My current list:
1. I've come to the opinion that Spell Pierce does not deserve a place in our 75. We run less than a full playset, so it is unlikely we'll start with it in our opening hand. And even if we do manage to draw it in our starting seven, our opponent could easily just open with a bunch of creatures. Spell Pierce is total garbage as a late-game top deck, even worse than drawing that third aether vial. Pierce is nearly useless against Scapeshift, which I consider to be one of our toughest matchups.
Spell Piercing a turn-3 pod was pretty much the best thing Spell Pierce could do in Modern. Now that Pod is gone, Pierce has become that much worse.
When we play counterspells, we want them to hit more targets, more of the time. For this reason, I run a full playset of Negates in the side (hits Scapeshift, Planeswalkers, the last few burn spells that would normally have killed us...), and two Spell Snares in the side (specifically for Eidolon of the Great Revel, but pretty much every deck in Modern runs high-value 2-drop spells, so Snare is an excellent option).
We need all of our cards to be at least *good* (if not great) all the time. By running a starting 60 cards that have play against virtually all decks at virtually all times, we give ourselves the best chance for success.
2. For a similar reason (too situational), I no longer run Phantasmal Images at all. Sure, a lot of times he copies a lord and seems like the best possible card. But many other times you're just stuck with him in hand without any good things to copy. Or he gets blown out by a Pestermite or Electrolyze.
3. Chalice was amazing against the Delver/Cruise meta, but we have better answers against all the other decks. Don't get me wrong, I love Chalice and was one of its biggest proponents a month ago. But in a world of Siege Rhinos and Splinter Twins, Chalice is too often not pulling its weight. Yes, Chalice can help against Affinity, certainly one of our weakest matchups. But Hurkyl's Recall hits them harder, and also has a lot of value against Tron variants and the odd Tezzeret or Eggs deck. Chalice is terrible against Modern Burn, because they run so many 2-drops.
4. Master of Waves is clearly the card in our deck with the greatest ability to affect the board state by itself. After turn three, he is our best top deck. I disagree with running fewer than four.
5. Reejerey is often better than our Islandwalk lords, pumping our team while also allowing us to use our mana more efficiently by playing creatures AND leaving mana up to cast other spells on the opponents turn. Or he allows us to tap down our opponents' blockers when we don't have Islandwalk online. Again, I disagree with playing fewer than four.
6. With all the Abrupt Decays in the format, I'm convinced that Kira is a terrible choice (while Spellskite, if for Burn, Infect, and Twin alone, is an excellent choice - Spellskite is always the better card with Vial, as well). I've decided to run one Monastery Siege in the main, and it's been pretty great so far. It's almost an auto-win against Burn, since they're almost always on two, or, at most, three lands. It also makes Thoughtseizes and Inquisitions cost three mana, and Abrupt Decays cost four mana. The second copy in the board comes in against any deck that plays spells that target us or our stuff. Against decks that don't do that, the copy in the maindeck allows us to filter our draws every turn if we draw it game one, which is pretty amazing. Against Scapeshift, it helps us dig for our boarded-in counterspells.
7. A friend of mine has been learning Bloom Titan, so I've gotten some testing in against that deck. Bounce is obviously good, since it throws a Titan back to our opponent's hand after they tapped out to use their pump lands. Dismember is actually insane against Titan, because, even when fully pumped, he is a 3/1 double strike after Dismember. With a couple of lords out, we can just eat the Titan then. Vialing in a Tidebinder pre-combat to lock down a Titan is one of our best plays.
Until recently, I thought it was smart to board out all of our Spreading Seas against Bloom Titan, since they can so easily bounce their lands and kill our Seas. However, after testing, I've realized that we should keep in two Seas in games two and three. Bloom Titan sides in cards like Thragtusk and Hornet Queen to stall the board and gain time until they can piece together a Titan or Hive Mind kill. It's pretty typical in these games to have a board full of lords with no profitable attacks because of a bunch of deathtouch insects or Thragtusks/beast tokens blocking the way. For this reason, Spreading Seas is our worst card in the early game, but our best card in the late game.
Note - in game one, when you have all your Spreading Seas still in the deck, you should hold them until an opponent casts a Slaughter or Summoner's Pact. They'll often cast the pacts with exact colored mana (B or GG, respectively) to pay during their next upkeep. If you put a Seas on their green or black source, you can nab an easy win.
Spellskite can be great against Bloom Titan, because he can steel Sunhome and Stronghold activations, keeping attacking Titans at a reasonable size. I'm still not sure, however, how many Skites we want in the deck against Bloom Titan, because our main plan is still to beat face. Still testing.
Cursecatchers are indispensable, since we can sack them to counter a Hive Mind pact copy, and live to play another turn.
I think our plan shouldn't be to try to counter their Amulet or Summer Blooms, but to attempt to interact with Titan. Dismember and blocking often makes short work of him, and bouncing a Titan is often a Timewalk. Locking him down with a Tidebinder accomplishes both goals of slowing them down while beating them to death.
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Take out obliterate. Its win more. If you have omni In play why are you playing around with the board state. Use intuition over personal tutor. If he is hindering you with Madge on wish. Use intuition and win.
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I guess i was playing the trample rule wrong with multiple creatures blocking
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Not questioning how this rule applies...I'm talking about the rule change or whether this was the rule since the beginning.
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I don't remember this rule being in revised. Was this changed or was I playing it wrong
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I have a 5/5 trample. The other guy has a 1/1 and a 4/4. I always thought you can just trample over the 1/1 when blocking and not assign any damage to the 4/4.
When did this rule take place. I've been doing the old rule since revised....did i play this wrong all those years.
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You said it is warping the format...finding 4 total TNN in the top 8 decks is clearly NOT warping the format. Again you do not understand.
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I think he covered everything.
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SCG is loaded in inventory and dropping a format that nearly lets you play every single card is asinine.