I guess we will have to see.
I think two sites won't work long term.
I guess the quality of the sites will determine what happens.
Mtgs has good general and Modern content, which matters to me. Its Legacy content is nearly unusable, due to the way it is organised, and Legacy also matters to me. I don't really do the rest, rumours aside of course, so the new site has to exceed the current site in those areas in order for me to move. That is easy to do in the cade of the Legacy content, but harder for Modern where the current site is very well organised.
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- drmarkb
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Member for 12 years, 10 months, and 15 days
Last active Sat, Dec, 21 2019 20:25:24
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What type of merfolk? Any w or b splash?
Jotun grunts smash face a lot here surely? They are not too keen on 3/3 first strikers via splicer till they hit a couple of lords either. Even then blocking is risky vs path and flickerwisps via vial.
We fly- merfolk really doesn't - coralhelm commander does but if they are sinking that much mana into it vs flickerwisp they are surely asking for more wisp tricks.
If the game stalemates they can blow d and t out via cryptic command EOT plus swing, but even then u can flash stuff mid combat to minimise the damage. Even then mutavault restricts timings on cryptics or at least can chump post cryptic.
I would not COP U if I could help it unless there were other decks where it was relevant. Ghostly prison or runed halo are one thing I have mentioned many times as good generic cards for tempo matches, although I do not use them against URW delver.
RE EQUIP
I use swords in the board for a few matches and masks main- I suspect that everyone does- and in that context flyers make more sense. I think mask main is practically compulsory now. I view d and t as a modal deck, rather than aggro or tempo or whatever. It simply has two modes, like pod does. One is controlling and incremental advantage based- but it can act as an aggro tempo deck as well in other matches.
I do not use student, avengers, paladin etc, so its likely your build has significant differences from mine- being more aggro perhaps. But I would feel happy playing merfolk players- indeed whenever I have tried to get merfok working d and t has always been a pain, alongside affinity.
If the merfolk player is really bugging you play RDW and enjoy the bye when you play him.:D
m
And you may well be right........:)
I think the deck needs about 7-8 flyers- he is really, really good. That three slot is so competitive.
I am a fan! I have maindecked them in various amounts since modern was legal, not only in this deck but even in primitive pre ptq barca season URW/borremandos/delver decks!:o
They do not have a cumulative tax (one does the same job as two) and don't interact with flickerwisp, though. My version I have tweaked towards a meta with URW delver /jund/affinity prevalent and space is of course tight- I had little hesitation in reducing his numbers as I found in those matches he was perhaps not as effective as against tron or gifts decks, although flash vs affinity is great. Generally unless its with a superb starting hands the URW match is not decided by the GQ but by getting better value out of the men (eg splicer, finks, stonecloaker) and running them out of removal and also casting things like jotun grunt that demand path to exile there and then. They frequently recover from the strip mine by bolting our men one by one, and mindsensor is easy for them to off, compared to splicer where they often have to take the small man out in fear of flickerwisp shenanigans.
The arbiter/GQ is great at buying tempo and with thalia can time walk decks for two turns. But against jund and URW I really want to be casting men that demand two kill spells, and that limits my mindsensor numbers.
They are still in the seventy five as 3 of.
Incidentally, I get good numbers vs both jund and URW delver.
I would echo many of the sentiments above- harm's way and isamaru are the ones to cut, and canopies are ripe for inclusion. Aim for 15 white sources main, 8 grey- vaults are better than edge for most players now.
I also like 4 horizon canopies, although I would keep the castle for thalia.
Serra avenger is not as good now due to restoration angel, and a couple of grunts are great especially with your own stuff to keep em fed after eating enemy bins.
I would avoid too many non men spells main deck- 4 vial and path should be it bar a couple of active slots for equipment like the mask.
I do not think its bad to play a main deck swords in the right meta- one full of white men and red burn (hence sword of war and peace). But thalia and swords is awkward.
I would avoid basing decisions on matches with zombie decks.
I would say aven mindsensor at three is a bit much...........
I have managed one restoration angel in my build, the only CMC 4 man. I feel two would push it, but a solitary copy has been very good for me, providing a lot of options.
We know the card is excellent with superb interactions with splicers, fiend hunters even, stonecloakers, grunts, finks etc (though not the dearly departed mangara who is just too slow).
The problem is the mana- it needs reliable casting.
Vials are always optimal at 3. Moving a vial to 4 is bad unless it wins the game there and then. If you do move it to four and do not win there and then you often might as well have disenchanted the vial, so you have to have built up a hell of lot of CA to do that.
So really its a question of
a) hitting 4 mana, which is possible mid game, especially if you only run 4 ghost quarters to pop or if your opponent casts path to exile. But it is real mid-late game territory.
or
b) having two early vials. That doesn't happen too often, but it does happen.
Mask of memory allows a little filtering of course. But I am limiting the card to a conservative one of. If we ran better manipulation I would consider more, but we do not.
Tron is a very known deck and sowing salts have been dusted off everywhere.
D and T is a super deck, customisable to most metas but it takes ages to learn.
I agree totally with these sentiments. Pro players can get a similar result with less effort with top tier one decks which are more forgiving.
A jund player who choses the wrong removal spell or UWR player who snapcasters sub-optimally often has ways back in the game. A D and T player who forgets to add a counter to a vial or goes down the wrong route with thalia vs arbiter often loses as a consequence- the deck won't offer top decks to get you back in it.
A lot of people think that once d and t falls behind it has no way back. I feel that is true of most modern decks- once you have to play cards sub optimally to stay alive you are gone. You can tech d and t to be more resilient to certain things. There are so, so many choices- which is why the deck is always a good choice- its the ultimate in adaptability.
RE martyr- one of the few matches I have seen from both sides
I have found good to decent solutions to martry btw, but its back to the old stonecloaker main deck tricks with main board grunts, with a side deck including runed halo , -set to ascendent as first choice- nevermore -setting to wrath frequently is exceptionally useful - and sorry to say, pro white swords, which the deck should not run as they are too expensive as we all know but hey ho- its pretty amazing when it resolves against martry and BW tokens which are both hard matches.
Affinity players expect kataki, and will hold burn back for it, which is great for the martyr player as you suggest. You can often get the benefit of him without playing him in that respect- so you don't need to run him to slow them down, just make sure they expect him. I never made him resolve and stick a turn on much more than 50% of the time I played him against more wary affinity players- although he won the game if he did stick.
Number crunching kataki is there for one match, and you want to see him so we are talking three copies. Thats a hell of a lot of board space for a match that can be good with the right build. I am not saying he is bad but that he is a luxury in an open meta.
I go for the one card that is specific to the match and ends it there and then - fracturing gust , and a bunch of cards that are not there for that match but tip the balance when boarded in numbers eg ghostly prision , wrath of god , runed halo , stony silence etc. I some double duty cards are essential in the current meta.
Kataki tends to be burnt a lot. Its great if they do not hold burn the turn it comes down. An expensive one of is fracturing gust . If it resolves you win. Aura is excellent, and so is divine offering. Affinity should be one of the better matches, though. I have never had much difficulty with it but I always run spectrals as well. If the game goes long u kami them to submission. There are bigger threats to worry about. They have to respect wrath and if they go all in you can often punish them.
runed halo is excellent against affinity, eradicating plated champions as a threat. Can also be set to hurt gifts, general dudes like goyf and geist as well as storm decks. stony silence is great for tron and affinity. The firewalkers are better as forge tender for eos search. surgical extraction type cards are not often worth it for graveyard hate as you can run wheel of sun and moon which really hurts melira and gifts. I prefer a sword over destiny.
Yes, I agree if a meta has RDW and Jund his value increases significantly [and storm, for additional thalia protection]. I run him at local level for that reason- theres always some RDW and Jund somehwere, but then squeeze him out when I consider PTQs or higher though, as there tend to be less RDW and more controlling decks that need more attention.
Incidentlally, I have never found him stellar against jund, more like good and efficient against a chunk of their deck which is enough. I also find some jund players do not always board in sweepers against us as they hurt confidant [and any lavamancers] and don't do well vs activated vials, [nor vaults, grunts, splicers in the case of charm/pyro] and they instead board in anti artifact/enchantment stuff, fearing ghostly prison perhaps or just more vial/splicer kill. I do run lots of jund charm proof men, and a few firespout proof ones [grunt, mutavault] perhaps that has something to do with it.
Anyone else found that? Either way the jund matchup is in our favour I think
RE Tron- I use splicers, grunt, finks and mutavault to make me worry about pyroclasm less.
I have also used a sword of w and p in the board for token matchup that sometimes allows me the option of boarding in vs rdw or jund.
Wrath is good in modern, at least a couple of copies are. Its just not dominant like it was in std. Gifts I have viewed as a package rather than a deck. Agree on pyro but the forgetender solutions are not attractive in decks without ranger of eos. Its not good enough against a lot of decks to warrant slots unless your meta is full of sweepers.
Yes, thanks. Plenty to consider regarding green. I added green to a hybrid martyr proc deck with some success a while back but that was in a different meta with a different style of white deck. Not sure I want to do it to d and t. Rancor is attractive for sure but I am not as sure about pridemage- we can deal with main board permanents like worship with flicker tricks. We can deal with local enchantments the same way. Twin is not prevalent now and we have good pod match ups anyway- sure its great v affinity but we have an ok affinity match. Exalted is nice but is it worth the effort on the mana? I tried green briefly and did not feel it was adding that much. Mutavault over edge I agree with.