2-1 vs Jund.
Won game 1 in a turn 2 kill. Game 2 I lost even though I had turn 1 blood moon - he just top decked basics. For game 3 I changed Moons to Chalices and got turn 1 chalice on 1. It was a grindy game which I won in the end via TTB.
2-1 vs Bogles.
I think on game 2 I played Chalice on 1 turn 1 on the play which kinda shutdown his plan completely. I also learned I do not get wurm tokens if there is a Rest In Peace on board.
2-1 vs Affinity.
Yeah he did not have interaction against me. Sideboarded in Anger of the God and Shattering Spree, out went Night's Whispers as they are too slow against that deck.
2-1 vs Mardu tokens(?).
What a match. He told me after the match he had 4x Surgical Extraction in the deck after sideboard and he did not find one. Oh well...
Sorry for a miserably low on detail report - I usually forget my opponents and sideboard things. It is just that the matches were so close (i.e. topdecked the win at 1 life against bogles) that it could have gone either way. I think hardest thing was to answer question "should I discard griselbrand if I dont have another fatty, goryo's or TTB?" in the matches, because I did not know which one was more likely to be drawn.
Round 1: 0-2 vs Jeskai Control (0-1)
Won the dice roll. First game I had to mulligan to 4 because my 7-card hand had 5 lands and 2 Goryo's Vengeance, 6-card hand had 4 lands, ramp and Borbobobo, 5-card hand was a no-lander. Well then my draw spells (Night's Whisper, Cathartic Reunion) got countered and lost the game for that. Game 2 I had a pretty decent start by getting Blood Moon at turn 2. However my opponent played turn 2 Snapcaster Mage to get a clock going, and turn before I could cast TTB into Wurmcoil, he played a Vendilion Clique (this was in response to my Defense Grid) and took the TTB out of my hand -> gg. Funny how he drew enough basic islands to do that trick.
Round 2: 2-1 vs Grishoalbrand (1-1)
Won the dice roll and turn 2 killed him in games 1 and 3. Felt kinda bad to face the only other Grishoalbrand deck in the house. We checked each others sideboards at the end of match to compare some stuff, he was playing 3x Chalice of the Void in the sideboard. I asked him if he is following this thread and he responsed that he does not.
Round 3: 2-1 vs Titan Scapeshift (2-1)
Game 1 maindeck Relic of Progenitus slowed me down a bit but TTB a Griselbrand and then while comboing off TTB the Borbobobo to get the win. Game 2 turn 4 TTB into Worldspine Wurm was not fast enough as he was 3 life and comboed off dealing me 54 damage. Game 3 I just turn 2'd him on the play, while his first turn was just to play a land tapped.
Round 4: 0-2 vs UR storm (2-2)
Game 1 I kept a decent hand and then drew only land and could not combo off before he did. Game 2 I mulled to 5, kept a 1-lander, used two scry effects to only trying to find a second land and did not find it. GG. At least the opponent was a friend of mine so we had some laughts about how his combo deck is a turn slower than mine but hell a lot more consistent.
Round 5: 0-2 vs Lantern Control (2-3)
Both games he got Ensnaring Bridge + Leyline of Sanctity lock on me. In game 2 he Thoughtseized my Shattering Spree and even though I could get a Griselbrand onto play, I could not get rid of his Ensnaring Bridge with another Shattering Spree because he had a Welding Jar active.
At this point I became salty and dropped from the tournament. I just hated the Lantern deck so much, I feel like we have to mulligan into turn 2 kill hand to kill him before he can get Ensnaring Bridge active. I'm probably going to take a break from Modern a while and prepare for Finnish Legacy Championships. But yeah all in all, I guess Chalice of the Void could have helped me in games I lost, maybe next time I find room for them in the sideboard.
Noxious Revival is a flexible card. You can grab a countered Goryo's Vengeance or Through the Breach with it in your opponent's end step. Or while comboing Nourishing Shoal if you are having a hard time to find another one while having the big wurm in hand for exile effect. It also itself can be exiled for Nourishing Shoal. Or you can mess up your opponent's Snapcaster Mage target with it.
I think the card is on the "fun flex slot" of the deck. I myself use Lightning Axe in that slot and I believe some people have Collective Brutality in that slot. Bob Huang's deck in GP Charlotte 2015 (top64 finish) used Noxious Revival in that slot.
I think the main deck looks something that I would also go for when trying to fit in Chart a Course and singleton Search for Azcanta (though I would not play the latter).
I am not totally sold on Chalice of the Void in sideboard with 8 important spells in main board to be shut down by chalice = 1, but to be honest I could never even realize why we wanted to play the card in BR either, because we also get hosed on chalice = 2 (vs storm) from our important spells. In which matchups you actually use chalice? Grixis Death Shadow and Burn seems like the only ones where I would side it in.
I would also try to fit Anger of the Gods into sideboard, because it works so well against all creature based decks.
Whats the status of Intant Reanimator in current meta? I have ran BR grishoalbrand in couple weekly tournaments at LGS with 2-2 records and I feel like it has quite a bit of consistency issues. Now I am wondering if the BR shoal version is still the most consistent version, or is for example blue splash for Serum Visions and Izzet Charm worth it? Then I would have to cut Blood Moon from sideboard. I am also thinking about the version which runns Griselbrand and Emrakul, with blue for cantrips and Remand.
Why I am thinking this stuff is that there is a larger tournament incoming and I might want run with Instant Reanimator, since that is the deck I am most comfortable with in Modern.
As an exploratory process, please feel free to chip in...
Turn 1 or 2 Griselbrand. *waves* We get a 14 card draw and he disappears, either from a Shallow Grave/Goryo's, Swords, Vindicate, Boomerang etc. etc.
Of a 14 card draw, I can expect on average a 2 mana ramp (Mox, Petal, etc.).
What possible win condition can we play for with 2 mana?
I think the secret is that you actually have 3 mana when you are doing this, either by attacking with Griselbrand (Shallow Grave / Goryo's Vengeance) and drawing 7 more cards or by hitting Dark Ritual. Then the fun begins. Entomb -> Children of Korlis -> reanimation efect to it -> sacrifice for life -> continue combo. Then we can win with either Tendrils of Agony (easy), or if we havent gone to combat yet we can instant reanimate Emrakul and hit for 22. Or we can continue to reanimate Children of Korlis, draw our whole deck, use all mana producting things, discard Emrakul, draw our deck again, continue this until we hardcast Emrakul n amount of times or until our opponent realizes he has lost. Tins Fins is a fun deck and you should check it out.
Or if we play reanimator they never get rid of Griselbrand because we just Force of Will / Daze all their removal spells and hit 7 per turn.
I feel a bit lost. I used to like aggro decks like Goblins and Bushwhacker Zoo, but now I want to play more interactive deck.
In Legacy I play mostly blue combo decks and Eldrazi. In German Highlander I play Abzan midrange. In Modern I do have Grishoalbrand and love it, but sometimes I want to play an interactive game. However, Legacy will always be my main format.
I guess I am looking at Eldrazi decks, BW Tokens, Grixis Control, Jeskai geist and Jund/Abzan. As what comes to deck prices, I don't mind spending money and trades to get what I want, however I feel like Jund/Abzan feels too expensive for a format that is not my main focus. Snapcaster Mage decks I feel that are quite cheap what comes to building them so those are no problem. What are my options for interactive games that are not in GBx shell?
EDIT: I guess my questions were more therapy for myself. I came up with the solution of starting to build towards Snapcaster Mage decks as grixis control and jeskai midrange.
Nic Fit is not a tier 1, but it is still a competitive deck. There are so many options to the deck in building phase, so you have to know your meta and your opponents' decks, since you are casting blind Cabal Therapies and have your deck full of silver bullets that you tutor with Green Sun's Zenith. "Do I want to run Punishing Fire?" "What about adding Valakuth and Scapeshift for extra wincon?" "How about junk version with Siege Rhino beats?"
I don't think there are that many budget options for Miracles, since you kinda need Jaces, duals, FoWs and Snapcasters for it to be competitive enough. Pure control deck kind of needs all the tools to be able to stand against more linear decks.
Death and Taxes is the best blade deck, if you consider that a blade deck. For stoneblade and deathblade decks, I think they are equally viable even pre-board since it seems to be just a matter of taste which threats you prefer. And how high you value Deathrite Shaman as a card.
Round 1: 0-2 vs Miracles
I don't know if there is anything to say about this match.
Game 1 I was on draw. he first used StoP (Swords to Plowshares) on my DRS (Deathrite Shaman) and then he played Monastery mentor to flood the board and pump them up the next turn.
Game 2 was longer but he won via Jace the Mind Sculptor and multiple StoPs via help of Snapcaster Mage, and multiple Terminus. Ugh.
Sideboard:
+3 Abrupt Decay
+2 Choke
+2 Null Rod
+1 Wren's Run Packmaster
-2 Glimpse of Nature
-1 Heritage Druid
-1 Quirion Ranger
-1 Nettle Sentinel
-1 Natural Order
-1 Craterhoof Behemoth
-1 Birchlore Rangers
Round 2: 0-2 vs Necrotic Ooze combo
Game 1 I was on draw. I though he was playing BUG delver (same lands) thus I thought I had time to flood the board with elves. Until he comboed off on turn 3.
Game 2 I mulled into oblivion, he comboed off on turn 1. gg.
Round 3: 0-2 vs Infect
Game 1 I was on draw. I realize immediately he was playing Infect but he was just faster with Inkmoth Nexus, pump spells and Noble Hierarch.
Game 2 I could stall the game with multiple blocks, until couple Noble Hierarchs and one Inkmoth Nexus sealed the game.
Round 5: 1-2 vs TES
Game 1 my opponent created 12 goblins on turn 2. I had just enough time to put couple of elves, next turn use Natural Order to get Craterhoof Behemoth.
Game 2 my opponent probed me, saw Thoughtseize and Null Rod. My turn 1 I thoughtseized him, which in response he used Brainstorm. Then he just had to go for the combo on his turn 2 creating 12 goblin tokens, so that my Null Rod becomes a dud.
Game 3 I played Null Rod and could stall the game while trying to play couple of elves. However in turn 4 he used Abrupt Decay on Null Rod and created 16 goblin tokens. I wasn't able to finish him off since he ripped my hand apart with Cabal Therapy.
Trying to learn from this as preparation for Prague GP:
* I should tweak my sideboard better and learn what to side out and in what matchups. I feel like my sideboard needs at least Pithing Needle.
* I should probably lower the amount of maindeck Natural Order into 3 and try to fit Sylvan Library to somewhere in 75.
* I think going for chaos elves is out of question since that list needs Gaddock Teeg and Savannah (in addition to Sylvan Library) and I dunno if I want to spend that much money just to play Teeg.
Round 3: 2-1 versus Affinity. Can't remember much of this match. Lost game 2 to Inkmoth Nexus with 4x +1/+1 counters from Ravager.
Sideboarding:
-2 Lightning Axe
-3 Night's Whisper
+3 Vandalblast
+2 Pyroclasm
Round 4: 2-1 versus BR Goblins. Funny build, I lost the first game then won the second and third game with the help of mass removal and just being faster.
Sideboarding:
-1 Lightning Axe
-3 Night's Whisper
+2 Anger of the Gods
+2 Pyroclasm
Round 8: 2-1 versus Burn. Oh god. He won game 1. I won game 2 by him mana-flooding when I was at 2 life before gaining more life and then using Worldspine Wurm to win. Game 3 was close, I was at 1 life when going for Griselbrand combo because my Manamorphoses were quite deep and I needed one for black source.
Sideboarding:
-3 Night's Whisper
-2 Lightning Axe
-1 Desperate Ritual
+2 Duress
+2 Inquisition of Kozilek
+2 Pyroclasm
End result: 5-3, placed 36/136.
Lesson's learned:
My tournament stamina is not as good as I hoped it to be. 8 rounds is a long tournament and I started to make a bunch of mistakes here and there.
My sideboarding wasn't as good as I hoped it to be. Now in retrospective, I should think beforehand what to sideboard out in most common matchups. Now I was kind of going how I feel at that current time.
I feel this deck needs some cards to be more consistent. I mean, there were games where I could not find all the pieces it required to start comboing off. Maybe splash blue for better deck manipulation?
No-one plays graveyard hate.
Tournament had 136 players, 16% of the decks where Eldrazi, 10% of the decks where Affinity. There were only one other Goryo's Vengeance deck in addition to mine.
Round 1: 1-2 vs 4c control.
Getting fow'ed, they bolted my stuff and I lost to their Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Young Pyromancer. I chose wrong card in game 3 with Thoughtseize: I chose FoW instead of Tasigur. Basically I left his clock stay in hand which caused me the loss.
Round 2: bye. "free win yay"
Round 3: 2-0 vs 12-post.
It seems my clock was faster. Game 1 he played Glacial Chasm. So I of course Natural Order into Deathrite Shaman. At this point he became desperate since I could just wait with DRS and have a beatdown when he decided not to pay the cumulative upkeep. Second game I won with Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth.
All in all: It seems Cavern of Souls did some work on not allowing my opponent's to counter my elves during the games. I was pretty happy since this was my first list with Caverns. I also first time did maindeck Progenitus instead of a second Craterhoof Behemoth. For my meta, I think this was the correct call. When I NO into Progenitus, its gg. I was surprised to dodge all storm players and all D&T since those are probably the two most played decks in Legacy tournaments.
Stompy is my pet deck in MODO. I just went 4-1 in Modern League with it. Here is the tournament report.
2-0 vs Jeskai Ascendancy combo
Nothing much to say here. Both games I aggroed and he could not get anything relevant on board. At turn 2 I played smart and knew he would probably remand my first spell so I decided to go 2x 1-mana spells that turn.
2-0 vs UR Storm
Where does all of these combo decks come from? Well, mainboard Dryad Militant basically ruined his plan in both games since it is hard to get counters to their Pyromancer Ascension.
1-2 vs GR Tron
Both games that I lost, I kept quite slow hands with no sideboard cards in. Oh well.
2-0 vs UG Infect
I play infect as one of my main decks in paper. I know how to play against it. Lucky me his first game hand was too slow, and in second game I used Pithing Needle naming Inkmoth Nexus and used Dismember twice to his Blighted Agent.
2-0 vs GR Tron
Learned from my mistakes. Mulliganed to fast hands and the victory was mine.
To be honest, I still rate this deck as "Best Bang for Price" and I recommend this deck to all newbies to the format. This deck is fun to play, quite easy to learn and for its price...well worth it.
As you can see, our meta is loaded with aggro, thus Forked Bolt in main deck was definitely an improvement. I also liked to have Negate in main board since it hits so many things and costs 2 mana. I did drop Remands from my list, because I always felt that when I counter something I don't want my opponent to be able to play it again next turn. I felt like I did do some mistakes in sideboarding, like not sideboarding Rough/Tumble in when facing affinity.
Now the big thingie: Dropping Young Pyromancers and Gitaxian probes for Pack Rats and a single Negate. Because our meta is so aggro, I felt like Young Pyromancer just died to everything and most of the times I only got 1 token from it. I also hated to take 2 damage from Gitaxian Probes when I am already taking so much damage from my landbase. Pack Rat allows me to play a threat that must be answered immediately or it will become hard to take care of. Of course there were some times I had to consider that should I invest to it or play with the spells I have in hand. But when I decide to invest to it, all my dead cards become Pack Rats and doing combat tricks with it feels good.
Today I think Pack Rat won me the game only once, against elves. So I think it needs more testing and I am going to do so for now.
I get to play Legacy like once ever 2-3 months. That is not a lot. I now have a budget Elves deck, and while it is "okay" I am missing Gaea's Cradles and one Bayou plus couple of Zendikar fetches from full priced optimal list. And because the decks value without those is now like 1k EUR, I don't like to have that much amount of money invested on a deck that I get to play so occasionally.
I play Modern as my main format and run a Grixis Delver deck that pwns people. I also really loved to play Griselbrand reanimator, and was stupid to trade those cards away for bunch of cards in legacy elves. So I like tempo and combo decks. I can also play creature based aggro, but I always feel I'm gimped when I play my Modern Goblins deck.
What are my options here in Legacy? I am looking for a "cheap" deck that has optimal list for under 1k EUR. That kind of rules out all decks that use blue duals. I've considered Manaless Dredge, LED Dredge, Oops All Spells, Reanimator, Tin Fins, Belcher and Merfolk. I did proxy Manaless dredge and Oops all spells, but I felt like they are a bit too much of a glass cannon decks - one FoW or grave yard clear and you are dead. Also they were quite repeating themselves -> always the same thing no matter what your opponent does.
Can you suggest me decks that are unfair and are under 1k EUR with their optimal list, while still not scooping to one FoW or hate card from your opponent? Also it would be a plus if the expensive cards would be legal in Modern as well.
I started my Modern career with a 30 EUR goblin deck. Now that Goblin Piledriver was printed, I wanted to rebuild this for my second Modern deck when I'm too tired to play my grixis delver. I played my first FNM with my goblin deck today and finished 2-2. Not bad, but could have been better. Sideboard was something that I just smashed up together from cards I already own, so I need to improve it. Please toss me ideas on how to improve it? :3
2x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Mountain
5x Swamp
4x Temple of Malice
Creatures (14)
2x Borborygmos Enraged
4x Griselbrand
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Worldspine Wurm
2x Cathartic Reunion
1x Collective Brutality
2x Desperate Ritual
4x Faithless Looting
4x Goryo's Vengeance
1x Lightning Axe
1x Manamorphose
4x Night's Whisper
4x Nourishing Shoal
4x Through the Breach
2x Anger of the Gods
3x Blood Moon
3x Chalice of the Void
1x Collective Brutality
2x Defense Grid
2x Shattering Spree
2x Tormod's Crypt
2-1 vs Jund.
Won game 1 in a turn 2 kill. Game 2 I lost even though I had turn 1 blood moon - he just top decked basics. For game 3 I changed Moons to Chalices and got turn 1 chalice on 1. It was a grindy game which I won in the end via TTB.
2-1 vs Bogles.
I think on game 2 I played Chalice on 1 turn 1 on the play which kinda shutdown his plan completely. I also learned I do not get wurm tokens if there is a Rest In Peace on board.
2-1 vs Affinity.
Yeah he did not have interaction against me. Sideboarded in Anger of the God and Shattering Spree, out went Night's Whispers as they are too slow against that deck.
2-1 vs Mardu tokens(?).
What a match. He told me after the match he had 4x Surgical Extraction in the deck after sideboard and he did not find one. Oh well...
Sorry for a miserably low on detail report - I usually forget my opponents and sideboard things. It is just that the matches were so close (i.e. topdecked the win at 1 life against bogles) that it could have gone either way. I think hardest thing was to answer question "should I discard griselbrand if I dont have another fatty, goryo's or TTB?" in the matches, because I did not know which one was more likely to be drawn.
My decklist:
3x Desperate Ritual
4x Goryo's Vengeance
1x Lightning Axe
1x Manamorphose
4x Nourishing Shoal
4x Through the Breach
Sorcery
2x Cathartic Reunion
4x Faithless Looting
4x Night's Whisper
2x Borborygmos Enraged
4x Griselbrand
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Worldspine Wurm
Land
2x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Mountain
5x Swamp
4x Temple of Malice
2x Anger of the Gods
3x Blood Moon
2x Collective Brutality
2x Defense Grid
1x Fatal Push
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Shattering Spree
1x Slaughter Games
Round 1: 0-2 vs Jeskai Control (0-1)
Won the dice roll. First game I had to mulligan to 4 because my 7-card hand had 5 lands and 2 Goryo's Vengeance, 6-card hand had 4 lands, ramp and Borbobobo, 5-card hand was a no-lander. Well then my draw spells (Night's Whisper, Cathartic Reunion) got countered and lost the game for that. Game 2 I had a pretty decent start by getting Blood Moon at turn 2. However my opponent played turn 2 Snapcaster Mage to get a clock going, and turn before I could cast TTB into Wurmcoil, he played a Vendilion Clique (this was in response to my Defense Grid) and took the TTB out of my hand -> gg. Funny how he drew enough basic islands to do that trick.
Round 2: 2-1 vs Grishoalbrand (1-1)
Won the dice roll and turn 2 killed him in games 1 and 3. Felt kinda bad to face the only other Grishoalbrand deck in the house. We checked each others sideboards at the end of match to compare some stuff, he was playing 3x Chalice of the Void in the sideboard. I asked him if he is following this thread and he responsed that he does not.
Round 3: 2-1 vs Titan Scapeshift (2-1)
Game 1 maindeck Relic of Progenitus slowed me down a bit but TTB a Griselbrand and then while comboing off TTB the Borbobobo to get the win. Game 2 turn 4 TTB into Worldspine Wurm was not fast enough as he was 3 life and comboed off dealing me 54 damage. Game 3 I just turn 2'd him on the play, while his first turn was just to play a land tapped.
Round 4: 0-2 vs UR storm (2-2)
Game 1 I kept a decent hand and then drew only land and could not combo off before he did. Game 2 I mulled to 5, kept a 1-lander, used two scry effects to only trying to find a second land and did not find it. GG. At least the opponent was a friend of mine so we had some laughts about how his combo deck is a turn slower than mine but hell a lot more consistent.
Round 5: 0-2 vs Lantern Control (2-3)
Both games he got Ensnaring Bridge + Leyline of Sanctity lock on me. In game 2 he Thoughtseized my Shattering Spree and even though I could get a Griselbrand onto play, I could not get rid of his Ensnaring Bridge with another Shattering Spree because he had a Welding Jar active.
At this point I became salty and dropped from the tournament. I just hated the Lantern deck so much, I feel like we have to mulligan into turn 2 kill hand to kill him before he can get Ensnaring Bridge active. I'm probably going to take a break from Modern a while and prepare for Finnish Legacy Championships. But yeah all in all, I guess Chalice of the Void could have helped me in games I lost, maybe next time I find room for them in the sideboard.
I think the card is on the "fun flex slot" of the deck. I myself use Lightning Axe in that slot and I believe some people have Collective Brutality in that slot. Bob Huang's deck in GP Charlotte 2015 (top64 finish) used Noxious Revival in that slot.
I am not totally sold on Chalice of the Void in sideboard with 8 important spells in main board to be shut down by chalice = 1, but to be honest I could never even realize why we wanted to play the card in BR either, because we also get hosed on chalice = 2 (vs storm) from our important spells. In which matchups you actually use chalice? Grixis Death Shadow and Burn seems like the only ones where I would side it in.
I would also try to fit Anger of the Gods into sideboard, because it works so well against all creature based decks.
Why I am thinking this stuff is that there is a larger tournament incoming and I might want run with Instant Reanimator, since that is the deck I am most comfortable with in Modern.
I think the secret is that you actually have 3 mana when you are doing this, either by attacking with Griselbrand (Shallow Grave / Goryo's Vengeance) and drawing 7 more cards or by hitting Dark Ritual. Then the fun begins. Entomb -> Children of Korlis -> reanimation efect to it -> sacrifice for life -> continue combo. Then we can win with either Tendrils of Agony (easy), or if we havent gone to combat yet we can instant reanimate Emrakul and hit for 22. Or we can continue to reanimate Children of Korlis, draw our whole deck, use all mana producting things, discard Emrakul, draw our deck again, continue this until we hardcast Emrakul n amount of times or until our opponent realizes he has lost. Tins Fins is a fun deck and you should check it out.
Or if we play reanimator they never get rid of Griselbrand because we just Force of Will / Daze all their removal spells and hit 7 per turn.
In Legacy I play mostly blue combo decks and Eldrazi. In German Highlander I play Abzan midrange. In Modern I do have Grishoalbrand and love it, but sometimes I want to play an interactive game. However, Legacy will always be my main format.
I guess I am looking at Eldrazi decks, BW Tokens, Grixis Control, Jeskai geist and Jund/Abzan. As what comes to deck prices, I don't mind spending money and trades to get what I want, however I feel like Jund/Abzan feels too expensive for a format that is not my main focus. Snapcaster Mage decks I feel that are quite cheap what comes to building them so those are no problem. What are my options for interactive games that are not in GBx shell?
EDIT: I guess my questions were more therapy for myself. I came up with the solution of starting to build towards Snapcaster Mage decks as grixis control and jeskai midrange.
I don't think there are that many budget options for Miracles, since you kinda need Jaces, duals, FoWs and Snapcasters for it to be competitive enough. Pure control deck kind of needs all the tools to be able to stand against more linear decks.
Death and Taxes is the best blade deck, if you consider that a blade deck. For stoneblade and deathblade decks, I think they are equally viable even pre-board since it seems to be just a matter of taste which threats you prefer. And how high you value Deathrite Shaman as a card.
1x Birchlore Rangers
2x Craterhoof Behemoth
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Elvish Visionary
4x Heritage Druid
4x Nettle Sentinel
4x Quirion Ranger
1x Reclamation Sage
4x Wirewood Symbiote
4x Glimpse of Nature
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Natural Order
Land (20)
2x Bayou
2x Dryad Arbor
3x Forest
4x Gaea's Cradle
1x Pendelhaven
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Cabal Therapy
2x Choke
2x Null Rod
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Surgical Extraction
3x Thoughtseize
1x Wren's Run Packmaster
Round 1: 0-2 vs Miracles
I don't know if there is anything to say about this match.
Game 1 I was on draw. he first used StoP (Swords to Plowshares) on my DRS (Deathrite Shaman) and then he played Monastery mentor to flood the board and pump them up the next turn.
Game 2 was longer but he won via Jace the Mind Sculptor and multiple StoPs via help of Snapcaster Mage, and multiple Terminus. Ugh.
Sideboard:
+3 Abrupt Decay
+2 Choke
+2 Null Rod
+1 Wren's Run Packmaster
-2 Glimpse of Nature
-1 Heritage Druid
-1 Quirion Ranger
-1 Nettle Sentinel
-1 Natural Order
-1 Craterhoof Behemoth
-1 Birchlore Rangers
Round 2: 0-2 vs Necrotic Ooze combo
Game 1 I was on draw. I though he was playing BUG delver (same lands) thus I thought I had time to flood the board with elves. Until he comboed off on turn 3.
Game 2 I mulled into oblivion, he comboed off on turn 1. gg.
Sideboard:
+2 Cabal Therapy
+3 Thoughtseize
+1 Surgical Extraction
+1 Scavenging Ooze
-1 Birchlore Rangers
-1 Heritage Druid
-1 Quirion Ranger
-1 Nettle Sentinel
-2 Glimpse of Nature
-1 Reclamation Sage
Round 3: 0-2 vs Infect
Game 1 I was on draw. I realize immediately he was playing Infect but he was just faster with Inkmoth Nexus, pump spells and Noble Hierarch.
Game 2 I could stall the game with multiple blocks, until couple Noble Hierarchs and one Inkmoth Nexus sealed the game.
Sideboard:
+2 Cabal Therapy
+3 Thoughtseize
+3 Abrupt Decay
-1 Birchlore Rangers
-1 Heritage Druid
-1 Quirion Ranger
-1 Nettle Sentinel
-2 Glimpse of Nature
-1 Reclamation Sage
-1 Craterhoof Behemoth
Round 4: *** bye ***
Round 5: 1-2 vs TES
Game 1 my opponent created 12 goblins on turn 2. I had just enough time to put couple of elves, next turn use Natural Order to get Craterhoof Behemoth.
Game 2 my opponent probed me, saw Thoughtseize and Null Rod. My turn 1 I thoughtseized him, which in response he used Brainstorm. Then he just had to go for the combo on his turn 2 creating 12 goblin tokens, so that my Null Rod becomes a dud.
Game 3 I played Null Rod and could stall the game while trying to play couple of elves. However in turn 4 he used Abrupt Decay on Null Rod and created 16 goblin tokens. I wasn't able to finish him off since he ripped my hand apart with Cabal Therapy.
Sideboard:
+2 Cabal Therapy
+3 Thoughtseize
+2 Null rod
-1 Reclamation Sage
-1 Birchlore Rangers
-1 Heritage Druid
-1 Quirion Ranger
-1 Nettle Sentinel
-2 Glimpse of Nature
Trying to learn from this as preparation for Prague GP:
* I should tweak my sideboard better and learn what to side out and in what matchups. I feel like my sideboard needs at least Pithing Needle.
* I should probably lower the amount of maindeck Natural Order into 3 and try to fit Sylvan Library to somewhere in 75.
* I think going for chaos elves is out of question since that list needs Gaddock Teeg and Savannah (in addition to Sylvan Library) and I dunno if I want to spend that much money just to play Teeg.
Any tips appreciated.
2x Desperate Ritual
4x Goryo's Vengeance
2x Lightning Axe
2x Manamorphose
4x Nourishing Shoal
4x Through the Breach
Creature (14)
2x Borborygmos Enraged
4x Griselbrand
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Worldspine Wurm
4x Faithless Looting
3x Night's Whisper
2x Tormenting Voice
Land (19)
3x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Mountain
4x Swamp
4x Temple of Malice
2x Anger of the Gods
4x Blood Moon
2x Duress
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Pyroclasm
3x Vandalblast
Round 1: 2-0 versus BW Eldrazi. Through the Breach into Worldspine Wurm in both games.
Sideboarding:
-2 Night's Whisper
-1 Simian Spirit Guide
-1 Desperate Ritual
+4 Blood Moon
Round 2: 1-2 versus UW Eldrazi. In game 3 I made a mistake and played Worldspine Wurm when he had Eldrazi Displacer and could get mana to use it. Never even seen that card before and did not read it completely.
Sideboarding:
-2 Lightning Axe
-2 Night's Whisper
-1 Simian Spirit Guide
-1 Desperate Ritual
+4 Blood Moon
+2 Pyroclasm
Round 3: 2-1 versus Affinity. Can't remember much of this match. Lost game 2 to Inkmoth Nexus with 4x +1/+1 counters from Ravager.
Sideboarding:
-2 Lightning Axe
-3 Night's Whisper
+3 Vandalblast
+2 Pyroclasm
Round 4: 2-1 versus BR Goblins. Funny build, I lost the first game then won the second and third game with the help of mass removal and just being faster.
Sideboarding:
-1 Lightning Axe
-3 Night's Whisper
+2 Anger of the Gods
+2 Pyroclasm
Round 5: 1-2 versus UBW Control. Oh noes the blue deck. Somehow I won game 1, but lost quite rapidly games 2 and 3 because he could counter EVERYTHING I did.
Sideboarding:
-2 Night's Whisper
-1 Simian Spirit Guide
-1 Desperate Ritual
+2 Duress
+2 Inquisition of Kozilek
Round 6: 1-2 versus Infect. Game 1 I comboed off in turn 3. Games 2 and 3 my deck decided not to function and I couldn't find the pieces fast enough.
Sideboarding:
-2 Tormenting Voice
-1 Desperate Ritual
-1 Night's Whisper
+2 Pyroclasm
+2 Inquisition of Kozilek
Round 7: 2-0 versus Scapeshift. He didn't have much to say. Game 1 I went Through the Breach into Worldspine Wurm on turn 4 putting him to 5 life. Then he used Damnation to my Wurm tokens, so I had to reanimate Griselbrand couple turns later in order to finish the game. Game 2 I did Through the Breach into Worldspine Wurm on turns 4 and 5, which was too much for him to handle.
Sideboarding:
-3 Night's Whisper
-1 Desperate Ritual
+4 Blood Moon
Round 8: 2-1 versus Burn. Oh god. He won game 1. I won game 2 by him mana-flooding when I was at 2 life before gaining more life and then using Worldspine Wurm to win. Game 3 was close, I was at 1 life when going for Griselbrand combo because my Manamorphoses were quite deep and I needed one for black source.
Sideboarding:
-3 Night's Whisper
-2 Lightning Axe
-1 Desperate Ritual
+2 Duress
+2 Inquisition of Kozilek
+2 Pyroclasm
End result: 5-3, placed 36/136.
Lesson's learned:
1x Birchlore Rangers
1x Craterhoof Behemoth
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Elvish Visionary
4x Heritage Druid
4x Nettle Sentinel
1x Progenitus
4x Quirion Ranger
1x Reclamation Sage
4x Wirewood Symbiote
Land (18)
1x Bayou
2x Cavern of Souls
2x Dryad Arbor
2x Forest
2x Gaea's Cradle
1x Overgrown Tomb
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Glimpse of Nature
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Natural Order
Instant (2)
2x Crop Rotation
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Cabal Therapy
1x Krosan Grip
2x Null Rod
1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1x Scavenging Ooze
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Thoughtseize
Round 1: 1-2 vs 4c control.
Getting fow'ed, they bolted my stuff and I lost to their Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Young Pyromancer. I chose wrong card in game 3 with Thoughtseize: I chose FoW instead of Tasigur. Basically I left his clock stay in hand which caused me the loss.
Round 2: bye. "free win yay"
Round 3: 2-0 vs 12-post.
It seems my clock was faster. Game 1 he played Glacial Chasm. So I of course Natural Order into Deathrite Shaman. At this point he became desperate since I could just wait with DRS and have a beatdown when he decided not to pay the cumulative upkeep. Second game I won with Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth.
Round 4: 2-0 vs Elves.
Game 1 I won the coin flip and decided to go first. Comboed off turn 4 with Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth, 1 turn before him. I sided in the basic combo-disrupt package: Cabal Therapys and Thoughtseizes. Game 2 I turn 1 Thoughtseize seeing his hand is nothing except Glimpse of Nature. After that I topdecked my Natural Order first and fetched Craterhoof Behemoth for the win.
Round 5: 2-0 vs 4c control.
Same 75 list as round 1. Game 1 I won with slowly grinding him until Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth. Game 2 he made a mistake and did tap out. I used Thoughtseize and Cabal Therapy to rip his hand out of cards, then that one turn I had the chance, I Green Sun's Zenith into Progenitus.
All in all: It seems Cavern of Souls did some work on not allowing my opponent's to counter my elves during the games. I was pretty happy since this was my first list with Caverns. I also first time did maindeck Progenitus instead of a second Craterhoof Behemoth. For my meta, I think this was the correct call. When I NO into Progenitus, its gg. I was surprised to dodge all storm players and all D&T since those are probably the two most played decks in Legacy tournaments.
The Overgrown Tomb and Crop Rotation are budget substitutes to more Bayou and Gaea's Cradle. Yes, you can pwn with a budget.
2-0 vs Jeskai Ascendancy combo
Nothing much to say here. Both games I aggroed and he could not get anything relevant on board. At turn 2 I played smart and knew he would probably remand my first spell so I decided to go 2x 1-mana spells that turn.
2-0 vs UR Storm
Where does all of these combo decks come from? Well, mainboard Dryad Militant basically ruined his plan in both games since it is hard to get counters to their Pyromancer Ascension.
1-2 vs GR Tron
Both games that I lost, I kept quite slow hands with no sideboard cards in. Oh well.
2-0 vs UG Infect
I play infect as one of my main decks in paper. I know how to play against it. Lucky me his first game hand was too slow, and in second game I used Pithing Needle naming Inkmoth Nexus and used Dismember twice to his Blighted Agent.
2-0 vs GR Tron
Learned from my mistakes. Mulliganed to fast hands and the victory was mine.
To be honest, I still rate this deck as "Best Bang for Price" and I recommend this deck to all newbies to the format. This deck is fun to play, quite easy to learn and for its price...well worth it.
Here is my decklist
4x Experiment One
4x Dryad Militant
4x Avatar of the Resolute
4x Kalonian Tusker
4x Strangleroot Geist
4x Leatherback Baloth
1x Dungrove Elder
4x Aspect of Hydra
1x Prey Upon
4x Rancor
4x Vines of Vastwood
2x Dismember
Lands:
2x Treetop Village
18x Forest
2x Hunt the Hunter
3x Feed the Clan
2x Skylasher
3x Unravel the AEther
3x Tormod's Crypt
2x Pithing Needle
1x Electrolyze
2x Kolaghan's Command
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Mana Leak
1x Murderous Cut
1x Negate
2x Spell Snare
2x Terminate
4x Thought Scour
Creature (16)
4x Delver of Secrets
2x Gurmag Angler
4x Pack Rat
4x Snapcaster Mage
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
1x Creeping Tar Pit
3x Island
1x Mountain
4x Polluted Delta
2x Steam Vents
2x Swamp
1x Watery Grave
Sorcery (6)
2x Forked Bolt
4x Serum Visions
2x Dispel
1x Dragon's Claw
1x Flashfreeze
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Magma Spray
2x Rending Volley
1x Rough/Tumble
2x Smash to Smithereens
2x Vampiric Link
Matchups were:
2-1 vs Affinity - Won game 1, lost game 2, won game 3.
Sideboarding:
-4x Pack Rat, -2x Thought Scour
+2x Smash to Smithereens, +2x Inquisition of Kozilek, +1x Izzet Staticaster, +1x Magma Spray
2-0 vs Affinity
Sideboarding: See above.
2-0 vs Jund
Sideboarding:
-2x Forked Bolt, -2x Thought Scour, -2x Delver of Secrets
+2x Vampiric Link, +2x Inquisition of Kozilek, +1x Magma Spray, +1x Flashfreeze
1-2 vs Elves - Won game 1, lost games 2 and 3.
Sideboarding:
-4x Pack Rat, -2x Thought Scour
+2x Inquisition of Kozilek, +1x Rough/Tumble, +1x Magma Spray, +1x Flashfreeze, +1x Izzet Staticaster
As you can see, our meta is loaded with aggro, thus Forked Bolt in main deck was definitely an improvement. I also liked to have Negate in main board since it hits so many things and costs 2 mana. I did drop Remands from my list, because I always felt that when I counter something I don't want my opponent to be able to play it again next turn. I felt like I did do some mistakes in sideboarding, like not sideboarding Rough/Tumble in when facing affinity.
Now the big thingie: Dropping Young Pyromancers and Gitaxian probes for Pack Rats and a single Negate. Because our meta is so aggro, I felt like Young Pyromancer just died to everything and most of the times I only got 1 token from it. I also hated to take 2 damage from Gitaxian Probes when I am already taking so much damage from my landbase. Pack Rat allows me to play a threat that must be answered immediately or it will become hard to take care of. Of course there were some times I had to consider that should I invest to it or play with the spells I have in hand. But when I decide to invest to it, all my dead cards become Pack Rats and doing combat tricks with it feels good.
Today I think Pack Rat won me the game only once, against elves. So I think it needs more testing and I am going to do so for now.
I get to play Legacy like once ever 2-3 months. That is not a lot. I now have a budget Elves deck, and while it is "okay" I am missing Gaea's Cradles and one Bayou plus couple of Zendikar fetches from full priced optimal list. And because the decks value without those is now like 1k EUR, I don't like to have that much amount of money invested on a deck that I get to play so occasionally.
I play Modern as my main format and run a Grixis Delver deck that pwns people. I also really loved to play Griselbrand reanimator, and was stupid to trade those cards away for bunch of cards in legacy elves. So I like tempo and combo decks. I can also play creature based aggro, but I always feel I'm gimped when I play my Modern Goblins deck.
What are my options here in Legacy? I am looking for a "cheap" deck that has optimal list for under 1k EUR. That kind of rules out all decks that use blue duals. I've considered Manaless Dredge, LED Dredge, Oops All Spells, Reanimator, Tin Fins, Belcher and Merfolk. I did proxy Manaless dredge and Oops all spells, but I felt like they are a bit too much of a glass cannon decks - one FoW or grave yard clear and you are dead. Also they were quite repeating themselves -> always the same thing no matter what your opponent does.
Can you suggest me decks that are unfair and are under 1k EUR with their optimal list, while still not scooping to one FoW or hate card from your opponent? Also it would be a plus if the expensive cards would be legal in Modern as well.
I started my Modern career with a 30 EUR goblin deck. Now that Goblin Piledriver was printed, I wanted to rebuild this for my second Modern deck when I'm too tired to play my grixis delver. I played my first FNM with my goblin deck today and finished 2-2. Not bad, but could have been better. Sideboard was something that I just smashed up together from cards I already own, so I need to improve it. Please toss me ideas on how to improve it? :3
4x Foundry Street Denizen
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
2x Goblin Chieftain
4x Goblin Guide
4x Goblin Piledriver
2x Goblin Rabblemaster
4x Legion Loyalist
2x Mogg Fanatic
4x Atarka's Command
4x Lightning Bolt
Sorcery (7)
3x Dragon Fodder
4x Goblin Grenade
Land (19)
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Copperline Gorge
5x Mountain
2x Stomping Ground
4x Wooded Foothills
1x Destructive Revelry
2x Dismember
2x Electrickery
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Molten Rain
2x Combust
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Smash to Smithereens
2x Pithing Needle
2-1 vs Jund.
First game I won by aggro. Second game he won with Tarmogoyf and Grim Lavamancer. Third game I won by... top deck Lightning Bolt.
Sideboard plan: +2 Pithing Needle, +2 Dismember, -2 Mogg Fanatic, -2 Goblin Rabblemaster
1-2 vs Merfolk.
First game I won by 2x Goblin Piledriver aggro. Second and third game I lost because he could flood the board faster than me. :/
Sideboard plan: +2 Smash to Smithereens, 2x Combust, -2 Goblin Rabblemaster, -2 Goblin Chieftain. I believe sideboarding Chieftains out was a mistake.
2-0 vs Landfall Zoo.
First game pew pew keep him out of creatures with bolts and hit his face with Goblin Piledriver and Legion Loyalist. Second game was a bit closer, but going 2x Dragon Fodder and then kickin Goblin Bushwhacker sealed the deal.
Sideboard plan: +2 Dismember, +1 Grafdigger's Cage, -2 Goblin Rabblemaster, -1 Mogg Fanatic.
0-2 vs Junk (Abzan).
First game he game me hard time with Tarmogoyf and Vault of the Archangel. Second game he resolved 2x Thragtusk which sealed the deal. Ugh.
Sideboard plan: +2 Pithing Needle, +2 Electrickery, +2 Dismember, -2 Goblin Rabblemaster, -3 Dragon Fodder, -1 Mogg Fanatic.