Wow. A Browbeat x2 at instant speed. That's a fun card- Risk Factor. Not sure how powerful because it's a situational card, but it's a really cool card. I bet Dzung is happy to see this one!
Apparently Risk Factor is quite a card. Its blowing up pre-release and some are trying it in U/R / Jeskai Shells.
After playing some more I think that 3x Felidars is the most awkward number of Felidars. If you want to run a value midrange list (which it looks like you do) I think 1-2 Felidars (with 2-3 Evo) makes sense. If you want to push the combo then 4 Felidars with 4 Evos and Kiki is the way to go, IMO.
Yes. I usually run 2 Cats. However this is also because I run the Kiki-Resto package as overlap. For those who do not want to run the Kiki-Resto package, 3 Cats is max you want to go unless you want to go all in on the combo.
It's pretty consistent. Dragonlord Dromoka It's good against control and aggros decks. Harrow is very helpful to help to find the delirium (instant + land).
I'm having good matches against most of the tiers 1 decks, just having problems with Burn.
deck isn't really optimized as i am experimenting with various cards. stuff like Ulvenwald Hydra can be replaced with Primetime, maybe more Obstinate Baloths for some of the redundant spells like Harrow or Search for Tomorrow. Mishra's Bauble will also be good in this deck for cantrip and activating Delirium consistently. Grim Flayer is pretty good here for dumping redundant cards into the yard to find Belcher if you need it.
we were doing quite well against other fair/thoughtseize decks with search for azcanta until they released BBE for doing time on DRS's behest... and we are now pretty much back to square one against the #1 fair deck of choice which is Jund. JTMS doesn't equalize the field for us because its a 4 drop in a deck that prefers to curve at 3 cc. JTMS is certainly powerful but its not as good as BBE. However, JTMS does allow us to run away with a win if we manage to get ahead when we resolve him. My experience is JTMS AND Vapor Snags win you games.
regardless, the power of our deck(s) cannot be taken for granted. we have game against majority of the popular decks in the metagame... we are simply waiting for a new card to let us break out from our under represented bracket!
Where can I find a good sidebord guide for the curtent meta? I had some trouble today trying to figure out what to side out against Mardu Pyromancer and Jund.
Take out all Denials and Battle Rages. Put in Lilianas and anything else that grinds. You still won't be favored but it's possible, I guess.
against mardu pyromancer, wouldn't you need TBR to punch through the tokens?
against jund, i reckon having your own young pyromancer would help but its fringe.
i like traverse more than grixis because it has more cards that allow me to interact with the board instead of just going all in with a delve creature or DS that usually dies and we just sit there waiting for a top deck. traverse's mainboard abrupt decays have won me many games that would have been forgone conclusions.
i am now playing 4c traverse ds because it has enough main deck choices to cope with the diversity of decks in modern in g1 with a semi transformational sideboard with cards like 1 x godless shrine and 3 x lingering souls.
Jund will be definately sticking around. It is making Grixis DS very punishing to play and Bloodbraid Elf is forcing mediocre control players to make bad decisions.
Abrupt Decay, another control player's nightmare is also making a comeback with the deck.
Traverse DS is now the default DS deck to play because it grinds way better in a control match up. There has been lots of talk about what to do when BBE resolves (counter BBE or counter Cascade). I am kind of pleased that JTMS and BBE are forcing players to learn how to interact with cards in a meaningful way. Sometimes I feel that the older magic cards were a lot more technical then the new ones because of this.
I feel that BBE slants our match up against them slightly in their favor because they attack the board a lot more now. It would take a lot of tight playing to wiggle past this match up. Against Jund in G2 and G3, you definately want to counterspell BBE and Surgical Extraction it from their deck as it is the single card that generates the most value against us.
JTMS rewards proactive decks more than durdly ones. If you attack the board and is slightly ahead or on equal boardstate, JTMS will pull you away with an Unsummon. Spell Queller is also bad now as Abrupt Decay and L.Bolt have a heavier presence now. This puts more emphasis on Geist and Snapcaster to keep the board tidy before landing JTMS to seal the game.
I don't think Delver and JMTS is a thing. Their deck building requirements counter-act against each other. JTMS benefits our tempo builds more and he needs a lot of protection when he lands, so building a board with Young Pyromancer in the early turns with counter magic in your grip when you resolve JTMS might be a thing moving forward.
I am currently playing Saheeli Evo Combo now and having a blast. Punished a lot of durdly or indecisive players as the deck can go full on beatdown with a combo back up plan. 80% of my games I won with just value creatures beating down. I only go for combo when I sense a board state stall coming or against another combo deck.
EDIT: bad grammar becoz not enuff coffee and added one more spoiler.
i always felt that Disrupting Shoal and Ancestral Visions belong in the same deck. The card disadvantage of Shoal is cripping to the player. AV mitigates this greatly. However, you most likely have to dedicate 6 slots for the 2 DS: 4 AV mix and would have to reevaluate if you still want to run other cantrips like Opt (most likely not). Serum Visions will still see a full set of but in the past I have seen decks run 2 - 3 Serum Visions for more mid game spells like Cryptic Command alongside Sphinx Revelation and Supreme Verdict.... however those type of decks are more in tune of full out Control then Tempo decks like ours.
i happen to have BBEs from years back so i am gonna chip in to test. have to lose chord of calling in the deck unfortunately... this is what i ended up with:
Cascading into BoP is an issue. However it happened only 1/10 times. Cascading into Evo is not necessary a bad thing, you can Cascade -> Evo 2CC creature into Renegade Rallier to get it back (Voice of Resurgence). the deck feels like a value themed aggressive deck with a potential combo finisher as a back up plan. BBE feels like a sorcery speed collected company. any opponent will hate interacting with a resolving BBE with a Voice of Resurgence in play.
yet to decide if the BBE version is better than the Chord of Calling version. one of my concerns is the inclusion of BBE means no Chord (as mentioned above) and less silver bullets in the main deck.
not really pleased that JTMS got unbanned. i was not playing but observing my friends play when he was legal in Standard back then and that type of deck is oppressive and encourages people to quit magic. if anything, having 3 "karn" type of decks (lantern, tron and jtms decks) in modern is bad. it makes people quite magic. maybe that is what wotc is trying to do.... sabotage modern so people will go play domineria standard. i am not trying to be melodramaic or am wearing the tinfoil hat here but ever since the spinter twin reprint in mm2 before it getting banned, unbanning and rebanning of GGT and eldrazi winter incidents, i have a lot less faith of wotc and their "well intentions". it reeks of another attempt at money grabbing as jtms is getting another reprint.
i foresee people trying all sorts of jtms decks the next 3 months. from the already ultra durdly grindy archetypes like Grixis/Jeskai control to fringe but more passive aggressive Bant control (turn 3 jtms off noble hierach with voice of resurgence in play and reflector mage in hand). Traverse and Grixis Shadow decks will have the best tools to deal with the general field. Traverse Shadow decks might want to play 1-2 copies of BBE but its hard to do so as that deck doesn't like cards that high CMC.
i do not know if our archetype will do as well as now in the post jtms unban metagame. i already mentioned on twitter that jtms is format warping and kills off a lot of other decks, many that are fringe and very fun to play with and against. i do hope i am wrong.
and yeah... miracles WILL BE A THING in modern. all the pieces are finally there. Search for Azcanta is the TOP for modern and it will never get banned because its a more intelligent design then Top. if you ever face up with a Search of Azcanta (flipped or unflipped... flipped is a nail in the coffin for you) in play and a resolved JMTS, just scoop because you are not going to beat that lock.
do not play siege rhino in this deck. the black mana requirement will come bite you when you least need it to happen.
go for mono green value creatures like thragtusk or obstinate beloth. i usually run both. baloth also is a sort of safety net against LotV / blind discard effects.
against "swarm decks" like bushwacker/affinity/merfolk, its all about getting the combo off asap because trading creatures with them tends to be a losing preposition. 5c humans is especially disgusting because their distruptive creatures can be played at instant speed and cards like reflective mage, meddling mage and kitesale freebooter strips the combo out of your hand.
affinity and 5c humans also have flyers which will end the game most of the time against you.
imho, 5c humans is a disgusting deck. its like slivers on steroids. i peg 5c humans as one of our worst matchups atm esp when we do not have the combo by turn 4.
Apparently Risk Factor is quite a card. Its blowing up pre-release and some are trying it in U/R / Jeskai Shells.
I think it has space in our decks as a 1 or 2 of.
Yes. I usually run 2 Cats. However this is also because I run the Kiki-Resto package as overlap. For those who do not want to run the Kiki-Resto package, 3 Cats is max you want to go unless you want to go all in on the combo.
Leyline of Sanctity and/or Kitchen Finks
i been tinkering with this version with B splash:
4 Chancellor of the Tangle
4 Wall of Roots
4 Grim Flayer
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Ulvenwald Hydra
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Search for Tomorrow
4 Abundant Growth
4 Unbridled Growth
4 Caravan Vigil
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Renegade Map
5 Forest
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
deck isn't really optimized as i am experimenting with various cards. stuff like Ulvenwald Hydra can be replaced with Primetime, maybe more Obstinate Baloths for some of the redundant spells like Harrow or Search for Tomorrow. Mishra's Bauble will also be good in this deck for cantrip and activating Delirium consistently. Grim Flayer is pretty good here for dumping redundant cards into the yard to find Belcher if you need it.
regardless, the power of our deck(s) cannot be taken for granted. we have game against majority of the popular decks in the metagame... we are simply waiting for a new card to let us break out from our under represented bracket!
another thing about wizards is they tend to play off spells... and its hard to balance spells in tribal cards in the same deck.
cool card though!
i guess Colonnade is great for late game grind to tie in with Cryptic Command and Snapcaster Mage.
against mardu pyromancer, wouldn't you need TBR to punch through the tokens?
against jund, i reckon having your own young pyromancer would help but its fringe.
i am now playing 4c traverse ds because it has enough main deck choices to cope with the diversity of decks in modern in g1 with a semi transformational sideboard with cards like 1 x godless shrine and 3 x lingering souls.
mainly because GDS is the weakest tier 1 deck in an anti tron meta.
traverse DS survived the meta culling of the unbans because they mainboard abrupt decays while still playing the same DS strategy.
4 traverse to smooth out land draws (mitigate blood moon) and to tutor the win condition isn't too shabby either.
Abrupt Decay, another control player's nightmare is also making a comeback with the deck.
Traverse DS is now the default DS deck to play because it grinds way better in a control match up. There has been lots of talk about what to do when BBE resolves (counter BBE or counter Cascade). I am kind of pleased that JTMS and BBE are forcing players to learn how to interact with cards in a meaningful way. Sometimes I feel that the older magic cards were a lot more technical then the new ones because of this.
I feel that BBE slants our match up against them slightly in their favor because they attack the board a lot more now. It would take a lot of tight playing to wiggle past this match up. Against Jund in G2 and G3, you definately want to counterspell BBE and Surgical Extraction it from their deck as it is the single card that generates the most value against us.
JTMS rewards proactive decks more than durdly ones. If you attack the board and is slightly ahead or on equal boardstate, JTMS will pull you away with an Unsummon. Spell Queller is also bad now as Abrupt Decay and L.Bolt have a heavier presence now. This puts more emphasis on Geist and Snapcaster to keep the board tidy before landing JTMS to seal the game.
I don't think Delver and JMTS is a thing. Their deck building requirements counter-act against each other. JTMS benefits our tempo builds more and he needs a lot of protection when he lands, so building a board with Young Pyromancer in the early turns with counter magic in your grip when you resolve JTMS might be a thing moving forward.
EDIT: bad grammar becoz not enuff coffee and added one more spoiler.
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Eternal Witness
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Voice of Resurgence
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Renegade Rallier
1 Restoration Angel
3 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Thragtusk
1 Sun Titan
4 Oath of Nissa
Sorcery
4 Eldritch Evolution
Planeswalker
4 Saheeli Rai
Land
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Canopy Vista
1 Plains
5 Forest
Cascading into BoP is an issue. However it happened only 1/10 times. Cascading into Evo is not necessary a bad thing, you can Cascade -> Evo 2CC creature into Renegade Rallier to get it back (Voice of Resurgence). the deck feels like a value themed aggressive deck with a potential combo finisher as a back up plan. BBE feels like a sorcery speed collected company. any opponent will hate interacting with a resolving BBE with a Voice of Resurgence in play.
yet to decide if the BBE version is better than the Chord of Calling version. one of my concerns is the inclusion of BBE means no Chord (as mentioned above) and less silver bullets in the main deck.
i foresee people trying all sorts of jtms decks the next 3 months. from the already ultra durdly grindy archetypes like Grixis/Jeskai control to fringe but more passive aggressive Bant control (turn 3 jtms off noble hierach with voice of resurgence in play and reflector mage in hand). Traverse and Grixis Shadow decks will have the best tools to deal with the general field. Traverse Shadow decks might want to play 1-2 copies of BBE but its hard to do so as that deck doesn't like cards that high CMC.
i do not know if our archetype will do as well as now in the post jtms unban metagame. i already mentioned on twitter that jtms is format warping and kills off a lot of other decks, many that are fringe and very fun to play with and against. i do hope i am wrong.
and yeah... miracles WILL BE A THING in modern. all the pieces are finally there. Search for Azcanta is the TOP for modern and it will never get banned because its a more intelligent design then Top. if you ever face up with a Search of Azcanta (flipped or unflipped... flipped is a nail in the coffin for you) in play and a resolved JMTS, just scoop because you are not going to beat that lock.
go for mono green value creatures like thragtusk or obstinate beloth. i usually run both. baloth also is a sort of safety net against LotV / blind discard effects.
against "swarm decks" like bushwacker/affinity/merfolk, its all about getting the combo off asap because trading creatures with them tends to be a losing preposition. 5c humans is especially disgusting because their distruptive creatures can be played at instant speed and cards like reflective mage, meddling mage and kitesale freebooter strips the combo out of your hand.
affinity and 5c humans also have flyers which will end the game most of the time against you.
imho, 5c humans is a disgusting deck. its like slivers on steroids. i peg 5c humans as one of our worst matchups atm esp when we do not have the combo by turn 4.