As 2017 comes to an end and we gloss over a year in modern, and one card stands out, Death’s Shadow. Jund Death’s Shadow dominated modern in early 2017, and then it’s Grixis counter part rose to power and put a strangle hold on the format. After a year of dominance, one would assume the modern machine would have crafted “the list”, a turn key product ready to go and devastate a modern tournament. Gloss through the two architypes and there’s quite a bit of variance in the deck lists. It’s impossible to create “the list” because the Death’s Shadow has less deck building constraints than any other deck in modern. The painful mana base is an asset; therefore, color restrictions aren’t an issue, allowing it to play all the best cards in modern. There are a lot of articles out there that give you precise sideboard guides, reasons for the 58th, 59th, and 60th down to their effectiveness in each match up across the format, or a meta game breakdown and which type of Death’s Shadow deck is right for the weekend. If you’re looking for X’s and O’s, then this isn’t the right article. I’m here to delve deeper into how one approaches Death’s Shadow looking to find “the list” for them? It took me quite a bit of time to find my place is the Death’s Shadow world, but I found it by asking myself three questions while deck building. First, what cards are locked into the list? What cards can’t be changed. A prime example of this in their respected decks are Mishra’s Bauble, and Thought Scour they’re necessary to deck functionality. Next, what’s my role when sitting down against an unknown opponent. This is the most difficult question to answer because modern is so wide open, the format is impossible to meta game. I do my best by using personal play biases, generalizations about the modern meta game, and playing to the strength of the deck. Last, how can I configure my sideboard to help make up for the short comings of my starting 60. If you’ve stumbled on to any of my content and I’m paired against a bad match up I will often acknowledge that I’m at a significant disadvantage in game one because of my current configuration. When making these decisions I always have in mind how to remedy the situation once we go to the bench. Let’s dissect the Grixis Death’s Shadow (GDS) cards that in my opinion are a must to be in any starting 60. Lands
Serum Visions was a hall mark of this deck, but using mana on the main phase while not trading resources isn’t worth it. Having an opening hand of multiple serum visions with no discard spells on the play is awful. I don’t think you can cast the card because you don’t know what you’re scrying for. Serum visions also makes Snapcaster Mages worse. The deck is very reactive once it establishes a threat, and tapping out on your main phase to gain velocity in a format that has volatile combo decks like modern is a death sentance, Opt avoids this dilemma. All in all, Opt has improved the tempo of the deck, but taken away from threat consistency. So, to offset the card selection Serum Visions offers its time to add threats.
The last two cards secretly work together and help supplement a main deck without Temur Battle Rage.
Adding the card listed above here is what my starting 60 would look like. Lands
Now let’s move on to my wheel house, Jund Death’s Shadow (JDS). This is my favorite version of the deck, it plays more to my play style, and I’m excited to traverse my thoughts! Here is the locked in roster. Lands
I’m not going to reinvent the wheel and go in depth with respect to the mana base, the twelve black fetch lands one swamp set up is the best and for the most part the modern machine has proven that. Decks that play land destruction are already terrible match ups (Death and Taxes, and UW control) and playing an additional basic isn’t worth it when less than 10% of the meta game relies on land destruction. If you’re worried about Blood Moon then keep your Stubborn Denials in, fetch your basic, or hold up Abrupt Decay. The only adjustment that I make is if there are more blue spells then red spells in the main deck I switch the Stomping Ground for a Breeding Pool. My play philosophy when playing JDS, is the same when playing GDS, build the deck to be threat dense and beat up on combo decks in game one. I’ll address other architypes after gaining access to the sideboard. Eight discards spells and three counter spells in the main deck all this deck needs is a clock or something to provide incremental advantage to end the game. Let’s add four threats:
To fight combo, add additional interaction and elements that shorten the clock are added.
Lands
Build the deck to be heavy Green black with light red splash and blue splashes, therefore the splash can be extracted easily. A note when side boarding against fair decks is to keep all your green shocks in. Traversing for a Tarmogofy is important because it’s a threat that you don’t have hemorrhage your life total to use. Fair in a match ups will likely go long, and being too aggressive with your life total will cut off future draws, or cause you to be burned out. Don’t take out the Stomping Ground, or the Breeding Pool, cut black lands even if the green lands are virtually a fetchable forest that costs two life. With such an aggressive and combo hating slant the sideboard must pull a lot of weight, especially considering this deck has a much worse match up against Fatal Push decks game one.
Death’s Shadow is the best thing that someone can be doing in Modern, but the nay sayers are wise to the deck and understand how to combat it. The days of being able to pick the deck up and dominate over. The pilot will need a game plan against the field, not get cute with deck building, while having a cohesive sideboard plan. If you’re looking to see more Death’s Shadow content I have nearly 60 hours of matches on my YouTube page and you can always check out my stream for more content. P.S My wife got me Lorwyn Thoughtseizes for Christmas… I’m sooooooooo excited best magic wife in the business.
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The Preparation I’m a big fan of the SCG Regional events, they occur during the Pro Tour and give us mere mortal magic players a place to play. The tournaments also can be molded from the Pro Tour, talk about a quick turn around. My friends from DC remember Eldrazi winter, which was a year ago this weekend, they remember walking into the Tournament, and after one round realizing they brought a knife to a gunfight. Last Regional I actually played next to a guy that had Matt Nass’s top 8 marvel deck, it's a fun tournament that you can prepare for and then still get curveballs thrown at you. That Tournament was also my first top 8 at a large event (230ish people), and it felt like my “break out” moment, I had been doing well in local IQ and PPTQ but circuit, this was my first large event that I top 8’ed. Obviously I wanted to run it back, but I was a bit nervous, it was my first time playing Junk at a large event. I recently made the switch to Abzan about nine months ago, so I was a bit nervous. I've played Modern since the format began, so I knew what the deck did and have played it a couple times, but this was the first time I 100% delved into it. Testing for this tournament was a bit difficult, with bannings and Aether Revolt the format was much different with only two classic results of data. I leaned on a tournmanet report from Chad Harny a Top 8 competitor at the Columbus classic w you should check it out here. Even though we disagree on what BG archetype is superior, he has good ideology, and I took it into account while building my 75. I did most of my testing with an accomplished modern player from upstate New York, John Bresett. He has quite a bit of experience playing Rock style decks, and has been a consistent modern play for years. I also tested a lot at Labyrinth Games, as they have a very diverse modern metagame there, and I appreciate how a lot of players there approach the format. Fatal Push is a huge improvement for Abzan decks, while Path to Exile is the best removal spell in modern, Fatal Push gives the deck another turn one play. I ended up running three Pushs and four Paths in my starting 60. Making room for the Fatal Pushs caused me to change the ideology of my deck, I used to be on the Noble Hierarch plan in previous seasons. I figured the format would become more fair as Dredge and Linear aggro decks were taken down a peg and Fatal Push would give fair decks another tool to play with. So I cut the Noble Hierarchs and made my deck more midrangey, just a pound for pound more powerful deck. Here is my 75. A huge breakthrough in deck building was Gideon Ally of Zendikar, the card is the truth in any fair match up, and even when its not at its best, its such a potent threat that my opponents had to respect it. Whenever I drew Gideon it completely dominated the game, it was a board stabilizer, a threat from multiple different angles, a clock vs combo decks, and a 2-1 in the mirror, it's really the only four drop I’ve ever felt comfortable with in BG decks, or truly feared when I played against them. I would feel comfortable that against a wide open field Gideon is miles better than any other four drop option that Abzan has access to. My land base is also slightly different because of Gideon, I decided add two Concealed Courtyard to up my white source count to 14. I also was not impressed with Shambling Vent, I decided to cut down to one and play two Hissing Quagmire, as it trades with all the Eldrazi, and Tarmogoyf. My sideboard was built to fight burn where I had six cards, land based decks, and graveyard strategies. The Zealous Persecution and Creeping Corrosion were my sudo wraths, I didn’t want to play Damnation in my Lingering Souls deck, but I wanted an out to Etched Champion the only card that gives me a lot of trouble against Affinity. The Tournament There were 292 people and 9 rounds in Baltimore, it was going to be a long grueling day of Modern and I was excited to get started. Round 1: Grixis Delver 2-1 Win 1-0 Record I Thoughtseize him in game one and his hand was Serum Visions, Bolt, Mountain, Mana Leak, Darkslick Shores, Spell Snare, and Tasigur. A pretty good hand from my opponent, I ended up taking a Spell Snare to force through a Tarmogoyf so I could begin to establish a board preseance. I start beating him down but a couple turns later he stabilized with a Tasigur and began to take control of the game. I eventually foulmd a Lingering Souls, but I’ve been getting clocked by a Vendilion Clique and my opponent eeks out enough card advantage with Tasigur and finds a bolt and finishes me off. Side Boarding I board out almost all of my removal because they usually take out their Delvers to try and blank my removal. I like Boarding in Leyline of the Void against Grixis, I actually think they’re game two configuration is really difficult to handle. It's just hard to grind through Tasigur, Snapcaster, Kolaghan’s Command, and Ancestral Visions (if they have it), I feel like I need the help in game two, and Leyline has been great in testing. Out: 2 Decay, 3 Push, 1 Inquisition, 1 Tarmogoyf In: 3 Leyline of the Void, 2 Thragtusk, 2 Kitchen Finks Game 2 I Leylined him to start the game, land a Gideon on four prompting a concession. Leyline just completely invalidates their entire strategy and really is a KO. Game 3 I don’t remember much about this game, I know that I Thoughtseized him and took a mana leak to set up a Liliana in a position where it’s discard ability was taking spells from my oppoent, and forced him to play a Tasigur into the edict or discard it. Round 2 UWR Control 2-1 Win 2-0 Record Game 1 My opponent ran me over in game one, I drew two threats and two discard spells, usually that is a good mix but he answered my threats, and top decked a Nahiri on turn four and I found no answer the Plansewalker. Side Boarding I board out most of my removal against UWR, but I like to keep in 3 Fatal Push because it can kill Celestial Colonnade and Snapcaster. Out: 4 Path, 2 Decay, 1 Cut In: 2 Kitchen Finks, 3 Fulminator Mage, 2 Thragtusk Game 2 I keep a slow hand with Liliana, Fulminator, Lingering Souls, Kitchen Finks, and three lands. I would’ve sent that back on the draw but on the play I can jam Lingering Souls on 3 and if I draw a discard spell or a two drop I can create a board state where I can handle a Nahiri. I drew a Thoughtseize, on turn two and found a Snare, Path, Bolt, Cryptic, Nahiri, and two lands. I decided to take the Cryptic because I either pressure the Nahiri or stone rain my opponent to buy time, and Cryptic Command is the most powerful card in his hand at that point. I decide to jam Fulminator on turn 3 because I drew another for my draw step and I was hoping I could fade a counter spell off the top from my opponent. It resolved, I stone rained him on three, and on four, then landed a Liliana on five essentially shut him out of the game. Game 3 This game was very similar to the second, I cleared out his counter magic, leaving him with Paths for my threats which is an exchange I’m ok with. I land multiple Fulminators and set him behind on mana, and my advantage snowballs out of control. Something I noticed in this game was that I had a serious mana advantage throughout each game and I think my opponent made mistake by Ghost Quartering my manlands, but the Paths were really costly against a deck that has such late game mana syncs as Abzan. Round 3: Eldrazi Tron 0-2 Loss 2-1 Record Game 1 I kept a hand that had quite a bit of removal with pressure, it seemed like a good keep in the dark, but I could be in trouble in certain match ups with my starting hand. It turned out I needed discard, into a threat, into Liliana, to compete against the big mana decks. He Ulamoged me on turn five and then cast Kozilek on turn six… Sideboarding I don’t have a lot for this match up, I decided to skimp on it because I don’t think the matchup becomes much better even if I devote five or six sidebaord slots to it. Out: 3 Fatal Push In: 3 Fulminator Mage Game 2 I mulligan to a five card heater, I’ve got a Blooming Marsh, two Goyfs, Inquisition, and a Liliana. I scry to the bottom, see my opponent's hand, which is very slow, I take his only search piece and hope to rip a land. I don’t… and miss a second land drop for three total turns and he Ulamogs my only two lands. Round 4: UWR Control 2-0 Win 3-1 Record Game 1 Lingering Souls is the real MVP here, I just grinded through all of his counter magic and landed a Liliana when we were both top decking. I finished the game with Lingering Souls and Gavony Township. Sideboarding Same as Round 2 Game 2 I make either a really good, or really bad play in this game on my second turn of the game and I'm still not really sure about the decision that I made. When I Thoughtseized my opponent I saw they had one Land, Cryptic Command, two Remands, and two Path to exile. I decided to take Cryptic Command because the rest of the hand is very redundant and it's the most powerful card in their hand. My opponent misses his third land drop and I decide to not cast anything on my third turn, I did this because I knew it would just get Remanded and give him another chance to draw out of his screw. He misses another land drop, but I also miss my fourth land drop. With both of us missing land drops we are now at parity in the game. I decided I didn't want to play draw go with my opponent unless I was making land drops, I didn't want to get into the late game at parity with my opponent having blue cards in their deck means their late is just better then mine. If I could've kept playing lands the I would've played draw go because I was gaining an advantage in that scenario. After I start casting spells the game goes on normally and and we begin trading resources. I end up landing a Thragtusk which brings along a huge presence on the board. My opponent had to deal with it using a Path and a Snapcaster, that Thragtusk turned into five life and two lands putting me way ahead on mana, a common theme against UWR. With my mana advantage I was the first to cast two spells in a turn, or cast a spell and activate a man land, I ended up accrewing just enough advantage to land a Liliana, which put us both in top deck mode, a place where my deck was much better. Round 5: Junk 2-0 Win 4-1 Record Game 1 Round five was my first mirror match, I had set my deck up to win the mirror so I was excited when I saw a turn one Shambling Vents. We traded Vents, and he was the first to deploy a threat with a Tarmogoyf on his turn. The next turn was the real crossing point in the game for me. I had three plays, I could either deploy my own Goyf, or hold of Decay for his Goyf, or wait for him play a Liliana and Decay it. After going in the tank for awhile I realized that I should take the hit on the chin from his Tarmogoyf then if he follows up with a Liliana I can Decay it deploy my Plansewalker in hand and edict his Tarmogoyf. This line of plays allows me to 1-1 trade with his Liliana because the discard is symmetrical, and I can turn my Liliana into a 2-1. I just wanted to deny him from getting value from his Liliana, and allow me to deploying my walker on turn three into an empty board. It turned out the exact sequence of events occurred, he then untaped and Decay’ed my Liliana giving me the first two for one of the match, while not adding to his board presence which let me play a Gideon on an open board and control the rest of the game. Sideboarding I take out 9 cards in this match up, discard is terrible, you want nothing but gas for the late game topdeck fights. Liliana is also terrible in the mirror. A lot of BG players have different opinions about Liliana than I do, and I’d like to say that I aggressively sideboard out my Liliana’s so this should be taken with a grain of salt. That being said, I think there is no excuse for having the card in your deck on the draw. The edict and the discard isn't worth a card when the match up is so reliant on Lingering Souls. I think on the play you may be able to convince me some are ok because you can get their two drop. Out: 3 Inquisition of Kozilek, 3 Liliana, of the Veil, 3 Thoughtseize In: 2 Thragtusk, 2 Zealous Persecution, 2 Kitchen Finks, 3 Fulminator Mage Game 2 This game was my best played game of the tournament, I assessed my in game role very well, and played to my outs. It's exactly what I want to focus my play around as a magic player. My opponent and I traded threats and removal spells in the early game. I untapped on my third turn and cast a Lingering Souls, passed the turn, and my opponent laid a fourth land and played two Goyfs. I had the first big decision of the game, I was holding a Zealous Persecution and a Gavony township. My options were just attack for two and chump block both of his Goyfs and try and play a longer game. My other line was flashing back my Lingering Souls and look to blow him out with a Zealous Persecution inside of combat. For this to go poorly for me he would need two removal spells to save his Goyfs, and kill all my Lingering souls tokens. I determined I wasn’t going to beat two removal spell regardless of which line I decided to take, so I choose to play like he didn’t have it. I double blocked each Goyf, crossed my fingers… and the blowout occurred, I traded two tokens, and a card for two Goyfs, I was ahead on board and feeling pretty good. My opponent had a great follow up though as he emptied his hand to play a Sigarda. Sigarda not being as good against my post board configuration as other BG configurations its still a 5/5 flying hexproof creature, and without Damnation in my deck I can’t interact with that card outside of combat. I untaped and ripped a Scavenging Ooze, which was a great draw to help and mop up the carnage of the game. My opponent and I started the race with the life totals of me 12 to his 18, we were both playing with perfect information as we were both empty handed. The race was so interesting, deciding what I could attack with, if I had to chump block was really difficult, I found myself using the logic “even if my opponent draws the best card I can beat it if I do this”. We attacked back and forth each of gaining a little life, until I drew a Grim Flayer. Grim Flayer is fantastic in a race, because it deals large sums of damage and dug me to what I needed, it ultimately won me the game. This game was all about playing to my outs, and knowing my role in a match up, and assessing my role within the game. I went from being on the defense, to shifting to a race one turn later while I was down six life, because I determined it was the only way I could win. Round 6: Affinity 2-0 Win 5-1 Record Game 1 In the first game I Inquistioned on one and took his Mox Opal, (card should be banned) landed a Tarmogoyf then beat him down with removal spells to back it up. Sideboarding Out: 3x Liliana, 2x Gideon, 1x Thoughtseize In: 2x Zealous Persecution, 3x Fulminator Mage, 1x Creeping Corrosion. Game 2 My opponent got stuck on one land and I Fulminator Mage’d him on turn three and cast a Creeping Corrosion on turn five. That was pretty much all she wrote, there wasn’t much to say about this game, my opponent kept a questionable hand that didn’t develope and I drew my sideboard cards. Round 7: Infect 2-0 Win 6-1 Record Game 1 A pivotal decision in this game occurred on the first turn, I Thoughtseized my opponent and saw a hand of Become Immense, two Ground Swells an Inkmoth, a Blighted Agents, a Noble Hierarch, and a Windswept Heath. This hand was a heater, it was also pretty good against Thoughtseize, because of the redundancy. I decided to take the Hierarch because it was the only thing that was unique, as well as it being the best individual card in their hand. This game turned into a grind fest, I would say the duration of the game was 10 to 12 turns. We traded one for one and a Liliana helped take over the game by getting rid of his pump spells, while incidentally removing some creatures from the board. I drew a Grim Flayer while we were both in top deck mode and as I've stated Grim Flayer really snowballs the game out of control. Sideboarding Out: Out 3 Liliana, 2 Gideon, 2 Scavenging Ooze In: 3 Fulminator, 2 Zealous Persecution, 2 Collective Brutality Game 2 Each of mulligan to start the game, I think this favors me a little because I am on the draw and can recoup advantages while infect needs a critical mass to win the game quickly. I Thoughtseized my opponents only infect threat but saw quite a bit of pump in his hand so I was still at the mercy of the top of the deck. I had no pressure so we played draw go for a while until he assembled the combination of Dryad arbor and Pendlehaven. I top decked the perfect card for this situation, a Collective Brutality. Because my opponent was being aggressive with the Pendlehaven I could cast it using all three modes. He saved his Dryad arbor, with a pump spell, but I got a Become Immense out of his hand leaving him with just a land, and I Time Walked him with life gain mode. My opponent played a Glisner elf on his turn and then I played a Grim Flayer on mine. My opponent then top decked a Noble Hiearch and hit me for 3 poison. On my turn I attacked with my 4/4 Flayer and found a Zealous Persecution on top of my library, a card that if used right would surely end the game. I added another Flayer to the board with the intention of chump blocking to coax out a pump spell from my opponent which would leave him empty handed, allowing my Zealous Persecution to be a 3-1. The exact scenario played out occurred, and I completed the 3-1 on my turn essentially ending the game. Round 8 Restore Balance 2-0 Win 7-1 Record Game 1 I’m sitting down next to my opponent, 8th in the standings going into the round. I’m in a win and draw in to Top 8 scenario because I have solid tie breakers. I win the die roll and lead off with a Thoughtseize, when my opponent showed me his hand, my heart sank a little bit. I saw a Plains, the B/R mana rock, Blood Moon, Violent Outburst, Demonic Dread, Anger of the Gods, and an Emrakul. I’m a little concerned because I don’t know what’s going on, I’ve played against Restore Balance before but I’ve never seen an Emrakul in their list. I actually call a judge over and ask for confirmation that Hyper Genesis is on the ban list. Once I confirm that I take the B/R mana rock cause I have a Tarmogoyf is my hand, the artifact makes it huge, and I can fetch a basic forest to play my second Tarmogoyf on turn three. I’m not really proficient with his deck, and I clearly still don’t know why the Emrakul was in there, but that hand seemed like a mulligan to me. It easily folded to a Thoughtseize, or just not drawing a second land, and both of those thing happened. Sideboarding I still have no idea what’s really happening, the Emrakul really threw a monkey wrench into my plans. I contemplated bring in my Leylines cause he could be a Goryo’s Vengeance deck also, but I didn’t want to dilute my deck too much just on suspicion. I figured he had a Greater Gargadon so I should keep in some number of Path to Exiles, with a Murderous Cut. I decided to Bring in my Kitchen Finks cause they attack and persist, and was thinking I’d maybe play a mana denial plan with Fulminator Mage and aggressively destroying the mana rocks. Here is what I decided to do. Out: 3 Fatal Push, 3 Path to Exile In: 2 Collective Brutality, 2 Kitchen Finks, 2 Fulminator Mage Game 2 My opponent resolves a Demonic Dread cascading into Restore Balacne just to answer my Tarmogoyf that was beating him down. The problem for him was that he didn't have a Greater Gargadon on suspend so each one of us kept our lands. We both played draw go for a little while as I was flooding out and didn't want to play my lands in case he found a way to Armageddon me. I finally found a second Goyf as I began to race against the suspend counters. He eventually got the Greater Gargadon in play, but I was sitting on a Maelstrom Pulse, when I cast it he extended the hand and I had gone to back to back SCG Regional Top 8s!!! Top 8 Game 1 Check this list out that I’m playing against. Count em, four main deck Etched Champion… decklists weren’t public at the time of the match, but I was in for an uphill battle.
Game 1 The first meaningful play of the game was on turn three when my opponent played and Etched Champion on after I took a hit for seven off a suited up Ornithopter. I would’ve decayed the Ornithopter before taking seven, but I had a Liliana in my hand, and I really wanted my opponent to feel “safe” and tap out for an Etched Champion. I figured he had a champion because he left one card in his hand after play only an Ornithopter on turn two and attaching it to a platting. He did exactly that, I decayed his Ornithopter and made him sacrifice his Etched Champion. He untaped and play his second Champion, and that I couldn’t answer it, and an Etched Champion wearing a Cranial Platting will end a game gast. Sideboarding Same as Round 6 Game 2 I kept a hand that was decent, I had a discard spell that would hopefully hit an Champion, two removal spells, a Fulminator, and three lands. Looking back on this hand, I think this was a hand that I shouldn't have kept because I'm relying off the top of my deck to win me the game. I have a hole lot of ways to stop my opponent from winning, but my hand was played towards a long game, and with out Stony Silences I don't want to play a long game against four Etched Champions. The game went long, and he ultimately found his Etched Champions with Ravengers to help increase his clock, and just like last time, I was out of the Tournmanet. Recap An absolutely fantastic weekend for me, I was proud of the way I played, I think I only made one mistake, which was the hand I kept in game 2 of my Quarterfinals. Moving forward I think I’ll concede that I need Stony Silence. I hate playing Stony, there is only one card in Affinity gives me trouble, but that card is just too good, and I need to respect it. I wouldn’t change my main deck, the balance of Threats vs. Discard vs. Removal all felt really good, and my mana base was very smooth. The all star of my weekend was Gideon, It dominates fair match ups like no other four drop Abzan has access to does. One of my friends I rode with was playing Abzan as well, and at the end of tournmanet he agreed that he would've been happier having Gideon vs. the Seige Rhinos in his list. The card acts as a clock, incremental advantage, a 2-1 in the mirror, and a board stabilizer, its versatile, and efficient, everything a BG deck would want. Anyways, thanks for reading, hopefully the next time I write one of these I talk about making out of the first round! Over the last month or so bans and new cards have shifted the landscape of Modern. In order to understand where the format is going to go we have to look at where the format was. Starting with Dredge, it obviously gets worse, but Golgari Thug can be take the trolls place and serve a similar role. How much worse does it make the deck? Essentially dredge will operate at 84% of the velocity of its pre ban counterpart, assuming they don’t add any other dredge pieces to the deck. Does this kill the deck? Probably not, but the deck gets a 16% downgrade that’s huge. Next I’ll list all the modern decks that play probe and how they’ll be effected in my opinion with a small summary.
So how do these changes impact Junk in the modern format? This question is kind of awkward because all Junk decks are all built differently, each person has their own style. I’ve been talking with a lot of people in the D.C, and upstate New York area about modern, and we believe this is a pretty optimal build for a large unknown tournament metagame. I think it may be about 6 cards off, but I like the direction. My sideboard will be something along the lines of:
So how does this deck fit into the metagame? When sitting down what do Abzan players want to play against? What are we afraid off? According to MTG Top 8 here are the most played Modern decks are:
I’m a bit nervous about Grixis Variants, and Dredge. I’m dedicating quite a bit of sideboard space to these match ups, I like Leyline against Grixis, and Dredge. So even though I may be a dog game one to these decks (except Grixis Delver but that gets worse post board) game one I have a lot of sideboard space that can help swing the matchup. My preparation has shown that Abzan has a hole, and its Bant Eldrazi. I’ve played this match up enough to know one thing, I don’t know what to do. I find myself in the early game trying to control the board, 2-1 them with souls and run them out of resources. In the games where I don’t get run out of the gym by Eldrazi Temple the game usually grinds down to a board where we are close to parity with few resources but I’m ahead. I begin to turn the corner but don’t have a fast enough clock and they top deck a Eldrazi Displacer, or a Drowner of Hope and swing the game back in their direction. I’ve tried sideboarding many different ways, cutting discard cause the game goes long, Abrupt Decays because the only creature it hits for any real value is Displacer, Fatal Push’s for the same reason, and Liliana's. I’ve also brought in a lot of different cards, Damnation to control the board, Fulminator Mage to interact with their Manabase, Thragtusk and Sorin to help win the red zone. But their late game Mana Syncs just seem to go way over the top of my strategy.
This deck is putting about about a 70% against the first six decks. Tron and Valakut dip down to about 50%, they’re competitive due to the clock I can produce and dedicated sideboard hate, but I’m never excited to see a Tron piece or a Cinder Glade. The last three decks are where my win percentage has tanked, I’m running about 40% win rate against Grixis decks and 30% against Bant and Dredge. I don’t think there is a lot I can do against Dredge without taking win percentage from other decks, but I could cut a card from my main deck and play spell bomb. This averages out to be about a 55% win rate against the top decks, which is about what we signed up for. Remember a strength of Abzan is that we dominate decks outside of this top list, so a 55% win rate vs. the top decks isn’t the end. That being said I’m not satisfied with 55%, I think that there is room to improve my list, my side boarding, and my play to get that 55% to 62 or 63%. It is all about the small edges, my goals are raise my win percentages against Bant Eldrazi and Grixis decks. Over all I think Abzan is in a good place in the new modern metagame, I believe we've gone from a coin flip deck to maybe a 60% deck, which is huge. Personally if I address the holes stated above, make up ground through my play by practicing, and get some breaks I could make another top 8 in at the Baltimore Regionals. How should I go about it? Let me know about your opinions on Abzan’s matchups, especially Bant Eldrazi. Thanks for the read! Week one of standard is always some of the most interesting and wildest times of the format. In my opinion there are four different ways to approach week one deck building.
Let’s start with improving and tweaking previous archetypes. Anyone that has followed my posts know that I love based GW decks, and GW tokens was my favorite standard deck ever. With recent bannings and new toys from Aether Revolt i believe it is now playable again. Oath of Ajani is a very interesting card that I started with four and have slowly trimmed down, its great in the late game or to put in with Sram’s Expertise but it underwhelming on turn two unless you have Gideon. The biggest addition to this deck Walking Ballista, it's a great mana sync late in the game, increases interaction even when tapped out and can flip Avacyn like Hangarback Walker used to to do. I have been testing a version of this deck that plays Verdurous Gearhulk instead of avacyn solely because of the Synergy with Walking Balitas. The next deck is a spin off the Collected Company Human decks. Even though the best human is gone, Renegade Rallier should help the deck play the longer game, while being aggressive. There Renegade Rallier can bring back 16 creatures, eight value creatures (Thraben Inspector and Dustwatch Recruiter) and eight aggressive creatures (Thalia’s Lieutenant, and Lambholt Pacifist). It can also bring back Evolving Wilds which is excellent with Tracker. The blue splash is smaller than the old Bant decks, but Tamiyo is very strong and these bant decks have always played counter spells because of how well they play with Tracker. This set is based around artifacts, and there are a lot of cheap artifacts in this set to turn on improvise and revolt. There are a lot of artifacts that are playable in this new format, especially with Emrakul being gone. The new Tezzeret is very synergistic with the artifacts in this list, all seven implements cantrip, Tezzeret's plus one allows one to cash in either of the implements or turn on revolt. Metallurgic Rebuke is also a really good card for this strategy, a turn two impliment makes this card mana leak, and the card gets better later in the game once it’s cost is reduced to one blue. The next list uses improvise to stay alive long enough to “combo” out. This deck is very synergistic, there are 25 artifacts for Metal Work Colossus. Tezzeret adds extra artifacts to have the mana to crack Hedron Archives, Puzzleknots, or Implements to dig for the Metal Work Colossus. Another benefit of Tezzeret is that it provides Artifacts to sacrifice to recur the colossus. Battle at the Bridge abuses the improvise mechanic and can kill any creature while gaining life to buy time. In my testing a friend gave my Thraben Inspector -12/-12 and gained 12 life to buy himself two more turns. Battle at the Bridge acts as a great “mana sync” when you have nothing to spend your mana on. If the Saheli- Felidar Guardian combo deck is good then this deck will probably need some Grasp of Darkness to interact at instant speed. There is a brand new deck that has a lot of people worrying about the state of standard. Saheeli Rai and Felidar Guardian and a pretty scary combination for a standard environment. I think the only thing that is going to keep this deck in check is that Saheeli Rai is just not a very good card. It accrues a tiny bit of advantage anymore but not as much as a Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, or Liliana the Last hope. I think the starting place for this deck is by putting it into Carlos Romao’s Jeski Control deck from Pro Tour Kaladesh. I think Felidar Guardian is the better piece of this combo, a four toughness creature can secure the ground in the midgame and the blink effect can produced value. Let’s list what Felidar Guardian’s enter the battlefield effect can take advantage of: Torrential Gearhulk, Stasis Snare, Aether Hub, and Dovin Ban. Maybe this deck should turn into a more planeswalker heavy deck so that Felidar Guardian can help gain more incremental advantage each turn, opening up the combo when the opponent has been significantly ground out. BW Humans is another deck that I think will be very good, with Metallic Mimic, Thalia’s Lieutenant and Always Watching there are 10 anthem effects. Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, and Kambal, Consul of Allocation should be good tools if the game goes a bit long, and there won’t be as many big spiders running around. The last type of brewing is using ideas that are off the wall, and unexplored. There are a lot of powerful artifacts in this set, that are clear build arounds. What to do with these cards I have no idea? I know they’re busted, but I’m not sure if they’re efficient enough to see standard play. Maybe they have to be cheated into play with Aetherworks Marvel?
I leave you with six decks that I think have legs in the new format. GW tokens and Bant midrange have new toys that can propel them back into the meta game. The UB control deck and UB colossus deck both will be centered around Tezzeret which I think is one of the best build arounds in the set. Aether Revolt should bring in more playable artifacts in order to help out the supporting cast of the artifact decks, they now have a solid supporting cast. Last, new powerful interactions should produce new decks. The Saheeli Rai combo deck should influence standard quite a bit, I think it will be very good and everyone is going to need a plan to deal with it. B/W humans is a great way to fight the deck as you can pressure the opponent, and Saheeli early while having Thalia to break up the combo. Metallic Mimic gives the deck even more explosiveness, the new Human’s decks could be better than previous iterations of their shadows over innistrad counterparts. Six new decks without even delving into decks that incorporate three of the most powerful artifacts in the set. I know I’m excited for SCG Columbus and will be watching closely. Wow… just wow. This card is draw dropping, the power level is off the chart, and the efficiency is off the chart. This card is good enough to shift the landscape of the format, and impact Legacy. I’ll speak in terms of Modern because I don’t know Legacy well enough to give informed opinions. When trying to understand cards I like to first evaluate them, figure out what exactly they do, how they do it and what it means. If Revolt isn’t triggered what does the card do? What creatures does it kill?
This card isn’t all upside, there are creatures that can fight through this car, it doesn’t fix the “sticky” 2-1 creatures issue. Another aspect of this card is there will be a slight deck building constraints. Most decks will probably need to add one fetchland and one basic land to the respected mana base. There will be match ups where you want to hold fetchlands trigger revolt, while balancing being able to use all of your mana without shocking yourself. I can see this situation happening with Scavenging Ooze, being able to grab a forest, so one can eat, kill a creatures, and gain life without shocking themselves. This scenario it's a definitely nit picking in terms deck building constraints, but any card that dictate how one plays a normal game of magic has its drawbacks. Something to compare this to is Steppe Lynx, in order for Steppe Lynx to be good one has to play their lands in a way that isn’t always opportune. I would assume this is why the landfall kitty doesn’t see a ton of play. There could be an uptick in cards that essentially “sacrifice do something” on them. Great examples that currently see play are Mishra’s Bauble, Seal of Fire, Nihil Spellbomb, and Engineered Explosives. Cards that in my opinion are poised for more play are Seal of Doom, Tireless Tracker, Mind Stone, Tormod’s Crypt, Shriekmaw, and Selfless Spirit. After evaluating this card, looking at the pros and cons, and seeing how it could effect deck building I’ve come to the conclusion that Fatal Push is better at killing creatures then Lightning Bolt. I beleive Bolt is still a better card because it can go up stairs, and finish planeswalkers, but this card is a strict upgrade at killing creatures. Everyone that has played Modern has felt the pain of the ¾ Tarmogoyf on turn 2, and watched a lightning bolt burn in their hand. Fatal Push is an answer to Tarmogoyf at any stage of the game. It's a top five removal spell in the format, it deserves to be in the conversation with Path to Exile, Terminate, Abrupt Decay, and Bolt. Fatal Push will impact the format by giving all black based removal decks an efficiency upgrade. Sounds great, but do some decks need the efficiency upgrade? Let's first look at black based fair decks currently in the format.
Let's start with black and red based fair decks, do they need another removal spell when they’ve got access to two out of the three best ones in the format? What deck flaw does Fatal Push fill in Jund, Mardu, and various Grixis decks? There isn’t space in these decks for another spell, and are you cutting Lightning Bolt or Terminate for Fatal Push? Are Jund and Grixis players really excited to upgrade their removal suite from an A to an A+. They still can’t beat Tron, Dredge, or Titanshift, and Fatal Push doesn’t help that. Abzan is a different story, I have thought for a long time that Path is the best removal spell in the Modern. Path is one mana, kill anything, and it never can be recurred again with a downside that diminishes as game progresses. Despite the power of Path, the biggest flawed Abzan had is not having the ability to “Bolt the bird”, and now Abzan can “Push the bird”. Abzan had a deck design flawed where its pilot had to Path a Noble Hierarch, Glisner Elf, Signal Pest, or Bob in the early game with the understanding that a card like Liliana, or Lingering Souls could catch them back up. Fatal Push gives Abzan the ability to kill creatures in the early game, and mid game while not falling behind. Abzan now has the best removal suite in the modern format, the combination of Fatal Push, Path to Exile, and Abrupt Decay is the most efficient, effective, and versatile removal suite. I believe for similar reasons B/G rock gets an upgrade as well. This is a welcome upgrade from Disfigure. People played B/G rock because it has the most consistent mana base at the cost of efficient one mana removal, and that has changed. Next, I revisited black based decks that were just on the fringe of playability to see if Fatal Push could sling shot them into the spotlight. Esper Control is a deck that has struggled to survive in Modern. The archetype has incredible late game power, but it struggled in the early game. Fatal Push gives the deck eight early game interactive removal spells work well with Snapcaster Mage. This deck feels like Corey Burkhart’s Grixis Control deck that he nearly won Grand Prix Dallas with it this year. The difference is better removal, a better man-land, Monastery Mentor, and a better sideboard. Mentor is one of the more underrated cards in Modern, It a versatile card that allows its controller to turtle up behind, or end the game quickly. Fatal Push has given Esper the Power to play the early game, a weakness of former iterations of the deck. Sultai is what I’ really excited about for the first time, Tiago Chan, and Bob Mahr join forces to form the grindiest Modern deck I’ve ever seen. The first thing this deck has going for it is heavily favored in a mirror match, Dark Confidant is the best card in the BG mirror and Sultai version Snapcaster Mage and Ancestral Visions to party as well. Fatal Push and Snapcaster Mage should be able to hold off aggressive starts so the Sultai deck can take control. There is a chance that this deck should play some number of Murderous Cut, or Go for the Throat (aka clunky removal) to handle 5 cmc creatures better, maybe side boarded Damnations are the solution. While playing with this deck I noticed it fixes some of its own issues, it's a very self correcting synergistic deck. Ancestral Visions is a terrible top deck, couple that with playing and you’re playing quite a bit of lands, with no pay off like Raging Ravine some of the late game power is lost. BG decks have always been known for their ability to win top deck wars, on the surface this deck is worse at top decking then its Jund and Abzan counterparts. While testing Serum Visions, Liliana, and Collective Brutality have helped either avoid the Ancestral Visions in the late game through scrying, or have it as discard fodder. Another build of this deck could be centered around Tasigur, and Grim Flayer. Instead of Serum Visions it could play Thought Scour. Another interesting card this version gets access to main deck Stubborn Denial. I’ll also just leave the thought of Yahenni’s Expertise and Ancestral Vision here so everyone can salivate about that. Fatal push could shift the modern format to a much more positive place, but when good shifts occur there are always negative shifts to even out the meta game. Grixis Delver has been popping up everywhere, a match up that I thought would be pretty favorable for B/G architypes, but I for one have been struggling with the Kolaghan’s Command + Snapcaster Mage value engine. I've heard many Grixis Delver efficianados such as Ryan Overtuf, and Kevin Jones say the match up is positive for Grixis Delver, and I tend to agree. After playing against it, watching coverage, and looking at statistics I think that Grixis Delver is the best deck in modern. Delver can pressure combo decks and the Grixis shard brings great removal, hand disruption, and counterspells to the table with the ability to go long. If Fatal Push impacts the format as much as I think it will that deck becomes much better as it is harder to kill their delve threats. Magic is a game that is constantly evolving, decks rise to power and decks fall by the way side. Times have changed, and in my opinion Fatal Push will make Jund fall by the way side (pending dredged is banned from the format). There is absolutely no reason to play Jund anymore, one can take the same B/G core and add white for know commodities, and once the right list is found add blue. Jund will still be playable, but you might as well play the same style deck with an upgrade. Why does a Jund player supplement red to the black green core? Its because of Lightning Bolt, Blackcleave Cliffs, Terminate, Kolagahans Command, some good four drops (Huntmaster, Olivia, and Pia and Kiran Nalar), and Bloodmoon out of the sideboard (which I think is… undesirable at best). Fatal Push, and the new Kaladesh fast lands supplement Terminate, Lightning Bolt, and Blackcleave Cliffs. Red was there for removal, and a third color for removal isn’t needed. Another deck that will fall by the wayside is the Noble Hierarch Abzan build. I’ve been on this version since Grim Flayer came out, and I think it’s by far the best BG version around… if your Hierarch lives. Turn to Liliana is a throwback to the Deathrite Days, and Hierarch promotes game play where I could deploy all the spells in my hand. B/G players have the advantage of playing card for card the best deck in the format. Hierarch allowed Abzan players to deploy all their spells and never dies with cards in hand. One might as well pair the B/G core white removal, Lingering Souls, a more conservative mana base, and the best sideboard color in modern. The raw power level of Ancestral Visions, and Snapcaster Mage’s and the ability to interact with spells on the stack. Or just B/G to have a consistent manabase while playing cards like Phyrexian Obliterator, or have a manabase with maindeck land destruction. After the printing of Fatal Push there is just no reason to play the deck, the B/G master even says so himself. So how do BG players in the Modern format adjust to this card in midrange mirrors? Lets list a set of creatures that are good against Fatal Push.
Fatal Push is is format shifting, Sultai, and Esper can now rise which will shake up the format. Grixis strategies see a slight upgrade, and in my opinion pending bans (specifically Prize Amalgam, and Simian Spirit Guide) Abzan becomes the best deck in modern. The deck will always have it's bad match ups, but one of Abzan’s largest weakness is addressed. If the format slows down Lingering Souls should shine as the king of grinding people out (even though Snapcaster, and Ancestral Visions could outclass it). Sram’s Expertise is also another card I’m excited to try in Abzan, it feels like another copy of Lingering Souls with upside. I do feel for all the Junders of the world, that deck has been wrongfully banned one time too many times. Maybe I'm wrong, is there a build of Jund that brings something unique to the table? a flex slot adjustment? or does the deck get a complete overhal? Or does it need an elf to resurect it from the ashes? I know I’m excited for the direction of this format, new efficient removal could slow things down while making more midrange architypes. Combined that with a possible ban and Modern shifts back to the format that I knew and feel in love with years ago. Aether Revolt spoils are rolling in and to the say the least I’m impressed, but not optimistic. There are a lot of very midrangey, 2-1 style cards in theset, which should slow the format down. On the surface this format looks like Shadows Over Innistrad standard, a bunch decks that are trying to out value each other, there is just one problem, all and I mean all of these decks lose to Emrakul. Weather BG Delerium goes over the top of all midrange strategies or Aetherworks Marvel jams the 13/13 down players throats. I’m hoping that there is a blue control deck to hold those decks off, or hate is printed once the set is fully spoiled. Assuming the aforementioned occurs let’s do some brewing. Previous iterations of this deck have given a lot of success and a great time playing them. I think this deck has gotten new toys and will be a player in the new meta. Heart of Kiran will pull double duty defending against Smuggler’s Copters and provide a real clock, its also easily crewed by Lambholt Pacifist. Speaking of, I think Pacifist will have an uptick, this deck has 12 anthem effects so it can attack for four on turn three. Sram’s Expertise is really the card that will put this deck back on the map. Having the ability to make three servos, put in a Nissa, or Oath of Ajani enables six power over three bodies, and that’s assuming you don’t have anything else on the board. This deck will be well as long as it can beat down in the early game and use the token nature to blank the ever improving spot removal. What really hurt this deck when eldritch moon was Emrakul, SCG archives show that Osyp Lebedowicz won the first Eldritch Moon tournament with GW tokens. Spell Queller wasn’t the issue, as soon as Emrakul came around the deck was pushed out of the format. Other builds of this deck could include Sigarda over Avacyn, that all depends on how many small creature decks there are. Speaking of Fatal Push, I think GB aggro gets an upgrade from that card. BB for Grasp on turn two was a real cost in a deck where most of its creatures have at least one green mana symbol in its cost. Being able to sacrificing scions, clues, zombies, Evolving Wilds, and Dead Weights often entering the graveyard should turn on Fatal Push. Rishkar, Peema Renegade is another payoff card for this deck that can pump the early Grim Flayers, or make weaker creatures tap for mana to crack clues, or sacrifice zombies to Kalitas. Blossoming Defense should see an uptick in play with the addition of Shock, Hungry Flames, and Fatal Push into the format. This deck gets a little more reach with Shock, Heart of Kiran and with 18 ways to trigger Sram, Senior Edificer, the deck is never running out of gas. I think there will be four in a top versions 75. This deck is my week one deck, I think if very efficient especially if there aren’t a lot of Ishakan’s running around. If marvel becomes more of an issue splashing blue isn’t out of the question. There are plenty of other cards in the set i’m excited about, some I’ll probably never play, but I think are healthy for the format. Metallic Rebuke comes to mind, it's a potential mana leak on turn two after it follows up a Thraben Inspector, and it can counter Aetherworks Marvel. This card also could give artifact control decks some legs, couple this with a little bit of energy, Dynavolt Tower, and Deadlock Trap and there could be something. Battle at the Bridge can help the Metal Work Colossus decks take off a bit, it gives them something to do with this card, can potentially combined with Disallow to kill an Emrakul, gain 13 life, and keep your turn. There is also potential ramification with this card and Latern Control in Modern.
I also like Lightning Runner a card that allows R/G energy decks to put transfer energy into extra combat steps. My friend played that deck and he always said he had an excess of energy he wished he could do something with. This set has also given us some modern toys, as well as some bold modern predictions.
Goals for 2017 My Magic goals are changing this year, in October I’m getting Married which means that I won’t have as much time or money to dedicate to magic. That won’t stop me from competing in a couple premier tournaments this year, so my goals are:
I’ve talked quite a bit about my love for playing bigger GW aggressive decks. It’s my magic comfort zone, my wheelhouse, my bread and butter, some would go as far to say it’s my happy place. I’ve had a majority of my success playing this archetype, (SCG states win, SCG IQ win, and a Regional Top 8) but these decks have struggled in Kaladesh and Eldritch Moon Standard. Reflector Mage held off the GW aggro deck that saw play in early Kaladesh standard, and Emrakul put an end to tokens deck. As we look towards Aerther Revolt Ajani has joined the Gatewatch and is here to lift Gideon and his green subjects to new hieghts. Here is the list that I top 8’ed SCG Regional in Baltimore with. I loved this deck, it was aggressive with a little bit of staying power to power your through the mid game. To my saddness it became unplayable because of the Reflector Mage/Spell Queller Squeeze. On the draw my oppenets would Reflector Mage my two drop or Spell Queller my pay off four drop, then they would untap and play Gideon. Oath of Ajani doesn’t do anything against Spell Queller while on the draw, because they can hold up the mana on your third turn, but you can blank Reflector Mage and put the pressure on them. Either they play Reflector Mage for no value, or Gideon is in play on an empty board. Another thing issue with the deck was that they were just better in combat once they stabilized. Having four Selfless Spirits and four Avacyns just made combat a night mare in the late game, while pressuring Gideon. I found that the B/G was a solid match up with this deck. If my opponent got Delirium without effecting the board they were so far behind that an Ishakan couldn’t save them. If they interacted with you they’re not filling their graveyard and moving their game plan forward. The issues in the match up came when they played Grim Flayer and you couldn't answer it. Even though I feel confident here, I’m a bit nervous in this match up moving forward due to Yahenni’s Expertise being printed. To understand how Ajani’s Oath improves the deck we have to analyze the enchantment. Starting with the second line of text, “Planeswalkers spells you cast cost 1 less to cast”. This is basically just another copy of Servant of the Conduit that pumps your Thraben Inspector assuming you’re curving out. It enables turn three Gideon, which is back breaking on the play, or will sling shot you ahead on the draw. As stated earlier its ramp pieces 5-8 for Gideon that Reflector Mage doesn't interact with. The best ability is the first one, being able to anthem your team in the late game for two mana is great. GW Aggro had a problem because the creatures were underpowered in the late game (Fair Grounds Warden, Selfless Spirit, Thraben Inspector, and Servant of the Conduit). The deck felt very weak without a Hulk or Gideon to act as a "pay off". Having Oath of Ajani makes your early game creatures a little better in the late game. Now that we have Quantitatively evaluated the card let’s look at the game play the card enables. Sure this card is awesome on turn two but what about the games where the curve is: Turn 1 Thraben Inspector, one power Turn 2 Smuggler Copter, four power Turn 3 Thalia Hertic Cathar, seven power Turn 4 Gideon, nine power Turn 5 Ajani’s Oath, Emblem Gideon, Play Gideon make a token, 20 power. I know there is a lot to that curve, on the draw you have access to 12 cards and that is 11 of your 12 cards, while it being the perfect draw on the play. With Smuggler’s Copter in the format you’re able to cobble together these draws due to the looting ability. The late game explosiveness is also evident, after having nine power on the board on turn four we get to twenty on turn five. Below is the decklist I’m thinking of starting with, I’m sure there is a place for Heart of Kiran but I’m not sure yet, I think testing is needed. I'm interested in moving back towards Sylvan Advocat because it should help sure up the Green Black Delerium match up. Also most of the removal spells in the format aren't damage based so the indestructability isn't as relevant. I love Ajani’s Oath, it's going to improve the deck's powerful draws in the early game, act as a pay off in the late game, and provide tempo by double spelling in the mid game. I’m super excited about this card and the reinvigoration of GW aggro!
Draft Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 I believe I drafted a 3-0 deck here, but I was so cought up in round 2 about what was in my opponent's hand that I just forgot to play my land. If I counter that Hedron Archive this draft would be a 3-0 and added a trophy to my count.
Please tweet at me if you feel like I missed any picks, or I should've gone a different way in my draft, or you saw any other mistakes. Have a happy Holiday! Tis the season to be jolly, eat lots of good food, and make Christmas Lists. One of my lists this year is based on what I want to occur in Magic in 2016. I’m a standard, and modern player primarily but I have wants for the good of the game as well. Standard My christmas list for standard is pretty small because I think that standard is very good, the format was considered “solved” until the SCG invitationals and GPs last weekend turned the format upside down. But here is what I would like:
My standard list revolves around having some hate cards printed in Standard. Mechanics like Delirium, and the card Aetherworks Marvel are just so strong when unopposed that the strategy needs something help other decks fight the strategy. A card like Tormod’s Crypt is a pretty balanced hate card. There is a real cost to playing Tormod’s Crypt because it doesn’t effect the board in anyway and the Delirium decks get a chance to rebuild. A card like Containment Preist or Hallowed Moonlight would be great in todays standard. Hallowed Moonlight was poor against company decks in previous standard because they could play a fair game. Aetherworks Marvel doesn’t play the fair game nearly as well as a strategy littered with Tireless Trackers and Spell Quellers. I love green acceleration, and would like there to be a green Gideon deck like GW tokens was or GW aggro in the begging on the standard season. I like the deck a lot, but I couldn’t beat the Spell Queller/Reflector Mage squeeze because they could get under you. A one mana accelerator would allow us to get on the front foot. And there hasn’t been a reliable draw go control deck for a while in standard, Torrential Gearhulk is such an awesome card that I would like to see something a little more powerful than Glimmer of Genius. A card like Stroke of Genius would be good in standard, Stroke is much worse than Sphinx’s Revelation because of the lack of life gain. Modern This is where I’m going to find out if I was naughty or nice, cause I have a lot to ask from Magical Santa.
Let’s pause to take a second and sum this up, I can’t stand mana cheating. Its why eye of Ugin, Hypergenesis, Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, and Artifact Lands are banned. I would be fine with every single delve spell, and phyrexian mana spell got the ban hammer. Its drastic so I don’t accept it to happen but with those spells gone the format would be better. For the same reason I hate Yahenni’s Expertise in Modern, there is going to be some serious feel bad moments caused by this card. Think of what you can put into play for free, Ancestral Visions, Bomb Bust, Kolaghan’s Command, Tarmogoyf, Liliana, the list goes on and on. This card is going to become wipe your board with a dark ritual attached to it for 4 mana. Back to the positivity, assuming all of the above comes true here what else I want to see.
That is my Modern Christmas list, to sum it up, slow the format down, and bring it back to a place where it was before Twin was banned. I don’t think that Twin can ever be unbanned while Ancestral Vision is in the format, but take strides to get it back to a turn 4 format. The next thing on my list is a little controversial, and comes with a lot of work in order to occur, but I want Frontier to happen. This format looks awesome, it seems like a Midrange format with a bit of control, aggro, and combo sprinkled in. It seems like Modern without the Linear aspects, without the lock pieces, without the hate cards, and the intense feel bads (besides the perfect company hit). In order for this to happen though, there needs to be a well thought out philosophy of the format, and a ban list. Cards like Dig and Cruise can’t be allowed to run rampant over the format. These draw spells are two out of three best draw spells ever printed. Both of those cards has wrecked every format it's been legal in, and once the card pool begins to grow the card draw becomes better, and better. I’ll leave this section with a deck I’ve been thinking about that has been firing me up for this format. The manabase is rough, building manabases is not my specialty and I’ll probably have to take some time to figure out. But I love the idea of this midrange deck, 11 powerful two drops that scale into the late game. Four Gideons and Rhinos for the Mid game punch, and Grapple, Liliana, and Tireless Trackers to grind out the late game against control decks. I’ll be all over this format as soon as it's supported, as soon as it's an IQ, or PPTQ format.
A couple closing wants to end my list.
Thanks everyone for reading, and have a happy holiday. As I’ve written about in the past I started playing playing Abzan in Modern, and I’ve had mixed results due to growing pains of learning a new deck. I have always been under the assumption that playing Rock decks was an easy. I came to this conclusion because Rock decks are comprised of 60 powerful magic cards up and down the curve. To say the least I was wrong, and I was wrong because of Thoughtseize, who knew that working with perfect information was so difficult. I’ve played five years of Modern, but for all that time I have always been the one being Thoughtseized. There was a time in Modern’s history where someone couldn’t keep a hand without thinking “what happens if I’m Thoughtseized?” When I started casting it different questions began racing through my head.
I have encountered some really interesting decisions in the couple of months I’ve been playing Abzan, one example occurred while playing the mirror. I don’t exactly remember the contents of each of our grips but our hands were similar, Tarmogoyfs, and removal spells (mine being a path), with three lands in play. I thought it didn’t matter what I took because my opponent’s hand was redundant, our hands canceled each other out, and we were trading one for one. I decided to take a Maelstrom Pulse because I could either beat, or draw cards that could beat everything my opponent had,. Turns out that decision cost me the game. It allowed my opponent to play a Goyf on their turn while having the necessary mana to remove my Goyf in the same turn cycle. I yielded the tempo advantage, I let them double spell which put me on the back foot. When I untapped I pigeon holed myself into only deal with their Goyf, I couldn’t play into my opponent's mana advantage because I would be just throwing away my Goyf and allow them to use all their mana. Then they would untap on empty board while I was tapped out. The next interesting decision was against an Ad nauseam opponent at a SCG IQ. I Thoughtseized my opponent on turn one and saw that the hand contained a Lotus bloom, 3 lands, Slight of hand, Ad nauseam, and Phyrexian Unlife. My opponent had the combo, on turn four in hand, while my remaining five cards were Goyf, Liliana, Path, LIngering Souls, and another land. My hand was pretty good as I had disruption backed up with aggression. I determined that the scariest card from my opponents had was the bloom or the slight of hand. Even though I didn’t have a direct answer for the Unlife, or the Ad Nauseam I was hoping that Liliana would buy me time. I had three answers in my deck to an onboard Unlife, with five discard spells I could draw to get nab piece of the combo. I promptly died on turn five because I couldn’t hit the Unlife, or the Ad Nauseam with a discard spell. Through my trials into a new archetype I have started to learn how to Thoughtseizeand that my initial process was all wrong. The questions above just didn’t matter, I needed to focus on the task at hand and deal with the my opponent's cards not what they could draw. The Rock needs to one for one and be far ahead before top decks happen or we are gonna lose to decks that top deck better than us (Tron, Valakut, Sun and Moon, Various Blue control deck ect.). I need a new set of standards because my initial process was garbage, through some more experience I’ve found this “checklis” to work better.
Casting Thoughtseize is hard, but through asking myself the questions stated above I believe that I will get better at it. I know that every situation is different but approaching the process with consistency is the best way to learn and get better in my opinion. How does everyone out there Thoughtseize? Does my ideology check out? Let me know, thanks for the read, and feel free to check out my current list. |
Dylan HoveyThanks for checking out my site! Feel free to Tweet me your thoughts. Archives
December 2016
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