Magic the Gathering

So, I've been talking to some friends of mine about post-rotation RtR for Standard, and I've come to the conclusion that I will be switching from anything UWx control to either Junk or Jund. Anything in those colors are really good, especially Junk post-rotation.

Courser of Kruphix, Sylvan Caryatid, Elspeth, Hero's Downfall, Thoughtseize, Garruk Apex, Chord of Calling, Life's Legacy, Banishing Light, Waste Not, Back To Nature, Diecide are just the few that I can think of post-rotation that's going to be real good in Junk Colors.

UWx is dead in Standard. No boardwipes, no real reactive spells for them to play, no good spot-removal spells that actually kill the creature right out for 2 mana.

I've said it and I'll say it again, MtG is going more towards creature spells over casting spells, becoming more of a board-state game over an reactive-state game.

Back to Nature alone is super powerful in the path that Standard is taking-- it won't surprise me that it more than likely show up in every green player's sideboard... it hits way too many things that are prevalent. o_O

I agree, Junk colors might be the way to go. I'm waiting until rotation to dip in Standard for good, so let's see what Khans brings to the table. One thing is for sure, I'm already amassing all the good staples like Thoughtseize as early as possible.

Unless Khans brings something cool, I may just not play Standard altogether, until Theros rotates.

All the cool things really came from Ravnica. The Heroic deck I thought of was based around Cipher in RTR. The Dredge deck I played since the beginning of the format relied on cards from RTR. UWr control I played a bit of was hugely reliant on RTR.

All these things I want to play will be severely nerfed when RTR leaves. I'll only want to play Standard if another interesting archetype comes along, because I hate devotion, and I hate Heroic (except for my version, which is gonna rotate out), and if Standard is gonna be anything like the Block Pro Tour, even if only for a couple of months, I don't wanna be a part of it.

So tonight we had poor attendance because of the heavy rain, so we only played 3 rounds. Went 1-2. I blame my lack of experience piloting the deck (I've been away from the game since Avacyn Restored), but here's a brief rundown (I didn't take notes):

-Match 1 vs. B/R Zombies: I blasted his creatures and Path'd his Messenger, but then he cast Thoughtseize and took out my Remand, then Faithless Looting right after discarding 2 Demigod of Revenge. I couldn't draw anything on the next turn, so I ate 15 damage to the face the next turn when he was able to cast the other one. Games 2 and 3, I sided RIP on turns 3 and 2 and I was able to deal with his zombies and whittle him down with Geist and Colonnade. [1-0]

-Match 2 vs. RUG Scapeshift: I whittled him down as fast as I could on game 1, but I lost the counter war to Remand, Spell Snare and Swan Song, so he went off the combo. Game 2 I was able to burn him faster and take the win. Game 3, we chipped our life away in various trades and I landed a Mindcensor, so he couldn't go off. He misplayed at my EOT by casting Cryptic and bouncing the censor, but I recast it right away because he forgot about the flash. Ultimately he had sided in Electrolyzes + Batterskull, so... [1-1]

-Match 3 vs. Jund Pod: He ran Blood Moon on the main deck, right after I landed a Geist, shutting me down of blue. Falkenrath Aristocrat with birds, Strangleroot Geist and Thoughtseize backup did me in. Game 2 I landed Keranos and Ajani for the slow burn, focusing on stopping the Melira combos with Relic of Progenitus and recursing Helixes. Game 3, well... I completely forgot about Thrun, the Last Troll. fml [1-2]

I learned from today that I should almost always board in Wrath of God, and that fetches hurt. A lot. You might as well be playing at 15-14 life instead of 20. Also fuck that main deck Blood Moon.

A joke about Modern is that the starting life total is roughly 12-14 life, since players will take about six life away from theirselves just due to their lands and other early plays. Control variants often play their lands untapped to hold up counters, midrange have Bobs and Thoughtseizes eating at their own life, Birthing Pod can eat four life a turn, and aggro deck, all lands come into play untapped, essentially no matter what. It's why RDW is a real deck in Modern, can compete with the best, since it's much easier to deal 14-17 damage than the full 20.

I was gonna comment on your basic land count, but I actually wasn't sure people remember Blood Moon. The decks I play have four maindeck Blood Moon, but that's because I like to troll my friends, who play these three-color, four-color decks they cashed out on. I didn't know other decks ran maindeck Blood Moon effects.

Yeah, Scapeshift is pretty tricky. They're like a counterburn deck, with so much burn and carddraw, they may not even need the combo sometimes, and they could always threaten it.

Too bad 'someone' lost 1-2 cause Vial is a thing~ *Laugh*

As for the games, I do think that B/R Zombies was a free win for you since it's a really old deck. It still works when it wants to, but still not a tier 1 deck like UWR. RUG Scapeshift is a hard match-up for you due to it can naturally get harder to beat by naturally casting the mountains for Valkut, both pre-board and post-board. Good thing you pulled a 1-1 there. Pod in general is really hard to beat with UWR. So many too many questions for your answers.

Haha, well, Blood Moon doesn't do a lot against an active Aether Vial, lol. I certainly haven't beat it yet... (I actually went 0-3, lolol).

Anyone have particular interests in the new cards so far, by the way? I've been looking at high-drop stuff, rofl. Ob Nixilis and Garruk. I don't care that they cost so much mana, they're super funny!
I also like new Jace, if nothing else, for the art. That squid, the Chasm Skulker, seems like good fun, even if it's not all that great. And, Polymorphist's Jest seems incredibly hilarious.
Kinda going casual with what I'm choosing as interesting cards, lol. Have't checked all of the cards out yet, but it certainly looks fun.

I blame my inexperience in piloting the deck to the loss against Zombies. I should've known better than to blast their creatures when they had ways to recur them, but I was scared that eating 2 from Gravecrawler a couple times would turn on Bloodghast and make the whole deal worse. If I had drawn an Electrolyze or Helixes I wouldn't have been so worried. Looking back, Pathing the Messenger gave him the last land he needed to cast Demigod. I couldn't even put a Snapcaster as an Ambush Viper. I kept a hand of Bolt, Path, Remand and 4 lands, so I thought I was okay.

I learned a lot from the Scapeshift matchup: fast burn is the way to go. They will counter your Geist and your Clique, they build up mana faster than you and they won't go off right away if you go above 20 life. If you stick a Geist, though, not so hard. They will block with Elders and accelerate their plan I guess, but that's why I sided in Counterflux.

Pod was always difficult to deal with, since they have an infinite life and infinite damage in the same deck along with the usual beats and Seize. I have to play the deck more...

I'll be honest, I haven't really seen that deck in action. The BR Zombies. Nor have I ever seen a Demigod of Revenge. I imagined that having a bunch of Paths makes the game a whole lot easier, but I didn't think there was a Demigod involved. That's probably how they have Path protection: having late drops.
I dunno if that deck is actually that popular, though. I certainly wouldn't be all that prepared for it. Because it sounds like Pillar of Flame wrecks that deck. Back in ISD-RTR Standard, I packed four Pillar of Flame in my Grixis deck to deal with all the annoying undying stuff and Voice.
It seems like Pillar would be viable in Modern, too, at least against Pod and this Zombies deck, but not sure if it's really mainboardable.

The worst part about Pod is that they really don't actually need the combo. It's just there just in case something goes awry. Birthing Pod will just get you so much value getting good creature after good creature and just winning the "fair way", in an unfair manner since they have a repeatable tutor that just puts the creature directly into play.

I'm thinking about switching the deck to a more traditional control approach: no Geists, no Cliques (they can't take proper advantage of the lack of Geist's tempo and they turn on the opponent's removal early) and no Restos. Add in Serum Visions, Mana Leaks, maybe an Anger or a Wrath. I would probably have to play 1 less Path and add another Electrolyze, or also take Cryptics to the sideboard and add a single Revelation, Izzet Charms or Batterskull.

This is just tentative. It's not like pure UWR control is a bad deck in Modern-- switching to midrange enjoys just as much success as far as I've seen. I'm still trying to find my ideal playstyle and I enjoy the passive-aggressive approach of my current deck.

I personally prefer the control UWR over mid-range Giest UWR. It still runs at least 4 Snapcasters, and sometimes 2 Cliques and 2 Restos for re-uses out from Snaps and Cliques. Just see what you prefer playing as well as how the meta is so far.

So I caved in and I switched my deck to pure UWR control. I'm not this passive of a player but I will try it out and see how it rolls:



Side-o:


EDIT TO THE EDIT: There are no Modern tourneys this week. Everyone's busy with the M15 pre-release. =x I added a Mirran Crusader to the SB in place of 1 Mindcensor since we're running Shadow of Doubt on the main: I'm concerned about Abrupt Decay and just BUG and Rack decks in general on the rise.

Here's my version of UWR control :

http://deckstats.net/deck-4471581-b3d3f95ee736a2b843a8fdd4e1346c0b.html

I've been play-testing it on Cocktrice and the only problem deck that I have so far is Affinity.

I think it's a solid build! Personally I would replace the Tec Edges with Ghost Quarters: running 2 Doubts on the main with Snaps, the amount of land denial you can achieve is ridiculous, especially against Tron, Scapeshift and even Pod.

I have all the cards to switch archetypes between control and midrange, so every week I'm cycling through them to gain experience with both. One thing I found with the midrange variant is how much hurt we get from Liliana of the Veil, so I went -1 Path and +1 Boros Charm to be able to take her out as soon as they +1 her the first time. Works like a charm-- pun intended.

On the control variant I go 3-3-3 on Leaks, Paths and Remands to make space for Shadow of Doubt and 3 Electrolyzes. The bombs are Gideon, Ajani, Keranos, Batterskull and Stormbreath Dragon (which is amazing in the mirror). This coming weekend is control variant's turn.

So I just opened my 2015 booster box, and I pulled; "Jace, The Living Guildpact", "Lilianna Vess", "The Chain Veil", "Sliver Hivelord", "Soul of Zendikar", "Avacyn, Guardian Angel"

Living Guildpact is not very exciting with the current selection of cards... we'll see if the next set puts anything that makes this Jace worth playing over the others. But you got Avacyn and Zendisoul, those 2 are nice. Old Liliana is cool too but not exactly the boost Mono-B Devo is looking for (that's Sign in Blood's job). That's just my opinion, though. I do want to make Chain Veil work somehow, eventually...

This weekend wasn't nice to my UWr control, so I'm switching to midrange for next week. Restoration Angels are rising in popularity and price, so I might jam 3 copies in there replacing an Electrolyze or a Helix-- hell, even in control variant I might think about jamming 3 Restos in favor of Cliques.

It's modern season again, every modern card is going up in price. D:

As for Standard, I'm now looking at maybe doing some sort or UR Affinity, using Darksteel Citadel, Ornithopter, Shrapnel Blast, and Ensoul Artifact. It also depends on what comes out of Khans though, but I do think that UR, next to Junk, will be my decks post-rotation.

I also want to play with Ensoul Artifact. It brings me back to the days of Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and how much I struggled to make that into a competitive deck: draining the opponent for 14-18 life was too much fun. No fetches back then, but if only the shell of Eggs was even remotely as useful in Modern... or any format where I wouldn't have to worry about Splinter Twin. >:

If only I had known back then that you CAN make decks good by knowing how to pilot them against the rest of the format... but those were different times.

The life gain in this series is ridiculous, running BW right now.

Bought a new commander deck from scratch, all $750 worth of it. :

Shattergang Brothers Commander

Now waiting for shipping...

On another note :

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/566513-magic-panel-at-san-diego-comic-con-2014

Enemy wedges confirmed. UWR Clan look sick~!

The new Commander sets look like pure bliss! Teferi as a Planeswalker~!!!

So hype~!