Hi guys I'm new to this forum, but I've always read your posts to learn competitive magic. Now there's my question. I'm already running a pretty much standard budget mono G infect list. Since I am on a little budget, only expensive part I can afford right now are the three Inkmoth Nexus I'm missing. I know there are some ways to go UG on a budget (like that land that taps G or U if you pay one life), so the real question is: should I start going on UG the budget way, building it slowly in his "final form" or would I be more competitive going 4 cathedrals mono G version of the deck?
Thanks for the answers
I think you can skimp on the land base as long as you adjust your maindeck accordingly. So if you are playing yavimaya coast, forests, islands and some hinterland harbor, just cut down on Become Immense and Groundswell since they work best with fetchlands. If you're not playing Become Immense, then you can cut some gitaxian probe (and maybe even some mutagenic growth as well). Add other pump spells and protection like Ranger's Guile and Giant Growth.
New to Infect (and fairly new to Modern). I was running the stock Pantheon list for about a week now with a lot of success. I like how the deck forces your opponent to have the answer all the time, and they just lose if they don't. I have had the most trouble with Lingering Souls, as slogging through the tokens is a real pain.
They have been so prevalent and annoying that I added a pair of Windstorm to my SB. Has anyone else tried that out?
Rancor might be a more versatile answer than windstorm?
Hi! I'm using 4 cards with CMC 4: 2x lieges, 1 ajani steadfast and 1 flex slot, and I'm in doubt of what the best option to fill this place: linvala, restoration angel, another liege, baneslayer angel or the new High Sentinels of Arashin (good with kitchen finks, can grow our bears and himself). What do you suggest?
Depends on the rest of your list? Sounds like you're running finks so maybe baneslayer isn't necessary. Elspeth, Knight-Errant is good if you have trouble with control, as is Thrun. It's hard to say without seeing what your other 71 cards look like.
I haven't play tested this deck at all so take this for what it's worth but my initial thought is to play 3-4 abrupt decay and replace razorverge thickets with horizon canopies for some late game card draw. The damage more than made up by finks and rhino I think. But perhaps sacrificing lands is not what you want to do when trying to activate gavony townships.
I would argue that those decklists should not have been posted here in the first place but there was just no other place to put them as "Abzan Aggro" wasn't something that had put up results before.
I'm in the camp that thinks it is a different deck, even if it means starting a new Abzan Aggro thread in Tier 2 and keeping GW Hatebears in developmental. I like a thread to discuss creatures with hate effects and hate cards that can be tailored to a specific metagame. Siege Rhino/kitchen finks/wilt-leaf liege I think of as excellent midrange cards that I don't consider particularly 'hateful'.
When I think hatebears I think thalia, teeg, mindcensor, arbiter, hushwing gryff, voice etc.
Congrats balrog on the 2nd place finish! I've always thought hatebears was viable with a good pilot and you've proven that
I haven't tried Brimaz myself but I did play against it in a dead guy ale list last week and you're right about the vigilance tokens -- they are very good chump blockers that make combat terrible for anything without trample. I've also gotten blown out by sideboard Hibernations so a couple more white creatures wouldn't hurt. I would cut 4x qasali pridemage down to 2x just like you but I'm afraid I will miss the exalted triggers too much, but it would make the deck more resilient to pyroclasm/anger.
I never liked Teeg because of how narrow and fragile it seemed but with BFT instead of firewalkers you might be right that he's worth playing. The main decks that Teeg is good against won't have a way to kill it (red sweepers or wraths).
At this point in the meta I think hushwing gryff is better than mindcensor. Without pod, mindcensors have been pretty subpar in my opinion and not even that great against scapeshift as they usually have a way to deal with it. Using your g2 vs scapeshift as an example, you drew all 3 mindcensors and it was close enough that they were able to top deck a win.
@Xardian7 I'd be uncomfortable running 6 fetches with arbiters. Siege rhino is good but if you may want to just play a Junk deck if you're going to splash black with fetches. 9 black sources doesn't seem enough imo.
Seems okay. I don't like dismember because it pretty much always costs 4 life which does not seem good to me in any matchup. The rest of the deck seems fine but what is the reason for cutting Thalia? I run 3 Thalia with 2 planeswalkers without much issue -- it usually hurts them more than it hurts us.
Graveyard hate has hardly vanished so I don't quite see the logic in how those decks would all of a sudden be better. Banking on people playing less of it in the side seems a bit risky seeing as there was plenty pre delve anyway.
In other news I have been consistently doing well in local fnm's among the tier 1 decks and I only expect it to get better as delve is gone. I am considering a 1 or 2 of mirran crusader in the 75 due to rhino being such a beating. Thoughts?
I have always found Mirran Crusader to be relevant. For a while he was a 3-of maindeck but has been 2-of sideboard pre-banning. Definitely worth it in the 75 as it is the only thing that we have that can profitably block siege rhino unless you're playing baneslayer or sigarda top end. Lingering souls is its worst enemy -- Sometimes I wish it didn't have pro-green at all so I could put Rancor on it.
Go look further back in this thead, I have posts dating back a long time, played hatebears for over a year, and got really sick of it. I never played the deck without canopies, and now have none.
I think he just meant "Sure, you can play it without canopies."
On another note, in my local meta, people have been talking about Living End and dredgevine becoming solid choices going forward. Also saw someone brewing a Haakon, Stromgald Scourge dredge deck with lingering souls, knight of the reliquary, nameless inversion, gravecrawler etc. for a lot of value. Rest in Peace might become a 2-of again in my sideboard.
Matches
UWR Twin: 1-1 draw.
Burn: 2-0 win.
Amulet Bloom: 2-1 win
Living End/Moon: 0-2 loss
Little kid junk: 2-1 win
Top 4 in 2nd place.
Little kid junk: 2-1 win
Burn: 2-0 win
Will add a more detailed report later.
I think you can skimp on the land base as long as you adjust your maindeck accordingly. So if you are playing yavimaya coast, forests, islands and some hinterland harbor, just cut down on Become Immense and Groundswell since they work best with fetchlands. If you're not playing Become Immense, then you can cut some gitaxian probe (and maybe even some mutagenic growth as well). Add other pump spells and protection like Ranger's Guile and Giant Growth.
It actually came 44th. SCG's deck tech have a bug that always says the deck placed 1st.
Rancor might be a more versatile answer than windstorm?
Depends on the rest of your list? Sounds like you're running finks so maybe baneslayer isn't necessary. Elspeth, Knight-Errant is good if you have trouble with control, as is Thrun. It's hard to say without seeing what your other 71 cards look like.
When I think hatebears I think thalia, teeg, mindcensor, arbiter, hushwing gryff, voice etc.
I don't see Jacob's list as a hatebears/junk hybrid at all. It looks entirely Junk to me.
I haven't tried Brimaz myself but I did play against it in a dead guy ale list last week and you're right about the vigilance tokens -- they are very good chump blockers that make combat terrible for anything without trample. I've also gotten blown out by sideboard Hibernations so a couple more white creatures wouldn't hurt. I would cut 4x qasali pridemage down to 2x just like you but I'm afraid I will miss the exalted triggers too much, but it would make the deck more resilient to pyroclasm/anger.
I never liked Teeg because of how narrow and fragile it seemed but with BFT instead of firewalkers you might be right that he's worth playing. The main decks that Teeg is good against won't have a way to kill it (red sweepers or wraths).
At this point in the meta I think hushwing gryff is better than mindcensor. Without pod, mindcensors have been pretty subpar in my opinion and not even that great against scapeshift as they usually have a way to deal with it. Using your g2 vs scapeshift as an example, you drew all 3 mindcensors and it was close enough that they were able to top deck a win.
@Xardian7 I'd be uncomfortable running 6 fetches with arbiters. Siege rhino is good but if you may want to just play a Junk deck if you're going to splash black with fetches. 9 black sources doesn't seem enough imo.
Your deck won't be as good but it'll be playable. The exalted triggers make a huge difference.
I have always found Mirran Crusader to be relevant. For a while he was a 3-of maindeck but has been 2-of sideboard pre-banning. Definitely worth it in the 75 as it is the only thing that we have that can profitably block siege rhino unless you're playing baneslayer or sigarda top end. Lingering souls is its worst enemy -- Sometimes I wish it didn't have pro-green at all so I could put Rancor on it.
I think he just meant "Sure, you can play it without canopies."
On another note, in my local meta, people have been talking about Living End and dredgevine becoming solid choices going forward. Also saw someone brewing a Haakon, Stromgald Scourge dredge deck with lingering souls, knight of the reliquary, nameless inversion, gravecrawler etc. for a lot of value. Rest in Peace might become a 2-of again in my sideboard.