I'm updating some information that has been asked of me! I am also going to update links below once I have had some time to test with Ixalan. Tomorrow night, if I can get the singles needed, I will stream with Ixalan in a league.
Feel free to private message me with any singles you would love to see tested! I'll try to pick them up.
-Catmix
Ixalan in Death And Taxes:
Hello there, DNT Squad! Let's dive right into this. We have become a Tier 1 deck in the last 6 months. There are two builds primarily responsible for this: Mono-White DNT & Eldrazi And Taxes. This is not to say other builds haven't had major success but the major meta share is from the aforementioned duo. The next step is to see if either of those lists got better with Ixalan, and to determine what specific cards will be utilized from the new set.
Ixalan Playables: [These cards have the potential of being used for Death And Taxes in the maindeck and/or sideboard].
Field of Ruin: This card seems to be the clear winner as most likely played card for our archetype. I am not sold on it taking over Tectonic Edge slots like some others have been thinking. I do believe that this could be the 8th and 9th colorless land slots.
Settle the Wreckage: Path of God, Wrath to Exile, Mass Path (or whatever!) This is very likely in contention with the Dusk/Dawn slots in Mono-White's board. Not having to lose your own team is great. Having to wait for an opponent to alpha swing might be problematic, though. I do like this card a lot and look forward to testing it.
Kinjalli's Sunwing: This card has potential to be a flex slot for Mono-White. The body is "reasonable" and the tax is pretty affective in Modern. If a list wants Thalia, Heretic Cathar, there might be a chance this takes some of the same slots (maybe).)
Deadeye Tracker: Surprisingly, I think this might be a viable (pun intended) target for Eldrazi and Taxes. One Drops have proven to be pretty important. Having a card that can filter cards, scale in size, and force removal from the opps could be great. Eldrazi And Taxes players should really, really, really look at addressing the mana issues with the list. That deck has access to so many great tools but punishes itself so much with the current configuration.
A Death-Cat's Sideboard Plan:
Recently, I have had an influx of people asking me for my sideboard planning. I tend to play "unconventional" Magic and look for mix-ups to adjust for the meta (see in example: Journey To Nowhere.) While I may not be reinventing the wheel or choosing a plan most will agree with, many have continuously asked about my personal sideboard strategy.
So without further adieu, "How to be a Death-Cat".
Precursor to building the SB:
Step 1: Jam (and track) as many games with your desired list. Find out how many games you are winning on draw/play with your main deck. The desired result is to be 50% better against any given deck at any given time with your main deck. While you play more games in the sideboard, you have access to a maximum of 15 cards in your SB. Having a fighting chance game one is critical to your overall win percentage. Have you ever noticed most people in Top 8 do not have amazing blow out wins but consistently win round over round. This is because a balanced deck will win across the field instead of head-hunting 2-3 meta decks.
Step 2: Use a trusted site such as: MtgTop 8 or Mtg Goldfish to determine what the top tier decks are. Observe how many decks have overlapping strategies. Do 3 decks in the meta all crumble to Rest In Peace? Is there a singular deck that just seems like its the only one that needs specific hate (Affinity). Use the information from Step 1 to determine if you even want to have additional tools against them. If you are 50%+ against them on play and draw, then why are you dedicating hate to the deck or the pilot. My earliest years of Magic have shown me sometimes we get tethered to how it feels to lose to the same player over and over again. Eventually, you want to stick it to that player... not the deck.
Step 3: Accept your losses. There are some decks that you will not beat unless you over commit to beating them. If you are playing against a deck that you are 20-40% on play/draw prior to boarding, Adding 2 cards to your SB is not worth the percentage points you would gain against other overlapping strategies. After every round in a major event, I count what cards in my SB came in and how many were drawn in the match. This will help you you track whether your sb choices are influential in you wining games.
Step 4: Change your sideboard based on what your results are telling you! If you have cards that have become pet sideboard cards, cut them! "I SAID CUT THEM!" lol. Modern is always changing. Cards are always being printed. Your match up percentages are changing every 3 months. Storm use to be a complete joke against DNT. Now, they have 8 Thalias/Storm Lords. Change your sideboards. Stop being stubborn.
Pre-Ixalan Sideboard: Here goes an example sideboard of mine (at the moment):
This sideboard was a result of all the things I described in the precursor section. I tracked my results and made changes as needed. (Gideon might need to be readjusted at the time of the post).
Lets give a mock run through 5 rounds to see if I have reasonable sideboard options. I am going to check a random tournament report on MTG Goldfish and see how our SB would have would perform. Link to Gauntlet
R1 vs UW Control.
SB Options: Gideon of the Trials, Oblivion Ring, Eidolon of Rheteric, Rest In Peace, Spellskite.
R2 vs Ad Nauseam (Skipped Jeskai due to redundancy).
SB Options: Gideon of the Trials, Oblivion Ring, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Spellskite, Burrenton Forge-Tender.
R3 vs Esper Gifts.
SB Options: Eidolon of Rhetoric, Rest In Peace, Spellskite, Sunlance, Journey To Nowhere.
R4 vs Bogle.
SB Options: Spellskite, Oblivion Ring.
R5 vs Affinity.
SB Options: Oblivion Ring, Spellskite, Journey to Nowhere, Sunlance, Burrenton Forge-Tender.
With these matches, data shows me that I can expect to run a 5-0 or 4-1 against the meta. The swingiest matches being Bogle and Affinity. The Gideon might be the shakiest card in my board according to what we are observing. Initially, Gideon was in the Board due to Smallpox and other randoms showing up in the meta. But, it might be time to turn those into Settle the Wreckage. And guess what! That would answer the shaky match ups we just analyzed.
While this is not a step by step into every tier match up, I hope it gives some insight to my SB building and why I feel that my unorthodox sb tends to do well. In the last year I have attended roughly 6-7 events and have placed top 8 in all of them. I think with more data we can all potentially continue to uncover great tools as metas keep pushing forward.
@hekks you have to first determine why you are running either card and for what match ups. Journey to nowhere is more consistent and never offers my opponent tools to draw back into the game. It also has the advantage of flickerwisp tricks with the entering and exit abilities being separated triggers. And lastly, being able to use it aggressively and reset it later with flickerwisp also has major advantages.
This is not to say Dec stone is bad but it does not meet the requirements I'm looking for in the reasoning for my sb. If there was a strategy for dec stone, it would be competing with another sb slot. Not journey.
-Catmix
Hey catmix. I remember that you used to like fiend hunter. What's your reasoning for moving off of it and going to journey?
It seems to have a lot of synergy in this build with vial, flickering and smugglers copter.
Surgical isn't that effective against them. Etron is more of a midrange deck that ramps than regular tron where surgical is good. This gives you room for damnation.
I have actually been consistently going 2-0 against etron.
2, T, sacrifice Field of Ruin: Destroy target nonbasic land your opponent controls, each player may search his or her library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle his or her library.
It seems like it has a home in the deck. Arbiter and even Aven Mindcensor could be justefied. 8 serach hosers, and now 8 cards that snipes non-basic lands. How good do you think the new land is in a Death and Taxes shell?
I'm very excited about this card. I think in a build with arbiter and mindcensor it's an upgrade over tec edge.
Anyone see the Abzan list that win the mtgo modern ptq this weekend?
Interesting list.
5 Abzan lists finished 7-2 or better and all included 3 grim flayers and about 2 siege rhinos. Most of the successful lists recently have been similar.
One list even included 2 garruk wilspeakers. Is this better than Gideon?
Is this the best build at the moment?
Would love to hear everyone's thoughts.
Are you being stupid on purpose? Am I missing the joke?
Your tone seems hostile. I think it would be more productive to just give your opinion on a card/strategy opposed to chastising someone for an idea. I love these forums for the collective effort to make decks stronger. Comments like this will just drive people away from these forums and even the game.
He only embalms it. I'm pretty sure they were being sarcastic.
In my experience Lilliana the lost hope is solid against affinity but not a game breaker.
Creeping corrosion is GG but could be too slow
Damnation is good but it can hurt you too and could be too slow
EE is very good
Golgari charm is very good
Flaying tendrils is solid
Thragstusk is interesting. I have not played with this card in a while but I might give it a try.
I have had the hardest time dealing with grixis control and grixis shadow. It makes me want to play 3-4 leyline of the void. I hate how bad the card is outside of your opening hand. Currently I'm running spellbomb instead which isn't a bomb but it's solid. I could use some other suggestions on this matchup.
I'm on a 3/1 GQ/Tec Edge split for the reasons you outlined. I debated just going with 4 GQ but I found that for the matchups where I'm bringing in Fulminator, aggressively stripping my opponent's lands to take them off certain cards/colors was a viable way to win longer games, and it was easier with Tec Edge. Basically, showing an early Fulminator usually encourages people to fetch basics, but against decks that are only running 2-3 basics that quickly causes GQ to become Strip Mine. Eventually they have to start playing non-basics again, and Tec Edge helps to police how much they can develop their mana base at that point. I've found this plan to be particularly good against E-Tron and 3 mana midrange/control decks. Even against U/W control, I was able to stifle their mana development and make it difficult to cast some of the more mana intensive cards like Supreme Verdict and Cryptic Command. I also prefer Tec Edge against Valakut. It's possible that it should just be 4 GQ, but I wanted to give Tec Edge a shot.
I recently went up to 2 Damnation and 2 Flaying Tendrils in the side, but I haven't played against any of the decks I'd want them against since doing so. I've also considered swapping the second Tendrils for a Golgari Charm, but haven't pulled the trigger on it yet.
Great point regarding the tec edge/GQ split. I have shifted between 3-4 GQ and the mana feels better with 3.
In addition, are you running treetops, hissing quagmires or both? I love treetop but hissing makes the mana much better since we are playing colorless lands.
The instant speed of golgari charm is great. This is very strong against affinity manlands. The affinity matchup has been surprisingly difficult so I play 1 in the SB. The utility is also very nice and it owns BW tokens as a sweeper, enchantment remover and makes your creatures wrath proof.
True, but lately Abzan's been playing 2 Abrupt Decay and 2 Maelstrom Pulse, and Rock tends to go up to three Decays. U/W Control (generally) plays a total of 4 Planeswalkers in the main, 3 of which are Gideons. The deck can't really afford to drop Jace, Architect of Thought because he's an important part of their plan against Lingering Souls, and they can only play so many 4+ drop win conditions. I just don't think it's that big a concern, we have the tools to answer those cards and those tools are good against some of the other top decks in the format.
I think double Liliana is a very big deal and I'm really looking forward to testing with a higher number of them.
I hope you're right
By all means I'd be excited if Jund just decided to replace the K-Commands for 2 LTLH or something and it makes a difference. We'll see. I was playing Abzan on mtgo yesterday and just wasn't having fun, I wanted it to be jund, but jund sucks right now.
I've been on B/G rock lately because I really just can't stand Abzan, and I think B/G is better positioned than Jund right now because it gets to run multiple Ghost Quarter/Tec Edge. My biggest issue has been with swarm decks, where Abzan can chump with souls tokens and Jund just has enough removal to grind through them, and that's where I'm looking forward to having more copies of Liliana, the Last Hope. B/G feels like it has so much card advantage baked into it's creatures already (Dark Confidant, Tireless Tracker, Kitchen Finks, Eternal Witness), so being able to recur them is also very appealing. I've also really liked how much more resilient B/G is against graveyard hate than Abzan.
I have been doing well with BG Rock. All of your observations are accurate.
I prefer GQ to tec edge bc the GQ hits tron lands/Etenple when it matters and it also allows me to hit my own lands against a blood moon that's about to be cast or fetch a basic with a tireless tracker out. Tec edge is only really better in the control matchups.
As for your problems with swarms I always run a minimum of 4 sweepers. I usually prefer 1 sided sweepers so I have been playing with a mix of illness in the ranks, engineered explosives, creeping corrosion. I also like golgari charm, flaying tendrils, Lilliana of the lost hope (good against swarms) and if you need something more versatile damnation.
I am in the market to purchase kalitas, Lilliana the lost hope and collective brutality in paper and online.
Shoulda wait until rotation in September for both paper and MTGO?
Kalitas and Liliana will both drop after rotation. Collective Brutality is unlikely to fall much if at all. The card sees no competitive standard play and is used in like 10 modern decks plus legacy play and there is really no replacement for it. I would expect a small dip followed by a rise as people buy and hold.
Thanks for the update.
Is the economy the same on mtgo as in paper? I just started mtgo and am getting familiar with the mtgo economy.
Thank you catmix. This is really helpful
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/35851_The-Price-Of-A-Card.html
I wonder if she would make any changes to her 75
In addition to the 3 Jund decks in the top 32 of Louisville, I also noticed that another list won an IQ
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=116153
This was the best weekend for Jund in a while.
I'm curious to see what lists are going to be the best moving forward (classic, blood moon, rabble master,Lilliana heavy)
Hey catmix. I remember that you used to like fiend hunter. What's your reasoning for moving off of it and going to journey?
It seems to have a lot of synergy in this build with vial, flickering and smugglers copter.
I have actually been consistently going 2-0 against etron.
I'm very excited about this card. I think in a build with arbiter and mindcensor it's an upgrade over tec edge.
Interesting list.
5 Abzan lists finished 7-2 or better and all included 3 grim flayers and about 2 siege rhinos. Most of the successful lists recently have been similar.
One list even included 2 garruk wilspeakers. Is this better than Gideon?
Is this the best build at the moment?
Would love to hear everyone's thoughts.
Your tone seems hostile. I think it would be more productive to just give your opinion on a card/strategy opposed to chastising someone for an idea. I love these forums for the collective effort to make decks stronger. Comments like this will just drive people away from these forums and even the game.
He only embalms it. I'm pretty sure they were being sarcastic.
Creeping corrosion is GG but could be too slow
Damnation is good but it can hurt you too and could be too slow
EE is very good
Golgari charm is very good
Flaying tendrils is solid
Thragstusk is interesting. I have not played with this card in a while but I might give it a try.
I have had the hardest time dealing with grixis control and grixis shadow. It makes me want to play 3-4 leyline of the void. I hate how bad the card is outside of your opening hand. Currently I'm running spellbomb instead which isn't a bomb but it's solid. I could use some other suggestions on this matchup.
Mind sharing your list?
Great point regarding the tec edge/GQ split. I have shifted between 3-4 GQ and the mana feels better with 3.
In addition, are you running treetops, hissing quagmires or both? I love treetop but hissing makes the mana much better since we are playing colorless lands.
The instant speed of golgari charm is great. This is very strong against affinity manlands. The affinity matchup has been surprisingly difficult so I play 1 in the SB. The utility is also very nice and it owns BW tokens as a sweeper, enchantment remover and makes your creatures wrath proof.
I have been doing well with BG Rock. All of your observations are accurate.
I prefer GQ to tec edge bc the GQ hits tron lands/Etenple when it matters and it also allows me to hit my own lands against a blood moon that's about to be cast or fetch a basic with a tireless tracker out. Tec edge is only really better in the control matchups.
As for your problems with swarms I always run a minimum of 4 sweepers. I usually prefer 1 sided sweepers so I have been playing with a mix of illness in the ranks, engineered explosives, creeping corrosion. I also like golgari charm, flaying tendrils, Lilliana of the lost hope (good against swarms) and if you need something more versatile damnation.
What have you been using?
Thanks for the update.
Is the economy the same on mtgo as in paper? I just started mtgo and am getting familiar with the mtgo economy.
Shoulda wait until rotation in September for both paper and MTGO?