard out against him which made the games extremely close. Game one just out raced him game two he double blood mooned me. Game 3 came down to both of us being low on health and me stealing his Hazoret for the win.
2-0 Soul Sister. We are just bigger faster and badder.
2-1 Naya Breachtitanshift. Game one he just rolled me. Game two a dismember bolt on titan saved the day. Game three Thoughtknot, Kessig Wolf Run, and Birds were a big deal. A timely bolt too was Yuuggee because he drew the Breach to Emarukul the very next turn but that turn didn't happen because his spark was snuffed out.
Conclusion: I feel this deck was fine as a fair deck. Don't let the 4-1 fool you I feel Dredge/Phoenix decks out class this current version. Any thoughts or inputs are always welcomed.
Decklist https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/21-02-18-gr-eldrazi/
My list is very similar to yours, I decided to cut Kessig Wolf Run for Blast Zone instead of the Cavern of Souls, as I rarely used the pump. I also opted to play 2 Birds of Paradise over Mind Stones now that Domri can buff them to 1/1 flyers (which has come in handy a few times already).
As for my testing with Domri, Anarch of Bolas; I love him a lot in this shell. He always feels really strong and cascading into him or hitting him with matter reshaper is usually a huge swing (fixing mana, fighting their creature or just adding that extra bit of punch to swing for the win).
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Karplusan Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Gemstone Caverns
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
1 Stomping Ground
1 Mountain
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Eternal Scourge
4 Eldrazi Obligator
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Reality Smasher
Spells
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Serum Powder
3 Crumble to Dust
3 Alpine Moon
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Kozilek's Return
4 Simian Spirit Guide
I ended up going 1-3 (had a bye round as well so "technically" 2-3) overall. I beat UW control and lost to Tron, UTron, and GB Rock. The UW game was honestly one of the most fun rounds I've ever played, I cast at least 8 Eternal Scourges in one of the games. This deck is pretty well geared towards beating UW. Scourge + Relic just makes their board clears useless, and targeting the Scourges just exiles them and allows them to be recast. They also put very little pressure on you so you have a ton of time to set up. There were 6 UW decks brought to the shop so I was sure I'd play against more than one. Unfortunately I didn't. The GB Rock game was interesting though, I heavily misplayed game 1 by cracking a Relic early just to draw a card instead of using it to rebuy Eternal Scourges as the game went on. I saw an opening to try and kill my opponent early and got greedy, if I had just kept the Relic around I probably would've won. Game 2 was a pretty quick victory, but game 3 was lost to early hand hate and poor draws on my part. This is the kind of game that I will probably win going forward as I get more comfortable with the deck. Anyway the Tron game was very close where all 3 games I put him down on life pretty quickly and managed to drag the games out (Crumble to Dust helps). Both his wins ended up being Karn, The Great Creator into Silent Arbiter, then getting Mycosynth Lattice. Without a Reality Smasher, Arbiter is an absolute hosing and I didn't draw into my Ancient Grudges in time. The UTron game was my last match against my friend playing my own deck and I was already out of the running based on my and my opponents' records. He played a Chalice of the Void on 4 then proceeded to play both Karn, the Great Creator and Silent Arbiter through it and neither of us caught it until 3 turns later. Since neither of us were winning any prizes we just played on and I ended up losing. Fun fact, in the game 2 against UTron I drew 17 of my 21 lands (I boarded out the 2 Gemstone Caverns while on the play for 2 Simian Spirit Guides). For my bye round, I watched my friend playing my UTron deck put an Oblivion Stone on top of his deck at least 15 times using Academy Ruins against Grixis Shadow and that was literally the only thing he did that game.
As far as my sideboard goes, I threw it together in a few minutes with what I could pick up at the shop/what I had on hand. The Simian Spirit Guides honestly felt pretty good, I almost always boarded out the Gemstone Caverns while on the play for Guides. Overall though, they are just a wasted sideboard slot for nothing more than a meme. If you can fit them into your deck to power out fast things, then great, but not at the cost of sideboard slots.
Overall thoughts: I really enjoyed the deck, Serum Powder and Ancient Stirrings make it so consistent to just start pumping out Eldrazi on turn 2. Eternal Scourge + Serum Powder/Gemstone Cavern feel so good when the stars all align and you can exile them for value. Scourge + Relic is incredibly powerful if you're going to end up in a grindy matchup. I didn't do well record-wise, but I'm happy with how it played. My local meta just has so much UW and Phoenix/Dredge are pretty prevalent too that I think this version of the deck is well positioned. There are at least 3 Titan decks too but that matchup feels fairly winnable with Obligator. If I were to change anything, I would probably swap the Serum Powders for Noble Hierarchs. Other than that I really liked the Scourges in my deck. Oh and I'd put together a legitimate sideboard.