MTG Salvation

against taking turns ricochet trap has been the only way for me to beat them in the past, stealing the extra turns on taps out. catching them with choke has worked too.

Quote from Dos_Rouge »

so your saying we can run wear tear now without cascade casting?
wear//tear

Yes, that is exactly the case

Quote from Dos_Rouge »

against taking turns ricochet trap has been the only way for me to beat them in the past, stealing the extra turns on taps out. catching them with choke has worked too.

I was running a singleton choke in my board for some time now against some storm lists and fish once I post board in ingot chewers, I had a feeling it would get more use.

Unless your local meta is filled with taking turns, i'd simply just the roll the dice and hope to dodge. It's not a favorable matchup whatsoever and our answers are very limited, but it's a fringe tier 1.5/2 deck that only really enthusiasts play so we have that going for us.

There is one Taking Turns player at my LGS. I think I'm 1-1 him, we might have played a third match but I can recall two for sure. The win was off the back of a ricochet trap backed cascade on EOT and a SSG powered turn two cascade, I only put three creatures in to play (wraith, and two Horror) and it took two turns of attacking but got there.

The loss was me getting my LE remanded after going for it blind and never seeing a second cascader in game one and getting cut out of green long enough by spreading seas in game two.

Didn't feel overly hopeless or cake walk either match.

boil is the other control hate card, strickly speaking with the taking turns deck, they are 99% islands.

against other control its fulminator mage business as usual, but you bring in boil hoping to X for 1 any islands you leave behind, basics or dual type island lands.

Quote from Dos_Rouge »

boil is the other control hate card, strickly speaking with the taking turns deck, they are 99% islands.

against other control its fulminator mage business as usual, but you bring in boil hoping to X for 1 any islands you leave behind, basics or dual type island lands.

If you also have Merfolk or other mono-blue decks then boil could be an option. However, ricochet trap and the land destruction will be much more flexible by being relevant in other match-ups as well, boil is pretty narrow for a match-up that honestly doesn't feel that bad.

I'm still on the Jund version of the deck, running Deadshot Minotaur, Jungle Weaver and Pale Recluse and I've splashed white for my meta, trying to spice it up a bit with great results so far. I'm 10-6 with the list and was 4-7 before. I'm having Vault of the Archangel and 2 white source in the manabase as well as 2 Leyline mainboard and 2 Brindle Boar to fight Burn which is everywhere in my meta (I own it too). I've came up with a transformational sideboard against Affinity, taking out 3 LE and puting in Kataki, War's Wage and Stony Silence in place. So far, it's 2-0 while I was 1-2 before in that matchup. The deck is fun as always

I'll be honest, i never liked Deadshot minotaur because it bolts our Faerie macabre most of the time. Unless you are willing to go other route for graveyard hate like Leylines i don't think you should run it, since we got more fatties to run in that slot

Altough Vault of the Archangel is a pretty good tech card in white splash. Not sure how relevant it would be against burn, since it needs at least turn 5 to be activated.

I ended up 5-2 in the main event, but the team scrubbed out at 4-3 my tron player was 4-3 and humans player was 2-3 with 2 unfinished games

Quote from Huviam »

Altough Vault of the Archangel is a pretty good tech card in white splash. Not sure how relevant it would be against burn, since it needs at least turn 5 to be activated.

Adding lifelink and death touch to the creatures is relevant

In the past I've added 2 Ready // Willing to the deck to to get the effect more consistently. Later years I swapped it for Sorin, Solemn Visitor, life link, token making, and sometimes them emblem proved more relevant for the match ups where rest in peace was an issue and you had to hard cast creatures.

So there's been a Living end deck at the top 16 in GP Hartford this past weekend, this is the decklist



It's certainly ballsy to play only 2 Living end's on the main. What do you guys think about it? And the sideboard has 2 Kolaghan's and 2 Thragtusks. Interesting SB

Quote from Huviam »

It's certainly ballsy to play only 2 Living end's on the main.

Its really ballsy to play 0 in the sideboard when you have 2 in the main. Even if it was the right move to make for this particular event I would far rather run 3 and side one out later than start 2 and need them.

Went 4-1 on a Friendly MTGO league. Won against Humans 2-1, Storm 2-1, UW Control 2-1, UW Control 2-0. Lost the mirror match 1-2. Best part of the league was game three against humans where I turn two Fulminatored their land into turn three demonic dread on their noble bringing back Fulminator, Street Wraith, and Cerodon. Blew up their land again, and they gave it up. Deck feels great. Maybe considering Choke in the SB, but not sure what I'd want to take out.

Quote from BaBaBaBen »

Went 4-1 on a Friendly MTGO league. Won against Humans 2-1, Storm 2-1, UW Control 2-1, UW Control 2-0. Lost the mirror match 1-2. Best part of the league was game three against humans where I turn two Fulminatored their land into turn three demonic dread on their noble bringing back Fulminator, Street Wraith, and Cerodon. Blew up their land again, and they gave it up. Deck feels great. Maybe considering Choke in the SB, but not sure what I'd want to take out.

Thanks for sharing! 3-4 Infir is the best solution in current creature heavy meta imo. Can you tell us how the UW Control match-ups went? For me its the worst match-up so any advice is appreciated.

Quote from Dimian »

Quote from BaBaBaBen »

Went 4-1 on a Friendly MTGO league. Won against Humans 2-1, Storm 2-1, UW Control 2-1, UW Control 2-0. Lost the mirror match 1-2. Best part of the league was game three against humans where I turn two Fulminatored their land into turn three demonic dread on their noble bringing back Fulminator, Street Wraith, and Cerodon. Blew up their land again, and they gave it up. Deck feels great. Maybe considering Choke in the SB, but not sure what I'd want to take out.

Thanks for sharing! 3-4 Infir is the best solution in current creature heavy meta imo. Can you tell us how the UW Control match-ups went? For me its the worst match-up so any advice is appreciated.

Ifnir is an amazing card when it gets into play. I do board 1-2 out pretty often as the cycling cost definitely slows it down. UW definitely is a hard match up. Match one I was on the play cycling as normal and they tapped out turn two for Search. I turn three LE putting in 2 Street Wraith, 2 Horror, and a Carabid. Game two I keep a good one land hand, but end up not drawing land in like seven draw steps meanwhile they never tap out or miss a drop and play relic and eventually a Jace so I give it up. Game three they play turn two Damping Sphere but I have been cycling some boys and Krosan Grip it on his end step of turn three. He plays Clique in response taking my outburst, but I cycle again using a SSG then draw a Demonic Dread to cast while they are tapped out to win. Damping Sphere wasn't really a problem as I had the SSG to pay for LE, but destroying it prompted my opponent to play something and it ended up working in my favor.

I looked at the replay and the other match was actually URw, but they still had the same annoying cards like Remand. Game one I cycle as normal, and then have my turn three Fulminator remanded, then again the same on turn Four, and finally Cryptic countered on turn Five. Turn six they play Blood Moon and Spreading Seas my swamp, but I have my basic Forest in play. I hardcast a Cerodon, and turn seven LE and they have no counter with two mana and five cards. Was sorta lucky to win. Game two I blow up their turn two relic with Ingot Chewer. My turn three end step they tap their last blue mana to Opt, and I outburst in response putting in Street Wraith, Ingot Chewer, and Carabid. They flash in and Clique themselves turn four and block Chewer. Turn five they tap out for Jace and bounce Carabid, I then kill Jace with SW and hardcast Carabid. SW is Harvest Pyreed on their turn and they play a relic, but I have my last two LE in hand so relic is a non-issue. I draw another SW and hard cast it. They cantrip, but find nothing and I attack for lethal the next turn.

I believe the best way to beat UW type decks is to never try and hit the home run type LE, but rather get a quick two or three creatures in when it's early and they feel safer to tap out. If they never do or have the counter, playing a Fulminator and/or hard casting the big boys can give you enough pressure or the opening to LE. That said, Supreme Verdict, RiP, Gideons, can really make winning difficult, and I'd rather just play against slow creature decks.

UW Control gets a lot easier as you get more familiar with the deck. That was my experience at least. I used to have trouble with it and now I just prey on it. Keep them off Cryptic and Verdict if you can. Play your instants on their endstep to set yourself up for LE on your turn once they’re tapped out. Don’t forget how effective hardcasting your creatures can be against them. Don’t be too loose with your LE’s. It’s usually a long game and you only have three (or at least that seems to be the standard right now), so play them wisely. You don’t want to run out. They usually don’t have much presence in their yard so that makes it easier on you for subsequent LE’s. You don’t have to worry as much about what’s coming back out of their yard. Suspending LE is useful sometimes so that they tap out to counter it and you can go off after that since you’ll have the mana open for your cascades. Don’t forget you can’t use Ricochet Trap on Cryptic if they’ve chosen counter/bounce, so don’t forecast it needlessly if that’s the case. Use SSG to your advantage to throw them off. You have more mana available to you than they realize. You can bluff a lot in that MU, and so can they. Your Faeries are super important. Use them wisely. This applies to Search for Azcanta and Snapcaster.

That’s just a little off the top of my head. You’ll get better at the MU. Most control players are usually pretty good Magic players. Once you get more comfortable with LE the MU ought to improve.

I'm kicking around the idea of putting together Living End. I know the list is pretty well established at this point but is there any reason the deck doesn't play Forbidden Orchard in some number? It gives you control of keeping Demonic Dread live and is an untapped multi-color land. Seems like interesting consistency tech at the least.

Quote from Capt. Nick »

I'm kicking around the idea of putting together Living End. I know the list is pretty well established at this point but is there any reason the deck doesn't play Forbidden Orchard in some number? It gives you control of keeping Demonic Dread live and is an untapped multi-color land. Seems like interesting consistency tech at the least.

Deck is already consistent enough, between fetches, fast lands and the ability to draw a crap ton of cards in the beginning, getting colored screwed is very rare.

As for having a target, it's rarely needed in this meta (or the past several). Most decks will provide a target for us and we can always beast within or cast a 3 mana creature to provide a target. At the moment, very few decks require the urgency of having to provide a target and cast demonic dread in the same turn. Not to mention we dig pretty deep as is so getting to a violent outburst is definitely not unreasonable nor uncommon.

Quote from Piney_Tinecones »

UW Control gets a lot easier as you get more familiar with the deck. That was my experience at least. I used to have trouble with it and now I just prey on it. Keep them off Cryptic and Verdict if you can. Play your instants on their endstep to set yourself up for LE on your turn once they’re tapped out. Don’t forget how effective hardcasting your creatures can be against them. Don’t be too loose with your LE’s. It’s usually a long game and you only have three (or at least that seems to be the standard right now), so play them wisely. You don’t want to run out. They usually don’t have much presence in their yard so that makes it easier on you for subsequent LE’s. You don’t have to worry as much about what’s coming back out of their yard. Suspending LE is useful sometimes so that they tap out to counter it and you can go off after that since you’ll have the mana open for your cascades. Don’t forget you can’t use Ricochet Trap on Cryptic if they’ve chosen counter/bounce, so don’t forecast it needlessly if that’s the case. Use SSG to your advantage to throw them off. You have more mana available to you than they realize. You can bluff a lot in that MU, and so can they. Your Faeries are super important. Use them wisely. This applies to Search for Azcanta and Snapcaster.

That’s just a little off the top of my head. You’ll get better at the MU. Most control players are usually pretty good Magic players. Once you get more comfortable with LE the MU ought to improve.

I agree, it's much easier to control their manabase with fulminators and Beast within than to wait in cycling for a Ricochet trap. Also when they tap in turn 4 for a JTMS is just a bad play for them. You have to Outburst when they tap out or back to back cascades forcing them to use all their spells.

Forbidden orchard would only seem reasonable if you want to go for a 5-colored deck, which i don't think it's the case if you wanna go competitive.

The most consistent Living end deck is the with the jund colors, way behind is the Blue-Red one were you can discard big fatties like griselbrand or Iona to the bin and turn 3 As foretold. Mono blue living end was just a novelty, it lacks the power or consistency.