The situation occurred several times against Red Phoenix and Hollow One where I was facing one or more attackers for 4+ damage where I really wished I had a creature I could play for 2 or 3 mana that would either trade or at least get some ETB value and then chump to help me buy a few turns. For instance, I'd have Obstinate Baloth in hand, which seemed perfect, but at 4 mana was just a little too slow.
The card that comes to mind is Kitchen Finks, as I could gain some life and chump two attacks, hopefully getting to 5+ mana to start to stabilize.
I would look to replace Ooze and Tracker, even though both are good cards. Tracker has been great for me, but not for the aggro matchups that seem prevelent. Ooze I am starting to like less and less. Its versatility is great, but the graveyard hate and life gain can be too slow and it takes a while to get it out of bolt range against the red decks. I could also see moving Walking Ballista to the sideboard and maybe cutting Dragonlord Atarka as Ballista serves a similar function.
That being said, I am still new to the deck and would give it more reps before making major changes.
I saw Uegjo's 5-0 and thought this deck looked like a fun choice for CFB's 2K last weekend.
I diversified the fetch lands a bit but otherwise did not mess wit the 75.
Round 1 v. Mono-Red Phoenix
Game 1: I lose pretty quickly to double prowess creatures and 3x Manamorphose into turn 4 hard-cast Phoenix.
Game 2: Similar to above, double prowess creature into 2x Manamorphose into Looting and bring back 2x Phoenix on turn 3. 0-2.
0-1
Round 2 v. Humans
Game 1: Opponent goes aggro with humans and follows up with Malcontents. I start to crawl back with a Primal Command but an attack followed by a Phantasmal Image on Malcontents ends it.
Game 2: I ramp into Wurmcoil with a Kessig Wolf Run out and that is enough.
Game 3: He keeps an odd hand where the first play is turn 3 Mantis Rider, followed by turn 4 Mantis Rider. Since opponent hasn't played anything else, I highly suspect next turn will be: Mantis Rider/Phantasmal Image on Mantis Rider, attack for 9, you lose. I need to do something big this turn, so I do: Time Warp into Hornet Queen to stabilize. Despite Phantasmal Image on my Queen twice, Ballista cleans up and closes it out with Wurmcoil backup. 2-1.
1-1
Round 3 v. Mardu Control
Game 1: The control player's heavy creature removal deck just doesn't line up with my powerful spells and gives me all the time I need to top-deck Tooth and Nail for the win.
Game 2: I have a pretty aggro start with ramp into Primeval Titan and I am careful not to attack with too much into Settle mana. I eventually close it pretty quick with a Garruk overrun when opponent is tapped low. 2-0.
2-1
Round 4 v. G Tron
Game 1: I play the control deck with Eternal Command chain, stopping Tron and really anything relevant. Winning is academic.
Game 2: Like above but better: I have Crumble to Dust and Eternal Witness to stop Tron forever. I have Ancient Grudge as well to tag a small Ballista and an Oblivion Stone. I think I eventually win with Kessig. Opponent had several opportunities to tutor up Ghost Quarter and deal with my suited up lands, but never did so. Either way, I was pretty far ahead and opponent was low on mana the whole game. 2-0.
3-1
Round 5 v. Eldrazi Tron
Game 1: Opponent mulls to 5 and I sort of get to steal this one as the ELdrazi player puts up a good fight on 5. But I get enough time to do the powerful things.
Game 2: This one is long with dueling Wurmcoils stalling things out. But the stall favors me and I think I closed it out with hard-cast Emrakul. 2-0.
4-1
Round 6 v. Mono-Red Phoenix
Game 1: The Phoenix player spends a lot of cards to put me low with prowess creatures, but I chain Primal Commands to stabilize. Despite seeing almost half the deck, opponent does not get a Phoenix in the yard for several turns and I eventually take the win.
Game 2: You can watch this match at 5:39 from CFB's twitch. I think I won in the side boarding phase. I take 4 damage to play a turn 2 Trinisphere which just shuts the opponent dow. Opponent brings in questionable cards: Blood Moon, Surgical, and Eidolon. 2-0.
5-1
Round 7 v. Hollow One
Game 1: Opponent threatens a very quick clock, but I untapped with Birds, Kiora's Follower, and Overgrowth to steal a win with Tooth and Nail on turn 4.
Game 2: I like my hand with Baloth and ramp, but the opponent has the turn 3 kill with double Hollow Ones and other support. I don't think I am ever winning against that start.
Game 3: I keep a questionable hand of Emrakul, Sprawl, Kiora's Follower, and Overgrowth plus lands. I have the ramp and hope for some payoff or a roadblock. He turn 1 Thoguhtseizes the Overgrowth. I develop good mana, but draw running lands and die to all the big creatures. 1-2.
5-2
I lost my win-and-in but still prized at 13th place. My games basically had three flavors: 1 Stabilize with Hornet Queen or Wurmcoil and slowly build to game wining spells 2 Race with a quick game winning spell 3 Out-value opponents with Primal Command and Time Warp loops. The deck struggles against the super aggro decks, but it is nice to steal games versus the uninteractive decks with Tooth and Nail. Seems to play circles around other big mana decks and non-blue control decks.
I've been thinking about a more beatdown oriented build in UW. In testing, I don't think I ever actually had Lavinia prevent a spell from being cast off Delay or Spell Queller, but it does sort of force the opponent to direct removal at her.
Thalia seems a little bad with Delay, Ashiok, and Detention Sphere.
I haven't played this deck—or Modern at all—for quite some time, but got on a camera match with Kiki-Chord so thought I would share: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/343361062 at 3:18:12.
For all of these reasons, I've found AotG to be the superior sweeper.
I liked Sun in theory but ultimately agree with this. If I have other cards in hand, I want to be casting those, not paying 3 mana to cycle and if I am top decking a dead Suns, things are not great anyways. I'll also add that Anger has much better synergy with Eternal Scourge as Suns can trap it in the yard.
Also, when does Goblin Rabblemaster get sided in? I’m new to the deck, so any tips and pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Edit- How do we battle Kor Firewalker? Ratchetbomb?
Rabblemaster for when you need to close the game out ASAP because you can't effectively stop a combo and opponent does not play many blockers. For example, against Lantern, Storm, Ad Nauseum. I've also brought it in versus UW control just to increase threat density.
Against Kor Firewalker we have many answers: Kozilek's Return, Pyrite Spellbomb, Ratchet Bomb, Dismember, Eternal Scourge to block, Thopter Tokens to block, Batterskull to block (though it has fallen out of favor). I've also been able to outrace a Kor Firewalker with Stormbreath and some support.
I don't think you can deal with such cards without a splash or very high cmc artifacts. You have two options: 1 win before opponent can establish lock, 2 use mana denial to prevent opponent from resolving lock.
On Eternal Scourge and the creature package: One more point for Eternal Scourge in a suite of Pia and Kiran and Stormbreath is that Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, and Fatal Push are bad against all these creatures. Fatal Push can kill an animated Mountain and Bolt can finish off a Planeswalker, but these cards are also not great against Koth and Chandra so I like weakening these three common removal spells.
It really depends on the matchup.
If I can win the long game and just want to make sure I get there (like versus Humans or Affinity), I bring in SSGs and more interaction and cut some bad hate cards, Planeswalkers, Sheets, and one or two Mind Stones.
If I need to race because my interaction is not that great, like against Ad Nauseum or Lantern, I go the SSG and Rabblemaster plan and cut the dead cards and again some top end, Sheets, and a Mind Stone or two.
Could I get a few recent deck submissions that you all are having success with? I am very new to the forums and I am falling in love with this deck. I want to see everyone's choice of flex cards and what is working for them. Thanks for your time and efforts and take care!
I've been doing well with this list. The interesting choices are the Magma Jets and the Gemstone and Spirit Guide package. The feeling of end-of-turn jetting and scrying away 2 lands before drawing for turn has been really good. I find that this deck seems really powerful on the play when you hit your 3, 4, and 5 drops but it can be hard to come back from behind on the draw, so I bring it Spirit Guides against aggressive decks so I can control the board in time and I also bring them in along with Rabblemasters against decks with better long games so I can close out in time.
I think Sweltering Suns is the way to go for the maindeck sweeper for the obvious ability to cycle it when it is not needed. I also like it post-board versus storm where you might need to clean up tokens but may need to cycle it for a more relevant card. I think whether to go with Anger or Return for sideboard sweepers depends on the rest of your 75. If you are short on graveyard hate from things like Relic and Cage, you may want to dedicate these slots to Anger. If you are short on anti-Protection-from-Red cards like Eternal Scourge or Pyrite Spellbomb, you may want to dedicate the slots to Kozilek's Return.
I haven't personally tried Fallout but I can't think of decks that have a lot of small creatures as well as countermagic (except for Spell Queller, which doesn't counter.).
I find that Kozilek's return is still good versus Humans. Your other early interaction can often keep them from growing too big and really even if Return only hits one Human, I am happy to slow them down and reduce some of their synergy while I have time to draw into Stormbreath. Of course, 3 damage would be better here to get Mantis Rider, but Return is still a card I want in the matchup.
@DeFish I think you are on to something about the Abzan matchup. I've played against them a few times with 4c and usually it goes: game 1, win with discard and TBR before they can recover, games 2 and 3 side out discard and TBR and try to become more grindy and lose to them as they out-grind me with their own Souls and better removal.
The situation occurred several times against Red Phoenix and Hollow One where I was facing one or more attackers for 4+ damage where I really wished I had a creature I could play for 2 or 3 mana that would either trade or at least get some ETB value and then chump to help me buy a few turns. For instance, I'd have Obstinate Baloth in hand, which seemed perfect, but at 4 mana was just a little too slow.
The card that comes to mind is Kitchen Finks, as I could gain some life and chump two attacks, hopefully getting to 5+ mana to start to stabilize.
I would look to replace Ooze and Tracker, even though both are good cards. Tracker has been great for me, but not for the aggro matchups that seem prevelent. Ooze I am starting to like less and less. Its versatility is great, but the graveyard hate and life gain can be too slow and it takes a while to get it out of bolt range against the red decks. I could also see moving Walking Ballista to the sideboard and maybe cutting Dragonlord Atarka as Ballista serves a similar function.
That being said, I am still new to the deck and would give it more reps before making major changes.
I diversified the fetch lands a bit but otherwise did not mess wit the 75.
Round 1 v. Mono-Red Phoenix
Game 1: I lose pretty quickly to double prowess creatures and 3x Manamorphose into turn 4 hard-cast Phoenix.
Game 2: Similar to above, double prowess creature into 2x Manamorphose into Looting and bring back 2x Phoenix on turn 3. 0-2.
0-1
Round 2 v. Humans
Game 1: Opponent goes aggro with humans and follows up with Malcontents. I start to crawl back with a Primal Command but an attack followed by a Phantasmal Image on Malcontents ends it.
Game 2: I ramp into Wurmcoil with a Kessig Wolf Run out and that is enough.
Game 3: He keeps an odd hand where the first play is turn 3 Mantis Rider, followed by turn 4 Mantis Rider. Since opponent hasn't played anything else, I highly suspect next turn will be: Mantis Rider/Phantasmal Image on Mantis Rider, attack for 9, you lose. I need to do something big this turn, so I do: Time Warp into Hornet Queen to stabilize. Despite Phantasmal Image on my Queen twice, Ballista cleans up and closes it out with Wurmcoil backup. 2-1.
1-1
Round 3 v. Mardu Control
Game 1: The control player's heavy creature removal deck just doesn't line up with my powerful spells and gives me all the time I need to top-deck Tooth and Nail for the win.
Game 2: I have a pretty aggro start with ramp into Primeval Titan and I am careful not to attack with too much into Settle mana. I eventually close it pretty quick with a Garruk overrun when opponent is tapped low. 2-0.
2-1
Round 4 v. G Tron
Game 1: I play the control deck with Eternal Command chain, stopping Tron and really anything relevant. Winning is academic.
Game 2: Like above but better: I have Crumble to Dust and Eternal Witness to stop Tron forever. I have Ancient Grudge as well to tag a small Ballista and an Oblivion Stone. I think I eventually win with Kessig. Opponent had several opportunities to tutor up Ghost Quarter and deal with my suited up lands, but never did so. Either way, I was pretty far ahead and opponent was low on mana the whole game. 2-0.
3-1
Round 5 v. Eldrazi Tron
Game 1: Opponent mulls to 5 and I sort of get to steal this one as the ELdrazi player puts up a good fight on 5. But I get enough time to do the powerful things.
Game 2: This one is long with dueling Wurmcoils stalling things out. But the stall favors me and I think I closed it out with hard-cast Emrakul. 2-0.
4-1
Round 6 v. Mono-Red Phoenix
Game 1: The Phoenix player spends a lot of cards to put me low with prowess creatures, but I chain Primal Commands to stabilize. Despite seeing almost half the deck, opponent does not get a Phoenix in the yard for several turns and I eventually take the win.
Game 2: You can watch this match at 5:39 from CFB's twitch. I think I won in the side boarding phase. I take 4 damage to play a turn 2 Trinisphere which just shuts the opponent dow. Opponent brings in questionable cards: Blood Moon, Surgical, and Eidolon. 2-0.
5-1
Round 7 v. Hollow One
Game 1: Opponent threatens a very quick clock, but I untapped with Birds, Kiora's Follower, and Overgrowth to steal a win with Tooth and Nail on turn 4.
Game 2: I like my hand with Baloth and ramp, but the opponent has the turn 3 kill with double Hollow Ones and other support. I don't think I am ever winning against that start.
Game 3: I keep a questionable hand of Emrakul, Sprawl, Kiora's Follower, and Overgrowth plus lands. I have the ramp and hope for some payoff or a roadblock. He turn 1 Thoguhtseizes the Overgrowth. I develop good mana, but draw running lands and die to all the big creatures. 1-2.
5-2
I lost my win-and-in but still prized at 13th place. My games basically had three flavors: 1 Stabilize with Hornet Queen or Wurmcoil and slowly build to game wining spells 2 Race with a quick game winning spell 3 Out-value opponents with Primal Command and Time Warp loops. The deck struggles against the super aggro decks, but it is nice to steal games versus the uninteractive decks with Tooth and Nail. Seems to play circles around other big mana decks and non-blue control decks.
Thalia seems a little bad with Delay, Ashiok, and Detention Sphere.
3 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
4 Spell Queller
2 Reflector Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Meddling Mage
3 Thistledown Liege
4 Judge's Familiar
2 Steel of the Godhead
4 Delay
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Flooded Strand
2 Seachrome Coast
4 Horizon Canopy
6 Island
1 Plains
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Moorland Haunt
4 Serum Visions
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Deputy of Detention
1 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Path to Exile
1 Settle the Wreckage
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/343361062 at 3:18:12.
I liked Sun in theory but ultimately agree with this. If I have other cards in hand, I want to be casting those, not paying 3 mana to cycle and if I am top decking a dead Suns, things are not great anyways. I'll also add that Anger has much better synergy with Eternal Scourge as Suns can trap it in the yard.
Rabblemaster for when you need to close the game out ASAP because you can't effectively stop a combo and opponent does not play many blockers. For example, against Lantern, Storm, Ad Nauseum. I've also brought it in versus UW control just to increase threat density.
Against Kor Firewalker we have many answers: Kozilek's Return, Pyrite Spellbomb, Ratchet Bomb, Dismember, Eternal Scourge to block, Thopter Tokens to block, Batterskull to block (though it has fallen out of favor). I've also been able to outrace a Kor Firewalker with Stormbreath and some support.
I don't think you can deal with such cards without a splash or very high cmc artifacts. You have two options: 1 win before opponent can establish lock, 2 use mana denial to prevent opponent from resolving lock.
It really depends on the matchup.
If I can win the long game and just want to make sure I get there (like versus Humans or Affinity), I bring in SSGs and more interaction and cut some bad hate cards, Planeswalkers, Sheets, and one or two Mind Stones.
If I need to race because my interaction is not that great, like against Ad Nauseum or Lantern, I go the SSG and Rabblemaster plan and cut the dead cards and again some top end, Sheets, and a Mind Stone or two.
Main
Side
I've been doing well with this list. The interesting choices are the Magma Jets and the Gemstone and Spirit Guide package. The feeling of end-of-turn jetting and scrying away 2 lands before drawing for turn has been really good. I find that this deck seems really powerful on the play when you hit your 3, 4, and 5 drops but it can be hard to come back from behind on the draw, so I bring it Spirit Guides against aggressive decks so I can control the board in time and I also bring them in along with Rabblemasters against decks with better long games so I can close out in time.
I think Sweltering Suns is the way to go for the maindeck sweeper for the obvious ability to cycle it when it is not needed. I also like it post-board versus storm where you might need to clean up tokens but may need to cycle it for a more relevant card. I think whether to go with Anger or Return for sideboard sweepers depends on the rest of your 75. If you are short on graveyard hate from things like Relic and Cage, you may want to dedicate these slots to Anger. If you are short on anti-Protection-from-Red cards like Eternal Scourge or Pyrite Spellbomb, you may want to dedicate the slots to Kozilek's Return.
I haven't personally tried Fallout but I can't think of decks that have a lot of small creatures as well as countermagic (except for Spell Queller, which doesn't counter.).
I find that Kozilek's return is still good versus Humans. Your other early interaction can often keep them from growing too big and really even if Return only hits one Human, I am happy to slow them down and reduce some of their synergy while I have time to draw into Stormbreath. Of course, 3 damage would be better here to get Mantis Rider, but Return is still a card I want in the matchup.