If you have Gobling Guide and swiftspear in hand, which one do you play 1st ?
GG 1st means usually 1 more damage but swiftspear 1st denies them 1 GG trigger and there is a chance swiftspear won't be able to attack if don't have a spell to play on turn 2 and your opponent plays a 2/2 (if you are on the draw).
I favor GG almost everytime but maybe it's wrong ?
Guide. Every time.
Pretty much this. The only time I'd say Swiftspear first is if you're reasonably certain they're holding up removal and you wanna bait it without the land trigger. Even that's slightly risky.
I don't think I'd run less than four Blazes mainboard except in the unlikely metagame event that I was moving all Blazes to the sideboard. Blaze is like Eidolon in that it's at its best turn two, when you're killing their first creature and getting a Swiftspear through for two. Because of this, even if it is sometimes suboptimal or dead, I feel it's the better strategic play to maximize the chances that you'll see one in your opening hand so that when it isn't dead, it's at its most optimal.
Also, for those of you running Rest in Peace, are you finding the CMC of 2 dangerous versus countermagic in GDS at all? I feel like out of the main three graveyard hate pieces in Modern Rest in Peace is no doubt the most powerful, but I'm concerned about exposing myself to counterspells by waiting a turn to play my hate.
Taking the advice to run more fetches and Blaze in the mainboard leaves me with this. I won't go Naya, because I won't run any build that can't take advantage of 4x Inspiring Vantage. But I am willing to take advice on the best I can build Boros.
Creatures (14)
4 Goblin Guide
4 Monestary Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Grim Lavamancer
Sideboard (15)
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Path to Exile
3 Wear//Tear
2 Shattering Spree
2 Deflecting Palm
2 Searing Blood
I'm currently running straight Boros myself. I'm not sure you need all four Foundries; it's not bad, necessarily, but I feel like 3 would allow you to consistently be able to fetch for white even through land destruction. I might suggest replacing it with a 9th fetchland (my personal preference) or another basic Mountain. In addition, Kor Firewalker is really solid if there's a lot of burn in your meta, but I find it to be a bit narrow for a general metagame. As an alternative, I might suggest some graveyard hate. My favorite is Grafdigger's Cage, but there are arguments for Rest in Peace and Relic as well. Whatever your style and expected opponent decks are, really.
Inspired by that Mardu Burn deck that got posted a little while back, I've decided to try testing more Shard Volleys in the main, to see how often it's stuck in my hand. I thought 4 was definitely too much, but right now I'm testing 3, essentially trying to maximize the chance that I'll always see exactly one. Basically trying to think of it like Legacy Burn's Fireblast, though the difference between zero and one mana is of course huge. I've only played about 20 games so far, but I haven't yet run into a situation where it's bitten me. Could very well be the wrong call, and more testing is needed, but I just wanted to share.
I'm running 8 fetches because I liked the idea of having 4 fastlands (coming from my backfround on Ad Nauseam). Also, I run Stony for Affinity in my meta
looking forward to conributing to the thread!
I might suggest replacing the two Firecrafts with a couple of Deflecting Palms. Any time Lightning Helix is good for you versus aggressive decks, Deflecting Palm could be as good or better. Otherwise, looks pretty solid--it's clear that you want to beat Affinity, haha.
I'm looking at a Boros build using Inspiring Vantage in place of 4 of the fetches. The list would run 4 vantage, 6 fetches, 4 shocks, and 5 mountain. I feel like it would be much better in mirror or aggro matchups, because it should, at most, fetch into a shock once. But a couple concessions would be made. Searing Blood and Blaze would be swapped, with Blood in the Main, Blaze in the Side. I think that shouldn't hurt. But the other is that, with 6 fetches, even putting in a stomping ground leaves 7 green sources - not enough for D. Rev in the Side. So I'd end up running Wear//Tear. Is the swap worth the significantly less painful mana base?
EDIT: I am currently of the belief that Fatal Push will make hasteless creatures weaker, pushing Nacatal burn aside, whereas mono-red, which can't use PtE to handle Deaths Shadow, will also fall. I currently believe Boros burn will be the best variant going forward.
I think most are at least playing 8 fetches with 2-3 sacred foundry 4 inspiring vantage and then the rest mountains.
What he said. You need at least 8 fetches to reliably have landfall for Blaze, as well as feed Grim if you run him. I'm currently testing straight Boros, and I'm running 9 fetches, 4 Vantages, 3 Foundries, and 3 Mountains.
and what decks are doing best in the eldrai tron and deaths shadow meta. i.e. what benefited from them becoming tier 1?
If you don't have any other enchantment hate in your sideboard and it's a blind meta, you really need Wear // Tear. Shattering Spree seems strictly good for Chalice, which is a solid thing to board for. But you really need at least three pieces of enchantment hate in your 75, and really I'd go for all four.
What do you guys think about Mardu Burn? A write-up by someone who went Top 4 in a MTGO PTQ did it. Link here.
Most notable inclusions in his deck is 4 Shard Volley with 3 Burst Lightning. No Eidolons. His sideboarding is quite different from the norm too.
If I wasn't playing Boros, I would be playing Mardu. I think it's highly underrated. I probably wouldn't be playing THIS Mardu, but I would be playing Mardu.
Alright, controversial statement: if you are playing Boros splash G, it's better at this point in time to drop the green and run Wear/Tear over D. Rev.
With lifegain at an all-time low in Modern, I feel there's never been a worse time to play more than four Skullcrack effects. If you're playing Boros+G, you've already assumed Skullcrack over AC in the mainboard. That means the only card you're running for Green is D. Rev. This means you're playing 1-2 Stomping Grounds. If you run one, you open yourself up to hardcore gimping via land destruction post-board (especially important against Merfolk, where they Spreading Seas the very land that helps you deal with the card). If you run two, you're increasing the chances that you'll be drawing a Shockland basic mountain Game 1, and at that point the main reason of playing Boros+G over Naya, a less painful manabase, is severely hampered.
The main matchups where you'll really want D Rev over Wear/Tear are the ones in which you have a key artifact or enchantment to destroy, AND you want to turn the corner when the time is right HARD and race. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking Ad Nauseum, Merfolk, and Affinity. If there's others I didn't think of, let me know and I may reevaluate. Ad Nauseum is such a hard matchup already, that it seems silly to try and hedge a bet against it. I would rather accept the loss and move on. Although, it's worth mentioning that the Fused aspect of Wear/Tear could actually come in useful there, destroying a Phyrexian Unlife and a Pentad Prism at the same time. That's very relevant. Merfolk was already discussed up above, it opens you up to vulnerability of Spreading Seas in a real way, moreso than Wear/Tear due to the inclusion of Inspiring Vantage. Also, Fuse comes in handy here as well, destroying a Spreading Seas and a Vial at the same time. It's worth mentioning that the land that's been enchanted with Spreading Seas can pay for the colorless mana needed in Wear. Affinity is the only one where the two points of damage significantly helps us without in some way potentially significantly hurting us, and even then you're likely shocking yourself for two in order to deal them two. D. Rev is definitely better, but it's something to keep in mind.
If you go full Boros, in exchange for these two damage points against Affinity being what I believe to be the only STRICT downgrade in the aforementioned matchups, you get a near-perfect manabase. The full playset of Inspiring Vantage, three basic mountains, two Foundries, and ten fetches. You can shave a Vantage, a basic, or a burn spell if you feel you need to for more fetches. Ghost Quarters and Tectonic Edges become almost nothing to you, and you never have to worry about shocking to 14 for your green, ever (relevant for Merfolk and Affinity).
EDIT: Upon further reflection and in the interest of remaining objective, I also realized that the 2 damage from D. Rev could be relevant in EldraziTron, against Expedition Map, Basilisk Collar, and Chalice on one. However, to counter that, that deck plays Ghost Quarters. This could lead us to a similar problem as Spreading Seas in Merfolk; please refer to my analogous arguments with that matchup as to why Wear/Tear might still be acceptable, or even superior, in a less obvious way.
If you're playing Naya, you already have green as a core color in your deck and this doesn't apply. If burst lifegain goes on the uptick again, and therefore skullcrack effects become more necessary, my opinions may change.
What I'm currently running with the general metagame in mind:
I think the usual question is "Can this deck really spare a turn/mana/card to cast something that, on its own, doesn't do anything?" Sure, if the ball gets rolling it can have a huge payoff. But if it just concentrates your opponent's removal because you have one permanent that can't actually hurt them in lieu of a permanent that could, you're in trouble.
I feel like dropping Rancor for Kessig Prowler is the wrong move. I do understand your reasoning though. But without Rancor you're gonna get chumped way more often than not. And Kessig Prowler is underwhelming.
I'm not sure I can agree with you on that one. Kessig Prowler is only mildly worse than Dryad Militant, and we really want to hit our one drop. If anything, I wish I had another playset of one mana 2/1s to play. In terms of getting chump-blocked, I haven't noticed that to be a problem. In fact, decks seem to be largely either trying to race me, so their creatures can't block, or too big for Rancor to make a difference, such as Death's Shadow. Even if they do chump, running a higher concentration of creatures than most Stompy lists helps to ensure that something gets through for an instant-speed pump.
With how Modern has slowed down and the prevalence of BGx and Grixis decks, I've become rather skeptical about Rancor in the deck. We don't really have creatures that we're trying to trample over anymore; instead, we're trying to make a threat stick and ride it to the win. With that in mind, I've added a full playset of Kessig Prowlers in my deck to help ensure that I hit a one drop as well as a critical mass of creatures, and replaced my Rancors with Blossoming Defense for the full eight instant-speed hexproof effects. My goal is to play a bit like a combination of Zoo and Infect; play a bunch of cheap creatures, and then protect/pump in response to removal. It's designed to go under the midrange decks as much as possible. Here's the list.
The two Dungrove Elders might be better as Thrun or Rhonas, or even one of each to dodge the legend rule. Outside of that, though, I'm really happy with how the deck is looking.
Again, this is for a friend's deck who has been relating to me a lot of dead land draws recently. He is a good shuffler as well.
It seems 3 mana is the top end and it has to be exceptional to have a chance. I'll relay that although I'm sure he is already aware of it. I'll suggest the drop a land but I would assume he'd probably want to add a 1 mana spell in its place. He's not going to like that I'll continue to pound him with Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher. Any advice you could give in boarding in against EldraziTron that I can pass along? Thanks.
I also bring in Path here. My big weapons against them are 3x Path, 2x Palm, 4x Lightning Helix, and 4x Inspired Vantage. You also need Revelry in here unfortunately. Like other people are saying, side out Eidolon and probably Skullcrack/Atarka's Command.
The four free slots are what I have to play with. I was wondering your opinions on the full playset of Searing Blood to fill that? I know eight searing effects might be a lot, but as you can see the rest of my deck is heavily slated against combo decks. I'm thinking that the eight effects could come in to help heavily favor me against creature decks post-board. My other option is 0-1 Searing Blood and 3-4 Pyroblast. That could help against Delver decks as well as FoW and Sneak and Show. I'd rather not pack graveyard hate, as I think I just wanna hope to dodge those matchups.
Of course, if you have any other suggestions about my deck overall, I'm happy to listen.
EDIT: Actually, the more I'm looking at it, the more I think a playset of Ensnaring Bridge might be just what the doctor ordered. It's slow, but it does give me hate against Reanimator and Sneak and Show without being dead in other matches. Specifically, I can also bring it in versus Eldrazi and Lands. What do you all think?
I just wanted to leave this here. The math seems to advocate for 19 lands over 20, as a ~3% chance difference to hit your third land drop isn't that huge of a deal.
Pretty much this. The only time I'd say Swiftspear first is if you're reasonably certain they're holding up removal and you wanna bait it without the land trigger. Even that's slightly risky.
Also, for those of you running Rest in Peace, are you finding the CMC of 2 dangerous versus countermagic in GDS at all? I feel like out of the main three graveyard hate pieces in Modern Rest in Peace is no doubt the most powerful, but I'm concerned about exposing myself to counterspells by waiting a turn to play my hate.
I'm currently running straight Boros myself. I'm not sure you need all four Foundries; it's not bad, necessarily, but I feel like 3 would allow you to consistently be able to fetch for white even through land destruction. I might suggest replacing it with a 9th fetchland (my personal preference) or another basic Mountain. In addition, Kor Firewalker is really solid if there's a lot of burn in your meta, but I find it to be a bit narrow for a general metagame. As an alternative, I might suggest some graveyard hate. My favorite is Grafdigger's Cage, but there are arguments for Rest in Peace and Relic as well. Whatever your style and expected opponent decks are, really.
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lava Spike
4x Rift Bolt
3x Shard Volley
4x Searing Blaze
4x Lightning Helix
2x Skullcrack
9x Fetches
4x Inspiring Vantage
3x Sacred Foundry
3x Mountain
4x Wear // Tear
4x Grafdigger's Cage
3x Path to Exile
2x Deflecting Palm
2x Skullcrack
I might suggest replacing the two Firecrafts with a couple of Deflecting Palms. Any time Lightning Helix is good for you versus aggressive decks, Deflecting Palm could be as good or better. Otherwise, looks pretty solid--it's clear that you want to beat Affinity, haha.
What he said. You need at least 8 fetches to reliably have landfall for Blaze, as well as feed Grim if you run him. I'm currently testing straight Boros, and I'm running 9 fetches, 4 Vantages, 3 Foundries, and 3 Mountains.
If you don't have any other enchantment hate in your sideboard and it's a blind meta, you really need Wear // Tear. Shattering Spree seems strictly good for Chalice, which is a solid thing to board for. But you really need at least three pieces of enchantment hate in your 75, and really I'd go for all four.
If I wasn't playing Boros, I would be playing Mardu. I think it's highly underrated. I probably wouldn't be playing THIS Mardu, but I would be playing Mardu.
With lifegain at an all-time low in Modern, I feel there's never been a worse time to play more than four Skullcrack effects. If you're playing Boros+G, you've already assumed Skullcrack over AC in the mainboard. That means the only card you're running for Green is D. Rev. This means you're playing 1-2 Stomping Grounds. If you run one, you open yourself up to hardcore gimping via land destruction post-board (especially important against Merfolk, where they Spreading Seas the very land that helps you deal with the card). If you run two, you're increasing the chances that you'll be drawing a Shockland basic mountain Game 1, and at that point the main reason of playing Boros+G over Naya, a less painful manabase, is severely hampered.
The main matchups where you'll really want D Rev over Wear/Tear are the ones in which you have a key artifact or enchantment to destroy, AND you want to turn the corner when the time is right HARD and race. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking Ad Nauseum, Merfolk, and Affinity. If there's others I didn't think of, let me know and I may reevaluate. Ad Nauseum is such a hard matchup already, that it seems silly to try and hedge a bet against it. I would rather accept the loss and move on. Although, it's worth mentioning that the Fused aspect of Wear/Tear could actually come in useful there, destroying a Phyrexian Unlife and a Pentad Prism at the same time. That's very relevant. Merfolk was already discussed up above, it opens you up to vulnerability of Spreading Seas in a real way, moreso than Wear/Tear due to the inclusion of Inspiring Vantage. Also, Fuse comes in handy here as well, destroying a Spreading Seas and a Vial at the same time. It's worth mentioning that the land that's been enchanted with Spreading Seas can pay for the colorless mana needed in Wear. Affinity is the only one where the two points of damage significantly helps us without in some way potentially significantly hurting us, and even then you're likely shocking yourself for two in order to deal them two. D. Rev is definitely better, but it's something to keep in mind.
If you go full Boros, in exchange for these two damage points against Affinity being what I believe to be the only STRICT downgrade in the aforementioned matchups, you get a near-perfect manabase. The full playset of Inspiring Vantage, three basic mountains, two Foundries, and ten fetches. You can shave a Vantage, a basic, or a burn spell if you feel you need to for more fetches. Ghost Quarters and Tectonic Edges become almost nothing to you, and you never have to worry about shocking to 14 for your green, ever (relevant for Merfolk and Affinity).
EDIT: Upon further reflection and in the interest of remaining objective, I also realized that the 2 damage from D. Rev could be relevant in EldraziTron, against Expedition Map, Basilisk Collar, and Chalice on one. However, to counter that, that deck plays Ghost Quarters. This could lead us to a similar problem as Spreading Seas in Merfolk; please refer to my analogous arguments with that matchup as to why Wear/Tear might still be acceptable, or even superior, in a less obvious way.
If you're playing Naya, you already have green as a core color in your deck and this doesn't apply. If burst lifegain goes on the uptick again, and therefore skullcrack effects become more necessary, my opinions may change.
What I'm currently running with the general metagame in mind:
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lava Spike
4x Rift Bolt
1x Shard Volley
4x Lightning Helix
4x Searing Blaze
4x Skullcrack
10x Fetches
2x Sacred Foundry
4x Inspiring Vantage
3x Mountain
4x Wear // Tear
4x Grafdigger's Cage
3x Path to Exile
2x Deflecting Palm
2x Grim Lavamancer
I love this idea. Specifically in this deck, Hidden Herbalists might revolt enough to dump your hand a turn faster.
I'm not sure I can agree with you on that one. Kessig Prowler is only mildly worse than Dryad Militant, and we really want to hit our one drop. If anything, I wish I had another playset of one mana 2/1s to play. In terms of getting chump-blocked, I haven't noticed that to be a problem. In fact, decks seem to be largely either trying to race me, so their creatures can't block, or too big for Rancor to make a difference, such as Death's Shadow. Even if they do chump, running a higher concentration of creatures than most Stompy lists helps to ensure that something gets through for an instant-speed pump.
4x Experiment One
4x Dryad Militant
4x Kessig Prowler
4x Strangleroot Geist
4x Avatar of the Resolute
3x Scavenging Ooze
4x Leatherback Baloth
1x Boggart Ram-Gang
4x Vines of Vastwood
4x Blossoming Defense
4x Aspect of Hydra
Lands
2x Treetop Village
18x Forest
3x Grafdigger's Cage
3x Dismember
3x Feed the Clan
3x Natural State
1x Creeping Corrosion
2x Dungrove Elder
The two Dungrove Elders might be better as Thrun or Rhonas, or even one of each to dodge the legend rule. Outside of that, though, I'm really happy with how the deck is looking.
I also bring in Path here. My big weapons against them are 3x Path, 2x Palm, 4x Lightning Helix, and 4x Inspired Vantage. You also need Revelry in here unfortunately. Like other people are saying, side out Eidolon and probably Skullcrack/Atarka's Command.
With SDT gone, I'm looking to slightly readjust my sideboard for Burn. Here's the list I have so far.
4x Goblin Guide
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
2x Grim Lavamancer
Spells
16x Bolts
4x Flame Rift
4x Price of Progress
3x Fireblast
10x Fetches
9x Mountain
4x Searing Blaze
3x Smash to Smithereens
2x Pyrostatic Pillar
2x Sulfuric Vortex
4x Free Slots
The four free slots are what I have to play with. I was wondering your opinions on the full playset of Searing Blood to fill that? I know eight searing effects might be a lot, but as you can see the rest of my deck is heavily slated against combo decks. I'm thinking that the eight effects could come in to help heavily favor me against creature decks post-board. My other option is 0-1 Searing Blood and 3-4 Pyroblast. That could help against Delver decks as well as FoW and Sneak and Show. I'd rather not pack graveyard hate, as I think I just wanna hope to dodge those matchups.
Of course, if you have any other suggestions about my deck overall, I'm happy to listen.
EDIT: Actually, the more I'm looking at it, the more I think a playset of Ensnaring Bridge might be just what the doctor ordered. It's slow, but it does give me hate against Reanimator and Sneak and Show without being dead in other matches. Specifically, I can also bring it in versus Eldrazi and Lands. What do you all think?
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/how-many-lands-do-you-need-to-consistently-hit-your-land-drops/