Well i installed and tried to extract the Guilds data.. it did it perfectly but, as soon as i hover up on the extract option under the file menu it crashes.. for the life of me i cant seem to manage to export it to another format at all..
Hey guys well.. ive been updating my MWS ( to me is still the best Application to build decks and keep track of everything)... but i didnt had time to share.. so now that i havce some ill start doing it..
Anyway i wont re post the spoiler txt file since it has been posted here before but.. since nobody seems to be interested on MWS these days i believe its up to me.
Yup, this Masterbase ( goblin hero), or the txt patch seem to be pretty unstable.. im getting the same error as above ... and for the life of me i cannot figure out how to fix it..
Well i totally scrubed out at the pro tour hahaa.. I must say that i dont feel skred was a bad choice though, i was totally unlucky and without going into detail heres what i experienced.
Round 1 vs ur counter burn control.
This basically was my worst nightmare, it was basically a solinter twin's plan b, bolts, electrolyze, snapcaster, batterskulls, pia and kia nalar and a lot of counters and a lot of islands. I even resolved a boil on game 2 but i kept drawing lands after and he got back into the game and burn me, totally unlucky.
Round 2 vs soul sisters.
I playwd a turn 3 koth and protect it to ultimate him.. He then played runed halo naming mountain (dummy hahhaa) then o sat on my snow covered mountains to kill him but he top decked his second runed halo a turn later damn.. The game stalled for a mulliom turns, he gaining tons of life with martyr and proclamation, and me waiting for stormbreaths and relics.. I eventually drew 2 dragons, he wasted a wrath of god on a reckoner, thwn on a dragon, so i was certain to win i had 18 land in play with koth ultimate and another koth with 12 counters a mounstrous dragon and he could only loop martyr since he wouldn't be ablw to deal a single point of damage at me, i was using 2 scrying sheets a turn trying to find a relic and i found the first one in my last 5 cards of the deck and he being at 200 life so i conceded. I managed to curve an easy win on game 2 with an early moon, koth and dragon so it was a draw... Damn luck.. I should have won that first game.
Round 3 vs ug infect
One of our best matchups right? Well i lost game one, i had 2 skred and 1 bolt he drew a 4th threat and i got nothing..
On game 2 i played a turn 3 blood moon and he o ly had a breeding pool and a nexus that hit me for 5, hw concedes 2 turns later. On game 3 i kept a hand with 1 anger of thw gods, 1 bolt, 1 skred, 1 ratchet bomb 1 blood moon and 2 mountains... O never got the 3rd land os siman so eventually i died.. Damn again.
Round 4 vs ug infect
I started so played a land thwn he played gitaxian probe i revealed simian, moon and 5 lands he was shocked and promptly went for a forest and played an elf, i went for turn 2. Moon, he hit me for 3 after puttimg a rancor on the elf and leaved one mana open, i drew anger of the gods and played it he showed me apostoles blessing and a groundswell so i conceded. Game 2 i landed the 3rd tuen moon having killed his hierarch and agent before with a simian.. He conceded a turn later. On game 3 i mulled to 6 he played a hierarch that i didnt kill cause i only had one skred he played an elf ñrotected it and empied his hand to kill me, i never drew a 3rd land... Again...
Round 5 vs boros burn
I won game 1 killing every single creatire he played and racing him with koth, unlikely win but not impossible. On game 2 i played a turn 1 dragons claw and ride it for a million turns while drawing 12 or more lands, i never got a single beater, and although i had it color locked with a moon, he got 3 eidolons 3 rift bolts 2 ligbting bolts, 3 goblin guides 3 lava spikes and 1 skullcrack and managed to kill me in the end.. What a disappointment.. I lost game 3 because of guess what? I kwpt a 2 land hand again, with dragons claw and 2 bolts, i never got a 3rd land.. Pfffff
Hey guys well im bac with that second tourney matchup.
Match 1 Vs UG infet:
Game 1: i kept a hand of 1 bolt, 1 molten rain, 1 relic, 3 mountain and a koth not knowing what to expect. i bolted a noble hierarch, molten rained a nexus, but eventually i never got another bolt nor skred, he played a second nexus that killed me, in the end i had 4 koths in hand.. just awful.
SB plan: I boarded in 2 spellskites, and 2 crumble to dust and took 2 koth and 2 dragons out.
Game 2: I kept a hand with 1 bolt, 1 skred, 1 anger of the gods, 1 spellkite 1 scrying sheet and 2 mountain, everyting went ok but i had play all my cards and flooded with lands, eventually he got me with his 3rd blighted agent and become inmense.
Just awful, this match is usually pretty easy but hey.. thats magic i guess..
Match 2 Vs 8 rack:
Game 1: I must say i havent tested vs this match before so when i saw what it was i inmediately thought im screwed.. then i realize that i have 3 meaningful cards to help me and all the rest suck so hard, relic cause it will help me top deck, scrying sheets so i can maintain myself vs liliana, and my only way to victory is koth cause he dont have anything to deal with him if i can top deck it. As i thought the game went long.. scrying sheets was the all star helping me to not take damage of the racks, eventualy he ultimate dliliana taking 3 lands and i was taking 1 damage per turn and sometimes 2, but in the end i could top deck a koth and beat him with him.
SB plan: not a lot i could get in, as almost always i took 2 spellkites in cause of his dismembers and murderous cut. and 2 perilous vault ( and yeah i wish then they were ratchet bombs too).
Game 2: it as asically a rehash of game 1 minus my relic helping me deal with ravens crime.. i ended up losing this time.
Game 3: i had 2 simian, koth, relic 2 mountain and a dragon, so i played the relic, he played IOK and took one simian then i drew another mountain and played it, he decided to play a waste not instead of discarding me wich a lowed me to play koth on turn 3 and eventually he got him..:)
Pretty nasty match, its all about the top deck, id say its hard, and i hope to see very few of those in Atlanta.
Match 3 Vs UW Gifts tron:
Game 1: This match is pretty hard the absolute worst of all the TRON variants, he has counters that are great against us, he has signets so the moon is not great... well.. i played a very grindy match even though i played a second turn blood moon, then i played boros reckoner 3 times wich he proceded to use path to exile on the 3 of them allowed me to get 11 lands in play so i was condescend and mana leak proof to be able to drop a koth that got cryptic commanded and i followed with a dragon that eventually got him.. he did played a 7h turn karn taking away the dragon but i had a second copy in my hand.
SB plan: I took 2 shattering spree, 2 spellskite, 2 pithing needle and 2 rumple to dust in, and 4 anger of the gods, 1 blasphemous act, 1 koth, and 2 skreds out.
Game 2: he played me an urzas mine turn 1, urzas tower and signet turn 2, urza spower plant and ugin on turn 3 while i was casting 2 relics and a reckoner.. i couldnt do anything and he got me with ugin all the way to his ultimate.
Game 3: this was the grindiest of the grinds.. he started with leyline of sanctity in play, i played a relic turn 1, a reckoner using a simian on turn 2, and a moon on turn 3 pressuring him.. he played a sun droplet, and i played a koth attacking for 7, the game went on and he eventually played 3 timely reinforcements and countered a dragon, then bounced my koth, i playe dit again and it got countered but i had another, i must have dealt more than 50 damage at the end.. he played an elesh norn from hand and a second sun droplet,i played a pithing needle naming ugin and eventually got to ultimated koth while he had 7 counters on him then i proceded killing the elsh with the mountains and bashing with mountains and reckoner until i succeded.. he was left with iona and unburial rites on his hand at the end of the game, caus ehe never got a 3rd white mana enabler and my relic prevented him to iscard both to all those thirst for knowledges he played..
Overall a very very tough match, if it becomes more popular i dont want to keep playing skred haha..
Match 4 Vs UG infect again:
Game 1.- I drew a normal hand.. bolt, bolt, skred, anger, rekconer, lands... and utterly destroyed him.
SB plan: the same as before.
Game 2. He sat there not playing a isngle guy until he played 3 wild defiances, then played an elf and landed a nexus,i didnt got a moon, so i took car eo fthe elf with an anger of the gods, then the nexus killed me cause of the wild defiances.
Game 3: I got my blood moon this time and he couldnt manage to survive long enough to get rid of the 2 spellskites and 2 bolts and one koth bashing him.
Anyways.. i really dont think infect is a problem but never underestimate it it is too explosive.
Ok guys im off.. i hope any of you find this helpful.. ill be back after the pro tour to let you know how i went with the deck.. cheers.
At first it was 2 chandra and 4 koth, i change that because thunderbreak really hurts me on my mana curve, then i traded the simians for mind stones and still the deck felt slow, as for the chandra.. there wasnt a time when i wanted to play her over a stormbreath dragon except qhen i needed a threat and a sweeper at the same time biut i had to do -4 to kill some guys and it idnt help either..
so far im not likeing both the dragon nor the chandra.. but specially the dragon it really hurts me on my koth plan..:P
I guess im going back to eckoner, although yeah its not great at this moment bu it hits on curve.. although maybe a fulminator mage would be better i believe that we really need something else to play on turn 3 or to accel to if we dont have a bloo dmoon on turn 2...
Anyway ill do a brief report of the 2 modenr opens i played this past weekend:
Tourney number 1:
Match 1 Vs Abzan midrange:
Game 1: I got a turn 2 moon using a simian and stalled th egame for 3 turns until he got a forest playing ascavenging ooze then i played a koth -2 andplayed anger of the gods, he followed with a tarmogoyf which i ingored ( he was a 1/2, so i played stormbreath and untapped island and hit him for 8, he attacked koth and passed th turn.. i played a second dragon and he conceded.
SB plan: I got 2 spellskites, in and took 1 koth and 1 reckoner out.
Game 2:he got a second turn thalia which i couldnt kill for 3 turns but i played a 3rd turn reckoner, a 4th turn blood moon, and waited, he had played a tarmogoyf and arhino hen tapped for another rhino he was at 17 so back to 19, i bolted him at the end of turn and on my turn played blasphemous act leaving him on 1 and me being at 2, i then waited 4 turns to get a bolt, dragon, koth or molten rain but he got a plains first and lingering souls.. i just got lands, relics and moons.. so i lost
Game 3: he destroyed my hand playing Inquisition on turn 1 and 2 thoughtseizes on turn 2 taking a reckoner, a relic and on the last one he took a blasphemous act over ablood moon.. i skreded his ooze and angered the lingering tokens he had over the next few turns, then i molten rain his only plains and played my blood moon.. to my surprise he didnt had an answer.. so he was planning on fetching a basic with it but didnt had a chance to.. we stalled for 3 more turn until i drew a koth, bash and ultimate with him and won.
Match 2 Vs Hatebears:
Game 1.- It really was a strange match, i went with a hand of bloo dmoon, molten rain, koth, dragon, bolt and 3 lands, i bolted a thalia on turn 2.. and never played or drew another bolt or skred or anger on the whole game.. he played blade splicer and flickerwisp and bashed me until i got to play a dragon on turn 5 to block i was at 7 and he didnt attacked cause of the dragon.. i dunno what he expected, i played a 2nd dragon and the game stalled... i sat there waiting to get a sweeper but nothing came.. he eventually drew an archangel of tithes but couldnt pass through and i got to transform both dragons and bash him for the win.. i know not a really good player.. but well..
SB plan: i got 2 spellskites, 2 shattering spree and 2 Perilous vault in and took 3 relics and 3 molten rain
Game 2.- I got a hand of skred, bolt, double reckoner and lands.. so i snapped keep, he played the GOD curve.. turn one militant dryad, turn 2 thalia, turn 3 leonin arbitrer and ghost quarter, turn 4 blade splicer turn 5 path to exile to my reckoner and flickerwisp another ghost quarter of his.. activated ghost quarter on my upkeep so i had to pay .. so yeah.. pretty brutal.
Game 3: I went with a hand of koth, reckoner, dragon, skred, anger and 2 mountains. eventually leaving him withouth creatures and playing koth..then dragon wich he dismembered then reckoner wich he pathed and when i was about to ultimate koth he vialed flicker wisp at him.. 2 times.. so the game went looong.. and i beat him in the end with another dragon and koth emblem.. i was at 1 at this point and he had lethal on board, the thing was thah he thought he would kill me and performed an alpha strike i exiled a simian and skreded a flickerwisp with allowed me to live at 1. a lot of cheering here since we were the last table.
This match was and has been a lot tougher than i imagined it would be in the past, im not sure why it always sems i draw the cards in a wrong order vs Hatebears.. and also if you underestimate even one of their guys you will be dead when they play the nex.. try to kill them asap.. this doesnt means you will be bolting anything.. just look for arbitrer, thalia, and judge familiar specially.
Match 3 Vs Eldrazi black:
Game 1: Well here are the cold facts. i won this game and the whole match because this guy didnt knew what as happening.. i played a turn 2 blood moon. he dint had discard on turn 1 or 2 ( he started).. he could just played an eldrazi mimic followed by a matter reshaper... then i anger of the gods and h couldn't play anything anymore..
SB plan: i put in 2 crumble to dust, 2 pithing needle and 2 spellskites.
Game 2: He got his discard and hit me for bolt on turn 1 then for skred on turn 2 and surgical my bolts.. then played an thought knot who bashed me for 2 turns before i played a reckoner then a dragon.. he got an oblivion sower and i was beaten by ulamog soon after.
Game 3: he discarded my blood moon, i molten rained his urborg.. he coulndt play more discard so he played a surgical on my molten rain at the end of my draw.. i revealed a freshly drawn blood moon :). so i played it but i didnt had anything to hit him with so the game went on until he eventually got an oblivion sower that i skreded.. and he got stuck at 9 mana with ulamog on hand for 3 turns, in those i got a reckoner, that he dismembered and i skreded so he got 4 damage by dismember and 7 by skred/reckoner, then i got a koth that hit 2 times.. he played ulamog and exiled koth and moon.. and i drew a molten rain next turn and killed him.. and yes i know he surgicalled my molten rains.. but he failed to find that one so im guessing he will be more thorough next time..
A pretty tough match, after the match we played 4 more games by my request without SB and he won 3 out of 4.. so after he knew what the deck does it was pretty easy to disrupt us, o and i was lucky he never casted a reality smasher on the match caus ethat guy is a beast and if you take that blashemous act out of your deck well theres no way of making it.
Match 1 Vs Boggle's Auras:
Game 1: This was a kid about 14 years old or maybe even 15 (bare in mind i am 20 years older), he played as if tomorrow didnt exist.. played a boggles turn 1, rancor and keen sense turn 2, daybreak coronet and spider umbra on turn 3 and never looked back i was dead at turn 4, i played a turn 2 reckoner and a turn 3 anger but he already had umbra so nothing to be done here.. imposible to win.
SB plan: By this time i had 2 perilous vault, and 2 spellskites in and took 4 skred out.
Game 2: He played an elf, then ethereal armor and hyena umbra, i couldnt do nothing but i had the perilous vault and enough lands to pull it out, i played a second turn reckoner using a simian but did almost nothing.. i even drew an spellskite on turn 3 that he pathed then playes coronet and another ethereal armor that hit for a lot so i blocked and nothing happened.. on turn 4 i playes vault with my other land in hand hoping to survive.. and yes i did.. he hit me for a lot but i survived then he was like.. for how much does it activate? 5?.. ok then i will play my freshly drawn suppresion field.. and well i died next turn..:S
thuis match is almost unwinnable if we dond dedicate at least 5 or more cards on the sb, we need an early spellskite and luck that they dont pull the path to exile for some turns, play a second turn moon and yes the vaults were terrible, i was testing them instead of oblivion stones i had before ( to kill pro red creature and bigger stuff, also enchantments).. so now they are gone and im playing 3 ratchet bombs i believe they are better than the other options.
so i went 3-1 and it wasnt that bad.. but yeah we alredy knew those 2 matches are our bad matches so.. it helped to address them.
I'll do the report for the second tournament later guys.. cheers.
Im going to test thunderbreak regents over rekoners and 1 earthquake over blasphemous now.. if anyone care to join me on MWS.. look for meim The Horror.
Well.. i have to say (AGAIN) that splashing a color is not really something great for the deck, the whole strategy of the deck shakes by doing so (even with Coldsteel Heart and Fetches), it really hurts the deck a lot more than it improves it.
So far mono red is the way to go, and maybe, just maybe Red/Waste but i do not think so at the moment. You see i have said it before "the whole reason of picking up this deck is because it has a great matchup VS Aggro and a good matchup VS Eldrazi and Tron that will be at least 70% of the Meta for now, so if you take away the good things about it you will be taking away the reasons the deck is good.
So lets recap this.
Skred red Pros:
1.- bulletproof manabase
2.- the amazing super power that is starting at 20 life instead of 18 or less cause of the fetchlands
3.- the trump of an effect that is the Koth emblem
4.- and the ability to shut down some decks by a turn 2 or even a turn 1 blood moon via the simian spirit guides and yes this is way you consider playing them instead of Mind Stone, not to mention that maindeck moon also helps ( not wins by itself but helps) vs Tron and eldrazi.
5.- having a relic maindeck helps on those hard to beat matches like tarmogoyf, tasigur, living dead, snapcaster and lingering soul decks
6.- having at least 5 sweepers on your main deck plus 8 one mana removal spells is pretty awesome vs any aggro deck using creatures not to mention that if you run Boros reckoner helps too so, infect, zoo, taxes, merfolk, delver and even affinity to a degree are covered.
7.- The sb helps you nail those 50%-50% matchups to a wall with Crumble to dust, shatterstorm, dragons claw, spellskite etc...
Skred red Cons:
1.- Skred red is bad VS counters and overall non aggro blue decks.
2.- Skred red is bad VS combo in general ( although main board relic, moon and molten rain surely help).
3.- Skred red is awful vs Boggles Auras deck so you need to address this with spellskites and ratchet bombs, or oblivion stones or even perilous vault.
So far those are the weaknesses i see in the deck as opposed to having splashing colors all around. Ill list some of the cons i have seen by splashing white (which i have played in tournaments before) and what i think would happen if we splash some other colors, i wont be addressing the good points in detail of each splash as this post is already long enough and they have been addressed by some of you guys and by the guy on the video.
Skred red splash white:
1.- you can run path to exile to help get rid of those pesky guys that dodge bolt and skred but if you do this you give them basic lands so your blood moon and molten rain are not good at all, very anti sinergy.
2.- You can run stony silence on your sb vs tron or affinity ( that were pretty good match-ups to start with) but then your mind stones and relics are not good at all so you have to take them out or have a very akward game, also anti sinergy.
3.- I first thought about running white for ards like timely reinforcements and or Kor firewalker just because we are a bit weak to burn but it forces you to play in a defensive position jumping through skull cracks and or cracking fetches for double mana, this is also true for lightning helix an ajani.
4.- Ajani seems like a great choice because of the land hate sinergy in the deck.. but again if you run path it goes to the wrong direction, this forces you to think about some other subpar cards like oust or sunlance and they are inferior to skred.
Skred red splash Black:
1.- you do get cards like terminate, murderous cut or doom blade, but you could also run dismember without the splash and murderous cut is anti synergistic with the relic, terminate is ok i guess althouh it makes us weaker to spell snare which is the only counter we are usually bullet proof against.
2.- the point of having stuff like thoughtseize and inwuisition of kozilek, hell even duress for this matter could be great but again.. we will not be capitalizing them as well as a jund or junk deck and they will be terrible to draw them on late game because one of the weak points of the deck is the ability to presure fast and this effect doesnt help for a lot of turns they are just a quick way to defend you or try to race the opponent for 1 or 2 turns.
------- NOTE ----- One really good thing about a black splash would be something like slaughter games becaus eit would really help vs combo decks but i dont think one card merits the whole shakedown of the deck. ------ NOTE ------
Skred red splash Blue:
1.- Blue just gives us counters really so we take an even more defensive stand and although skred is more like a control deck than anything else it has to be very proactive so its again going the other way the deck tries t be going.
2.- Blue doesnt add removal at all so no help there, and although you could use cards like mana leak or remand ther eis not really a good hard counter just splashing this color ( n cryptic command for us)
3.- we cannot use the bet blue card in modern (snapcaster mage) cause of the Relic again anti sinergy.
4.- basically everything this deck ants to do with a blue splash, blue moon does it better and you should play that deck hehehe.. and yeah even keranos is not that great.
Skred red splash Green:
1.- I dont see a point on splashing green to be honest and by going that route i would suggest to build some other deck that could be as wrecking and proactive as skred.
2.- the green splash would help if we could use some sort of acceleration but if you use birds of paradise or any mana dork they will be clash with your sweepers, and if you use search for tomorrow, rampant growth or some other sort of 2 mana ramp to fetch your basic snow covered land ( it has to be for the skred to be good) then ypou have to again tweak and shake the solid mana base.
Skred red splash anything cons:
If you take away what really makes this deck good, you better start building another deck from scratch because as you see...
1.- koth will not be good with another color
2.- blood moon will not be great
3.- skred looses a lot if you play anything but snow covered lands
4.- if you make your graveyard matter to you the relic will not be as good having on check all the decks that make a better use of their graveyard than you.
So as i see it, the deck is pretty good positioned at the moment, and is quite strong and quite solid by itself, there will always be a deck or 2 that we cannot win for instance the through the breach emrakul deck that some people are playing and this makes me wanna go back and pack at least 2 boil on my sb, burn is a problem but 3 to 4 dragons claw often do the trick, and also the auras deck so its 3 ratchet bomb and 2 spellskite for me, but this is true to any format ever and just really worrying on this little of the whole meta is great.
If you start worrying about the deck at this point it is maybe not for you and try to build another one maybe with a similar approach?.
I played the whole weekend of the GP Mexico with this list by the way and so far im still thinking of sing it on the Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch next weekend, but im inclining to those boils and also thinking about kozileks return and taking out the crumble to dust for surgical extractions (mainly cause a molten +surgical is almost the same as a crumbling to dust but surgical helps on another match-ups).
lemme know what do you think, im also trying to fit 1 or 2 outpost siege in there because no i didnt like chandra pyromaster, i also need to test chandra flamecaller, and changing the reckoners for Thunderbreak regents, but so far i still like the reckoner.. albeit im the only one liking it.
Ill try to post some tourney reports later today or tomorrow..
Well i must say again that the 2 best things about this deck are that you can have an early blood moon to shut the opponents game and that it has a bullet proof manabase.
So any modifications on that are really dumbing itdown.
Still i tried dark dwellers and they are ok but not great, the most powerful thing to do with them is exactly that boom/bust but it is an anti sinergy here since koth really want you yo have lands, and skred also.
Id stay away from that route i believe that is another deck to build.
Ok guys i started playing skred and doing all sort of splashes and.. NO.. you do not want to o that.. scrying sheets is not amazing thats true, but if you are stalled and you dont have the moon ( so you are losing( it helps a lot and theres not many other ways to improve on this without taking a spell slot. Also fetchlands with sheets suck so you play one or the other.. lets assume you prefer fetchlands ,then your Skred gets a lot worse after you played a blood moon and you will lose one of the advantages of the deck, and that is starting your life at 20 instead of 18, or 16 due to fetch damage like everybody else., and if you go the snow covered splash basic lands koth loses a lot of power so.. no.. one of th ebest things about this deck is its bulletproof mana base.
I have been testing all day a build with:
4 though-knot seer
3 Stormbreath dragon
Although Reality smahser seems to be great, stormbreath is just better, i have always liked him better than thundermaw or any other.
as for the seer's well.. i must say he is great and i love the gameplan with them and the mind stone, but yeah im afraid the blood moon plan conflicts too much with this guy and if i have to remove one of them well.. ill keep the moon anyday, and with that im bacj to simian spirit guides over mind stone.
the thing is that although reckoner is not great by itself, he is a must kill for any non affinity deck, and by the time you play it vs zoo, delver, burn, jund, abzan, merfolks, he is almost guaranteed to be a 2 for 1. The skred to reckoner for like 7 plan is not realistic but its there sometimes.. and the blasphemous act/reckoner kill is a threat that even if you pull it just once on the tourney everybody will be preocupied with it.. and sometimes you could end up having only that little combo to win on the spot.. so i gues sim back to my old list for now albeit with a heavy tweaked sideboard.
I will just miss the seer vs GR tron.. they provided everything we need to seal that match, pressure and disruption on curve. oh well..
And that is exactly why i predicted Skred was going to be my best bet on the next pro tour.. it will be filled with aggro decks trying to beat tron and eldrazi blasting each other..
On another note, yesterday as i tested vs Black Eldrazi i won 4 of 6 matches the key is an early blodo moon.. it all depended on that since if they didnt discard it they just flop to it. The matches i lost was a combination of exaclty that and being beaten by reality smasher on turn 3 and a second one on turn 4.. that card is a damn beast, best card on OGW for modern with the seer so far and they are close.. specially against us the smasher is almost unkillable.
This led me to think of the best ways to get rid of it and i think that perilous vault is the best bet so far.... then it clicked with me.. and what if we used it? we could get rid of the blood moon, or send it to the sb?.. or we could still play it on main and rely on mindstones solely to cast it, and also what about thought knot seer if we are at it?.. something like.
4 reality smasher
4 thought knot seer
4 mind stone
4 skred
4 lightning bolt
4 anger of the gods
4 koth of the hammer
3 relic of progenitus
3 blood moon
3 molten rain
3 scrying sheets
2 mouth of ronom
18 snow covered mountain
TNS needs Waste mana.
it's not waste mana. it's colorless mana. go to the gatherer, look at mindstone. here's the link. mind stone now produces the new mana symbol. so does scrying sheets and mouth of ronom. so with 9 sources, you could cast those eldrazi.
Enjoy.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/r8oy1a1110m557l/M19.rar
here are the Kaladesh pics.. although Low Res..
http://www.mediafire.com/file/993lvcvln8fez2y/KLD.rar
Round 1 vs ur counter burn control.
This basically was my worst nightmare, it was basically a solinter twin's plan b, bolts, electrolyze, snapcaster, batterskulls, pia and kia nalar and a lot of counters and a lot of islands. I even resolved a boil on game 2 but i kept drawing lands after and he got back into the game and burn me, totally unlucky.
Round 2 vs soul sisters.
I playwd a turn 3 koth and protect it to ultimate him.. He then played runed halo naming mountain (dummy hahhaa) then o sat on my snow covered mountains to kill him but he top decked his second runed halo a turn later damn.. The game stalled for a mulliom turns, he gaining tons of life with martyr and proclamation, and me waiting for stormbreaths and relics.. I eventually drew 2 dragons, he wasted a wrath of god on a reckoner, thwn on a dragon, so i was certain to win i had 18 land in play with koth ultimate and another koth with 12 counters a mounstrous dragon and he could only loop martyr since he wouldn't be ablw to deal a single point of damage at me, i was using 2 scrying sheets a turn trying to find a relic and i found the first one in my last 5 cards of the deck and he being at 200 life so i conceded. I managed to curve an easy win on game 2 with an early moon, koth and dragon so it was a draw... Damn luck.. I should have won that first game.
Round 3 vs ug infect
One of our best matchups right? Well i lost game one, i had 2 skred and 1 bolt he drew a 4th threat and i got nothing..
On game 2 i played a turn 3 blood moon and he o ly had a breeding pool and a nexus that hit me for 5, hw concedes 2 turns later. On game 3 i kept a hand with 1 anger of thw gods, 1 bolt, 1 skred, 1 ratchet bomb 1 blood moon and 2 mountains... O never got the 3rd land os siman so eventually i died.. Damn again.
Round 4 vs ug infect
I started so played a land thwn he played gitaxian probe i revealed simian, moon and 5 lands he was shocked and promptly went for a forest and played an elf, i went for turn 2. Moon, he hit me for 3 after puttimg a rancor on the elf and leaved one mana open, i drew anger of the gods and played it he showed me apostoles blessing and a groundswell so i conceded. Game 2 i landed the 3rd tuen moon having killed his hierarch and agent before with a simian.. He conceded a turn later. On game 3 i mulled to 6 he played a hierarch that i didnt kill cause i only had one skred he played an elf ñrotected it and empied his hand to kill me, i never drew a 3rd land... Again...
Round 5 vs boros burn
I won game 1 killing every single creatire he played and racing him with koth, unlikely win but not impossible. On game 2 i played a turn 1 dragons claw and ride it for a million turns while drawing 12 or more lands, i never got a single beater, and although i had it color locked with a moon, he got 3 eidolons 3 rift bolts 2 ligbting bolts, 3 goblin guides 3 lava spikes and 1 skullcrack and managed to kill me in the end.. What a disappointment.. I lost game 3 because of guess what? I kwpt a 2 land hand again, with dragons claw and 2 bolts, i never got a 3rd land.. Pfffff
So what else can i say? Bummer...
Match 1 Vs UG infet:
Game 1: i kept a hand of 1 bolt, 1 molten rain, 1 relic, 3 mountain and a koth not knowing what to expect. i bolted a noble hierarch, molten rained a nexus, but eventually i never got another bolt nor skred, he played a second nexus that killed me, in the end i had 4 koths in hand.. just awful.
SB plan: I boarded in 2 spellskites, and 2 crumble to dust and took 2 koth and 2 dragons out.
Game 2: I kept a hand with 1 bolt, 1 skred, 1 anger of the gods, 1 spellkite 1 scrying sheet and 2 mountain, everyting went ok but i had play all my cards and flooded with lands, eventually he got me with his 3rd blighted agent and become inmense.
Just awful, this match is usually pretty easy but hey.. thats magic i guess..
Match 2 Vs 8 rack:
Game 1: I must say i havent tested vs this match before so when i saw what it was i inmediately thought im screwed.. then i realize that i have 3 meaningful cards to help me and all the rest suck so hard, relic cause it will help me top deck, scrying sheets so i can maintain myself vs liliana, and my only way to victory is koth cause he dont have anything to deal with him if i can top deck it. As i thought the game went long.. scrying sheets was the all star helping me to not take damage of the racks, eventualy he ultimate dliliana taking 3 lands and i was taking 1 damage per turn and sometimes 2, but in the end i could top deck a koth and beat him with him.
SB plan: not a lot i could get in, as almost always i took 2 spellkites in cause of his dismembers and murderous cut. and 2 perilous vault ( and yeah i wish then they were ratchet bombs too).
Game 2: it as asically a rehash of game 1 minus my relic helping me deal with ravens crime.. i ended up losing this time.
Game 3: i had 2 simian, koth, relic 2 mountain and a dragon, so i played the relic, he played IOK and took one simian then i drew another mountain and played it, he decided to play a waste not instead of discarding me wich a lowed me to play koth on turn 3 and eventually he got him..:)
Pretty nasty match, its all about the top deck, id say its hard, and i hope to see very few of those in Atlanta.
Match 3 Vs UW Gifts tron:
Game 1: This match is pretty hard the absolute worst of all the TRON variants, he has counters that are great against us, he has signets so the moon is not great... well.. i played a very grindy match even though i played a second turn blood moon, then i played boros reckoner 3 times wich he proceded to use path to exile on the 3 of them allowed me to get 11 lands in play so i was condescend and mana leak proof to be able to drop a koth that got cryptic commanded and i followed with a dragon that eventually got him.. he did played a 7h turn karn taking away the dragon but i had a second copy in my hand.
SB plan: I took 2 shattering spree, 2 spellskite, 2 pithing needle and 2 rumple to dust in, and 4 anger of the gods, 1 blasphemous act, 1 koth, and 2 skreds out.
Game 2: he played me an urzas mine turn 1, urzas tower and signet turn 2, urza spower plant and ugin on turn 3 while i was casting 2 relics and a reckoner.. i couldnt do anything and he got me with ugin all the way to his ultimate.
Game 3: this was the grindiest of the grinds.. he started with leyline of sanctity in play, i played a relic turn 1, a reckoner using a simian on turn 2, and a moon on turn 3 pressuring him.. he played a sun droplet, and i played a koth attacking for 7, the game went on and he eventually played 3 timely reinforcements and countered a dragon, then bounced my koth, i playe dit again and it got countered but i had another, i must have dealt more than 50 damage at the end.. he played an elesh norn from hand and a second sun droplet,i played a pithing needle naming ugin and eventually got to ultimated koth while he had 7 counters on him then i proceded killing the elsh with the mountains and bashing with mountains and reckoner until i succeded.. he was left with iona and unburial rites on his hand at the end of the game, caus ehe never got a 3rd white mana enabler and my relic prevented him to iscard both to all those thirst for knowledges he played..
Overall a very very tough match, if it becomes more popular i dont want to keep playing skred haha..
Match 4 Vs UG infect again:
Game 1.- I drew a normal hand.. bolt, bolt, skred, anger, rekconer, lands... and utterly destroyed him.
SB plan: the same as before.
Game 2. He sat there not playing a isngle guy until he played 3 wild defiances, then played an elf and landed a nexus,i didnt got a moon, so i took car eo fthe elf with an anger of the gods, then the nexus killed me cause of the wild defiances.
Game 3: I got my blood moon this time and he couldnt manage to survive long enough to get rid of the 2 spellskites and 2 bolts and one koth bashing him.
Anyways.. i really dont think infect is a problem but never underestimate it it is too explosive.
Ok guys im off.. i hope any of you find this helpful.. ill be back after the pro tour to let you know how i went with the deck.. cheers.
4 Stormbreath dragon
3 simian spirit guide
1 earthquake
3 anger of the gods
4 blood moon
3 relic of progenitus
4 lightning bolt
4 skred
1 chandra flamecaller
3 molten rain
3 koth of the hammer
At first it was 2 chandra and 4 koth, i change that because thunderbreak really hurts me on my mana curve, then i traded the simians for mind stones and still the deck felt slow, as for the chandra.. there wasnt a time when i wanted to play her over a stormbreath dragon except qhen i needed a threat and a sweeper at the same time biut i had to do -4 to kill some guys and it idnt help either..
so far im not likeing both the dragon nor the chandra.. but specially the dragon it really hurts me on my koth plan..:P
I guess im going back to eckoner, although yeah its not great at this moment bu it hits on curve.. although maybe a fulminator mage would be better i believe that we really need something else to play on turn 3 or to accel to if we dont have a bloo dmoon on turn 2...
Anyway ill do a brief report of the 2 modenr opens i played this past weekend:
Tourney number 1:
Match 1 Vs Abzan midrange:
Game 1: I got a turn 2 moon using a simian and stalled th egame for 3 turns until he got a forest playing ascavenging ooze then i played a koth -2 andplayed anger of the gods, he followed with a tarmogoyf which i ingored ( he was a 1/2, so i played stormbreath and untapped island and hit him for 8, he attacked koth and passed th turn.. i played a second dragon and he conceded.
SB plan: I got 2 spellskites, in and took 1 koth and 1 reckoner out.
Game 2:he got a second turn thalia which i couldnt kill for 3 turns but i played a 3rd turn reckoner, a 4th turn blood moon, and waited, he had played a tarmogoyf and arhino hen tapped for another rhino he was at 17 so back to 19, i bolted him at the end of turn and on my turn played blasphemous act leaving him on 1 and me being at 2, i then waited 4 turns to get a bolt, dragon, koth or molten rain but he got a plains first and lingering souls.. i just got lands, relics and moons.. so i lost
Game 3: he destroyed my hand playing Inquisition on turn 1 and 2 thoughtseizes on turn 2 taking a reckoner, a relic and on the last one he took a blasphemous act over ablood moon.. i skreded his ooze and angered the lingering tokens he had over the next few turns, then i molten rain his only plains and played my blood moon.. to my surprise he didnt had an answer.. so he was planning on fetching a basic with it but didnt had a chance to.. we stalled for 3 more turn until i drew a koth, bash and ultimate with him and won.
Match 2 Vs Hatebears:
Game 1.- It really was a strange match, i went with a hand of bloo dmoon, molten rain, koth, dragon, bolt and 3 lands, i bolted a thalia on turn 2.. and never played or drew another bolt or skred or anger on the whole game.. he played blade splicer and flickerwisp and bashed me until i got to play a dragon on turn 5 to block i was at 7 and he didnt attacked cause of the dragon.. i dunno what he expected, i played a 2nd dragon and the game stalled... i sat there waiting to get a sweeper but nothing came.. he eventually drew an archangel of tithes but couldnt pass through and i got to transform both dragons and bash him for the win.. i know not a really good player.. but well..
SB plan: i got 2 spellskites, 2 shattering spree and 2 Perilous vault in and took 3 relics and 3 molten rain
Game 2.- I got a hand of skred, bolt, double reckoner and lands.. so i snapped keep, he played the GOD curve.. turn one militant dryad, turn 2 thalia, turn 3 leonin arbitrer and ghost quarter, turn 4 blade splicer turn 5 path to exile to my reckoner and flickerwisp another ghost quarter of his.. activated ghost quarter on my upkeep so i had to pay .. so yeah.. pretty brutal.
Game 3: I went with a hand of koth, reckoner, dragon, skred, anger and 2 mountains. eventually leaving him withouth creatures and playing koth..then dragon wich he dismembered then reckoner wich he pathed and when i was about to ultimate koth he vialed flicker wisp at him.. 2 times.. so the game went looong.. and i beat him in the end with another dragon and koth emblem.. i was at 1 at this point and he had lethal on board, the thing was thah he thought he would kill me and performed an alpha strike i exiled a simian and skreded a flickerwisp with allowed me to live at 1. a lot of cheering here since we were the last table.
This match was and has been a lot tougher than i imagined it would be in the past, im not sure why it always sems i draw the cards in a wrong order vs Hatebears.. and also if you underestimate even one of their guys you will be dead when they play the nex.. try to kill them asap.. this doesnt means you will be bolting anything.. just look for arbitrer, thalia, and judge familiar specially.
Match 3 Vs Eldrazi black:
Game 1: Well here are the cold facts. i won this game and the whole match because this guy didnt knew what as happening.. i played a turn 2 blood moon. he dint had discard on turn 1 or 2 ( he started).. he could just played an eldrazi mimic followed by a matter reshaper... then i anger of the gods and h couldn't play anything anymore..
SB plan: i put in 2 crumble to dust, 2 pithing needle and 2 spellskites.
Game 2: He got his discard and hit me for bolt on turn 1 then for skred on turn 2 and surgical my bolts.. then played an thought knot who bashed me for 2 turns before i played a reckoner then a dragon.. he got an oblivion sower and i was beaten by ulamog soon after.
Game 3: he discarded my blood moon, i molten rained his urborg.. he coulndt play more discard so he played a surgical on my molten rain at the end of my draw.. i revealed a freshly drawn blood moon :). so i played it but i didnt had anything to hit him with so the game went on until he eventually got an oblivion sower that i skreded.. and he got stuck at 9 mana with ulamog on hand for 3 turns, in those i got a reckoner, that he dismembered and i skreded so he got 4 damage by dismember and 7 by skred/reckoner, then i got a koth that hit 2 times.. he played ulamog and exiled koth and moon.. and i drew a molten rain next turn and killed him.. and yes i know he surgicalled my molten rains.. but he failed to find that one so im guessing he will be more thorough next time..
A pretty tough match, after the match we played 4 more games by my request without SB and he won 3 out of 4.. so after he knew what the deck does it was pretty easy to disrupt us, o and i was lucky he never casted a reality smasher on the match caus ethat guy is a beast and if you take that blashemous act out of your deck well theres no way of making it.
Match 1 Vs Boggle's Auras:
Game 1: This was a kid about 14 years old or maybe even 15 (bare in mind i am 20 years older), he played as if tomorrow didnt exist.. played a boggles turn 1, rancor and keen sense turn 2, daybreak coronet and spider umbra on turn 3 and never looked back i was dead at turn 4, i played a turn 2 reckoner and a turn 3 anger but he already had umbra so nothing to be done here.. imposible to win.
SB plan: By this time i had 2 perilous vault, and 2 spellskites in and took 4 skred out.
Game 2: He played an elf, then ethereal armor and hyena umbra, i couldnt do nothing but i had the perilous vault and enough lands to pull it out, i played a second turn reckoner using a simian but did almost nothing.. i even drew an spellskite on turn 3 that he pathed then playes coronet and another ethereal armor that hit for a lot so i blocked and nothing happened.. on turn 4 i playes vault with my other land in hand hoping to survive.. and yes i did.. he hit me for a lot but i survived then he was like.. for how much does it activate? 5?.. ok then i will play my freshly drawn suppresion field.. and well i died next turn..:S
thuis match is almost unwinnable if we dond dedicate at least 5 or more cards on the sb, we need an early spellskite and luck that they dont pull the path to exile for some turns, play a second turn moon and yes the vaults were terrible, i was testing them instead of oblivion stones i had before ( to kill pro red creature and bigger stuff, also enchantments).. so now they are gone and im playing 3 ratchet bombs i believe they are better than the other options.
so i went 3-1 and it wasnt that bad.. but yeah we alredy knew those 2 matches are our bad matches so.. it helped to address them.
I'll do the report for the second tournament later guys.. cheers.
So far mono red is the way to go, and maybe, just maybe Red/Waste but i do not think so at the moment. You see i have said it before "the whole reason of picking up this deck is because it has a great matchup VS Aggro and a good matchup VS Eldrazi and Tron that will be at least 70% of the Meta for now, so if you take away the good things about it you will be taking away the reasons the deck is good.
So lets recap this.
Skred red Pros:
1.- bulletproof manabase
2.- the amazing super power that is starting at 20 life instead of 18 or less cause of the fetchlands
3.- the trump of an effect that is the Koth emblem
4.- and the ability to shut down some decks by a turn 2 or even a turn 1 blood moon via the simian spirit guides and yes this is way you consider playing them instead of Mind Stone, not to mention that maindeck moon also helps ( not wins by itself but helps) vs Tron and eldrazi.
5.- having a relic maindeck helps on those hard to beat matches like tarmogoyf, tasigur, living dead, snapcaster and lingering soul decks
6.- having at least 5 sweepers on your main deck plus 8 one mana removal spells is pretty awesome vs any aggro deck using creatures not to mention that if you run Boros reckoner helps too so, infect, zoo, taxes, merfolk, delver and even affinity to a degree are covered.
7.- The sb helps you nail those 50%-50% matchups to a wall with Crumble to dust, shatterstorm, dragons claw, spellskite etc...
Skred red Cons:
1.- Skred red is bad VS counters and overall non aggro blue decks.
2.- Skred red is bad VS combo in general ( although main board relic, moon and molten rain surely help).
3.- Skred red is awful vs Boggles Auras deck so you need to address this with spellskites and ratchet bombs, or oblivion stones or even perilous vault.
So far those are the weaknesses i see in the deck as opposed to having splashing colors all around. Ill list some of the cons i have seen by splashing white (which i have played in tournaments before) and what i think would happen if we splash some other colors, i wont be addressing the good points in detail of each splash as this post is already long enough and they have been addressed by some of you guys and by the guy on the video.
Skred red splash white:
1.- you can run path to exile to help get rid of those pesky guys that dodge bolt and skred but if you do this you give them basic lands so your blood moon and molten rain are not good at all, very anti sinergy.
2.- You can run stony silence on your sb vs tron or affinity ( that were pretty good match-ups to start with) but then your mind stones and relics are not good at all so you have to take them out or have a very akward game, also anti sinergy.
3.- I first thought about running white for ards like timely reinforcements and or Kor firewalker just because we are a bit weak to burn but it forces you to play in a defensive position jumping through skull cracks and or cracking fetches for double mana, this is also true for lightning helix an ajani.
4.- Ajani seems like a great choice because of the land hate sinergy in the deck.. but again if you run path it goes to the wrong direction, this forces you to think about some other subpar cards like oust or sunlance and they are inferior to skred.
Skred red splash Black:
1.- you do get cards like terminate, murderous cut or doom blade, but you could also run dismember without the splash and murderous cut is anti synergistic with the relic, terminate is ok i guess althouh it makes us weaker to spell snare which is the only counter we are usually bullet proof against.
2.- the point of having stuff like thoughtseize and inwuisition of kozilek, hell even duress for this matter could be great but again.. we will not be capitalizing them as well as a jund or junk deck and they will be terrible to draw them on late game because one of the weak points of the deck is the ability to presure fast and this effect doesnt help for a lot of turns they are just a quick way to defend you or try to race the opponent for 1 or 2 turns.
------- NOTE ----- One really good thing about a black splash would be something like slaughter games becaus eit would really help vs combo decks but i dont think one card merits the whole shakedown of the deck. ------ NOTE ------
Skred red splash Blue:
1.- Blue just gives us counters really so we take an even more defensive stand and although skred is more like a control deck than anything else it has to be very proactive so its again going the other way the deck tries t be going.
2.- Blue doesnt add removal at all so no help there, and although you could use cards like mana leak or remand ther eis not really a good hard counter just splashing this color ( n cryptic command for us)
3.- we cannot use the bet blue card in modern (snapcaster mage) cause of the Relic again anti sinergy.
4.- basically everything this deck ants to do with a blue splash, blue moon does it better and you should play that deck hehehe.. and yeah even keranos is not that great.
Skred red splash Green:
1.- I dont see a point on splashing green to be honest and by going that route i would suggest to build some other deck that could be as wrecking and proactive as skred.
------ NOTE ------ go here for this http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/569795-turbo-moon ------ NOTE ------
2.- the green splash would help if we could use some sort of acceleration but if you use birds of paradise or any mana dork they will be clash with your sweepers, and if you use search for tomorrow, rampant growth or some other sort of 2 mana ramp to fetch your basic snow covered land ( it has to be for the skred to be good) then ypou have to again tweak and shake the solid mana base.
Skred red splash anything cons:
If you take away what really makes this deck good, you better start building another deck from scratch because as you see...
1.- koth will not be good with another color
2.- blood moon will not be great
3.- skred looses a lot if you play anything but snow covered lands
4.- if you make your graveyard matter to you the relic will not be as good having on check all the decks that make a better use of their graveyard than you.
So as i see it, the deck is pretty good positioned at the moment, and is quite strong and quite solid by itself, there will always be a deck or 2 that we cannot win for instance the through the breach emrakul deck that some people are playing and this makes me wanna go back and pack at least 2 boil on my sb, burn is a problem but 3 to 4 dragons claw often do the trick, and also the auras deck so its 3 ratchet bomb and 2 spellskite for me, but this is true to any format ever and just really worrying on this little of the whole meta is great.
If you start worrying about the deck at this point it is maybe not for you and try to build another one maybe with a similar approach?.
I played the whole weekend of the GP Mexico with this list by the way and so far im still thinking of sing it on the Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch next weekend, but im inclining to those boils and also thinking about kozileks return and taking out the crumble to dust for surgical extractions (mainly cause a molten +surgical is almost the same as a crumbling to dust but surgical helps on another match-ups).
Deck:
4 Boros Reckoner
3 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Simian spirit guide
4 Koth of the hammer
3 Relic of progenitus
4 Lightning bolt
4 Skred
1 Blasphemous act
4 Anger of the gods
4 Blood moon
3 Molten rain
2 Scrying sheets
1 Mouth of ronom
20 snow-covered mounain
1 Shatterstorm
2 Shattering spree
3 Dragon's claw
2 Spellskite
2 Pithing Needle
2 Crumble to dust
3 Ratchet bomb
lemme know what do you think, im also trying to fit 1 or 2 outpost siege in there because no i didnt like chandra pyromaster, i also need to test chandra flamecaller, and changing the reckoners for Thunderbreak regents, but so far i still like the reckoner.. albeit im the only one liking it.
Ill try to post some tourney reports later today or tomorrow..
So any modifications on that are really dumbing itdown.
Still i tried dark dwellers and they are ok but not great, the most powerful thing to do with them is exactly that boom/bust but it is an anti sinergy here since koth really want you yo have lands, and skred also.
Id stay away from that route i believe that is another deck to build.
4 though-knot seer
3 Stormbreath dragon
Although Reality smahser seems to be great, stormbreath is just better, i have always liked him better than thundermaw or any other.
as for the seer's well.. i must say he is great and i love the gameplan with them and the mind stone, but yeah im afraid the blood moon plan conflicts too much with this guy and if i have to remove one of them well.. ill keep the moon anyday, and with that im bacj to simian spirit guides over mind stone.
the thing is that although reckoner is not great by itself, he is a must kill for any non affinity deck, and by the time you play it vs zoo, delver, burn, jund, abzan, merfolks, he is almost guaranteed to be a 2 for 1. The skred to reckoner for like 7 plan is not realistic but its there sometimes.. and the blasphemous act/reckoner kill is a threat that even if you pull it just once on the tourney everybody will be preocupied with it.. and sometimes you could end up having only that little combo to win on the spot.. so i gues sim back to my old list for now albeit with a heavy tweaked sideboard.
I will just miss the seer vs GR tron.. they provided everything we need to seal that match, pressure and disruption on curve. oh well..