With all the talk about a green splash for Abrupt Decay, Why not add Ancient Stirrings. It's basically like Activating Tezzeret's +1 for a single Green.
I play more tron than any man probably should. Matchups i feel are impossible to lose
1. Melira
2. Merfolk
3. Non RG Tron
4. Soul Sisters
5. UW Midrange (Non red)
Unwinnable matchups include
1. Scapeshift
2. Splinter Twin
The Infect vs Tron isn't nearly as bad as people believe. Post board you have Spellskite to start and sometimes Sudden Shock/Dismember. That matchup isn't great but it certainly isn't 99/1. I mean i 2-0'd Infect at GP toronto 2012 To start day 2.
Just read 20+ pages worth of posts. Here's what I've gathered.
No one likes jund.
Abrupt decay is uncounterable (News @ 11)
Deathrite Shaman is a Mistake.
Mental Misstep invalidated 1 drops as a thing. No one even bothered to mention that some decks have 16-20 1 drop's in them (Tron, Twin, Jund).
Jace costs money / people are butthurt
Sword of the Meek is to slow and half the common played hate indirectly invalidates it because of splash damage from other decks. (Stony Silence/Rest in Peace)
Preordain is so good in twin that other decks wouldn't be able to compete and it wouldn't be worth tossing control decks a bone. (Funny..it's almost like everyone forgot about the pages and pages of abrupt decay is too good it's uncounterable but quickly decided twin would be the best deck N/A because a cantrip was unbanned...awkward..)
Golgari Grave Troll still gets no love even when half the things that make it busted in legacy aren't things in modern (Free LED Mana, busted dredge card draw like breakthrough and cephalid coliseum, The ability to flip over ichorids, Cabal Therapy...)
Wild Nacatl attacks and blocks.
Green Sun's Zenith has no negative repercussions on the current metagame according to all pod players.
No one even brought up Hypergenesis without so much as posting a decklist that showcases how broken it is, it just gets ignored. But think about Hypergenesis. Yes. It is in fact a show and tell. However you can't play 1-2 mana spells in this deck because you want to cascade into hypergenesis. So their is a chance it is as inconsistent as it is powerful. Probably should remained banned incase of future mistakes printed that may enable it, But if you're going to discredit a card, please post a deck list and explain how it negatively effects modern.
No one cares about ponder.
Stoneforge Mystic still wins games...
Dread Return is about as busted as Unburial Rites is in this current format... Aaaaaaand....0 copies of Unburial rites are found in most recent decklists seeing as Ooze and Shaman have pushed most graveyard cards right out of the format.
Bloodbraid elf got banned...people have mixed opinions. This just in - Until severe unbannings happen you're not getting bloodbraid back. Give every other deck a bone and you can have your 3/2 hasted 2 for 1's back. The banlist is the reason This card was banned. Not Jund being to good.
Basically how they ban cards for modern sounds like this..
"Is it like a mediocre card?"
"Yes."
"Ban It"
References for previous statement - Please look at ban list and notice cards like ponder preordain seething song sword of the meek etc. All mediocre cards...All banned because they're too good in modern.
tl;dr - The modern ban list is why your favorite card is banned and their's nothing you can do about it except complain.
Judging by the cards posted on page 1 that jund folds to, Many of them are just good creatures in good colors. I'm sure their is a Bant deck waiting to be discovered.
Just played vs UWR --> Sowing salt my mine, I GQd the mine. SOme turns later he Snapcastered the salt back, quadruple bolted my only wurmcoil and countered my Karns. I utterly hate that matchup.
On a more cheerful note, though, I pulled off a Karn ultimate vs a very weird BR deck running Chandra Nalaar.
EDIT: BTW I was revisiting the OP, just wanted to check something. In order to kill 'goyfs off a pyroclasm, we need to crack the relic in response to 'clasm right? Or tap, in case an activation suffices to bring goyf's toughness down to 2.
Gotta save dat relic for that situation my friend. Experience will pay off, keep at it.
Faith's Reward doesn't work at all against Sowing Salt, the land's exiled after all.
There is that one dork that ganks stuff from exile and plops it back into the game in some fashion when it enters the battlefield, but that's kinda janky and Edge of Autumn's better off doing the job of turning an attempt to Lobotomize tronlands into some shred of value for you.
I said it pages ago and will say it again. Surgical Extraction is the best answer to combat Land Destruction. They cast it once, it's gone for good. No more Bull****. 1 Fulminator mage does not kill you. Same goes for Tec edges, ghost quarters etc etc. Surgical also has the upside of hitting all the Cryptic Commands out of UWR to make all your spells ALWAYS resolve on top of screwing with snapcaster mage. Also good against Pod. ALSO good against Tron mirror because of ghost quarter surgical interactions.
Surgical Extraction is the best Anti-LD Spell in modern for tron.
Now, Anti-sowing salt....They need to print an enchantment that says Lands have Hexproof or play a card that will stop the ability. The best 3 cards for stoping sowing salt is
1. Ghost Quarter (Hope to still have your basic forest in deck)
2. Faith's Reward (Narrow, wouldn't advise)
3. Edge of Autumn. (People are starting to play this on MTGO now, Myself Included. When it works, It's golden...Full rub ins when you cycle into the land you sacked)
I Recently 3-1'd a Daily event with this version of Tron. I put RG away for the daily event and sleeved up this 75 because of the increasing number of combo and midrange decks on magic online. I hadn't seen affinity in over 2 weeks and had played against scapeshift 3 times. I Realized i boarded clasm out almost every round and the red was completely unnecessary.
The theory i had with this deck going into the event is that decks are already soft to wurmcoil engine, so why not just play academy ruins and never run out of it. Jund especially cannot combat Academy Ruins + Wurmcoil. Against Combo and UWR You basically have unlimited mindslaver to burn them out or combo them out essentially.
TEMPLE OF MYSTERY
This card was an all star, was never disappointed to see it in my opener despite coming in tapped. They help dig and are just strictly better then breeding pool or basic island for academy ruins with the upside of also being able to cast your green spells.
MISRHA'S BAUBLE
It was basically a free cantrip to replace the draw a card off relic of progenitus. You don't want to nuke all graveyards when you're an academy ruins deck. Also just playing this out turn 1 and looking at their top card lets you generally know what deck you're up against so you can sequence your plays accordingly.
I said i did 3-1, so let's go over the matches.
ROUND 1. RG Tron
When he went Tower map go. I admit i felt like an underdog with the Temple tower scrying hand. And as you could guess. I lost to turn 3 Karn. Off to sideboarding. I boarded in Ghost Quarters, Negates, Surgical extractions and boarded out All is Dusts and Oblivion Stones. Games 2 and 3 i negated karn, surgical extracted a tron land i had ghost quartered and rode karn to victory.
Match Win 2-1
Round 2. Affinity
I kept excellent hands both games 1 and 2. Lost 2-0. He basically had the turn 3 kill both games. The one thing i took from this was - His draw was so good both games i'm not even sure pyroclasm would have changed anything if i was playing RG Tron. He had turn 1 3 guys + Overseer on the play. This is also the matchup you don't want to play against when you cut pyroclasm for anti combo cards. I was lucky enough to get some experience playing against it though. Going forward would Recommend Hurkyls Recall or Aetherize in sideboard to complement the Natures Claims.
Match Loss 2-0
Round 3. RG Tron
This time the tron opponent was on the draw vs my turn 3 karn. Easy Game. Game 2, i went Tower Egg go, Power plant go your karn on the stack sack egg add blue (Drew mine) Negate your karn. Surgical Extract Your karns. Untap Mine Karn -3 Eat a land. GG. This time out was quite easy compared to round 1. I had turn 3 karn each game and game 2 had the counter magic to stop his.
Match win 2-0
Round 4. Melira Pod
Games 1 was the generic tron win. Play O stone, Nuke board, resolve karn and wurmcoil game over. Game 2 was where the Mindslaver plan got to shine On his 5th turn he tapped out for Ranger of Eos + Pod activation
He searched up Seer deathrite shaman...podded away his on board Seer for Melira with redcap and Eos out. Passed the turn tapped out. I mindslavered him and made him combo kill himself
Seer + Melira + Redcap
Match Win 2-0
Overall i was 3-1 for the event and games were about 6-3. At times i felt like i was doing something weaker then RG tron without the inevitability of Emrakul, But their were times where i just won a match i had no chance of doing with emrakul.
Before AND After that said daily event i took my deck to the practice room and tested against randoms. One guy was playing a Junk deck, another guy was playing Chapins Grixis deck from Detroit. Overall i enjoyed playing it, would play again.
Hatebears is practically a bye now, and uwr can't rely on path and burn spells to close you out. Also you get more Grindy threats vs Jund. Overall it's been working fantastically.
I actually made a uwr player deck himself in the modern premier a few days ago by gaining 10 life and extracting all his relevant spells and combusting all his threats. Felt so good. He even double sowing salted me and I won. Felt awesome.
What are the good, bad, and mediocre matchups for RG Tron? I'm thinking about getting the deck, but the matchup section of the primer only has 5 decks in it.
Everything is to a degree favourable except for splintertwin scapeshift and hate bears.
Food for Thought.
1. Melira
2. Merfolk
3. Non RG Tron
4. Soul Sisters
5. UW Midrange (Non red)
Unwinnable matchups include
1. Scapeshift
2. Splinter Twin
The Infect vs Tron isn't nearly as bad as people believe. Post board you have Spellskite to start and sometimes Sudden Shock/Dismember. That matchup isn't great but it certainly isn't 99/1. I mean i 2-0'd Infect at GP toronto 2012 To start day 2.
Jund is also VERY favorable.
Syke, everyone would still complain about green black, fetchlands, and whatever else comes from that.
No one likes jund.
Abrupt decay is uncounterable (News @ 11)
Deathrite Shaman is a Mistake.
Mental Misstep invalidated 1 drops as a thing. No one even bothered to mention that some decks have 16-20 1 drop's in them (Tron, Twin, Jund).
Jace costs money / people are butthurt
Sword of the Meek is to slow and half the common played hate indirectly invalidates it because of splash damage from other decks. (Stony Silence/Rest in Peace)
Preordain is so good in twin that other decks wouldn't be able to compete and it wouldn't be worth tossing control decks a bone. (Funny..it's almost like everyone forgot about the pages and pages of abrupt decay is too good it's uncounterable but quickly decided twin would be the best deck N/A because a cantrip was unbanned...awkward..)
Golgari Grave Troll still gets no love even when half the things that make it busted in legacy aren't things in modern (Free LED Mana, busted dredge card draw like breakthrough and cephalid coliseum, The ability to flip over ichorids, Cabal Therapy...)
Wild Nacatl attacks and blocks.
Green Sun's Zenith has no negative repercussions on the current metagame according to all pod players.
No one even brought up Hypergenesis without so much as posting a decklist that showcases how broken it is, it just gets ignored. But think about Hypergenesis. Yes. It is in fact a show and tell. However you can't play 1-2 mana spells in this deck because you want to cascade into hypergenesis. So their is a chance it is as inconsistent as it is powerful. Probably should remained banned incase of future mistakes printed that may enable it, But if you're going to discredit a card, please post a deck list and explain how it negatively effects modern.
No one cares about ponder.
Stoneforge Mystic still wins games...
Dread Return is about as busted as Unburial Rites is in this current format... Aaaaaaand....0 copies of Unburial rites are found in most recent decklists seeing as Ooze and Shaman have pushed most graveyard cards right out of the format.
Bloodbraid elf got banned...people have mixed opinions. This just in - Until severe unbannings happen you're not getting bloodbraid back. Give every other deck a bone and you can have your 3/2 hasted 2 for 1's back. The banlist is the reason This card was banned. Not Jund being to good.
Basically how they ban cards for modern sounds like this..
"Is it like a mediocre card?"
"Yes."
"Ban It"
References for previous statement - Please look at ban list and notice cards like ponder preordain seething song sword of the meek etc. All mediocre cards...All banned because they're too good in modern.
tl;dr - The modern ban list is why your favorite card is banned and their's nothing you can do about it except complain.
Gotta save dat relic for that situation my friend. Experience will pay off, keep at it.
Faiths Shield**** from dark acension...my bad.
Surgical Extraction is the best Anti-LD Spell in modern for tron.
Now, Anti-sowing salt....They need to print an enchantment that says Lands have Hexproof or play a card that will stop the ability. The best 3 cards for stoping sowing salt is
1. Ghost Quarter (Hope to still have your basic forest in deck)
2. Faith's Reward (Narrow, wouldn't advise)
3. Edge of Autumn. (People are starting to play this on MTGO now, Myself Included. When it works, It's golden...Full rub ins when you cycle into the land you sacked)
Ding
1x Academy Ruins
4x Urza's Power Plant
4x Urza's Mine
4x Urza's Tower
1x Island
1x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
4x Temple of Mystery
Spells - 37
3x Mindslaver
4x Karn Liberated
2x All Is Dust
4x Oblivion Stone
4x Sylvan Scrying
4x Expedition Map
4x Mishra's Bauble
4x Chromatic Sphere
4x Chromatic Star
4x Ancient Stirrings
Creatures - 3
3x Wurmcoil Engine
Sideboard - 15
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Spellskite
4x Nature's claim
1x Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre
2x Ghost Quarter
3x Negate
I Recently 3-1'd a Daily event with this version of Tron. I put RG away for the daily event and sleeved up this 75 because of the increasing number of combo and midrange decks on magic online. I hadn't seen affinity in over 2 weeks and had played against scapeshift 3 times. I Realized i boarded clasm out almost every round and the red was completely unnecessary.
The theory i had with this deck going into the event is that decks are already soft to wurmcoil engine, so why not just play academy ruins and never run out of it. Jund especially cannot combat Academy Ruins + Wurmcoil. Against Combo and UWR You basically have unlimited mindslaver to burn them out or combo them out essentially.
TEMPLE OF MYSTERY
This card was an all star, was never disappointed to see it in my opener despite coming in tapped. They help dig and are just strictly better then breeding pool or basic island for academy ruins with the upside of also being able to cast your green spells.
MISRHA'S BAUBLE
It was basically a free cantrip to replace the draw a card off relic of progenitus. You don't want to nuke all graveyards when you're an academy ruins deck. Also just playing this out turn 1 and looking at their top card lets you generally know what deck you're up against so you can sequence your plays accordingly.
I said i did 3-1, so let's go over the matches.
ROUND 1. RG Tron
When he went Tower map go. I admit i felt like an underdog with the Temple tower scrying hand. And as you could guess. I lost to turn 3 Karn. Off to sideboarding. I boarded in Ghost Quarters, Negates, Surgical extractions and boarded out All is Dusts and Oblivion Stones. Games 2 and 3 i negated karn, surgical extracted a tron land i had ghost quartered and rode karn to victory.
Match Win 2-1
Round 2. Affinity
I kept excellent hands both games 1 and 2. Lost 2-0. He basically had the turn 3 kill both games. The one thing i took from this was - His draw was so good both games i'm not even sure pyroclasm would have changed anything if i was playing RG Tron. He had turn 1 3 guys + Overseer on the play. This is also the matchup you don't want to play against when you cut pyroclasm for anti combo cards. I was lucky enough to get some experience playing against it though. Going forward would Recommend Hurkyls Recall or Aetherize in sideboard to complement the Natures Claims.
Match Loss 2-0
Round 3. RG Tron
This time the tron opponent was on the draw vs my turn 3 karn. Easy Game. Game 2, i went Tower Egg go, Power plant go your karn on the stack sack egg add blue (Drew mine) Negate your karn. Surgical Extract Your karns. Untap Mine Karn -3 Eat a land. GG. This time out was quite easy compared to round 1. I had turn 3 karn each game and game 2 had the counter magic to stop his.
Match win 2-0
Round 4. Melira Pod
Games 1 was the generic tron win. Play O stone, Nuke board, resolve karn and wurmcoil game over. Game 2 was where the Mindslaver plan got to shine On his 5th turn he tapped out for Ranger of Eos + Pod activation
He searched up Seer deathrite shaman...podded away his on board Seer for Melira with redcap and Eos out. Passed the turn tapped out. I mindslavered him and made him combo kill himself
Seer + Melira + Redcap
Match Win 2-0
Overall i was 3-1 for the event and games were about 6-3. At times i felt like i was doing something weaker then RG tron without the inevitability of Emrakul, But their were times where i just won a match i had no chance of doing with emrakul.
Before AND After that said daily event i took my deck to the practice room and tested against randoms. One guy was playing a Junk deck, another guy was playing Chapins Grixis deck from Detroit. Overall i enjoyed playing it, would play again.
4 combust
4 natures claim
3 surgical extraction
3 thragtusk
1 wurmcoil engine
Hatebears is practically a bye now, and uwr can't rely on path and burn spells to close you out. Also you get more Grindy threats vs Jund. Overall it's been working fantastically.
I actually made a uwr player deck himself in the modern premier a few days ago by gaining 10 life and extracting all his relevant spells and combusting all his threats. Felt so good. He even double sowing salted me and I won. Felt awesome.
Everything is to a degree favourable except for splintertwin scapeshift and hate bears.