Personally, I'll never jam a tournament with more than 30-40 people without 4 Leyline in the board. Card hedges against so many strategies we have a problem dealing with, and is randomly great in some spots (Abzan/Grixis).
I've been dabbling with a few different decks in Modern for the last year and a half or so, and haven't really latched onto anything as of yet. I have been jamming with Kiki Chord lately and really enjoying the toolbox and how much play there is to this deck. That said, I'm taking it to SCG Cincinnati in January, and I'd like some feedback on my list. I have been performing pretty well in the testing I have gotten to do (just recently had a kid, so lacking compared to normal) and like my chances as long as I can get some rest before the tournament and keep my head straight (and not sit across from Tron 4-5 times).
Any feedback or suggestions are much appreciated! I am somewhat new to the archetype, so I am willing to listen to pretty much anything you may have to say.
Jeskai midrange is what I'm on going into rotation. Here's my list, it's been performing pretty well online (I test on XMage, Cockatrice is just inferior):
Really hope this recent resurgence of 'Red Deck Wins' is not a sign of things to come for the long future. I hate this deck like I hate the Dallas Cowboys.
*Run more or less Inkmoth Nexus's depending on your budget.
The basic Idea is:
Use Condescend to set up your draw and protect your guys, Gitaxian Probe on your upkeep to draw into the miracle, and see what your opponent has planned to play around it. Then draw a card for your normal draw.
Then use Noxious revival to guarantee you hit your miracle the following turn (Or on your opponents turn if you have a gitaxian probe in hand).
Noxious revival can also be used to place low-threat cards on top of your opponents deck to stop him from drawing answers.
I've just made the purchase and got into this deck, coming off of GU infect combo (bad metagame shift after GP Worcester). My starting point for the list is the same as the recent Italian PTQ-winning list, but with Spell Pierce in the side cut for AEtherize (after reading this thread pretty thoroughly). Since you all have been playing this deck a substantial amount of time longer than I, what is your main feedback about the PTQ list? I'm really interested to hear, as I am at square one with this deck (I've used it online before and played against it, but I haven't really put in the hours like I have with previous decks like Blue Moon and Infect).
so you want people to critique on a decklist that you built for your local competitive meta? how is anyone going to make a suggestion without knowing how the grand prix decks play in your region?
not to mention, you're most likely going to shoot down any suggestions immediately.
why not just post your list, delete the entire blurb about your life story, what you and your girlfriend like to do on weekends, and tell us how you did at the grand prix in great detail? AFTER you get back.
when you head to the grand prix, take notes on what you play and share it here!
just grab a sign in blood brand notepad and write down the deck archetype where you kept your life total and then come on here and post memorable plays and such
Well, I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers, I just didn't know if this was a list worthwhile of taking to GP. I've done the testing and whatnot against the top tier decks, and it seems to perform well enough, I'm just really new to the game still, so I wanted input. I'm not going to shoot anyone's suggestions down; I haven't even been playing the game for a year yet. I'll just keep my mouth shut until I go, then.
I figured this was an okay community to pitch some ideas to. Sorry I'm not an old-timer elitist, I just want to talk about some Magic.
I don't play MTGO, but I do grind as many paper events as humanly possible while maintaining a 40-hour a week job. I'm also relatively new to this game (started playing at the end of the 'Theros' set, prior to BtG), but I have caught on very quickly and do little aside from Magic and hang with my girlfriend. Thus, I've amassed this 75 that I'll be entering at GP Worcester-Boston in roughly a week and a half. This is my metagame call for this GP; going into the Modern Mayhem events at GP Washington DC last month, my call was a B/W Hatebears 'Death and Taxes'-style list, focusing on combat tricks involving Aether Vial, Restoration Angel, Kitchen Finks, and that cast of characters. I wanted a deck that had raw power; I saw that in Round 1 of the Modern Mayhem event (in which I ended up 2-3, drop, Denny's). I'd seen this guy somewhere in Magic coverage on Youtube somewhere before, but the name didn't sound familiar when I went back to look it up on my DCI records. Nevertheless, he crushed me on turn 3 in both rounds, and while I realize it's a bad match for the particular deck I was playing, I knew if I was going to play a deck in this format that didn't have Lightning Bolt in it, I wanted to be playing a deck that had Glistener Elf in it.
I took Tom Ross's list as a good starting point. I felt that it was geared a lot for a Minneapolis-style metagame, something really post-Richmond (which was either amazing for a Fish player, or horrible, as was my experience at my first Grand Prix, en route to 1-3 drop). I didn't feel that Viridian Corrupter in the 75 would suffice in a meta as large as Worcester, and my LGS meta is very reflective of a larger event meta like this. Rather, I have opted for 3 Gitaxian Probe (turn 1 information is essential with this deck), and 2 maindeck Spellskite. Rather than opting for a speed finish with this deck, you have to be willing to 'grind' to turns 5-8, and to do so, you really need to shut off removal, and certain game-ending effects (Splinter Twin). Why drop a game one without an answer anywhere in your 60 when you absolutely did not have to? My maindeck Simic Charm is a direct response to Electrolyze, and Wild Defiance is just too good to not have access to 4-of in my 75.
I am open to any and all feedback. I've put nearly every hour I can testing this deck vs. top meta proxies with players far more experienced than I for the past three weeks now, and the only seriously rough matchups I come across are RUG Twin and comboless UWR. Affinity is not a terrible matchup, and the Pod matchup is okay, so long as you don't see T2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast (let's get there, Blighted Agent.)
(Note: My last big decisions are whether or not some number of Dismember are actually needed in the 75, and whether to also include Spell Pierce or Spell Snare somewhere in the 75. These are all cards that have been either maindeck or sideboarded at some point or another within this build, but are not currently, most recent being Twisted Image coming into the sideboard over Spell Snare. Any feedback in regards to these inquiries is especially appreciated.)
I've been dabbling with a few different decks in Modern for the last year and a half or so, and haven't really latched onto anything as of yet. I have been jamming with Kiki Chord lately and really enjoying the toolbox and how much play there is to this deck. That said, I'm taking it to SCG Cincinnati in January, and I'd like some feedback on my list. I have been performing pretty well in the testing I have gotten to do (just recently had a kid, so lacking compared to normal) and like my chances as long as I can get some rest before the tournament and keep my head straight (and not sit across from Tron 4-5 times).
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Scavenging Ooze
1x Spellskite
3x Voice of Resurgence
3x Wall of Omens
1x Wall of Roots
1x Courser of Kruphix
3x Eternal Witness
1x Orzhov Pontiff
1x Sin Collector
1x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
3x Restoration Angel
2x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
3x Path to Exile
4x Chord of Calling
2x Domri Rade
1x Fire-Lit Thicket
2x Forest
1x Gavony Township
2x Horizon Canopy
1x Mountain
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
2x Razorverge Thicket
1x Sacred Foundry
2x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
Sideboard is currently as follows:
1x Path to Exile
1x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Lightning Helix
1x Spellskite
2x Stony Silence
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
2x Fulminator Mage
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Sin Collector
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1x Worship
1x Blood Baron of Vizkopa
Any feedback or suggestions are much appreciated! I am somewhat new to the archetype, so I am willing to listen to pretty much anything you may have to say.
4x Goblin Rabblemaster
4x Mantis Rider
1x Keranos, God of Storms
Spells (27)
2x Deflecting Palm
4x Lightning Strike
4x Magma Jet
2x Mindswipe
3x Searing Blood
1x Suspension Field
4x Jeskai Charm
2x Chandra, Pyromaster
4x Stoke the Flames
1x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
Lands (24)
2x Battlefield Forge
4x Flooded Strand
2x Island
4x Mountain
4x Mystic Monastery
2x Plains
2x Shivan Reef
2x Temple of Epiphany
2x Temple of Triumph
1x Deflecting Palm
2x Disdainful Stroke
3x Satyr Firedancer
1x Searing Blood
1x Suspension Field
2x Anger of the Gods
1x Dictate of the Twin Gods
1x Keranos, God of Storms
1x Narset, Enlightened Master
Can we all just maindeck Chalice of the Void?
You can't probe on upkeep, Gitaxian Probe is sorcery speed.
Well, I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers, I just didn't know if this was a list worthwhile of taking to GP. I've done the testing and whatnot against the top tier decks, and it seems to perform well enough, I'm just really new to the game still, so I wanted input. I'm not going to shoot anyone's suggestions down; I haven't even been playing the game for a year yet. I'll just keep my mouth shut until I go, then.
I figured this was an okay community to pitch some ideas to. Sorry I'm not an old-timer elitist, I just want to talk about some Magic.
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Glistener Elf
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Blighted Agent
2 Spellskite
1 Distortion Strike
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Groundswell
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Vines of Vastwood
1 Apostle's Blessing
1 Simic Charm
2 Wild Defiance
4 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Pendelhaven
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Hunt the Hunter
4 Nature's Claim
2 Twisted Image
1 Spellskite
2 Torpor Orb
2 Wild Defiance
I don't play MTGO, but I do grind as many paper events as humanly possible while maintaining a 40-hour a week job. I'm also relatively new to this game (started playing at the end of the 'Theros' set, prior to BtG), but I have caught on very quickly and do little aside from Magic and hang with my girlfriend. Thus, I've amassed this 75 that I'll be entering at GP Worcester-Boston in roughly a week and a half. This is my metagame call for this GP; going into the Modern Mayhem events at GP Washington DC last month, my call was a B/W Hatebears 'Death and Taxes'-style list, focusing on combat tricks involving Aether Vial, Restoration Angel, Kitchen Finks, and that cast of characters. I wanted a deck that had raw power; I saw that in Round 1 of the Modern Mayhem event (in which I ended up 2-3, drop, Denny's). I'd seen this guy somewhere in Magic coverage on Youtube somewhere before, but the name didn't sound familiar when I went back to look it up on my DCI records. Nevertheless, he crushed me on turn 3 in both rounds, and while I realize it's a bad match for the particular deck I was playing, I knew if I was going to play a deck in this format that didn't have Lightning Bolt in it, I wanted to be playing a deck that had Glistener Elf in it.
I took Tom Ross's list as a good starting point. I felt that it was geared a lot for a Minneapolis-style metagame, something really post-Richmond (which was either amazing for a Fish player, or horrible, as was my experience at my first Grand Prix, en route to 1-3 drop). I didn't feel that Viridian Corrupter in the 75 would suffice in a meta as large as Worcester, and my LGS meta is very reflective of a larger event meta like this. Rather, I have opted for 3 Gitaxian Probe (turn 1 information is essential with this deck), and 2 maindeck Spellskite. Rather than opting for a speed finish with this deck, you have to be willing to 'grind' to turns 5-8, and to do so, you really need to shut off removal, and certain game-ending effects (Splinter Twin). Why drop a game one without an answer anywhere in your 60 when you absolutely did not have to? My maindeck Simic Charm is a direct response to Electrolyze, and Wild Defiance is just too good to not have access to 4-of in my 75.
I am open to any and all feedback. I've put nearly every hour I can testing this deck vs. top meta proxies with players far more experienced than I for the past three weeks now, and the only seriously rough matchups I come across are RUG Twin and comboless UWR. Affinity is not a terrible matchup, and the Pod matchup is okay, so long as you don't see T2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast (let's get there, Blighted Agent.)
(Note: My last big decisions are whether or not some number of Dismember are actually needed in the 75, and whether to also include Spell Pierce or Spell Snare somewhere in the 75. These are all cards that have been either maindeck or sideboarded at some point or another within this build, but are not currently, most recent being Twisted Image coming into the sideboard over Spell Snare. Any feedback in regards to these inquiries is especially appreciated.)