@Turkey: If you can find room for Infernal Tutor in your list try Noxious Revival.
Noxious Revival: 2 life - fix your next draw maybe if what you want is in your yard.
Infernal Tutor: Demonic Tutor if you're hellbent.
Honestly they don't really seem comparable.
it's not perfect but i decided to test flagstones/urborg out. now that i'm not mono black and i have fetches i think shaman is worth testing and bob is in if creatures are in since we're not blanking removal anymore might as well play the best black card in the format. darkness might do literal nothing in this deck but it's also a test. testing 7 racks because i want to see how it feels. testing 2 infernals because more seems bad and the card might be bad already but testing anyway. might move up to two mutavaults but so far 1 is working well.
p.s. if you click "reveal" in cockatrice it gives me a box. i don't close the box. i just click the cards as they get played so i know what's in your hand. if you move the cards onto the battlefield i don't get a box. then i'm forced to do work to remember the cards. if i'm in a good mood i'll try to explain that or bite the bullet. if i'm in a worse mood i'll just play someone else.
Spellskite and Gibbering Descent seem like your best bets against twin, but maybe that's because i'm big on Funeral Charm so the errant guy with one toughness wouldn't irk me as much as it might you. We should rate well against combo since they need to assemble a bunch of parts and we deny the hand as much as possible to limit the possibility that they get those parts.
Any advantage engine is where this deck I think struggles greatly. Tron (eventually) will pull ahead, as will Pod, although the card i truly hate is Life from the Loam. I would advise Leyline of the Void, although I know it isn't perfect, but I think it pares the advantage away enough to be worth a slot.
Once we have access to Waste Not, maybe cards like skeins become playable, but until then we need to not be card disadvantageous in my opinion.
I'm still happily chugging along the Scrying Sheets train, although I may well be alone, and I do concede that eventually I see this deck splashing white for a number of cards and I will probably have to forgo my snow-covered swamp dreams, but i am a sucker for card advantage.
Anytime a card refers to itself by name, it means that specific card itself, not just cards that share a name with itself. If you want to see alternate templating that is close to what your opponent is claiming, look at Accumulated Knowledge. Each Ashiok can only get cards that it itself exiled (as long as it's been on the battlefield continuously. If it somehow leaves the battlefield and comes back, it's considered a new Ashiok and won't remember other cards it might have exiled in its torrid past.)
Has anyone had problems with Ravenous Baloth/wilt-leaf liege? I haven't run up against them yet, but they seem problematic. An ensnaring bridge solves the problem, and the lifegain isn't a huge issue, but if I don't find a bridge it seems like you're stuck 2-for-1'ing yourself to get rid of it.
1. Smallpox does a lot of work.
2. If you're worried about it, don't lead with Raven's Crime/Funeral Charm. Start off with Thoughtseize/IoK/Blackmail and see where you end up.
3. Those games suck, but they don't always have it, and you have outs. If you run removal (dismember, deathmark or Go for the Throat are the only options I'd consider, though I don't play any main), or if you draw a bridge or Liliana, you're probably going to be fine. Don't be afraid to make yourself discard to make Bridge an out. If they're beating you with a 4/4 and a 2/3 on turn two, Wrench Mind'ing yourself is going to do a lot more work if you draw that Bridge than it is to hit them.
1. I once drew a Seething Song, but I had a stop on my draw step for Miracle bluffs. I cast the Seething Song. It was turn 100, he was Pod and had no cards in hand, and I would've had about 7 mana with Past in Flames in my full graveyard.
2. I once tumble magnet'd an equipment instead of a creature.
@Memory Lapse -- Why didn't you side in Grafdigger's against Ad Nauseum? Stops Conflagrate cold. What's their other win-con? Lightning Storm?
as long as the card has a Magic card back (aka not this) and has been printed in a modern-legal set, it's legal to put in your deck.
the first time i did a sealed PTQ, i thought my basic lands had to be shards of alara lands. so i understand the confusion.
Would Ratchet Bomb be a terrible sideboard option for us? I think Turn 1 Pithing Needle against Liliana on Game 2 is a huge disadvantage for us, and Mono Black has no answer against it.
EE has to be just better, unless you're planning on cranking up to 4 to get leylines. not that i think pithing needle is a particularly devastating card to face. turning off our lilianas dents our plan very marginally.
also, if you're planning on killing leylines etc., most of the things that do will also kill pithing needles, a la disenchant, maelstrom pulse, etc.
This is a crazy helpful post dude brah. The Valakut problem is really making me think that a playset of Ghost Quarter wouldn't be such a bad call. Some folks here have been mulling around the idea of including Spellskite, to protect Bridges, just not sure what it would replace.
It's quite obvious that this build needs answers to Tron and Valakut. GAH why isn't Recoil modern legal???? Hell for that matter I'd take Pillage.
Besides Ghost Quarter, can you guys think of similar solutions?
tectonic edge is probably better against scapeshift. smallpox is probably better than both in general. i personally haven't had problems with combo decks like scapeshift, and tron isn't a huge problem so long as they don't turn 3 something ridiculous.
Is it a budget thoughtseize? no. the things they do are too different. thoughtseize is great turn 1 or 2. blackmail is ok turns 1 and 2, and great turn 3 and beyond. the problem is, if you're running spot discard, you want to hit ONE THING, and the problem with blackmail is your probably won't hit the ONE THING. based on the three cards you see, you can probably figure out what their one thing is, and grab away something that will support that (if they show you lands, take the one that matters. if they show you creatures or spells, take the one that supports their strategy the best). but replace thoughtseize? not a chance.
Echolocation2G Enchantment G: Choose an attacking creature you don't control. It becomes blocked by target creature you control. "Our ears hear all. Each breath, each footfall, each heartbeat confirms your doom."
- Gol Tan of the Bats
i would encourage you to read (shape anew) before commenting in the future.
Noxious Revival: 2 life - fix your next draw maybe if what you want is in your yard.
Infernal Tutor: Demonic Tutor if you're hellbent.
Honestly they don't really seem comparable.
4 deathrite shaman
4 the rack
3 Shrieking Affliction
2 Funeral Charm
4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
1 Mutavault
1 Overgrown Tomb
4 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Infernal Tutor
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Raven's Crime
4 Smallpox
4 Thoughtseize
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Darkness
2 Disenchant
2 Hero's Downfall
3 Damnation
it's not perfect but i decided to test flagstones/urborg out. now that i'm not mono black and i have fetches i think shaman is worth testing and bob is in if creatures are in since we're not blanking removal anymore might as well play the best black card in the format. darkness might do literal nothing in this deck but it's also a test. testing 7 racks because i want to see how it feels. testing 2 infernals because more seems bad and the card might be bad already but testing anyway. might move up to two mutavaults but so far 1 is working well.
p.s. if you click "reveal" in cockatrice it gives me a box. i don't close the box. i just click the cards as they get played so i know what's in your hand. if you move the cards onto the battlefield i don't get a box. then i'm forced to do work to remember the cards. if i'm in a good mood i'll try to explain that or bite the bullet. if i'm in a worse mood i'll just play someone else.
Any advantage engine is where this deck I think struggles greatly. Tron (eventually) will pull ahead, as will Pod, although the card i truly hate is Life from the Loam. I would advise Leyline of the Void, although I know it isn't perfect, but I think it pares the advantage away enough to be worth a slot.
Once we have access to Waste Not, maybe cards like skeins become playable, but until then we need to not be card disadvantageous in my opinion.
I'm still happily chugging along the Scrying Sheets train, although I may well be alone, and I do concede that eventually I see this deck splashing white for a number of cards and I will probably have to forgo my snow-covered swamp dreams, but i am a sucker for card advantage.
[U]Enchantment[/U] [u]
Except during that player's draw step, each player can't draw cards.
Your ears have never felt closer.
iiw: the devil inside
1. Smallpox does a lot of work.
2. If you're worried about it, don't lead with Raven's Crime/Funeral Charm. Start off with Thoughtseize/IoK/Blackmail and see where you end up.
3. Those games suck, but they don't always have it, and you have outs. If you run removal (dismember, deathmark or Go for the Throat are the only options I'd consider, though I don't play any main), or if you draw a bridge or Liliana, you're probably going to be fine. Don't be afraid to make yourself discard to make Bridge an out. If they're beating you with a 4/4 and a 2/3 on turn two, Wrench Mind'ing yourself is going to do a lot more work if you draw that Bridge than it is to hit them.
1. I once drew a Seething Song, but I had a stop on my draw step for Miracle bluffs. I cast the Seething Song. It was turn 100, he was Pod and had no cards in hand, and I would've had about 7 mana with Past in Flames in my full graveyard.
2. I once tumble magnet'd an equipment instead of a creature.
@Memory Lapse -- Why didn't you side in Grafdigger's against Ad Nauseum? Stops Conflagrate cold. What's their other win-con? Lightning Storm?
the first time i did a sealed PTQ, i thought my basic lands had to be shards of alara lands. so i understand the confusion.
EE has to be just better, unless you're planning on cranking up to 4 to get leylines. not that i think pithing needle is a particularly devastating card to face. turning off our lilianas dents our plan very marginally.
also, if you're planning on killing leylines etc., most of the things that do will also kill pithing needles, a la disenchant, maelstrom pulse, etc.
tectonic edge is probably better against scapeshift. smallpox is probably better than both in general. i personally haven't had problems with combo decks like scapeshift, and tron isn't a huge problem so long as they don't turn 3 something ridiculous.
Enchantment
G: Choose an attacking creature you don't control. It becomes blocked by target creature you control.
"Our ears hear all. Each breath, each footfall, each heartbeat confirms your doom."
- Gol Tan of the Bats
iiw: the best defense
i can play for the next 5 hours or so. but i can't play this weekend.