I stopped running "Blue" Manaless Dredge. The free counterspell aspect had a nice appeal, but my win-rate had definitely lowered (I tested Blue for the most part of 2015, while I ran the "Fearless" version 2013-early 2015). Having 4 Force of Will and X amount of Disrupting Shoal it had an extremely small factors of winning through 4 and 5 round tournaments. I countered a Rest In Peace and Tormod's Crypt once or twice, but a lot of the time they were coming down for cards like Deathrite Shaman (which Contagion/Sickening Shoal synergize better in our heavily black deck, or at times DRS isn't a card we care about if we're packing a Phantasmagorian + Street Wraith starting hand).
Anyways, my "once in a while" tournament report.
Win a Box, 19 (!!!) people
Unfortunately, Goblins (and any aggro, burn, or attack based deck) are one of our best match-ups. I did a quick combo kill game one, and he just mulliganed to his grave-hate cards games 2 & 3. Maybe I would of won had I kept the free-counterspell package in, but it's very likely he could of just killed me turn 3-4 anyway with his nuts some of his hands were. Red had a very good day in general, our Legacy scene is relatively small and a lot of people came out. A lot of Delver and Death & Taxes players were eliminated, and the top 8 ended up being extremely odd (2 Burn, Dredge, Manaless, ANT, Goblins, Bant, Lands). Other decks in the field were Aggro Loam, Oops All Spells, Miracles, Merfolk, Grixis Control I think.
It was a very fun tournament, but also disheartening. I felt like my deck was prepared for everything but I was constantly paired against the fringe decks. I ended up 8th (only x-2 in top) but my draws against Bloom were extremely poor besides game 3 of the top*. I thought Magus of the Moon was an extremely narrow card that locked us out of the game, but it might be worth one sideboard slot because that matchup is horrendous even with Aven Mindcensors, Path to Exile, Reclamation Sage, etc.
* i played a turn 2 Bird and a Path to Exile on his Titan. Turn 3 i played Reclamation Sage on his Amulet of Vigor. Turn 4 Eternal Witness my Path to exile his 2nd titan. Then turn 5 a Restoration Angel of my Witness for the same Path again on his 3rd Titan. I still died to his 4th Titan two turns later... what an awful matchup.
Another tournament report. I've been running 4 Force of Will as mentioned in the past, but I finally got my hands on Disrupting Shoals.
1-1 Lands
2-0 Grixis Control
0-2 Jeskai Ascendency
2-0 BG Pox
2-1-1 (5th out of 12)
I still think the "fearless" version is better, but I've had fun trying a lot of different ways to streamline the blue version.
Also, this was a win a box tourny where it cut to top 4 so booooo on 5th. The only reason I got a tie against the Lands player was because he was absurdly slow at playing and wasn't maindecking a Bokuja Bog!
A slight misunderstanding. It has been a beating against decks that are aggressive. But you are correct, it doesnt work against Twin. I think i'm still okay with it being a 1-of in my maindeck, though i'm trying not to clog up the higher curve too much.
I played Kiki Chord at a PPTQ last week. One problem I seem to be having is long games & matches. Besides one round it seemed like every match nearly went to time. I ended up 3-2-1... not terrible for never testing the deck before tournament (just goldfished proxies all week, finished building the deck that very morning). I took my draw one round with him being at 1 life, and my 2nd lose on exactly turn 5 of Time. I've tried speeding up my playing, but even at playtesting at home our game 1 can be 25-30 minutes.
I have added 1 Archangel of Tithes. I was scared of the mana requirement, but it hasn't been a problem in the few games I played. It's a beating. Against Twin and Grixis Control I'm almost tempted to sideboard a Cavern of Souls (naming Angel for Resto, Archangel, and Linvala) but maybe that is getting too ambitious. Those 2 match-ups feel like they take night and day.
A lot of posts since last night. Amulet Bloom is never in my area so i didnt have a lot of testing. He killed me game 1 on turn 2. Game 2 i hit Slaughter Pact, Echoing Truth, and Pact of Negation. The game went on a bit and i lost to never hitting 6 mana.
Infect has always been terrible and i groaned when I saw that was my top 8 matchup at the PPTQ. I had taken out Favor of the Mighty for a Laboratory Maniac (for the surge of Collected Company decks, a great matchup other than when infinite life occurs).
Been a while but I managed another top 8. I got 5th at a PPTQ the other day, losing to our worst match up, Infect, in the quarterfinals. I'll post my list later, but it isn't too radically different from my earlier one on the front page of the primer. Just some tweaks here and there and i'm still on fetchlands. My only other loss was Amulet Bloom. Rest of the field that day were usually fair or great match ups.
Decided to finally do a new take on Manaless and try a quasi blue version. I have 4 Force of Will, but I couldn't find 2-4 Disrupting Shoal before the tournament. Had I found Disrupting Shoals I probably would of maindecked the FOW, but I figured siding it in either games 2 or 3 as a surprise factor against graveyard hate and general blow outs (killing their own dudes to exile my Bridges, etc.) would be a safe bet.
It was a good meta full of Storm, RUG Delver, 12-Post, D&T, Shardless BUG, Esper Deathblade, so of course I got paired against my usual opponents I face instead....
2-1 Burn
0-2 Death & Taxes
2-0 Elves
2-0 Burn 3-1
(4th out of 15)
I changed my sideboard around a bit. No one in my area plays Show & Tell or Omnitell so i took out the 4 Ashen Rider. I also use to rock Serra Avatar in my side, but the only person with Imperial Painter sold their deck. At larger IQ's or SCG Open's I would definitely play these though, especially with how popular Omnitell has gotten in recent months. 4 Mindbreak Trap are also solid at larger tournaments.... Storm can be a nasty match-up, and at SCG IQ's right now it is doing well.
Nothing too exciting. Historically and statisically speaking, D&T has been a good match-up for me for the 2 years I've played the deck, and I've been on a losing streak against it the last 2-3 tournaments. Unfortunate but it happens. Game 2 all 4 of my Bridges were in my last 12 cards of the deck.
I didn't get to Force that much. It wasn't that I never had an extra blue card in my hand, it was just that it was never in my starting hand. I usually always did start out with a Gitaxian Probe, Narcomoeba, or even a Whirlpool Rider in my starting 8. My opening Dredging usually hit a Force though. But I mean, this is a very small sample of test results though. It was pretty sweet when it did come up. I was able to stop a blow out from removing 2 of my Bridges from my yard, which the proceeding zombie horde won the game promoptly after. I also was able to counter 1 Grave hate card in the night. Better one than none.
After sideboarding the blue deck does feel clunkier. Dredging Forces are dead dredges especially when you could be dredging away the Ichorid fodder that you sided out. But it was nice to have more reactive tools than just Cabal Therapy and Chancellor. The night ended up 3-1, with me at 4th out of 15. I will be testing it out much more. I think one of the better starting hands for blue (after draw, before discard) was:
2 Gitaxian Probe, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Force of Will, 1 Phantasmagorian, 2 Dredgers, 1 Bridge
It was pretty much the ideal hand with the blue version, as you discard the Phantasmagorian, using the ability to discard the 2 dredgers and bridge, and can hold up a Force of Will with a Narcoemoeba while going crazy on your Probes. The only way it could of gotten better was -1 Gitaxian and +1 Street Wraith, thus ending an End of Turn cycle/dredge so turn 2 Ichorid's or Nether Shadows are possible (which can also set up the very rare but very fun turn 2 kill)
What do people think of Back to Basics in the deck? It is effectively a Blood Moon/1-card win condition against a handful of decks (if you have ever seen Painter Servant and Stompy Decks just smash against greedy mana bases). I'm aware it has contraditions with City of Traitors and Ancient Tomb, so am I thinking too greedily? Seems decent against a discard heavy hand as a good top-deck, greedy mana bases, some bad match-ups. Thoughts? Has this been tested in the MD or SB before?
Her land count was pretty high, so i cut an Island. It's been fine.
I just don't see the advantage of Snapcaster except as win-more. I started off with Snapcaster and it mostly seems better only when you're comboing. In terms of defending yourself in the early game, I like the aspect of Time Walking and cantrip in one card. Plus, there is always the aspect of Remanding your own Brain Freeze or other spell during the combo.
In reason/advantage in having Stroke of Genius over Blue Sun's Zenith?
While the "Fearless Spy" version has overall done well for me, I think with the SCG St Louis Legacy Open in sight later this year, I'm going to try the blue version of Manaless. It hasn't really put up impressive results yet, but through some intense trading of rotating Standard cards the last 4 weeks I have acquired 4 Force of Will, so I figured I can go easily pick up some Disrupting Shoal and try it out. Being able to fight Grafdigger's Cage and Rest in Peace is really appealing. The Fearless version is really good for 3-5 round tournaments, but blue in theory seems strong for longer tournaments.
Any thoughts on it? I originally thought it looked clunky but I'm starting to come around.
Long time, no talk. I haven't played a lot of Modern lately, most Legacy, but I saw they were posting the results from States last weekend. As you might be aware, States is no longer an big tournament circuit, but I did take notice Ad Nauseam had some decent finishes. They have only posted about 15 States out of 50, but it took 1st in Pennsylvania, as well as some other top 8 appearances.
Golgari Thug says more than Dredge 4? THIS IS WYLD.
Maybe I should play with my English ones and not German... I have Stinkweed Imp and GGT memorized, but I didn't even think about Thug. Haha, oh Magic. I've played the deck for a 1+ year, and never came across this situation. Even when they manage to Stifle triggers, I am ready to remember the untap, upkeep Ichorid + Nether Shadow triggers on Flayer before I fail to draw. I went through my deck several times trying to figure out an out before shaking hand. But hey, good lessons to learn at tournaments like this and not IQ's, GP's, and Opens. Thanks mate!
I've had a pretty sweet roll streamrolling with Manaless the last few months at the locals, but we all have our bad luck. Played a 5-rounder in a out-of-town event. Started off real strong and just dropped the ball when it mattered. Oh well, I wasn't bitter, it was a great learning experience.
2-0 Reanimator
2-0 Death + Taxes
1-2 Death + Taxes
0-2 U.B. Tezzeret
1-2 Punishing Nic Fit
It was 18 or 19 players, I think? Had it been 4 rounds I could of just double-drew into top 8, but I couldn't lock up any of the last games rounds 3-5. Tezzeret is just an awful match-up as is with maindeck Leyline of the Void and Grafdigger's Cage, and they can literally just sideboard into 6-9 more cards that wreck us. Death and Taxes in general is a favorable match-up, and the losses were fair. Game 3 I couldn't combo (Thalia) so I had to zombie beat-down, and I was only making incremental gains between the Germ token having Batterskull AND Jitte on it. Swing for 10, they gain 8, swing for 15, they gain 8, swing for 17, they gain 8... The Sword of Fire and Ice finally did it in. I put her to 4 but between the Mom giving black-protection from Nether Shadows and Zombie tokens, the Sword gave pro-blue so the 1 Narcomoeba I was holding back couldn't hold off the onslaught. They were fantastic games, and I was not mad because it reminded me how much I love legacy. Punishing Nic Fit seemed like a good match-up, but they just dedicate their entire sideboard to combo decks so it was pretty intense, grindy games. I had probably the sweetest non-combo hand I could ever ask for game one by attacking for 11 and having 20 power on board turn 3 before he scooped.
It was fun though. For smaller events I like Noxious Revival. In smaller events people who don't play legacy often are prone to running lesser seen cards like Extirpate. I found out the hard way when I was in the combo, in response to the Dread Return on Flayer he extracted it. I guess Serra Avatar would of solved this problem but it just wasn't a card I had thought to bring in this matchup/situation, so giving us another drawstep to bring back 8 creatures with haste would of been nice. Revival would of also trumped his Volrath's Stronghold when it would be crucial.
Anyways, my "once in a while" tournament report.
Win a Box, 19 (!!!) people
2-0 UR
2-0 Grixis Delver
2-0 Burn
I.D. Burn
I.D. Bant
Top 8
1-2 Goblins
Unfortunately, Goblins (and any aggro, burn, or attack based deck) are one of our best match-ups. I did a quick combo kill game one, and he just mulliganed to his grave-hate cards games 2 & 3. Maybe I would of won had I kept the free-counterspell package in, but it's very likely he could of just killed me turn 3-4 anyway with his nuts some of his hands were. Red had a very good day in general, our Legacy scene is relatively small and a lot of people came out. A lot of Delver and Death & Taxes players were eliminated, and the top 8 ended up being extremely odd (2 Burn, Dredge, Manaless, ANT, Goblins, Bant, Lands). Other decks in the field were Aggro Loam, Oops All Spells, Miracles, Merfolk, Grixis Control I think.
2-0 Naya Zoo
2-1 UR(g) Delver
0-1 Amulet Bloom
1-2 8-Rack
2-1 Storm
Top
1-2 Amulet Bloom
It was a very fun tournament, but also disheartening. I felt like my deck was prepared for everything but I was constantly paired against the fringe decks. I ended up 8th (only x-2 in top) but my draws against Bloom were extremely poor besides game 3 of the top*. I thought Magus of the Moon was an extremely narrow card that locked us out of the game, but it might be worth one sideboard slot because that matchup is horrendous even with Aven Mindcensors, Path to Exile, Reclamation Sage, etc.
* i played a turn 2 Bird and a Path to Exile on his Titan. Turn 3 i played Reclamation Sage on his Amulet of Vigor. Turn 4 Eternal Witness my Path to exile his 2nd titan. Then turn 5 a Restoration Angel of my Witness for the same Path again on his 3rd Titan. I still died to his 4th Titan two turns later... what an awful matchup.
1-1 Lands
2-0 Grixis Control
0-2 Jeskai Ascendency
2-0 BG Pox
2-1-1 (5th out of 12)
I still think the "fearless" version is better, but I've had fun trying a lot of different ways to streamline the blue version.
Also, this was a win a box tourny where it cut to top 4 so booooo on 5th. The only reason I got a tie against the Lands player was because he was absurdly slow at playing and wasn't maindecking a Bokuja Bog!
I have added 1 Archangel of Tithes. I was scared of the mana requirement, but it hasn't been a problem in the few games I played. It's a beating. Against Twin and Grixis Control I'm almost tempted to sideboard a Cavern of Souls (naming Angel for Resto, Archangel, and Linvala) but maybe that is getting too ambitious. Those 2 match-ups feel like they take night and day.
Infect has always been terrible and i groaned when I saw that was my top 8 matchup at the PPTQ. I had taken out Favor of the Mighty for a Laboratory Maniac (for the surge of Collected Company decks, a great matchup other than when infinite life occurs).
It was a good meta full of Storm, RUG Delver, 12-Post, D&T, Shardless BUG, Esper Deathblade, so of course I got paired against my usual opponents I face instead....
2-1 Burn
0-2 Death & Taxes
2-0 Elves
2-0 Burn
3-1
(4th out of 15)
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Shambling Shell
4 Phantasmagorian
4 Ichorid
4 Nether Shadow
4 Narcomoeba
4 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Balustrade Spy
4 Street Wraith
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Dread Return
4 Force of Will
2 Whirlpool Rider
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Contagion
3 Mindbreak Trap
I changed my sideboard around a bit. No one in my area plays Show & Tell or Omnitell so i took out the 4 Ashen Rider. I also use to rock Serra Avatar in my side, but the only person with Imperial Painter sold their deck. At larger IQ's or SCG Open's I would definitely play these though, especially with how popular Omnitell has gotten in recent months. 4 Mindbreak Trap are also solid at larger tournaments.... Storm can be a nasty match-up, and at SCG IQ's right now it is doing well.
Nothing too exciting. Historically and statisically speaking, D&T has been a good match-up for me for the 2 years I've played the deck, and I've been on a losing streak against it the last 2-3 tournaments. Unfortunate but it happens. Game 2 all 4 of my Bridges were in my last 12 cards of the deck.
I didn't get to Force that much. It wasn't that I never had an extra blue card in my hand, it was just that it was never in my starting hand. I usually always did start out with a Gitaxian Probe, Narcomoeba, or even a Whirlpool Rider in my starting 8. My opening Dredging usually hit a Force though. But I mean, this is a very small sample of test results though. It was pretty sweet when it did come up. I was able to stop a blow out from removing 2 of my Bridges from my yard, which the proceeding zombie horde won the game promoptly after. I also was able to counter 1 Grave hate card in the night. Better one than none.
After sideboarding the blue deck does feel clunkier. Dredging Forces are dead dredges especially when you could be dredging away the Ichorid fodder that you sided out. But it was nice to have more reactive tools than just Cabal Therapy and Chancellor. The night ended up 3-1, with me at 4th out of 15. I will be testing it out much more. I think one of the better starting hands for blue (after draw, before discard) was:
2 Gitaxian Probe, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Force of Will, 1 Phantasmagorian, 2 Dredgers, 1 Bridge
It was pretty much the ideal hand with the blue version, as you discard the Phantasmagorian, using the ability to discard the 2 dredgers and bridge, and can hold up a Force of Will with a Narcoemoeba while going crazy on your Probes. The only way it could of gotten better was -1 Gitaxian and +1 Street Wraith, thus ending an End of Turn cycle/dredge so turn 2 Ichorid's or Nether Shadows are possible (which can also set up the very rare but very fun turn 2 kill)
I just don't see the advantage of Snapcaster except as win-more. I started off with Snapcaster and it mostly seems better only when you're comboing. In terms of defending yourself in the early game, I like the aspect of Time Walking and cantrip in one card. Plus, there is always the aspect of Remanding your own Brain Freeze or other spell during the combo.
In reason/advantage in having Stroke of Genius over Blue Sun's Zenith?
Geesh.
MUD has been putting up consistent results for a few months now as well. Refreshing.
The Reanimate in Team America.... wat
Any thoughts on it? I originally thought it looked clunky but I'm starting to come around.
Link here.
Maybe I should play with my English ones and not German... I have Stinkweed Imp and GGT memorized, but I didn't even think about Thug. Haha, oh Magic. I've played the deck for a 1+ year, and never came across this situation. Even when they manage to Stifle triggers, I am ready to remember the untap, upkeep Ichorid + Nether Shadow triggers on Flayer before I fail to draw. I went through my deck several times trying to figure out an out before shaking hand. But hey, good lessons to learn at tournaments like this and not IQ's, GP's, and Opens. Thanks mate!
2-0 Reanimator
2-0 Death + Taxes
1-2 Death + Taxes
0-2 U.B. Tezzeret
1-2 Punishing Nic Fit
It was 18 or 19 players, I think? Had it been 4 rounds I could of just double-drew into top 8, but I couldn't lock up any of the last games rounds 3-5. Tezzeret is just an awful match-up as is with maindeck Leyline of the Void and Grafdigger's Cage, and they can literally just sideboard into 6-9 more cards that wreck us. Death and Taxes in general is a favorable match-up, and the losses were fair. Game 3 I couldn't combo (Thalia) so I had to zombie beat-down, and I was only making incremental gains between the Germ token having Batterskull AND Jitte on it. Swing for 10, they gain 8, swing for 15, they gain 8, swing for 17, they gain 8... The Sword of Fire and Ice finally did it in. I put her to 4 but between the Mom giving black-protection from Nether Shadows and Zombie tokens, the Sword gave pro-blue so the 1 Narcomoeba I was holding back couldn't hold off the onslaught. They were fantastic games, and I was not mad because it reminded me how much I love legacy. Punishing Nic Fit seemed like a good match-up, but they just dedicate their entire sideboard to combo decks so it was pretty intense, grindy games. I had probably the sweetest non-combo hand I could ever ask for game one by attacking for 11 and having 20 power on board turn 3 before he scooped.
It was fun though. For smaller events I like Noxious Revival. In smaller events people who don't play legacy often are prone to running lesser seen cards like Extirpate. I found out the hard way when I was in the combo, in response to the Dread Return on Flayer he extracted it. I guess Serra Avatar would of solved this problem but it just wasn't a card I had thought to bring in this matchup/situation, so giving us another drawstep to bring back 8 creatures with haste would of been nice. Revival would of also trumped his Volrath's Stronghold when it would be crucial.
Lessons learned. Good times.