Not a bad idea at all. The only downside to bloodghast is that he doesn't really matchup well against pod's creatures and you would be using him to just attack, but it's a very solid idea that warrants testing, and bloodghast could easily get out of hand quickly. I think you are a little removal light, I would take out the persecutions for slaughter pacts. I'd also just drop brimaz and the 4th thoughtseize for 2 more scullers and either 1 gatekeeper, 1 doom blade, or 1 vendetta. That's my personal preference though, I like 4 paths and 4 other removal spells and sculler is one of my favorite cards right now.
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Could someone explain why the sculler is good in this deck?
I've never really tried it but I hear a lot of hate against it.
As far as playing against him, he usually one of my 2 removal spells and I either kill him or let him hold it until I need it. As a 2/2 he can't attack through anything and he doesn't threate me.
Just wanted to hear your experiences with him and this deck in general.
Why play this over jund? (Excluding budget).
It looks fun, I just haven't tried it.
In the past weeks, Deadguy Ale has really exploded onto the MTGO scene. It's already going to be promoted to Established just based on its current performance, which you can all see in the MTGS Modern Metagame Analysis spreadsheet here (also in my sig).
The deck seems to shine in grindy matchups, and right now on MTGO, there are a lot of grindy matchups that you would have to slog through. It also has enough control and removal to survive the early Affinity rush, and a very stable manabase that doesn't leave it too vulnerable to Affinity and other aggro. Overall, this makes the deck well-positioned to handle the metagame.
Could someone explain why the sculler is good in this deck?
I've never really tried it but I hear a lot of hate against it.
As far as playing against him, he usually one of my 2 removal spells and I either kill him or let him hold it until I need it. As a 2/2 he can't attack through anything and he doesn't threate me.
Just wanted to hear your experiences with him and this deck in general.
Why play this over jund? (Excluding budget).
It looks fun, I just haven't tried it.
I like sculler a lot.
Sculler is great because, while he will die in a lot of situations, you get to decide how the game plays out.
Against jund you can take their lightning bolt and force them to abrupt decay your sculler instead of holding onto that decay for your Liliana.
Against uwr you can take a lightning bolt and force them to cast anger of the gods to clean up your sculler and 2 souls tokens, just to play more spirits or something like pack rat.
Sure you don't actually force them to play their cards this way, but they will either have to do that, make you have to block with it, or just get continuously beaten down by a 2/2 before they find another way to do it. Worst-case scenario it's a 2 mana spell that makes your opponent reveal their hand and discard a removal spell (usually "target" removal spell).
Also sculler is a fine topdeck late-game, much more so than inquisition or thoughtseize because it's at least a bear and it can take their only removal spell when it resolves. Sure if they just have 1 card in hand they will kill it before the trigger takes effect, but if they only have 1 removal spell and something they just can't cast like scapeshift or batterskull, etc... they will have to just let it resolve and let you take that removal spell.
If they don't have a removal spell (which is possible since there really isn't a lot of removal right now) then this is a castigate on a 2/2. Sure it gets outclassed, but it's still a great source of early disruption.
I like this deck more than jund personally, and I have the ability to play both.
This deck doesn't have a vanilla beater like goyf, all of our creatures do something and offer value (excluding the lists running crusader).
Both cores of the decks are similar, 1 mana discard spells, Liliana (some versions of b/w aren't running Liliana), bob, and a 1 cmc removal spell. But we have more disruption and card advantage, disruption in sculler, card advantage in lingering souls (gatekeeper of malakir is also great for this). Jund has courser for ca which is fine, but he isn't very exciting since he isn't a big threat and he just gets lands while our ca spells give us board advantage, sculler is castigate+2/2, gatekeeper is edict+2/2, lingering souls is multiple tokens, pack rat lets you turn dead cards into a giant army, etc...
White also gives you better board options than g/b/x. The only distinctions here is that we have to play disenchant in the board while jund gets to maindeck their artifact/enchantment hate and we have to board in grave-hate while they have ooze.
But we get rest in peace, leyline of sanctity, rule of law, and stony silence (I've personally dropped mine, but a lot of people use it), all cards that shut down or at least severely impair some of the biggest decks in the format.
Path to exile cleanly answers all the threats from pod.
We also get a cleaner manabase than jund (but so does straight g/b).
The big advantage that jund has over us is anger of the gods, maindeck grave-hate in scavenging ooze, and maindeck artifact/enchantment hate in abrupt decay and pulse. But we have more disruption in sculler, cleaner removal in path, more card-advantage (depending on build), and extremely potent sideboard cards.
If you want to beat pod and have a descent matchup against everything else then jund is great. If you want to beat combo decks and be slightly weaker to pod (I still have a fine pod matchup) then b/w is for you.
I think that b/w is secretly one of the best decks right now and could certainly be tier one, and possibly take jund's spot as the best black based midrange option.
In the past weeks, Deadguy Ale has really exploded onto the MTGO scene. It's already going to be promoted to Established just based on its current performance, which you can all see in the MTGS Modern Metagame Analysis spreadsheet here (also in my sig).
The deck seems to shine in grindy matchups, and right now on MTGO, there are a lot of grindy matchups that you would have to slog through. It also has enough control and removal to survive the early Affinity rush, and a very stable manabase that doesn't leave it too vulnerable to Affinity and other aggro. Overall, this makes the deck well-positioned to handle the metagame.
Hell yea!
Honestly affinity is one of the easiest matchups for this deck in my experience, I've even dropped stony silence because it's so good. They just can't beat 1 lingering souls let alone multiples.
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Here's the junk deck I've been playing with for about a week now.
I just added the Tidehollow Scullers in and I really liked them so far.
My list and sideboard are strange because of budget restrictions, but this deck has been very powerful so far.
I've barely played against Pod or Zoo, and only in tournament practice room in MTGO, but so far I'm like 16-4 vs everything.
Twin/Tarmo Twin/Jund/UWR/Merfolk/Burn/Pod/Ad Nauseum/UR Delver/Zoo/W/x Hatebears/Death n Taxes
He seems great for this deck. We get another threat that can also serve as additional removal or additional discard.
I don't think it's worth opening yourself up further to blood moon and the extra shocks you will have to take to splash blue just for snapcaster.
If I was going to splash a color it would be green and it would look similar to doggiedoo's list, although I don't think we even need a 3rd color.
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Immapwner, you should consider doing videos of MTGO replay commentary.
Replay commentaries are much faster for the viewer to watch and easier for you to record and upload.
I think videos are great, especially considering it's a pretty new deck to the field and there's plenty of
people who would like to see how the deck actually wins with Pack Rat and the board states it creates.
Immapwner, you should consider doing videos of MTGO replay commentary.
Replay commentaries are much faster for the viewer to watch and easier for you to record and upload.
I think videos are great, especially considering it's a pretty new deck to the field and there's plenty of
people who would like to see how the deck actually wins with Pack Rat and the board states it creates.
I would love to do that, but I'm not really sure how to go about it. How could I turn a replay video on mtgo into a video on youtube?
EDIT: Nevermind, figured it out. I'll be playing in 2 dailies today and a premier event, so I'll probably put something up today.
If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Sounds great. Try to write down your sideboard changes because replays don't save them.
Replay commentaries also give you a chance to look at your own plays and see what you would have done differently.
Michael Jacob's modern Jund replays on SCG Premium are some of the most informative and time efficient videos I've seen.
I look forward to seeing the videos and hope ya do well in the tournament.
On another note, I've liked the green splash in my build but mainly of abrupt decay and scavenging ooze.
The goyfs are a good clock when I draw them, unlock the lingering souls which has usually been unexciting.
I have barely played against Zoo so I haven't been able to see if I can beat their good hands.
On the other hand I'm 4-1 vs. Burn online because the Courser, Ooze, and sideboard Finks are just too much for them.
B/W has less painful land but I imagine you empty their hand but have a hard time closing the game before they draw more spells.
Sounds great. Try to write down your sideboard changes because replays don't save them.
Replay commentaries also give you a chance to look at your own plays and see what you would have done differently.
Michael Jacob's modern Jund replays on SCG Premium are some of the most informative and time efficient videos I've seen.
I look forward to seeing the videos and hope ya do well in the tournament.
On another note, I've liked the green splash in my build but mainly of abrupt decay and scavenging ooze.
The goyfs are a good clock when I draw them, unlock the lingering souls which has usually been unexciting.
I have barely played against Zoo so I haven't been able to see if I can beat their good hands.
On the other hand I'm 4-1 vs. Burn online because the Courser, Ooze, and sideboard Finks are just too much for them.
B/W has less painful land but I imagine you empty their hand but have a hard time closing the game before they draw more spells.
Well I wasn't able to play in 2 of the tournaments I wanted to and I bombed in the one that I could, so I changed up the list a bit and went 4-0 in a daily, although my opponent didn't show up round 2 and my round 4 opponent dc'ed. I still got 2 rounds and did commentary over them as well as a deck tech, and I'll post more videos if I can play in some of the dailies tomorrow.
The big changes are -3 gatekeepers, -1 swamp, -1 doom blade, +3 mutavault, +2 disfigure.
I wanted more lands, because with pack rat we really want to hit 5 lands, and mutavualt lets us play more lands while keeping a good threat density, plus pack rat is way better with mutavault.
I also wanted more ways to kill turn 1 mana dorks so I went with disfigure. It's possible that I should be playing oust or sunlance in this spot but it's less painful to have a black spell for turn 1 than a white one, although oust and sunlance are solid options that I might consider if zoo makes a comeback.
So far I don't have any videos showing tier one decks, but I'll definitely post some when I come across them.
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
So far I don't have any videos showing tier one decks, but I'll definitely post some when I come across them.
Hey Chris, great stuff, thanks a lot for putting these up.
I know it took a few minutes for you to download OBS and figure out how to record it, but your contributions towards making Dead Guy Ale a thing in Modern are amazing, and we thank you for that.
It was interesting to see how close every game comes, and how your game plan really evolves into "Protect the Pack Rat."
Too bad Gatekeeper of Malakir didn't make the cut, but it seems like that this deck actually WINS with Pack Rat, not with card advantage bears.
Definitely looking forward to seeing more in the same format, hopefully your opponents play Magic this time.
Hey Chris, great stuff, thanks a lot for putting these up.
I know it took a few minutes for you to download OBS and figure out how to record it, but your contributions towards making Dead Guy Ale a thing in Modern are amazing, and we thank you for that.
It was interesting to see how close every game comes, and how your game plan really evolves into "Protect the Pack Rat."
Too bad Gatekeeper of Malakir didn't make the cut, but it seems like that this deck actually WINS with Pack Rat, not with card advantage bears.
Definitely looking forward to seeing more in the same format, hopefully your opponents play Magic this time.
Thanks man, it wasn't that hard making these videos.
This is very much a pack rat deck, you basically want to get the game in a position where pack rat just goes uncontested.
I did 3-1 a daily today (actually 3-1ed 2 dailies today) and I'm recording those videos now, I'll post them up tomorrow.
The matchups were:
cruel control
burn
uwr control
jund
So we have some tier one decks in there.
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Hey guys. Thanks to DoggieDoo I found this thread after looking around with making a BW midrange deck. This is the list that I'm going to start running:
So I do a few things differently namely in the creature and swords area. Personally I refuse to believe that pack rats is really that awesome. I read all the justification and watched some of your videos but I'm not a believer lol. I think it's something I'll have to play with myself to truly understand. Maybe I will this Friday. I personally much prefer Brimaz since while he is vulnerable to a multitude of things, he starts out of bolt range which is a huge plus IMO. I also love Auriok Champion but most likely that's a holdout from playing soul sisters a lot so right now it's really just a test card. That being said if you put a sword on her she goes super saiyan and kinda just wins. What are your thoughts on these differences?
I'm curious why you decided to take the swords out. Is it because pack rat was simply so good that it can win games without swords? I think the key reason I don't like pack rat is because while it's good at preventing dead cards from lingering around, I'd like to hope that if you put the "correct" distribution of situational cards in the deck you won't have as many dead cards. That being said I guess the key with pack rat is that it always smooths out games.
Hey guys. Thanks to DoggieDoo I found this thread after looking around with making a BW midrange deck. This is the list that I'm going to start running:
So I do a few things differently namely in the creature and swords area. Personally I refuse to believe that pack rats is really that awesome. I read all the justification and watched some of your videos but I'm not a believer lol. I think it's something I'll have to play with myself to truly understand. Maybe I will this Friday. I personally much prefer Brimaz since while he is vulnerable to a multitude of things, he starts out of bolt range which is a huge plus IMO. I also love Auriok Champion but most likely that's a holdout from playing soul sisters a lot so right now it's really just a test card. That being said if you put a sword on her she goes super saiyan and kinda just wins. What are your thoughts on these differences?
I'm curious why you decided to take the swords out. Is it because pack rat was simply so good that it can win games without swords? I think the key reason I don't like pack rat is because while it's good at preventing dead cards from lingering around, I'd like to hope that if you put the "correct" distribution of situational cards in the deck you won't have as many dead cards. That being said I guess the key with pack rat is that it always smooths out games.
It's fine to play brimaz, the brimaz version and the pack rat version play out differently, and it's just up to your preference.
Auriok champion seems really weak in here, I've seen it in one or two other lists so maybe she's secretly awesome, but I don't think we play enough tokens to really get value out of her. She's just a 1/1 and while she does have extremely relevant protections, she doesn't put up much of a clock. She can't really pull you from behind either because just small increments of 1 life doesn't do much. It's different for soul sisters because their cards get bigger if they gain life and they have anthems.
I don't play sword of war and peace because it just don't do enough. When I played it I boarded it out in almost every matchup. Look at the top decks, you don't want it against affinity, pod, twin, jund, tron, or storm. It might come into play against delver and scapeshift, but probably not. Sword of fire and ice seems better but you still don't want it against most of the top decks.
Pack rat isn't here just to get rid of dead cards, although that's a great upside. He can close out a game quickly, let's you hold up mana to deal with threats while still adding to the board if you didn't have to do anything, and he clogs up the board better than brimaz. Pack rat has pulled me out of games that I wouldn't be winning, he's just that good. I had a game against boggles where I had 2 rats and 4/5 land in my opener (not sure if I mulled or not, this is game 1 btw) and I beat him just by using pack rat (he didn't get any life gain enchantments, but still got a ton of auras), now while this is a corner-case scenario, it still speaks to the power of pack rat. Hell in the video I posted where I faced kiki pod ( I believe it's game 3) he had a board that brimaz couldn't get through and I was still attacking, he also drew a path and couldn't stop the rats whereas brimaz would be dead and since he couldn't have attacked I would have no board and a bunch of lands.
When people started playing pack rat in standard, I had much the same viewpoint as you do, but after playing with it, I have completely changed my mind.
I'm going to be uploading some more videos in an hour or so, so watch for that, and you can get a better sense on how good pack rat is.
On another note, I noticed today that mtggoldfish has taken down my decklists, not sure what that's about, they are current (hell I finished in the money on the posted daily for yesterday). I just think it's weird.
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
TL;DR the debate between Brimaz and Pack Rat is that Pack Rat, while slower, is *almost* removal proof.
When you first cast Pack Rat with 5 lands in play, you always leave the other 3 to be able to make another rat in response to removal or at the end of your opponent's turn.
Brimaz is faster and requires less cards/mana commitment but he does die to Path/Flame Sash/Abrupt Decay/Crytpic Bounce.
When Brimaz dies you just sit around for 5 turns trying to kill your opponent with some spirit tokens or a 2/2.
I had tested the swords and mirran crusaders in the deck with brimaz.
I found that brimaz has his roles and I've cut the swords and mirran crusader for Pack rat, because it's really too slow.
Why not playing both brimaz and pack rat?
..I play 2 Brimaz and 4 pack rat.
But I have to test it at my local swiss tournament
I'm starting to think this might be right, against jund they have a TON of sweepers for pack rat, pulse, anger, and jund charm. He seems fine as a way to punish a player that keeps all of those sweepers in post board, and can randomly kill opponents that don't have a maindeck way of killing him. I was also thinking a 2-4 split on brimaz and pack rat.
I'm not sure what to cut though, I can see cutting 1 sculler since 4 has been slightly too much (I definitely want at least 3 though), but I don't know what else.
What does your list look like?
R2: Burn g1
There was a glitch when I tried to replay game 2, my opponent tried to kill 2 spirit tokens with forked bolt and the game said he targeted one for 10 damage and another for 0, and then an error message kept popping up.
Anyway I landed a turn 0 leyline so I beat him easily.
If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
I think some number of Brimaz might be right though. He is a sponge for removal and if they can't deal with him he just gets out of control. And we need to kind of protect pack rat. But if we lead with turn one iok or T'S followed by a sculler into Brimaz is a very strong curve out
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Not a bad idea at all. The only downside to bloodghast is that he doesn't really matchup well against pod's creatures and you would be using him to just attack, but it's a very solid idea that warrants testing, and bloodghast could easily get out of hand quickly. I think you are a little removal light, I would take out the persecutions for slaughter pacts. I'd also just drop brimaz and the 4th thoughtseize for 2 more scullers and either 1 gatekeeper, 1 doom blade, or 1 vendetta. That's my personal preference though, I like 4 paths and 4 other removal spells and sculler is one of my favorite cards right now.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
I've never really tried it but I hear a lot of hate against it.
As far as playing against him, he usually one of my 2 removal spells and I either kill him or let him hold it until I need it. As a 2/2 he can't attack through anything and he doesn't threate me.
Just wanted to hear your experiences with him and this deck in general.
Why play this over jund? (Excluding budget).
It looks fun, I just haven't tried it.
The deck seems to shine in grindy matchups, and right now on MTGO, there are a lot of grindy matchups that you would have to slog through. It also has enough control and removal to survive the early Affinity rush, and a very stable manabase that doesn't leave it too vulnerable to Affinity and other aggro. Overall, this makes the deck well-positioned to handle the metagame.
I like sculler a lot.
Sculler is great because, while he will die in a lot of situations, you get to decide how the game plays out.
Against jund you can take their lightning bolt and force them to abrupt decay your sculler instead of holding onto that decay for your Liliana.
Against uwr you can take a lightning bolt and force them to cast anger of the gods to clean up your sculler and 2 souls tokens, just to play more spirits or something like pack rat.
Sure you don't actually force them to play their cards this way, but they will either have to do that, make you have to block with it, or just get continuously beaten down by a 2/2 before they find another way to do it. Worst-case scenario it's a 2 mana spell that makes your opponent reveal their hand and discard a removal spell (usually "target" removal spell).
Also sculler is a fine topdeck late-game, much more so than inquisition or thoughtseize because it's at least a bear and it can take their only removal spell when it resolves. Sure if they just have 1 card in hand they will kill it before the trigger takes effect, but if they only have 1 removal spell and something they just can't cast like scapeshift or batterskull, etc... they will have to just let it resolve and let you take that removal spell.
If they don't have a removal spell (which is possible since there really isn't a lot of removal right now) then this is a castigate on a 2/2. Sure it gets outclassed, but it's still a great source of early disruption.
I like this deck more than jund personally, and I have the ability to play both.
This deck doesn't have a vanilla beater like goyf, all of our creatures do something and offer value (excluding the lists running crusader).
Both cores of the decks are similar, 1 mana discard spells, Liliana (some versions of b/w aren't running Liliana), bob, and a 1 cmc removal spell. But we have more disruption and card advantage, disruption in sculler, card advantage in lingering souls (gatekeeper of malakir is also great for this). Jund has courser for ca which is fine, but he isn't very exciting since he isn't a big threat and he just gets lands while our ca spells give us board advantage, sculler is castigate+2/2, gatekeeper is edict+2/2, lingering souls is multiple tokens, pack rat lets you turn dead cards into a giant army, etc...
White also gives you better board options than g/b/x. The only distinctions here is that we have to play disenchant in the board while jund gets to maindeck their artifact/enchantment hate and we have to board in grave-hate while they have ooze.
But we get rest in peace, leyline of sanctity, rule of law, and stony silence (I've personally dropped mine, but a lot of people use it), all cards that shut down or at least severely impair some of the biggest decks in the format.
Path to exile cleanly answers all the threats from pod.
We also get a cleaner manabase than jund (but so does straight g/b).
The big advantage that jund has over us is anger of the gods, maindeck grave-hate in scavenging ooze, and maindeck artifact/enchantment hate in abrupt decay and pulse. But we have more disruption in sculler, cleaner removal in path, more card-advantage (depending on build), and extremely potent sideboard cards.
If you want to beat pod and have a descent matchup against everything else then jund is great. If you want to beat combo decks and be slightly weaker to pod (I still have a fine pod matchup) then b/w is for you.
I think that b/w is secretly one of the best decks right now and could certainly be tier one, and possibly take jund's spot as the best black based midrange option.
Hell yea!
Honestly affinity is one of the easiest matchups for this deck in my experience, I've even dropped stony silence because it's so good. They just can't beat 1 lingering souls let alone multiples.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
I just added the Tidehollow Scullers in and I really liked them so far.
My list and sideboard are strange because of budget restrictions, but this deck has been very powerful so far.
I've barely played against Pod or Zoo, and only in tournament practice room in MTGO, but so far I'm like 16-4 vs everything.
Twin/Tarmo Twin/Jund/UWR/Merfolk/Burn/Pod/Ad Nauseum/UR Delver/Zoo/W/x Hatebears/Death n Taxes
Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
1x Forest
2x Godless Shrine
1x Isolated Chapel
4x Marsh Flats
3x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
3x Stirring Wildwood
2x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
1x Treetop Village
1x Vault of the Archangel
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Courser of Kruphix
4x Dark Confidant
3x Scavenging Ooze
3x Tidehollow Sculler
2x Tarmogoyf
Sorcery (11)
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Lingering Souls
1x Maelstrom Pulse
2x Thoughtseize
Planeswalker (3)
3x Liliana of the Veil
Instant (8)
3x Abrupt Decay
4x Path to Exile
1x Slaughter Pact
1x Aven Mindcensor
3x Kitchen Finks
1x Loxodon Smiter
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Tectonic Edge
2x Thoughtseize
2x Thrun, the Last Troll
You guys have any advice or suggestions to change mainboard or sideboard? I know it's a junk version, but it's done me well so far.
4x Snapcaster Mage
3x Tidehollow Sculler
2x Gatekeeper of Malakir
4x Lingering Souls
2x Thoughtseize
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Path to exile
1x Slaughter Pact
2x Dismember
1x Doom Blade
3x Liliana of the Veil
2x Sword of War and Peace
2x Darkslick Shores
2x Godless Shrine
1x Watery Grave
1x Hallowed Fountain
4x Marsh Flats
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3x Swamp
2x Plains
2x Tectonic Edge
He seems great for this deck. We get another threat that can also serve as additional removal or additional discard.
I don't think it's worth opening yourself up further to blood moon and the extra shocks you will have to take to splash blue just for snapcaster.
If I was going to splash a color it would be green and it would look similar to doggiedoo's list, although I don't think we even need a 3rd color.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Immapwner, you should consider doing videos of MTGO replay commentary.
Replay commentaries are much faster for the viewer to watch and easier for you to record and upload.
I think videos are great, especially considering it's a pretty new deck to the field and there's plenty of
people who would like to see how the deck actually wins with Pack Rat and the board states it creates.
I would love to do that, but I'm not really sure how to go about it. How could I turn a replay video on mtgo into a video on youtube?
EDIT: Nevermind, figured it out. I'll be playing in 2 dailies today and a premier event, so I'll probably put something up today.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Replay commentaries also give you a chance to look at your own plays and see what you would have done differently.
Michael Jacob's modern Jund replays on SCG Premium are some of the most informative and time efficient videos I've seen.
I look forward to seeing the videos and hope ya do well in the tournament.
On another note, I've liked the green splash in my build but mainly of abrupt decay and scavenging ooze.
The goyfs are a good clock when I draw them, unlock the lingering souls which has usually been unexciting.
I have barely played against Zoo so I haven't been able to see if I can beat their good hands.
On the other hand I'm 4-1 vs. Burn online because the Courser, Ooze, and sideboard Finks are just too much for them.
B/W has less painful land but I imagine you empty their hand but have a hard time closing the game before they draw more spells.
Well I wasn't able to play in 2 of the tournaments I wanted to and I bombed in the one that I could, so I changed up the list a bit and went 4-0 in a daily, although my opponent didn't show up round 2 and my round 4 opponent dc'ed. I still got 2 rounds and did commentary over them as well as a deck tech, and I'll post more videos if I can play in some of the dailies tomorrow.
Here's my updated list:
4 Godless Shrine
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
2 Temple of Silence
1 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Mutavault
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Vault of the Archangel
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Dark Confidant
4 Pack Rat
Spells: 20
2 Slaughter Pact
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
2 Disfigure
4 Path to Exile
2 Vendetta
4 Lingering Souls
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Rest in Peace
2 Disenchant
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Memoricide
4 Leyline of Sanctity
The big changes are -3 gatekeepers, -1 swamp, -1 doom blade, +3 mutavault, +2 disfigure.
I wanted more lands, because with pack rat we really want to hit 5 lands, and mutavualt lets us play more lands while keeping a good threat density, plus pack rat is way better with mutavault.
I also wanted more ways to kill turn 1 mana dorks so I went with disfigure. It's possible that I should be playing oust or sunlance in this spot but it's less painful to have a black spell for turn 1 than a white one, although oust and sunlance are solid options that I might consider if zoo makes a comeback.
Here's my video's:
Deck Tech
Kiki pod game 1
Kiki pod game 2
Kiki pod game 3 (please excuse excessive coughing)
Cruel Control game 1
Cruel Control game 2
So far I don't have any videos showing tier one decks, but I'll definitely post some when I come across them.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Hey Chris, great stuff, thanks a lot for putting these up.
I know it took a few minutes for you to download OBS and figure out how to record it, but your contributions towards making Dead Guy Ale a thing in Modern are amazing, and we thank you for that.
It was interesting to see how close every game comes, and how your game plan really evolves into "Protect the Pack Rat."
Too bad Gatekeeper of Malakir didn't make the cut, but it seems like that this deck actually WINS with Pack Rat, not with card advantage bears.
Definitely looking forward to seeing more in the same format, hopefully your opponents play Magic this time.
Thanks man, it wasn't that hard making these videos.
This is very much a pack rat deck, you basically want to get the game in a position where pack rat just goes uncontested.
I did 3-1 a daily today (actually 3-1ed 2 dailies today) and I'm recording those videos now, I'll post them up tomorrow.
The matchups were:
cruel control
burn
uwr control
jund
So we have some tier one decks in there.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Even with Finks, Courser, Scooze, sometimes they just cast their spells and win.
Annoying that deck can float around and get wins with a child piloting it.
2x Swamp
3x Arid Mesa
2x Fetid Heath
4x Godless Shrine
4x Isolated Chapel
2x Marsh Flats
5x Plains
1x urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
3x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4x Tidehollow Sculler
4x dark confidant
Spells - 24
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Path to Exile
4x Thoughtseize
3x liliana of the veil
4x lingering souls
1x slaughter pact
1x steelshaper's gift
1x sword of fire and ice
1x Sword of War and Peace
2x vendetta
So I do a few things differently namely in the creature and swords area. Personally I refuse to believe that pack rats is really that awesome. I read all the justification and watched some of your videos but I'm not a believer lol. I think it's something I'll have to play with myself to truly understand. Maybe I will this Friday. I personally much prefer Brimaz since while he is vulnerable to a multitude of things, he starts out of bolt range which is a huge plus IMO. I also love Auriok Champion but most likely that's a holdout from playing soul sisters a lot so right now it's really just a test card. That being said if you put a sword on her she goes super saiyan and kinda just wins. What are your thoughts on these differences?
I'm curious why you decided to take the swords out. Is it because pack rat was simply so good that it can win games without swords? I think the key reason I don't like pack rat is because while it's good at preventing dead cards from lingering around, I'd like to hope that if you put the "correct" distribution of situational cards in the deck you won't have as many dead cards. That being said I guess the key with pack rat is that it always smooths out games.
It's fine to play brimaz, the brimaz version and the pack rat version play out differently, and it's just up to your preference.
Auriok champion seems really weak in here, I've seen it in one or two other lists so maybe she's secretly awesome, but I don't think we play enough tokens to really get value out of her. She's just a 1/1 and while she does have extremely relevant protections, she doesn't put up much of a clock. She can't really pull you from behind either because just small increments of 1 life doesn't do much. It's different for soul sisters because their cards get bigger if they gain life and they have anthems.
I don't play sword of war and peace because it just don't do enough. When I played it I boarded it out in almost every matchup. Look at the top decks, you don't want it against affinity, pod, twin, jund, tron, or storm. It might come into play against delver and scapeshift, but probably not. Sword of fire and ice seems better but you still don't want it against most of the top decks.
Pack rat isn't here just to get rid of dead cards, although that's a great upside. He can close out a game quickly, let's you hold up mana to deal with threats while still adding to the board if you didn't have to do anything, and he clogs up the board better than brimaz. Pack rat has pulled me out of games that I wouldn't be winning, he's just that good. I had a game against boggles where I had 2 rats and 4/5 land in my opener (not sure if I mulled or not, this is game 1 btw) and I beat him just by using pack rat (he didn't get any life gain enchantments, but still got a ton of auras), now while this is a corner-case scenario, it still speaks to the power of pack rat. Hell in the video I posted where I faced kiki pod ( I believe it's game 3) he had a board that brimaz couldn't get through and I was still attacking, he also drew a path and couldn't stop the rats whereas brimaz would be dead and since he couldn't have attacked I would have no board and a bunch of lands.
When people started playing pack rat in standard, I had much the same viewpoint as you do, but after playing with it, I have completely changed my mind.
I'm going to be uploading some more videos in an hour or so, so watch for that, and you can get a better sense on how good pack rat is.
On another note, I noticed today that mtggoldfish has taken down my decklists, not sure what that's about, they are current (hell I finished in the money on the posted daily for yesterday). I just think it's weird.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
TL;DR the debate between Brimaz and Pack Rat is that Pack Rat, while slower, is *almost* removal proof.
When you first cast Pack Rat with 5 lands in play, you always leave the other 3 to be able to make another rat in response to removal or at the end of your opponent's turn.
Brimaz is faster and requires less cards/mana commitment but he does die to Path/Flame Sash/Abrupt Decay/Crytpic Bounce.
When Brimaz dies you just sit around for 5 turns trying to kill your opponent with some spirit tokens or a 2/2.
I'm starting to think this might be right, against jund they have a TON of sweepers for pack rat, pulse, anger, and jund charm. He seems fine as a way to punish a player that keeps all of those sweepers in post board, and can randomly kill opponents that don't have a maindeck way of killing him. I was also thinking a 2-4 split on brimaz and pack rat.
I'm not sure what to cut though, I can see cutting 1 sculler since 4 has been slightly too much (I definitely want at least 3 though), but I don't know what else.
What does your list look like?
Here's some more videos.
R1: Cruel Control
g1
g2
R2: Burn
g1
There was a glitch when I tried to replay game 2, my opponent tried to kill 2 spirit tokens with forked bolt and the game said he targeted one for 10 damage and another for 0, and then an error message kept popping up.
Anyway I landed a turn 0 leyline so I beat him easily.
R3: UWR Control
g1
g2
g3
R4: Jund
g1
g2
g3
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring