Also some other ideas I've had that I'm going to be testing:
1 Murderous cut in the place of 1 terminate
Kira (this is probably too cute)
Painful Truths
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Disdainful Stroke (I think Ceremonious Rejection is strictly better save for vs. scapeshift)
Ravenous Trap
Phyrexian Unlife
Rakdos Charm
Just my thoughts on these ideas:
Murderous cut i think would be sideboard. We already rely on Delve threats. I'm not convinced we could cast it easily.
Kira seems too cute, I agree.
Painful Truths is a card I'm playing a 1-of in the board, it's won me games when resolved. It's also going to be included in sideboard section of the Primer
Jace, VP seems waaaaaaay to slow.
Stroke seems good if Valakut ever gets 10% of the meta. Otherwise it seems meh.
I'm not sold on Ravenous Trap, I personally am really digging Relic of Progenitus right now.
Phyrexian Unlife requires a 4th color, and I'm personally of the mindset that we don't need it.
Rakdos Charm has been very good for some people, very solid modal choice. Also going into the primer.
Just me 2 cents.
Thanks for the comments. I agree on most. On Cut, I feel like with 4 scours my graveyard would've been able to support the 1 Cut when needed and it costing 1 mana vs 2 can be big.
Truths seems like a great card vs grindy matchups. If we are not playing white for souls I think we definitely should include it in our 75. JVP was considered in the same vain (grindy matchup) - in those matchups we don't need to be fast so I think JVP makes sense in theory
Relic is interesting - even though we'd have agency over the timing of relic it can still be very bad for us. How has it worked out for you in practice?
Rakdos Charm is a pet card of mine and it's great it can be recurred via snapcaster but 2 mana is a big deal. Think it is worth testing though
Also some other ideas I've had that I'm going to be testing:
1 Murderous cut in the place of 1 terminate
Kira (this is probably too cute)
Painful Truths
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Disdainful Stroke (I think Ceremonious Rejection is strictly better save for vs. scapeshift)
Ravenous Trap
Phyrexian Unlife
Rakdos Charm
First, great to finally see this thread up and running - big thanks to the creator/contributor. Great to have a place to discuss this archetype. Some initial thoughts from me below:
1) Do you play pure Grixis or do you splash White as your 4th colour? TBD - but would only play it for souls+ranger and forego orzhov charm
2) If you play pure Grixis, do you prefer 2 Watery Grave or two Blood Crypt? 2 grave+2crypt. Found that there were many turns where you were wishing you could play multiple black spells and the need for steam vent seemed marginal
3)[edited] How many Fatal Push and how many Terminate and Lightning Bolt in the maindeck? How many in the sideboard? I think 4 pushes, 1-2 terminates and 2-3 bolts in the 75 seems right
4) Do you prefer 3 Fulminator Mage or some mixture of it and Molten Rain as your land destruction package? Am not convinced we need this vs big mana and other mid range strategies. I am trying out ceremonious rejection and i think that answers a lot of the big mana problems cleanly especially in tandem with denial and snapcaster (prime time not withstanding)
5) Can you find RR to cast Anger Of The Gods? Do you like the card or Damnation? If playing Grixis I think anger is the way to go (clean answer to dredge, one of the tougher matchups). I think if we are playing 4 colors Flaying Tendril is a reasonable alternative.
6) [added] What do you like more in the Grixis version than the other ones(Jund, Junk, Esper, Shardless, etc)?
7) Most sideboarded out cards?kcommands, wraiths
a. Is a 1-of Temur Battle Rage reasonable? It's still helpful in a variety of settings including vs souls, chump blockers, combo etc
b. Is the fulminator package good enough? I Feel like 3 mana is a lot to use at sorcery speed, when I feel like we should be holding up mana to threaten instant speed interaction constantly with our threats. I've been trying ceremonious rejection for its mana efficiency and ability to answer problem spells and it's been great so far. Being able to answer wurmcoil (a huge problem for us i think) TKS, reality smasher, endbringer, all is dust, chalice, ravager, etched champion, plating, Karn, Ugin, Ulamog etc. has felt good
c. Optimal anti-swarm package? (Staticaster, Kozilek's Return, Anger of the Gods, Flaying Tendrils, EE)
d. Planeswalkers? LthL is great for grinding. I've seen some SB or even MD LotV. Seems counterproductive when you have so many great instant speed interactions to hold up, but I have admittedly not tested this
relevant text for vengeance players but 5 mana is steep. May be a game winner in grindy matchups maybe like traditional jund, but it's unlikely death's shadow variants gives you that much time/leaves it in your hand, and gets countered by everything.
thoughts? Seems superrrr soft to graveyard hate/permission. I've always wanted to try Obzebat though. I get the value plan B as the backup but I'm not convinced how good it is.
_QFORTIER (5TH PLACE)
MODERN PTQ #10537562 ON 04/01/2017
DECKLIST STATS SAMPLE HAND
SORT BY:
Creature (8)
1 Griselbrand
4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Sorcery (18)
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
3 Pieces of the Puzzle
4 Serum Visions
1 Set Adrift
4 Thoughtseize
Instant (13)
3 Fatal Push
1 Go for the Throat
4 Goryo's Vengeance
1 Murderous Cut
4 Thought Scour
Land (21)
3 Darkslick Shores
2 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
60 Cards
Sideboard (15)
1 Fatal Push 2 Celestial Purge 2 Ceremonious Rejection 2 Collective Brutality 1 Damnation 1 Darkblast 1 Dispel 2 Fragmentize 2 Rain of Tears 1 Ravenous Trap
Was going to write about my GPT experience with the deck but rather than that just wanted to share a silly story. I was in the final round and win-and-into the top 8 match game 1. I was going off vs a hellbent opponent and I was chugging along with Griselbrand, separating my hand into piles (mana, business, lands ,useless). When I got to 8 cards in the deck left I started throwing lands at my opponent and started to realize I was short lands when I shouldn't be. Then I realized.. I had mixed the "lands" pile with my 8-card deck. explains it all.. I called the loss on myself and literally gave away a won game and proceeded to lose the top 8 birth.
Just a PSA if anyone splits your hand into different piles (I saw Bob Huang do the same on an SCG video).. cauionary tale!
Speaking of which, which matchups is Blood Moon actually useful for nowadays? Some of the popular matchups where Moon may be relevant:
Bant Eldrazi (pretty good)
Valakut (pretty good, but we are already favored)
Death's Shadow Jund (haven't tested this but seems pretty good in theory)
Jund (probably just on the play)
Abzan (probably just on the play)
Eldrazi Tron (deceptively unuseful as they can play around it with map/GQ)
Burn (arguably too slow and low impact considering they should have multiple creatures beating your face by Moon's resolution. Plus less lists are running maindeck AC/nacatl for blazes/skullcracks so less effective in that way too)
Gx Tron (can curve naturally into payoffs, already favored, often wouldn't even make it in time to shut off opposing RIPs vs GW)
So I don't see any matchups where it is a true matchup breaker where we're not already a big favourite. I think I'd prefer to shore up our BGx matchups with read the bones for the grind, or pushes/terminates to deal with problematic creatures. Thoughts?
Round 1 – vs Margaret (RG Tron)
G1 I see a t1 mine and am chuckling in glee already. She gets a t4 tron with no action other than an active Ostone. I draw a bunch from the first Griseldaddy and refuel to kill next turn
G2 She doesn’t seem happy about the keep. Turns out she keeps a 1 lander+map hand. I promptly shattering spree her map. She does not find a land off t2 stirring and I t3 her. +2 Shattering Spree (relic, cage, random map snipe, wurmcoil) -2 Brutality
2-0 (1-0)
Round 2 - vs Adam (Ad Nauseum)
A pleasant fellow from the Midwest – says it’s his first big event and we talk about how we are enjoying our first big event atmosphere.
G1 I keep a very loose 1 land+hug/whisper+combo piece hand and never draw a land. He t3/t4 me. I mentally note that he is playing peer through depth, which I didn’t think was standard (maybe not)
G2 He peers t2 peer->seize and take away my brutality which I forewent for a cantrip. We draw-go for a bit until I Thoughtseize him and see a hand of 4 graces and Ad Nauseum. Neat. He has 2 blooms coming off suspend next turn. I take the AD Nauseum then start chaining combos where I keep refueling and I put a borb end of turn to burn two of his graces. Game ends with me with 7 cards left in deck and a TTB Wurm
G3 is may be the craziest game I played in the tournament. He starts with t0 Leyline. We both exchange cantrips/discards until around t5 where I have a naked goryo with Griselbrand in the graveyard. He has 3 lands (he missed a few landdrops), pentad on 2 and pentad on 1. Given that he hadn’t cantripped/filtered in a few turns I opt to go for the EoT goryo->Griselbrand so I can have more mana and thus more avenues to victory (I’m not sure if this is correct actually – theoretically he can win in response to my goryo’s at instant speed. I don’t think either of us is supposed to wait though). Turns out he had grace+Ad Nauseum and casts them. I goryo in response and start going off, intending summon a one eyed giant and throw prime real estate onto our opponent before noting the Leyline. Plan B is to shoal up to 35+life to deny him the storm kill, but that’s not likely with the cost being pay 7 life per 7 cards unless we draw perfect.
At this point I am resigned to my fate and am sort of planning my side event plans, but it hit me that lightning storm has a secondary ability – throw land to redirect. I proceed to draw through 54 cards of my deck, let the Ad Nauseum resolve, and we start trading lands. I started the land war at 15 life so he had to throw more lands first and I beat him and Griselbrand eats some storm. He had no way to filter for two blues for maniac+SV with SSG and pentad so turns out he was drawing dead at that point.
At this point, I was too busy thinking about how I am about to beat Ad Nauseum after grace=Ad Nauseum and we begin to talk about how he has very little outs given that he has zero cards in deck and is at 1 life. Of course, I was thinking that he’d taken a lethal hit with Unlife but in reailty he was at a negatively large life with no unlife and had no outs. Having realized this, a gent watching our match (was playing 8 rack and made it deep) called a judge, leaving both of us newbies confused, until the Judge clarifies that Adam indeed is at an arbitrarily negative life and would lose as soon as the turn is over. I would not have realized this and played on, and who knew what other rule mistake I would’ve made. Many lessons learned in the match. Thank you, kind stranger. 2-1 (2-0)
G1 He fetch+shocks a bunch and a t2 Borb, t3 borb is enough
G2 I keep a very questionable 4 land+wurm+SSG hand. I prioritized making land drops and card quantity>quality vs jund as hardcasting a top decked TTB/Monster is a realistic avenue to winning. I scry something good top but he t1 thoughtseizes me. Goodbye scry hello defeat. I do note a MD/SB Nihlil Spellbomb
G3 he goes t1 ravine, go. My notes says t2 Griselbrand, t3 TTB. Fair and interactive magic.
OTD: +2 EE (spellbomb, random hateful things) -1 looting (Card disadvantage) -1 Ritual (awful top deck and don’t need speed)
OTP: +2 EE, +2 moon -2 looting -2 hug 2-1 (3-0)
Round 4 – Mason Linne (Affinity)
He gave off the aura of a seasoned veteran. Later searched up some late-game GP videos with Affinity so definitely was not his first rodeo. This also isn’t a great matchup I think so I don’t feel great.
G1 my notepad says “OTD, t2 G+Borb ftw”. Cool
G2 there’s an interesting spot where on my t2 his board is tapped glimmervoid, tapped inkmoth, untapped Opal, ravager, ornithopter, pest and memnite. I have a pyroclasm and Shattering Spree. I can combat the life battle a bit with Shoals but the infect plan would be the worst and I feel like with an Opal open, I’m afraid pyroclasm to wipe the field would induce him to go all in onto Inkmoth with Ravager, so I opt to shattering Spree for 2 (Ravager, pest). He sacs both onto Ornithopter and I breathe a sigh of relief, which lasts one turn when he slams a Rule of Law (did not expect this). Luckily I have most of the combo pieces and EoT Grisel, sculpt a hand of GOryo, TTB< wurm, Shoal, SSG, SSG, x with a Borb in the yard. With 4 lands in play and stubborn denial not active (doubt affinity plays this?) and enough to pay for a pierce, I combo him out
A very pleasant fellow that I got to interact with a few times throughout the weekend. His friend was also the Cheeri0s guy with the degenerate SSG build that brutalized the Merfolks gentleman on camera in a very savage fashion.
G1 I see a bunch of U/R stuff and I’m not sure what he’s on but since I’m not under any pressure I just bide my time and sculpt my hand. Eventually I brutality to see snap nahiri GQ remand path path – Jeskai control. I was pretty sure I can eventually overwhelm him with EoT goryo/TTB/splice shenanigans and refueling with griselbrand. With 5 lands (4 colored and 1 GQ) he taps the 3 colored lands and 1 GQ for presumably a nahiri, then thinks about it and taps the 4 colored lands instead for Nahiri. I think huh but don’t think much of it. I end up comboing and put on the brakes early at a mere Grisel+Wurm, thinking a single GQ doesn’t do a thing. Of course I hurpdurp and do not realize that he can GQ his own land, get a plains, and path. Stupid me. I end up having to work much harder for a Borb kill that turn
G2 I don’t have many notes which means I probably combed him within 5 turns
+2 Pact of Negation +1 Boseiju +1 Spaghettio -2 Hug (really bad against remand/counters) -1 ritual (you have plenty of time) -2 Borb
2-0 (5-0)
Round 6 – vs. Greg (Jund)
G1 I see an overgrown tomb and stomping ground with him on the play before I t2 him
G2 I t4 him through IoK. +1 Emrakul (shocks mean 15 is usually lethal, clears scooze) +2 fatal push (confidant/scooze, more mana efficient but doesn’t hit a spellbomb or a cage of the sorts so maybe 2 EE is better) +1 pyroclasm (not sure)
-1 Borb -2 Brutality (not sure on this either, can take terminate/discard, can kill confidant/scooze sometime, discard outlet), -2 looting (attrition)
2-0 (6-0)
At this point I finished early and got to look around the top tables a bit. A lot of Death’s shadow jund (which likely is a bad matchup), bant eldrazi and eldrazi tron, with surprisingly some 8 rack (which I can’t imagine is a good match up and can be very easily locked out of playing). Also I noted a young Chinese guy locking some poor soul out with the lantern menace. I mental pray to RNGesus so I would not have to face him down the road – main deck needle/surgical/bridge, sideboard cage, efficient tutors – whatever could go wrong?
Round 7 – Max McVety (Infect)
I’ve seen him a few times during SCG broadcasts playing infect but am not sure whether he’d be on it still after the probe ban.
G1 he leads with a t1 glistener elf and I’m already mentally replaying the beatings I took in Vancouver. There was an interesting spot with me OTD on my third turn. I have the set up to t4 Goryo->Griselbrand. With him at 1 land (missed two landdrops) and 2 elves, I brutality discarding Griselbrand to -2/-2 and discard. Max thinks for a bit and casts mutagenic in response to save the Elf. I then see Vines, Blossoming, Become Immense, Sylvan Scrying and Mutagenic. I don’t believe the choice of Mutagenic/Become Immense mattered as long as I take one or the other, as otherwise even a fetchland would only bring him up to 5 effective mana.
I end up killing him next turn but after the game we discuss the line taken and conclude that if he had let the elf get -2/-2’d, he would have the win no matter what I take if he drew a fetchland, which he did. G2 I see him hemming and hawing before the keep and the thoughtseize confirms my suspicion – no threat with only a sylvan scrying, which I take. I end up killing him shortly thereafter.
I breathe a sigh of relief escaping a horrible matchup and start thinking about the possibility of running the table on day 1. Pretty exciting thought until I saw the pairing and saw myself being paired up against a Chinese named person, afraid of what that meant for me.
Round 8 – ZenMin Chen (Lantern)
My Fear is confirmed when we greet each other at table #1, eventually moving to the backup feature table. Part of my mind was already thinking ahead pondering what desperate sideboard tech I should employ against this horrendous matchup (t1/t2 blood moon seems good in theory..)
G1 I eat an IoK and he starts the lock engine going with a lantern and a shredder a piece. Bridge comes down and I’m about to mentally log out of g1. Eventually through discard he sees that I have the Griselbrand in the graveyard and 2 goryo’s but stuck on 3 lands and no additional mana (I had brutalitied him to confirm him having a surgical). He starts aggressively milling me off of lands. Around t6 I show a SSG off the lantern, which he shreds with his only shredder to reveal.. another SSG. I do the whole song and dance with griseldaddy escaping the grasp of the extraction with two vengeances and throw more real estate at him
G2 – We get to play out the end of our game on camera. Cedric/Patrick cuts to our game with me having nothing and Zenmin having a needle (Griselbrand), bridge, cage and Leyline. Rewind the game a few minutes – he t0 leyline, t1 cage, t2 stir->bridge, t3 bridge. I was sandbagging my shattering spree, thinking I need to be greedy and tag as many goods as I can to give myself the best chance, given he did not play any discards early I thought this was safe.. until he (presumably) topdecked a thoughtseize and buh bye shattering spree. t4 he Lost Legacy, naming Griselbrand, arriving at the board state. RNGesus returns the love with a top decked shattering spree to blow up the cage, needle and bridge and we are off the races to find business. I eventually get there with TTB->Wurm and I have dodged two gigantic bullets to start 8-0 against arguably my two worst matchups
2-0 (8-0)
+2 Shattering Spree +2 EE -2 brutality -1 Wurm -1 Shoal (could be horribly wrong – I reasoned that life does not matter and more often than not wurm/shoal would rot in our hands because we never get started so we’d rather remove potentially dead cards and try to go off by being dense in business/speed).
I strongly considered bringing in blood moon even on the draw, as we are capable through ritual/SSG to t1/t2 moon, which would shut down their disruption and search package (stirring/crane/fair), leaving them with double mox as outs for decay (not sure if they’d even leave the decay in there, but I don’t know how many dead cards they have against us) or otherwise playing a “fair” lantern game. Would like to hear from lantern players on how much blood moon would bother them.
At this point all I could think of was dinner, as I hadn’t eaten since 8 am and was afraid to try and run to the food court for food and be late for the rounds. Should’ve obviously brought some granolas.
Round 9 – John Sauer (Bant Eldrazi)
I think there were only 4 undefeated players remaining – nice. John was a nice guy who ended up making top 8. We greet each other and confirm the most pressing mater on both our minds – the grub for the night…
G1 He’s on the play and starts with a maindeck gemstone cavern. I am perplexed but make a mental note that no one trying to play fair would play this. Jig is up when he t3 skyspawners but I combo off before t5
G2 I have John never moving off 19 and I presumably got my realities smashed and thoughts mangled
G3 John mulls to 6 and goes forest->stirring->Cage. Cool. I think I had an EE which I played at 1. I was staring at a t3 goryos combo and already was counting the gold in my head but got TKS’d and Eldrazi’d into submission. Oops
+1 Emrakul (path, fetch/shock/brushland ping), +2 Moon (OTP), +2 EE (relic, cage, RIP) -1 Borb -2 hug -2 brutality.
In retrospect Emrakul> Borbrygmos may be bad, as the displacer lock can be online as soon as t3 and drowner is likely the end of us. I think we need an avenue to winning via tapping. 1-2, (8-1)
A bit disappointed at the last lost but stoked that my first SCG event started off very well with many ups and downs.
Day 2
Unlike the day before I arrive with time to spare and am mentally ready. My goal was to play as tight as possible and be in contention for a top prize come round 15
Round 10 – vs .Kent Ketter (Death’s Shadow Jund)
We have some nice smalltalk before being called into the backup featured matchup area. I remember him playing dredge last year on camera but have no idea what he’s brought
G1 the jig is up when he starts shocking/fetching like crazy, until he cycles a MD Architect of Thought (?!). Still ended up being death shadow and DSJ does DSJ things
G2 I keep a really loose hand of land, shoal, hug, 2 SSG, goryo, EE. I figure I draw a land and I am in a very good shape. He brutalities away my goryo and I never draw a land for the rest of the game, even through SSG->hug and SSG->whisper. A second EE and fatal push was not enough. Oh well +2 push +2 EE (good answers plus I saw some lists play canonist/eidolon of rhetoric) -2 brutality (never does anything) -2 Whispers
I debated bringing in Emrakul but ended up not even though they are most certainly going to be below 15 every time Emrakul would show up to the party. Problem is the circumstances required to play her can be quite restrictive (sorcery speed through looting/goryo, or 4/5 mana for TTB). There’s a decent chance Borborygmos becomes a relevant instant-speed blocker, plus there’s a good chance if I hold some lands over one goryo->borb would be enough
0-2 (8-2)
+2 push +2 EE -2 brutality -2 whispers
I considered moon - probably is pretty good otp?
Round 11 – vs. Kennith (Dredge)
G1 I see him play t1 copperline->looting. To think I almost extended my hand to high 5 a fellow unfair mage. He ends up spewing out powers onto the field and I am left in a weird spot I am at 7 life (thus cannot activate Griselbrand once) and have to Goryo Griselbrand during his attack phase facing lethal. He has a Conflagrate for 7 at the ready if the game reaches his second main phase – block+lifelink+damages would leave me at 14 life with him having +10 power, effectively facing lethal next turn. My hand was a bunch of disparate pieces (lands, shoal, goryo with no creature in the GY, looting) and mentally decided I need to draw 7 and pray rather than rely on draw+looting to get me there. For some godforsaken reason draw 7 before damage, allowing him to conflagrate me to death. Obviously should’ve done so at the end step so I don’t get burned to crisp – I attribute that to the previous two loses/sleepless nights..
G2 I have a t1 temple, and one untapped land away from t2 looting+SSG+goryo Griselbrand. Of course I draw a temple of malice and do not get to play. Per standard, I get thoughtseized two turns in a row and Kennith has dismantled my gameplan enough that his slow start did no tmatter. 0-2 (8-3)
At this point the 3 losses in a row were pretty disheartening but I understand the high variance nature of the deck and resolve to suck it up and play tight magic still.
Round 12 – vs. Anthony (GW Tron)
G1 I see a t1 stir->Urza’s tower and my heart feels all warm and fuzzy inside. He sets up tron for the first few turns while I t3 Griselbrand, t4 TTB Wurm I did not get to see his secondary color, so I brought in EE over spree to hedge
G2 he t2 map->thicket and t3 RIP’s me. Eventually I come to a game state of having 3 lands and a griselbrand activation+path on stack and I sculpt a hand of SSG, shoal, shoal, griselbrand, ttb, x. Notably I threw away a desperate ritual after not thinking about it too hard. He had tron next turn and punished me by karning my land, leaving me with 2 lands and SSG. Had I kept the ritual over x, I could’ve made 4 mana, spliced TTB onto shoal and gone off. C’est La Vie. I get ulamog’d to death
G3 he has an early RIP again and I’m durdling a bunch not drawing any business. Eventually he taps out for karn and Ihave an opening to either Breach a wurm or griselbrand, and I opt to go for the wurm and take the free 15 (path renders it useless). The death trigger gets robbed by RIP and he does not get to bring his friends. Next turn I Breach a lethal griselbrand which gets pathed and I refuel. I end up sculpting a board state of 5lands+1 more from path and SSG, SSG, SSG, TB, Griselbrand, Emrakul, Ritual with him having tron and 11 mana (could be 14 with a tower) which would’ve covered what I believe is the worst case scenario with 11 lands+land drop of ulamog->GQ->karn exile land.
+1 Emrakul +2 EE -2 Brutality -1 Borb
2-1 (9-3)
Round 13 – vs. Zac (RG Tron)
G1 he t2 stirs into a mine; Christmas has come early again. t3 Griselbrand->Borb
G2 I think I t4 him
SB: Same as Round 1
I see that I have a reasonable first tiebreaker and am hopeful I get a chance to right the ship and win out into the top 8
Round 14 – vs. James (Bant Eldrazi)
James was a real cool dude and we made smalltalk before getting into serious business – I find out he’s a grinder that’s close to an Invitational invite so clearly he did not get here by fluke.
G1 I ram a griselbrand into his displacer t4 and win through his displacement via Borb
G2 I kept 3 vengeance, mountain, ssg, whisper, shoal. Pretty risky without a black mana but I figure I have 17 black sources and If I draw one I’m a favourite to win (plus bant eldrazi doesn’t always have a fast clock.. right?) James ends up t2 stirring->cage and I get promptly dismissed
G3 is a crazy game where I almost punt. I value Griselbrand around t3 in the face of a path and make the first mistake of drawing before attacking in the face of a possible path without having a realistic chance of playing another monster into combat. I lose 7 cards that way but refuel to another hand with a lot of business. I Griselbrand again and sculpt a hand of Emrakul, Griselbrand,TTBs and mana, with Borb in the graveyard. In a few turns I go off drawing nearly the entire deck with the intent to vengeance borb for the win, with a few problems – 1. I boarded out 1 of my 2 borbs for Emrakul (which got TKS’d), and 2. I did not realize until I was 58 cards deep that all 4 vengeances were already in the graveyard. All the extra cards I probably didn’t need to draw even if I had vengeance was about to punish me and I spend an eternity in panic trying to sculpt a winning hand. James looks annoyed at this point which I do not blame but I try to hastily formulate a plan with 2 cards left in the deck and him at 11 life and the only Emrakul in exile. Wurm is the logical explanation but I only have 4 lands, am at a reasonably low life and that leaves being crushed by Path. A judge finally steps in and insists I make a move and I hastily assemble a 7 card hand with a bunch of griselbrands, 1 wurm, SSG and TTBs, which really didn’t matter. I pass, eat an attack and James leaves a white mana open to play a skyspawner, ending the line of two griselbrand breaches FTW. I draw my penultimate card, pitch SSG to Breach and wurm and hope for the best.. and get there
Lack of reps definitely showed there. You definitely do not have to draw mindlessly if you can’t lose next turn – much better to reset next turn with more mana/resources.
After that game the standings go up and I am paired with Patrick, who led the 11-3 bracket with his tiebreaker at 9th and I was at 12th so winner was likely going to make the top 8.
Round 15 vs. Patrick Tilsen (Abzan)
G1 is uneventful – I eat a t2 inquisition but still t4 Griselbrand->loot->manamorphose->vengeance->hill giant. I am elated at the prospect of top 8ing the event
G2 he t1 IoKs away my hug, t2 thoughtseize, and Abzan gets to do Abzan things
G3 starts with ~14 minutes to go and we get on camera for the final half of our rubber match. But unlike the last camera match there’s nothing spectacular going on – Abzan playing its Abzan game with disruption and creature. Flayer does huge work here for Patrick – he must’ve binned around 8 lands digging for action. At some point I saw him bin away Goyfs early in games. He reasoned that though a clock, my clock was theoretically faster and goyf was too low impact, which I can see. At one point he has thoroughly cleaned out my hand through discard. I topdeck a vengeance and apologetically casts it on my Griselbrand, thinking I just sucked out badly, only to meet my rude awakening with the surgical. Granted, I could not have played around that but I felt silly not having considered that. Near the end, Patrick is frantically throwing out land for some action and at one point he bins path to exile with one card in hand, which made me believe the other card in the hand must’ve been another path, which made me believe I had very little outs as I’d already exhausted a few shoals/wurms. I did have a wurm in hand and Griselbrand in the GY – it turned out Patrick’s remaining card was an extraction, not path, which made him binning the path a mistake and gave me a ~3/45 chance to top deck for the win with him below 9 life. Alas it was not meant to be and I wish him well – that must’ve been the only mistake Patrick made in the match because everything else seemed as tightly played as it could have been. Well deserved top 8 and an almost-win – congrats!
Final record: 11-4, 20th
Conclusion:
*Deck definitely has the right power level, but loses to itself a lot. I’d love to include blue somehow for serum visions and some permission
*Traditional Grixis vengeance seems too weak – oftentimes a Grisel/Emrakul would not be enough. The Breaking Vengeance deck does seem powerful and potentially consistent enough that I’d like to try that out over Grishoalbrand to see if there’s anything there
*Changes to the deck going forward:
*Experimenting tormenting voice>cathartic reunion – rarely did I fist pump to discard 2 cards
*Removing pacts of negation altogether – maybe control will rise again with death’s shadow rising, but I don’t even think blue control decks are that tough of a matchup and burn can be navigated through carefully. I’d maybe keep the boseiju as a matchup breaker
*Pyroclasm could be upgraded to Anger.. maybe
*Blood Moon doesn’t seem that good right now, but maybe I’m wrong. The decks it’s supposedly good against like Bant Eldrazi (is good, but a lot of lists now play talisman?), Eldrazi tron (not actually good), Gx tron (not really good), valakut (you are already a favourite) aren’t really compelling enough even. Maybe a more high impact set of cards is needed. I considered Rakdos charm (artifact, GY, kiki chord) and Read the Bones (grindy) which I will test going forward.
what do you guys think about rakdos charm? seems very versatile and high impact in certain matchups as answers to one off harecards like cage and relic as well as graveyard hate and kiki/elves/other swarm strat hate?
what are the main merits for aether grid as sb cards? I've been testing it and have not found it great at all in our bad matchups, though granted it jives well with the paradoxical plan of sticking things into play rather than saving them
jund-generally too slow. goyf outraces and out races them and often their ooze too.
abzan-slightly more useful vs souls but same racing caveats apply now with rhinos too and often flayers
grixis control-potentially ok here. unanswerable once in play. steady clock and answer to snap. early tasigur still outraces us
jeskai esper OR UW control -seems pretty good here
all in all it doesn't seem to have enough oomph in our prohlem matchups. thoughts?
Hey guys, long term lurker first time caller here.. as with everyone I've been experimenting with the sideboard to combat the problematic BGx/control matchups.
1. Bastion Inventor has been overperforming for me vs control. the Jeskai/Esper/UW/Grixis control/Grixis Delver decks simply do not have good answers to a t1-t3 inventor aside from tasigur and forces them to play the rest of the game differently (digging for whatever verdict effects/snap-cryptic chains with cantrips rather than hold up answers for our engines which still exist). I haven't played Inventors vs Abzan/Jund and honestly am not sure if it's worth it there, as LotV ruins it and goyf generally stonewalls it. Given the metagame share of BGx I'm not sure Inventor is worth it in a large GP field even though it does very well in the control matchups
2. Aether Grid - I tested this but was unimpressed. I don't think it does nearly as much vs control (too slow) and Jund/Abzan can outsize it quickly with goyf/rhino/4 drops. The decks it's good vs like infect/affinity we're already favored against, although I think it'd be very useful vs burn. What are everyone's experiences with the grid?
3. Geist - feels like it'd be the same as Inventor except it needs a +3 equipment to swing in safely most of the times. Doesn't seem it.
4. Paradoxical - been a bomb vs BGx and should be a part of all of our anti-BGx gameplans, imo
Some ideas I had that I'd love your thoughts on
4. Nahiri - On the theme of attacking people on a different axis.. Cannot be terminated/path'd, cannot be snared, has the ability to potentially remove problematic permanents (2xEidolons, leylines, stony silence, Canonist, blood moon), digs for engine as needed. Thoughs on this, perhaps as a +2 Nahiri/+1 emrakul package?
5. Thoughtcast/reverse engineer - nice in theory but I would think pure threat density would be better
6. Mentor - theoretically it seems too likely to eat a path/bolt/terminate and only produce a monk as with all of our engines
7. Favor of the Mighty - seems great in theory. Anyone have any successful anecdotes with these?
8. GIdeon, Ally of Zendikar - Again on the theme of attacking from a different axis but seems like it's too slow for what it does.
Thanks for the comments. I agree on most. On Cut, I feel like with 4 scours my graveyard would've been able to support the 1 Cut when needed and it costing 1 mana vs 2 can be big.
Truths seems like a great card vs grindy matchups. If we are not playing white for souls I think we definitely should include it in our 75. JVP was considered in the same vain (grindy matchup) - in those matchups we don't need to be fast so I think JVP makes sense in theory
Relic is interesting - even though we'd have agency over the timing of relic it can still be very bad for us. How has it worked out for you in practice?
Rakdos Charm is a pet card of mine and it's great it can be recurred via snapcaster but 2 mana is a big deal. Think it is worth testing though
1 Murderous cut in the place of 1 terminate
Kira (this is probably too cute)
Painful Truths
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Disdainful Stroke (I think Ceremonious Rejection is strictly better save for vs. scapeshift)
Ravenous Trap
Phyrexian Unlife
Rakdos Charm
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Blood Crypt
1 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
Sorceries (10)
4 Serum Visions
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
2 Stubborn Denial
4 Thought Scour
3 Fatal Push
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Temur Battle Rage
1 Terminate
2 Kolaghan's Command
Creatures (16)
4 Death's Shadow
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Street Wraith
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Gurmag Angler
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Fatal Push
2 Collective Brutality
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Kozilek's Return
1 Temur Battle Rage
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1) Do you play pure Grixis or do you splash White as your 4th colour? TBD - but would only play it for souls+ranger and forego orzhov charm
2) If you play pure Grixis, do you prefer 2 Watery Grave or two Blood Crypt? 2 grave+2crypt. Found that there were many turns where you were wishing you could play multiple black spells and the need for steam vent seemed marginal
3)[edited] How many Fatal Push and how many Terminate and Lightning Bolt in the maindeck? How many in the sideboard? I think 4 pushes, 1-2 terminates and 2-3 bolts in the 75 seems right
4) Do you prefer 3 Fulminator Mage or some mixture of it and Molten Rain as your land destruction package? Am not convinced we need this vs big mana and other mid range strategies. I am trying out ceremonious rejection and i think that answers a lot of the big mana problems cleanly especially in tandem with denial and snapcaster (prime time not withstanding)
5) Can you find RR to cast Anger Of The Gods? Do you like the card or Damnation? If playing Grixis I think anger is the way to go (clean answer to dredge, one of the tougher matchups). I think if we are playing 4 colors Flaying Tendril is a reasonable alternative.
6) [added] What do you like more in the Grixis version than the other ones(Jund, Junk, Esper, Shardless, etc)?
7) Most sideboarded out cards?kcommands, wraiths
a. Is a 1-of Temur Battle Rage reasonable? It's still helpful in a variety of settings including vs souls, chump blockers, combo etc
b. Is the fulminator package good enough? I Feel like 3 mana is a lot to use at sorcery speed, when I feel like we should be holding up mana to threaten instant speed interaction constantly with our threats. I've been trying ceremonious rejection for its mana efficiency and ability to answer problem spells and it's been great so far. Being able to answer wurmcoil (a huge problem for us i think) TKS, reality smasher, endbringer, all is dust, chalice, ravager, etched champion, plating, Karn, Ugin, Ulamog etc. has felt good
c. Optimal anti-swarm package? (Staticaster, Kozilek's Return, Anger of the Gods, Flaying Tendrils, EE)
d. Planeswalkers? LthL is great for grinding. I've seen some SB or even MD LotV. Seems counterproductive when you have so many great instant speed interactions to hold up, but I have admittedly not tested this
relevant text for vengeance players but 5 mana is steep. May be a game winner in grindy matchups maybe like traditional jund, but it's unlikely death's shadow variants gives you that much time/leaves it in your hand, and gets countered by everything.
_QFORTIER (5TH PLACE)
MODERN PTQ #10537562 ON 04/01/2017
DECKLIST STATS SAMPLE HAND
SORT BY:
Creature (8)
1 Griselbrand
4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Sorcery (18)
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
3 Pieces of the Puzzle
4 Serum Visions
1 Set Adrift
4 Thoughtseize
Instant (13)
3 Fatal Push
1 Go for the Throat
4 Goryo's Vengeance
1 Murderous Cut
4 Thought Scour
Land (21)
3 Darkslick Shores
2 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
60 Cards
Sideboard (15)
1 Fatal Push 2 Celestial Purge 2 Ceremonious Rejection 2 Collective Brutality 1 Damnation 1 Darkblast 1 Dispel 2 Fragmentize 2 Rain of Tears 1 Ravenous Trap
Just a PSA if anyone splits your hand into different piles (I saw Bob Huang do the same on an SCG video).. cauionary tale!
Bant Eldrazi (pretty good)
Valakut (pretty good, but we are already favored)
Death's Shadow Jund (haven't tested this but seems pretty good in theory)
Jund (probably just on the play)
Abzan (probably just on the play)
Eldrazi Tron (deceptively unuseful as they can play around it with map/GQ)
Burn (arguably too slow and low impact considering they should have multiple creatures beating your face by Moon's resolution. Plus less lists are running maindeck AC/nacatl for blazes/skullcracks so less effective in that way too)
Gx Tron (can curve naturally into payoffs, already favored, often wouldn't even make it in time to shut off opposing RIPs vs GW)
So I don't see any matchups where it is a true matchup breaker where we're not already a big favourite. I think I'd prefer to shore up our BGx matchups with read the bones for the grind, or pushes/terminates to deal with problematic creatures. Thoughts?
Land(19)
4 Temple of Malice
4 Bloodstained Mire
5 Swamps
3 Mountain
1 Blood Crypt
2 Blackcleave Cliff
Creatures (14)
4 Griselbrand
4 Worldspine WUrm
2 Borbrygmos Enraged
4 SSG
Sorceries (12)
4 Faithless Looting
4 Night’s Whispers
2 Cathartic Reunion
2 Collective Brutality
Instants (15)
2 Desperate Rituals
1 Manamorphose
4 Goryo’s Vengeance
4 Through the Breach
4 Nourishing Shoals
Sideboard (15)
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
2 Pact of Negation
2 Fatal Push
2 Pyroclasm
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Shattering Spree
1 Thoughtseize
2 Blood Moon
SCG Indianapolis – Day 1
Round 1 – vs Margaret (RG Tron)
G1 I see a t1 mine and am chuckling in glee already. She gets a t4 tron with no action other than an active Ostone. I draw a bunch from the first Griseldaddy and refuel to kill next turn
G2 She doesn’t seem happy about the keep. Turns out she keeps a 1 lander+map hand. I promptly shattering spree her map. She does not find a land off t2 stirring and I t3 her. +2 Shattering Spree (relic, cage, random map snipe, wurmcoil) -2 Brutality
2-0 (1-0)
Round 2 - vs Adam (Ad Nauseum)
A pleasant fellow from the Midwest – says it’s his first big event and we talk about how we are enjoying our first big event atmosphere.
G1 I keep a very loose 1 land+hug/whisper+combo piece hand and never draw a land. He t3/t4 me. I mentally note that he is playing peer through depth, which I didn’t think was standard (maybe not)
G2 He peers t2 peer->seize and take away my brutality which I forewent for a cantrip. We draw-go for a bit until I Thoughtseize him and see a hand of 4 graces and Ad Nauseum. Neat. He has 2 blooms coming off suspend next turn. I take the AD Nauseum then start chaining combos where I keep refueling and I put a borb end of turn to burn two of his graces. Game ends with me with 7 cards left in deck and a TTB Wurm
G3 is may be the craziest game I played in the tournament. He starts with t0 Leyline. We both exchange cantrips/discards until around t5 where I have a naked goryo with Griselbrand in the graveyard. He has 3 lands (he missed a few landdrops), pentad on 2 and pentad on 1. Given that he hadn’t cantripped/filtered in a few turns I opt to go for the EoT goryo->Griselbrand so I can have more mana and thus more avenues to victory (I’m not sure if this is correct actually – theoretically he can win in response to my goryo’s at instant speed. I don’t think either of us is supposed to wait though). Turns out he had grace+Ad Nauseum and casts them. I goryo in response and start going off, intending summon a one eyed giant and throw prime real estate onto our opponent before noting the Leyline. Plan B is to shoal up to 35+life to deny him the storm kill, but that’s not likely with the cost being pay 7 life per 7 cards unless we draw perfect.
At this point I am resigned to my fate and am sort of planning my side event plans, but it hit me that lightning storm has a secondary ability – throw land to redirect. I proceed to draw through 54 cards of my deck, let the Ad Nauseum resolve, and we start trading lands. I started the land war at 15 life so he had to throw more lands first and I beat him and Griselbrand eats some storm. He had no way to filter for two blues for maniac+SV with SSG and pentad so turns out he was drawing dead at that point.
At this point, I was too busy thinking about how I am about to beat Ad Nauseum after grace=Ad Nauseum and we begin to talk about how he has very little outs given that he has zero cards in deck and is at 1 life. Of course, I was thinking that he’d taken a lethal hit with Unlife but in reailty he was at a negatively large life with no unlife and had no outs. Having realized this, a gent watching our match (was playing 8 rack and made it deep) called a judge, leaving both of us newbies confused, until the Judge clarifies that Adam indeed is at an arbitrarily negative life and would lose as soon as the turn is over. I would not have realized this and played on, and who knew what other rule mistake I would’ve made. Many lessons learned in the match. Thank you, kind stranger. 2-1 (2-0)
+1 Thoughtseize +1 Emrakul (Leyline) -1 Borb -1 Hug
Round 3 – Frank (Jund)
G1 He fetch+shocks a bunch and a t2 Borb, t3 borb is enough
G2 I keep a very questionable 4 land+wurm+SSG hand. I prioritized making land drops and card quantity>quality vs jund as hardcasting a top decked TTB/Monster is a realistic avenue to winning. I scry something good top but he t1 thoughtseizes me. Goodbye scry hello defeat. I do note a MD/SB Nihlil Spellbomb
G3 he goes t1 ravine, go. My notes says t2 Griselbrand, t3 TTB. Fair and interactive magic.
OTD: +2 EE (spellbomb, random hateful things) -1 looting (Card disadvantage) -1 Ritual (awful top deck and don’t need speed)
OTP: +2 EE, +2 moon -2 looting -2 hug 2-1 (3-0)
Round 4 – Mason Linne (Affinity)
He gave off the aura of a seasoned veteran. Later searched up some late-game GP videos with Affinity so definitely was not his first rodeo. This also isn’t a great matchup I think so I don’t feel great.
G1 my notepad says “OTD, t2 G+Borb ftw”. Cool
G2 there’s an interesting spot where on my t2 his board is tapped glimmervoid, tapped inkmoth, untapped Opal, ravager, ornithopter, pest and memnite. I have a pyroclasm and Shattering Spree. I can combat the life battle a bit with Shoals but the infect plan would be the worst and I feel like with an Opal open, I’m afraid pyroclasm to wipe the field would induce him to go all in onto Inkmoth with Ravager, so I opt to shattering Spree for 2 (Ravager, pest). He sacs both onto Ornithopter and I breathe a sigh of relief, which lasts one turn when he slams a Rule of Law (did not expect this). Luckily I have most of the combo pieces and EoT Grisel, sculpt a hand of GOryo, TTB< wurm, Shoal, SSG, SSG, x with a Borb in the yard. With 4 lands in play and stubborn denial not active (doubt affinity plays this?) and enough to pay for a pierce, I combo him out
+2 Shattering Spree +2 Pyroclasm -2 Brutality -2 Whispers
2-0 (4-0)
Round 5 – Jonathan (Jeskai Control)
A very pleasant fellow that I got to interact with a few times throughout the weekend. His friend was also the Cheeri0s guy with the degenerate SSG build that brutalized the Merfolks gentleman on camera in a very savage fashion.
G1 I see a bunch of U/R stuff and I’m not sure what he’s on but since I’m not under any pressure I just bide my time and sculpt my hand. Eventually I brutality to see snap nahiri GQ remand path path – Jeskai control. I was pretty sure I can eventually overwhelm him with EoT goryo/TTB/splice shenanigans and refueling with griselbrand. With 5 lands (4 colored and 1 GQ) he taps the 3 colored lands and 1 GQ for presumably a nahiri, then thinks about it and taps the 4 colored lands instead for Nahiri. I think huh but don’t think much of it. I end up comboing and put on the brakes early at a mere Grisel+Wurm, thinking a single GQ doesn’t do a thing. Of course I hurpdurp and do not realize that he can GQ his own land, get a plains, and path. Stupid me. I end up having to work much harder for a Borb kill that turn
G2 I don’t have many notes which means I probably combed him within 5 turns
+2 Pact of Negation +1 Boseiju +1 Spaghettio -2 Hug (really bad against remand/counters) -1 ritual (you have plenty of time) -2 Borb
2-0 (5-0)
Round 6 – vs. Greg (Jund)
G1 I see an overgrown tomb and stomping ground with him on the play before I t2 him
G2 I t4 him through IoK. +1 Emrakul (shocks mean 15 is usually lethal, clears scooze) +2 fatal push (confidant/scooze, more mana efficient but doesn’t hit a spellbomb or a cage of the sorts so maybe 2 EE is better) +1 pyroclasm (not sure)
-1 Borb -2 Brutality (not sure on this either, can take terminate/discard, can kill confidant/scooze sometime, discard outlet), -2 looting (attrition)
2-0 (6-0)
At this point I finished early and got to look around the top tables a bit. A lot of Death’s shadow jund (which likely is a bad matchup), bant eldrazi and eldrazi tron, with surprisingly some 8 rack (which I can’t imagine is a good match up and can be very easily locked out of playing). Also I noted a young Chinese guy locking some poor soul out with the lantern menace. I mental pray to RNGesus so I would not have to face him down the road – main deck needle/surgical/bridge, sideboard cage, efficient tutors – whatever could go wrong?
Round 7 – Max McVety (Infect)
I’ve seen him a few times during SCG broadcasts playing infect but am not sure whether he’d be on it still after the probe ban.
G1 he leads with a t1 glistener elf and I’m already mentally replaying the beatings I took in Vancouver. There was an interesting spot with me OTD on my third turn. I have the set up to t4 Goryo->Griselbrand. With him at 1 land (missed two landdrops) and 2 elves, I brutality discarding Griselbrand to -2/-2 and discard. Max thinks for a bit and casts mutagenic in response to save the Elf. I then see Vines, Blossoming, Become Immense, Sylvan Scrying and Mutagenic. I don’t believe the choice of Mutagenic/Become Immense mattered as long as I take one or the other, as otherwise even a fetchland would only bring him up to 5 effective mana.
I end up killing him next turn but after the game we discuss the line taken and conclude that if he had let the elf get -2/-2’d, he would have the win no matter what I take if he drew a fetchland, which he did. G2 I see him hemming and hawing before the keep and the thoughtseize confirms my suspicion – no threat with only a sylvan scrying, which I take. I end up killing him shortly thereafter.
I breathe a sigh of relief escaping a horrible matchup and start thinking about the possibility of running the table on day 1. Pretty exciting thought until I saw the pairing and saw myself being paired up against a Chinese named person, afraid of what that meant for me.
Round 8 – ZenMin Chen (Lantern)
My Fear is confirmed when we greet each other at table #1, eventually moving to the backup feature table. Part of my mind was already thinking ahead pondering what desperate sideboard tech I should employ against this horrendous matchup (t1/t2 blood moon seems good in theory..)
G1 I eat an IoK and he starts the lock engine going with a lantern and a shredder a piece. Bridge comes down and I’m about to mentally log out of g1. Eventually through discard he sees that I have the Griselbrand in the graveyard and 2 goryo’s but stuck on 3 lands and no additional mana (I had brutalitied him to confirm him having a surgical). He starts aggressively milling me off of lands. Around t6 I show a SSG off the lantern, which he shreds with his only shredder to reveal.. another SSG. I do the whole song and dance with griseldaddy escaping the grasp of the extraction with two vengeances and throw more real estate at him
G2 – We get to play out the end of our game on camera. Cedric/Patrick cuts to our game with me having nothing and Zenmin having a needle (Griselbrand), bridge, cage and Leyline. Rewind the game a few minutes – he t0 leyline, t1 cage, t2 stir->bridge, t3 bridge. I was sandbagging my shattering spree, thinking I need to be greedy and tag as many goods as I can to give myself the best chance, given he did not play any discards early I thought this was safe.. until he (presumably) topdecked a thoughtseize and buh bye shattering spree. t4 he Lost Legacy, naming Griselbrand, arriving at the board state. RNGesus returns the love with a top decked shattering spree to blow up the cage, needle and bridge and we are off the races to find business. I eventually get there with TTB->Wurm and I have dodged two gigantic bullets to start 8-0 against arguably my two worst matchups
2-0 (8-0)
+2 Shattering Spree +2 EE -2 brutality -1 Wurm -1 Shoal (could be horribly wrong – I reasoned that life does not matter and more often than not wurm/shoal would rot in our hands because we never get started so we’d rather remove potentially dead cards and try to go off by being dense in business/speed).
I strongly considered bringing in blood moon even on the draw, as we are capable through ritual/SSG to t1/t2 moon, which would shut down their disruption and search package (stirring/crane/fair), leaving them with double mox as outs for decay (not sure if they’d even leave the decay in there, but I don’t know how many dead cards they have against us) or otherwise playing a “fair” lantern game. Would like to hear from lantern players on how much blood moon would bother them.
At this point all I could think of was dinner, as I hadn’t eaten since 8 am and was afraid to try and run to the food court for food and be late for the rounds. Should’ve obviously brought some granolas.
Round 9 – John Sauer (Bant Eldrazi)
I think there were only 4 undefeated players remaining – nice. John was a nice guy who ended up making top 8. We greet each other and confirm the most pressing mater on both our minds – the grub for the night…
G1 He’s on the play and starts with a maindeck gemstone cavern. I am perplexed but make a mental note that no one trying to play fair would play this. Jig is up when he t3 skyspawners but I combo off before t5
G2 I have John never moving off 19 and I presumably got my realities smashed and thoughts mangled
G3 John mulls to 6 and goes forest->stirring->Cage. Cool. I think I had an EE which I played at 1. I was staring at a t3 goryos combo and already was counting the gold in my head but got TKS’d and Eldrazi’d into submission. Oops
+1 Emrakul (path, fetch/shock/brushland ping), +2 Moon (OTP), +2 EE (relic, cage, RIP) -1 Borb -2 hug -2 brutality.
In retrospect Emrakul> Borbrygmos may be bad, as the displacer lock can be online as soon as t3 and drowner is likely the end of us. I think we need an avenue to winning via tapping. 1-2, (8-1)
A bit disappointed at the last lost but stoked that my first SCG event started off very well with many ups and downs.
Day 2
Unlike the day before I arrive with time to spare and am mentally ready. My goal was to play as tight as possible and be in contention for a top prize come round 15
Round 10 – vs .Kent Ketter (Death’s Shadow Jund)
We have some nice smalltalk before being called into the backup featured matchup area. I remember him playing dredge last year on camera but have no idea what he’s brought
G1 the jig is up when he starts shocking/fetching like crazy, until he cycles a MD Architect of Thought (?!). Still ended up being death shadow and DSJ does DSJ things
G2 I keep a really loose hand of land, shoal, hug, 2 SSG, goryo, EE. I figure I draw a land and I am in a very good shape. He brutalities away my goryo and I never draw a land for the rest of the game, even through SSG->hug and SSG->whisper. A second EE and fatal push was not enough. Oh well +2 push +2 EE (good answers plus I saw some lists play canonist/eidolon of rhetoric) -2 brutality (never does anything) -2 Whispers
I debated bringing in Emrakul but ended up not even though they are most certainly going to be below 15 every time Emrakul would show up to the party. Problem is the circumstances required to play her can be quite restrictive (sorcery speed through looting/goryo, or 4/5 mana for TTB). There’s a decent chance Borborygmos becomes a relevant instant-speed blocker, plus there’s a good chance if I hold some lands over one goryo->borb would be enough
0-2 (8-2)
+2 push +2 EE -2 brutality -2 whispers
I considered moon - probably is pretty good otp?
Round 11 – vs. Kennith (Dredge)
G1 I see him play t1 copperline->looting. To think I almost extended my hand to high 5 a fellow unfair mage. He ends up spewing out powers onto the field and I am left in a weird spot I am at 7 life (thus cannot activate Griselbrand once) and have to Goryo Griselbrand during his attack phase facing lethal. He has a Conflagrate for 7 at the ready if the game reaches his second main phase – block+lifelink+damages would leave me at 14 life with him having +10 power, effectively facing lethal next turn. My hand was a bunch of disparate pieces (lands, shoal, goryo with no creature in the GY, looting) and mentally decided I need to draw 7 and pray rather than rely on draw+looting to get me there. For some godforsaken reason draw 7 before damage, allowing him to conflagrate me to death. Obviously should’ve done so at the end step so I don’t get burned to crisp – I attribute that to the previous two loses/sleepless nights..
G2 I have a t1 temple, and one untapped land away from t2 looting+SSG+goryo Griselbrand. Of course I draw a temple of malice and do not get to play. Per standard, I get thoughtseized two turns in a row and Kennith has dismantled my gameplan enough that his slow start did no tmatter. 0-2 (8-3)
At this point the 3 losses in a row were pretty disheartening but I understand the high variance nature of the deck and resolve to suck it up and play tight magic still.
Round 12 – vs. Anthony (GW Tron)
G1 I see a t1 stir->Urza’s tower and my heart feels all warm and fuzzy inside. He sets up tron for the first few turns while I t3 Griselbrand, t4 TTB Wurm I did not get to see his secondary color, so I brought in EE over spree to hedge
G2 he t2 map->thicket and t3 RIP’s me. Eventually I come to a game state of having 3 lands and a griselbrand activation+path on stack and I sculpt a hand of SSG, shoal, shoal, griselbrand, ttb, x. Notably I threw away a desperate ritual after not thinking about it too hard. He had tron next turn and punished me by karning my land, leaving me with 2 lands and SSG. Had I kept the ritual over x, I could’ve made 4 mana, spliced TTB onto shoal and gone off. C’est La Vie. I get ulamog’d to death
G3 he has an early RIP again and I’m durdling a bunch not drawing any business. Eventually he taps out for karn and Ihave an opening to either Breach a wurm or griselbrand, and I opt to go for the wurm and take the free 15 (path renders it useless). The death trigger gets robbed by RIP and he does not get to bring his friends. Next turn I Breach a lethal griselbrand which gets pathed and I refuel. I end up sculpting a board state of 5lands+1 more from path and SSG, SSG, SSG, TB, Griselbrand, Emrakul, Ritual with him having tron and 11 mana (could be 14 with a tower) which would’ve covered what I believe is the worst case scenario with 11 lands+land drop of ulamog->GQ->karn exile land.
+1 Emrakul +2 EE -2 Brutality -1 Borb
2-1 (9-3)
Round 13 – vs. Zac (RG Tron)
G1 he t2 stirs into a mine; Christmas has come early again. t3 Griselbrand->Borb
G2 I think I t4 him
SB: Same as Round 1
I see that I have a reasonable first tiebreaker and am hopeful I get a chance to right the ship and win out into the top 8
Round 14 – vs. James (Bant Eldrazi)
James was a real cool dude and we made smalltalk before getting into serious business – I find out he’s a grinder that’s close to an Invitational invite so clearly he did not get here by fluke.
G1 I ram a griselbrand into his displacer t4 and win through his displacement via Borb
G2 I kept 3 vengeance, mountain, ssg, whisper, shoal. Pretty risky without a black mana but I figure I have 17 black sources and If I draw one I’m a favourite to win (plus bant eldrazi doesn’t always have a fast clock.. right?) James ends up t2 stirring->cage and I get promptly dismissed
G3 is a crazy game where I almost punt. I value Griselbrand around t3 in the face of a path and make the first mistake of drawing before attacking in the face of a possible path without having a realistic chance of playing another monster into combat. I lose 7 cards that way but refuel to another hand with a lot of business. I Griselbrand again and sculpt a hand of Emrakul, Griselbrand,TTBs and mana, with Borb in the graveyard. In a few turns I go off drawing nearly the entire deck with the intent to vengeance borb for the win, with a few problems – 1. I boarded out 1 of my 2 borbs for Emrakul (which got TKS’d), and 2. I did not realize until I was 58 cards deep that all 4 vengeances were already in the graveyard. All the extra cards I probably didn’t need to draw even if I had vengeance was about to punish me and I spend an eternity in panic trying to sculpt a winning hand. James looks annoyed at this point which I do not blame but I try to hastily formulate a plan with 2 cards left in the deck and him at 11 life and the only Emrakul in exile. Wurm is the logical explanation but I only have 4 lands, am at a reasonably low life and that leaves being crushed by Path. A judge finally steps in and insists I make a move and I hastily assemble a 7 card hand with a bunch of griselbrands, 1 wurm, SSG and TTBs, which really didn’t matter. I pass, eat an attack and James leaves a white mana open to play a skyspawner, ending the line of two griselbrand breaches FTW. I draw my penultimate card, pitch SSG to Breach and wurm and hope for the best.. and get there
+2 EE (cage/relic/RIP) +1 Emrakul +2 Moon (OTP) -2 brutality -1 Borb -2 hug
Lack of reps definitely showed there. You definitely do not have to draw mindlessly if you can’t lose next turn – much better to reset next turn with more mana/resources.
After that game the standings go up and I am paired with Patrick, who led the 11-3 bracket with his tiebreaker at 9th and I was at 12th so winner was likely going to make the top 8.
Round 15 vs. Patrick Tilsen (Abzan)
G1 is uneventful – I eat a t2 inquisition but still t4 Griselbrand->loot->manamorphose->vengeance->hill giant. I am elated at the prospect of top 8ing the event
G2 he t1 IoKs away my hug, t2 thoughtseize, and Abzan gets to do Abzan things
G3 starts with ~14 minutes to go and we get on camera for the final half of our rubber match. But unlike the last camera match there’s nothing spectacular going on – Abzan playing its Abzan game with disruption and creature. Flayer does huge work here for Patrick – he must’ve binned around 8 lands digging for action. At some point I saw him bin away Goyfs early in games. He reasoned that though a clock, my clock was theoretically faster and goyf was too low impact, which I can see. At one point he has thoroughly cleaned out my hand through discard. I topdeck a vengeance and apologetically casts it on my Griselbrand, thinking I just sucked out badly, only to meet my rude awakening with the surgical. Granted, I could not have played around that but I felt silly not having considered that. Near the end, Patrick is frantically throwing out land for some action and at one point he bins path to exile with one card in hand, which made me believe the other card in the hand must’ve been another path, which made me believe I had very little outs as I’d already exhausted a few shoals/wurms. I did have a wurm in hand and Griselbrand in the GY – it turned out Patrick’s remaining card was an extraction, not path, which made him binning the path a mistake and gave me a ~3/45 chance to top deck for the win with him below 9 life. Alas it was not meant to be and I wish him well – that must’ve been the only mistake Patrick made in the match because everything else seemed as tightly played as it could have been. Well deserved top 8 and an almost-win – congrats!
Final record: 11-4, 20th
Conclusion:
*Deck definitely has the right power level, but loses to itself a lot. I’d love to include blue somehow for serum visions and some permission
*Traditional Grixis vengeance seems too weak – oftentimes a Grisel/Emrakul would not be enough. The Breaking Vengeance deck does seem powerful and potentially consistent enough that I’d like to try that out over Grishoalbrand to see if there’s anything there
*Changes to the deck going forward:
*Experimenting tormenting voice>cathartic reunion – rarely did I fist pump to discard 2 cards
*Removing pacts of negation altogether – maybe control will rise again with death’s shadow rising, but I don’t even think blue control decks are that tough of a matchup and burn can be navigated through carefully. I’d maybe keep the boseiju as a matchup breaker
*Pyroclasm could be upgraded to Anger.. maybe
*Blood Moon doesn’t seem that good right now, but maybe I’m wrong. The decks it’s supposedly good against like Bant Eldrazi (is good, but a lot of lists now play talisman?), Eldrazi tron (not actually good), Gx tron (not really good), valakut (you are already a favourite) aren’t really compelling enough even. Maybe a more high impact set of cards is needed. I considered Rakdos charm (artifact, GY, kiki chord) and Read the Bones (grindy) which I will test going forward.
jund-generally too slow. goyf outraces and out races them and often their ooze too.
abzan-slightly more useful vs souls but same racing caveats apply now with rhinos too and often flayers
grixis control-potentially ok here. unanswerable once in play. steady clock and answer to snap. early tasigur still outraces us
jeskai esper OR UW control -seems pretty good here
all in all it doesn't seem to have enough oomph in our prohlem matchups. thoughts?
1. Bastion Inventor has been overperforming for me vs control. the Jeskai/Esper/UW/Grixis control/Grixis Delver decks simply do not have good answers to a t1-t3 inventor aside from tasigur and forces them to play the rest of the game differently (digging for whatever verdict effects/snap-cryptic chains with cantrips rather than hold up answers for our engines which still exist). I haven't played Inventors vs Abzan/Jund and honestly am not sure if it's worth it there, as LotV ruins it and goyf generally stonewalls it. Given the metagame share of BGx I'm not sure Inventor is worth it in a large GP field even though it does very well in the control matchups
2. Aether Grid - I tested this but was unimpressed. I don't think it does nearly as much vs control (too slow) and Jund/Abzan can outsize it quickly with goyf/rhino/4 drops. The decks it's good vs like infect/affinity we're already favored against, although I think it'd be very useful vs burn. What are everyone's experiences with the grid?
3. Geist - feels like it'd be the same as Inventor except it needs a +3 equipment to swing in safely most of the times. Doesn't seem it.
4. Paradoxical - been a bomb vs BGx and should be a part of all of our anti-BGx gameplans, imo
Some ideas I had that I'd love your thoughts on
4. Nahiri - On the theme of attacking people on a different axis.. Cannot be terminated/path'd, cannot be snared, has the ability to potentially remove problematic permanents (2xEidolons, leylines, stony silence, Canonist, blood moon), digs for engine as needed. Thoughs on this, perhaps as a +2 Nahiri/+1 emrakul package?
5. Thoughtcast/reverse engineer - nice in theory but I would think pure threat density would be better
6. Mentor - theoretically it seems too likely to eat a path/bolt/terminate and only produce a monk as with all of our engines
7. Favor of the Mighty - seems great in theory. Anyone have any successful anecdotes with these?
8. GIdeon, Ally of Zendikar - Again on the theme of attacking from a different axis but seems like it's too slow for what it does.
Cheers