I can share some thoughts on card choices and my game plan for the top 3 match ups. By no means is this correct though.
Right now I am set on 11 cards in my sideboard. I am not a fan of transgress right now because the 2 major decks you want it against, G/B and Four color, have so many powerful cards that even removing one, they will just top deck another and be back in the game. Liliana, the Last Hope seems sweet in theory, but as the mardu decks evolve away from one toughness creatures, and more ballista's, it has gotten even weaker. To the slaughter should be something else as its hard to hit delirium.
Match up's
So game one's I want to almost always beat down fast as possible. hence why I only have 1 disintegration.
Mardu (on the play, a favorite. On the draw, hope they don't curve out.)
After game one, I want to become the control deck. I have the inevitability here. To get to that game, so I board out:
If I see Avacyn,I would cut the bloodhall priest and something else for the 2 disintegration's.
Scroungers can't block, so they are out. Besides their nut tempo draws, heart, Thalia and gideon are the only cards that matter,(Avacyn would be on this list) and at times, gideon can be ignored. I throw the spirit token from haunted dead in the way to perverse my life total often, but at times, you need it around for pariah. Speaking of which, they only have 4 Unlicensed Disintegration and a ballista to interact with pariah game one, after board, they may get one of 2 more cards, but if they are leaving mana up, they are not developing their board.
For G/b aggro (hard match up, even worse if they have ishkannah and kalitas, grim flayer (because of trample)
Last season, the delirium match up was the worse. Now though, they are tapping out for gearhulk and right into Pariah. Walking ballista is a real threat here because of how big it can get quickly. It can clean up a lot of the work you are doing, so its a fight.
then depending on what I've seen, I fill out the rest with transgress(if ishkanah/kalitas present, all transgress on the play) and/or a release the gremlin's. Release might sound strange, but it deals with an 8/8 gearhulk (how you often loose) or can at least get rid of a ballista before it grows.
You need your opponent to keep a heavy control hand. They are the beat down in this match, but if they don't realize that, you have a chance.
4 color cat combo
This one is hard as there is so much variation with this deck, its hard to say. Its still a work-in-progress for me for this match up.
Clearly the following come in.
The beauty is this deck can play the flash game, so we dont have to tap out on our turn. Sadly, they can handle 1 disruption spell, with ease.**
I like legacy's lost as when it resolves, you now can play a better long game with the recursion.
Transgress typically suck because I swear whatever piece you take, they will draw it off the top.
Bloodhall should probably stay in as a great threat.
** game one during my quarter finals opponent, I flipped 2 pariahs, (and one 2 turns before) and casted a bloodhall (with trigger) in 1 turn to shut him off the combo, but he had cat #3 to still combo off that turn.
Hello all,
First time posting in this thread but not running Black/Red zombies. I have been jamming the deck since last season and seeing as it just qualified me for another RPTQ yesterday, I figured I 'd share some insight. By no means am I a master of the deck, which has been the appeal for me to continue running it. There are a lot of lines of play to it, that even games you win, you still feel you could have done better. This deck is about sequencing it's cards for set ups a few turns down the road, so you have to enjoy that line of play, and become proficient with it. Choosing which land to play turn 1 matters.
The best part is this deck is a sweet secret weapon in the current meta, with the decline of black/ green and mardu going mid-range.
So for starters, my list.
A lot of people thought this deck died with the banning of copter, but I was already considering cutting them well before the ban for more key to the city; or more appropriately named, Aether vial for this deck. It does it all.
So a few things on card choices:
3 Cathartic Reunion. This card is sweet early on, but its looses a lot of value in the mid-game as you often only have 2 cards in hand during your turn. Multiples suck unless you have the nuts Amalgam draws.
Only 1 Unlicensed Disintegration main. Of course the card is amazing, but its clunky at 3 mana and game 1's, your usually the beat down. There are more in the board for when you slow down games 2 and 3.
4 Voldaren Pariah! You run 4. You don't leave home without it. It is your comeback card and the best thing you have against B/G decks that don't have Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or Ishkanah, Grafwidow.
Speaking of which, these are the best cards against you. Last season, the B/G Delirium decks were virtually unbeatable for zombies. City to the key was key (lol) to having any game, but it still was an uphill battle. Now though, you might see 1 of each boarded in or someone living in last season who has one main. That person is very evil, so you must avoid them at all costs.
The other card that sucks for this deck is Declaration in stone, which sees no play. { } It's the best answer against the explosive draws.
3 key to the city. Its aether vial for your madness cards, a discard outlet for haunted dead, a draw engine, and making creatures unblockable happens from time to time.
the 3 1 of's are the flex slots. 1 Insolent Neonate, 1 bloodhall priest, 1 incendairy flow. neonate is another discard outlet,fuel for scounger and blocks well to give you time. I am trying the flow, but if b/g is popular, its will be a push. (which helps deal with heart). If I could run 5 Pariahs and not get DQ'd, I would without a doubt. But seeing as I can't, Bloodhall is Pariah number 5. Being 4 toughness is more relevant than the shock in a lot of games.
As for game play, the #1 goal is to get haunted dead in the graveyard. Almost any hand with a early discard and haunted dead is a keep.
The second plan is to survive till you have 5 mana in play, with 4 being black sources. this is the sweet spot, as it lets pariah do its magic between haunted dead and pack rat, wait I mean, Crypt breaker.
Of course there are games where crypt breaker just takes over or you get the prized draws. Most of my games though, Pariah is key.
If this was interesting to anyone, I can go more in depth on certain match ups, as well as get feedback on side boarding. It's by no means a cake walk (unless you get the haunted dead, double Prized Amalgam draws on turn 3*.) But the deck is a blast to play.
*brag post: I had the trips amalgam for the finals in the 3rd game.
It has to be almost certain that this card is reprinted in mm2. it came from a set that saw a lag in printing physical copies (thanks in part to mtgo)
Just the speculation alone is hold it's current price down. If it doesn't show up on the mm2 list, it will spike for sure.
It seems a lot of people are building this following the sorcery speed of reanimator, however, this combo has the ability to go over at instant speed with Necromancy. So shouldn't that be maxed out at 4, then 5-? be animate dead? With regard to this, we could go for a bit slower version, instead of all in and play more instants, like izzet charm which answers death rite, digs for/ discards dragon, and counters hate spell.
Yes, necro is a 3 drop, so we need sol lands or lotus pedal, but the ability to go off in response to our opponent playing anything is one of the reasons to play this instead of reanimator.
Whats the verdict on the prices of Liliana of the Veil, Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant? With a tier 1 deck gone with the banning of pod and no more massive blue draw spells; Junk, Tron and Affinity seem to be in a good spot
Still no response to this man's question. I'm curious as well. I think Goyf will continue to remain on a steady trend upward as this really has no effect on his playability however, I believe Bob will continue to steadily trend downwards as he has never really passed "the bolt test" and I'm sure he's not something you'll want on the field when you're up against Amulet decks which I think is gaining in popularity the most. I am mostly interested in Liliana's future as she was the most impacted by TC/Dig's printing.
Amulet gets a lot worse with black becoming popular again. Goyf, BOB, anf liliana's values were pointed downward, however, a resurgence of junk will change that for sure. And if this is the case, thought seize does a number on amulet. deck.
isn't Shambling Shell just a better dredge card than the troll? I'd say its even better the stinkweed imp as it digs (only 3 deep) for vengevine, it also enables grave crawler, as well as bridge from below. *assuming vengevine is included in the deck list
Dream Salvage was in the original list, but TC just seems....better.
On it's own, yes, but dream salvage allows for some sick effects off of dark deal/waste not. There are just no mana cards (lotus pedal/ chrome mox) in modern.
I played D cloud back during extended times when top was legal, and see it as the missing piece for modern d-cloud to be truly successful. With that said, I have been wondering if Cream of the Crop could be a replacement for card selection. This suggestion is for non-blue decks. With kitchen finks, you see up to 4 cards deep, Garruk is 3. Goyf, etc. it would mainly be used to filter to find the key card, d cloud.
too cute ( you could get cute and play terminus too ! just kidding)
Right now I am set on 11 cards in my sideboard. I am not a fan of transgress right now because the 2 major decks you want it against, G/B and Four color, have so many powerful cards that even removing one, they will just top deck another and be back in the game. Liliana, the Last Hope seems sweet in theory, but as the mardu decks evolve away from one toughness creatures, and more ballista's, it has gotten even weaker. To the slaughter should be something else as its hard to hit delirium.
Match up's
So game one's I want to almost always beat down fast as possible. hence why I only have 1 disintegration.
Mardu (on the play, a favorite. On the draw, hope they don't curve out.)
After game one, I want to become the control deck. I have the inevitability here. To get to that game, so I board out:
For
If I see Avacyn,I would cut the bloodhall priest and something else for the 2 disintegration's.
Scroungers can't block, so they are out. Besides their nut tempo draws, heart, Thalia and gideon are the only cards that matter,(Avacyn would be on this list) and at times, gideon can be ignored. I throw the spirit token from haunted dead in the way to perverse my life total often, but at times, you need it around for pariah. Speaking of which, they only have 4 Unlicensed Disintegration and a ballista to interact with pariah game one, after board, they may get one of 2 more cards, but if they are leaving mana up, they are not developing their board.
For G/b aggro (hard match up, even worse if they have ishkannah and kalitas, grim flayer (because of trample)
Last season, the delirium match up was the worse. Now though, they are tapping out for gearhulk and right into Pariah. Walking ballista is a real threat here because of how big it can get quickly. It can clean up a lot of the work you are doing, so its a fight.
I board out
I, for sure bring in:
then depending on what I've seen, I fill out the rest with transgress(if ishkanah/kalitas present, all transgress on the play) and/or a release the gremlin's. Release might sound strange, but it deals with an 8/8 gearhulk (how you often loose) or can at least get rid of a ballista before it grows.
You need your opponent to keep a heavy control hand. They are the beat down in this match, but if they don't realize that, you have a chance.
4 color cat combo
This one is hard as there is so much variation with this deck, its hard to say. Its still a work-in-progress for me for this match up.
Clearly the following come in.
I would cut the following:
The beauty is this deck can play the flash game, so we dont have to tap out on our turn. Sadly, they can handle 1 disruption spell, with ease.**
I like legacy's lost as when it resolves, you now can play a better long game with the recursion.
Transgress typically suck because I swear whatever piece you take, they will draw it off the top.
Bloodhall should probably stay in as a great threat.
** game one during my quarter finals opponent, I flipped 2 pariahs, (and one 2 turns before) and casted a bloodhall (with trigger) in 1 turn to shut him off the combo, but he had cat #3 to still combo off that turn.
First time posting in this thread but not running Black/Red zombies. I have been jamming the deck since last season and seeing as it just qualified me for another RPTQ yesterday, I figured I 'd share some insight. By no means am I a master of the deck, which has been the appeal for me to continue running it. There are a lot of lines of play to it, that even games you win, you still feel you could have done better. This deck is about sequencing it's cards for set ups a few turns down the road, so you have to enjoy that line of play, and become proficient with it. Choosing which land to play turn 1 matters.
The best part is this deck is a sweet secret weapon in the current meta, with the decline of black/ green and mardu going mid-range.
So for starters, my list.
Sideboard
A lot of people thought this deck died with the banning of copter, but I was already considering cutting them well before the ban for more key to the city; or more appropriately named, Aether vial for this deck. It does it all.
So a few things on card choices:
As for game play, the #1 goal is to get haunted dead in the graveyard. Almost any hand with a early discard and haunted dead is a keep.
The second plan is to survive till you have 5 mana in play, with 4 being black sources. this is the sweet spot, as it lets pariah do its magic between haunted dead and pack rat, wait I mean, Crypt breaker.
Of course there are games where crypt breaker just takes over or you get the prized draws. Most of my games though, Pariah is key.
If this was interesting to anyone, I can go more in depth on certain match ups, as well as get feedback on side boarding. It's by no means a cake walk (unless you get the haunted dead, double Prized Amalgam draws on turn 3*.) But the deck is a blast to play.
*brag post: I had the trips amalgam for the finals in the 3rd game.
Just the speculation alone is hold it's current price down. If it doesn't show up on the mm2 list, it will spike for sure.
It's not for this deck. It does very little as there are few burn spells and it lacks synergy without a lot of burn spells
Yes, necro is a 3 drop, so we need sol lands or lotus pedal, but the ability to go off in response to our opponent playing anything is one of the reasons to play this instead of reanimator.
Amulet gets a lot worse with black becoming popular again. Goyf, BOB, anf liliana's values were pointed downward, however, a resurgence of junk will change that for sure. And if this is the case, thought seize does a number on amulet. deck.
On it's own, yes, but dream salvage allows for some sick effects off of dark deal/waste not. There are just no mana cards (lotus pedal/ chrome mox) in modern.
too cute ( you could get cute and play terminus too ! just kidding)