Gratz on your finish Nidd.Scythe. Nice to see Grixis faring well. How much damage did you take from your manabase in general? How good were the maindeck sweeper compared to the lack of discard?
Thank you!
I didn't miss discard all that much, I might play something like a 1-of Duress in my sideboard just to have that effect in my 75. Counters and a boatload of removal are enough to take care of most things people throw at you at the moment.
I fetched very conservatively to minimize the damage I take, I'd say I took like 2-3 damage each game from my lands.
The 2 Firespouts I played were allstars. Resolving an early Firespout helps so much against the creature based meta, it's incredible. I don't think I lost a game where I played Firespout before turn 6.
Also I'm looking for some replacement for batterskull in my list. I know that it's something that's needed (i.e. mid-late game power play after a lot of attrition) but I'm not familiar with a lot of lesser played cards in modern. Basically I'm looking for something in the 4-5 CMC range that I can drop that has the effect of the opponent thinking "ok, how am I supposed to beat that!?" and is a threat all on it's own. Batterskull was my first thought, but there has to be other options other than ones I tried and wasn't happy with like jace 3/4, lili, and more swords. I am not going up to 6 mana as that's too much of a stretch or I'd be on the gravy train already. I sure love me some grave titan but sadly doesn't quite fit. Need something scary that will kill them (preferably with damage and not pure value or CA) soon if ignored and only costs 4-5 at most.
Any suggestions or is the skull the best option in that mana range?
Played a GPT yesterday with the list I posted a few pages back, finishing 7th place out of 35 with 4-2.
R1: Ad Nauseam Combo
Easy wins. Game 1 is kinda iffy, because I had some horrible cards for the MU in my deck, but postboard it's a freeroll.
R2: Mono Green Devotion
He waves for a bunch, I Firespout. 2 turns later, he waves 4 times during his turn and passes, I play SCM, cast Firespout again and that's the game.
G2 I kill his manadorks. Then I counter-bounce a Garruk and a Forest with 2 Sprawls on it. Game.
R3: Knight Zoo
I stabilize at 1 life and Vedalken Shackles takes it home. Firespout on turn 3 stopped him dead in his tracks.
G2 he keeps a greedy hand with Forest, 2 Nacatl, Hierarch and misses his second land drop for 3 turns - only to draw Bojuka Bog. I handle his board, plop down Shackles, cast Batterskull and he extends the hand.
R4: Fast Zoo
I play Removal into Removal into Snapcaster Removal into Cryptic into Removal. He's out of gas, I finish him with Mistbind.
G2 it gets down to me having a Bitterblossom acting as a Forcefield for a Flinthoof Boar and slowly eating away at his board. He's on 3 cards, I crack a Fetch, go to 9, he responds with Fetch -> 3 Bolts.
G3 I get wrecked by Rampager after misplaying my lands and losing tempo, because I couldn't Snap-Snare a Goyf. Bummer.
R5: Tribal Zoo
I play Shackles turn 3 and his face tells me that he wanted to see any other card. He still burns me out.
G2 I stabilize at 1, play Shackles, take his Goyf, he paths it in response and we play staredown while he looks for Burn and I look for counters. With him at 5, he plays a Dark Confidant, I say "sure", he passes. I draw, pass, discard Smother. He looks confused, reveals Negate with Confidant, goes to 3. He goes to attack, turns his dude sideways, I Bolt his face, he plays Snap-Bolt, I Cryptic, he Negates, I Snare.
G3 I stabilize at 14 life and play 2 Shackles for a Voice and a Goyf. Turn 'em sideways 3 times, game.
R6: UWR Control
I fail to hit my land drops and die. Frustrating.
I'm wondering how many people are in favor of straight UB instead of something like Grixis. I really want a sweeper and something that can kill Nacatl for 1 Mana (Dismembering a Nacatl is kinda... awkward, to say the least).
Unbans:
Wild Nacatl
Preordain
Chrome Mox
Bitterblossom
Golgari Grave-Troll
Green Sun's Zenith
Bans:
Dryad Arbor
Goryo's Vengeance
Basically, Nacatl is fine, everyone knows that. Except the DCI. Hope they learned that.
Preordain would be fine. Without Seething Song, Storm is a non-factor and pure Combo Twin is badly positioned against BGx and I doubt it's too good against UWR. Preordain would only advance fair blue decks.
GGT is a fine card, Dredge is not a real deck and there is no Dread Return. Just unban it already.
Bitterblossom is risky, but I think that the meta could handle a bunch of Faerie tokens at the moment and Fae would be an enrichment to the format.
Green Sun's Zenith is probably the riskiest card I'm suggesting, but I still think it's fine - under the condition that Dryad Arbor gets banned. What breaks GSZ is the ability to be a mana dork for 1 mana and a threat for more, being live all game and the best card in any green deck. Removing Dryad Arbor would get it back to where it should be - a tutor for random silver bullets.
Chrome Mox is fine under the condition that Goryo's Vengeance gets banned, otherwise that deck could kill you on turn 1. It can already kill people somewhat reliably on turn 2 and turn 3 is it's regular goldfish, from what I've noticed. Banning GV and bringing in Mox would enable a Thirst for Knowledge fueled Control deck, possibly featuring Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. It would speed up Twin, but I doubt they want more speed.
These 3 decks and the dynamic of the matchups between them (seriously, this is as close to rock-paper-scissors as we have gotten in a long time in any format) dictates the rest of the format.
You have to be prepared for all 3, if you're not, you hopefully don't expect to take down any major event. They are the corner stones of the format now.
If you can't beat at least 2 of them, stay at home.
People should stop complaining already. The Meta is fine.
I didn't have much luck after R1 today, went 1-5, playing against some fringe decks and insane topdecks. Still, managed to munch someone's board with a Massacre Wurm, so...
I've been playing UWB Caw Blade on and off for the last year and it's not a bad deck per se, but straight UW loses some of the best cards for the archetype - like discard and Lingering Souls.
Just to put things into perspective, for people naysaying about bob, the legacy esper deathblade list plays force of will, supreme verdict, and batterskull. It is still an extremely successful deck.
Legacy is a much less aggressive format, though. While this sort of comparison is neat, they don't get us anywhere, as the formats are incrementally different.
I think you should play more Mana Dorks. 7 is the minimum for Pod, I'd say. Get one of these Vorapede out to fit it in.
Next up, I believe that if there's a deck that could utilize Primalcrux, it's this. The Heartmenders seem a bit cute and I reckon you'd need 1 at max.
Probably just a meta call in a small tourney (21 players). Outside of Pyroclasm, all other cards build some "combo", so it's totally "all in", but nice to see anyway.
Yeah, that's me.
Let's just say that the Sundering Titans were a horrible decision, as there was a whole lot of Merfolk and not the decks I'd want them against (like, pretty much everything else).
The deck was very hit or miss, I pretty much stomped everyone in this tournament and in the next I went 0-3 Drop because I didn't draw what I needed.
The Trash for Treasure would be a good idea if UWR was a factor in the metagame (and I'd be running Boseiju MD again), but as it stands, it should be something else. Something that digs.
Thank you!
I didn't miss discard all that much, I might play something like a 1-of Duress in my sideboard just to have that effect in my 75. Counters and a boatload of removal are enough to take care of most things people throw at you at the moment.
I fetched very conservatively to minimize the damage I take, I'd say I took like 2-3 damage each game from my lands.
The 2 Firespouts I played were allstars. Resolving an early Firespout helps so much against the creature based meta, it's incredible. I don't think I lost a game where I played Firespout before turn 6.
Run more Islands and play Vedalken Shackles.
R1: Ad Nauseam Combo
Easy wins. Game 1 is kinda iffy, because I had some horrible cards for the MU in my deck, but postboard it's a freeroll.
R2: Mono Green Devotion
He waves for a bunch, I Firespout. 2 turns later, he waves 4 times during his turn and passes, I play SCM, cast Firespout again and that's the game.
G2 I kill his manadorks. Then I counter-bounce a Garruk and a Forest with 2 Sprawls on it. Game.
R3: Knight Zoo
I stabilize at 1 life and Vedalken Shackles takes it home. Firespout on turn 3 stopped him dead in his tracks.
G2 he keeps a greedy hand with Forest, 2 Nacatl, Hierarch and misses his second land drop for 3 turns - only to draw Bojuka Bog. I handle his board, plop down Shackles, cast Batterskull and he extends the hand.
R4: Fast Zoo
I play Removal into Removal into Snapcaster Removal into Cryptic into Removal. He's out of gas, I finish him with Mistbind.
G2 it gets down to me having a Bitterblossom acting as a Forcefield for a Flinthoof Boar and slowly eating away at his board. He's on 3 cards, I crack a Fetch, go to 9, he responds with Fetch -> 3 Bolts.
G3 I get wrecked by Rampager after misplaying my lands and losing tempo, because I couldn't Snap-Snare a Goyf. Bummer.
R5: Tribal Zoo
I play Shackles turn 3 and his face tells me that he wanted to see any other card. He still burns me out.
G2 I stabilize at 1, play Shackles, take his Goyf, he paths it in response and we play staredown while he looks for Burn and I look for counters. With him at 5, he plays a Dark Confidant, I say "sure", he passes. I draw, pass, discard Smother. He looks confused, reveals Negate with Confidant, goes to 3. He goes to attack, turns his dude sideways, I Bolt his face, he plays Snap-Bolt, I Cryptic, he Negates, I Snare.
G3 I stabilize at 14 life and play 2 Shackles for a Voice and a Goyf. Turn 'em sideways 3 times, game.
R6: UWR Control
I fail to hit my land drops and die. Frustrating.
For reference, this is what I'm considering:
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Mistbind Clique
2 Spell Snare
3 Mana Leak
2 Cryptic Command
2 Vedalken Shackles
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Firespout
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Smother
1 Go for the Throat
1 Terminate
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
3 Darkslick Shores
1 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Island
1 Mountain
2 Swamp
2 Tectonic Edge
Wild Nacatl
Preordain
Chrome Mox
Bitterblossom
Golgari Grave-Troll
Green Sun's Zenith
Bans:
Dryad Arbor
Goryo's Vengeance
Basically, Nacatl is fine, everyone knows that. Except the DCI. Hope they learned that.
Preordain would be fine. Without Seething Song, Storm is a non-factor and pure Combo Twin is badly positioned against BGx and I doubt it's too good against UWR. Preordain would only advance fair blue decks.
GGT is a fine card, Dredge is not a real deck and there is no Dread Return. Just unban it already.
Bitterblossom is risky, but I think that the meta could handle a bunch of Faerie tokens at the moment and Fae would be an enrichment to the format.
Green Sun's Zenith is probably the riskiest card I'm suggesting, but I still think it's fine - under the condition that Dryad Arbor gets banned. What breaks GSZ is the ability to be a mana dork for 1 mana and a threat for more, being live all game and the best card in any green deck. Removing Dryad Arbor would get it back to where it should be - a tutor for random silver bullets.
Chrome Mox is fine under the condition that Goryo's Vengeance gets banned, otherwise that deck could kill you on turn 1. It can already kill people somewhat reliably on turn 2 and turn 3 is it's regular goldfish, from what I've noticed. Banning GV and bringing in Mox would enable a Thirst for Knowledge fueled Control deck, possibly featuring Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. It would speed up Twin, but I doubt they want more speed.
You have to be prepared for all 3, if you're not, you hopefully don't expect to take down any major event. They are the corner stones of the format now.
If you can't beat at least 2 of them, stay at home.
I didn't have much luck after R1 today, went 1-5, playing against some fringe decks and insane topdecks. Still, managed to munch someone's board with a Massacre Wurm, so...
Legacy is a much less aggressive format, though. While this sort of comparison is neat, they don't get us anywhere, as the formats are incrementally different.
Next up, I believe that if there's a deck that could utilize Primalcrux, it's this. The Heartmenders seem a bit cute and I reckon you'd need 1 at max.
Yeah, that's me.
Let's just say that the Sundering Titans were a horrible decision, as there was a whole lot of Merfolk and not the decks I'd want them against (like, pretty much everything else).
The deck was very hit or miss, I pretty much stomped everyone in this tournament and in the next I went 0-3 Drop because I didn't draw what I needed.
The Trash for Treasure would be a good idea if UWR was a factor in the metagame (and I'd be running Boseiju MD again), but as it stands, it should be something else. Something that digs.