Their reasoning behind no unbans is that the format is currently in a cyclical healthy metagame cycle. Yes, Stoneforge (and a few other cards) are 'safe' to come off, but if their goal in the management of the banlist is to make sure that they've curated a healthy and vibrant format then why would they do that right now? We'll get it eventually.
So, is this the primer for "GW Valuetown"?
I'm a huge fan of the deck! I really enjoy playing and watching it!
What I don't understand: why is no one splashing black? I mean the splash is mostly for free and even if you just splash for your sideboard you can play a "stock" list and have a better sideboard against combodecks (which I think are a bad matchup).
Todd Stevens has mastered this deck but I think with a little more black cards he will finally win an open with "Valuetown"
After my first post in march I realised that 4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is just bad (in modern). Don't get me wrong - I love this card. But as a 4 off she's not that good in modern. I'll test the deck this week and will post my current list/thoughts!
Yep - this is basically the valuetown primer.
What would you be looking to splash black for? Duress/Thoughtseize/Iok?
Agreed on Thalia. I run one out of the side and she's been fine there - I definitely don't think that four maindeck is necessary at all.
Changes would have been cool, but no changes was cool too. This is especially true given those top 8s from this last weekend and UWs meta correction. Viva modern.
Excited to see how Legacy shakes out after those monstrous bans. Lackey is back baby!
Didn't realize there was an actual maverick thread! I posted this in the GW value town thread but that one is dead. I took the deck to a 3-0 modern Monday earlier this week and did a short write-up. Deck feels REALLY good. I played Todd Stevens' most recent main deck with a cobbled together sideboard based on what I had available. Below is the list -
Match notes and sideboards - I don't take very good notes and don't have a great memory of every single turn (I have no idea how some of you have such detailed tournament reports) but I always remember how I sideboarded so I'll just try to give you the gist.
Match 1 - Lantern Control - 2-0
I feel pretty favored against lantern normally as we have SO much control over the top of our library and that proved to be the case in these games.
Game 1 - Had a turn 2 Knight that he couldn't answer at all and it was far too hard for him to control my draw step and he couldn't find a bridge. Easy and quick win.
Sideboard:
Out
4 Path - no targets
3 Voice of Resurgence - just a grizzly bear and that's definitely not where you want to be.
In
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Kataki
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Shalai
2 Stony Silence
Game 2 - This was more of the same if not better as I got to just remove all of my dead stuff. Ended up delivering most of my beats via a BOP under a bridge with double Hierarch triggers. He whirred for a spellbomb to kill one of the Hierarch's which dropped my clock to give him time to find outs. I ended up with 2 knights in play and in one upkeep saw 8 different cards on top of my deck before I drew. Knight is stupid. Finally found a Kataki which basically wrathed his board and that was the game.
Match 2 - Jeskai Control - 2-0
Jeskai can be a tough matchup if they see enough removal early and can stabilize at a high enough life total. Our general gameplan here is to try and grind with them while constantly pressuring their basics. Most Jeskai players run 3/4ish basics - generally 2 islands and a plains but some will run a third island or 1 mountain.
Game 1 - Did exactly what I was looking to do in that he naturally drew his basics and I got to a point where I could ghost quarter aggressively. A Ramunap sealed his fate with GQ's every turn while he tried to deal with some pesky Voices.
Sideboard:
Out
4 Path
4 Birds of Paradise - dorks aren't really where you want to be against a super removal heavy deck - you want to insulate yourself from easy removal targets and give yourself better late game topdecks
In
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Choke
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric - 4 power toughness creatures come in against Jeskai as only path cleanly deals with them. The other text isn't terribly relevant but it does turn off Snapcaster, so that's nice.
1 Engineered Explosives - a hedge against them bringing in something like Rest in Peace
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Reclamation Sage - also a hedge against RIP
1 Shalai
1 Sigarda
Game 2 - Mulled to 6 and snap kept a hand with a voice, choke, and Coco. Drew a Noble and played it turn one - into voice (not playing into mana leak), end of his fourth turn I played Coco into Cryptic mana and he took the bait and I slammed Choke on my turn keeping him completely tapped out. Voice was a slow clock and he got some more lands up while I built out my board and the game ended when I 'countered' a wrath with Avacyn.
Match 3 - Jund - 2-1
Jund games are the grindiest of the grindy games. Your success comes down to how able you are to hold off aggression while ghost quartering them out of the game as they don't run many basics.
Game 1 - I got relatively lucky and found a constant stream of huge knights that he couldn't deal with all in a row and I got a Scavenging Ooze going early which helped clean up Goyfs.
Sideboard:
General idea - similar to that of Jeskai. Dorks are not where you want to be. Give yourself better top decks and the more you can inoculate yourself against bolt, the better. Our board is pretty good against Jund so I felt pretty good going into the sideboard games.
Out
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
In
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Nissa
1 Shalai
1 Sigarda
Game 2 - I thought I kept a fairly good hand with some voices, but one ate an inquisition and he followed it up with a Bob that went ham, and a Scavenging Ooze that ended up with 10 counters on it and my graveyard completely empty. Despite my best efforts I never found a path.
Game 3 - Kept a super shaky 6 - 2 lands (fetch and ghost quarter) with a my only real playables being a courser and EE and scryed another courser to the bottom. First draw step was another courser. He dropped a goyf with only lands in the yard. I find a land and drop Courser. I don't block his goyf when he swings in because I saw he had the bolt (he did). Got the second courser up and passed. Blocked his two goyfs (which were 2/3s) and he didn't have anything to punish me and played a bob in his second main. Hit my 4th land drop into EE on 2, popped, swing. He found a Liliana the Last Hope and we start to grind out a little bit, with him finding another pesky Scooze that got big enough to be a threat. He couldn't put pressure on though and I blew him out with Avacyn negating a push on a late Excavator. Feels good.
So yeah, I love this deck. You have so many options, you have so many different ways to attack the format and you have outs to almost everything.
And that was that. Felt good. On the modernmagic forum there were some arguments about my sideboarding decisions. At the time everything felt good, but now I'm not so sure. Thoughts?
This deck feels SO much better than it's following would suggest. Are people just not interested in the playstyle?
This deck likely lacks the critical mass of interactions required to make the inclusion of Scryb Ranger worthwhile. If you want to try Scryb Ranger I'd suggest so in place of Azusa.
Linvala doesn't do a lot outside of the Elves/Company Combo and Affinity matchups - so I wouldn't consider her necessary.
Good points and I think you're right about all of the above. With GSZ legal in the format it might make Scryb a little more viable, but I don't think it's there right now.
Great blog by the way - playing any GW builds in modern?
Could Runic Armasaur do anything in a sort of chord/company/value town deck?
I guess it’s a shame that you can’t chord/company/vial it in in response to an activation and draw a card.
I've been thinking about one in value town, but I don't know that it provides you with any more or even equal value as one of our current 3 drops. It's certainly not better than Knight, Excavator, or Courser. Azusa can be pretty limited in her use, but when she wins a game she does it in style. Armasaur's body is MUCH better against things like humans, so that is definitely something to keep an eye on. It's one to watch for sure.
It's not one tournament, and it's not one deck. It's about 3 or 4 decks, that causes various issues(possible dominance issues in Tron, possible logistics or possible dominance issues in the future in KCI, and possible logistic issues in the MTGO platform, possible time issues and the deck being "obnoxious" in Lantern control). And even those arguments, might be fragile. I feel it in the water, I smell it in the air.
The big argument is that the card is not on par with the other cantrips in Modern(Serum Visions much, much weaker and being played at about the same decks[some control decks, storm]). It was ok before as it was being played in 1 fringe deck. It's being played in multiple decks now and adding extreme consistency.
Bingo. Much like vintage, Wizards needs to keep colorless cards under a tighter watch in formats with larger card pools.
If this is what theyre gonna do with with Core sets, they might as well go back to not printing them. What a waste of time and cardboard.
This is not what a Core set should be used for (yes i know we havent seen everything but I dont suspect we'll see the things I think we should)
We got a couple of expensive reprints and a handful of cards that might see play.
Core Sets have never been designed for Modern. What, pray-tell, SHOULD the purpose of a Core Set be by your standards?
my mistake...i didnt catch the "modern" sub category in the heading. I thought it was a general Core19 discussion.
But since you asked, ive always felt the core sets should address
1) Problem cards in existing formats
2) Standard more specifically. Imo it should be a utility set featuring "staples". Naturalize/Disenchant, Doom Blade, Elves/BoP, Bolt/Incinerate, Mana Leak, etc.
Did you read Maro's article yesterday where he literally articulates that their goals are what you're asking for with the addition of having a better bridge product for newer players? They're printing cards specifically for modern (your first point), giving us sweet and sorely needed reprints, printing answers that are needed for standard and things that don't 'fit' in main sets, and doing it all while satisfying the needs of EDH and newer players. What more could you realistically want from what was before a 'throwaway' set?
I'm just gonna pretend people will eventually be into this deck more (it's MUCH better than it's meta share suggests) - so I wrote a tournament report with some notes over on the modernmagic sub. Here's what I wrote over there -
Good morning -
Got to jam some value action last night for the first time (in paper) at my store's modern monday - and as far as I can tell there aren't any dedicated communities playing this deck online and I wanted to talk about it somewhere (is there a discord? Sub? MTGSalvation thread?). I played Todd Stevens' most recent main deck with a cobbled together sideboard based on what I had available. Below is the list (tappedout link) -
Match notes and sideboards - I don't take very good notes and don't have a great memory of every single turn (I have no idea how some of you have such detailed tournament reports) but I always remember how I sideboarded so I'll just try to give you the gist.
Match 1 - Lantern Control - 2-0
I feel pretty favored against lantern normally as we have SO much control over the top of our library and that proved to be the case in these games.
Game 1 - Had a turn 2 Knight that he couldn't answer at all and it was far too hard for him to control my draw step and he couldn't find a bridge. Easy and quick win.
Sideboard:
Out
4 Path - no targets
3 Voice of Resurgence - just a grizzly bear and that's definitely not where you want to be.
In
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Kataki
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Shalai
2 Stony Silence
Game 2 - This was more of the same if not better as I got to just remove all of my dead stuff. Ended up delivering most of my beats via a BOP under a bridge with double Hierarch triggers. He whirred for a spellbomb to kill one of the Hierarch's which dropped my clock to give him time to find outs. I ended up with 2 knights in play and in one upkeep saw 8 different cards on top of my deck before I drew. Knight is stupid. Finally found a Kataki which basically wrathed his board and that was the game.
Match 2 - Jeskai Control - 2-0
Jeskai can be a tough matchup if they see enough removal early and can stabilize at a high enough life total. Our general gameplan here is to try and grind with them while constantly pressuring their basics. Most Jeskai players run 3/4ish basics - generally 2 islands and a plains but some will run a third island or 1 mountain.
Game 1 - Did exactly what I was looking to do in that he naturally drew his basics and I got to a point where I could ghost quarter aggressively. A Ramunap sealed his fate with GQ's every turn while he tried to deal with some pesky Voices.
Sideboard:
Out
4 Path
4 Birds of Paradise - dorks aren't really where you want to be against a super removal heavy deck - you want to insulate yourself from easy removal targets and give yourself better late game topdecks
In
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Choke
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric - 4 power toughness creatures come in against Jeskai as only path cleanly deals with them. The other text isn't terribly relevant but it does turn off Snapcaster, so that's nice.
1 Engineered Explosives - a hedge against them bringing in something like Rest in Peace
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Reclamation Sage - also a hedge against RIP
1 Shalai
1 Sigarda
Game 2 - Mulled to 6 and snap kept a hand with a voice, choke, and Coco. Drew a Noble and played it turn one - into voice (not playing into mana leak), end of his fourth turn I played Coco into Cryptic mana and he took the bait and I slammed Choke on my turn keeping him completely tapped out. Voice was a slow clock and he got some more lands up while I built out my board and the game ended when I 'countered' a wrath with Avacyn.
Match 3 - Jund - 2-1
Jund games are the grindiest of the grindy games. Your success comes down to how able you are to hold off aggression while ghost quartering them out of the game as they don't run many basics.
Game 1 - I got relatively lucky and found a constant stream of huge knights that he couldn't deal with all in a row and I got a Scavenging Ooze going early which helped clean up Goyfs.
Sideboard:
General idea - similar to that of Jeskai. Dorks are not where you want to be. Give yourself better top decks and the more you can inoculate yourself against bolt, the better. Our board is pretty good against Jund so I felt pretty good going into the sideboard games.
Out
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
In
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Nissa
1 Shalai
1 Sigarda
Game 2 - I thought I kept a fairly good hand with some voices, but one ate an inquisition and he followed it up with a Bob that went ham, and a Scavenging Ooze that ended up with 10 counters on it and my graveyard completely empty. Despite my best efforts I never found a path.
Game 3 - Kept a super shaky 6 - 2 lands (fetch and ghost quarter) with a my only real playables being a courser and EE and scryed another courser to the bottom. First draw step was another courser. He dropped a goyf with only lands in the yard. I find a land and drop Courser. I don't block his goyf when he swings in because I saw he had the bolt (he did). Got the second courser up and passed. Blocked his two goyfs (which were 2/3s) and he didn't have anything to punish me and played a bob in his second main. Hit my 4th land drop into EE on 2, popped, swing. He found a Liliana the Last Hope and we start to grind out a little bit, with him finding another pesky Scooze that got big enough to be a threat. He couldn't put pressure on though and I blew him out with Avacyn negating a push on a late Excavator. Feels good.
So yeah, I love this deck. You have so many options, you have so many different ways to attack the format and you have outs to almost everything.
Some cards I'm considering - I really like spice - can you think of anything else that might be spicy?
Scryb Ranger - the pro blue clause is irrelevant, but being able to flash in something that gives you extra tracker activations, knight activations, pseudo ramp (if I can't make my landdrop for the turn), etc. Just seems sweet. Maverick in Legacy runs it as a 1-of, but obviously they're doing some things we aren't (a lot of things - ha!).
Lyra - Lyra seems like a pretty sweet sideboard option in that it straight up wins the game against some decks and along with the other angels, we get to turn into a sweet angel stompy deck.
Linvala - I should be running Linvala already (I need to pick one up) because it just shuts down so many random decks and gives me such a better game against elves. Many, elves is rough.
Anything else? I know Stevens digs Elspeth Sun's Champion and Gideon, but I thought the idea of Nissa was pretty sweet for grindy matchups as it gives me another coco hit and stretches the amount of things the opponent then has to deal with.
Looks like someone bought out all the semi-played GP SFM at SCG. There wete almost 20 of them this morning at 14 dollars each. Tonight all gone. Looks like some people are hopeful for her to be unbanned.
That's nothing new, it has happened a few times before (as it has for BBE and JTMS). I don't expect it to be unbanned in Modern, for the same reason as Birthing Pod: it limits their future design possibilities.
That said, I do have my playset, since I'm using them in Legacy.
No, it doesn't. They've said that they're never printing equipment as powerful as the mirrodin block equipment ever again. This belongs in the ban list thread.
With that, I should pick one or two up in the off chance it comes off because it could easily be a $50 card.
Anyone been rocking the value town lately? The deck keeps putting up 5-0s on mtgo and Stevens continues to do well with the list so I'm not sure why it doesn't have more interest than it currently does.
There are always players exiting and re-entering the game. Unless we have any actual data from Wizards that supports some sort of exodus that would actually affect prices then we shouldn't base any financial decisions on something that may or may not be happening.
Last we heard from Hasbro's financial meeting is that the game is thriving, so I'd take any drop ideas with a pretty large grain of salt.
Yep - this is basically the valuetown primer.
What would you be looking to splash black for? Duress/Thoughtseize/Iok?
Agreed on Thalia. I run one out of the side and she's been fine there - I definitely don't think that four maindeck is necessary at all.
Excited to see how Legacy shakes out after those monstrous bans. Lackey is back baby!
1 Gavony Township
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Plains
2 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Archangel Avacyn
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Ramunap Excavator
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Tireless Tracker
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Collected Company
1 Dromoka's Command
4 Path to Exile
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Choke
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Eldritch Evolution
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Stony Silence
Match notes and sideboards - I don't take very good notes and don't have a great memory of every single turn (I have no idea how some of you have such detailed tournament reports) but I always remember how I sideboarded so I'll just try to give you the gist.
Match 1 - Lantern Control - 2-0
I feel pretty favored against lantern normally as we have SO much control over the top of our library and that proved to be the case in these games.
Game 1 - Had a turn 2 Knight that he couldn't answer at all and it was far too hard for him to control my draw step and he couldn't find a bridge. Easy and quick win.
Sideboard:
Out
4 Path - no targets
3 Voice of Resurgence - just a grizzly bear and that's definitely not where you want to be.
In
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Kataki
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Shalai
2 Stony Silence
Game 2 - This was more of the same if not better as I got to just remove all of my dead stuff. Ended up delivering most of my beats via a BOP under a bridge with double Hierarch triggers. He whirred for a spellbomb to kill one of the Hierarch's which dropped my clock to give him time to find outs. I ended up with 2 knights in play and in one upkeep saw 8 different cards on top of my deck before I drew. Knight is stupid. Finally found a Kataki which basically wrathed his board and that was the game.
Match 2 - Jeskai Control - 2-0
Jeskai can be a tough matchup if they see enough removal early and can stabilize at a high enough life total. Our general gameplan here is to try and grind with them while constantly pressuring their basics. Most Jeskai players run 3/4ish basics - generally 2 islands and a plains but some will run a third island or 1 mountain.
Game 1 - Did exactly what I was looking to do in that he naturally drew his basics and I got to a point where I could ghost quarter aggressively. A Ramunap sealed his fate with GQ's every turn while he tried to deal with some pesky Voices.
Sideboard:
Out
4 Path
4 Birds of Paradise - dorks aren't really where you want to be against a super removal heavy deck - you want to insulate yourself from easy removal targets and give yourself better late game topdecks
In
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Choke
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric - 4 power toughness creatures come in against Jeskai as only path cleanly deals with them. The other text isn't terribly relevant but it does turn off Snapcaster, so that's nice.
1 Engineered Explosives - a hedge against them bringing in something like Rest in Peace
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Reclamation Sage - also a hedge against RIP
1 Shalai
1 Sigarda
Game 2 - Mulled to 6 and snap kept a hand with a voice, choke, and Coco. Drew a Noble and played it turn one - into voice (not playing into mana leak), end of his fourth turn I played Coco into Cryptic mana and he took the bait and I slammed Choke on my turn keeping him completely tapped out. Voice was a slow clock and he got some more lands up while I built out my board and the game ended when I 'countered' a wrath with Avacyn.
Match 3 - Jund - 2-1
Jund games are the grindiest of the grindy games. Your success comes down to how able you are to hold off aggression while ghost quartering them out of the game as they don't run many basics.
Game 1 - I got relatively lucky and found a constant stream of huge knights that he couldn't deal with all in a row and I got a Scavenging Ooze going early which helped clean up Goyfs.
Sideboard:
General idea - similar to that of Jeskai. Dorks are not where you want to be. Give yourself better top decks and the more you can inoculate yourself against bolt, the better. Our board is pretty good against Jund so I felt pretty good going into the sideboard games.
Out
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
In
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Nissa
1 Shalai
1 Sigarda
Game 2 - I thought I kept a fairly good hand with some voices, but one ate an inquisition and he followed it up with a Bob that went ham, and a Scavenging Ooze that ended up with 10 counters on it and my graveyard completely empty. Despite my best efforts I never found a path.
Game 3 - Kept a super shaky 6 - 2 lands (fetch and ghost quarter) with a my only real playables being a courser and EE and scryed another courser to the bottom. First draw step was another courser. He dropped a goyf with only lands in the yard. I find a land and drop Courser. I don't block his goyf when he swings in because I saw he had the bolt (he did). Got the second courser up and passed. Blocked his two goyfs (which were 2/3s) and he didn't have anything to punish me and played a bob in his second main. Hit my 4th land drop into EE on 2, popped, swing. He found a Liliana the Last Hope and we start to grind out a little bit, with him finding another pesky Scooze that got big enough to be a threat. He couldn't put pressure on though and I blew him out with Avacyn negating a push on a late Excavator. Feels good.
So yeah, I love this deck. You have so many options, you have so many different ways to attack the format and you have outs to almost everything.
And that was that. Felt good. On the modernmagic forum there were some arguments about my sideboarding decisions. At the time everything felt good, but now I'm not so sure. Thoughts?
This deck feels SO much better than it's following would suggest. Are people just not interested in the playstyle?
Good points and I think you're right about all of the above. With GSZ legal in the format it might make Scryb a little more viable, but I don't think it's there right now.
Great blog by the way - playing any GW builds in modern?
I've been thinking about one in value town, but I don't know that it provides you with any more or even equal value as one of our current 3 drops. It's certainly not better than Knight, Excavator, or Courser. Azusa can be pretty limited in her use, but when she wins a game she does it in style. Armasaur's body is MUCH better against things like humans, so that is definitely something to keep an eye on. It's one to watch for sure.
Bingo. Much like vintage, Wizards needs to keep colorless cards under a tighter watch in formats with larger card pools.
Did you read Maro's article yesterday where he literally articulates that their goals are what you're asking for with the addition of having a better bridge product for newer players? They're printing cards specifically for modern (your first point), giving us sweet and sorely needed reprints, printing answers that are needed for standard and things that don't 'fit' in main sets, and doing it all while satisfying the needs of EDH and newer players. What more could you realistically want from what was before a 'throwaway' set?
Good morning -
Got to jam some value action last night for the first time (in paper) at my store's modern monday - and as far as I can tell there aren't any dedicated communities playing this deck online and I wanted to talk about it somewhere (is there a discord? Sub? MTGSalvation thread?). I played Todd Stevens' most recent main deck with a cobbled together sideboard based on what I had available. Below is the list (tappedout link) -
1 Gavony Township
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Plains
2 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Archangel Avacyn
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Ramunap Excavator
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Tireless Tracker
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Collected Company
1 Dromoka's Command
4 Path to Exile
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Choke
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Eldritch Evolution
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Stony Silence
Match notes and sideboards - I don't take very good notes and don't have a great memory of every single turn (I have no idea how some of you have such detailed tournament reports) but I always remember how I sideboarded so I'll just try to give you the gist.
Match 1 - Lantern Control - 2-0
I feel pretty favored against lantern normally as we have SO much control over the top of our library and that proved to be the case in these games.
Game 1 - Had a turn 2 Knight that he couldn't answer at all and it was far too hard for him to control my draw step and he couldn't find a bridge. Easy and quick win.
Sideboard:
Out
4 Path - no targets
3 Voice of Resurgence - just a grizzly bear and that's definitely not where you want to be.
In
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Kataki
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Shalai
2 Stony Silence
Game 2 - This was more of the same if not better as I got to just remove all of my dead stuff. Ended up delivering most of my beats via a BOP under a bridge with double Hierarch triggers. He whirred for a spellbomb to kill one of the Hierarch's which dropped my clock to give him time to find outs. I ended up with 2 knights in play and in one upkeep saw 8 different cards on top of my deck before I drew. Knight is stupid. Finally found a Kataki which basically wrathed his board and that was the game.
Match 2 - Jeskai Control - 2-0
Jeskai can be a tough matchup if they see enough removal early and can stabilize at a high enough life total. Our general gameplan here is to try and grind with them while constantly pressuring their basics. Most Jeskai players run 3/4ish basics - generally 2 islands and a plains but some will run a third island or 1 mountain.
Game 1 - Did exactly what I was looking to do in that he naturally drew his basics and I got to a point where I could ghost quarter aggressively. A Ramunap sealed his fate with GQ's every turn while he tried to deal with some pesky Voices.
Sideboard:
Out
4 Path
4 Birds of Paradise - dorks aren't really where you want to be against a super removal heavy deck - you want to insulate yourself from easy removal targets and give yourself better late game topdecks
In
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Choke
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric - 4 power toughness creatures come in against Jeskai as only path cleanly deals with them. The other text isn't terribly relevant but it does turn off Snapcaster, so that's nice.
1 Engineered Explosives - a hedge against them bringing in something like Rest in Peace
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Reclamation Sage - also a hedge against RIP
1 Shalai
1 Sigarda
Game 2 - Mulled to 6 and snap kept a hand with a voice, choke, and Coco. Drew a Noble and played it turn one - into voice (not playing into mana leak), end of his fourth turn I played Coco into Cryptic mana and he took the bait and I slammed Choke on my turn keeping him completely tapped out. Voice was a slow clock and he got some more lands up while I built out my board and the game ended when I 'countered' a wrath with Avacyn.
Match 3 - Jund - 2-1
Jund games are the grindiest of the grindy games. Your success comes down to how able you are to hold off aggression while ghost quartering them out of the game as they don't run many basics.
Game 1 - I got relatively lucky and found a constant stream of huge knights that he couldn't deal with all in a row and I got a Scavenging Ooze going early which helped clean up Goyfs.
Sideboard:
General idea - similar to that of Jeskai. Dorks are not where you want to be. Give yourself better top decks and the more you can inoculate yourself against bolt, the better. Our board is pretty good against Jund so I felt pretty good going into the sideboard games.
Out
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
In
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Nissa
1 Shalai
1 Sigarda
Game 2 - I thought I kept a fairly good hand with some voices, but one ate an inquisition and he followed it up with a Bob that went ham, and a Scavenging Ooze that ended up with 10 counters on it and my graveyard completely empty. Despite my best efforts I never found a path.
Game 3 - Kept a super shaky 6 - 2 lands (fetch and ghost quarter) with a my only real playables being a courser and EE and scryed another courser to the bottom. First draw step was another courser. He dropped a goyf with only lands in the yard. I find a land and drop Courser. I don't block his goyf when he swings in because I saw he had the bolt (he did). Got the second courser up and passed. Blocked his two goyfs (which were 2/3s) and he didn't have anything to punish me and played a bob in his second main. Hit my 4th land drop into EE on 2, popped, swing. He found a Liliana the Last Hope and we start to grind out a little bit, with him finding another pesky Scooze that got big enough to be a threat. He couldn't put pressure on though and I blew him out with Avacyn negating a push on a late Excavator. Feels good.
So yeah, I love this deck. You have so many options, you have so many different ways to attack the format and you have outs to almost everything.
Some cards I'm considering - I really like spice - can you think of anything else that might be spicy?
Scryb Ranger - the pro blue clause is irrelevant, but being able to flash in something that gives you extra tracker activations, knight activations, pseudo ramp (if I can't make my landdrop for the turn), etc. Just seems sweet. Maverick in Legacy runs it as a 1-of, but obviously they're doing some things we aren't (a lot of things - ha!).
Lyra - Lyra seems like a pretty sweet sideboard option in that it straight up wins the game against some decks and along with the other angels, we get to turn into a sweet angel stompy deck.
Linvala - I should be running Linvala already (I need to pick one up) because it just shuts down so many random decks and gives me such a better game against elves. Many, elves is rough.
Anything else? I know Stevens digs Elspeth Sun's Champion and Gideon, but I thought the idea of Nissa was pretty sweet for grindy matchups as it gives me another coco hit and stretches the amount of things the opponent then has to deal with.
Cheers! May your cocos always hit well!
No, it doesn't. They've said that they're never printing equipment as powerful as the mirrodin block equipment ever again. This belongs in the ban list thread.
With that, I should pick one or two up in the off chance it comes off because it could easily be a $50 card.
It's generally assumed that it would mean only those two sets.
This is also very very unlikely to happen.
Sylvan Safekeeper could lead to some interesting tech for things like Value Town.
Also: the winner of the tournament was 8-whack, not burn. HUGE difference (gobbos need all the credit they can get!).
Last we heard from Hasbro's financial meeting is that the game is thriving, so I'd take any drop ideas with a pretty large grain of salt.