R1 twin w
R2 zoo L
R3 merfolk w
R4 jund L
R5 merfolk w
R6 junk w
R7 podless w
R8 affinity w
R9 storm w
R10 burn L
R11 ur delver L
R12 bloom w
R13 rg aggro w
R14 twin w
R15 infect L
Ill try to write up a more detailed report later, pretty bummed to lose to infect and ur delver with never seeing a chalice but had a game against twin where I stuck a chalice on 4 to win which was pretty funny.
I do have a situation puzzle/question on the round where I lost to jund.
He has swamp twilight mire and blood crypt with a dark con and 5/6 goyf.
He's missed land drops and only known card is a terminate.
You are casting an ulamog with no followup, and are at 5 lofe and he's tapped out. What 2 things do you exile and why?
I personally chose his filter and crypt to keep him off bolt and lily and he alpha'd me I blocked his goyf and two turns later before I could slaver lock he flipped a land to bob to bolt me dead. Was unsure whether it was better to just nix his two guys and be at the mercy of a lily(which he might not even have) or to hit goyf and crypt to prevent getting double bolted out and so lily isnt lethal of he hits a land, or to hit dark con and crypt to play around double burn and no lily. Just one of the more tough decisions I felt I had during the tournament that I wanted to share and get insight on.
I would ALWAYS hit his creatures, because in that situation if you are relying on mana screwing him, your chance of doing so are slim because a.) he plays alot of lands in his deck and b.) he is drawing 2x with dark confidant.
If you die to double bolt, so be it - but the chances of him having 2x bolt are slimmer than topdecking the land that he needs with confidant draw in play. If you exile his creatures, the onus is on HIM to provide an answer or he's dead to Ulamog.
Also - quick question about your decklist - I see you've nixed Remand in favor of Mana Leak. Can you explain why and if this was the correct decision for this tournament?
So... no copies of Eldrazi at all in the top-32 of the most recent Modern Open. Why is this deck not doing well in the SCG Opens? I know sometimes the SCG Grinders don't figure out how to play good decks as well as the Pros do at the Pro Tour (see: Mono Red Burn the past two Pro Tours - very little success in SCG but big results at the Pro Tour), but I expected Eldrazi to at least make some appearances outside of one top-10 finish these past two tournaments...
Your best chance is playing Burn, Affinity, Merfolk, or some other fast aggressive deck. That's pretty much it. IF the Bx Edlrazi player is (smartly) loading up on Ghost Quarter and even 1-2 Tectonic Edge, I'd even say that the Tron matchup is in their favor.
Guys, the Heartless Summoning build is completely broken. I mean, it is bonkers. I am playtesting it on Xmage and the deck is crazy good. I am routinely getting stuff like free Thought Knot Seers and 2 mana Oblivion Sowers into turn 4 Kozilek.
Thought-Knot Seer and Kozilek are incredible. I'd play 4 TKS and 2-3 Kozilek in every build at this point going forward. Kozilek might even be better than Ulamog as a top-end threat because when you cast him, you essentially build up a counterwall that the opponent can't fight through easily. Of course, I'd still play Ulamog, but the combination of Kozilek and Ulamog is just insane.
I think the Heartless version with 3-4 Conduit is BETTER than all the Processor versions. It's like the difference between RG Tron and UW or Mono U Tron, to be honest. Ux Tron tries to play a slower game with the big finish, but RG tron just gets to the point and tries to get there as fast as possible. Heartless Eldrazi is the same way - it just accelerates into the end-game rather than try to play fair early on - even though it can still fight on the ground with its Eldrazi.
OMG. That Heartless Summoning All-In Ramp deck is crazy powerful.
Conduit of Ruin into Kozilek or Ulamog is just INSANE, and between Heartless Summoning, Eye of Ugin, Conduit, and Temple, you have so much guaranteed ramp. Thought-Knot Seer as a 4-of in addition to Inquisition and Thoughtseize paves the way for destruction and the deck is almost unbeatable. It's like playing RG Tron with disruption and some midrange game.
I think some version of this will be the strongest Eldrazi deck going forward post-OGW:
I don't see the problem with the Tron matchup. I play 2 Ghost Quarter and 1 Tectonic Edge main, and also play 2-4 Expedition Map main. In the sideboard I play 2 more Ghost Quarter and 1 more Tectonic Edge, and 2-3 Pithing Needle. That combination of cards is enough to make the Tron matchup favorable, imho.
Is Sea Gate Wreckage that good? It seems to me like a niche 1-of or 2-of in certain decks that can empty their hand quickly and also need a long-term stabilizer vs. control. It really doesn't strike me as a universally powerful card.
I know Grove of the Burnwillows is strictly better than Karplusan Forest or Stomping Grounds...
but in say, 100 matches, how often will the life loss from Karplusan Forest or Stomping Grounds *actually* cause you to lose games you otherwise would win with Grove?
Because it seems as if this deck usually uses the Grove to tap for colorless, and uses the artifacts to generate the R and G it needs - about 60% of the time. And the rest of the time when you're tapping the Grove for R or G, losing 1 life if that were Karplusan Forest probably doesn't cause you to lose a game when you are ramping into huge stuff.
Yes, I'm just wondering if this deck is still tier1 if you don't feel like buying Grove of the Burnwillows.
Grove has been hovering from 60-70 for weeks now. Availability is questionable though. Its Karn that should be watched out for as it spiked by $10 in just a day.
Grove is up to $80+ already and probably will settle into the $100+ range in the near future.
Eye of Ugin is so good it seems silly not to play at least 3 in every version of the deck. I personally play 4 because it's the most broken thing the deck is doing, imho.
Remember, with Urborg in play, Eye of Ugin is essentially like playing Mishra's Workshop + Demonic Tutor in one land.
I would ALWAYS hit his creatures, because in that situation if you are relying on mana screwing him, your chance of doing so are slim because a.) he plays alot of lands in his deck and b.) he is drawing 2x with dark confidant.
If you die to double bolt, so be it - but the chances of him having 2x bolt are slimmer than topdecking the land that he needs with confidant draw in play. If you exile his creatures, the onus is on HIM to provide an answer or he's dead to Ulamog.
Also - quick question about your decklist - I see you've nixed Remand in favor of Mana Leak. Can you explain why and if this was the correct decision for this tournament?
Thought-Knot Seer and Kozilek are incredible. I'd play 4 TKS and 2-3 Kozilek in every build at this point going forward. Kozilek might even be better than Ulamog as a top-end threat because when you cast him, you essentially build up a counterwall that the opponent can't fight through easily. Of course, I'd still play Ulamog, but the combination of Kozilek and Ulamog is just insane.
Conduit of Ruin into Kozilek or Ulamog is just INSANE, and between Heartless Summoning, Eye of Ugin, Conduit, and Temple, you have so much guaranteed ramp. Thought-Knot Seer as a 4-of in addition to Inquisition and Thoughtseize paves the way for destruction and the deck is almost unbeatable. It's like playing RG Tron with disruption and some midrange game.
I think some version of this will be the strongest Eldrazi deck going forward post-OGW:
4 Conduit of Ruin
3 Kozilek's Channeler
3 Oblivion Sower
3 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
2 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Sanctum of Ugin
4 Eye of Ugin
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Tectonic Edge
4 Heartless Summoning
2 Dismember
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
2 All Is Dust
but in say, 100 matches, how often will the life loss from Karplusan Forest or Stomping Grounds *actually* cause you to lose games you otherwise would win with Grove?
Because it seems as if this deck usually uses the Grove to tap for colorless, and uses the artifacts to generate the R and G it needs - about 60% of the time. And the rest of the time when you're tapping the Grove for R or G, losing 1 life if that were Karplusan Forest probably doesn't cause you to lose a game when you are ramping into huge stuff.
Yes, I'm just wondering if this deck is still tier1 if you don't feel like buying Grove of the Burnwillows.
Grove is up to $80+ already and probably will settle into the $100+ range in the near future.
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Abrupt Decay
Go!
Remember, with Urborg in play, Eye of Ugin is essentially like playing Mishra's Workshop + Demonic Tutor in one land.
If that thing were 2<>, then we'd really be talking "broken".