Thank you! I forgot to mention my losses which were humans and tron. The humans match was real close i lost to a top decked Kessig Malcontents (?) I think that is the card. I have to give kudos to Ben Friedman for making that Spellskite interaction public. Here is how my matches went.
Rd 1 - Monored Phoenix 2-1
This deck can be ridiculous, one game he had 3 phoenixes on turn 2. Collective Brutality is way better in this match than its Izzet cousin as it kills all the "swiftspears". Always use ALL THREE MODES given the chance. Barely got there.
Rd 2 - BG Rock 2-0
I feel like my opponent had tough draws and mana issues, either flooding or pinched. That is magic, and in this match I cut a land postboard to lessen our chances of flood even more, as that is the most likely way to win. Also, always take the draw.
Rd 3 - Skred Dragons 2-1
This match was a riot, although I never felt threatened. I lost to turn 1 Blood Moon off 2 SSGs, and hilariously top decked my only swamp on my turn 1. Lol, still lost that one. Do not know how to play around turn 1 moon...
Rd 4 - Monored Phoenix 2-1
Just as close as the match before, Scooze was the entire match. Grafdigger's Cage saved me bc it stopped my opp from flashing back a looting which would have killed me. Don't forget about that when you play cage, which I think is in a great spot right now.
Rd 5 - Humans - 0-2
This matchup is very difficult but I also feel like our opponents feel the same way about us. I think I made a mistake boarding out my Lilis because the games tend to go so long postboard.
Rd 6 - Grixis Shadow - 2-1
Very tough, another matchup where we take the draw. In the end scooze bested his flip-jace, and Liliana is also great obviously.
Rd 7 - Dredge - 2-0
I was pretty lucky to have good openers, scooze in opener game one. As much as it feels great to gain a life and pump yer boy, always hit a dredger first, cut off the engine and it's smooth sailin.
Rd 8 - Tron - 0-2
And there goes my dreams. Game one I kept an opener with 2 push 1 dismember. The rest is history.
Drew with my last opp so we could both get out $$ back, super fun tournament. All the players were super cool, Chicago mtg is a good scene.
That's a great run, on paper I'm surprised that your list was able to beat BG, I've generally found that to be the hardest matchup with this deck because of the holy trifecta of playsets of Push/Trophy/Veil. BG has weird mana issues sometimes for a 2 color deck, I've definitely been on the receiving end of that when I've played it in the past. How did you feel about the K-Command main? I've flirted with the idea but keep convincing myself that I'd rather play Abrupt Decay.
My plan against turn 1 Blood Moon is usually to appeal to my opponent's humanity, which has not been successful so far.
I've become increasingly convinced that we're even if not slightly advantaged against the current builds of Grixis Shadow, how did you end up sideboarding there?
Yeah I agree it was a good run and luck was definitely on my side. In the BG matchup, I actually believe I only boarded a few cards. I believe
-1 fetchland
-1 IOK
-1 Looting
-1 Street Wraith
+1 Maelstrom Pulse
+1 Blood Moon
+2 Fulminator
I would not play blood moon in my board today, it is just too narrow. It is fun getting a UW player or the like occasionally but I think it would be better as something else, Im going to try a terminate.
The K-Command main is something I would most certainly keep. I like having x-amount of instants I can fire off regardless of what I'm against gm 1, and I actually wanted another one in the side. The Pulse can definitely go, it is too slow, I am just torn between a 2nd K-command or Lili, Last Hope. Depends on your meta.
Thank you! I forgot to mention my losses which were humans and tron. The humans match was real close i lost to a top decked Kessig Malcontents (?) I think that is the card. I have to give kudos to Ben Friedman for making that Spellskite interaction public. Here is how my matches went.
Rd 1 - Monored Phoenix 2-1
This deck can be ridiculous, one game he had 3 phoenixes on turn 2. Collective Brutality is way better in this match than its Izzet cousin as it kills all the "swiftspears". Always use ALL THREE MODES given the chance. Barely got there.
Rd 2 - BG Rock 2-0
I feel like my opponent had tough draws and mana issues, either flooding or pinched. That is magic, and in this match I cut a land postboard to lessen our chances of flood even more, as that is the most likely way to win. Also, always take the draw.
Rd 3 - Skred Dragons 2-1
This match was a riot, although I never felt threatened. I lost to turn 1 Blood Moon off 2 SSGs, and hilariously top decked my only swamp on my turn 1. Lol, still lost that one. Do not know how to play around turn 1 moon...
Rd 4 - Monored Phoenix 2-1
Just as close as the match before, Scooze was the entire match. Grafdigger's Cage saved me bc it stopped my opp from flashing back a looting which would have killed me. Don't forget about that when you play cage, which I think is in a great spot right now.
Rd 5 - Humans - 0-2
This matchup is very difficult but I also feel like our opponents feel the same way about us. I think I made a mistake boarding out my Lilis because the games tend to go so long postboard.
Rd 6 - Grixis Shadow - 2-1
Very tough, another matchup where we take the draw. In the end scooze bested his flip-jace, and Liliana is also great obviously.
Rd 7 - Dredge - 2-0
I was pretty lucky to have good openers, scooze in opener game one. As much as it feels great to gain a life and pump yer boy, always hit a dredger first, cut off the engine and it's smooth sailin.
Rd 8 - Tron - 0-2
And there goes my dreams. Game one I kept an opener with 2 push 1 dismember. The rest is history.
Drew with my last opp so we could both get out $$ back, super fun tournament. All the players were super cool, Chicago mtg is a good scene.
I played Jund Shadow at Chicago Regionals and cashed going 6-2-1 (ID rd 9). I played a pretty meta list with graveyard decks in mind and went 2-0 against monored phoenix and smashed dredge.
Scavenging ooze was the best card all day I think he is great in the deck, allowing you to manage your life total in this aggressive meta.
My other wins were skred dragons, bg rock, and grixis shadow. I was glad the deck felt grindy enough in all those matchups. The Spellskite is a card I highly suggest, as you can combine it with a fetchland to take yourself to just about any life total, due to strange rules interactions. It is also useful to redirect Welding Jars. Anyways hope you like my list and I am a firm believer that straight Jund Shadow is a completely viable route in this chalice, blood moon, turn 3 meta.
Aggro/Tempo? I can dig it.
I know I love bloodbraid elf and she is the tempo queen. I have been doing well with a list I'm running, I can't seem to bear to completely leave Liliana and IOK out of my list and I have a few other weird numbers but I have been winning and more importantly having tons of fun. I have not had the problem of having explosive starts, not sure if that is variance, but I really don't like going below six discard spells, that I know is certain.
I'm curious to those who are running a basic mountain how bad the downsides have been. I understand the upside against field of ruin, which is absolutely running rampant right now, but I also can't really wrap my head around how bad it would feel having a land that does not create green or black in the opening hand.
I'm running 19 lands as well, pretty typical, 11 fetch, 2 basic, and the extra land I have added is a second blood crypt. I have noticed that with 19 lands I have taken noticeably less mulligans than before. I'm scared that a basic mountain would lead much more mulligans on average but maybe it's not enough to outweigh the field of ruin effect benefit? Maybe it's just a meta call and neither is correct?
Spooly our minds are treading the same way on this deck. I love it and it's my baby and I love your writeups on it.
Anyway, I am trying cutting blue to go make the mana smoother and sideboard more diverse. I also feel as though the blue spells were counter-productive to the tempo of the deck, which from my experience requires pure aggression. Maybe Im just listening to Reid Duke when he says playing 5c is greedy....
I also think lingering souls main deck helps our worst matchups (grindy/control) and generally hard matchups (affinity comes to mind) more so than matchups in which stubborn denial help us (combo/big mana). Sure, it's nice having that blanket with stub, but a lot of times I feel like I win the matchups I desired it in often enough even if I didn't see it. Stub can also be literally a dead card in certain matchups whereas lingering souls is never a dead card.
I think some number of fulminator and surgical extractions are the post-board way I want to attack these decks, as they go with our aggressive game plan and are often just as devastating. They have utility in other matchups as well (colonnade/snap caster decks/lantern). You can even bring them in the mirror! I'm going hard on the surgicals to test them out but a 2/2 split may be best. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/863411#paper
I've been on pretry much a similar path of getting more blue, but instead of snap (which I tried) I am now using flip jace. I've found him to be even more grindy than snap and at his worst he is a spellskite that eats a removal spell clearing the way for a fatty. The mana base so far has not given me trouble except for when I punt and grab the wrong shock early on or something, and I don't miss shaving a street wraith or iok because I felt the diminishing returns in a lot of games from just jamming 4 of everything. The decks kinda meta'd for my area as I'm sick of getting beat by spell quellers and slippery bogles, but the bolts, spellskite, and engineered explosives have been great and I suggest people toy around with them. I beat a dredge player at regionals by spellskiting my own fetch land for lethal and another bogles player on an interaction with gryffs boon. Just having a flying tarmogoyf made the tourney a success as I went 5-3 punting two matches bc this deck iss sooo hard to play, but so fun and rewarding. Here's my list
Yeah I agree it was a good run and luck was definitely on my side. In the BG matchup, I actually believe I only boarded a few cards. I believe
-1 fetchland
-1 IOK
-1 Looting
-1 Street Wraith
+1 Maelstrom Pulse
+1 Blood Moon
+2 Fulminator
I would not play blood moon in my board today, it is just too narrow. It is fun getting a UW player or the like occasionally but I think it would be better as something else, Im going to try a terminate.
The K-Command main is something I would most certainly keep. I like having x-amount of instants I can fire off regardless of what I'm against gm 1, and I actually wanted another one in the side. The Pulse can definitely go, it is too slow, I am just torn between a 2nd K-command or Lili, Last Hope. Depends on your meta.
Rd 1 - Monored Phoenix 2-1
This deck can be ridiculous, one game he had 3 phoenixes on turn 2. Collective Brutality is way better in this match than its Izzet cousin as it kills all the "swiftspears". Always use ALL THREE MODES given the chance. Barely got there.
Rd 2 - BG Rock 2-0
I feel like my opponent had tough draws and mana issues, either flooding or pinched. That is magic, and in this match I cut a land postboard to lessen our chances of flood even more, as that is the most likely way to win. Also, always take the draw.
Rd 3 - Skred Dragons 2-1
This match was a riot, although I never felt threatened. I lost to turn 1 Blood Moon off 2 SSGs, and hilariously top decked my only swamp on my turn 1. Lol, still lost that one. Do not know how to play around turn 1 moon...
Rd 4 - Monored Phoenix 2-1
Just as close as the match before, Scooze was the entire match. Grafdigger's Cage saved me bc it stopped my opp from flashing back a looting which would have killed me. Don't forget about that when you play cage, which I think is in a great spot right now.
Rd 5 - Humans - 0-2
This matchup is very difficult but I also feel like our opponents feel the same way about us. I think I made a mistake boarding out my Lilis because the games tend to go so long postboard.
Rd 6 - Grixis Shadow - 2-1
Very tough, another matchup where we take the draw. In the end scooze bested his flip-jace, and Liliana is also great obviously.
Rd 7 - Dredge - 2-0
I was pretty lucky to have good openers, scooze in opener game one. As much as it feels great to gain a life and pump yer boy, always hit a dredger first, cut off the engine and it's smooth sailin.
Rd 8 - Tron - 0-2
And there goes my dreams. Game one I kept an opener with 2 push 1 dismember. The rest is history.
Drew with my last opp so we could both get out $$ back, super fun tournament. All the players were super cool, Chicago mtg is a good scene.
Scavenging ooze was the best card all day I think he is great in the deck, allowing you to manage your life total in this aggressive meta.
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Swamp
Creatures
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Street Wraith
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Mishra's Bauble
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Faithless Looting
4 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Fatal Push
2 Dismember
2 Assassin's Trophy
2 Temur Battle Rage
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Kolaghan's Command
3 Collective Brutality
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Spellskite
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Blood Moon
My other wins were skred dragons, bg rock, and grixis shadow. I was glad the deck felt grindy enough in all those matchups. The Spellskite is a card I highly suggest, as you can combine it with a fetchland to take yourself to just about any life total, due to strange rules interactions. It is also useful to redirect Welding Jars. Anyways hope you like my list and I am a firm believer that straight Jund Shadow is a completely viable route in this chalice, blood moon, turn 3 meta.
I know I love bloodbraid elf and she is the tempo queen. I have been doing well with a list I'm running, I can't seem to bear to completely leave Liliana and IOK out of my list and I have a few other weird numbers but I have been winning and more importantly having tons of fun. I have not had the problem of having explosive starts, not sure if that is variance, but I really don't like going below six discard spells, that I know is certain.
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Grim Flayer
3 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Hazoret, the Fervent
1 Ghor-clan Rampager
4 Street Wraith
Spells 23
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Fatal Push
1 Dreadbore
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Polluted Delta
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Blood Crypt
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Fatal Push
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Blood Moon
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
I'm running 19 lands as well, pretty typical, 11 fetch, 2 basic, and the extra land I have added is a second blood crypt. I have noticed that with 19 lands I have taken noticeably less mulligans than before. I'm scared that a basic mountain would lead much more mulligans on average but maybe it's not enough to outweigh the field of ruin effect benefit? Maybe it's just a meta call and neither is correct?
Anyway, I am trying cutting blue to go make the mana smoother and sideboard more diverse. I also feel as though the blue spells were counter-productive to the tempo of the deck, which from my experience requires pure aggression. Maybe Im just listening to Reid Duke when he says playing 5c is greedy....
I also think lingering souls main deck helps our worst matchups (grindy/control) and generally hard matchups (affinity comes to mind) more so than matchups in which stubborn denial help us (combo/big mana). Sure, it's nice having that blanket with stub, but a lot of times I feel like I win the matchups I desired it in often enough even if I didn't see it. Stub can also be literally a dead card in certain matchups whereas lingering souls is never a dead card.
I think some number of fulminator and surgical extractions are the post-board way I want to attack these decks, as they go with our aggressive game plan and are often just as devastating. They have utility in other matchups as well (colonnade/snap caster decks/lantern). You can even bring them in the mirror! I'm going hard on the surgicals to test them out but a 2/2 split may be best.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/863411#paper
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/15-11-17-gLR-deaths-shadow/