Inspired by Meyou's list on the last page, I made my own BUG Infect deck. Fairly similar to his/hers, but with some minor modifications. I am short 2 cards on this list (I don't have the deck in front of me, going off memory, but can't remember what the last 2 are. I want to say 1 Dismember and maybe a second Pendelhaven, but not sure. I will update when I get home. EDIT: Turns out it was a fourth Become Immense and a Sylvan Scrying.)
The main differences are the mana base, Thought Scour, Spell Pierce, and 3 Become Immense instead of 1 mb with no groundswell or Unstable Mutation. Decided to try out the Thought Scour to try and pump out Become Immense a little faster and more reliably. It is basically a dark ritual the way I see it. It might not work as well as I hope, but I am going to try it out. I also like how it lets me hold up Spell Pierce mana in case it's needed. The Spell Pierce are basically a meta call with quite a few decks running MB Blood Moon and Chalice of the Void, so just a little something extra to deal with those main board. As for my sideboard, again, it's mostly stuff to combat my meta. A few affinity players, a couple jund players, and a blue artifact control deck that runs things like Ensnaring Bridge, Chalice of the Void, and Welding Jar. I like Nihil Spellbomb in any deck with access to black mana because it can be activated for free if needed, and if you have the open mana it cantrips which is nice. Going to be trying this out for the next week or two to see if I like it in the current meta or not. There is a 5K I am going to on the 12, so I guess this is to test if I am playing this or Jund at that event.
As follow-up from yesterday, I went to my tournament with Damping Sphere in the board. Never came up to any relevant matches to side it in for, so no results on that front. Ended up 2-1-1 at the end of the night.
Round 1 was a new player who had only been playing about 3 weeks he said. His deck was about 130 cards and mostly singleton. 2-0
Round 2 was against Goblins. Game 1 he topdecked a blood moon turn 3 which shut me out of the game essentially from that point as I only kept a 1-fetch hand. Had a swamp and 2 "mountains" then drew nothing but green cards. Game 2 was a lot better. Turn 1 & 2 disruption. Kept a hand without a threat, but had a fair amount of removal and disruption and hoped to draw into some sort of threat, and did not. Game went for about 10 turns before he finally managed to finish me off. No blood moon at least. 0-2
Round 3 was against a homebrew UG control type deck. Not too sure what his end-game plan was. Saw Goyf from him a couple times and that's about it aside from snapcasters. 2-0
Round 4 was Blue prison as my opponent called it. Basically artifacts and Tezzeret. Things like Chalice of the Void, Ensnaring Bridge, Welding Jar, Engineered Explosives to lock you out of the game while they try and get their win-con, which I never saw. I scooped game 1 because I had no way out. Game 2 I killed him literally as time for round was called. 1-1
Basically I just need to try and keep better hands. I have a hard time with that. I will think a hand looks great for the match, but then never draw into what I need to finish the game. This was also my first time back to 3 BBE and it was great. Saw it frequently, and cast it lots to good results. Usually into a second threat like a Goyf or Lilli. Overall it was a pretty good night. We are in a Snapcaster league, where top 8 after 6 weeks of point farming gets entered into a tournament where the winner gets a Snapcaster. After last night I think I am sitting in 4th about half way through.
I know I am a little late to the conversation here, but for all of you people wishing to try out mana dork builds, what about something like Wild Cantor? Pros: Has a power, hits any colour of mana, can be cast off green or red making it better against BM, can attack with it and use its mana in second main phase. Cons: No evasion, one time use, bad top deck (So are any mana dorks, unless it is in a BM matchup, then it could be better than other dorks depending on circumstances.)
That said, I am not too fond of any dork in jund, but just thought that those that want to try it, may not have thought of this card as it hasn't been mentioned yet.
As an aside, is anyone running Damping Sphere in their board in case of tron/e-tron or do we think it is too slow and low impact to take up SB slots? I think the second paragraph might be more relevant in more match-ups than the first paragraph though. If we can get it out early enough against aggro decks, it could slow them down enough to up our win % by a significant margin I think. It would definitely be better on the play than the draw, but I think it would definitely merit some testing to be sure if it would be good enough or not. I am thinking of trying it out tonight in the board, if I do I will report back tomorrow with my thoughts on it.
On my quest to test out the correct number of BBE to play, I have been trying out only 2, and I feel that is wrong. I feel the correct number to run is 3-4 based on personal preference. I will likely stick to 3 of them myself. At 2-of I don't see it as often as I would like. (Usually only 1 time per night.) Maybe I am just having terrible luck and variance, but I would feel more comfortable on 3 BBE.
As for last nights tournament, I lost to UW control due to never seeing BBE and poor draws. (Lots of lands but no Ravines.) Won round 2 against Storm. Felt a little bad for my opponent, he thought I was on infect as I was playing that before the tournament started, and both my infect and jund deck are in white sleeves, but I mean, that's what you get for assuming what your opponent is on without being sure. Round 3 I lost to Ponza in 3. This is the round I saw my BBE for the night off a Bob flip which dropped me to 10. I ended up winning that game though. I ultimately lost game 3 because of double Blood Moon. I had an Abrupt Decay in my opening hand which got rid of the T3 Blood Moon, but my opponent had a second moon in opening hand, so he just had to destroy the 2 basics I had managed to get out and then just win eventually. Apparently there is a large amount of Ponza in my meta, and am probably going to need to do something about it. I am thinking running 2 Life from the loam in the board and seeing if that does enough, and then run 2 forests so I can at least keep my basics alive. The other option I was toying with would be Pulse of Murasa, but I don't think that is as effective as I can only cast it 1 time. I am open to any other suggestions though. I think without Tron being in the meta anymore, I can probably cut my Fulminators out of the board to make room for the Life now, and bank on the fact that other people will be running Damping Spheres to keep Tron out. If I end up facing tron I will have to figure something else out though.
Well, I just got back from my modern tournament today. I feel really dumb. Friday when I posted my list, I forgot to put the deck back into my bag. So I showed up to the event and didn't realize I didn't have my deck with me until the start of round 1. So I had to default to Burn. Which ended up being bad because I didn't check my sideboard and was missing 3 of my SB cards. So, all in all, I feel like an idiot today, and went 1-3. Go me
Truthfully, I really liked playing with only 3 BBE. Like I said, every time I saw Kalitas, it was great, and I think I would have felt worse about things a few times if it had been a BBE. I am going to be running back the same list again today in a few hours at a different store and I will try to take better notes so I can give better results round by round.
The only real difference between Wednesday and tonight was the fact I was running a Tireless Tracker main just to try it out in this meta, and I don't think I like it, even for the board. I had cut a Kolaghan's Command to fit it in, and put it in the board cutting out a Scavenging Ooze to do this. Tonight was the only time that I've got to activate and utilize the Treetop after almost a month of playing 2-3 times a week. I was almost ready to cut it, but now I am not sure.
As for the matchups, tonight I played RG Eldrazi round 1 and 2, I won 1 and lost 1. Round 2 I lost due to flooding games 1 and 3. Round 3 was GW taxes with Voice of Resurgence, Collected Company, and Renegade Rallier and they just outvalued me. Didn't see any of my sideboard cards game 2 which would have potentially changed a lot. Round 4 was basically the same as round 3, just without Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Leonin Arbiter and Collected Company. Round 4 went so much better than round 3.
I really loved Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet every time I saw him. In one of the games, I had a Bloodbraid and Kalitas in hand on T4 and I chose to run out the Bloodbraid before the Kalitas for the simple reason of trying to draw out a path that might be in my opponents hand. Actually cascaded into an Inquisition and there wasn't a path in hand.
Thanks for all the advice Fae, you explained everything really well and put things into perspective a bit better for me. I've put some thought into things, and this is what I came up with.
I chose to put in Drowned Catacombs in place of the Darkslick Shores as I feel they would be less likely to be in my opening hand as a 2 of instead of the 3 it used to be, and less likely to enter tapped later in the game, unlike the Shores which are guaranteed tapped after land #3. Perhaps I am wrong, and will change my mind later after I get the deck and play it. I have cut down my counters a little in favor of adding a pair of Opts. I think I might have too many 1 mana spells now though, and am not sure if I should cut something out of there for something else, or if it should be fine. I cut the Godless Shrine for one of the Colonnades and the other came from the cut darkslick shores.
Haven't played burn in probably a little over a year, been mostly playing infect and more recently Jund. Decidied to bring out burn for a change of pace. Went with a basic Boros list with D-Rev and a Stomping Ground in the board. 20 land mana-base, with 12 fetches. I think I would probably cut the revs in the future and just go with wear/tear.
Went to a weekly local tournament yesterdy and ended up going 3-1.
Round 1: Burn (2-0)
Game 1 was a typical mirror match. I won the die roll to go first. My opponent got off 1 Helix, and I had a skullcrack for the second one on his next turn which probably won me the game. Game 2 with my opponent on the play, I cut my Eidolons and brought in 2 Kor Firewalkers and 2 Paths for my opponents probable Firewalkers. Neither of us saw them, and I ended up seeing 3 Helixes without a Skullcrack to turn off healing securing my win.
Round 2: Mardu Pyromancer (2-0)
Won the roll again here. I pretty much only turned my burn spells to the ground to deal with Pyromancers. I think I had a game 1 Eidolon which stopped a lot of action from my opponent. Game 2 was more or less the same. I think my opponent got off 2 Collective Brutalities which slowed me down, and put down a Blood Moon on turn 4 or 5 which actually ended up buying him a couple of turns as my next 2 draws were a Kor Firewalker and then a Lightning Helix, but a top-decked Rift Bolt finished him off.
Round 3: Amulet "Bloom" (0-2)
Lost the die roll and was on the draw. Wasn't expecting an amulet player. Obviously there were no Summer blooms involved, but it still seemed like a solid deck against us. Game 1 he just comboed off too fast because I had no interaction with his T1 Amulet into T2 Azusa, into a T3 Titan with a stronghold. All in all Game 1 felt bad. Game 2 I probably kept a questionable 6. 4 Land D-Rev and a random spell. T1 I played whatever spell I had, T2 I d-reved his Amulet, but that only slowed him down a bit. Probably saw 4-5 Radiant fountain triggers. (Vesuvas and bounce lands etc.) Managed to deal with his prime time in a terrible 3 for 1, but it didn't matter as he played 2 Thragtusks and just blew me out. I had him down to 1 when he played his first tusk. The match still feels really bad.
Round 4: UW Control (2-0)
Not too much to say here, Burn is just too fast, especially when you land 2-3 creatures early. He had to drop a snap on my T3 to block an Eidolon, letting through a Guide and Swiftspear pumped with a prowess. Not too sure what else to really say about the match.
All in all, it felt really good to throw slag in peoples faces again. Burn was the first Modern deck I played, so it will always hold a spot in my roster. About the only thing I would consider changing is cutting green from the board and maybe trying to find room for an Ensnaring Bridge or 2 if the Amulet player keeps playing Amulet, and just bank on the inevitabiliy that I will draw enough burn to kill him.
So, I am thinking of buying into fairies. So I just wanted to ask everyone here what they think of my list, and for a bit of advice on it in general. I am 2 cards over 60, so I need to figure out what to cut, but I just am not sure. I also don't have a sideboard worked out, but I have a general idea of what I would be putting in it.
So, as you can see I am splashing white for MB Path to Exile, and it will lead to SB cards like Rest in peace etc. I am going for a bit of a grindy control feel for the deck. So, I am thinking that maybe 2-3 Mutavaults might be better served as Celestial Colonnade possibly, but it lowers the synergy for spellstutter sprite, making it slightly worse, and I don't have that much white spells MB.
As for my cuts in general to fit my list together, I am not too sure where to go. I feel like I am a little light on discard with only a 2/2 split of IOK and TS already, but I hope that my removal package and counterspell choices can help balance that out with Snap for the late game recasts. About the only things I can think of cutting would be 1 Cryptic Command and then maybe a Snapcaster Mage, but that feels bad to me. So I am looking to people with more experience to help out with this decision. If you think my deck needs a complete overhaul, by all means, don't be scared to hurt my feelings, I won't get butt hurt over anything here. Like I said, I am very inexperienced with Fairies, so any and all advice is welcome.
Maybe I am being a little greedy with this build, but this is what I am thinking of taking to the Edmonton Face to Face Open (5K) next weekend. The sideboard Abrupt I would rather be a second LtLH but I can't seem to find a second right now to fill that slot. Basically I am just wondering what others think of this proposed list. I like the 3rd Kolaghan's becuase I have never felt bad casting it, and think that there is always a relevant mode pairing. The main problem is I feel kind of weak to burn, and I always see burn at these F2F events, and with burn making a comeback right now, I don't know if this is 100% the right call. I have been lurking for the last 30 pages or so, which is what has me second guessing my build, but just thought I would still throw it out there for discussion.
Side note: I haven't played magic in about 6-7 months and BBE unbanning has brought me back, and even before that I hadn't played Jund for long. I was a long time aggro player (Burn and Infect) who always dreamed of piloting Jund. (Was always too expensive until all the reprints helped drop it a bit.)
I didn't hate it. It was nice to have game 1 so I could keep some hands I may not have kept otherwise. They were always the first to get cut however for games 2 and 3. I could have very easily cut it down to 0-2 copies and ran some main board Twisted Image or Dismember or some real answers and have more board space. I think I would also try running 19 lands with the 4 serum visions next time since the greater likelihood of being able to dig. Then maybe run a single Sylvan Scrying or something to help fetch an infecter.
Last Sunday I went to a 3K event with 166 people. Ultimately finished 6-2. 9th place through 21st place were all 6-2. My list was kind of different compared to what I see others running lately.
Unfortunately I did not take notes during the tournament, so this is all from memory almost a week ago, and my memory isn't the best.
Round 1: Bant Eldrazi 1-2
Lost game 3 not knowing what was on top of my deck, fetched end of my opponents turn, peeked what was at top during the fetch, and it was the +4 pump that I needed to win, but no way of knowing, so nothing could really be done there.
Round 2: Grixis Shadow 2-0
Not sure if it was luck, or just a bad build on my opponents end, but he didn't really see any removal, so that makes the match up a lot easier to win.
Round 3: Mono-Green Hydra 2-1
Misread the pairing sheet due to looking from the side, and read the wrong table number. The person who was supposed to be where I was didn't show up until the round was seconds away from starting so I got a tardy game loss. Fortunately for me, my opponent had no removal in the deck at all making for an easy "2-0" victory.
Round 4: Mono-Red Burn 0-2
Not much to say about this other than Burn sucks, and I didn't see Wild Defiance.
Round 5: Melira Company 2-1
Opponent Chorded or just hard cast Melira all 3 games we played. Game 1 my opponent had a Melira out and a Viscera Seer, and when I swung in for lethal combat damage, they sacced their Melira to the Seer to get another turn, which ended up killing me on the backswing. Game 2 I had Dismember to deal with her imediately after casting Serum Visions and an elf T2 leaving up an Inkmoth Nexus as my only mana source. Game 3 they whiffed on a Coco which ended up costing them the game, not much else to say there.
Round 6: Affinity 2-1
They had the play game 1. I don't recall them making any great plays this game, I don't think they had the best hand for infect as I managed to secure the win with a distorion strike on turn 3&4. Game 2, they had a much faster hand that I didn't see any hate for. Game 3 I was just too fast with a turn 2&3 Distortion Strike win.
Round 7: Jeskai Control 2-1
This match-up felt really good. I think the only thing that really comes to mind is that my opponent could have stolen the round if he had remembered I had a Graffdigger's Cage on the battlefield. I had no infecters, so I was attacking with a Noble Hierarch, with Wild Defiance on the table. I was about to start pumping before moving to attack, and realized that would have been stupid if he had a Snapcaster in hand. So, I attack "for 1" and he declares no blocks. So I just start pumping up the Hierarch, and on the last pump I had mana for, he tries to Snap in and cast Remand from his grave. I remind him about the Cage, and he beats himself up over it.
Round 8: Jeskai Control 2-0
Having just played against this match the round before, I knew exctly what to expect. Had better hands and was confident I had the win. Didn't let myself down.
Overall, I don't feel that Infect is in as bad of a position as even I had thought before going into this tournament. Granted, I didn't run into any Jund or Abzan throughout the day, I feel that we have enough options to protect our dudes. We just need to try and play a bit smarter, and maybe extend our clock by an extra turn or two since a lot of these decks are looking for the long game anyways. I cut out my Become Immense for this tournament to add in MB Skite and Wild Defiance, which left me feeling that Slip Through Space wasn't as good anymore since I no longer cared about filling my yard for BI. So, I put in Distortion to get a 2 for 1 feel where I can and I have to say I fell in love with the card. I had tried it in the past, and felt it was lack-luster, but every time I played it during this tournament, it was just amazing.
Oh, and if you're wondering where I placed, I was the bottom of the 6-2 due to horrible tie-breakers. 21st overall, which isn't too shabby for a deck that I felt bad going into the tournament playing. Also, there was another Infect player who was 5-2 going into the final round, I didn't see what he was playing against, but he seemed to have a worse match-up than me and lost.
I went 3-1 both nights. Monday I lost to Grixis Control, just too many counters and and too much removal for me to get through, I also had minor land issues in game 3. Last night I had major land issues against my first opponent whom I can't remember what he was playing atm. Flooded game 1, won game 2,only saw 1 land and a dead hierarch game 3 until about turn 5. I might make a few minor changes to the deck, but I am fairly satisfied with how it is working.
Tried putting in Temur Battle Rage as a 2 of last Tuesday when getting ready for the ban, when I had it, I didn't like it at all. I am now running a varient of the deck I have always been curious about. It is as follows:
The only changes I made since my games last Tuesday are -1 Stomping Ground -2 Temur Battle Rage -2 Apostle's Blessing (to board) +2 Twisted Image +2 Groundswell +1 Viridian Corrupter. I should have went 4-0 but I misplayed in round 2. I should have cast a protection spell first, then cast a pump spell to make 11 damage (Wild Defiance on table), but did the pump first, and didn't want to risk getting blown out with attempting to protect after making it lethal. Oppenents combo went off next turn so I didn't get to finish him off.
Basically the idea for the deck is to try and turn 2 Wild Defiance with an inkmoth, and turn 3 try to goad them into attempting a kill spell on my turn when I try to "protect" my creature with vines/blossom/apostle and then protect again when they try to path/abrupt etc. If they don't fall for it, I at least now have a protected creature I can cast a single pump on to make lethal for the win. If I don't get Defiance there is still enough pump in the deck to do an old fashioned infect beat down. I am going to try this out for a tournament tonight, and hopefully tomorrow if I get off work in time to go, and see how it does. I am also tempted to put in 2 BoP for extra mana ramp and potential flying beatdown if they get carried away with their life loss via Fetches etc.
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent
4 Plague Stinger
4 Noble Hierarch
Spells (22)
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Blossoming Defense
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Become Immense
3 Predator's Strike
2 Spell Pierce
2 Thought Scour
1 Sylvan Scrying
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Pendelhaven
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Shaper's Sanctuary
2 Hurkyll's Recall
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Spellskite
2 Nature's Claim
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Echoing Truth
1 Viridian Corruptor
1 Dispel
1 Grafdiggers Cage
The main differences are the mana base, Thought Scour, Spell Pierce, and 3 Become Immense instead of 1 mb with no groundswell or Unstable Mutation. Decided to try out the Thought Scour to try and pump out Become Immense a little faster and more reliably. It is basically a dark ritual the way I see it. It might not work as well as I hope, but I am going to try it out. I also like how it lets me hold up Spell Pierce mana in case it's needed. The Spell Pierce are basically a meta call with quite a few decks running MB Blood Moon and Chalice of the Void, so just a little something extra to deal with those main board. As for my sideboard, again, it's mostly stuff to combat my meta. A few affinity players, a couple jund players, and a blue artifact control deck that runs things like Ensnaring Bridge, Chalice of the Void, and Welding Jar. I like Nihil Spellbomb in any deck with access to black mana because it can be activated for free if needed, and if you have the open mana it cantrips which is nice. Going to be trying this out for the next week or two to see if I like it in the current meta or not. There is a 5K I am going to on the 12, so I guess this is to test if I am playing this or Jund at that event.
Round 1 was a new player who had only been playing about 3 weeks he said. His deck was about 130 cards and mostly singleton. 2-0
Round 2 was against Goblins. Game 1 he topdecked a blood moon turn 3 which shut me out of the game essentially from that point as I only kept a 1-fetch hand. Had a swamp and 2 "mountains" then drew nothing but green cards. Game 2 was a lot better. Turn 1 & 2 disruption. Kept a hand without a threat, but had a fair amount of removal and disruption and hoped to draw into some sort of threat, and did not. Game went for about 10 turns before he finally managed to finish me off. No blood moon at least. 0-2
Round 3 was against a homebrew UG control type deck. Not too sure what his end-game plan was. Saw Goyf from him a couple times and that's about it aside from snapcasters. 2-0
Round 4 was Blue prison as my opponent called it. Basically artifacts and Tezzeret. Things like Chalice of the Void, Ensnaring Bridge, Welding Jar, Engineered Explosives to lock you out of the game while they try and get their win-con, which I never saw. I scooped game 1 because I had no way out. Game 2 I killed him literally as time for round was called. 1-1
Basically I just need to try and keep better hands. I have a hard time with that. I will think a hand looks great for the match, but then never draw into what I need to finish the game. This was also my first time back to 3 BBE and it was great. Saw it frequently, and cast it lots to good results. Usually into a second threat like a Goyf or Lilli. Overall it was a pretty good night. We are in a Snapcaster league, where top 8 after 6 weeks of point farming gets entered into a tournament where the winner gets a Snapcaster. After last night I think I am sitting in 4th about half way through.
That said, I am not too fond of any dork in jund, but just thought that those that want to try it, may not have thought of this card as it hasn't been mentioned yet.
As an aside, is anyone running Damping Sphere in their board in case of tron/e-tron or do we think it is too slow and low impact to take up SB slots? I think the second paragraph might be more relevant in more match-ups than the first paragraph though. If we can get it out early enough against aggro decks, it could slow them down enough to up our win % by a significant margin I think. It would definitely be better on the play than the draw, but I think it would definitely merit some testing to be sure if it would be good enough or not. I am thinking of trying it out tonight in the board, if I do I will report back tomorrow with my thoughts on it.
As for last nights tournament, I lost to UW control due to never seeing BBE and poor draws. (Lots of lands but no Ravines.) Won round 2 against Storm. Felt a little bad for my opponent, he thought I was on infect as I was playing that before the tournament started, and both my infect and jund deck are in white sleeves, but I mean, that's what you get for assuming what your opponent is on without being sure. Round 3 I lost to Ponza in 3. This is the round I saw my BBE for the night off a Bob flip which dropped me to 10. I ended up winning that game though. I ultimately lost game 3 because of double Blood Moon. I had an Abrupt Decay in my opening hand which got rid of the T3 Blood Moon, but my opponent had a second moon in opening hand, so he just had to destroy the 2 basics I had managed to get out and then just win eventually. Apparently there is a large amount of Ponza in my meta, and am probably going to need to do something about it. I am thinking running 2 Life from the loam in the board and seeing if that does enough, and then run 2 forests so I can at least keep my basics alive. The other option I was toying with would be Pulse of Murasa, but I don't think that is as effective as I can only cast it 1 time. I am open to any other suggestions though. I think without Tron being in the meta anymore, I can probably cut my Fulminators out of the board to make room for the Life now, and bank on the fact that other people will be running Damping Spheres to keep Tron out. If I end up facing tron I will have to figure something else out though.
3x Raging Ravine
1x Treetop Village
1x Twilight Mire
1x Stomping Ground
1x Wooded Foothills
2x Swamp
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Forest
1x Blood Crypt
2x Overgrown Tomb
3x Bloodstained Mire
Creatures (15)
4x Dark Confidant
2x Scavenging Ooze
3x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Tarmogoyf
1x Grim Lavamancer
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Lightning Bolt
2x Terminate
1x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Thoughtseize
2x Kolaghan's Command
3x Fatal Push
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Kitchen Finks
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Fulminator Mage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Collective Brutality
2x Anger of the Gods
1x Grafdigger's Cage
The only real difference between Wednesday and tonight was the fact I was running a Tireless Tracker main just to try it out in this meta, and I don't think I like it, even for the board. I had cut a Kolaghan's Command to fit it in, and put it in the board cutting out a Scavenging Ooze to do this. Tonight was the only time that I've got to activate and utilize the Treetop after almost a month of playing 2-3 times a week. I was almost ready to cut it, but now I am not sure.
As for the matchups, tonight I played RG Eldrazi round 1 and 2, I won 1 and lost 1. Round 2 I lost due to flooding games 1 and 3. Round 3 was GW taxes with Voice of Resurgence, Collected Company, and Renegade Rallier and they just outvalued me. Didn't see any of my sideboard cards game 2 which would have potentially changed a lot. Round 4 was basically the same as round 3, just without Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Leonin Arbiter and Collected Company. Round 4 went so much better than round 3.
I really loved Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet every time I saw him. In one of the games, I had a Bloodbraid and Kalitas in hand on T4 and I chose to run out the Bloodbraid before the Kalitas for the simple reason of trying to draw out a path that might be in my opponents hand. Actually cascaded into an Inquisition and there wasn't a path in hand.
4x Spellstutter Sprite
2x Mistbind Clique
2x Vendillion Clique
3x Snapcaster Mage
INSTANTS (14)
2x Cryptic Command
2x Mana Leak
2x Spell Pierce
3x Fatal Push
3x Path to Exile
2x Opt
SORCERY (6)
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
2x Collective Brutality
4x Bitterblossom
LAND (25)
4x Polluted Delta
3x Flooded Strand
1x Marsh Flats
2x Watery Grave
1x Hallowed Fountain
2x Celestial Colonnade
1x Plains
1x Swamp
3x Island
3x Mutavault
2x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Drowned Catacomb
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Batterskull
3x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Countersquall
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Damnation
1x Hurkyl's Recall
I chose to put in Drowned Catacombs in place of the Darkslick Shores as I feel they would be less likely to be in my opening hand as a 2 of instead of the 3 it used to be, and less likely to enter tapped later in the game, unlike the Shores which are guaranteed tapped after land #3. Perhaps I am wrong, and will change my mind later after I get the deck and play it. I have cut down my counters a little in favor of adding a pair of Opts. I think I might have too many 1 mana spells now though, and am not sure if I should cut something out of there for something else, or if it should be fine. I cut the Godless Shrine for one of the Colonnades and the other came from the cut darkslick shores.
Went to a weekly local tournament yesterdy and ended up going 3-1.
Round 1: Burn (2-0)
Game 1 was a typical mirror match. I won the die roll to go first. My opponent got off 1 Helix, and I had a skullcrack for the second one on his next turn which probably won me the game. Game 2 with my opponent on the play, I cut my Eidolons and brought in 2 Kor Firewalkers and 2 Paths for my opponents probable Firewalkers. Neither of us saw them, and I ended up seeing 3 Helixes without a Skullcrack to turn off healing securing my win.
Round 2: Mardu Pyromancer (2-0)
Won the roll again here. I pretty much only turned my burn spells to the ground to deal with Pyromancers. I think I had a game 1 Eidolon which stopped a lot of action from my opponent. Game 2 was more or less the same. I think my opponent got off 2 Collective Brutalities which slowed me down, and put down a Blood Moon on turn 4 or 5 which actually ended up buying him a couple of turns as my next 2 draws were a Kor Firewalker and then a Lightning Helix, but a top-decked Rift Bolt finished him off.
Round 3: Amulet "Bloom" (0-2)
Lost the die roll and was on the draw. Wasn't expecting an amulet player. Obviously there were no Summer blooms involved, but it still seemed like a solid deck against us. Game 1 he just comboed off too fast because I had no interaction with his T1 Amulet into T2 Azusa, into a T3 Titan with a stronghold. All in all Game 1 felt bad. Game 2 I probably kept a questionable 6. 4 Land D-Rev and a random spell. T1 I played whatever spell I had, T2 I d-reved his Amulet, but that only slowed him down a bit. Probably saw 4-5 Radiant fountain triggers. (Vesuvas and bounce lands etc.) Managed to deal with his prime time in a terrible 3 for 1, but it didn't matter as he played 2 Thragtusks and just blew me out. I had him down to 1 when he played his first tusk. The match still feels really bad.
Round 4: UW Control (2-0)
Not too much to say here, Burn is just too fast, especially when you land 2-3 creatures early. He had to drop a snap on my T3 to block an Eidolon, letting through a Guide and Swiftspear pumped with a prowess. Not too sure what else to really say about the match.
All in all, it felt really good to throw slag in peoples faces again. Burn was the first Modern deck I played, so it will always hold a spot in my roster. About the only thing I would consider changing is cutting green from the board and maybe trying to find room for an Ensnaring Bridge or 2 if the Amulet player keeps playing Amulet, and just bank on the inevitabiliy that I will draw enough burn to kill him.
4x Spellstutter Sprite
3x Mistbind Clique
2x Vendillion Clique
2x Scion of Oona
4x Snapcaster Mage
INSTANTS (14)
3x Cryptic Command
3x Remand
2x Spell Snare
3x Fatal Push
3x Path to Exile
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
ENCHANTMENT (4)
4x Bitterblossom
LAND (25)
4x Polluted Delta
4x Flooded Strand
2x Watery Grave
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Godless Shrine
1x Plains
1x Swamp
3x Island
3x Mutavault
2x Creeping Tar Pit
3x Darkslick Shores
So, as you can see I am splashing white for MB Path to Exile, and it will lead to SB cards like Rest in peace etc. I am going for a bit of a grindy control feel for the deck. So, I am thinking that maybe 2-3 Mutavaults might be better served as Celestial Colonnade possibly, but it lowers the synergy for spellstutter sprite, making it slightly worse, and I don't have that much white spells MB.
As for my cuts in general to fit my list together, I am not too sure where to go. I feel like I am a little light on discard with only a 2/2 split of IOK and TS already, but I hope that my removal package and counterspell choices can help balance that out with Snap for the late game recasts. About the only things I can think of cutting would be 1 Cryptic Command and then maybe a Snapcaster Mage, but that feels bad to me. So I am looking to people with more experience to help out with this decision. If you think my deck needs a complete overhaul, by all means, don't be scared to hurt my feelings, I won't get butt hurt over anything here. Like I said, I am very inexperienced with Fairies, so any and all advice is welcome.
Side note: I haven't played magic in about 6-7 months and BBE unbanning has brought me back, and even before that I hadn't played Jund for long. I was a long time aggro player (Burn and Infect) who always dreamed of piloting Jund. (Was always too expensive until all the reprints helped drop it a bit.)
Creature [14]
4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Dark Confidant
2x Scavenging Ooze
4x Tarmogoyf
Planeswalker [5]
4x Liliana of the Veil
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
Instant [10]
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Fatal Push
3x Kolaghan's Command
4x Lightning Bolt
1x Terminate
Sorcery [7]
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Maelstrom Pulse
2x Thoughtseize
1x Forest
1x Mountain
2x Swamp
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Overgrown Tomb
3x Raging Ravine
1x Stomping Ground
1x Twilight Mire
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Grafdigger’s Cage
3x Fulminator Mage
2x Collective Brutality
1x Maelstrom Pulse
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Anger of the Gods
1x Grim Lavamancer
1x Abrupt Decay
4 Glistener Elf
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Blighted Agent
2 Spellskite
Spells (24)
4 Blossoming Defense
2 Distortion Strike
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Might of Old Krosa
1 Spell Pierce
4 Vines of Vastwood
1 Apostle's Blessing
4 Serum Visions
2 Wild Defiance
Lands (20)
2 Forest
2 Breeding Pool
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Pendelhaven
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Nature's Claim
1 Spellskite
1 Viridian Corrupter
2 Spell Pierce
1 Dispel
1 Apostle's Blessing
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Graffdigger's Cage
2 Dismember
2 Twisted Image
Unfortunately I did not take notes during the tournament, so this is all from memory almost a week ago, and my memory isn't the best.
Round 1: Bant Eldrazi 1-2
Lost game 3 not knowing what was on top of my deck, fetched end of my opponents turn, peeked what was at top during the fetch, and it was the +4 pump that I needed to win, but no way of knowing, so nothing could really be done there.
Round 2: Grixis Shadow 2-0
Not sure if it was luck, or just a bad build on my opponents end, but he didn't really see any removal, so that makes the match up a lot easier to win.
Round 3: Mono-Green Hydra 2-1
Misread the pairing sheet due to looking from the side, and read the wrong table number. The person who was supposed to be where I was didn't show up until the round was seconds away from starting so I got a tardy game loss. Fortunately for me, my opponent had no removal in the deck at all making for an easy "2-0" victory.
Round 4: Mono-Red Burn 0-2
Not much to say about this other than Burn sucks, and I didn't see Wild Defiance.
Round 5: Melira Company 2-1
Opponent Chorded or just hard cast Melira all 3 games we played. Game 1 my opponent had a Melira out and a Viscera Seer, and when I swung in for lethal combat damage, they sacced their Melira to the Seer to get another turn, which ended up killing me on the backswing. Game 2 I had Dismember to deal with her imediately after casting Serum Visions and an elf T2 leaving up an Inkmoth Nexus as my only mana source. Game 3 they whiffed on a Coco which ended up costing them the game, not much else to say there.
Round 6: Affinity 2-1
They had the play game 1. I don't recall them making any great plays this game, I don't think they had the best hand for infect as I managed to secure the win with a distorion strike on turn 3&4. Game 2, they had a much faster hand that I didn't see any hate for. Game 3 I was just too fast with a turn 2&3 Distortion Strike win.
Round 7: Jeskai Control 2-1
This match-up felt really good. I think the only thing that really comes to mind is that my opponent could have stolen the round if he had remembered I had a Graffdigger's Cage on the battlefield. I had no infecters, so I was attacking with a Noble Hierarch, with Wild Defiance on the table. I was about to start pumping before moving to attack, and realized that would have been stupid if he had a Snapcaster in hand. So, I attack "for 1" and he declares no blocks. So I just start pumping up the Hierarch, and on the last pump I had mana for, he tries to Snap in and cast Remand from his grave. I remind him about the Cage, and he beats himself up over it.
Round 8: Jeskai Control 2-0
Having just played against this match the round before, I knew exctly what to expect. Had better hands and was confident I had the win. Didn't let myself down.
Overall, I don't feel that Infect is in as bad of a position as even I had thought before going into this tournament. Granted, I didn't run into any Jund or Abzan throughout the day, I feel that we have enough options to protect our dudes. We just need to try and play a bit smarter, and maybe extend our clock by an extra turn or two since a lot of these decks are looking for the long game anyways. I cut out my Become Immense for this tournament to add in MB Skite and Wild Defiance, which left me feeling that Slip Through Space wasn't as good anymore since I no longer cared about filling my yard for BI. So, I put in Distortion to get a 2 for 1 feel where I can and I have to say I fell in love with the card. I had tried it in the past, and felt it was lack-luster, but every time I played it during this tournament, it was just amazing.
Oh, and if you're wondering where I placed, I was the bottom of the 6-2 due to horrible tie-breakers. 21st overall, which isn't too shabby for a deck that I felt bad going into the tournament playing. Also, there was another Infect player who was 5-2 going into the final round, I didn't see what he was playing against, but he seemed to have a worse match-up than me and lost.
1 Botanical Sanctum
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Pendelhaven
2 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
Killers (13)
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Viridian Corrupter
2 Groundswell
2 Twisted Image
3 Wild Defiance
2 Become Immense
2 Slip Through Space
3 Mutagenic Growth
4 Might of Old Krosa
2 Apostle's Blessing
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Blossoming Defense
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Apostle's Blessing
1 Dispel
3 Spell Pierce
2 Nature's Claim
2 Dismember
1 Grafdigger's Cage (Might cut, have to see how my meta has changed since bans)
1 Twisted Image
2 Kitchen Finks
The only changes I made since my games last Tuesday are -1 Stomping Ground -2 Temur Battle Rage -2 Apostle's Blessing (to board) +2 Twisted Image +2 Groundswell +1 Viridian Corrupter. I should have went 4-0 but I misplayed in round 2. I should have cast a protection spell first, then cast a pump spell to make 11 damage (Wild Defiance on table), but did the pump first, and didn't want to risk getting blown out with attempting to protect after making it lethal. Oppenents combo went off next turn so I didn't get to finish him off.
Basically the idea for the deck is to try and turn 2 Wild Defiance with an inkmoth, and turn 3 try to goad them into attempting a kill spell on my turn when I try to "protect" my creature with vines/blossom/apostle and then protect again when they try to path/abrupt etc. If they don't fall for it, I at least now have a protected creature I can cast a single pump on to make lethal for the win. If I don't get Defiance there is still enough pump in the deck to do an old fashioned infect beat down. I am going to try this out for a tournament tonight, and hopefully tomorrow if I get off work in time to go, and see how it does. I am also tempted to put in 2 BoP for extra mana ramp and potential flying beatdown if they get carried away with their life loss via Fetches etc.