Mirran Crusader
Haunted Humans was my first competitive deck in SOM-INN standard, and I absolutely loved dropping this guy. Followed by a Sword of War and Peace or Angelic Destiny...devastation. Pro black and green, what's not to like?
On the negative side, I don't know if I can ever play white weenie again after playing that deck.
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- Apteryx
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Member for 12 years and 3 months
Last active Wed, Jul, 31 2019 18:54:45
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Ad naus - Some number of story silence. I also ran a SB Rule of Law, which did actual nothing when they beat me with it out game 2 by EOT ad naus and then Lightning Storm on their turn. Chalice is pretty clutch in this matchup as well, being able to throw it down on 1 shuts off Angel’s Grace and Spoils, on 0 turns off Pact, and 2 has a lot of targets, but notably Echoing truth if you’ve already got one out on 1 or 2. Keeping them off mana seems to be key.
Mardu - Chalice on 1 can ruin their day if they keep a hand banking on looting/hand disruption. Rest In Peace comes in, as well as cast out/ixalan’s binding/celestial purge for blood moon.
Tron - Damping Sphere, Stony Silence. I should have had Spyglass in my SB, would come on here for sure. I think a lot of people who may not be familiar with playing the deck don’t realize how badly stony screws them over. Hands with Thalia/Arbiter are prioritized over the Eldrazi.
Living End - Rest In Peace, Damping Sphere/Rule of Law. Of course, you also need pressure, or else you’ll just get 5 drops beating your face in. Another point is that none of your hate is really safe in that Beast Within has the potential to put them right back in it, which is why I go for multiple hate pieces. In my case, my few creatures were killed by evoked shriekmaws...don’t think it warrants Honor Guard coming in, but I could be wrong.
Cheerios - You need some form of interaction to not just die turn 2/3, whether it’s chalice, Thalia, or a kill spell. Theoretically this should be good, bringing in Rule of Law/Damping Sphere, Stony Silence, but sometimes they just have it and you don’t. A chalice on 0 hurts them, a chalice on 0 and 2 is game over.
UR titi/Control - Honestly, I don’t know. Thalia is great but can eat a bolt, Chalice on 1 is fantastic, but even their countered 1-drop spells trigger TiTi. I think this was the only guy to actually finish ahead of me in standings, somewhere in top 32. Prioritize dismember/Thalia, hopefully drop chalice on 1, get there. SB is lacking here, though Rule of Law and Sphere should help.
Hollow one - Chalice on 1 is great. Rest In Peace for bloodghast/angler/Phoenix and sphere/Rule of Law for stifling hollow ones. Celestial purge is also great as a catch all, possibly cast out if you’re concerned about blood moon.
Miracles - play like a taxes deck. Prioritize Thalia/arbiter/ ghost quarter, Chalice on 1 turns off their cantrips/path. I think Rest In Peace is too low impact to bring in, as you’re only possibly shutting off Snapcaster recursion if that list even runs him. Spyglass would do work. I didn’t actually have Karn, but would have brought him in here (or anywhere grindy). Game 2 I played turn 1 Chalice with a gemstone caverns out, turn 2 Arbiter - > ghost quarter...that was basically it.
So this was more of a tournament report than SB guide, but hopefully it helped. Also typed on mobile, forgive the typos.
Round 1) W - Ad Naus (DaSneakyPete)
Round 2) W - Mardu Pyro
Round 3) L - G Tron - This came down to game 3 where he had one turn to hit tron, and he did
Round 4) L - Living End - Really awkward game 3 where I lost a game to hard cast fatties when I had a RIP on board and could come up with no pressure
Round 5) W - Cheerios
Round 6) L - UR Control/Titi
Round 7) W - Hollow one
Round 8) W - UW Miracles
Deck felt good, a couple awkward draws and games where it came right down to the wire and my opponents had it. Oh well! I ran a single damping sphere side, think I'll make it 2.
Nice tidbit was my opponent taunting me in chat for misclicking and making a bad attack (which I was able to salvage with displacer anyway)...meanwhile he never realized he could cast his 1 drops through my Chalice on 1 with his cavern, lol. I don’t even interact with anyone through chat on mtgo since it never ends well, but I almost considered it in this case.
The deck feels good, especially against combo. I actually had goblins just concede on the spot when I played Chalice on 1 in both games against them. There are other times it feels very clunky though, and I don’t think there’s anything you can really do about it. I’m spoiled after playing a million cantrips in storm, but I feel like with Infect and KCI on the rise, this deck is positioned pretty well.
4 Blight Herder
4 TKS
3 Wasteland Strangler
2 Reality Smasher
Went 2-2, beating some UR Prowess jank round 1, lost to infect round 2, won against bogles round 3, and lost to affinity round 4.
Some random thoughts:
- I was unable to get an entire playset of Relic of Progenitus in time, so had to make do with 2 (and put 2 Expedition Maps in to replace them). This deck needs exile effects badly. Had my expedition map been a Relic, I wouldn't have necessarily lost the game to affinity or infect (since I had nothing to process). I had 2x Shambling Vents, one of them is becoming a Bojuka Bog. Gotta have the exile.
- One-of Oblivion Ring and Sorin, Solemn Visitor were awesome. I won against Bogles by O-ringing a Rancor, which dropped the Daybreak Coronet off of it. Proceeded to take care of a giant non-trampling Bogle the next game by ultimating Sorin. What a house.
- Could obviously be that I didn't have enough to process, but I can already tell Strangler is the deck's weakest link and possibly a necessary evil. It's underwhelming compared to the other things we can do, but it's also an early play that can set the opponent back (I got to live the Urborg and Eye of Ugin dream and cast him turn 2 with 1 land. Also the turn 2 TKS dream). I really hope something comes along that can replace it, because I'm not digging it.
- Ran 25 lands, this will have a tendency to flood. I feel like I'm going to need something to sink this mana into. Going to start thinking of ideas.
- Lingering Souls is still one of the best cards ever. Never unhappy to see it. Fantastic at both gumming up the board to buy time or to start the flying beats.
One thing is for sure after playing it: this deck is ridiculously powerful and has a ton of potential in Modern. We need to nail a list down (if the PT doesn't do it for us.)
Round 1: Scapeshift 0-2
Round 2: Jund 2-0
Round 3: TarmoTwin 1-1 Draw
Round 4: Mono-Black Devotion (WTF?) 0-2 !!!!
Round 5: Grixis Twin 0-2
Round 1 I mulliganed away unplayable hands with no lands in both games. Round 2 was the only round that went the way "it should", meaning I actually drew gas and had answers and counters. Round 3 was frustrating simply for not seeing counters when I needed them (notably games 1 and 3). Round 4 was just pure WTF. All I saw him play were Geralf's Messengers, Phyrexian Obliterator, and Abrupt Decay. Messenger was pretty ridiculous if you couldn't counter it on the stack, since it's an inherent and painful 2 for 1. Of course I went with Damnation over Anger of the Gods in my SB, but it didn't matter since I didn't draw them anyway! Grixis Twin resulted in me having no counter spells beyond a mana leak in one game. I just don't understand it. My list was basically the generic ones you see here. A run of bad luck I guess, but pretty disappointing.
If you think this isn't at least partially due to the fact that people are hedging their bets on a reprint in BFZ, then I don't know what to tell you. If spoilers come out and enemy fetches aren't there, get ready for a huge rebound in pricing, at least for the better part of a year. Not quite to the levels they were at before, but at least 20-30%.
Round 1: Janky Treasure Hunt Zombie deck : 2-0
Round 2: Affinity : 2-0
Round 3: UWR Midrange/Flash : 1-2
Round 4: Grixis Control (with Twin, Olivia, etc.) : 2-0
The loss against UWR was due to some really unlucky land issues. I lost game 1 on a mull to 6 with 1 Forest and 2 Birds. I never drew another land in the 8 turns I lasted, and both Birds got bolted. Then in Game 3 I flooded out super hard and couldn't find any threats.
The deck is still really solid though. I'm thinking about trying out Collected Company, so we'll see how much longer I stick with this. I just tend to get bored of decks after awhile.
I was first planning on having a Feed the Clan in the SB in place of Spellskite, but I forgot to bring it and threw the Spellskite in instead. I would consider Dromoka's Command, even if it does seem a little narrow/reactive for my tastes (though obviously, it would have been way better than Decaying my own Finks).
I don't feel like running the 4x Leyline of Sanctity in the SB like many other decks do is necessary. But when they Skullcrack and Flames of the Bloodhand your Siege Rhino trigger, it hurts.