MTG Salvation

@Medea

Brave the Elements: I'm just in magical xmas land where I alpha strike through a board stall.

Holy Day: See above, but where I win through a crackback.

Cataclysm: I like Cataclysm against Lands and Elves. Against Elves it can be slow, but if you can stall them till turn 4, it can be very difficult for them to recover.


@colo

What does Flickering Ward solve that Mom doesn't?

@Mad Mat

Good point on the Flooded Strand psych out. My aesthetic love for Arid Mesa doesn't have any utility. Anywho, I'm off this list now. Going for WW.

@tnehlig

I don't think the issues is that anyone has a problem with traditional WW. I think it is more that D&T is most vicious when we have a very defined meta game to tune against. With Miracles dead no one really knows who the Alpha is anymore. Some of the post-Top articles over at http://www.thrabenuniversity.com touch on this. Vegas will be a huge milestone/thermometer as to what Legacy *is* in the post Miracles world.

@alus84

I love the idea of maindecking Blessed Alliance.

- - -

It has occurred to me that I don't have enough experience with a non-Mono white list. So:

Cataclysmic WW (based off @Medea's WW list above)

@Medea

I really like your WW list. Pure. Nothing fancy. I need Chalices... How do you beat elves? Avenger, Jitte game one. Canonist / Priest game two?

EDIT:

Is Brave the Elements playable in a WW build? Also having dark thoughts about Holy Day.

Here's where my heads at for Vegas. Feedback/critique/hate welcome:

@TheLousyZoot

I still think you're not hearing my fundamental point: ramping your opponent into basic lands with Path to Exile is probably the worst thing you can do when trying to execute a mana denial strategy.

How do you recommend fighting Ad Nauseum?

@LtGlitter

The deck is closer to D&T than RW Prison and I didn't know where else to post it. It is definitely weird and the unwanted middle child. I like this better than prison decks because I like casting CMC 1 spells and don't like topdecking Simian Spirit Guides on turn 10. There are no vials because there aren't enough creatures. There are no Thalias because the deck runs too many non-creatures. And alas, there are no Flickerwisps because there are no vials.

I like the idea of running more swords.

@TheLousyZoot

- Thanks for all the feedback!

- Arbiter plus Path is obviously insane, but if you do not have Arbiter and you cast Path, you've just ramped them into paying for the next Arbiter tax and also fixed their mana making Magus much worse. Have you tried Chained to the Rocks?

- Arid Mesa / lands - I did try Vantages and Battlefield Forges in an earlier build. They're not mountains for Chained to the Rocks. This is an issue. And I'm not going to Chain a non-mountain if I have a Magus out, so it is important to have natural mountains available. A few Mesas with Arbiter doesn't bother me. The way I think about them is that they are virtually always plains, but they are sometimes mountains. If I have a Magus out then whatever, it is another mountain. If there is no Magus then I always fetch plains. Sidenote, I've replaced the Sword of Feast and Famine with a Crucible which makes fetches more appealing.

- Leylines are great versus Ad Nauseum. Lightning storm is their primary win condition. I am in the market of blanking deck's primary win conditions. If they play a Maniac you just Bolt it.


@mightybenno

- Embrace the copter!

@all

- FWIW I got first place at my LGS last night with the list I shared. I'm playing a 1K Saturday and I'll try to write up a tournament report for that.

Hello my fellow friends, country(wo)men. I have something very special to share with you. My team and I have built, tested, and refined this list over the last two weeks. We call it: Hatred.

It was originally inspired by Harsh Mentor, but the list has since dropped it. The has put up results at my various LGS's and performs well against Death's Shadow. It is weakest versus hyper aggro (Burn, Affinity) and mono colored lists (Merfolk). Other matchups seem to be positive in our experience, but more testing is needed. The curve is great, see graphs here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/hatred-v3/



Some rationale for what is in the list:

• Figure of Destiny - An early game threat and late game mana sink. Works well with Copter, Magus, and Swords. Comes out versus decks with bigger creatures.
• Chained to the Rocks - Path is a non-bo with Arbiter and Magus. Abrupt Decay blowouts are minimal due to Magus and Ghost Quarter and enchantment hate is basically non-existant in Modern.
• Relic - maindeck yard hate is exceptional, cantriping is very powerful in Boros.
• Arbiter / Ghost Qurater - Strip Mine.
• Magus of the Moon - Blood Moon that kills them. I played 4 for a while, but have dropped down to 3. It is possible there should be 3 Arbiter's instead. Not sure.
• Mirran Crusader - Instant win versus Death's Shadow, insane with Swords.
• Sword of Fire and Ice / Sword of Feast and Famine - Makes all the hatebears and tokens serious must answer threats. Modular. Helps protect Magus. There's no tutoring for them, but with copters and Relics you see them more often than you would think.
• Smugger's Copter - Amazing synergy with hatebears that are timid about getting into combat. Filter though redundant hatebears or extra lands.
• Boros Charm - Experimental, flex slot, indestructable mode is the most relevant as it protects your hate pieces and leads to blowouts. Doublestrike is sweet with swords. And 4 to the dome can randomly kill them.
• Lightning Bolt - People say it is bad right now, but the reach is great.
• Lightning Helix - Important in the aggro match ups. It is possible there should be more.
• Pia and Kiran - Excellent with copter, swords, and extra relics.
• Ajani - is a disgusting curve topper, great for locking down Shadows, gaining life, and threatening Armageddon.
• Gideon / Elspeth - Flex slots, experimental. Double white can be rough, but I shaved a Magus. Elspeth's +1's are both great with the swords. I ran two Gideon's for a while and it was awesome. I've contemplated Stormbreath here, too.

Sideboard notes:

• Leylines - Excellent against BGx discard decks and random combo like Ad Nauseum.
• Runed Halo - Excellent catch all against everything from Tarmogoyfs to Etched Champions.
• Burrenton Forge Tender - Good insurance against red sweepers, important blocker in the burn match up.
• Stoney Silence - Be sure to take out all your artifacts if you bring this in.

Some rationale for what is NOT in the list:

• Harsh Mentor - This card is very bad against Death's Shadow. There will be a time for him, but I do not believe it is now.
• Path to Exile - Stated above, but I will repeat: playing this with Magus and Arbiter is bad deck building IMO.
• Aether Vial - Not enough dudes. Plus we already have 4 'do nothing', 1 drop artifacts.
• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - Personally I do not like her in Modern, but more importantly this deck only has around 14 creatures, so you will be taxing yourself out of the game if you try to play her.
• Blood Moon - This card was fine when it was in, but they became Helixes.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. This is the most fun deck I've played in Modern.

Gotcha. So with the above list what did you do?

Something like:

+ 1 Path
+ 3 Sudden Demise
+ 2 Canonist
+ 2 Containment Priest
+ 1 Mirran Crusader

- 1 Mom
- 4 Thalia
- 3 Flickerwisp
- 1 SoFI

Perhaps? Sudden Demise looks insane. And I just got Plateau's for 93/94 and Magi for Modern...

@Medea

I dig the list and your brain dump article. I've been pondering the sideboard Miracles un-warpage and then Elves re-warpage we are about to go through. How did the Elves match go? Were there any anomalies in other decks you noticed?

@All

Just theory crafting now... have a small legacy event coming up this weekend. I think I may be interested in maxing out on Revokers and playing Linvala, Keeper of Silence in the board. Peacekeeper also comes to mind though he does get hit by decay.

Sensei's Divining Top is banned. I'm too excited to process what this means for us!

Thanks for the writeup and compiling these decklists @Medea. Excellent thoughts as usual.

- - -

Nice article about Imperial Taxes: http://thegraymerchants.com/?p=1786

I want to give this list like this a shot. 3 plains seems terrifyingly low, though!

@AntiquatedNotion

Sick finish! I really dig your list, too!! Nothing techy. Just good honest D&T.

@Medea

This weekend Disenchant was for Dread of Night, silly red decks, the mirror, and Miracles.

Good to know that ruling was correct... doesn't mean I have to like it! Just seems loose to be able to not acknowledge the trigger and but it still triggers; especially if I want to do something in response to their trigger. Do I have to say something like "cast my dude and then in response to your Counterbalance trigger do X"? Seems really murky with priority because then that tips my hand, while I may want to do something else if they don't trigger it. (Sidenote, I know I shouldn't play to my opponent missing his trigger, but I still find it awkward.)

@tnehlig + @Medea

My sideboarding versus Leo/Shardless BUG usually looked something like this:

-1 Sanctum Prelate
-1 Mother of Runes
-1 Flickerwisp
-2 Serra Avenger
-2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
+1 Disenchant
+2 Rest in Peace
+2 Council's Judgment
+2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

And against Delver the same thing but +0 Gideon's and -0 Wisp / -1 Avenger. I lean on Wisp pretty hard to reset the Delvers. You guys are right. I should have brought in Paths, though.

I like cutting X/1s against Dread of Night decks. I am also quite keen on cutting Thalia when I'm bringing in 7 non-creature spells. Prelate is underwhelming against BUG (to me) since they have high CMC spread. Sure shutting off Brainstorm is fine, but then they're still casting Abrupt Decay, Toxic Deluge, and Jace. I don't agree with cutting Revokers at all. They nerf Deathrite Shamans and Jace. They also survive dread of Night. And SoFaI on a Crusader slips past their whole deck. I don't doubt Wescoe's wisdom. I do know that he plays very differently than me. Watching some replays I'm just baffled by his lines and then they end up paying off in 4 turns down the line.

One of the other D&T players was telling me he's running SoWaP over Batterskull main. It is definitely gaining popularity/acceptance.

I'm hearing you guys that Disenchant is redundant with Council's Judgment. There are higher impact cards I could be playing.

@Medea

I'm gonna jam it next constructed event. Will report back.

- Mini Tourney Report -

I played the NRG Legacy CT yesterday. It was a 90 man event with prize support of $1000 + a case of MM17. Needless to say, it was sold out. I got 11th place with the team MtGSalvation average braintrust special:



Friday night I tested about 15 games of Miracles with a friend. I won about 13 of them and was very pleased with how the deck was performing. I shaved my one of Spirit of the Labyrinth for another Serra Avenger. I also talked myself into going up to a second Gideon on the board which was painful because it meant cutting some of my graveyard hate. In retrospect I should have cut the Paths. They didn't come in a single time all day. Also I never actually got to cast a Gideon, so that felt awkward too...

- R1 Burn, Win 2-0: Pretty standard games. Jitte is a good card.
- R2 Leo BUG, Win 2-0: *Feature match!* If it makes it up on the archives I'll post, but I hope it doesn't. We both played an embarrassingly poor game 1. I decided out of indifference that Flickering a Thalia 'to get a blocker against his Deathrite Shaman' was a good line. Turns out you shouldn't leave a window open for people to cast instants like that! Game 2 his deck malfunctioned.
- R3 Delver BUG, Win 2-0: Some nice grindy games. A top-decked RiP shut down his Goyf and two Deathrites for the win.
- R4 Leo BUG, Win 2-0: More good games. Don't remember much. He did hymn me when I had 6 cards and hand and hit *both* Mirran Crusaders. We had a good laugh about that.
- R5 Omnitell, Loss 1-2: Sigh. Did you know there is a card called Firemind's Foresight? What about Release the Ants (and its interaction with Emrakul)? I didn't before yesterday! Game one I kept a hand that would have done fine against any 'fair' deck, and then promptly died. G2 I managed to kill him with 9 attacks from a lone Thalia and dual ports (this is the reason we play this deck, folks!). G3 I mulliganed pretty hard to find some early interaction. I thought I had him, but he ripped enough lands to go over my taxes and the ants were released... It was pretty impressive actually: Show and Tell -> Omniscience (I put in Karakas) -> Cunning Wish -> Firemind's Foresight for Brainstorm, Release the Ants, and something else -> Brainstorm your Emrakul to the top -> Release the Ants.
- R6 Delver Bug, Win 2-0: He kept some really sketch (mana-light) hands and I punished him severely.
- R7 Mentor Miracles, Loss 0-2: This one hurt. After testing as much as I did the night before I felt really good about the matchup. I over-committed into a Terminus which cost me game 1. There was also a judge call that I'm still not sure I agree with: I tried to Swords his Mentor. He has Counterbalance out. He does **not** announce, indicate, point or trigger Counterbalance. He fetches. The fetch resolves. He tries to trigger Counterbalance. The judge ruled this is OK. Seems to be some confusion on this elsewhere (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-rulings/magic-rulings-archives/266456-counterbalance-trigger). It didn't matter, I got to Swords it and died the next turn anyways. Game 2 I got the dreaded double equipment, colorless lands only hands on mulligan's numbers one and two. I ended up going down to 4 cards and no lands and promptly died. It was awful.

The deck performed really well. I didn't lose a game to BUG all day and would have happily played it every round. I didn't see many True-Names but whenever I did I just raced it. Crusader's are a beating. I did Karakas Leovold a few times in their draw steps so thanks all for talking about that and when the optimal time is.

I am not happy with my sideboard right now at all. I need to take a serious look at it.

Jank Alert: Back in September we were theory-crafting about Phyrexian Metamorph as a recruitable target. Has anyone worked much with it? Cloning their True-Name Nemesis or even Leovold sounds like a good time.