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Quote from DonTupu »

Any thoughts on corrosive gale or two in sideboard against spirits?

Interesting thought, although it seems super narrow, mana-intensive, and Mausoleum Wanderer makes casting it awkward and even more expensive.

I'm terrified whenever I see Spirits, as I am with most swarm decks, but I've been on a heater against it lately. I'm running 3x Spatial Contortion and 2x Gut Shot in the board, though. I moved a Relic to the maindeck and trimmed a Copter when Dredge got huge online. It's tough to make that call, but for now, I'm happy with it. 3-2 and 4-1 in my last two leagues and have managed to beat some bad matchups to get there.

Jace is to me, because it played a part in getting control to be good in Modern after having BGx decks as close as you'd get for a long time.

As someone who received one each of the Zendikar fetches in the mail literally the day their reprint was announced, I'm not mad. I want more of these cards in circulation. If you want to make money off MTG cards, there's the reserved list. Most of us just want to play the cards.

Shallow Anal?

Came here to love the GIF of the Union Pacific Challenger in the OP. UP Steam is such a cool program and I can't wait for them to roll out 4014 in the spring.

But this card doesn't look great on the surface.

After years without a traditional hard control deck, and even as someone who will probably never play it, I'm happy that UW Control is a real deck these days.

Quote from Crimson Lancer »

Can you throw me a link, Mike? I've got Hollow One, Monument Sisters, and Knightfall right now, but I like to keep my colors and archetypes fairly balanced, and that sounds like it's just what I'm looking for.

Here's the guy who's had most success: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1202947#paper

Here's a different player with a slightly different build: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1208533#paper

For what it's worth, here's what I'm on: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/04-03-18-rug-delver/

Sweet art.

Took down Modern Monday, 3-0-1, with the list a few posts above here:



Round 1, 1-1-1 draw against Belcher. I've never played against this deck and weirdly he never comboed off, but he hardcast Chancellor of the Tangle in games 2 and 3, after I had boarded out my Vapor Snags. Ouch. I brought in 2 Ancient Grudge and a Snapcaster Mage for increased interaction, taking out 2 Vapor Snag and the Dismember. We went to turns and I kept digging for chumps for his Chancellor. Not a deck I was prepared for at all.

Round 2, 2-1 against Storm. Game 1 was this deck in classic mode: land an early Goyf, hold up counters, beat him down over a few turns. Game 2, I ran out of counters after a battle over my Hooting Mandrills, and then he went off. Game 3, Damping Sphere crushed him as he kept a one lander.

Round 3, 2-0 against KCI. Game 1 he seemed to be choked on cards, so after landing Delver, I was aggressive in Leaking and Piercing his cantrips. He was confused at my play, but I was filling the yard for Mandrills and he didn't find relevant stuff. Countered the only KCI I saw and beat him down the next turn. Game 2, I boarded in 2 Damping Sphere and the Snapcaster Mage. Sphere came down turn 2 after a Delver, and seemed to keep him just a turn behind where he wanted to be. It took a while, but eventually I Snap-Tarfired him for the win.

Round 4, 2-1 against UR Delver. I knew he was on maindeck Blood Moon, fetched accordingly, and was able to zap his Pyromancer and Delver, ran over his Snapcasters, and Bolted for lethal. I boarded out 2 Vapor Snag, Forked Bolt, Snapcaster, and 2 Delver for 3 Firespout, 2 Dispel, and Grafdigger's Cage. Game 2, I had a turn 2 Cage after seeing a Snapcaster on top of his deck with Bauble, and he just about cried. He drew 3 Ambush Viper that game. Eventually I had to Dismember a Bedlam Reveler and I got burned out. Game 3, I slow rolled my creatures and focused on being sure when I cast a threat, it would stick. Getting Mandrills Vapor Snagged sucked, but I played it slowly and Firespouted his board, then turned the corner with a few green guys. Ended up waiting for him to counter my lethal Tarfire, then responded with Bolt with Dispel backup.

So that was fun. First FNM I've won since reentering Modern last December. Damping Sphere was good and it coming down on turn 2 was great. Cage felt great, and I had seen a few Collected Company decks the week before and figured I wanted a bullet for that. I liked having the second Snapcaster in the board for when I wanted extra interaction. I'm pretty firm on the Traverse build and 17 lands. It's solid early game, especially in grindy matchups, and I tutored a Snapcaster once and a Mandrills once tonight, and both were huge. Delirium is pretty easy with the Baubles and Tarfires.

I will say that Grudge felt so useless against KCI that I didn't even bother to bring it in. I need to pick up an Engineered Explosives for the board, and one of the Grudges may be going. It's great against Affinity and Lantern, but I feel good against Affinity anyway and I haven't seen Lantern in a year.

There are also a bunch of spoiled walkers here - looks legit, but not confirmed 100%.



Karn, Teferi and Domri look most spicy to me.

I'm hoping to get Counterspell or at least memory lapse (both?). It would be a good reason to get back to Temur.

Good luck! I keep thinking of cards I want to try but then it gets caught in "well it doesn't pitch to shoal" or "it's a terrible top deck" ... :/ I'm already thinking about where I want to be if we get counter spell. And also how to play againt it.

And of course maybe we will get a walker out of spark... Could be an interesting year for our deck.

Howdy again y'all!

I think I'm probably going to start doing little write ups before each FNM, as I plan on trying out new cards pretty often. If there are any cards you'd like to see me try out in the maindeck or in the sideboard, let me know and I'll be glad to give it a go! Anyways, here is the list for this week.



The maindeck is almost identical, with 2 minor changes. Firstly, -1 Mountain, +1 Island. I think this configuration allows for more keepable hands, which is important as this deck runs very few lands, so maximizing the number of one land hands that are keepable is important. Next, -1 Mana Leak, +1 Spell Pierce. I explained my opinion on Spell Pierce more in depth last week. Basically, every game I brought it in, it was an all star. On the other side, drawing tons of Mana Leaks makes me sad. I think the major upside to this exchange it allows us to interact with most decks more effectively in the early game for a little cheaper, which is pretty good considering how land light we are.

Now onto the sideboard. Same as last time, I am pretty excited about this one! Here are the changes from last week.


-2 Ancient Grudge
-2 Spell Pierce
-1 Tormod's Crypt
-1 Spite of Mogis
+2 Blood Moon
+1 Hazoret the Fervent
+1 Vendilion Clique
+1 Beacon Bolt
+1 Mountain

So, I'll explain a little bit about the cuts I made in the sideboard, and then the additions. Firstly, -2 Ancient Grudge. It feels really weird to be not playing this card in my sideboard, as I have had 2 in my board in every deck I've played for years now. However, I just don't think they are that great in the meta I am playing in. There are basically no Affinity or Whir decks, which is where I think this card is best. I've chosen to go with just 2 Destructive Revelry as it is just a bit more flexible, being able to destroy enchantments as well (which is nice, because we have a pretty hard time with stuff like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void).

Next up, -2 Spell Pierce. I know it seems like heresy as I literally just talked about how good I thought this card was last week. However, I think just playing 1 in the maindeck allows me to have access to the effect, and frees up some space in my sideboard.

Next, -1 Tormod's Crypt. Basically, there isn't a lot of Dredge of Phoenix in the meta I am playing in, so this card loses some value. I think having 2 of them in the board is good, as there is still 1 Phoenix player in the meta, as well as this card having some game against Gifts Storm and the BUG Midrange deck I've played against the past two weeks. I just don't think there is enough graveyard shenanigans in my meta to need 3 of this card.

Lastly, -1 Spite of Mogis. I am trying out Beacon Bolt in its place this week, as I think that it counting cards in exile, as well as having Jump-start makes it possible that Beacon Bolt might just be better than Spite of Mogis. I am mildly worried about it costing 3 mana, but I think it deals with every creature we would care about very effectively. If I get the chance, my post FNM write up will likely deal with this card quite a bit, as I think it probably has the most potential out of the cards I am trying out right now.

And that is a nice little segue into the other additions to the sideboard. Basically, all the additions to my sideboard are ways to deal with midrange decks, while also having some game against other decks in the field as well.

Blood Moon is strong against the GBx decks, while also being a good piece of disruption against Tron and Amulet. We all know how strong Blood Moon can be. I think I spoke too soon last week when I said I didn't miss Blood Moon, as over the week when I had more time to think about it, having Blood Moon in my sideboard probably would have helped a lot against Jund and Sultai.

Hazoret the Fervent is another card that is really strong against the GBx decks, and other fair decks that aren't running Path to Exile. Basically, take cards that aren't good in the match up and turn them into a clock. Seems good to me!

Vendilion Clique is one that has been interesting to me as of late. I think is has applications against most decks in the format, as it is information, disruption and a clock all on one card. I think in this deck, it will probably be strongest against the big mana decks, however I think it also will have a lot of game in the Midrange/Control matchups too.

The last change in my sideboard is the Mountain. I used to do this same thing a while back after I saw Jordan post about it, and I really like the idea. Having access to the Mountain in sideboard games is really good in that it ups the land count for the expensive things we are siding in, as well as saving some life against the more aggressive decks in the format. It also ups the number of basics we have in our deck for cards like Path to Exile, Assassin's Trophy and Field of Ruin. Every time I've played with a Mountain in the board, I've felt like it was a good choice. It just seems to have so many benefits that I didn't realize an extra basic could have.

But anyways, I think that is it for the week! If you've got any comments, questions or suggestions, let me know! I'd love to hear them.

If you've read all this, thanks for the read! I'll be back Saturday with my thoughts on these changes.

Many people have done numbers analysis as well as practical testing with Preordain and found that the upgrade to current cantrips is minimal to nothing. The idea in players' heads that it is somehow so much more inherently broken is a fiction perpetuated by how powerful cards like Ponder and Brainstorm are. Preordain is an incredibly tame card and it's sad how low the bar is for cantrips in Modern. Our blue cantrips are all pretty awful, which is why the best card draw spells people are trying to push are Faithless Looting and Ancient Stirrings.

Its not looting that is the root of Moderns state. It isnt looting, it isnt stirrings, and it isnt terminus.

Its the void missing at the top of the metagame that says 'no actually slow down'.

Phoenix have 55% win in an hostile field. (Alot of dredge, whirl prison players and graveyard hate).

IT IS INSANE RESULT.

Welp, the incredible good luck I had last week definitely found enough bad luck this week to make up for it. 1-2-1 this week. Deck just wasn't wanting to play nice today. Even mulled to three one game (against mill) just to see a land in my opening hand.

So in 8 games ive cast spite of mogis once.
I saw stifle bird 2 times last night and it never felt appropriate to cast nor cycle. I would have far rathered VClique.

After discussing it in my last post, basic mountain in the main won me two games last night. So that was a surprise. It's like it heard me saying it was on thin ice. Lol!

Congratulations to @MikePemulis, as he is the winner of the Temur sweepstakes! He will be the proud owner of a shiny new card of his choosing of the previously mentioned pile of foil Temur cards.

The only card that he/she cannot choose is the Expedition Engineered Explosives, as that card has been gifted to ashtonkutcher.

I will be in contact mikepemulis, and I'll be shipping both cards out after the GP. Congrats!

Quote from AUTUMNTWILIGHT »

The non Spectacle cost is irrelevant. The Spectacle cost for it and Light up the Stage are the issues. No one is casting for the actual cost, its creeping chill 2.0. It could cost 20 non spectacle and only very rarely impact edge cases. I mean do Burn decks even want more then 3 lands anyway. Isn't four lands basically flooding for them. They both be fine at a spectacle cost of 2.

Black is Black. Red and Green are constantly pushing the bounds while White and Blue get shackled.

Can you please continue your constant whining somewhere else? It gets tiring reading the same stuff over and over again without any meat behind it...


Regarding Burn: It won't be a problem with those two cards, something like Price of Progress would push it into the problematic tier. I mean, the same thing (aka huge uptick in Burn) happened when Atarka's Command or Skullcrack got printed and it died down after a few months while the deck still remained competitive.

Also, what is nice about Burn is, that you get rewarded against it by playing actually good (and fair) magic cards. Things like Kitchen Finks or Knight of Autumn are good magic cards, that they somewhat cripple Burn in the process is also something nice . Burn just punishes those, who try to greed to much, same thing as Tron basically, just on the opposite side of the spectrum.

Greetings,
Kathal