Regarding the UR Electrodominance build (variants on the recently posted 5-0 list of MTGOer Hayseed or as per Nassif's recent CFB video): what has been anyone's experience against Spirits? Any strategic or sideboard advice? Between Wanderer and Queller it seems very hard to combo and I don't see other decent alternative winning lines given the greater velocity of Spirits to build a board presence.
Looking over the ManUFan list it strikes me that perhaps it is lacking in alternate win-con/instant-win payoff for generating infinite green.
You're in great shape with: 1) Chord of Calling in hand 2) Eternal Witness in hand with Chord in yard 3) Duskwatch Recruiter in hand with EWit in library and Chord in yard (and I'm sure other ways to get to Kiki-Resto). Perhaps shaving a Fiery Justice in favor of the one of the usual instant-win buttons accessible via Recruiter from Counters Company builds e.g Rhonas or Ballista? Just to add another angle of attack? Ballista can even pinch-hit as a limited board wipe to mitigate the loss of a Fiery Justice.
When goldfishing the list it sure its satisfying to get that Blood Moon out there and keep on trucking'...
Can someone briefly clue me in to the difference between "regular" Ponza and Monster Ponza? Which cards are different/what are current prototypic lists and what is the result in terms of gameplay and matchup? I've read through most of the recent pages but I'm afraid I'm missing the forest for the trees, as it were.
Saw Enduring Ideal as CFB Deck-du-Jour today. What's with the inclusion of Temple of Plenty and Temple Garden? I thought Temple of Triumph was standard to access red mana to hardcast Form of the Dragon if need be. I see multiple pieces of green mana tech in the sideboard (Eidolon of Blossoms et al)but is that a good reason to hamstring the mainboard mana base?
Tuning up for Wednesday night Modern.
Meta is varied but feels control heavy (maybe because I routinely lose to control).
I've regularly seen Lantern Control, Esper Control (a couple of draw-go folks and an Ashiok mill horror), in addition to Jund, Affinity, Grixis Delver, Knightfall, Naya Zoo Company. Intermittent combo representation including Living End and Thing Ascension.
Notable tiered absences are Tron, Valakut, Infect, Ad Nauseam (and other combo except the two I listed), Dredge.
Sorry for no proper deck list but I'm planning: 23 lands 8 spells 11 combo pieces 9 dorks 1 Pridemage 1 Fiend Hunter 1 Scooze 1 Spellskite/Saffi. That leaves 5 utility slots.
Options are basically
A) new school Rallier/Voice/Saffi - obviously VoR nice for control
B) grindier EWit/Tracker plus or minus Courser - card draw is nice but I find I'm usually on Gavony pumps as my mana sink and don't feel good cracking my clues
C) AngelFeeder combo plus some other interaction/protection - as per Severson GP Vancouver list
I thought I would try Scullers out of the SB. I've not had much luck executing the Sculler sac trick to permanently exile opponent's pieces but maybe I'm not setting it up right or just it's that's not that important if I have protection for Sculler such as Spellskite or Selfless Spirit.
Sorry for a wandering set of questions; any thoughts are appreciated.
What are the best targets for pithing needle and which MUs do i bring them in?
This was asked and answered in large part on page 321.
See posts 8113 and 8114.
A review of the linked article gives an idea of the key cards Pithing Needle is useful against; board it in against decks running these cards if you choose to run Needle...
I was going to try Aegis of the Gods for Chordable protection against Valakut. Anyone tried this? What would be the optimal timing for the Chord? Will a Chord for Aegis in response to a Scapeshift cast work? Or do I need to get Aegis on the battlefield before opponent Scapeshifts? I guess this is also a rules/stack question...
From above (sorry don't know how to use quote machine): Voice + Saffi + Rallier interaction enables a lot of really quick almost-combo kills. Sac voice for token, rally voice token, sac voice for another token, sac saffi to protect rallier, sac rallier, rally back voice, sac voice token, etc."
Tried to make this work to get lots of tokens, can only get two elementals out of it before Saffi gets stranded in the yard.
Is that the limit or is there a way with Seer + Voice + Saffi + Rallier to make an arbitrarily large number of dudes?
Thinking on the Renegade Rallier-Saffi Eriksdotter loop, I wonder what other useful "any creature ETB" or "any creature LTB" triggers the collective wisdom knows of other than:
I did a crude Gatherer search and didn't come up with anything else useful with CMC<=3 but don't have much confidence in this result.
Anyone working on this?
Spoilery questions for all you smart people: Fatal Push may be a reasonable SB alternative to Path, but on the whole I can't see how it is anything but a net negative to have more cheap instant removal around. We rely on so many juicy targets. Does this accelerate the transition of Abzan Company from Plan A combo to Plan A midrange/Tracker/Gavony beats?
Does that then perhaps make Winding Constrictor playable?
Thanks gang
I've had trouble with Burn. I often read that we have an intrinsically favorable matchup because of MD life gain, but I haven't experienced consistent success against the deck and looking back though the threads I see a lot of 0-2s listed in tournament reports. I'm mainly interesting in improving my game one approach since the post-board MU is so different.
For those of you who kill Burn (and presuming a standard mainboard build):
1. Any tactical tips? I often find myself just throwing out whatever creatures I've drawn hoping to apply distracting pressure and requiring opponent to use removal/direct damage rather than hitting me. This doesn't seem like a smart approach to a control role but I'm not sure what else to do.
2. Do you mull aggressively into Finks in addition to 2 land/1 dork?
3. Do you open with the standard Noble/Bird (I do, anticipating it will either accelerate me or eat damage that would otherwise burn my face)?
4. For those who don't keep BFT sideboard - how often do you wish you had it?
5. Anything else obvious I've missed?
You're in great shape with: 1) Chord of Calling in hand 2) Eternal Witness in hand with Chord in yard 3) Duskwatch Recruiter in hand with EWit in library and Chord in yard (and I'm sure other ways to get to Kiki-Resto). Perhaps shaving a Fiery Justice in favor of the one of the usual instant-win buttons accessible via Recruiter from Counters Company builds e.g Rhonas or Ballista? Just to add another angle of attack? Ballista can even pinch-hit as a limited board wipe to mitigate the loss of a Fiery Justice.
When goldfishing the list it sure its satisfying to get that Blood Moon out there and keep on trucking'...
Meta is varied but feels control heavy (maybe because I routinely lose to control).
I've regularly seen Lantern Control, Esper Control (a couple of draw-go folks and an Ashiok mill horror), in addition to Jund, Affinity, Grixis Delver, Knightfall, Naya Zoo Company. Intermittent combo representation including Living End and Thing Ascension.
Notable tiered absences are Tron, Valakut, Infect, Ad Nauseam (and other combo except the two I listed), Dredge.
Sorry for no proper deck list but I'm planning: 23 lands 8 spells 11 combo pieces 9 dorks 1 Pridemage 1 Fiend Hunter 1 Scooze 1 Spellskite/Saffi. That leaves 5 utility slots.
Options are basically
A) new school Rallier/Voice/Saffi - obviously VoR nice for control
B) grindier EWit/Tracker plus or minus Courser - card draw is nice but I find I'm usually on Gavony pumps as my mana sink and don't feel good cracking my clues
C) AngelFeeder combo plus some other interaction/protection - as per Severson GP Vancouver list
I thought I would try Scullers out of the SB. I've not had much luck executing the Sculler sac trick to permanently exile opponent's pieces but maybe I'm not setting it up right or just it's that's not that important if I have protection for Sculler such as Spellskite or Selfless Spirit.
Sorry for a wandering set of questions; any thoughts are appreciated.
This was asked and answered in large part on page 321.
See posts 8113 and 8114.
A review of the linked article gives an idea of the key cards Pithing Needle is useful against; board it in against decks running these cards if you choose to run Needle...
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ee3fPPTN3YIbiOXQveTn6-8JflBNMxpQGCW0ywI7ZeM/edit?pref=2&pli=1#
I copied the link from this thread:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/712846-what-to-name-with-pithing-needle
Tried to make this work to get lots of tokens, can only get two elementals out of it before Saffi gets stranded in the yard.
Is that the limit or is there a way with Seer + Voice + Saffi + Rallier to make an arbitrarily large number of dudes?
1. Aristocrats style Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat direct damage
2. Soul Sisters lifegain Soul Warden/Soul's Attendant/Auriok Champion
I did a crude Gatherer search and didn't come up with anything else useful with CMC<=3 but don't have much confidence in this result.
Anyone working on this?
Fatal Push may be a reasonable SB alternative to Path, but on the whole I can't see how it is anything but a net negative to have more cheap instant removal around. We rely on so many juicy targets. Does this accelerate the transition of Abzan Company from Plan A combo to Plan A midrange/Tracker/Gavony beats?
Does that then perhaps make Winding Constrictor playable?
Thanks gang
For those of you who kill Burn (and presuming a standard mainboard build):
1. Any tactical tips? I often find myself just throwing out whatever creatures I've drawn hoping to apply distracting pressure and requiring opponent to use removal/direct damage rather than hitting me. This doesn't seem like a smart approach to a control role but I'm not sure what else to do.
2. Do you mull aggressively into Finks in addition to 2 land/1 dork?
3. Do you open with the standard Noble/Bird (I do, anticipating it will either accelerate me or eat damage that would otherwise burn my face)?
4. For those who don't keep BFT sideboard - how often do you wish you had it?
5. Anything else obvious I've missed?
Thanks for any advice!