We currently have a "debate/flamewar" on SCG where the main point of contention is Merfolk Branchwalker. In addition we have Ari Lax, within a short period of time, trying to justify why his thoughts on Merfolk are really really bad (lots of reasons), again.
Just like burn modern in the past the thing he's missing is really, the meta. Removals and counters are basically the mainstream answers to our incessant repeatable damage that we churn out with low curves and mana (I run 21 lands), which stack up. Plus card advantages. Pros are missing out on the spirit of playing merfolk: ever tried legacy DnT and understand its history and composition? Legacy DNT consists of terrible creatures by themselves, but need to add value to one another before a position can be locked in for board state. Ditto on merfolk (and ari's arguments today): they all suck, but like a bacterial parasite they need to fester before the deck can start being a real threat.
My point is that in the current meta which decks can afford to run 4 spells and 34-35 creatures to be competitive? Answer: none. If the answer to such swarms (e.g. tokens, which really is combo) is board wipes for say, control (e.g. non white), we're looking at larger stuff that can survive stuff like suns. Ramp up on more spot removals and mirror matches you have more dead cards. Go white blue and spot removals are lacking against aggro until settle. Go jeskai and you'll bust out against control.
What really matters is that if we choose to play merfolk, just like legacy DnT it exist to punish the meta if they settle more on half-and-half: choose any popular decks out there that are balanced nearly 50-50 for threats/removals: vehicles, grixis midrange, red, BR midrange, etc. If the meta gets to a heavy removal ala control one then yes the deck will falter. Move it into a midrange one or even an aggro one (quite even matchups) the deck will punish.
And we've not even gone to postboard yet. Access to blue postboard is something traditional creature heavy swarm decks don't usually have; not even the "spirit of legacy DnT"
Comments on the SCG deck: that's a midrange meta positioning. Nissa (against control), 0-oasis 2x woodland streams, deeproot, and branchwalker. On the plus side it's a little resilient against board wipes (regrow with deeproot) but I'm thinking there's a turn or 2 slower than our better builds here. Still a good call, considering his teammate has experience doing merfolk in modern
Yesterday we had a standard showdown sunday that had extra showdown packs for prizes for top 8. Given that standard has not fired off sundays for a very long time and that there were extra prizes, from 0 we went to 22 players for this.
TL;DL: 3-1-1 for 6th position.
Top 8 (1st position listed first): ub control, red, jund goodstuff, esper approach, red, merfolk, red, <can't remember>
Matchups:
R1: Mardu vehicles I think. Close games going 2-1: basically out came the mimics and admiral's order in went narutalize, kopala, and unsummon.
R2: mono red. G1 on draw I went wide really quick when he had no spot removals. G2 I expect chandras so out came the mimics and jade bearer in went negates and essence scatter but he had a perfect hand when I went down to 6 and failed to put anything on turn 1 (anything is really weak). G3 I caught the chandra and was a close game but I misplayed when I swung with the team except kumena to halve his life from 14 to 7 while I was on 5 against a glorybringer a crasher and he topdecks a pia nalaar and sacrificed a thopter to make kumena unblockable.
R3: Grixis Control. G1 he could not curve out to 4 mana to control the board state; G2 he didn't have enough red for his mainboarded sweltering suns.
Friendly: G3 on the draw he did what control players do best (censor, scatter, remove, and reached a board state where I have no hand no creatures), G4 was long drawn but he died to a single creature at any one time while I kept flooding the field with threats and survive 2 sweltering suns <-- lesson learnt even more: hardest to determine how much to commit against control. But ultimately we reached a stage where both were topdecking and that's where we win. I guess merfolk carddraws counter the control / glimmer elements of controls?
R4: Abzan Tokens. G1 I could not catch up while he removed my pieces one by one (perfect hand for him). Out: mimics, in: naturalize, nissa. G2: He had a slightly slow start and I resolved a nissa on 4 which was sweet at one point: 0 -- look at top of deck -- silvergill adept -- draw card. Ultimately I raced him harder and faster. G3: he had a 3 land hand with fumigate but no plays for 3 turns, drew a 4th land, and that's where I misplayed: I had 4 versus his 1 with unsummon in hand plus another 3 creatures and I overcommit everything! (misplay). Unfortunately for him he didn't draw a land so could not fumigate
R5: mono red. I offer to ID and he thought a long time (we were 5 and 6 and locked in) so he decided not to take a risk by playing and we ID. Played it out. He got land flooded (7 lands, 3 threats) so it was an easy win for me. G2 I mull to 5 so he wins after a long drawn game. G3 He had a perfect hand perfect curve so it was over real quick
Afterthoughts:
- I need to decide better on go big or go wide per game. Mimics or Pioneers are the core key in strategizing this. I'm thinking that the format will want board wipes, so if it's white (fumigate, settle, slaugter) I should go wide (easy to reset), if it's red I should go big. I don't see BR aggro playing bontu's reckoning mainboard with yaheeni's so far but will cross bridge when it's time.
- Jade bearer on turn 1 is horrid. Admiral's command is too conditional: this crowd was easy to let them think they could instant remove post declare attackers (raid!) but on a more serious event I don't think it'll happen that easy
- There is a LOT of spot removals. Merfolk is one of the most creature / repeatable damage deck and can grow faster sometimes even against monsters, or grow fast enough to give pause to big flyers so that they consider blocking (e.g. glory bringing, phoenix).
- SCG Premium's article last week Ari lax talks about how merfolk is just bad, just like modern. He's been wrong before concerning modern burn so I'm sticking with it as it's not quite tuned to meta for effect
- SCG Premium article earlier this week Brad Nelson talks about how unsummon should be moved away, into something like essence scatter mainboard. I agree with the first (though it's really useful against glorybringer, vehicles) but yeah it could go s/b.
- There was another merfolk player, but he struggled with mana and speed and curve doing jadelight ranger instead of mimic. And somewhere there's branchwalker. Explore, as what Brad's saying, might be better off in midrange decks cuz it's a strange mechanic.
Therefore I'm changing my build to be a lot more passive/aggressive. It won't survive board wipes and that's where our skill NOT to overcommit has to come in:
I just want to pop in and say, “Welcome” to all the new participants in the forum. This is a very good time to be investing in Modern: DNT. The deck is well positioned and poised to improve month over month with little to no concerns of bannable cards.
Greets Catmix
1. Thanks for the welcome. Son's a DnT legacy hardcore so he loves playing BW DnT as an alternative to his main modern decks (etron, grixis ds, affinity, burn etc) when he longs for a break from the usual use of T1 decks -- emotion drives him back to scare up a build for events. Also responsible for influencing the 4x mirran crusader builds for Legacy DNT in mtgthesource during NZ's representationals last year. Of the current build of modern DnT I remember the following notes from him:
- Lack of 1 drops ergo "mother of runes style" value is the only reason why modern DnT is not quite tier 1, and thraben inspector is the baseline. Wayfarer's maybe. Tried Kytheon once but card draw beat snowball effect. 4x Judge's familiar for legacy is taking a bit of a new direction (compared to 4x mirran) but they have jitte's swords and batterskulls so nowadays we devote any prayers of new cards for modern DnT to the unbanning of SFM (LOL!)
- 22 lands is too low (both formats), 23 is a must. He really hated fetchlands and prefered caves due to addition of colourless for eldrazi displacer
- didn't like restoration angel: same argument with palace jailer: 4 on vial loses value and caverns are already overtaxed with existing creature arrays (sometimes he goes mono white DnT modern)
2. Getting agreement from him concerning well placement in current meta. Format currently has good answers against non-creature spell not that so against creature based decks. Vials add to explosiveness (so there is no need to depend on them)
3. No concerns of bannable cards : amen. Phil the "DnT man" at thraben university had a podcast talking about legacy DnT, but I believe most of it applies here as well. It's a long podcast where part of it covers the history of DnT in legacy, but ultimately it comes down to this: DnT's components are actually terrible cards individually, but when put together (and if put together) form quite a strangling prison that feeds on the format's best ( http://www.thrabenuniversity.com/?p=1414 ) . My english is not my first language so I'm clumsy paraphrasing this, but this applies very much so to modern as well. e.g. how many of our DnT cards are actually actively used in other T1 modern decks? Maybe TKS for the temple build. Aether vial for humans. Some BW lands for abzan (currently T2). In legacy DnT's litmus test (especially in a GP) is surviving against other T2 to Tdev decks so that they can feed on T1 blue decks at the top brackets. In modern DnT nearly the same applies: having these seldom-used/come-together cards survive all other decks in this subforum before taking on T1 decks. LOL I make DnT sound like a parasite in the meta but so what? That's what Death and Taxes are really all about in real life anyway.
Full disclaimer: son's a little young to articulate/post so I'm just consolidating the above based off our chats/debrief.
Disclaimer: I usually report on eldrazitron forums here and legacy DnT at mtgthesource.
I have a long tale to share.
Last night in our New Zealand small town of 350K population averaging 14 players on a weekly Wednesday night modern at our sole LGS we had a full turnout of 28 players. Turns out (pun unintended) 7-8 irregulars turned up, some bringing their friends. My 13yo son the Legacy DnT hardcore was happy that 2 other kids (2x 15yo) turned up but wanted to lend out his eldrazitron deck to one of them as friend #2 had a sub-par deck.
The came the crazy idea: let's build a deck out of DnT, or whatever was inside our deck and library/folder. So I played librarian while he built his deck 30 minutes before the start of the event based on what we could get and what we could not. Funny enough he forgot to borrow a swamp or two from the LGS's land base.
Son was sick and with deck built decided to lend out the eldrazitron; after all he claimed mental fatigue alongside the flu and he's already won 4 weeks in a row with etron so let someone else have some fun while he goes back to deck familiarity for autopilot:
I don't quite have a report because I was very busy myself. LGS had time limits on opening hours so we were capped at 4 rounds. We ran out of room in the primary playing area so had to break out to another. Noise level was half that of a teenage party. Some highlights:
R1: budget boros burn no fetches/pain? Sat next to this match but was too busy so see much
G1: Burn player leaves a rift bolt suspended for 6 rounds before a judge call was made after passing turn when he wanted to have it trigger off while each was at 1-2 life.
G2: Somehow there were tidehollows involved with flicker for hand disruption and T4 landed a worship with a burrenton in play for permanent lock. Son swears he didn't intend it.
2-0: 1-0 . Son claims 5 misplays but autopilot took over. Took him T6 before he realized what his lock meant.
R2: WU control
G1: won
G2: won.
No report here cuz we were busy, sorry. In addition we went home 11pm and I started work today 5am so there. However he said something very familiar in Vegas Legacy GP: DnT ate blue decks for breakfast ("nom nom nom nom")
R3: Restore balance. Table 1.
G1: no report. Lost.
G2: no report. Won.
G3: I actually glanced this one occasionally. Kept 1 land hand with vial, thalia, tidehollow, flicker, etc in hand. Kept 7. On the draw. T1 concealed, vial. T2 tick vial to 1, draw vial, play vial (greedy). T3 Tidehollow disrupt. Opponent's T4 cascade looking for restore balance but dug out 2 cards deep: detention sphere (whew!). In the end opponent was bashed for 8 power on 7 life after vialing in 2 more creature (tidehollow, flickerwisp) on opponent's EOT alongside existing flickerwisp while having restore balance still suspended with 1? 2? counters on it.
2-1: 3-0. Claims 1 misplay here.
R4: Eldrazitron (another player), Table 1. This time he was alert as hell with adrenaline and applied "competitive REL moods" whatever that meant.
G1: Lost. Sideboard in: elspeth, kataki; out: can't remember.
G2: Won.
G3: Won. Opponent was hell bent to get rid of elspeth and he was hell bent to cast it. etron got outgassed (builds these days have reduced top-end threats)
2-1: 4-0.
Walked away with max store credit being the only 4-0. Appears that tidehollow in this shell outpaces TKS, although he claims it's slightly less powerful because opponent gets back the "best choice" to hand.
His afterthoughts: caverns was incredibly hard for value due to the diverse creature types, but it sure helped with displacer. He hated the marsh flats / godless shrines and would've gone for caves of koilos (at home library), as he again had difficulty using the displacers most of the time. And one swamp would help a lot in a fetching landbase.
I'm not exactly sure if giving the opponent a choice is the best way forward for burn. Giving them no choice forces unanswered threats (e.g. Eidolon) to snowball into bigger problems 1 turn onwards. Takes some life and a trade, usually, to deal with no-choice threats. Ranked in decreasing order:
- Eidolon. Punishment mechanic: low cost fast decks. Nearly everything including big mana.
- Harsh mentor. Punishment mechanic: activated abilities. Counters company, lantern control (getting really popular, nearly tier 1), tron, affinity. Good for burn decks that go light on white (e.g. Rakdos, or mono red)
- Ash Zealot. Punishment mechanic: flashback. Storm (let's get that past-in-flames going), BR hollow one (yeah I have choice words for that deck), snapcaster mage based decks
There must be others, but we have a few options available as answers to the general tier-1 meta, depending on the season which obviously gives the opponent no choice. We've even unsuccessfully, of all things, tried mana tithe before.... (yuck)
I think you're confusing "punisher mechanic" with "mechanic that is punishing in nature". Eidolon, Mentor, and Zealot punish you for doing something, but they aren't "punisher" cards. The punisher mechanic is what Browbeat, Vexing Devil, etc. have where the text is basically "Unless a player/your opponent does X, do Y". Eidolon is not in the same class of cards, even though you could argue that it says "Unless a player kills this, they get rekt". If Eidolon is analogous to anything, it's original Thalia or maybe Trinisphere, where Eidolon is a life tax rather than a mana tax.
In general, the punisher mechanic is not something you want. It's always what your opponent wants for you rather than what you want or need. For a punisher card to be playable, the choices would have to be ridiculously good for you such that you don't actually care what they pick or that always forces the same outcome, for instance "R: Unless target player has ~ deal 4 to them, ~ deals 3 to them.", which would be functionally another Lava Spike even though it has the punisher mechanic. Such a card doesn't exist.
Thank you. My english can be clumsy at times (not my first language); apologies if I used words in the wrong context
I'm not exactly sure if giving the opponent a choice is the best way forward for burn. Giving them no choice forces unanswered threats (e.g. Eidolon) to snowball into bigger problems 1 turn onwards. Takes some life and a trade, usually, to deal with no-choice threats. Ranked in decreasing order:
- Eidolon. Punishment mechanic: low cost fast decks. Nearly everything including big mana.
- Harsh mentor. Punishment mechanic: activated abilities. Counters company, lantern control (getting really popular, nearly tier 1), tron, affinity. Good for burn decks that go light on white (e.g. Rakdos, or mono red)
- Ash Zealot. Punishment mechanic: flashback. Storm (let's get that past-in-flames going), BR hollow one (yeah I have choice words for that deck), snapcaster mage based decks
There must be others, but we have a few options available as answers to the general tier-1 meta, depending on the season which obviously gives the opponent no choice. We've even unsuccessfully, of all things, tried mana tithe before.... (yuck)
No change in decklist again, and for 3rd week in a row, he get's 1st. Well, I blame WoTC for having their software match us 16 times in 21 modern LGS matches this year alone, so as a father I do the needful.
He was never on the play the entire night. Lost all 3 dice roll. I don't have much of a game report as it's hard writing my own (see the burn forum) while trying to go into details his end as a 13yo who don't take notes for LGS games. So I'll just post highlights.
M1: Matched up with me. I push him up 2-1 and we go for dinner
1-0
M2: WR nahiri prison emrakul
G1: T3 karn. Somewhere there's a warping wail countering a board wipe sorcery.
G2: 2x Blood moons on the board but his boarded in ratchet bomb ticked up to 3 and blew everything up before he spat out all his top end threats (opponents didn't have much to play).
2-0
M3: Counters company.
G1: T3 karn T4 ugin. Yeah, disruption and board wipe later it's hard for opponent to catch up.
G2: Close game. T1 temple map, T2 temple TKS, T3 temple (dunno what) T4 endbringer. Anyway sometime later all is dust. Basically boarded in 7 cards: everything to kill creatures + 1 All is Dust +2 Oblivion Stone +2 Ratchet Bomb +2 Dismember -4 reality smasher -1 ulamog -2 oblivion sower.
3-0
M4: Grixis DS.
G1: T2 thoughtsiezed but top decked a chalice for 1 (lock out)
G2: Somehow he got an oblivion sower out to face a 5/5 angler (lol!) and got a fetch out of it (1 pain source denied).
4-0
3 matches, 6 games. Tier 3, Tier 1, Tier 1
After game comments: hangerback walkers currently the least useful among all the cards out there versus all known T1 or T2/3 decks. He's aware of previous vegas 2017 era advice from SCG premium about them versus mirrors and other decks but disagrees with how oversold it is. Top end threats remain high, and next consideration is bringing down either a ghost quarter or waste (he insists on 3 wastes all year long) to bring in an urborg to work with the sowers
I thought about the past games and the number of times I mulligan: nearly 2 out of 9 times I go down to 6 when I hit land starvation on opening hands. Another 1 out of 9 I keep 1 land handers due to good 1 drops and gambling I'm not going against chalice decks during those times (LGS meta decision).
So I decided to go creature removal light, in light of bigger creatures. After all, black-based decks are doing well with fatal pushes to answer against light mana but big creatures so removed the grim lavamancers for speed.
Also, given that I was heavy on black I added a swamp, against ALL burn ethos; however against big mana decks I have 2 blood moons for side, and I sometimes face ponza's/prisons.
I can't afford to have the opponents be one up for mana especially eldrazitron so the chained to the rocks stay in the SB while the paths go.
Given the reasons above, I decided to build the deck like so:
- 19 lands, of which there are 7 sources of mana: 2 sacred 2 crypts 2 mountains and 1 swamp. This means the single shard volley can work and not interfere with bump in the night on long drawn games
- 19 lands to reduce mulligans. 7 card hands with 1 swamp and another red source still works with 4x bump and 4x gonti's and work better with sideboards (rain of gore, rakdos charm)
- swamp and blood moon.
- shard volley for finishers
- I lost to counters company 0-2 the last time; since 1 swamp goes to the main and I have blood moons on the play against big mana and have enough 2 mana post board against chalice on 1, 3 rakdos charms are enough. Therefore +2 grafdigger's cage
- Also remembering my loss against BR hollow one. Therefore definitely the +2 grafdigger's cage
M1: Matched up with son. Seriously man !@#!@$$-ing WoTC software sucks: 16 out of 21 modern LGS events and we've been paired up 1st match. Push eldrazitron son up 2-1.
0-1
M2: White eldrazi and taxes. This version has 4 chalices and 4 paths
G1: On the play. Raced through chalice on T3 and thalia on T4 until I was 2 life he was 1 but he had creatures for lethal next turn but I top decked a searing blaze for 1.
G2: On the draw. In: 2x blood moon 3x rakdos charm, out: 4x bump 1x lava spike (expecting leylines). Goblin guide did most of the work and had rakdos charm in my opening hand which I destroyed the chalice on 1 on T2 but land flooded without much threats to the face
G3: On the play. Out: 3x rakdos charm, in: 2x bump 1x spike (screw the leylines: I'll race or blood moon). He only started with 2 ghost quarters so bought him down really fast with swiftspear, rakdos away his chalice for 1 on T2, raced him fast etc.
1-1
M3: Abzan
G1: On the play. 1 land hand: fetch, swiftspear, spike, bolt, bump, eidolon, gonti's. Never drew a single land thereafter. T1 fetch blood crypt swiftspear, thoughtsiezed away eidolon (??), T2 gonti's then every turn kept throwing to the face
G2: On the draw. In: 3x rakdos charm (against goyf, lingering souls) and 3x rain of gore, out: 4x searing blaze, 1x shard volley, 1x swamp. T1 inquisition (took rain of gore ... signal!), T2 inquisition (took rakdos charm), T3 inquisition, T4 kitchen finks. And lots of removals. 7 life versus 22. Nope.
G3: On the play. In: 4x searing blaze, Out: 3x rakdos charm, 1x rain of gore. Mull to 6 (opening hand had no lands) Very close game, but it came down to this: I had 4 life he had 1 life and I had a gonti's on the board with 1 energy and he had 3 spirits and a lotv. For at least 2 turns (including this one) he could not attack so the gonti's formed a close game lock. If I drew a threat he's a goner. If I drew a fetch he's a goner. I drew a fetch.
2-1
M4: naya zoo
G1: On the draw. Not a fair game. He mulls to 5. Close games though: but manageed to reach a stage where gonti's with 1 energy is on the board and I'm on 5 (out of reach of bolt) and he's on 1 so he can't swing (1 card in hand). If he swings I go to 1 and get 2 energy (gonti becomes live); and then if he bolts immediately I'll gonti immediately for lethal; if he chooses the bolt on my turn I have priority and sorcery a spike/bump (in hand) then he bolts then I respond with gonti's
G2: On the draw. In: 2x blood moon, out: 2x bump. We race, but he's got more creatures at 8 life each and he swings me to 2 while the best I could do was bring him down to 1 (no gonti's)
G3: On the play. No changes. my 11 life versus 4 life with gonti's at 1 energy with 1 fetchland unfetched he makes a mistake of fetching with his bloodstained mire so scoops.
3-1
Blood moon did not see play at all tonight. Neither did rain of gore. One sideboard seen play: 1x chained versus a thalia. Tier 2,2,3 decks. I think I'm quite happy with this build against general meta (e.g. GP), but am now very keen to test more against Tier 1 decks (day 2 goals).
9 games: 1 mulligan, and 3 of them having a gonti's machinations set as a trap at 1 energy.
No let up on top end threats. I've just showed him comments on this thread and he's on full disagreement with removing top end threats in etron as it makes the deck a lot more squishy.
1. There are 5 skullcracks. I think the eidolons going in are of better value. I've had small mana opponents needing to deal with this just as a primary focus just like how they deal with chalices (disclaimer: I do eldrazitron) as first priority before/after it lands
2. The 4 shard volleys interfere with long games if necessary. 6 sources of mana means if you really reach that stage of both flooding out you can flashback to close the game. Usual is 1
3. 4 shard volleys interfere with burst lightning.
I understand the philosophy of this build, and would be happy to see who the pro burn player is that does 300 matches with black? I understand that it's all about closing the game early in return for long stretches but not entire convinced burst lightning and shard volleys are the best outlets for that.
Not much to report tonight. Non high-tier pairups:
G1: 2-0: amulet titan. Misplay game 1 and unlucky game 2 for opponent. Game 2 I sided in 2x bloodmoon + 1 swamp but didn't get to use it.
G2: concede: paired up with son (eldrazitron): push him up. Went for dinner.
G3: 2-1: infect. Game 1 outrace, game 2 lost to shapers sanctuary + spellskite. Game 3 opponent mis-played/kept by keeping a 2 lander 2 blue creature decks with no blue sources
G4: 0-2: BR hollow one. Game 1 on the draw: both players draw 3 discard 3 at random so lost a land, guide, and swiftspear, leaving 1 land for 1 turn and black spells no permanents. Game 2 I didn't open or draw any of the 4x rakdos charm for GY or go-wide tactics so got overwhelmed.
Disappointing sideboarrd appearances. Will try again.
im not running boros. dont care for it. also, you say i need to be faster yet boros is slower than rakdos. i ran into mana issues at 18 and have never had issues at 19.
Noted with thanks. I'll test this at some point of time and comment further (i.e. when I'm against an bigger array of paper decks)
you are the first person in about 2 pgs of posts saying that creature decks arent on the rise. ill probably drop a mancer but what for? and i only have foundry in there for sb. volley i thought about removing but i like haveing almost half my spells able to hit creatures if need be. what do you have to prove that creature decks are declining?
Basically just a temporary cycle.
1) 2 months ago we had midrange rage: abzan was all over SCG. Eldrazitron too (starting to wane: 1 mth ago failed to consistently top8). Disclaimer: I own/play these decks.
2) 1 month ago combo and big mana overtook midrange. Together with control.
3) 3 days, 3 articles in SCG premium talking about how aggro is the way to, for a limited time, answer the current format.
(source: scg premium, tcdecks.net tools->tier decks, SCG + GP modern results)
That's my premise: we're in a position right now (for a very short window -- 1 month/), along with the current creature/aggro-based decks, to deal with the field that's dominated with:
- tron (not sure if grim is going to work here)
- storm (1/3 baral? wait for summoning sickness to pass to deal with their electromancer?
- jeskai (hexproof geist, queller, waste 2 cards against selfless?)
- scapeshift (t4 combo, hardly any creatures)
In all these cases grim enjoys half its ability (to the face)
Against our fellow answers to the existing meta:
- infect (disclaimer: I own/play this) 12 creatures 6-8 protection against 4 searing blaze + 4 eidolons. Ok searing blood's going to be nice here
- lantern control. grim shines MB against bridge, postboard artifact hate but there's leylines post board (activity in the ensnaring bridge group has been very active for past 5 weeks; also ross merriam notes and suggests that today against current meta)
- elves. go fasterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (black burn works) or punish going wider
- counters company. bad matchup 1st game no matter what; SB we stop their infinite life or going wide. Not sure if we have answer to a large ballista.
Might be more. But we're debating the difference of 1 grim lavamancer, and in light of the past results morphing into the current meta and given the 8 example (but upcoming common) scenarios above, because I see the lavamancers slightly less than half useful compared to it's dual ability, I'd vote to have 1 grim instead of 2.
any thoughts? guess it was more than a little change. lol.
-3 mountain, +2 fetches (you'll be surprised: 18 lands needed)
-3 skullcrack (to sb or change to rain of gore sb -- underpowered), +4 boros charm (without them, underpowered and under-utilitied and waste of sacred foundry mb)
-1 shard volley (18 lands....) or -1 grim lavamancer (meta is fast need to be faster)
sb:
-2 searing blood move the skullcracks here or increase rakdos charm
Reasons:
- GY and artifact hate need to be high (dredge, storm, and recently blue moon, and especially lantern control rising to meet current format)
- small creature decks not doing well, less need for searing. Either that or they are rising to meet and race meta but searing blaze and eidolon are more than enough
Today Ari Lax (the guy who poo poo'ed burn in the meta 6 months back) now says burn (and maybe infect) are well positioned in a meta of scapeshift and tron (comes off premium: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/36337_Liliana-Sucks-And-Other-Observations.html ) , short term. I'm sure he was referring to boros burn (as per current builds) so I'm reading the same message: speed is going to matter a lot.
Etron players would want to race putting the chalice of the void at 1 (meaning they need 2 mana).
Worst case: you' on the draw and T2 chalice for 1 meaning you need to do a T2 2-mana destroy artifact (you have only T1 to threat out)
Best case: you're on the play and T2 chalice for 1 meaning you need to do a T3 2-mana destroy artifact (you have only T1 + T2 to threat out)
[1] Traditionally naya burn was greedy too, and destructive revelry was the way to go. Secondary reason: burn was high meta percentage back then (> 6%) and folks put out leyline of sanctity or worship (bant eldrazi) against burn, therefore enchantment removal dealing 2 damage was crucial.
[2] Nowadays with burn meta percentage being low (< 4%) decks don't pack enchantment hate no more. Therefore technically we could get away with enchantment answers highlighted in [1] above.
With [2] in mind, coupled with the current builds of burn being primarily boros, splashing a stomping ground for mana base for destructive revelry x3 or x4 in the sideboard is slowly being phased out. The meta is wide, and besides blood moon (does not slow us much; let other decks deal with enchantment hate to push them down e.g. in GP's) there aren't much leylines of sanctity found. Therefore we're starting to see sideboards pack more smash to smithereens, followed by utility cards that destroy chalices without incurring damage to opponent, which is against the axiom of burn -- utility with primary goal of damage to face:
- shattering spree. Copies cannot be countered. Used when the chalice has landed. Useful against affinity but I've seen a match against affinity in SCG recently when a good affinity player survived 2 shattering sprees.
- wear // tear. Passive no damage answer to both enchantment and artifact hate. I'll leave it to experienced players here to comment on the merits/faults of gameplay with this
- ingot chewer. Evoke cost gets around chalices because CMC is 6(? correct me if wrong). 6 mana later to draw this against etron I think it's pretty much game over with their T3 wurmcoil/karn/smasher/endbringer. Special mention just because I drafted triple lorwyn yesterday lol
- rakdos charm. For rakdos/jund/mardu burn players like two of us here this is my favourite. Non damage answer artifact only hate but utility enough to slow/destroy gameplan especially against storm (nuke their graveyard on past in flames or damage them with their 100 goblins in play); or counters company (graveyard, or their wideness).
Currently etron is not doing too well (my son pilots this, and attributes more luck needed compared to others) in light of other decks. See the forum thread for e-tron: for 2 months now pilots have not been putting up major results in the face of the current meta. Is your mega filled with etron decks?
Just like burn modern in the past the thing he's missing is really, the meta. Removals and counters are basically the mainstream answers to our incessant repeatable damage that we churn out with low curves and mana (I run 21 lands), which stack up. Plus card advantages. Pros are missing out on the spirit of playing merfolk: ever tried legacy DnT and understand its history and composition? Legacy DNT consists of terrible creatures by themselves, but need to add value to one another before a position can be locked in for board state. Ditto on merfolk (and ari's arguments today): they all suck, but like a bacterial parasite they need to fester before the deck can start being a real threat.
My point is that in the current meta which decks can afford to run 4 spells and 34-35 creatures to be competitive? Answer: none. If the answer to such swarms (e.g. tokens, which really is combo) is board wipes for say, control (e.g. non white), we're looking at larger stuff that can survive stuff like suns. Ramp up on more spot removals and mirror matches you have more dead cards. Go white blue and spot removals are lacking against aggro until settle. Go jeskai and you'll bust out against control.
What really matters is that if we choose to play merfolk, just like legacy DnT it exist to punish the meta if they settle more on half-and-half: choose any popular decks out there that are balanced nearly 50-50 for threats/removals: vehicles, grixis midrange, red, BR midrange, etc. If the meta gets to a heavy removal ala control one then yes the deck will falter. Move it into a midrange one or even an aggro one (quite even matchups) the deck will punish.
And we've not even gone to postboard yet. Access to blue postboard is something traditional creature heavy swarm decks don't usually have; not even the "spirit of legacy DnT"
Comments on the SCG deck: that's a midrange meta positioning. Nissa (against control), 0-oasis 2x woodland streams, deeproot, and branchwalker. On the plus side it's a little resilient against board wipes (regrow with deeproot) but I'm thinking there's a turn or 2 slower than our better builds here. Still a good call, considering his teammate has experience doing merfolk in modern
4 Kumena's Speaker
4 Mist-Cloaked Herald
4 Metallic Mimic
4 Deeproot Elite
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Jungleborn Pioneer
4 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
2 Tempest Caller
2 Admiral's Order
4 Unclaimed Territory
4 Botanical Sanctum
3 Hashep Oasis
4 Forest
6 Island
3 Negate
3 Naturalize
2 Essence Scatter
1 Nissa, steward of elements
1 Ghalta, primal hunger
2 Kopala, Warden of Waves
1 Entrancing Melody
1 Unsummon
1 Heroic Intervention
Yesterday we had a standard showdown sunday that had extra showdown packs for prizes for top 8. Given that standard has not fired off sundays for a very long time and that there were extra prizes, from 0 we went to 22 players for this.
TL;DL: 3-1-1 for 6th position.
Top 8 (1st position listed first): ub control, red, jund goodstuff, esper approach, red, merfolk, red, <can't remember>
Matchups:
R1: Mardu vehicles I think. Close games going 2-1: basically out came the mimics and admiral's order in went narutalize, kopala, and unsummon.
R2: mono red. G1 on draw I went wide really quick when he had no spot removals. G2 I expect chandras so out came the mimics and jade bearer in went negates and essence scatter but he had a perfect hand when I went down to 6 and failed to put anything on turn 1 (anything is really weak). G3 I caught the chandra and was a close game but I misplayed when I swung with the team except kumena to halve his life from 14 to 7 while I was on 5 against a glorybringer a crasher and he topdecks a pia nalaar and sacrificed a thopter to make kumena unblockable.
R3: Grixis Control. G1 he could not curve out to 4 mana to control the board state; G2 he didn't have enough red for his mainboarded sweltering suns.
Friendly: G3 on the draw he did what control players do best (censor, scatter, remove, and reached a board state where I have no hand no creatures), G4 was long drawn but he died to a single creature at any one time while I kept flooding the field with threats and survive 2 sweltering suns <-- lesson learnt even more: hardest to determine how much to commit against control. But ultimately we reached a stage where both were topdecking and that's where we win. I guess merfolk carddraws counter the control / glimmer elements of controls?
R4: Abzan Tokens. G1 I could not catch up while he removed my pieces one by one (perfect hand for him). Out: mimics, in: naturalize, nissa. G2: He had a slightly slow start and I resolved a nissa on 4 which was sweet at one point: 0 -- look at top of deck -- silvergill adept -- draw card. Ultimately I raced him harder and faster. G3: he had a 3 land hand with fumigate but no plays for 3 turns, drew a 4th land, and that's where I misplayed: I had 4 versus his 1 with unsummon in hand plus another 3 creatures and I overcommit everything! (misplay). Unfortunately for him he didn't draw a land so could not fumigate
R5: mono red. I offer to ID and he thought a long time (we were 5 and 6 and locked in) so he decided not to take a risk by playing and we ID. Played it out. He got land flooded (7 lands, 3 threats) so it was an easy win for me. G2 I mull to 5 so he wins after a long drawn game. G3 He had a perfect hand perfect curve so it was over real quick
Afterthoughts:
- I need to decide better on go big or go wide per game. Mimics or Pioneers are the core key in strategizing this. I'm thinking that the format will want board wipes, so if it's white (fumigate, settle, slaugter) I should go wide (easy to reset), if it's red I should go big. I don't see BR aggro playing bontu's reckoning mainboard with yaheeni's so far but will cross bridge when it's time.
- Jade bearer on turn 1 is horrid. Admiral's command is too conditional: this crowd was easy to let them think they could instant remove post declare attackers (raid!) but on a more serious event I don't think it'll happen that easy
- There is a LOT of spot removals. Merfolk is one of the most creature / repeatable damage deck and can grow faster sometimes even against monsters, or grow fast enough to give pause to big flyers so that they consider blocking (e.g. glory bringing, phoenix).
- SCG Premium's article last week Ari lax talks about how merfolk is just bad, just like modern. He's been wrong before concerning modern burn so I'm sticking with it as it's not quite tuned to meta for effect
- SCG Premium article earlier this week Brad Nelson talks about how unsummon should be moved away, into something like essence scatter mainboard. I agree with the first (though it's really useful against glorybringer, vehicles) but yeah it could go s/b.
- There was another merfolk player, but he struggled with mana and speed and curve doing jadelight ranger instead of mimic. And somewhere there's branchwalker. Explore, as what Brad's saying, might be better off in midrange decks cuz it's a strange mechanic.
Therefore I'm changing my build to be a lot more passive/aggressive. It won't survive board wipes and that's where our skill NOT to overcommit has to come in:
4 Mist-Cloaked Herald
4 Metallic Mimic
4 Deeproot Elite
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Jungleborn Pioneer
4 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
2 Kopala, Warden of Waves
1 Heroic Intervention
4 Unclaimed Territory
4 Botanical Sanctum
3 Hashep Oasis
4 Forest
6 Island
3 Negate
3 Naturalize
2 Essence Scatter
1 Ghalta, primal hunger
1 Entrancing Melody
2 Admiral's Order
1 Nissa, steward of elements
2 Tempest Caller
Thanks for reading
Greets Catmix
1. Thanks for the welcome. Son's a DnT legacy hardcore so he loves playing BW DnT as an alternative to his main modern decks (etron, grixis ds, affinity, burn etc) when he longs for a break from the usual use of T1 decks -- emotion drives him back to scare up a build for events. Also responsible for influencing the 4x mirran crusader builds for Legacy DNT in mtgthesource during NZ's representationals last year. Of the current build of modern DnT I remember the following notes from him:
- Lack of 1 drops ergo "mother of runes style" value is the only reason why modern DnT is not quite tier 1, and thraben inspector is the baseline. Wayfarer's maybe. Tried Kytheon once but card draw beat snowball effect. 4x Judge's familiar for legacy is taking a bit of a new direction (compared to 4x mirran) but they have jitte's swords and batterskulls so nowadays we devote any prayers of new cards for modern DnT to the unbanning of SFM (LOL!)
- 22 lands is too low (both formats), 23 is a must. He really hated fetchlands and prefered caves due to addition of colourless for eldrazi displacer
- didn't like restoration angel: same argument with palace jailer: 4 on vial loses value and caverns are already overtaxed with existing creature arrays (sometimes he goes mono white DnT modern)
2. Getting agreement from him concerning well placement in current meta. Format currently has good answers against non-creature spell not that so against creature based decks. Vials add to explosiveness (so there is no need to depend on them)
3. No concerns of bannable cards : amen. Phil the "DnT man" at thraben university had a podcast talking about legacy DnT, but I believe most of it applies here as well. It's a long podcast where part of it covers the history of DnT in legacy, but ultimately it comes down to this: DnT's components are actually terrible cards individually, but when put together (and if put together) form quite a strangling prison that feeds on the format's best ( http://www.thrabenuniversity.com/?p=1414 ) . My english is not my first language so I'm clumsy paraphrasing this, but this applies very much so to modern as well. e.g. how many of our DnT cards are actually actively used in other T1 modern decks? Maybe TKS for the temple build. Aether vial for humans. Some BW lands for abzan (currently T2). In legacy DnT's litmus test (especially in a GP) is surviving against other T2 to Tdev decks so that they can feed on T1 blue decks at the top brackets. In modern DnT nearly the same applies: having these seldom-used/come-together cards survive all other decks in this subforum before taking on T1 decks. LOL I make DnT sound like a parasite in the meta but so what? That's what Death and Taxes are really all about in real life anyway.
Full disclaimer: son's a little young to articulate/post so I'm just consolidating the above based off our chats/debrief.
Till the next time, have fun!
I have a long tale to share.
Last night in our New Zealand small town of 350K population averaging 14 players on a weekly Wednesday night modern at our sole LGS we had a full turnout of 28 players. Turns out (pun unintended) 7-8 irregulars turned up, some bringing their friends. My 13yo son the Legacy DnT hardcore was happy that 2 other kids (2x 15yo) turned up but wanted to lend out his eldrazitron deck to one of them as friend #2 had a sub-par deck.
The came the crazy idea: let's build a deck out of DnT, or whatever was inside our deck and library/folder. So I played librarian while he built his deck 30 minutes before the start of the event based on what we could get and what we could not. Funny enough he forgot to borrow a swamp or two from the LGS's land base.
Son was sick and with deck built decided to lend out the eldrazitron; after all he claimed mental fatigue alongside the flu and he's already won 4 weeks in a row with etron so let someone else have some fun while he goes back to deck familiarity for autopilot:
4 path to exile
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Flickerwisp
4 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Wasteland Strangler
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocations
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 Horizon Canopy
3 Plains
2 Concealed Courtyard
3 Marsh Flats
3 Shambling Vent
2 Godless Shrine
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Dusk // Dawn
2 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Rest in Peace
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Worship
I don't quite have a report because I was very busy myself. LGS had time limits on opening hours so we were capped at 4 rounds. We ran out of room in the primary playing area so had to break out to another. Noise level was half that of a teenage party. Some highlights:
R1: budget boros burn no fetches/pain? Sat next to this match but was too busy so see much
G1: Burn player leaves a rift bolt suspended for 6 rounds before a judge call was made after passing turn when he wanted to have it trigger off while each was at 1-2 life.
G2: Somehow there were tidehollows involved with flicker for hand disruption and T4 landed a worship with a burrenton in play for permanent lock. Son swears he didn't intend it.
2-0: 1-0 . Son claims 5 misplays but autopilot took over. Took him T6 before he realized what his lock meant.
R2: WU control
G1: won
G2: won.
No report here cuz we were busy, sorry. In addition we went home 11pm and I started work today 5am so there. However he said something very familiar in Vegas Legacy GP: DnT ate blue decks for breakfast ("nom nom nom nom")
R3: Restore balance. Table 1.
G1: no report. Lost.
G2: no report. Won.
G3: I actually glanced this one occasionally. Kept 1 land hand with vial, thalia, tidehollow, flicker, etc in hand. Kept 7. On the draw. T1 concealed, vial. T2 tick vial to 1, draw vial, play vial (greedy). T3 Tidehollow disrupt. Opponent's T4 cascade looking for restore balance but dug out 2 cards deep: detention sphere (whew!). In the end opponent was bashed for 8 power on 7 life after vialing in 2 more creature (tidehollow, flickerwisp) on opponent's EOT alongside existing flickerwisp while having restore balance still suspended with 1? 2? counters on it.
2-1: 3-0. Claims 1 misplay here.
R4: Eldrazitron (another player), Table 1. This time he was alert as hell with adrenaline and applied "competitive REL moods" whatever that meant.
G1: Lost. Sideboard in: elspeth, kataki; out: can't remember.
G2: Won.
G3: Won. Opponent was hell bent to get rid of elspeth and he was hell bent to cast it. etron got outgassed (builds these days have reduced top-end threats)
2-1: 4-0.
Walked away with max store credit being the only 4-0. Appears that tidehollow in this shell outpaces TKS, although he claims it's slightly less powerful because opponent gets back the "best choice" to hand.
His afterthoughts: caverns was incredibly hard for value due to the diverse creature types, but it sure helped with displacer. He hated the marsh flats / godless shrines and would've gone for caves of koilos (at home library), as he again had difficulty using the displacers most of the time. And one swamp would help a lot in a fetching landbase.
Thank you. My english can be clumsy at times (not my first language); apologies if I used words in the wrong context
- Eidolon. Punishment mechanic: low cost fast decks. Nearly everything including big mana.
- Harsh mentor. Punishment mechanic: activated abilities. Counters company, lantern control (getting really popular, nearly tier 1), tron, affinity. Good for burn decks that go light on white (e.g. Rakdos, or mono red)
- Ash Zealot. Punishment mechanic: flashback. Storm (let's get that past-in-flames going), BR hollow one (yeah I have choice words for that deck), snapcaster mage based decks
There must be others, but we have a few options available as answers to the general tier-1 meta, depending on the season which obviously gives the opponent no choice. We've even unsuccessfully, of all things, tried mana tithe before.... (yuck)
4 matter reshaper
4 thought-knot seer
4 reality smasher
2 endbringer
1 ulamog, the ceaseless hunger
1 Ugin, the spirit dragon
2 Karn liberated
2 oblivion sower
4 chalice of the void
4 expedition map
1 crucible of worlds
2 warping wail
1 all is dust
4 urza's tower
4 urza's power plant
4 eldrazi temple
2 field of ruin
2 ghost quarter
1 sea gate wreckage
3 wastes
2 Hangerback Walker
2 Warping Wail
2 Smuggler's Copter
1 All is Dust
2 Oblivion Stone
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Dismember
2 Relic of Progenitus
No change in decklist again, and for 3rd week in a row, he get's 1st. Well, I blame WoTC for having their software match us 16 times in 21 modern LGS matches this year alone, so as a father I do the needful.
He was never on the play the entire night. Lost all 3 dice roll. I don't have much of a game report as it's hard writing my own (see the burn forum) while trying to go into details his end as a 13yo who don't take notes for LGS games. So I'll just post highlights.
M1: Matched up with me. I push him up 2-1 and we go for dinner
1-0
M2: WR nahiri prison emrakul
G1: T3 karn. Somewhere there's a warping wail countering a board wipe sorcery.
G2: 2x Blood moons on the board but his boarded in ratchet bomb ticked up to 3 and blew everything up before he spat out all his top end threats (opponents didn't have much to play).
2-0
M3: Counters company.
G1: T3 karn T4 ugin. Yeah, disruption and board wipe later it's hard for opponent to catch up.
G2: Close game. T1 temple map, T2 temple TKS, T3 temple (dunno what) T4 endbringer. Anyway sometime later all is dust. Basically boarded in 7 cards: everything to kill creatures + 1 All is Dust +2 Oblivion Stone +2 Ratchet Bomb +2 Dismember -4 reality smasher -1 ulamog -2 oblivion sower.
3-0
M4: Grixis DS.
G1: T2 thoughtsiezed but top decked a chalice for 1 (lock out)
G2: Somehow he got an oblivion sower out to face a 5/5 angler (lol!) and got a fetch out of it (1 pain source denied).
4-0
3 matches, 6 games. Tier 3, Tier 1, Tier 1
After game comments: hangerback walkers currently the least useful among all the cards out there versus all known T1 or T2/3 decks. He's aware of previous vegas 2017 era advice from SCG premium about them versus mirrors and other decks but disagrees with how oversold it is. Top end threats remain high, and next consideration is bringing down either a ghost quarter or waste (he insists on 3 wastes all year long) to bring in an urborg to work with the sowers
4 monastery swiftspear
4 eidolon of the great revel
1 shard volley
4 lava spike
4 lightning bolt
4 rift bolt
4 bump in the night
4 gonti's mechanitions
4 searing blaze
4 boros charm
2 mountain
2 sacred foundry
2 blood crypt
12 fetches
3 chained to the rocks
3 rakdos charm
3 rain of gore
2 stony silence
2 blood moon
2 grafdigger's cage
I thought about the past games and the number of times I mulligan: nearly 2 out of 9 times I go down to 6 when I hit land starvation on opening hands. Another 1 out of 9 I keep 1 land handers due to good 1 drops and gambling I'm not going against chalice decks during those times (LGS meta decision).
So I decided to go creature removal light, in light of bigger creatures. After all, black-based decks are doing well with fatal pushes to answer against light mana but big creatures so removed the grim lavamancers for speed.
Also, given that I was heavy on black I added a swamp, against ALL burn ethos; however against big mana decks I have 2 blood moons for side, and I sometimes face ponza's/prisons.
I can't afford to have the opponents be one up for mana especially eldrazitron so the chained to the rocks stay in the SB while the paths go.
Given the reasons above, I decided to build the deck like so:
- 19 lands, of which there are 7 sources of mana: 2 sacred 2 crypts 2 mountains and 1 swamp. This means the single shard volley can work and not interfere with bump in the night on long drawn games
- 19 lands to reduce mulligans. 7 card hands with 1 swamp and another red source still works with 4x bump and 4x gonti's and work better with sideboards (rain of gore, rakdos charm)
- swamp and blood moon.
- shard volley for finishers
- I lost to counters company 0-2 the last time; since 1 swamp goes to the main and I have blood moons on the play against big mana and have enough 2 mana post board against chalice on 1, 3 rakdos charms are enough. Therefore +2 grafdigger's cage
- Also remembering my loss against BR hollow one. Therefore definitely the +2 grafdigger's cage
M1: Matched up with son. Seriously man !@#!@$$-ing WoTC software sucks: 16 out of 21 modern LGS events and we've been paired up 1st match. Push eldrazitron son up 2-1.
0-1
M2: White eldrazi and taxes. This version has 4 chalices and 4 paths
G1: On the play. Raced through chalice on T3 and thalia on T4 until I was 2 life he was 1 but he had creatures for lethal next turn but I top decked a searing blaze for 1.
G2: On the draw. In: 2x blood moon 3x rakdos charm, out: 4x bump 1x lava spike (expecting leylines). Goblin guide did most of the work and had rakdos charm in my opening hand which I destroyed the chalice on 1 on T2 but land flooded without much threats to the face
G3: On the play. Out: 3x rakdos charm, in: 2x bump 1x spike (screw the leylines: I'll race or blood moon). He only started with 2 ghost quarters so bought him down really fast with swiftspear, rakdos away his chalice for 1 on T2, raced him fast etc.
1-1
M3: Abzan
G1: On the play. 1 land hand: fetch, swiftspear, spike, bolt, bump, eidolon, gonti's. Never drew a single land thereafter. T1 fetch blood crypt swiftspear, thoughtsiezed away eidolon (??), T2 gonti's then every turn kept throwing to the face
G2: On the draw. In: 3x rakdos charm (against goyf, lingering souls) and 3x rain of gore, out: 4x searing blaze, 1x shard volley, 1x swamp. T1 inquisition (took rain of gore ... signal!), T2 inquisition (took rakdos charm), T3 inquisition, T4 kitchen finks. And lots of removals. 7 life versus 22. Nope.
G3: On the play. In: 4x searing blaze, Out: 3x rakdos charm, 1x rain of gore. Mull to 6 (opening hand had no lands) Very close game, but it came down to this: I had 4 life he had 1 life and I had a gonti's on the board with 1 energy and he had 3 spirits and a lotv. For at least 2 turns (including this one) he could not attack so the gonti's formed a close game lock. If I drew a threat he's a goner. If I drew a fetch he's a goner. I drew a fetch.
2-1
M4: naya zoo
G1: On the draw. Not a fair game. He mulls to 5. Close games though: but manageed to reach a stage where gonti's with 1 energy is on the board and I'm on 5 (out of reach of bolt) and he's on 1 so he can't swing (1 card in hand). If he swings I go to 1 and get 2 energy (gonti becomes live); and then if he bolts immediately I'll gonti immediately for lethal; if he chooses the bolt on my turn I have priority and sorcery a spike/bump (in hand) then he bolts then I respond with gonti's
G2: On the draw. In: 2x blood moon, out: 2x bump. We race, but he's got more creatures at 8 life each and he swings me to 2 while the best I could do was bring him down to 1 (no gonti's)
G3: On the play. No changes. my 11 life versus 4 life with gonti's at 1 energy with 1 fetchland unfetched he makes a mistake of fetching with his bloodstained mire so scoops.
3-1
Blood moon did not see play at all tonight. Neither did rain of gore. One sideboard seen play: 1x chained versus a thalia. Tier 2,2,3 decks. I think I'm quite happy with this build against general meta (e.g. GP), but am now very keen to test more against Tier 1 decks (day 2 goals).
9 games: 1 mulligan, and 3 of them having a gonti's machinations set as a trap at 1 energy.
2-1 BR Hollow One (smuggler's copter was VIP g2+g3)
2-1 Burn
2-0 Lantern Control (chalice was VIP)
2-1 Grixis Death Shadow
4 matter reshaper
4 thought-knot seer
4 reality smasher
2 endbringer
1 ulamog, the ceaseless hunger
1 Ugin, the spirit dragon
2 Karn liberated
2 oblivion sower
4 chalice of the void
4 expedition map
1 crucible of worlds
2 warping wail
1 all is dust
4 urza's tower
4 urza's power plant
4 eldrazi temple
2 field of ruin
2 ghost quarter
1 sea gate wreckage
3 wastes
2 Hangerback Walker
2 Warping Wail
2 Smuggler's Copter
1 All is Dust
2 Oblivion Stone
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Dismember
2 Relic of Progenitus
No let up on top end threats. I've just showed him comments on this thread and he's on full disagreement with removing top end threats in etron as it makes the deck a lot more squishy.
1. There are 5 skullcracks. I think the eidolons going in are of better value. I've had small mana opponents needing to deal with this just as a primary focus just like how they deal with chalices (disclaimer: I do eldrazitron) as first priority before/after it lands
2. The 4 shard volleys interfere with long games if necessary. 6 sources of mana means if you really reach that stage of both flooding out you can flashback to close the game. Usual is 1
3. 4 shard volleys interfere with burst lightning.
I understand the philosophy of this build, and would be happy to see who the pro burn player is that does 300 matches with black? I understand that it's all about closing the game early in return for long stretches but not entire convinced burst lightning and shard volleys are the best outlets for that.
G1: 2-0: amulet titan. Misplay game 1 and unlucky game 2 for opponent. Game 2 I sided in 2x bloodmoon + 1 swamp but didn't get to use it.
G2: concede: paired up with son (eldrazitron): push him up. Went for dinner.
G3: 2-1: infect. Game 1 outrace, game 2 lost to shapers sanctuary + spellskite. Game 3 opponent mis-played/kept by keeping a 2 lander 2 blue creature decks with no blue sources
G4: 0-2: BR hollow one. Game 1 on the draw: both players draw 3 discard 3 at random so lost a land, guide, and swiftspear, leaving 1 land for 1 turn and black spells no permanents. Game 2 I didn't open or draw any of the 4x rakdos charm for GY or go-wide tactics so got overwhelmed.
Disappointing sideboarrd appearances. Will try again.
4 monastery swiftspear
4 eidolon of the great revel
2 grim lavamancer
4 lava spike
4 lightning bolt
4 rift bolt
4 bump in the night
4 gonti's mechanitions
4 searing blaze
4 boros charm
2 sacred foundry
2 blood crypt
12 fetches
3 chained to the rocks
4 rakdos charm
2 stony silence
3 rain of gore
2 blood moon
1 swamp
Greets to my home town readers for tonight's LGS: herein lies my decklist that you asked for. Note: bloodmoon + swamp = flex slots
Noted with thanks. I'll test this at some point of time and comment further (i.e. when I'm against an bigger array of paper decks)
Basically just a temporary cycle.
1) 2 months ago we had midrange rage: abzan was all over SCG. Eldrazitron too (starting to wane: 1 mth ago failed to consistently top8). Disclaimer: I own/play these decks.
2) 1 month ago combo and big mana overtook midrange. Together with control.
3) 3 days, 3 articles in SCG premium talking about how aggro is the way to, for a limited time, answer the current format.
(source: scg premium, tcdecks.net tools->tier decks, SCG + GP modern results)
That's my premise: we're in a position right now (for a very short window -- 1 month/), along with the current creature/aggro-based decks, to deal with the field that's dominated with:
- tron (not sure if grim is going to work here)
- storm (1/3 baral? wait for summoning sickness to pass to deal with their electromancer?
- jeskai (hexproof geist, queller, waste 2 cards against selfless?)
- scapeshift (t4 combo, hardly any creatures)
In all these cases grim enjoys half its ability (to the face)
Against our fellow answers to the existing meta:
- infect (disclaimer: I own/play this) 12 creatures 6-8 protection against 4 searing blaze + 4 eidolons. Ok searing blood's going to be nice here
- lantern control. grim shines MB against bridge, postboard artifact hate but there's leylines post board (activity in the ensnaring bridge group has been very active for past 5 weeks; also ross merriam notes and suggests that today against current meta)
- elves. go fasterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (black burn works) or punish going wider
- counters company. bad matchup 1st game no matter what; SB we stop their infinite life or going wide. Not sure if we have answer to a large ballista.
Might be more. But we're debating the difference of 1 grim lavamancer, and in light of the past results morphing into the current meta and given the 8 example (but upcoming common) scenarios above, because I see the lavamancers slightly less than half useful compared to it's dual ability, I'd vote to have 1 grim instead of 2.
Cheers
-3 mountain, +2 fetches (you'll be surprised: 18 lands needed)
-3 skullcrack (to sb or change to rain of gore sb -- underpowered), +4 boros charm (without them, underpowered and under-utilitied and waste of sacred foundry mb)
-1 shard volley (18 lands....) or -1 grim lavamancer (meta is fast need to be faster)
sb:
-2 searing blood move the skullcracks here or increase rakdos charm
Reasons:
- GY and artifact hate need to be high (dredge, storm, and recently blue moon, and especially lantern control rising to meet current format)
- small creature decks not doing well, less need for searing. Either that or they are rising to meet and race meta but searing blaze and eidolon are more than enough
Worst case: you' on the draw and T2 chalice for 1 meaning you need to do a T2 2-mana destroy artifact (you have only T1 to threat out)
Best case: you're on the play and T2 chalice for 1 meaning you need to do a T3 2-mana destroy artifact (you have only T1 + T2 to threat out)
[1] Traditionally naya burn was greedy too, and destructive revelry was the way to go. Secondary reason: burn was high meta percentage back then (> 6%) and folks put out leyline of sanctity or worship (bant eldrazi) against burn, therefore enchantment removal dealing 2 damage was crucial.
[2] Nowadays with burn meta percentage being low (< 4%) decks don't pack enchantment hate no more. Therefore technically we could get away with enchantment answers highlighted in [1] above.
With [2] in mind, coupled with the current builds of burn being primarily boros, splashing a stomping ground for mana base for destructive revelry x3 or x4 in the sideboard is slowly being phased out. The meta is wide, and besides blood moon (does not slow us much; let other decks deal with enchantment hate to push them down e.g. in GP's) there aren't much leylines of sanctity found. Therefore we're starting to see sideboards pack more smash to smithereens, followed by utility cards that destroy chalices without incurring damage to opponent, which is against the axiom of burn -- utility with primary goal of damage to face:
- shattering spree. Copies cannot be countered. Used when the chalice has landed. Useful against affinity but I've seen a match against affinity in SCG recently when a good affinity player survived 2 shattering sprees.
- wear // tear. Passive no damage answer to both enchantment and artifact hate. I'll leave it to experienced players here to comment on the merits/faults of gameplay with this
- ingot chewer. Evoke cost gets around chalices because CMC is 6(? correct me if wrong). 6 mana later to draw this against etron I think it's pretty much game over with their T3 wurmcoil/karn/smasher/endbringer. Special mention just because I drafted triple lorwyn yesterday lol
- rakdos charm. For rakdos/jund/mardu burn players like two of us here this is my favourite. Non damage answer artifact only hate but utility enough to slow/destroy gameplan especially against storm (nuke their graveyard on past in flames or damage them with their 100 goblins in play); or counters company (graveyard, or their wideness).
Currently etron is not doing too well (my son pilots this, and attributes more luck needed compared to others) in light of other decks. See the forum thread for e-tron: for 2 months now pilots have not been putting up major results in the face of the current meta. Is your mega filled with etron decks?
(editted for shattering spree)