The moment I made this list, the final change I made was add the second Kolaghan's Command. Again, I edited the list, but it just won't fix itself, don't know why. My list contains 2 Kolaghan's command and 0 Lightning Bolt.
This is pretty much the list I have settled on at the moment. I was really hesitant in adding the second Kommand back in the main because it can be clunky to draw a bunch of those and Snaps in some game ones but the utility you get from the card is better overall than really anything else you can run. I would not run bolt unless I made room for 2 of them. The only other thing I changed from your list was a 1-3 Tas-angler split since Reality Smasher and other Anglers are pretty heavy in my meta and -1 Mire -1 Crypt +1 Tarn +1 Vents because I would much rather have blue in the deck than black.
There's a chance that we could go up to 2 Tasigur, 3 Angler liks Spooly suggested a while back. When Chapin debuted Grixis control in modern he ran 2 Tasigur and 3 Angler in a deck that only had 8 one mana cantrips (Shadow of Doubt and Remand kind of count but are way slower than what we have) and that worked perfectly fine. Then again this deck has 8 threats vs the 7 that deck had and there is now a significant increase in graveyard hate now than there was at that time. It is an option to consider.
Liliana's Defeat seems cute, someone at the SCG event was running a copy of Dark Betrayal and this seems like a slight upgrade since it can also get rid of pesky Lilianas which are annoying to get rid of once they stick, especially if lists are cutting bolts completely. However Dreadbore can come in against so many more matchups, the most notable deck right now being Eldrazi Tron. Defeat seems cool, just be careful of killing a Liliana and then accidentally buffing opposing Shadows.
Looks like almost every pro is adopting the 2x sleight of hand builds, guess there's more to that than I thought. It doesn't seem so bad, despite the low land count I've seen the deck flood out a lot, and have experienced it as well.
3-1 today. I won against an opponent that had 2 land screws vs UW Control, I won an inexperienced Living End pilot who missplayed A LOT, won against a Grixis Control player that flooded out only to lose from a Hatebears guy that I kept a mulligan to 5 one lander against in game 1(and you know what happens when this is the case) and also landed one Mirran Crusader game 1 against me. I feel the meta is extremely hostile towards our deck. i won only because I was lucky.
Anyway, I had several floods lately. Spiegel you may be right, i want to try this, but there is one catch. We should remove one scalding tarn and what else for 2 Sleight of hand? I haven't done it up to now, because I can't find the second card to trim, to be honest.
Players often remove a fetchland and the flex slot. The flex slot is usually a Lightning Bolt, 3rd Stubborn Denial or the 3rd removal spell which is usually Dismember. I remove a Bloodstained Mire because I value Blue in the deck more than black, especially if you are going to add Sleight. The other thing people have done when they wanted bolts was remove some of the top end in Kommands and Snaps which makes sense if you lower your land count.
It seems that you took my counter-argument to your post as a direct attack. That was not at all my intention and I apologize if it came off that way. My goal was to explain why I prefer Angler over Tasigur. If it seems like I am approaching the mirror strongly, it's because that is one of the few matchups that I've been testing constantly. When I'm not at my LGS the only other friend in proximity at school that plays modern also has the same deck so we get a lot of reps in of the mirror. I'm just offering my insight into what I've experienced but if you disagree with everything I have said than that's perfectly fine. I simply asked if others have tried the 3-1 Angler/Tasigur split, and then gave my reasoning on why I prefer it in the post above.
Also if I may ask, what exactly is your reasoning for having 0 copies of Denial post board? Do you leave in all 6 discard spells? I'm now very curious as to what approach you take in the mirror and how your results have been.
I have tried running 3 Angler / 1 Tasigur. Tasigur is significantly easier to cast on turn 2 and easier to sneak past Relic of Progenitus, of which Eldrazi Tron usually runs 4. The mirror matchup is actually one of the few occasions at which Tasigur's ability matters. The deck does not have a high creature count, so LtLH often benefits from extra mill action. It's also a good way of getting a Terminate ready for a snap-back, which is also important in the mirror. So I wouldn't say that Angler is "much better" than Tasigur. Maybe slightly better if the match doesn't turn into a grindfest and potentially worse if it does.
The thing is that 5 power matters a lot against Eldrazi Tron and mirror matches. Angler is one of the few cards that can actively trade with a smasher and doesn't get you 2 for 1'd, plus it turns TBR into a Terminate that doesn't make you discard. The mirror is an interesting monster in itself. While it can seem to come down to card advantage (and it can at times but that player is going to win then regardless of Tasigur's ability), it's more about efficiency than anything. Tasigur's ability isn't efficient, and often leaves you to getting blown out by a Terminate or Dismember. Post board both of you will have 4 copies of Stubborn Denial and the last thing either of you want to do is tap out and show your opponent that you don't have one. Also in combat Gurmag being able to tackle opposing Tasgurs and not die is a lot more relevant than you think. Also you don't need to have a creature in the yard to make Liliana good, since if left unchecked she will just win the game by herself anyway.
Also I would much rather draw my Terminate than mill it, that way I get 2 uses out of it.
Both of them had 1 Terminate in the main and 1 Terminate in the side. Since they also had a 1-1 split of Kommands main and side I get the sense that they were trying to make the mainboard as streamlined as possible and not play too many cards that are clunky and get caught up in your hand, which must be why they added the extra denial and bolts. They're version is still more akin to Ari's version, and I think is where we want to be. I've been playing 1 Terminate for a while, but I also have a copy of dismember to aid it. Lightning Bolt in their case can also help them tackle down delve threats.
Liliana of the Veil is cute, but I really don't want to spend that much money on a card to test it, especially if it ends up getting cut from the list. The card is great and busts mirrors, but a second copy of the Last Hope can do a similar job, grinding you out of matches where you can start to fall behind. Pyroclasm is pretty surprising to see but I think they both were trying to lower their curve in order to hedge against Death and Taxes.
Has anyone on this list that doesn't run 4 Sleight of Hands tried running 3 Angler - 1 Tasigur. Angler is much better vs. Eldrazi and mirror matches because it trades with every non Shadow creature and clocks faster. Also angler works a little better with TBR. I find myself never really getting the opportunity to use Tasigur's ability anyway, and if I am in that spot I'm probably very ahead anyway. I think for a deck like this vs. Grixis control we can utilize the extra power more often than we can utilize the Tasigur ability. Also milling Discard spells feels pretty terrible when activating the ability.
You can see here only 2 Sleights and 18 lands. I know cutting down lands seems greedy, but it should make the deck more compact and more redundant which are good things.
It's nice to see others are also on 2 Sleights and 18 lands as well. This was something that I tried in one of my early builds and got reamed for doing. It's a happy medium that allows for more digging without having to worry to much about cantripping into more cantrips too often. Sleight of Hand is great, but here's still to hoping that one day we can get preordain to go along with Serum. That would be the dream.
I am just waiting for one Liliana's Defeat. Next level tech that will their Lilianas as well as every black creature.
Liliana's Defeat also looks like more sweet deck for other black decks. That with Claim//Fame could end up being deece.
I was discussing some choices about the deck with a longtime player of GDS and he said that 2 Kommand main and 2 Liliana, the last hope in the side is more than enough for fighting the grind. I agree with this. I hate getting clogged on 3 drops and 3 Kommand with 2 Lili's is just overkill. Liliana is way more backbreaking than Kommand is for these matchups AND she is gas vs a lot of the swarm decks.
If you need more tools to fight Chalice we already have a lot. 6 discard spells, 4 Denials, 2-3 Rejections is all a ton of ways to prevent one from coming down. If you want a 3rd way to fight a resolved Chalice go with Engineered Explosives instead of the 3rd Kommand. It's a nice general answer to a lot of things and can answer an unchecked chalice if need be. By Force is fine, but the card is way too narrow for me to justify slots for just affinity (and other fringe decks like Eggs and Blue Steel).
The issue with Tron is that Midrange and Control decks are a complete dog in these matchups and there are no good answers in modern to even remotely shore up that matchup. A similar thing can be said about Titanshift but that deck is about a turn slower to deploy its haymakers which can make it a little bit easier to deal with. Rather than ban Tron/Temple first we should get some more general answers in the format that can answer these decks. Wasteland in modern is an idea I have heard from multiple people but I don't think that's where we want to be. There should be some form of hate that is targeted toward either colorless sources/big mana decks (if there is a way to hit specifically big mana decks but it's kind of hard to do so) like a Wasteland that hits a colorless source only but to compensate for it you can also crack it like Horizon canopy. Or if that's too strong someone mentioned a new Sinkhole type effect for colorless lands but since it's modern it would be RR instead. These are just a couple ideas but the last thing I want is for yet another deck to have to get banned (or even the wrong one).
I'm sure this has also been several times, but the reason why Control and non-DS midrange decks aren't doing so well is because they can't go under decks (like say burn for instance) but also can't go over the top simply because of Tron itself existing in the format. Several people have tried to make control work in modern in a variety of shapes and sizes but ultimately the "control" decks that do well are just tempo decks because they can't afford to durdle.
I have a tendency to ramble with these sort of things so I'll keep it as brief as I can.
Started out looking into modern in 2011-ish. Decks I felt were interesting and might get into were Affinity, BUG Infect and Storm. This was high school and at the time I didn’t have anyone to play modern with so I just kept watching the format as an outsider to see how things were shaping up for my decks. Come college in 2013, the circle of friends who played magic ended up having modern decks. It was a cool experience and I wanted in. I bought into storm because that’s what the master Jon Finkel said was the best deck. Can’t blame him. I played a budget-ish storm list for quite a bit of time and it was how I learned to play modern.
I haven’t even mentioned my favorite deck to play why does all of this even matter? This leads into what I’m playing right now actually. I found our over the coarse of playing modern is that I love playing cantrips. (I’ve wanted to play with Preordain in modern so bad I went as far as to put a copy of Glimmer of Genius in one of my decks). Storm introduced me to this concept. UR Delver was my next deck and twin soon after. As soon as Chapin broke out onto the scene with Grixis I saw a deck that had a unique playstyle that I could get behind. Something about the list stood out to me and fascinated me. I thought maybe it was because for the first time I had the means to finally buy into a control deck that wouldn’t break the bank. It turns out that subconsciously I just wanted to play with cantrips in a new way.
So that leads me to one of my favorite decks to play. If you didn’t take a glance at the decks I’m playing below, it’s Grixis Shadow. “Oh you’re one of those guys” is what you’re probably thinking. I actually took a break from Magic because Modern was actually getting kind of stale in my eyes. Infect was getting boring and Grixis/UR decks didn’t feel strong enough to compete with the format. Then I discovered a Grixis Delver list around March-ish with 4 Shadows in it. The deck raised an eyebrow and I finally had an excuse to sleeve up my 2 Shadows that I opened up from Worldwake packs bought on release day. Deck was an absolute blast but it felt off. Something about playing it didn’t sit right. It wasn’t until I added Street Wraith that the deck suddenly meshed well. More fuel for delve, easier shadows to turn on, more CANTRIPS. From there it’s been a blast and I haven’t had this much playing a deck like this in a while.
TLDR I play the best deck and I love it because it has cantrips. All the cantrips.
Nihil Spellbomb also does a similar thing for copies already in the yard and replaces itself. The problem is that this is only one scenario out of a a very few that we would even want to bring in the card against. I think you are highly highly overrating souls as well. The card is solid, that's for sure. It has and continues to be one of the best cards that BWx decks can bring in against Grixis (or Jeskai) decks and is hard to deal with efficiently but this deck operates quite differently from Grixis midrange or control. Quite often souls tokens will have to chump block our threats since they are quite large, which means that they can only get in for so much damage at a time. If souls truly was as backbreaking as people make it out to be then we would see way more copies of it than we do (and more shadow decks would splash for it). That being said I can understand why you think that Surgical is a solid SB card, but unless there are other cards in addition to souls that our sideboards really can't answer I'm going to have to bench my copies of Surgicals for now.
It sounds like you guys also share the same sentiments as I do about surgical. Have you guys cut them then? The only other card it seems sweet against is Lingering Souls but bringing in card disadvantage against a grindy deck seems pretty bad.
How relevant do you guys feel Surgical Extraction is for the side? Finalnub is down to 1 copy and another person I know has completely cut them from his side (although he does have 2 angers to sort of compensate for dredge). It's kind of nice vs. uninteractive spell combo decks but there are really only 2 out there (storm and ad nauseam) and even then those decks can easily power through a surgical because of the sheer amount of redundancy. The matchup where I can see it shine is against Scapeshift (and to an extent Tron) but that's more for Grixis control since they combine Fulminators with Surgicals to remove the lands for good. Since our lists have cut fulminators the stock of the card seems to go down quite a bit. It seems fine to bring in against Coco decks, but Grafdigger's Cage seems like a better card to have and it works against dredge as well. As long as the bases are covered with Nihil Spellbomb for Living End I think this works.
Moving forward I'm looking to try out 2 Spellbombs, 1 Graf Cage and maybe 1 Anger in the side. I've already been convinced to go to 3 Sleights and added back another Vents in the main so this could end up working. Let me know your thoughts on Surgicals and how wrong I am.
For Claim // Faim we already have Life // Death as a card and that saw no play in jund shadow. Yeah, returning snapcasters is better and claim//faim is a little more efficient, but not by a whole lot when the card is not that useful otherwise. Small little effects like this work much better as part of a package of utility effects.
As Riotary said Life//Death isn't modern legal, so the closest thing we had to this effect is Orzhov Charm which saw some play in 4 color builds of this deck, and sees some play in Esper builds of this deck. The more I think about it though, I wouldn't want more than 1 of it in the 75 since we don't have nearly enough threats. Being 1 mana and not requiring red is really a big appeal of this card, so I'm sure there will be some testing done on this card. This card might end up seeing more play in versions of this deck that run 4 delvers since it ups the threat count, but we'll have to see.
That new R/B Aftermatch card looks very interesting. claim // fame
Claim looks really sweet, I kind of want to try it out since it costs only 1 mana but it'll most likely clash with Kommand and honestly Kommand is just to powerful to really cut. This could prove to be interesting in Esper builds though, since their only other options for recursion are Orzhov Charm and Liliana, the Last hope and this one is one mana. One mana snapcaster to get a Cantrip or Discard spell seems like sweet value, especially for the lower land count versions. I'll probably pick up a couple copies and test them out when I can.
Edit: Just realized that you can cast Claim -> Snap and recast it to target a Shadow or something. Makes me wish that we had a few more options for recurring stuff, but I can't really complain about this card since there is quite a bit of potential.
I was on 18 land for a while and saw that Ari went to 17 by cutting the 3rd red source. Since I only play 5 red cards in my 75(6 I guess for scenarios when you want to EE for 3) and I don't have any double red spells the cost of cutting the 3rd red source is fairly low since I have 4 extra cantrips to search for it. As far as getting unlucky with mills, the odds of milling both red sources is so low that if it does happen and I haven't gotten a red source out in time, "It happens" as they say. It's been fine, though there have been some awkward times when I do keep cantripping into more cantrips when either trying to find more land/threats or removal for the situation but ultimately that's the cost I'm willing to take when running a build like this. I could see an argument for putting back the 18th land for the 4th sleight though.
Regarding TBR: I think the card is too good not to run honestly. It's a great way to push through damage vs various decks that swarm the field and can double as a removal spell vs decks like Eldrazi. Helping us race vs uninterctive combo decks is also a bit of a plus as well. I can see why some people are off of it, but that comes down to a playstyle difference, much like running Sleight of Hands in this deck does.
Regarding Anger vs. Tendrils vs. KReturn: You definitely need some number of these in your 75, especially if you are not going to run TBR. In a vacuum Anger is the best, but getting that double red is brutal. There has never ever been a situation when I have wanted double red out, and honestly there are a lot of times when I really don't even need a single red source. I've thought about tendrils for a while, but ultimately the thing that kills it for me is being Sorcery AND a 2 toughness or less killer(aka not killing amalgam). Having to tap out against dredge while leaving their Amalgams in tact is not where you want to be. This is why I opt for KReturn, while it can't kill amalgams I can at least do it at the end of their turn if I don't need to counter a conflagrate or reunion. Now if you are running the 19 land version of this deck than Anger is a lot more appealing, since you are also a bit slower of a deck.
This is pretty much the list I have settled on at the moment. I was really hesitant in adding the second Kommand back in the main because it can be clunky to draw a bunch of those and Snaps in some game ones but the utility you get from the card is better overall than really anything else you can run. I would not run bolt unless I made room for 2 of them. The only other thing I changed from your list was a 1-3 Tas-angler split since Reality Smasher and other Anglers are pretty heavy in my meta and -1 Mire -1 Crypt +1 Tarn +1 Vents because I would much rather have blue in the deck than black.
There's a chance that we could go up to 2 Tasigur, 3 Angler liks Spooly suggested a while back. When Chapin debuted Grixis control in modern he ran 2 Tasigur and 3 Angler in a deck that only had 8 one mana cantrips (Shadow of Doubt and Remand kind of count but are way slower than what we have) and that worked perfectly fine. Then again this deck has 8 threats vs the 7 that deck had and there is now a significant increase in graveyard hate now than there was at that time. It is an option to consider.
Liliana's Defeat seems cute, someone at the SCG event was running a copy of Dark Betrayal and this seems like a slight upgrade since it can also get rid of pesky Lilianas which are annoying to get rid of once they stick, especially if lists are cutting bolts completely. However Dreadbore can come in against so many more matchups, the most notable deck right now being Eldrazi Tron. Defeat seems cool, just be careful of killing a Liliana and then accidentally buffing opposing Shadows.
Players often remove a fetchland and the flex slot. The flex slot is usually a Lightning Bolt, 3rd Stubborn Denial or the 3rd removal spell which is usually Dismember. I remove a Bloodstained Mire because I value Blue in the deck more than black, especially if you are going to add Sleight. The other thing people have done when they wanted bolts was remove some of the top end in Kommands and Snaps which makes sense if you lower your land count.
Also if I may ask, what exactly is your reasoning for having 0 copies of Denial post board? Do you leave in all 6 discard spells? I'm now very curious as to what approach you take in the mirror and how your results have been.
The thing is that 5 power matters a lot against Eldrazi Tron and mirror matches. Angler is one of the few cards that can actively trade with a smasher and doesn't get you 2 for 1'd, plus it turns TBR into a Terminate that doesn't make you discard. The mirror is an interesting monster in itself. While it can seem to come down to card advantage (and it can at times but that player is going to win then regardless of Tasigur's ability), it's more about efficiency than anything. Tasigur's ability isn't efficient, and often leaves you to getting blown out by a Terminate or Dismember. Post board both of you will have 4 copies of Stubborn Denial and the last thing either of you want to do is tap out and show your opponent that you don't have one. Also in combat Gurmag being able to tackle opposing Tasgurs and not die is a lot more relevant than you think. Also you don't need to have a creature in the yard to make Liliana good, since if left unchecked she will just win the game by herself anyway.
Also I would much rather draw my Terminate than mill it, that way I get 2 uses out of it.
Liliana of the Veil is cute, but I really don't want to spend that much money on a card to test it, especially if it ends up getting cut from the list. The card is great and busts mirrors, but a second copy of the Last Hope can do a similar job, grinding you out of matches where you can start to fall behind. Pyroclasm is pretty surprising to see but I think they both were trying to lower their curve in order to hedge against Death and Taxes.
It's nice to see others are also on 2 Sleights and 18 lands as well. This was something that I tried in one of my early builds and got reamed for doing. It's a happy medium that allows for more digging without having to worry to much about cantripping into more cantrips too often. Sleight of Hand is great, but here's still to hoping that one day we can get preordain to go along with Serum. That would be the dream.
Liliana's Defeat also looks like more sweet deck for other black decks. That with Claim//Fame could end up being deece.
I was discussing some choices about the deck with a longtime player of GDS and he said that 2 Kommand main and 2 Liliana, the last hope in the side is more than enough for fighting the grind. I agree with this. I hate getting clogged on 3 drops and 3 Kommand with 2 Lili's is just overkill. Liliana is way more backbreaking than Kommand is for these matchups AND she is gas vs a lot of the swarm decks.
If you need more tools to fight Chalice we already have a lot. 6 discard spells, 4 Denials, 2-3 Rejections is all a ton of ways to prevent one from coming down. If you want a 3rd way to fight a resolved Chalice go with Engineered Explosives instead of the 3rd Kommand. It's a nice general answer to a lot of things and can answer an unchecked chalice if need be. By Force is fine, but the card is way too narrow for me to justify slots for just affinity (and other fringe decks like Eggs and Blue Steel).
I'm sure this has also been several times, but the reason why Control and non-DS midrange decks aren't doing so well is because they can't go under decks (like say burn for instance) but also can't go over the top simply because of Tron itself existing in the format. Several people have tried to make control work in modern in a variety of shapes and sizes but ultimately the "control" decks that do well are just tempo decks because they can't afford to durdle.
Started out looking into modern in 2011-ish. Decks I felt were interesting and might get into were Affinity, BUG Infect and Storm. This was high school and at the time I didn’t have anyone to play modern with so I just kept watching the format as an outsider to see how things were shaping up for my decks. Come college in 2013, the circle of friends who played magic ended up having modern decks. It was a cool experience and I wanted in. I bought into storm because that’s what the master Jon Finkel said was the best deck. Can’t blame him. I played a budget-ish storm list for quite a bit of time and it was how I learned to play modern.
I haven’t even mentioned my favorite deck to play why does all of this even matter? This leads into what I’m playing right now actually. I found our over the coarse of playing modern is that I love playing cantrips. (I’ve wanted to play with Preordain in modern so bad I went as far as to put a copy of Glimmer of Genius in one of my decks). Storm introduced me to this concept. UR Delver was my next deck and twin soon after. As soon as Chapin broke out onto the scene with Grixis I saw a deck that had a unique playstyle that I could get behind. Something about the list stood out to me and fascinated me. I thought maybe it was because for the first time I had the means to finally buy into a control deck that wouldn’t break the bank. It turns out that subconsciously I just wanted to play with cantrips in a new way.
So that leads me to one of my favorite decks to play. If you didn’t take a glance at the decks I’m playing below, it’s Grixis Shadow. “Oh you’re one of those guys” is what you’re probably thinking. I actually took a break from Magic because Modern was actually getting kind of stale in my eyes. Infect was getting boring and Grixis/UR decks didn’t feel strong enough to compete with the format. Then I discovered a Grixis Delver list around March-ish with 4 Shadows in it. The deck raised an eyebrow and I finally had an excuse to sleeve up my 2 Shadows that I opened up from Worldwake packs bought on release day. Deck was an absolute blast but it felt off. Something about playing it didn’t sit right. It wasn’t until I added Street Wraith that the deck suddenly meshed well. More fuel for delve, easier shadows to turn on, more CANTRIPS. From there it’s been a blast and I haven’t had this much playing a deck like this in a while.
TLDR I play the best deck and I love it because it has cantrips. All the cantrips.
Moving forward I'm looking to try out 2 Spellbombs, 1 Graf Cage and maybe 1 Anger in the side. I've already been convinced to go to 3 Sleights and added back another Vents in the main so this could end up working. Let me know your thoughts on Surgicals and how wrong I am.
As Riotary said Life//Death isn't modern legal, so the closest thing we had to this effect is Orzhov Charm which saw some play in 4 color builds of this deck, and sees some play in Esper builds of this deck. The more I think about it though, I wouldn't want more than 1 of it in the 75 since we don't have nearly enough threats. Being 1 mana and not requiring red is really a big appeal of this card, so I'm sure there will be some testing done on this card. This card might end up seeing more play in versions of this deck that run 4 delvers since it ups the threat count, but we'll have to see.
Claim looks really sweet, I kind of want to try it out since it costs only 1 mana but it'll most likely clash with Kommand and honestly Kommand is just to powerful to really cut. This could prove to be interesting in Esper builds though, since their only other options for recursion are Orzhov Charm and Liliana, the Last hope and this one is one mana. One mana snapcaster to get a Cantrip or Discard spell seems like sweet value, especially for the lower land count versions. I'll probably pick up a couple copies and test them out when I can.
Edit: Just realized that you can cast Claim -> Snap and recast it to target a Shadow or something. Makes me wish that we had a few more options for recurring stuff, but I can't really complain about this card since there is quite a bit of potential.
Regarding TBR: I think the card is too good not to run honestly. It's a great way to push through damage vs various decks that swarm the field and can double as a removal spell vs decks like Eldrazi. Helping us race vs uninterctive combo decks is also a bit of a plus as well. I can see why some people are off of it, but that comes down to a playstyle difference, much like running Sleight of Hands in this deck does.
Regarding Anger vs. Tendrils vs. KReturn: You definitely need some number of these in your 75, especially if you are not going to run TBR. In a vacuum Anger is the best, but getting that double red is brutal. There has never ever been a situation when I have wanted double red out, and honestly there are a lot of times when I really don't even need a single red source. I've thought about tendrils for a while, but ultimately the thing that kills it for me is being Sorcery AND a 2 toughness or less killer(aka not killing amalgam). Having to tap out against dredge while leaving their Amalgams in tact is not where you want to be. This is why I opt for KReturn, while it can't kill amalgams I can at least do it at the end of their turn if I don't need to counter a conflagrate or reunion. Now if you are running the 19 land version of this deck than Anger is a lot more appealing, since you are also a bit slower of a deck.