Trying to figure out what deck to build and am currently trying out this archetype because stone rain'ing people to death sounds fun. I noticed a madcap experiment build recently did well at the SCG this past weekend. What's the opinion on that combo?
I encourage you to try ancient stirrings its great, in my experience it adds a lot of consistency also playing karplusan forest
allows me to play kozilek's return which is amazing against merfolk, elves, and affinity. You could also run firespout as an alternative. Also tomb of the spirit dragon is a great utility land that people are overlooking, the incremental life gain is significant and when you play hangarback walker it gets even better, I've started playing walking ballista in the sideboard for more removal, its been good so far.
Definitely. I will give your build a shot but I'll probably try to find room for the 4th stirrings because the card is so good!
In my games with this deck, I feel like I see a lot of variance in how it performs. It never seems to 'curve'. I feel like I'm either mana rich and threat poor (i.e. no finisher) or that I'm mana poor and threat poor (i.e. stuck at 3-4 mana, usually with a Chalice on 1 and an Expedition Map in hand). Am I mulliganing wrong? Is that the 'norm'?
I agree with you on the variance. The deck can feel like an invincible machine or the clunkiest clunker sometimes by getting flooded or screwed. This is why I'm interested in shumpy's ancient stirrings build to add some consistency. Stirrings is hands down the best cantrip in modern and it's not close. There has to be a build of this deck that likes it. I've not been super impressed with chalice in modern so far either. Sure, it's great against some combo or aggro decks but it doesn't come down on turn 1 and it puts you in this awkward situation on turn 2 most of the time.
Edit: To elaborate on what I meant about chalice, it doens't come down turn 1 with mainstream builds and a lot of modern isn't hyper efficient with all 1 mana cards. It's won me some games against burn but has also been a super dead draw late or sat in my hand while there were what I thought better options for the turns to come.
I'm all for T2 marit lage'ing people in modern lol. It's not too hard to do in legacy as it is and I feel like there are waaaayyyyy less effective interactions in modern (no force, daze, stifle, wasteland, karakas, crop rotation, etc.).
I am kind of bored with dredge (nothing to do with the bannings) and am looking to branch into another deck. I've seen some discussion about walking ballista on this thread and then saw this list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/562899#paper. This guy mained 4 ballistas and I'm already high on this card so what do you all think of this list? What do you guys think of fitting in 3-4 chalices into the main of this list in lieu of the hangarbacks and something else?
WotC used to be not that reactive before, whether the surprise standard rotation rollback or this surprise emergency ban, either there was a huge loss of income or the new CEO is making things change.
Interesting observation. Wizards did always have a more 'wait and see' approach to things and took a long time to react to player complaints and things like this. I can't imagine Peregrine Drake caused enough of a decline in Pauper to have a significant impact on Wizards' finances, so I think you might be on to something with the new CEO trying to actually make some changes in the way the company does things.
Both quotes here articulate what I was trying to convey so much better lol. I was caught off guard by the abrupt decision to ban drake when they've had 2 opportunities to ban the obviously broken and warping card on their regular ban announcement schedule.
My 2 cents: It feels strange that Wizards is setting the precedent again that it's ok to emergency ban something in a format between set releases, especially after they waited it out during the insane dominance Eldrazi decks had on modern just a few months ago. They recently banned cloud of faeries out of the format, introduced a better version into the format, and then didn't do anything about it for 2 ban announcements only to give it the hammer haphazardly.
Tales of Adventure seems to be the bigger company that is taking up the eternal format slack that Wizards and SCG are leaving behind. They are providing competitive support towards eternal extravaganza and some other big tournament event that I can't remember the name of. I'm hoping this will catch on and my local stores that host weekly/monthly legacy events will pick these up.
Also,does anyone run dangerous wager or collective brutality in the main? Both have their uses. Wager is totally sick, but sucks if you have lands in hand that you need to recur ghast. Brutality is a swiss army card, i have one main and like it, but it can be random at times. Darkblast or lightning axe could be better, but killing a creature, taking a spell and draining 2 life while discarding two is sweet. Maybe a deck with a few of those and street wraith, shaving a voice or two?
Some people really like brutality as a 1 main 1 side card. I haven't had a whole lot of play with it to form an opinion. Dangerous wager, however, is not where the deck wants to be. Months ago when people first started realizing amalgam+neonate make dredge a thing some were running dangerous wager so I tested it. The card ends up being awkward in your hand because you don't want to discard lands or something else and then you only draw 2 off of it. Tormenting voice does the same job without needing to go all-in from what I've found.
I'm pretty sure people were afraid to play the deck/were packing the grave hate this weekend. It looked like affinity was going strong this weekend which makes me believe modern is going to start the cycle legacy had a some years ago. Dredge would do well, then people pack grave hate, then affinity does well, then people pack artifact hate, wash rinse repeat.
I can't believe they reprinted this in a set that has a normal print run (correct me if I'm wrong but conspiracy is a widely available set much more akin to a standard set, right?) Even at mythic the price should come down quite a bit.
After playing against a few decks with smiter and wilt-leaf liege I think I'm off burning inquiry. Waaaayyy too many times did I inadvertently give them a free 3 or 4 drop that proceeded to take over the game by simply being bigger than my creatures/not give me what I needed back in the yard. That and (as others have said) I can't play it as a T1 enabler which felt really bad.
I played quite a few games against hatebears and Thalia is such a pain in the matchup (then again, when is she not a pain?). Another card that came up that had incidental hate was dryad militant. Not being able to loam or conflagrate meant they were able to run a much better long game than me. I want to board in darkblast but it won't do anything if it gets exiled or their creatures start getting pumped by gavony or liege. I'm thinking this is just a rough matchup that we can hope to avoid.
Exactly what I was thinking. Wizards had to know this card's recent history.
Definitely. I will give your build a shot but I'll probably try to find room for the 4th stirrings because the card is so good!
I agree with you on the variance. The deck can feel like an invincible machine or the clunkiest clunker sometimes by getting flooded or screwed. This is why I'm interested in shumpy's ancient stirrings build to add some consistency. Stirrings is hands down the best cantrip in modern and it's not close. There has to be a build of this deck that likes it. I've not been super impressed with chalice in modern so far either. Sure, it's great against some combo or aggro decks but it doesn't come down on turn 1 and it puts you in this awkward situation on turn 2 most of the time.
Edit: To elaborate on what I meant about chalice, it doens't come down turn 1 with mainstream builds and a lot of modern isn't hyper efficient with all 1 mana cards. It's won me some games against burn but has also been a super dead draw late or sat in my hand while there were what I thought better options for the turns to come.
Both quotes here articulate what I was trying to convey so much better lol. I was caught off guard by the abrupt decision to ban drake when they've had 2 opportunities to ban the obviously broken and warping card on their regular ban announcement schedule.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-online/pauper-banned-list-change-2016-11-03
My 2 cents: It feels strange that Wizards is setting the precedent again that it's ok to emergency ban something in a format between set releases, especially after they waited it out during the insane dominance Eldrazi decks had on modern just a few months ago. They recently banned cloud of faeries out of the format, introduced a better version into the format, and then didn't do anything about it for 2 ban announcements only to give it the hammer haphazardly.
Some people really like brutality as a 1 main 1 side card. I haven't had a whole lot of play with it to form an opinion. Dangerous wager, however, is not where the deck wants to be. Months ago when people first started realizing amalgam+neonate make dredge a thing some were running dangerous wager so I tested it. The card ends up being awkward in your hand because you don't want to discard lands or something else and then you only draw 2 off of it. Tormenting voice does the same job without needing to go all-in from what I've found.
I played quite a few games against hatebears and Thalia is such a pain in the matchup (then again, when is she not a pain?). Another card that came up that had incidental hate was dryad militant. Not being able to loam or conflagrate meant they were able to run a much better long game than me. I want to board in darkblast but it won't do anything if it gets exiled or their creatures start getting pumped by gavony or liege. I'm thinking this is just a rough matchup that we can hope to avoid.