MTG Salvation

I was at the GP this weekend piloting E Tron. While my wheels fell off I did play against Hoogak 2x and went 1-1 against it. I did have 7 hate cards for it via:

4 Leyline of the Void
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Main deck Chalice of the Void

Both matches were 2-0, and 0-2. When I drew my hate I did well, (One Hoogak player was on 4 Wear/Tear to get around Chalice, it worked) when I didn't I lost within 6 minutes. So, we did prepapre for Hoogak, everyone did. It did manage to beat a lot of the hate regardless of how prepared players were.

Fact: After hoogak pilots finished their runs with the deck, almost all of them sold the deck back to vendors, with Bridges being taken in for 5 a piece. No one wants to hold on to the deck as the consensus was that it must eat a ban. The very pilots said the same thing, of course I did meet the 1 hoogak player that said there was too much hate (lol), I mean, sure T2 Chalice on 1 helps and in my G2 I had T0 Leyline into T2 chalice on 1. That's the dream but you don't always draw like that. I went 5-3 in the main event and 4-2 in the mcq. There was a lot of hoogak at the top and a lot of decks aiming to beat it. The next evolution is the playset of 4 Wear/Tear.

What beat Hoogak? UW Control, E Tron, Whir Prison (teammate), Mono red, Dev Druid, and humans seemed close. Jund apparently has a decent to good match up. Everything else...well...

Hey formats fine, we need to have 4 Leyline of the Void, white decks require 3-4 Rest in Peace, targeted hate at 2-3 Surgical Extraction, some decks will need 3 Ravenous Trap, and tron decks will default to 4 relic plus the after mentioned mandatory 4 leylines. No problems here!

Also if things get hairy, I recommend the good ol' Maindeck leylines and hate pieces to make sure you hose those gy decks. Yeah we are just not liking that modern is just evolving okay?

i think cards like dismember, all is dust, spatial contortion, warping wail all become necessary if this card sees significant play. lets see if horizons holds some toys for us.

well, with the new hate bear coming, I do think KGC version is going to have to be put on hold. We will need interaction in the form of spot removal and hey that's fine. I've been leaning towards KGC being better in E Tron, but that's a different topic.

The SB is better in traditional and it may be that going forward we will need to have access to that again.

Well, played a league with Creator Tron again, went 4-1 and made some cuts before the league. I dropped Blast Zone, yes I know. WHY? The 5th forest is too important imo. That 5th forest allows the deck to play past all the mana disruption. I loved seeing consistent ways of unlocking tron without needing to have a sphere/star. I also added the 4th Nature's Claim back to the board. There isn't an "If" they bring in a hate card, it's when they do, I want to have access to 4 claims now that our SB has narrowed.

Rd 1) 2-1 Win Vs Hollow One
Rd 2) 2-1 Win Vs Izzet Phoenix
Rd 3) 2-1 Win Vs Burn (G3 Natural Tron into Wurmcoil Yay!)
Rd 4) 1-2 Loss Vs Deadhorde Arcanist deck, I mulled to 4 in G3, so...
Rd 5) 2-1 Win Vs Neoform Combo, I dunno, I t3 ballista, he kept a bad 6, and when the rider came down I ballista'd it. I'm not sure if this player knew what he/she was doing but I was happy to take the win after getting 1'd in g1.

List (I'll be playing this for my upcoming IQ):

Well I went 3-2 today in my first real league with the deck. Put a bunch of time into testing and it didn't disappoint. It was my B day today so I was unfocused due to the calls and stuff so I punted against day's Undoing Combo, I had a good chance of winning that match if I just ... remembered to use my Nature's Claim lol

Anyhow here's the quick scoop:
Just played a league 3-2, lost to the New Days Undoing Combo and in the mirror to Creator Tron. CacharroDelMal and I spoke about the tech choices he made, in G3, he grabbed a Skite and nullified my Ulamog cast triggers, allowing him to protect his karn. He also Sided in Warping wail, so the tron lists I'm seeing are "Creator" Lists, I beat
2-0 Win GB midrange (through 3x Fulminator, 3x Field and a Surgical), that's how good Karn is 2-0 here,
Eldrazi Tron 2-1 Win
UW Midrange 2-0 Win

Lost to UB Days Undoing and the Mirror (Great tech on his part). I also misplayed against Days Undoing since I had a billion calls for my B day...I wasn't focus for that G3. Decks, really GOOD.

Lastly: My buddy who mainly plays legacy messaged me about Creator Tron, and I gave him the run down. He went 2-3 and then 5-0 in his 2nd league. Once he figured out the configurations he messaged me a few meme like pics of board states against humans and the like. the 5-0 league saw him retain 3x Thragdaddy's in the SB. No TKS

Well here have a top 4 finish of Wish Board Tron at the lastest SCG Classic, and it keeps elements of the previous SB:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1879166#paper

lets be specific, that’s not your dad’s tron deck

man you said what i was thinking. losing removal like “contortion” and wail hurts a bit but im also camp that we are just scratching the surface of an ideal 75 with karn. It’s very possible we keep the wish board to 4-6 slots. Lattice is really good, i cant stress how quick that ends a game. if you look at the recent 5-0 list it ran 3 tks, maybe we should do the same? its refreshing though to have something to try and innovate with

So I tend to test in the practice mode before committing newish decks to a league. I haven't lost today, and here is a smapling of what I've beaten:

Grishoalbrand = Tutored Bridge, Game over.
Vannifer= Tron things
Edlrazi Taxes= Wish gets around Arbitor, wish'd for Ballistas and Stones.
Storm= I am on the play, they go T2 Baral, I go T3 Karn -2 get Trinisphere, they concede
Mono Blue Tron= They no longer any reason to play this, mono green is the more consistent shell, we have inevitably
Affinity= Karn shuts down the deck hard, if they can't pressure him you get to do gross things
Hardened Scales Affinity = Same as above but harder, however Karn + Bridge has been good here since they try and grow things "Big". You have many options on how to attack this deck now. Went from hard to good.
Another Interaction that came up: + New Karn, make opponents Damping Sphere a 2/2, cast ballista, kill sphere, unlock tron. Opponent paused wondering about what they just saw.
Izzet Phoenix= we were already favored, but this new configuration give us more tools, and Bride is huge here.

Small sampling but notably, it's the first time I feel like we have game against anything. Burn felt very bad, and merfolk was rough. It's why I want a Witchbane Orb out of the SB. Ya, I can safely commit to testing this in the leagues and have 0 regrets about ordering the news Karns and Wish SB. Sb'ing is so flexible now, we will always bring cards we can't see with Karn. It's early in my testing, but there's a lot of potential.

Added: Beauty of New Karn is that we will always have a T4 relevant play. The curve is better and we always get something out of him. Lattice combo is strong enough to auto include and while it's not always my go to win condition, if the games go long enough we are favorites. I like how the deck can now play like normal Tron, and "interact" better. That's huge, it makes the deck more versatile.

no they are there i just forgot to add them, it’s -1 relic , +3 scrying.

it was 3am when i submitted that list. Not too sure about Ensnaring Bridge but this did happen:

Vs Hardened Scales
T1: Map
T2 Crack Map Find last Tron Piece
T3 Play New Karn, Opponent proceeds to sac everything in response and makes a 7/7 Inkmoth. I -2 Karn and wish up Bridge. I Cast Bridge, opponent concedes immediately.

Affinity anything feels great now.

Hola all, I tested for a few hours tonight on mtgo, going 9-3 overall. I didn't like newugin and I cut him immediately, I went with this list as a starting point:



So the Colossus was LOL moment, I'm sure it should be Witchbane Orb or a Chalice. The deck is so good now, decision trees, it makes me feel like I'm playing a new arch type. I have won many games off of Lattice + Karn, it's crazy. I beat Storm on T3 by landing new karn, and nabbing trinisphere. I'm not sure what the correct 75 is but, it's nice to be grinding modern again.

Whoa...if this is for reals, expect Tron to run this card in some number.

Cost reduction (Check)
Blow colored thingy up (Check) PEW PEW
Mainfest = CA (Check)

Well, got my first taste of the new Mulligan rule and loved it. Went 4-1 tonight on mtgo, (taking a break from grinding Arena):

R1) 2-1 Win Vs Hardened Scales Affinity
R2) 2-0 Win Vs Affinity
R3) 2-0 Win vs Martyr Proc
R4) 2-1 Win Vs Eldrazi and Taxes
R5) 0-2 Loss Vs Ad Naus (Wings clipped, my 5-0 turned into a 4-1)

Deck felt great, the Ad Naus match up felt like it should, MEH. The wins over Hardened Scales and affinity were sweet! Eldrazi and Taxes was rough until I decided to bury my opponent under their own Arbitor via GQ, of course I found a way out of the lock and proceeded to ult Ugin.

I am waiting for Ugin to be spoiled, here's hoping we get a new toy to work with.
On New Karn: We can't play this card in our starting 60. The format is brutal right now, it's not feasible to play a T3 do nothing. I can see new Karn taking a few SB slots, but is better than what we already do well?

whelp did it again, pivoted to gruul in diamind tier 1 and it did it's 3-0 thing. Okay I'm open for different variants, between the warrior, Pelt Collector, and Ferox versions I'm wondering what you are all having more success with. Gruul wasn't exactly killing it for in in diamond tier 4-2 but in tier 1 I got some good match ups and smashed. I used the same list I posted, how has your all's testing gone?