Here's an attempt on the arcades build. honestly it needs works as it's durdly and do nothing but I think there may be something here. Without doran tho it feels weird. Probably needs either more interaction or another kill engine. Having a secondary beatdown plan is pretty sweet and legitimate.
I was playing reshaper for a long time as well and I'm not going to lie I miss it sometimes. Tracker+tasigur is just so much more value and punishes me less (smoother mana base and tracker helps with flooding). Reshaper is faster than tracker so that's a thing but I just love the solid GB shell more than I like eldrazi tribal (and tracker is one of my all time favorite cards). I've been debating going a lower curve build cutting some top end and maxing out on reshaper value but it is almost assuredly too cute, but maybe not.
I'm pretty confident I won't be going back to reshaper unless some new cards push me into it. Honestly though, TKS is both the best and worst card in the deck. Smusher is almost always MVP on the other hand, the card is bonkers in a GB shell.
Since Rock is crammed in with abzan I'm goin to post my last 2 fnm reports here but I'll put them in spoiler tags so people can skip if not interested.
I've been on rockdrazi build for quite some time. I think it's just as viable as any other GBx variant but I certainly will not say it's better than any of them. although it's almost certainly better than sultai.
r1: serum powder colorless eldrazi
we had an epic g1 which ended at us both at 1 for many turns. If either of us draw a smusher we just die. He had sea gate wreckage active for a few turns till I found the field of ruin for it. Eventually I got there after he started to run out of gas. Thankfully outside of smusher his guys are actually smaller than mine. g2 he has a t2 smasher and well I couldn't race it. g3 I had a t2 TKS into a second so it was good to give him a taste of his own medicine. Turns out neither deck can really beat 2 temple draws haha. Magic is a silly game sometimes.
1-0
r2: abzan
we had 3 epic games as one would expect from 2 GB decks. g3 8 goyfs were seen and 7 were played (I chose a traker over goyf early on from oath). He ended up having a scooze for way too long and that ultimately won him the game as it chipped in and was able to gain him enough life. No regrets were fun games. I was 1 turn off damnation haha.
1-1
r3: jund
Jund is a much easier match than abzan. we exchanged a lot of resources but my guys are bigger and typically faster. My removal in general lines up much better. Having access to field of ruin was absolutely key in this match. g3 came down to a very close smasher+treetop for the win and I was dead on the swing back with his HUGE raging ravine. I couldn't find any removal for it so my line was I just swing in for lethal and make him have the removal to kill me. Turns out he didn't this time.
2-1
r4 mono green enchantress
This is actually a very brutal deck for other decks that don't have interaction and a clock. Well mine has both and i drew what I needed for a COMICALLY hilarious stomping of this deck. One highlight was g2 I t1 inquisition. t2 goyf, t3 field of ruin his nykthos + push his eidolon of blossoms and swing in for 5. Being so far ahead at that point there was nothing he could do but I follow up with TKS the next turn for good measure.
3-1
r1: hollow one
Lets put it this way, when hollow one doesn't just nut draw you with huge early fatties, it's not that hard of a deck to beat. Phoenix is still really annoying but I have things to fight it SB.
1-0
r2: Jeskai ascendancy
discard and fast clock made this match very easy. I got kinda lucky he bricked off the turn he tried. He didn't have a choice as he was dead next turn but perhaps he could have gotten there. g2 he boarded into lingering souls but I had a cage anyways. super sweet tech but in this instance it didn't matter.
2-0
r3: sultai control/midrange
Another match that went well for me. As another GB deck it basically whoever comes out ahead early will win and he was drawing cards and stuff but I had threats and discard so it didn't matter much. That's the one issue I have with adding blue. Azcanta, jace and visions and snaps are fantastic cards but when behind they kinda suck (except snap)
3-0
r4: naya bushwhacker zoo
I will admit I got hella lucky in this match. I've played this guy before and not only is he a great player but I'm a dog in this matchup. Turns out the 1 way I can beat him is if he floods and or doesn't have an insane burning-tree turn. He did flood enough so that he could never effectively apply pressure. Since my guys are huge there's only so much he can do after a certain point.
4-0
r5 top 4 mardu pyromancer
I thought this was a great matchup post SB and maybe that's true. The problem is game 1 outside a nut draw from me, I just can't deal with the souls and go wide strategy. plus MD moons doesn't help. In game 3 I kept a great hand but turns out he just has a blood moon he will slam on his t3 (my t2) and I had no way to answer it with no basics. It's amazing how punishing being on the draw can be in modern. I had everything I needed but sometimes you just get shut down. I have so much in SB for this match oh well. I think my takeaway is I need some number of early discard for just that problem.
4-1
r1: hollow one
Lets put it this way, when hollow one doesn't just nut draw you with huge early fatties, it's not that hard of a deck to beat. Phoenix is still really annoying but I have things to fight it SB.
1-0
r2: Jeskai ascendancy
discard and fast clock made this match very easy. I got kinda lucky he bricked off the turn he tried. He didn't have a choice as he was dead next turn but perhaps he could have gotten there. g2 he boarded into lingering souls but I had a cage anyways. super sweet tech but in this instance it didn't matter.
2-0
r3: sultai control/midrange
Another match that went well for me. As another GB deck it basically whoever comes out ahead early will win and he was drawing cards and stuff but I had threats and discard so it didn't matter much. That's the one issue I have with adding blue. Azcanta, jace and visions and snaps are fantastic cards but when behind they kinda suck (except snap)
3-0
r4: naya bushwhacker zoo
I will admit I got hella lucky in this match. I've played this guy before and not only is he a great player but I'm a dog in this matchup. Turns out the 1 way I can beat him is if he floods and or doesn't have an insane burning-tree turn. He did flood enough so that he could never effectively apply pressure. Since my guys are huge there's only so much he can do after a certain point.
4-0
r5 top 4 mardu pyromancer
I thought this was a great matchup post SB and maybe that's true. The problem is game 1 outside a nut draw from me, I just can't deal with the souls and go wide strategy. plus MD moons doesn't help. In game 3 I kept a great hand but turns out he just has a blood moon he will slam on his t3 (my t2) and I had no way to answer it with no basics. It's amazing how punishing being on the draw can be in modern. I had everything I needed but sometimes you just get shut down. I have so much in SB for this match oh well. I think my takeaway is I need some number of early discard for just that problem.
4-1
Very minor changes to the list for last friday. Didn't get around to putting up the report until now. TL:DR +1 treetop village, +1 cast down, -1 tasigur, -1 fatal push
r1: serum powder colorless eldrazi
we had an epic g1 which ended at us both at 1 for many turns. If either of us draw a smusher we just die. He had sea gate wreckage active for a few turns till I found the field of ruin for it. Eventually I got there after he started to run out of gas. Thankfully outside of smusher his guys are actually smaller than mine. g2 he has a t2 smasher and well I couldn't race it. g3 I had a t2 TKS into a second so it was good to give him a taste of his own medicine. Turns out neither deck can really beat 2 temple draws haha. Magic is a silly game sometimes.
1-0
r2: abzan
we had 3 epic games as one would expect from 2 GB decks. g3 8 goyfs were seen and 7 were played (I chose a traker over goyf early on from oath). He ended up having a scooze for way too long and that ultimately won him the game as it chipped in and was able to gain him enough life. No regrets were fun games. I was 1 turn off damnation haha.
1-1
r3: jund
Jund is a much easier match than abzan. we exchanged a lot of resources but my guys are bigger and typically faster. My removal in general lines up much better. Having access to field of ruin was absolutely key in this match. g3 came down to a very close smasher+treetop for the win and I was dead on the swing back with his HUGE raging ravine. I couldn't find any removal for it so my line was I just swing in for lethal and make him have the removal to kill me. Turns out he didn't this time.
2-1
r4 mono green enchantress
This is actually a very brutal deck for other decks that don't have interaction and a clock. Well mine has both and i drew what I needed for a COMICALLY hilarious stomping of this deck. One highlight was g2 I t1 inquisition. t2 goyf, t3 field of ruin his nykthos + push his eidolon of blossoms and swing in for 5. Being so far ahead at that point there was nothing he could do but I follow up with TKS the next turn for good measure.
3-1
I wasn't lucky this week and missed on top4 from beakers. Had some solid and fun games of magic so I can't complain. I sure love this deck. So close to foiling it all out too.
GP didn't go great. I started off beating ponza, then got crushed by blue moon with kiki-jiki. Beat 4c bring to light scapeshift, lost a mega close one to mardu pyro with MD blood moons. I then went to play some side events with my buddy. After playing 3 main deck blood moon matches I had enough even though I was 2-2.
Here's a new variant I am trying out. So far I like it but still to be determined if it's better than the mana dork version. I'm pretty sure trackers and tasigur are certainly better than matter reshaper but that card is still good. I got lucky in my placement on friday but here is my latest FNM report. The week previous I went 2-2 but that one had more discard/removal and no oaths. I had to add oath back, card is just too important for me.
So far liliana is been essential. Yes I would love more removal and I think adding back 4 discard main helps. I don't think I can remove liliana from my list. It's possible she's not needed but in some of my weaker matches like control she's just so good. at worse, she's a 3mana removal spell.
r1: jeskai nahiri
g1: he doesn't do much and I discard some of his removal, make sure to never play too much into sweepers and manage to dodge nahiri for easy win. g2 he was able to land nahiri and I couldn't get to her. That lady closes games quick. g3 long drawn out game but came down to top decks and i drew 3 lands in a row and he didn't
0-1
r2 GW death and taxes
g1 he lands a quick gavony and I couldn't race it. Never saw my eldrazi and mirran crusader closed the game very quick. G2 and 3 were just total slaughters. I have 4 sweepers coming in on top of a bunch of removal. FoR took care of gavony when relevant and since all my guys are huge there's not much cards like Thalia and voice of resurgence are going to do for him. Kalitas was mvp.
1-1
r3 jund
These were quick games. He kinda stumbles on mana but it didn't matter my removal lined up well and none of his did. TKS would remove things like terminate and everything else was too big. my deck doesn't care too much about lightning bolts and usually fatal push.
2-1
r4 humans
g1 I mull to 5 but manage to stall with a couple huge goyfs and a tracker. Tracker ended up drawing me like 5 cards. He was drawing irrelevant stuff and I just managed to draw the removal I needed for mantis rider while chipping in with a 5/6 goyf. g2 was hilarious. I just drew like a god and had all the removal in the world. My deck shut him down and smasher took it home easy.
3-1
Lucked into top 4
Semis burn
g1 I think he got flooded as he didn't do much. THankfully he was on mostly creature plan which my deck has no problem with. Was still close but I got there without too much anxiety. g2 I keep a semi slow hand but he gets stuck on 1 land for a few turns which gives me all the time I need. I slam kalitas and he gains me 9 life to close out the game.
4-1
finals mono U tron
This is a very competent player and while the deck is far from mainstream he plays it well and it is still very strong. g1 I manage to have a solid hand of discard and multiple field of ruins. He also drew too many power plants and I was able to shut him off tron lol. I was able to close out the game before he was able to find huge idiots thanks to liliana. g2 was a very long game. I was able to ruin and surgical him off tron but he had so many ways to slow me down that eventually a huge ballista ended me. I punted hard that game but I'm not sure it mattered. g3 went the opposite I end up getting a very early TKS when he didn't have an island and took his threat and thoughtseized his other threat. he assembles tron but it doesn't matter as he has nothing to play. I slam smusher and gg friend. tracker was MVP, drew me like 6+ cards in the match. turns out card is great who knew.
5-1
I think the only real change I may make is -1 tasigur +1 treetop village (this is a maybe I really want to get a second manland in there). Honestly I want more but that's probably too hard to do. Mana feels solid as is right now, I can't decide on 23 vs 24 lands. Other change would be -1 push +1 cast down. I think having a nice catch all removal is better than a 4th push as I can't always trigger revolt but tracker goes a long way in making sure I have revolt triggers (clues).
Hi all, bringing you guys a different Rock style list. I've been playing variations of this for over a year now with decent results although Im not really able to attend any large events. My meta is highly competitive though. Here's my latest FNM report. I have many more in the GB eldrazi midrange forum but that's a more eldrazi focused deck.
r1: jeskai nahiri
g1: he doesn't do much and I discard some of his removal, make sure to never play too much into sweepers and manage to dodge nahiri for easy win. g2 he was able to land nahiri and I couldn't get to her. That lady closes games quick. g3 long drawn out game but came down to top decks and i drew 3 lands in a row and he didn't
0-1
r2 GW death and taxes
g1 he lands a quick gavony and I couldn't race it. Never saw my eldrazi and mirran crusader closed the game very quick. G2 and 3 were just total slaughters. I have 4 sweepers coming in on top of a bunch of removal. FoR took care of gavony when relevant and since all my guys are huge there's not much cards like Thalia and voice of resurgence are going to do for him. Kalitas was mvp.
1-1
r3 jund
These were quick games. He kinda stumbles on mana but it didn't matter my removal lined up well and none of his did. TKS would remove things like terminate and everything else was too big. my deck doesn't care too much about lightning bolts and usually fatal push.
2-1
r4 humans
g1 I mull to 5 but manage to stall with a couple huge goyfs and a tracker. Tracker ended up drawing me like 5 cards. He was drawing irrelevant stuff and I just managed to draw the removal I needed for mantis rider while chipping in with a 5/6 goyf. g2 was hilarious. I just drew like a god and had all the removal in the world. My deck shut him down and smasher took it home easy.
3-1
Lucked into top 4
Semis burn
g1 I think he got flooded as he didn't do much. THankfully he was on mostly creature plan which my deck has no problem with. Was still close but I got there without too much anxiety. g2 I keep a semi slow hand but he gets stuck on 1 land for a few turns which gives me all the time I need. I slam kalitas and he gains me 9 life to close out the game.
4-1
finals mono U tron
This is a very competent player and while the deck is far from mainstream he plays it well and it is still very strong. g1 I manage to have a solid hand of discard and multiple field of ruins. He also drew too many power plants and I was able to shut him off tron lol. I was able to close out the game before he was able to find huge idiots thanks to liliana. g2 was a very long game. I was able to ruin and surgical him off tron but he had so many ways to slow me down that eventually a huge ballista ended me. I punted hard that game but I'm not sure it mattered. g3 went the opposite I end up getting a very early TKS when he didn't have an island and took his threat and thoughtseized his other threat. he assembles tron but it doesn't matter as he has nothing to play. I slam smusher and gg friend. tracker was MVP, drew me like 6+ cards in the match. turns out card is great who knew.
5-1
I love the GB style lists and have been on them forever. I have a love hate with Bob and haven't really found a GBx list i love outside of this. I love the eldrazi top end. TKS and Smushers are everything GB decks want to be doing and tracker and tasigur are doing everything else the deck wants. Mana can be awkward at times but nothing is color intensive outside liliana but that's where oath shines. Card is great. Feels like a necessary evil for my deck as it finds what I need early and late and occasionally pumps goyf. Deck has a lot of game. Fast aggro and certain combo can be a real issue.
FNM report: I wasn't able to pickup the bridges beforehand and was left with only 1 and 2 random cards.
r1: UW control.
Absolute and total domination. I have no idea how this version of the deck can ever realistically beat UW control. I wished I had lingering souls.
0-1
r2: Bogles
Absolute and total domination in my favor this time. Turns out they can't beat bridge and also have a hard time vs 4x spellskites. lol
1-1
r3: hollow one
These were close games but came down to fliers. I couldn't do anything to stop the phoenix and lingering souls. Wish I had either souls or more bridges. This match feels very beatable, even pretty favorable depending.
1-2
r4: elves
games 1 and 2 were slaughters. g2 he slaughtered me after I took a sketchy mana hand and got punished. g1 I curved out and it was glorious. g3 I just kept ahead of curve and out paced him. Facing down multiple 4/4s is hard for elves turns out.
2-2
r5: bant company
this was a value based coco list with quellers, knights and reflector mages, finks, etc. Pretty standard but just beat down and rely on coco. This was a match I wish I had more bridges.
3-2
r6: jund
we played a total of 5 games (2 pre, 3 post) I lost 4 of the 5 pretty handily too might I add. This match I wish I had souls and more bridges. Bridges are a reliability but he can't have removal for everything. This deck illustrates the problem playing a synergy based combo deck. Jund just has too much disruption and removal.
Thoughts: I made plenty of mistakes and missed a LOT of triggers having never played these cards before. I'm certainnly going to give this another run. I'm not sure where to go exactly from here. I want to try maxing bridges and taking this combo synergy deck to the max. I want lingering souls in the board. I need things like either pithing needle and or revoker. I also probably just need paths somewhere in the 75. Bridge takes care of most things but I got buried by cards like tracker and bob I just had no way of dealing with. Maybe I just need something dumb like fairgrounds warden. I'm debating cutting coco but the card was good for me. Feels hard/bad to do so but maybe it's worth it for something like souls. There's debate for vial too for control but I dunno about that.
I think there's certainly something here although it will never be t1 most likely. bridge + doran + tetsuko was very strong when it did happen.
Hello, first time in Doran since a very, very long time. With some recent reprintings and me picking up random cards here and there I've decided to try something new. I could not decide the direction I wanted to go but with the advent of Dominaria I thought I'd give a bride approach a shot My FNM has a bigger event for last friday of the month and what better way to test.
The main goal is testing and maximizing tetsuko umezawa, fugitive. For that I stripped most things power 2 or more. Obviously I can't take out everything, as well the card is a 2 of and with a noble I want to still be able to swing unblockable. Having no real attackers is a problem I understand especially with no removal. I had just picked upEnsnaring bridge unrelatedly and figure I'll put them to use. The deck has protection, redundancy, lifegain and just oops I win scenarios but speed is not it's thing I guess that's a tree's life for ya.
I fully expect this to not be the best Doran build and I'm sure even this is far from optimal. It was hard packing the numbers for Coco and still supporting other noncreature things. I could see cutting things like coursers/caryatid for more 1 drop 0/4s and just go aggressive, dump your hand and hope for bridge and formation. Bridges could also just be +1 tetsuko, +1 chord of calling, +1 tracker? scooze? removal?
so far I have very little real world testing but quite a bit in gold fishing testing combo speed, mana base and overall feel. Mana feels pretty solid, and with 8 ways to find doran plus the 3 formations that feels like enough. It's always hard to find the happy medium here as you NEED the effect or this style deck just stands there. SB could use some work I'm sure. I'm hoping these pieces will be enough for a wide open field, tron seems mega hard as is blood moon or through the breach decks but bridge may help vs those. I don't own horizon canopy so in the meantime, FoR is just a hedge but I could see them being something else. Gavony is an alt wincon as bad as that sounds. I'm not sure this deck can win ever though if Doran/formation are removed. I have thought long and hard going a more value Doran build but this version is far more fun to play. We shall see. It's possible this will either do real well or just be all the wrong kinds of clunky.
well It's been a while and GP hartford is rapidly approaching! Here are the last few tournies I've been to:
3-2 (discard version)
3-2 (mana dork version)
4-1 (mana dork version)
Not spectacular results since the unbannings but not terrible. I'm currently deciding between discard version or mana dorks. Really the only difference is 5 dorks vs 5 discard. Also been playing around with 1 endbringer, 1 brutality vs 2 brutality in my dork version. I think i will playing the dork version for Hartford.
I cannot decide which version I like better. Both have strengths and about the same weaknesses but I think mana dorks slightly edge out discard in general I think. I just don't know. Discard has served me well for such a while.
Well Given the unbanning of Jace seems I may need to invest in a couple more cavern and find a way to get that 4th smasher in there. Jace in modern, what a time to be alive.
I'll spare you all the details of my awesome FNM where I went 4-0 I have put together a spreadsheet of all the matches I've played from last feb to this feb. I cut out any budget decks or new players. This is obviously just FNM results so gleam what you will but my FNM is competitive.
On friday I made a couple very small changes. Changed 1 cavern to a treetop village and 1 inquisition to a nihil spellbomb. Overall I like the changes but I'm unsure if I want the second cavern. I'll keep treetop for now as it was good but it's for sure one of my flex slots. I beat jund, tron, 8 rack and storm. I happened to draw the spellbomb g1 vs storm and it basically won me the game by itself...so dumb. I think It's going to keep it's slot haha.
My slots are basically My land flex slots are:
1 cavern
1 treetop
1 GQ
1 field
I got a streamer play this deck through a league. Wasn't able to get the entire match but here's a great clip of a mono U tron. The list is very similar to what I've been toting except he changed a couple of the cards in the mana due to card availability.
Lost my win an in to top 4 to a total bonehead play. I beat Storm (Woo finally!), mono blue living end, drew to jeskai isochron scepter, silence and then lost to tron.
In the Tron match He had an active relic and I have a decay and surgical in hand and just GQ his tower. He passes and then we go back so he can fetch after a judge call. It's fine no biggy but it screwed up my train of thought and totally blew my surgical in response to his map activation forgetting I had to bait his relic with my decay. So as you would expect eh relics himself. DOH. I'll try not to do that again I guess. I'm not saying I would have been able to as I need him to basically tap out and use his relic, so it might have been too late regardless but I didn't even give myself the chance.
I've made the decision to firstly go back and start a spreadsheet of all my matches so far and see where I'm at. Secondly, I'm going to rent this deck online for the next month to start seriously testing for GP Hartford.
4 overgrown battlement
4 spellskite
4 sylvan caryatid
4 wall of omens
4 axebane guardian
4 arcades, the strategist
1 phenax, god of deception
1 emrakul, the aeons torn
4 assault formation
3 chord of calling
2 gavony township
1 breeding pool
1 temple garden
1 hallowed fountain
3 field of ruin
1 flooded strand
1 misty rainforest
4 windswept heath
2 razorverge thicket
3 forest
1 island
2 plains
I'm pretty confident I won't be going back to reshaper unless some new cards push me into it. Honestly though, TKS is both the best and worst card in the deck. Smusher is almost always MVP on the other hand, the card is bonkers in a GB shell.
I've been on rockdrazi build for quite some time. I think it's just as viable as any other GBx variant but I certainly will not say it's better than any of them. although it's almost certainly better than sultai.
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
1 Tasigur, the golden fang
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 cast down
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 treetop village
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
1 surgical extraction
1 maelstrom pulse
1 grafdigger's cage
1 lost legacy
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 night of souls' betrayal
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 ratchet bomb
2 damping sphere
we had an epic g1 which ended at us both at 1 for many turns. If either of us draw a smusher we just die. He had sea gate wreckage active for a few turns till I found the field of ruin for it. Eventually I got there after he started to run out of gas. Thankfully outside of smusher his guys are actually smaller than mine. g2 he has a t2 smasher and well I couldn't race it. g3 I had a t2 TKS into a second so it was good to give him a taste of his own medicine. Turns out neither deck can really beat 2 temple draws haha. Magic is a silly game sometimes.
1-0
r2: abzan
we had 3 epic games as one would expect from 2 GB decks. g3 8 goyfs were seen and 7 were played (I chose a traker over goyf early on from oath). He ended up having a scooze for way too long and that ultimately won him the game as it chipped in and was able to gain him enough life. No regrets were fun games. I was 1 turn off damnation haha.
1-1
r3: jund
Jund is a much easier match than abzan. we exchanged a lot of resources but my guys are bigger and typically faster. My removal in general lines up much better. Having access to field of ruin was absolutely key in this match. g3 came down to a very close smasher+treetop for the win and I was dead on the swing back with his HUGE raging ravine. I couldn't find any removal for it so my line was I just swing in for lethal and make him have the removal to kill me. Turns out he didn't this time.
2-1
r4 mono green enchantress
This is actually a very brutal deck for other decks that don't have interaction and a clock. Well mine has both and i drew what I needed for a COMICALLY hilarious stomping of this deck. One highlight was g2 I t1 inquisition. t2 goyf, t3 field of ruin his nykthos + push his eidolon of blossoms and swing in for 5. Being so far ahead at that point there was nothing he could do but I follow up with TKS the next turn for good measure.
3-1
Lets put it this way, when hollow one doesn't just nut draw you with huge early fatties, it's not that hard of a deck to beat. Phoenix is still really annoying but I have things to fight it SB.
1-0
r2: Jeskai ascendancy
discard and fast clock made this match very easy. I got kinda lucky he bricked off the turn he tried. He didn't have a choice as he was dead next turn but perhaps he could have gotten there. g2 he boarded into lingering souls but I had a cage anyways. super sweet tech but in this instance it didn't matter.
2-0
r3: sultai control/midrange
Another match that went well for me. As another GB deck it basically whoever comes out ahead early will win and he was drawing cards and stuff but I had threats and discard so it didn't matter much. That's the one issue I have with adding blue. Azcanta, jace and visions and snaps are fantastic cards but when behind they kinda suck (except snap)
3-0
r4: naya bushwhacker zoo
I will admit I got hella lucky in this match. I've played this guy before and not only is he a great player but I'm a dog in this matchup. Turns out the 1 way I can beat him is if he floods and or doesn't have an insane burning-tree turn. He did flood enough so that he could never effectively apply pressure. Since my guys are huge there's only so much he can do after a certain point.
4-0
r5 top 4 mardu pyromancer
I thought this was a great matchup post SB and maybe that's true. The problem is game 1 outside a nut draw from me, I just can't deal with the souls and go wide strategy. plus MD moons doesn't help. In game 3 I kept a great hand but turns out he just has a blood moon he will slam on his t3 (my t2) and I had no way to answer it with no basics. It's amazing how punishing being on the draw can be in modern. I had everything I needed but sometimes you just get shut down. I have so much in SB for this match oh well. I think my takeaway is I need some number of early discard for just that problem.
4-1
r1: hollow one
Lets put it this way, when hollow one doesn't just nut draw you with huge early fatties, it's not that hard of a deck to beat. Phoenix is still really annoying but I have things to fight it SB.
1-0
r2: Jeskai ascendancy
discard and fast clock made this match very easy. I got kinda lucky he bricked off the turn he tried. He didn't have a choice as he was dead next turn but perhaps he could have gotten there. g2 he boarded into lingering souls but I had a cage anyways. super sweet tech but in this instance it didn't matter.
2-0
r3: sultai control/midrange
Another match that went well for me. As another GB deck it basically whoever comes out ahead early will win and he was drawing cards and stuff but I had threats and discard so it didn't matter much. That's the one issue I have with adding blue. Azcanta, jace and visions and snaps are fantastic cards but when behind they kinda suck (except snap)
3-0
r4: naya bushwhacker zoo
I will admit I got hella lucky in this match. I've played this guy before and not only is he a great player but I'm a dog in this matchup. Turns out the 1 way I can beat him is if he floods and or doesn't have an insane burning-tree turn. He did flood enough so that he could never effectively apply pressure. Since my guys are huge there's only so much he can do after a certain point.
4-0
r5 top 4 mardu pyromancer
I thought this was a great matchup post SB and maybe that's true. The problem is game 1 outside a nut draw from me, I just can't deal with the souls and go wide strategy. plus MD moons doesn't help. In game 3 I kept a great hand but turns out he just has a blood moon he will slam on his t3 (my t2) and I had no way to answer it with no basics. It's amazing how punishing being on the draw can be in modern. I had everything I needed but sometimes you just get shut down. I have so much in SB for this match oh well. I think my takeaway is I need some number of early discard for just that problem.
4-1
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
1 Tasigur, the golden fang
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 cast down
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 treetop village
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
1 surgical extraction
1 choke
1 grafdigger's cage
1 lost legacy
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 night of souls' betrayal
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 ratchet bomb
2 damping sphere
r1: serum powder colorless eldrazi
we had an epic g1 which ended at us both at 1 for many turns. If either of us draw a smusher we just die. He had sea gate wreckage active for a few turns till I found the field of ruin for it. Eventually I got there after he started to run out of gas. Thankfully outside of smusher his guys are actually smaller than mine. g2 he has a t2 smasher and well I couldn't race it. g3 I had a t2 TKS into a second so it was good to give him a taste of his own medicine. Turns out neither deck can really beat 2 temple draws haha. Magic is a silly game sometimes.
1-0
r2: abzan
we had 3 epic games as one would expect from 2 GB decks. g3 8 goyfs were seen and 7 were played (I chose a traker over goyf early on from oath). He ended up having a scooze for way too long and that ultimately won him the game as it chipped in and was able to gain him enough life. No regrets were fun games. I was 1 turn off damnation haha.
1-1
r3: jund
Jund is a much easier match than abzan. we exchanged a lot of resources but my guys are bigger and typically faster. My removal in general lines up much better. Having access to field of ruin was absolutely key in this match. g3 came down to a very close smasher+treetop for the win and I was dead on the swing back with his HUGE raging ravine. I couldn't find any removal for it so my line was I just swing in for lethal and make him have the removal to kill me. Turns out he didn't this time.
2-1
r4 mono green enchantress
This is actually a very brutal deck for other decks that don't have interaction and a clock. Well mine has both and i drew what I needed for a COMICALLY hilarious stomping of this deck. One highlight was g2 I t1 inquisition. t2 goyf, t3 field of ruin his nykthos + push his eidolon of blossoms and swing in for 5. Being so far ahead at that point there was nothing he could do but I follow up with TKS the next turn for good measure.
3-1
I wasn't lucky this week and missed on top4 from beakers. Had some solid and fun games of magic so I can't complain. I sure love this deck. So close to foiling it all out too.
Here's a new variant I am trying out. So far I like it but still to be determined if it's better than the mana dork version. I'm pretty sure trackers and tasigur are certainly better than matter reshaper but that card is still good. I got lucky in my placement on friday but here is my latest FNM report. The week previous I went 2-2 but that one had more discard/removal and no oaths. I had to add oath back, card is just too important for me.
So far liliana is been essential. Yes I would love more removal and I think adding back 4 discard main helps. I don't think I can remove liliana from my list. It's possible she's not needed but in some of my weaker matches like control she's just so good. at worse, she's a 3mana removal spell.
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
2 Tasigur, the golden fang
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
1 surgical extraction
1 choke
1 grafdigger's cage
1 lost legacy
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 night of souls' betrayal
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 ratchet bomb
2 damping sphere
r1: jeskai nahiri
g1: he doesn't do much and I discard some of his removal, make sure to never play too much into sweepers and manage to dodge nahiri for easy win. g2 he was able to land nahiri and I couldn't get to her. That lady closes games quick. g3 long drawn out game but came down to top decks and i drew 3 lands in a row and he didn't
0-1
r2 GW death and taxes
g1 he lands a quick gavony and I couldn't race it. Never saw my eldrazi and mirran crusader closed the game very quick. G2 and 3 were just total slaughters. I have 4 sweepers coming in on top of a bunch of removal. FoR took care of gavony when relevant and since all my guys are huge there's not much cards like Thalia and voice of resurgence are going to do for him. Kalitas was mvp.
1-1
r3 jund
These were quick games. He kinda stumbles on mana but it didn't matter my removal lined up well and none of his did. TKS would remove things like terminate and everything else was too big. my deck doesn't care too much about lightning bolts and usually fatal push.
2-1
r4 humans
g1 I mull to 5 but manage to stall with a couple huge goyfs and a tracker. Tracker ended up drawing me like 5 cards. He was drawing irrelevant stuff and I just managed to draw the removal I needed for mantis rider while chipping in with a 5/6 goyf. g2 was hilarious. I just drew like a god and had all the removal in the world. My deck shut him down and smasher took it home easy.
3-1
Lucked into top 4
Semis burn
g1 I think he got flooded as he didn't do much. THankfully he was on mostly creature plan which my deck has no problem with. Was still close but I got there without too much anxiety. g2 I keep a semi slow hand but he gets stuck on 1 land for a few turns which gives me all the time I need. I slam kalitas and he gains me 9 life to close out the game.
4-1
finals mono U tron
This is a very competent player and while the deck is far from mainstream he plays it well and it is still very strong. g1 I manage to have a solid hand of discard and multiple field of ruins. He also drew too many power plants and I was able to shut him off tron lol. I was able to close out the game before he was able to find huge idiots thanks to liliana. g2 was a very long game. I was able to ruin and surgical him off tron but he had so many ways to slow me down that eventually a huge ballista ended me. I punted hard that game but I'm not sure it mattered. g3 went the opposite I end up getting a very early TKS when he didn't have an island and took his threat and thoughtseized his other threat. he assembles tron but it doesn't matter as he has nothing to play. I slam smusher and gg friend. tracker was MVP, drew me like 6+ cards in the match. turns out card is great who knew.
5-1
I think the only real change I may make is -1 tasigur +1 treetop village (this is a maybe I really want to get a second manland in there). Honestly I want more but that's probably too hard to do. Mana feels solid as is right now, I can't decide on 23 vs 24 lands. Other change would be -1 push +1 cast down. I think having a nice catch all removal is better than a 4th push as I can't always trigger revolt but tracker goes a long way in making sure I have revolt triggers (clues).
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
2 Tasigur, the golden fang
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
1 surgical extraction
1 choke
1 grafdigger's cage
1 lost legacy
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 night of souls' betrayal
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 ratchet bomb
2 damping sphere
r1: jeskai nahiri
g1: he doesn't do much and I discard some of his removal, make sure to never play too much into sweepers and manage to dodge nahiri for easy win. g2 he was able to land nahiri and I couldn't get to her. That lady closes games quick. g3 long drawn out game but came down to top decks and i drew 3 lands in a row and he didn't
0-1
r2 GW death and taxes
g1 he lands a quick gavony and I couldn't race it. Never saw my eldrazi and mirran crusader closed the game very quick. G2 and 3 were just total slaughters. I have 4 sweepers coming in on top of a bunch of removal. FoR took care of gavony when relevant and since all my guys are huge there's not much cards like Thalia and voice of resurgence are going to do for him. Kalitas was mvp.
1-1
r3 jund
These were quick games. He kinda stumbles on mana but it didn't matter my removal lined up well and none of his did. TKS would remove things like terminate and everything else was too big. my deck doesn't care too much about lightning bolts and usually fatal push.
2-1
r4 humans
g1 I mull to 5 but manage to stall with a couple huge goyfs and a tracker. Tracker ended up drawing me like 5 cards. He was drawing irrelevant stuff and I just managed to draw the removal I needed for mantis rider while chipping in with a 5/6 goyf. g2 was hilarious. I just drew like a god and had all the removal in the world. My deck shut him down and smasher took it home easy.
3-1
Lucked into top 4
Semis burn
g1 I think he got flooded as he didn't do much. THankfully he was on mostly creature plan which my deck has no problem with. Was still close but I got there without too much anxiety. g2 I keep a semi slow hand but he gets stuck on 1 land for a few turns which gives me all the time I need. I slam kalitas and he gains me 9 life to close out the game.
4-1
finals mono U tron
This is a very competent player and while the deck is far from mainstream he plays it well and it is still very strong. g1 I manage to have a solid hand of discard and multiple field of ruins. He also drew too many power plants and I was able to shut him off tron lol. I was able to close out the game before he was able to find huge idiots thanks to liliana. g2 was a very long game. I was able to ruin and surgical him off tron but he had so many ways to slow me down that eventually a huge ballista ended me. I punted hard that game but I'm not sure it mattered. g3 went the opposite I end up getting a very early TKS when he didn't have an island and took his threat and thoughtseized his other threat. he assembles tron but it doesn't matter as he has nothing to play. I slam smusher and gg friend. tracker was MVP, drew me like 6+ cards in the match. turns out card is great who knew.
5-1
I love the GB style lists and have been on them forever. I have a love hate with Bob and haven't really found a GBx list i love outside of this. I love the eldrazi top end. TKS and Smushers are everything GB decks want to be doing and tracker and tasigur are doing everything else the deck wants. Mana can be awkward at times but nothing is color intensive outside liliana but that's where oath shines. Card is great. Feels like a necessary evil for my deck as it finds what I need early and late and occasionally pumps goyf. Deck has a lot of game. Fast aggro and certain combo can be a real issue.
r1: UW control.
Absolute and total domination. I have no idea how this version of the deck can ever realistically beat UW control. I wished I had lingering souls.
0-1
r2: Bogles
Absolute and total domination in my favor this time. Turns out they can't beat bridge and also have a hard time vs 4x spellskites. lol
1-1
r3: hollow one
These were close games but came down to fliers. I couldn't do anything to stop the phoenix and lingering souls. Wish I had either souls or more bridges. This match feels very beatable, even pretty favorable depending.
1-2
r4: elves
games 1 and 2 were slaughters. g2 he slaughtered me after I took a sketchy mana hand and got punished. g1 I curved out and it was glorious. g3 I just kept ahead of curve and out paced him. Facing down multiple 4/4s is hard for elves turns out.
2-2
r5: bant company
this was a value based coco list with quellers, knights and reflector mages, finks, etc. Pretty standard but just beat down and rely on coco. This was a match I wish I had more bridges.
3-2
r6: jund
we played a total of 5 games (2 pre, 3 post) I lost 4 of the 5 pretty handily too might I add. This match I wish I had souls and more bridges. Bridges are a reliability but he can't have removal for everything. This deck illustrates the problem playing a synergy based combo deck. Jund just has too much disruption and removal.
Thoughts: I made plenty of mistakes and missed a LOT of triggers having never played these cards before. I'm certainnly going to give this another run. I'm not sure where to go exactly from here. I want to try maxing bridges and taking this combo synergy deck to the max. I want lingering souls in the board. I need things like either pithing needle and or revoker. I also probably just need paths somewhere in the 75. Bridge takes care of most things but I got buried by cards like tracker and bob I just had no way of dealing with. Maybe I just need something dumb like fairgrounds warden. I'm debating cutting coco but the card was good for me. Feels hard/bad to do so but maybe it's worth it for something like souls. There's debate for vial too for control but I dunno about that.
I think there's certainly something here although it will never be t1 most likely. bridge + doran + tetsuko was very strong when it did happen.
The main goal is testing and maximizing tetsuko umezawa, fugitive. For that I stripped most things power 2 or more. Obviously I can't take out everything, as well the card is a 2 of and with a noble I want to still be able to swing unblockable. Having no real attackers is a problem I understand especially with no removal. I had just picked upEnsnaring bridge unrelatedly and figure I'll put them to use. The deck has protection, redundancy, lifegain and just oops I win scenarios but speed is not it's thing I guess that's a tree's life for ya.
I fully expect this to not be the best Doran build and I'm sure even this is far from optimal. It was hard packing the numbers for Coco and still supporting other noncreature things. I could see cutting things like coursers/caryatid for more 1 drop 0/4s and just go aggressive, dump your hand and hope for bridge and formation. Bridges could also just be +1 tetsuko, +1 chord of calling, +1 tracker? scooze? removal?
4 God-pharaoh's faithful
4 noble hierarch
4 treefolk harbinger
3 nyx-fleece ram
4 spellskite
1 sylvan caryatid
2 tetsuko Umezawa, fugitive
2 courser of kruphix
4 doran, the siege tower
spells
3 assault formation
3 ensnaring bridge
4 collected company
1 breeding pool
1 hallowed fountain
1 temple garden
1 overgrown tomb
1 godless shrine
3 forest
2 plains
1 swamp
3 windswept heath
2 verdant catacombs
3 razorverge thicket
2 field of ruin
1 gavony township
1 gaddock teeg
1 kataki, war's wage
2 scavenging ooze
1 eidolon of rhetoric
2 reclamation sage
2 engineered explosives
2 damping sphere
2 rest in peace
2 stony silence
so far I have very little real world testing but quite a bit in gold fishing testing combo speed, mana base and overall feel. Mana feels pretty solid, and with 8 ways to find doran plus the 3 formations that feels like enough. It's always hard to find the happy medium here as you NEED the effect or this style deck just stands there. SB could use some work I'm sure. I'm hoping these pieces will be enough for a wide open field, tron seems mega hard as is blood moon or through the breach decks but bridge may help vs those. I don't own horizon canopy so in the meantime, FoR is just a hedge but I could see them being something else. Gavony is an alt wincon as bad as that sounds. I'm not sure this deck can win ever though if Doran/formation are removed. I have thought long and hard going a more value Doran build but this version is far more fun to play. We shall see. It's possible this will either do real well or just be all the wrong kinds of clunky.
3-2 (discard version)
3-2 (mana dork version)
4-1 (mana dork version)
Not spectacular results since the unbannings but not terrible. I'm currently deciding between discard version or mana dorks. Really the only difference is 5 dorks vs 5 discard. Also been playing around with 1 endbringer, 1 brutality vs 2 brutality in my dork version. I think i will playing the dork version for Hartford.
I cannot decide which version I like better. Both have strengths and about the same weaknesses but I think mana dorks slightly edge out discard in general I think. I just don't know. Discard has served me well for such a while.
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 matter reshaper
4 thought-knot seer
4 reality smasher
spells
3 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
3 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
2 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
2 swamp
2 forest
1 wastes
1 twilight mire
1 hissing quagmire
1 treetop village
1 cavern of souls
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
3 surgical extraction
1 choke
1 night of souls' betrayal
1 grafdigger's cage
2 fulminator mage
1 lost legacy
1 pithing needle
1 collective brutality
1 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 thrun, the last troll
1 ratchet bomb
3 birds of paradise
2 noble heirarch
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 matter reshaper
4 thought-knot seer
4 reality smasher
spells
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
3 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
2 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
2 swamp
2 forest
1 wastes
1 twilight mire
1 hissing quagmire
1 treetop village
1 cavern of souls
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
3 surgical extraction
1 choke
1 golgari charm
1 grafdigger's cage
2 fulminator mage
1 pithing needle
1 collective brutality
1 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 thrun, the last troll
1 engineered explosives
1 ratchet bomb
On friday I made a couple very small changes. Changed 1 cavern to a treetop village and 1 inquisition to a nihil spellbomb. Overall I like the changes but I'm unsure if I want the second cavern. I'll keep treetop for now as it was good but it's for sure one of my flex slots. I beat jund, tron, 8 rack and storm. I happened to draw the spellbomb g1 vs storm and it basically won me the game by itself...so dumb. I think It's going to keep it's slot haha.
My slots are basically My land flex slots are:
1 cavern
1 treetop
1 GQ
1 field
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I7tAKH_KeCpAibz0EKfcF4s4RXVxR8D0NGnPJQbyORs/edit?usp=sharing
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/226788659
silence and then lost to tron.
In the Tron match He had an active relic and I have a decay and surgical in hand and just GQ his tower. He passes and then we go back so he can fetch after a judge call. It's fine no biggy but it screwed up my train of thought and totally blew my surgical in response to his map activation forgetting I had to bait his relic with my decay. So as you would expect eh relics himself. DOH. I'll try not to do that again I guess. I'm not saying I would have been able to as I need him to basically tap out and use his relic, so it might have been too late regardless but I didn't even give myself the chance.
I've made the decision to firstly go back and start a spreadsheet of all my matches so far and see where I'm at. Secondly, I'm going to rent this deck online for the next month to start seriously testing for GP Hartford.