After testing a bit - with the last list - I found out two things:
1. Fulminator mage was too slow for the matchups I wanted it in. I played a game against Titanshift, on the play, where turn 3 fulminator mage did next to nothing. So I swapped them for Disdainful Strokes.
2. I need more practice against the hardened scales matchup. Because of this, and the fact I had a feeling of at least 3-5 great players showing up with the deck, I dropped the Snapcaster from the sideboard + 1 the lightning bolt to make room for the 3rd ceremonious + the staticaster, both are cards I would value greatly in that matchup.
I ended up in 2. place after swiss of 6 rounds (4-0 into double ID). Rounds as follows:
1. Grixis Control (2-0)
I was very scared when I cast TS on turn 1 - he has a hand that looked very strong. I get my set up going, flashback TS on turn 3 and see a hand that I know will burn me out over time. This is followed up by angler turn 4 - with my hand now being bolt, denial and tbr. Opponent is at 13 life. I bolt him end of turn, he uses his last remaining mana to try and burn me out, which i cast stubby d on. Then untap into tbr for lethal. Game 2 I cast multiple discards into an uncontested Liliana of the Veil. Opponent uses too many cards to deal with her and is left with no removal in hand - few attacks later it is game.
2. Some Black/white midrange much abrew deck (2-1)
All the games here goes as you would expect. I'm having trouble beating lingering souls tokens - game 1 i topdeck TBR at the last possible turn. Game 2 I don't see much removal and looses to smuggler's copter. Game 3 opponent has land heavy draw and, despite top decking liliana of the veil, never really gets going.
3. Burn (2-0)
I have great draws against burn both g1 and g2. Game 1 I drop 2 2/2s with a Street Wraith in hand - opponent goes crazy and puts me to 5 life (while at 17 with no blockers), easy win. Game 2 he's much more careful, but so am I - and most of his hand is stuck with Deflecting Palm. I take my time discarding all his burn and the deflecting palms and swing in for lethal.
4. UW Spirits (2-0)
Again I'm a bit lucky and get to TBR for lethal game 1. The way game 1 went down was a bit interesting. Opponent had vial + wanderer on the field with rattlechains and phantasmal image in hand (that I know of). He flashes in the Rattlechains - I punt and let it resolve as I know I need the wanderer off the field but now I have no option to. Game comes down to me dismembering the wanderer a few turns later - in order for him to flash in the image copying rattlechains and giving wanderer hexproof. Wanderer is now 2 power - with no more cards in his hand. I need to topdeck a non-shock land to swing for lethal and I do. Game 2 he mulls and keeps a 3-4 drop heavy hand - and never get more than 1 creature on the board at a time.
5-6 ID
Quarters: Hardened Scales (2-1)
I finally meet a deck that my sideboard is well set up to beat. Game 1 I loose to a top decked ravager beefing up a thopter token. I get a bit blown out by the funky interactions of Animation Module (I thought I could remove the ravager after opponent has decided to pay for the servo token - before it comes into play). I'm probably dead here either way. Game 2 I have the nut draw of T1: Cycle, Cycle, fetch+shock, TS. T2 Play 2x death's shadow. T2 untap with 2x ceremonious rejections in hand + fetch land + another street wraith. I counter his ravager (he has a 2/2 hangarback walker in play) and it's game. Game 3 I tank over my opening 7. It's 2x street wraith, k command, dismember and lands. I end up keeping as the hand is sort of OK if I find T1 TS or a shadow off the 2 wraiths. I find the TS and take his animation module - from there his hand is all creatures my hand can answer. We trade cards 1 for 1 - until i thought scour a shadow into my grave - untap t4 to destroy his only dude, return shadow, play shadow. He never gets going and i take g3.
Semis: UW Spirits (0-2)
This is the same dude as my round 4 opponent - I get worse hands and he is playing much better. I can't remember the specifics here other than his vials are great - and a selfless spirit lets him block out of TBR range while keeping his board. Both games felt close while playing them, but they required mistakes from my opponent for me to win - and he played very well.
All in all - deck felt great, would run it back any time. Going forward I'd love to get more reps in against hardened scales to be able to drop down a bit of my hate in the SB.
played the Friday Mythic Qualifier at Magic Fest Toronto to 3-2 and the main event to 5-3, probably could have made day 2 if I played a bit better
I'll start with the Mythic Qualifier
round 1 I lose to dredge 1-2. Had no opponent for first 8 minutes, turns out he was a few table down so he got the game 1 loss. I got run over game 2, then g3 I mulled to 5 in search of leyline of the void but never find one.
0-1
Round 2 I beat Jeskai conrol 2-1. He ticks a teferi to 8, then I scoop in response to Jace. Game 2 I manage to ride an early a few shadows to victory. Game 3 I ride an early gurmag to victory
1-1
Round 3 I easily 2-0 blue moon the Kiki combo. He didn't draw much game 1 and I beat him. He was stuck on 2 lands g2 and by the time he drew his third it was too late.
Round 4 I 2-1 Amulet titan. he runs me over game 1. g2, I have an he trinket mages for an EE, leaving a mana open which he uses to cast ancient stirrings instead of the ee. I top decked a snapcaster to thoughtseize the ee away and ran him over after. Game 3 I won after using double shadow to block his primeval titan. After that he was never able to recover. He might have been too greedy by getting khalni heart garden to make a blocker instead of ee when he transmuted tolaria west. He says he didn't have enough mana to play and crack though
3-1
Round 5 i get paired against amulet again. I offer the draw since neither of us can top 8, wanted to see if he wanted to get the same amount of prize tickets. Turned out I was paired down. I quickly lose. G1 I mull to 5 and lost because he had both pact of negation and summoner's pact, so i couldn't stop him. G2 I couldn't get much going
3-2 at the end
In the Main I went 5-3
R1 I get paired against Humans. g1 he kept a slow hand but I drew 3 anglers so I couldn't really race the 3 mana thalia. Might have been better off if the third angler was a second shadow. Game 2 he had auriok champion, 2 mana thalia and an image copying the champion. I believe he also had 1 champion of the parish. I managed to draw an engineered explosives. Knowing how Thalia tax worked in this situation, I set X=1, then the Thalia tax would apply so sunburst would put 2 counters on. Thus I blew up most of the annoying stuff but leaving with a Champion of the Parish which I believe had 4 counters on before I won. Then he untaps and drops 2 more champions. I'm in rough shape. somehow the new ones got one and 2 counters on them or something like that. I was able to abrade-snap abrade to get rip of the smaller ones or something like that, leaving a huge one behind. My shadow kept it at bay for a while, me at 3 him at 28. I drew a thoughtseize which I used to fake removal. I drew a second shadow, so I thoughtseize his empty hand to take 2, bringing me to one. I then attack, he takes it going to 16. I drop the second shadow, leaving still the TBR he knows about. He had a slow draw game 3 and I won because of it. My logic with the thoughtseize at 3 was that I was dead to mantis rider anyways so I decided to take the high risk play to shorten the clock, even in the odd case he did have gut shot
1-0
Round 2 I lose 1-2 to spirits. game 1 I mull to 6 and kept a no lander with street wraith and bauble, my logic being even in a 17 land deck, the scry and draws would get me a land. I wasn't so lucky. TBR got me g2. G3 he was on the play and got 2 geist of saint traft. I untap, thoughtscour into an angler and hope he doesn't have path, which he does. I then take 8 after exalted and a lord pump. I never stabilize.
1-1.
I get paired against elves next and he makes pretty short work. I never get a threat after ripping his hand apart game 1. he explodes game 2
1-2. No more losses to give
Round 3 I lose to hardened scales 1-2. He makes quick work of me game 1, don't really remember what happened. Game 2 was grindy, I remove his threats and win off grim lavamancer activations. Game 3 I keep a reasonable hand with both bolt and push but he leads with llanowar reborn, then uses it to cast scales after it untaps and plays another of the same land. next turn drops another scales, worker and inkmoth nexus. bolt is dead now because of the counters. I push the worker and hope for another hard removal spell. which I don't and die.
1-3, dead but decide to play to avoid paying for more events
round 5 I run over titanshift in 15 minutes. He keeps a 6 with one ramp spell and double titan g1, take the ramp spell of course. G2 he keeps 6 with a valakut and no green. I take the ramp, by the time he can make a game of it he's done
2-3
next I get burn, who didn't know this match. Punted my way through g1, used a watery grave to cast thoughtscour instead of my steam vents and can't cast my angler, plus another punt or two. g2 I use stubborn denials without ferocious to make him decide if he wants to use his rift bolts off suspend or cast something else. Two turns of this saves me a bit of damage and I push through. G3 I get an early lavamancer, he suspended a rift bolt turn 2, when it came off turn 3. I asked him if he wanted to target me or my lavamancer, he decides the lavamancer. I believe I won at 5. His turn before I won I would have been dead if both the cards in his hand were spells rather than creatures but he had a goblin guide which I battle raged over
3-3. Doesn't matter but I'm even at this point
round 7 I 2-0 the opponent no show.
4-3, hoping to get the 5th win to at least feel better about staying in the whole thing
round 8 I 2-1 blue moon with breach package. G1 he breaches me on curve. I don't remember g2 but g3 was a combination of him blood mooning himself off cryptic and me tearing a lot of his hand apart the stuff he could cast
5-3. turned an awful start into the best non day 2 finish I could
My record in these two tournaments was 7-4, losing against two burns, one mono red phoenix and Tron. Overall the deck feels very strong but I feel that I need to improve my matchups against burn style decks, even if the games were very close (I was on the draw in all of them). Probably I'll go up in Collective Brutalities.
My record in these two tournaments was 7-4, losing against two burns, one mono red phoenix and Tron. Overall the deck feels very strong but I feel that I need to improve my matchups against burn style decks, even if the games were very close (I was on the draw in all of them). Probably I'll go up in Collective Brutalities.
Yeah, the CB's work wonders, consider picking up 2 or 3 of them. Also, the 4th stub is surprisingly good against burn, which doesn't seem right but it works for me.
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Grixis Death's Shadow
Hi Everyone!
This Sunday I am playing a mid-season Top 16 final at my LGS. It's Modern and I'm brings GDS.
Since it's a local store and invite only I know what decks will show up. But I have only played GDS at this store once.
I am looking for tips on sideboard-plan and maybe some tweaks to the main deck.
Also adding draft of sideboard plan with current sideboard. Welcoming input there as well! (Please view attachment with sideboard plan)
Hi Everyone!
This Sunday I am playing a mid-season Top 16 final at my LGS. It's Modern and I'm brings GDS.
Since it's a local store and invite only I know what decks will show up. But I have only played GDS at this store once.
I am looking for tips on sideboard-plan and maybe some tweaks to the main deck.
Also adding draft of sideboard plan with current sideboard. Welcoming input there as well! (Please view attachment with sideboard plan)
Hi Everyone!
This Sunday I am playing a mid-season Top 16 final at my LGS. It's Modern and I'm brings GDS.
Since it's a local store and invite only I know what decks will show up. But I have only played GDS at this store once.
I am looking for tips on sideboard-plan and maybe some tweaks to the main deck.
Also adding draft of sideboard plan with current sideboard. Welcoming input there as well! (Please view attachment with sideboard plan)
Any thoughts on how a sufficient Sideboard / Maindeck could look like knowing only these decks are going to play?
Thanks a million in advance!
2 izzet staticcaster and 1 pyroclasm seems a bit weird at first but every time I look at the expected meta, it seems fine. You considered anger of the gods at all to hit bigger creatures?
Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone has tried pteramander in gds. I know is a bit of a nombo with angler, but something like 4 pteramanders 2 angler could still make sense, we increase the threat density what can be nice
No one is running faithless looting? I’m currently on 2x faithless, 2x serum, 2x opt, 3x thoughtscour. The diversity seems to do well for me. Feel like bobble doesn’t do enough, even if it is free. Never played with it though
I'm still on Looting. I tried playing without it for a time, and I was displeased with the results. A sneaky thing about GDS is that some of your cards become dead in the mid-to-late game (life total dips too low, run out of fetchable lands, etc.), and Looting can help you cash those cards in for gas.
Bauble is good in that it lets you really drill down on the land count. I'd have to play at least 1 more land if I didn't have it.
No one is running faithless looting? I’m currently on 2x faithless, 2x serum, 2x opt, 3x thoughtscour. The diversity seems to do well for me. Feel like bobble doesn’t do enough, even if it is free. Never played with it though
I currently run 1 faithless. I agree with the response above in that it lets you get rid of bad cards later on. It also allows for earlier anglers too. However, I would never go up to two because it loses a card, as well as it is a terrible topdeck later into the game.
About the bauble, I'm on three right now and I feel like it is the right amount. The reason why I'd run it over Opts or whatever is because of angler, and our land count. The free card in the grave yard for delve allows for the turn two angler to be possible, which is partly why street wraith is so good in our deck. Sure, opt is a good cantrip, but I bauble is just better, because it kind of is a scry in a way, as you normally can fetch away the card if you don't like it.
I am running 1 faithless/3 bauble/2 serum visions/4 thought scour as my cantrip as of now, and I really like it.
Sorry this is long and probably has terrible grammar etc... I'm on my phone on my way home haha.
Hope provides some insight.
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Grixis Death's Shadow
Based on the current build do we just fold to dredge when they drop multuple Leylines of the Void on turn one and we dont have a shadow? Also what about Arruiok Champion apart from Enginered Explosives that card gives my deck fits. I've been trying echoing truth as outs to those cards. Does anyone have any prior experience with it. Im fairly new to the deck myself and I hate loosing cause I dont have any outs. Does anyone have anything better?
Auriok Champion is pretty tough to deal with (Engineered Explosives or ambushing it with a Snapcaster Mage if it dares to attack are probably your best bets on that front), but Leylines don't strike me as especially bothersome. You should be able to fend Dredge off long enough with postboard Angers and Surgicals to find your Shadow and muscle through them.
I've been away from the archtype since the Humans takeover that occured last year. Now it's becoming more appealing to come back to play GDS but I've missed the latest developments on the deck.
Can someone explain to me the pros and cons of the SV/Opt/Looting/Bauble/TScour splits? There is hardly any consensus and I find it interesting to see everyone's PoVs on the matter. Personally I'm not a fan of SV at all so I didn't play it back then, but what about the rest? Is looting just a better TScour? Is Looting the TScour 5+? Do we really need to play Bauble? How many should we play? The full playset or just 3 like many do?
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Currently Playing: WUMiracles ControlUW RUBGrixis Death's ShadowBUR
I've been away from the archtype since the Humans takeover that occured last year. Now it's becoming more appealing to come back to play GDS but I've missed the latest developments on the deck.
Can someone explain to me the pros and cons of the SV/Opt/Looting/Bauble/TScour splits? There is hardly any consensus and I find it interesting to see everyone's PoVs on the matter. Personally I'm not a fan of SV at all so I didn't play it back then, but what about the rest? Is looting just a better TScour? Is Looting the TScour 5+? Do we really need to play Bauble? How many should we play? The full playset or just 3 like many do?
Looting is worse than scour in most spots because it nets you -1 card in hand, whereas scour is card neutral. The copies that we run are there to help maximise the chances of a turn 2 Angler. The other reason you might run 2 Lootings is when you have Leyline of the Void in your sideboard. Leyline is not favored over surgical at the moment, but if you do run them, you want to be able to discard them later.
I am a big advocate of the full 4 Thought Scour. Card is just great.
Mishra's Bauble gives multiple benefits to this deck and should be run as a 3-4 of. On the first few turns it allows you to power out angler, targeting your opponent gives you more information for resolving your Thoughtseizes, targeting yourself allows you to psuedo-scry for your street wraith draws and lastly you can hold them as Revolt enablers for your Fatal Pushes.
Serum Visions is favored over Opt because it helps to sculpt your draws in a more controlled manor. It also allows you to access the two scryed cards via street wraith. If you do not want visions in your deck, I suggest maxing out on scour and baubles with at least 1-2 lootings.
My personal split is 1x Faithless Looting, 2x Serum Visions, 3x Mishra's Bauble and 4x Thought Scour. I have found it to be a good mix.
I've been away from the archtype since the Humans takeover that occured last year. Now it's becoming more appealing to come back to play GDS but I've missed the latest developments on the deck.
Can someone explain to me the pros and cons of the SV/Opt/Looting/Bauble/TScour splits? There is hardly any consensus and I find it interesting to see everyone's PoVs on the matter. Personally I'm not a fan of SV at all so I didn't play it back then, but what about the rest? Is looting just a better TScour? Is Looting the TScour 5+? Do we really need to play Bauble? How many should we play? The full playset or just 3 like many do?
Looting is worse than scour in most spots because it nets you -1 card in hand, whereas scour is card neutral. The copies that we run are there to help maximise the chances of a turn 2 Angler. The other reason you might run 2 Lootings is when you have Leyline of the Void in your sideboard. Leyline is not favored over surgical at the moment, but if you do run them, you want to be able to discard them later.
I am a big advocate of the full 4 Thought Scour. Card is just great.
Mishra's Bauble gives multiple benefits to this deck and should be run as a 3-4 of. On the first few turns it allows you to power out angler, targeting your opponent gives you more information for resolving your Thoughtseizes, targeting yourself allows you to psuedo-scry for your street wraith draws and lastly you can hold them as Revolt enablers for your Fatal Pushes.
Serum Visions is favored over Opt because it helps to sculpt your draws in a more controlled manor. It also allows you to access the two scryed cards via street wraith. If you do not want visions in your deck, I suggest maxing out on scour and baubles with at least 1-2 lootings.
My personal split is 1x Faithless Looting, 2x Serum Visions, 3x Mishra's Bauble and 4x Thought Scour. I have found it to be a good mix.
Thanks a lot for your insight. I reckon that Looting is net card disadvantage but at the same type it can act as virtual card advantage. Being able to pitch extra Pushes against UW/Titanshift/Tron while digging deeper than most of the cantrips sounds really good to me. I never played with the card in this deck before but when I saw it it made perfect sense to me. It's still a Dark Ritual with added card selection which is appealing.
After pondering the Pros and Cons you mentioned I'd start off testing with 4 TS, 3 Bauble, 2 Looting, 1 Opt. The norm has being SV over Opt if it comes to that but I really dislike the card. It plays really strangely with fetch lands and it almost always felt clunky.
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Currently Playing: WUMiracles ControlUW RUBGrixis Death's ShadowBUR
10 fetchlands
5 schocks
2 Basics
So with 4 Mire, 4 Delta and 2 Flats you are good to go because black is your most important colour. No need for an arid mesa at all.
Modern // Legacy // Pauper
WUBRG
"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire."
4 Death's Shadow
3 Gurmag Angler
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Street Wraith
Spells
4 Serum Visions
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
1 Terminate
1 Dismember
3 Fatal Push
1 Lightning Bolt
3 Stubborn Denial
2 Temur Battle Rage
4 Thought Scour
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Fatal Push
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Stubborn Denial
1 Izzet Staticaster
3 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Liliana of the Veil
After testing a bit - with the last list - I found out two things:
1. Fulminator mage was too slow for the matchups I wanted it in. I played a game against Titanshift, on the play, where turn 3 fulminator mage did next to nothing. So I swapped them for Disdainful Strokes.
2. I need more practice against the hardened scales matchup. Because of this, and the fact I had a feeling of at least 3-5 great players showing up with the deck, I dropped the Snapcaster from the sideboard + 1 the lightning bolt to make room for the 3rd ceremonious + the staticaster, both are cards I would value greatly in that matchup.
I ended up in 2. place after swiss of 6 rounds (4-0 into double ID). Rounds as follows:
1. Grixis Control (2-0)
I was very scared when I cast TS on turn 1 - he has a hand that looked very strong. I get my set up going, flashback TS on turn 3 and see a hand that I know will burn me out over time. This is followed up by angler turn 4 - with my hand now being bolt, denial and tbr. Opponent is at 13 life. I bolt him end of turn, he uses his last remaining mana to try and burn me out, which i cast stubby d on. Then untap into tbr for lethal. Game 2 I cast multiple discards into an uncontested Liliana of the Veil. Opponent uses too many cards to deal with her and is left with no removal in hand - few attacks later it is game.
2. Some Black/white midrange much abrew deck (2-1)
All the games here goes as you would expect. I'm having trouble beating lingering souls tokens - game 1 i topdeck TBR at the last possible turn. Game 2 I don't see much removal and looses to smuggler's copter. Game 3 opponent has land heavy draw and, despite top decking liliana of the veil, never really gets going.
3. Burn (2-0)
I have great draws against burn both g1 and g2. Game 1 I drop 2 2/2s with a Street Wraith in hand - opponent goes crazy and puts me to 5 life (while at 17 with no blockers), easy win. Game 2 he's much more careful, but so am I - and most of his hand is stuck with Deflecting Palm. I take my time discarding all his burn and the deflecting palms and swing in for lethal.
4. UW Spirits (2-0)
Again I'm a bit lucky and get to TBR for lethal game 1. The way game 1 went down was a bit interesting. Opponent had vial + wanderer on the field with rattlechains and phantasmal image in hand (that I know of). He flashes in the Rattlechains - I punt and let it resolve as I know I need the wanderer off the field but now I have no option to. Game comes down to me dismembering the wanderer a few turns later - in order for him to flash in the image copying rattlechains and giving wanderer hexproof. Wanderer is now 2 power - with no more cards in his hand. I need to topdeck a non-shock land to swing for lethal and I do. Game 2 he mulls and keeps a 3-4 drop heavy hand - and never get more than 1 creature on the board at a time.
5-6 ID
Quarters: Hardened Scales (2-1)
I finally meet a deck that my sideboard is well set up to beat. Game 1 I loose to a top decked ravager beefing up a thopter token. I get a bit blown out by the funky interactions of Animation Module (I thought I could remove the ravager after opponent has decided to pay for the servo token - before it comes into play). I'm probably dead here either way. Game 2 I have the nut draw of T1: Cycle, Cycle, fetch+shock, TS. T2 Play 2x death's shadow. T2 untap with 2x ceremonious rejections in hand + fetch land + another street wraith. I counter his ravager (he has a 2/2 hangarback walker in play) and it's game. Game 3 I tank over my opening 7. It's 2x street wraith, k command, dismember and lands. I end up keeping as the hand is sort of OK if I find T1 TS or a shadow off the 2 wraiths. I find the TS and take his animation module - from there his hand is all creatures my hand can answer. We trade cards 1 for 1 - until i thought scour a shadow into my grave - untap t4 to destroy his only dude, return shadow, play shadow. He never gets going and i take g3.
Semis: UW Spirits (0-2)
This is the same dude as my round 4 opponent - I get worse hands and he is playing much better. I can't remember the specifics here other than his vials are great - and a selfless spirit lets him block out of TBR range while keeping his board. Both games felt close while playing them, but they required mistakes from my opponent for me to win - and he played very well.
All in all - deck felt great, would run it back any time. Going forward I'd love to get more reps in against hardened scales to be able to drop down a bit of my hate in the SB.
Counts : 60 main / 15 sideboard
Creatures:15
4 Death's Shadow
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Street Wraith
4 Gurmag Angler
Spells:28
3 Mishra's Bauble
4 Fatal Push
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Serum Visions
4 Stubborn Denial
4 Thought Scour
4 Thoughtseize
2 Temur Battle Rage
2 Dismember
Lands:17
1 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
Sideboard:15
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Extirpate
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Abrade
2 Collective Brutality
2 Deprive
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Anny suggest?
I'll start with the Mythic Qualifier
round 1 I lose to dredge 1-2. Had no opponent for first 8 minutes, turns out he was a few table down so he got the game 1 loss. I got run over game 2, then g3 I mulled to 5 in search of leyline of the void but never find one.
0-1
Round 2 I beat Jeskai conrol 2-1. He ticks a teferi to 8, then I scoop in response to Jace. Game 2 I manage to ride an early a few shadows to victory. Game 3 I ride an early gurmag to victory
1-1
Round 3 I easily 2-0 blue moon the Kiki combo. He didn't draw much game 1 and I beat him. He was stuck on 2 lands g2 and by the time he drew his third it was too late.
Round 4 I 2-1 Amulet titan. he runs me over game 1. g2, I have an he trinket mages for an EE, leaving a mana open which he uses to cast ancient stirrings instead of the ee. I top decked a snapcaster to thoughtseize the ee away and ran him over after. Game 3 I won after using double shadow to block his primeval titan. After that he was never able to recover. He might have been too greedy by getting khalni heart garden to make a blocker instead of ee when he transmuted tolaria west. He says he didn't have enough mana to play and crack though
3-1
Round 5 i get paired against amulet again. I offer the draw since neither of us can top 8, wanted to see if he wanted to get the same amount of prize tickets. Turned out I was paired down. I quickly lose. G1 I mull to 5 and lost because he had both pact of negation and summoner's pact, so i couldn't stop him. G2 I couldn't get much going
3-2 at the end
In the Main I went 5-3
R1 I get paired against Humans. g1 he kept a slow hand but I drew 3 anglers so I couldn't really race the 3 mana thalia. Might have been better off if the third angler was a second shadow. Game 2 he had auriok champion, 2 mana thalia and an image copying the champion. I believe he also had 1 champion of the parish. I managed to draw an engineered explosives. Knowing how Thalia tax worked in this situation, I set X=1, then the Thalia tax would apply so sunburst would put 2 counters on. Thus I blew up most of the annoying stuff but leaving with a Champion of the Parish which I believe had 4 counters on before I won. Then he untaps and drops 2 more champions. I'm in rough shape. somehow the new ones got one and 2 counters on them or something like that. I was able to abrade-snap abrade to get rip of the smaller ones or something like that, leaving a huge one behind. My shadow kept it at bay for a while, me at 3 him at 28. I drew a thoughtseize which I used to fake removal. I drew a second shadow, so I thoughtseize his empty hand to take 2, bringing me to one. I then attack, he takes it going to 16. I drop the second shadow, leaving still the TBR he knows about. He had a slow draw game 3 and I won because of it. My logic with the thoughtseize at 3 was that I was dead to mantis rider anyways so I decided to take the high risk play to shorten the clock, even in the odd case he did have gut shot
1-0
Round 2 I lose 1-2 to spirits. game 1 I mull to 6 and kept a no lander with street wraith and bauble, my logic being even in a 17 land deck, the scry and draws would get me a land. I wasn't so lucky. TBR got me g2. G3 he was on the play and got 2 geist of saint traft. I untap, thoughtscour into an angler and hope he doesn't have path, which he does. I then take 8 after exalted and a lord pump. I never stabilize.
1-1.
I get paired against elves next and he makes pretty short work. I never get a threat after ripping his hand apart game 1. he explodes game 2
1-2. No more losses to give
Round 3 I lose to hardened scales 1-2. He makes quick work of me game 1, don't really remember what happened. Game 2 was grindy, I remove his threats and win off grim lavamancer activations. Game 3 I keep a reasonable hand with both bolt and push but he leads with llanowar reborn, then uses it to cast scales after it untaps and plays another of the same land. next turn drops another scales, worker and inkmoth nexus. bolt is dead now because of the counters. I push the worker and hope for another hard removal spell. which I don't and die.
1-3, dead but decide to play to avoid paying for more events
round 5 I run over titanshift in 15 minutes. He keeps a 6 with one ramp spell and double titan g1, take the ramp spell of course. G2 he keeps 6 with a valakut and no green. I take the ramp, by the time he can make a game of it he's done
2-3
next I get burn, who didn't know this match. Punted my way through g1, used a watery grave to cast thoughtscour instead of my steam vents and can't cast my angler, plus another punt or two. g2 I use stubborn denials without ferocious to make him decide if he wants to use his rift bolts off suspend or cast something else. Two turns of this saves me a bit of damage and I push through. G3 I get an early lavamancer, he suspended a rift bolt turn 2, when it came off turn 3. I asked him if he wanted to target me or my lavamancer, he decides the lavamancer. I believe I won at 5. His turn before I won I would have been dead if both the cards in his hand were spells rather than creatures but he had a goblin guide which I battle raged over
3-3. Doesn't matter but I'm even at this point
round 7 I 2-0 the opponent no show.
4-3, hoping to get the 5th win to at least feel better about staying in the whole thing
round 8 I 2-1 blue moon with breach package. G1 he breaches me on curve. I don't remember g2 but g3 was a combination of him blood mooning himself off cryptic and me tearing a lot of his hand apart the stuff he could cast
5-3. turned an awful start into the best non day 2 finish I could
I've played with this list a 20 people FNM and a 100+ people tournament:
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
//Artifacts (3)
3 Mishra's Bauble
//Instants (16)
2 Dismember
3 Fatal Push
2 Lightning Bolt
3 Stubborn Denial
2 Temur Battle Rage
4 Thought Scour
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Serum Visions
4 Thoughtseize
//Creatures (15)
4 Death's Shadow
4 Gurmag Angler
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Street Wraith
My record in these two tournaments was 7-4, losing against two burns, one mono red phoenix and Tron. Overall the deck feels very strong but I feel that I need to improve my matchups against burn style decks, even if the games were very close (I was on the draw in all of them). Probably I'll go up in Collective Brutalities.
GWU Bant Valuetown
UW UW Control
Yeah, the CB's work wonders, consider picking up 2 or 3 of them. Also, the 4th stub is surprisingly good against burn, which doesn't seem right but it works for me.
Ad Nauseam
Grixis Death's Shadow
This Sunday I am playing a mid-season Top 16 final at my LGS. It's Modern and I'm brings GDS.
Since it's a local store and invite only I know what decks will show up. But I have only played GDS at this store once.
I am looking for tips on sideboard-plan and maybe some tweaks to the main deck.
Also adding draft of sideboard plan with current sideboard. Welcoming input there as well! (Please view attachment with sideboard plan)
[Current Shell]
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Temur Battle Rage
4 Fatal Push
4 Stubborn Denial
2 Dismember
3 Thought Scour
2 Serum Vision
3 Mishra's Bauble
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Blood Crypt
2 Watery Grave
1 Steam vents
1 Swamp
1 Island
* Very aware tarns dont fetch swamps, but missing two Mires atm
[Current flex slots:]
[SIDEBOARD]
3 Disdainful stroke (E-tron, Amulet, Storm?, Grishaolbrand, Titanshift)
2 Izzet Staticaster (Humans, Elves, Storm?, 8 whack, Soul Sisters, Mardu)
1 Collective Brutality (Grishaolbrand, Storm, Amulet)
1 Engineered Explosives (Elves, Storm, Humans, DnT, Amulet)
3 Nihil Spellbomb (Storm, Mardu, Jund, Jeskai, Grishaolbrand)
1 Pyroclasm (Storm, Mardu, Humans, Elves)
2 Kolaghans Command / Abrade (Amulet, Humans, DnT, Mardu, E-tron)
2 Grim Lavamancer (Elves, Humans, Amulet)
The decks that will Show up:
2 Elves
1 Amulet Titan
1 Titan Shift
1 8-whack / Storm
1 Jeskai Tempo
1 Mardu Pyromancer
1 Jund
1 Grishoalbrand
1 Eldrazi Colorless
1 Humans
1 Soul Sisters
1 Martyr Proc
1 E-tron
1 UR Storm
Any thoughts on how a sufficient Sideboard / Maindeck could look like knowing only these decks are going to play?
Thanks a million in advance!
Im not sure you really want Lavaman and Brutality against Amulet. I'm skeptical about Spellbombs against Jeskai.
2 izzet staticcaster and 1 pyroclasm seems a bit weird at first but every time I look at the expected meta, it seems fine. You considered anger of the gods at all to hit bigger creatures?
what's your opinion on 0 surgical extraction?
Bauble is good in that it lets you really drill down on the land count. I'd have to play at least 1 more land if I didn't have it.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
I currently run 1 faithless. I agree with the response above in that it lets you get rid of bad cards later on. It also allows for earlier anglers too. However, I would never go up to two because it loses a card, as well as it is a terrible topdeck later into the game.
About the bauble, I'm on three right now and I feel like it is the right amount. The reason why I'd run it over Opts or whatever is because of angler, and our land count. The free card in the grave yard for delve allows for the turn two angler to be possible, which is partly why street wraith is so good in our deck. Sure, opt is a good cantrip, but I bauble is just better, because it kind of is a scry in a way, as you normally can fetch away the card if you don't like it.
I am running 1 faithless/3 bauble/2 serum visions/4 thought scour as my cantrip as of now, and I really like it.
Sorry this is long and probably has terrible grammar etc... I'm on my phone on my way home haha.
Hope provides some insight.
Ad Nauseam
Grixis Death's Shadow
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
AT GP Toronto, I beat humans after they had an auriok champion, a phantasmal image copying it and Thalia, guardian of thraben . I think right after that I drew my EE to kill his board and won at 1 life after much more to that game
I ran 1 looting at the GP and kinda wished I had 2 again. It's really good for getting rid of dead cards
TBH, with leylines, you definitely should run 2 lootings. Run 0-1 if you don't run them.
I think that if I ran leylines I would 100% go for the second looting. I'd consider picking up another for something like a visions in your build.
Ad Nauseam
Grixis Death's Shadow
Can someone explain to me the pros and cons of the SV/Opt/Looting/Bauble/TScour splits? There is hardly any consensus and I find it interesting to see everyone's PoVs on the matter. Personally I'm not a fan of SV at all so I didn't play it back then, but what about the rest? Is looting just a better TScour? Is Looting the TScour 5+? Do we really need to play Bauble? How many should we play? The full playset or just 3 like many do?
WUMiracles ControlUW
RUBGrixis Death's ShadowBUR
Looting is worse than scour in most spots because it nets you -1 card in hand, whereas scour is card neutral. The copies that we run are there to help maximise the chances of a turn 2 Angler. The other reason you might run 2 Lootings is when you have Leyline of the Void in your sideboard. Leyline is not favored over surgical at the moment, but if you do run them, you want to be able to discard them later.
I am a big advocate of the full 4 Thought Scour. Card is just great.
Mishra's Bauble gives multiple benefits to this deck and should be run as a 3-4 of. On the first few turns it allows you to power out angler, targeting your opponent gives you more information for resolving your Thoughtseizes, targeting yourself allows you to psuedo-scry for your street wraith draws and lastly you can hold them as Revolt enablers for your Fatal Pushes.
Serum Visions is favored over Opt because it helps to sculpt your draws in a more controlled manor. It also allows you to access the two scryed cards via street wraith. If you do not want visions in your deck, I suggest maxing out on scour and baubles with at least 1-2 lootings.
My personal split is 1x Faithless Looting, 2x Serum Visions, 3x Mishra's Bauble and 4x Thought Scour. I have found it to be a good mix.
After pondering the Pros and Cons you mentioned I'd start off testing with 4 TS, 3 Bauble, 2 Looting, 1 Opt. The norm has being SV over Opt if it comes to that but I really dislike the card. It plays really strangely with fetch lands and it almost always felt clunky.
WUMiracles ControlUW
RUBGrixis Death's ShadowBUR