Magic: the Gathering - T: Add Three Mana Of Any One Colour To Your Mana Pool

[Ratman]

I am around for two hours or so. Then, maybe in the evening, and all of tomorrow.

Room is up, pass as always.

[Nihilm]

I lost to ratman 1-2, close games, not gonna add much more detail as not a lot of people have played ratman yet.

- - - Updated - - -

Went 3-3 overall, not the result I hoped for, but I feel it was fair enough, in general it seems the result has been a lot more balanced this time around than it was in the legacy league. I'll make a deck tech post later.

[aldeayeah]

Nihilm (Part the Waterveil) vs aldeayeah (Cat Pact)

Game 1: I die to my own Pact after not finding one of my 8 outs in 14 draws (also with a Liliana emblem).
Game 2: I win the counter wars and Nihilm dies to my Pact.
Game 3: Nihilm wins the counter wars, eventually wins with double Part.

I regret nothing.

[Nihilm]

I think game 2 and 3 were the most blue game I've ever seen, mostly because it was both players sitting with a hand full of counters waiting the other to make the first move.

[Nihilm]

DECK TECH

Modern Grixis Control

Mainboard:
Creatures:
2x Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4x Snapcaster Mage
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Instants:
2x Cryptic Command
2x Dismember
3x Kolaghan's Command
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Mana Leak
4x Terminate

Sorcery:
3x Ancestral Vision
1x Anger of the Gods
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Serum Visions

Lands:
1x Blood Crypt
2x Creeping Tar Pit
3x Island
2x Mountain
3x Polluted Delta
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Steam Vents
2x Sulfur Falls
1x Swamp
2x Watery Grave


Sideboard:
Artifact:
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Nihil Spellbomb

Instant:
1x Crypt Incursion
2x Dispel
2x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Negate
1x Rakdos Charm

Sorcery:
1x Anger of the Gods
2x Crumble to Dust
1x Vandalblast

When I was picking what deck to play, I was in-between 3 decks, Grixis control, Jeskai Nahiri or Esper control. I picked Grixis over Esper, because I am slightly more familiar with Grixis modern decks than Esper and I just didn't feel like playing Jeskai Nahiri. If I'd have less time to pick a deck I'd probably just played Jeskai though.

Uh cards that didn't make it into the deck when I was building: Electrolyze, Thoughtseize, Liliana of the veil, Remand, Thought Scour, Damnation, Dreadbore, Gurmag Angler, Baby Jace, Murderous Cut, and I probably consider some more stuff that I am forgetting right now.

I had to pick between Electrolyze and Kcommand in my mind, I started out having 2x Kcommand, 2x Electrolyze, but in the end decided that Kcommand was just better.
I like Inqusition more than Thoughtseize.
I decided to not be "that" yard focused, so I didn't really want to force a Lili into the deck.
I like Leak better than Remand and after my initial deck was mostly blue, I decided to cut down on the counters somewhat.
Thought Scour or Serum Visions, Serum Visions or Thought Scour, I went with Serum visions, both are good in the deck, if I kept all of my counters and wanted to be more yard focused, I'd keep Thought scour.
Damnation is worse than Anger in this deck for what it wants to do.
I originally ran 2x Dreadbore and 2x Terminate, then I decided that Planeswalkers aren't enough of a problem to force sorcery speed on myself.
I decided Tasigur is just worth it more than Angler.
Baby Jace was cut because I wanted to force in Goblin Dark-dwellers and I didn't want more than 10 creatures.
Could have run 1x Murderous cut I guess, but without scour and with 2x delve creatures already decided against it.

Feel free to critize my reasoning for all of that.

Originally my deck also ran 4x Cryptics, decided to lower that to 2x since I cut out a lot of blue and so having a UUU spell would be harder to justify. That being said Cryptic did a lot of work for me, I used all of it's modes and I think it was actually the mvp of the deck next to Anger of the gods for this league. Kolaghan's command was also amazing.

The strategy of the deck isn't hard to figure out, kill of their dudes, constantly 2 for 1, resolve ancestral, beat them down with one of your threats or bolt them to death with snaps or tar pit them to death while they slowly watch in despair.

The one thing that excited me the most in the deck was that Goblin Dark-dwellers can flashback Ancestral Vision. Which is why I forced them in the deck, I think it would have been fine to build the deck without them or the vision as in most matchups I sided out the visions. The deck however did have a lot of cool turn 1 decisions where I had to pick between Inqusition, Ancestral Vision, Serum Visions or Lightning bolt. Which caused me to keep 2x 1-landers in the league. Both of which ended with me drawing 1 extra land in my first 10 draws. So PSA don't keep 1-landers even if you think you can surely dig for more land.

Sideboard was setup vs other graveyard strategies, sadly that never panned out as I didn't draw land or yard answers in the matchups they mattered. Also 2nd anger for the matchups that go wide. Stuff against Tron and Affinity that were not relevant.

By the end of it I feel like my deck could've been better, I should swap out the basic mountains for cliffs for example. Goblin Dark-dwellers was probably too ambitious. Thought Scour would have been good. I will stand by having 1x Anger in the maindeck though. Out of the 6 best of 3s, I only ever felt one of the decks was strongly favoured against mine.

While the other 2 that I lost to I felt were more or less even. In all of the bo3s that I won I think my deck wins more than loses on average.

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Edit: Wow, this time I had a lot more to write about now that it wasn't just mostly a netdeck.

[Siriel]

I'll be free in around 10 min if one of the two I haven't played want to get the match done.

[aldeayeah]

I'll join

and am now online

[Siriel]

Alright I'll create. GREAT BL SHOWDOWN, password "nrvnqsr".

- - - Updated - - -

Now created.

[aldeayeah]

Siriel brought a sweet deck.

I brought hate (and lucky draws, yay).

2-0

Deck tech later (GW Eldritch Elves)

[Ratman]

My soul is miraculously intact after the workday, so I'm on Cockatrice for a while. Otherwise, tomorrow.

2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang

It felt like you would be much better served by just going full Delver, or if you used a more unfair wincon like Aetherling. The black over white locked you out of Sphinx's Revelation for not a lot of reward at all, but you could still run some other endstep big spell. Maybe that's what Cryptic was supposed to be doing and I just didn't see it.

[Nihilm]

A grixis delver list is a different beast, but definitely doable. Kalitas and Tasigur I think are excellent wincons I think, but really the reason for black was Kcommand and the sweet rakdos removal spells. It wasn't quite as hard control as a spinx's rev, aetherling deck would have been.

[Seika]

My deck decided I'd had all the luck I deserved in this tournament and screwed me G1 and flooded me G2. I occasionally felt like I might stabilise, but Ratman has a ruthless (and cool) deck, so nope.

Perfect record dream smashed.

Uber-long Jund deck tech to follow.

[Rafflesiac]

Ratman, are you around?

I'm available for a match.

[aldeayeah]

DECK TECH: ELDRITCH ELVES

Intro

I like meta decks, but was very unsure about this meta. When in doubt, Jund them out, they say - but I don't enjoy Modern Jund that much (except ultimating Lili, I love that shit).

I eventually decided to play a semi-unfair creature toolbox kind of list with Eldritch Evolution.

There were a bunch of possible shells: Kiki-Jiki, Melira/Anafenza, Hatebears and Elves. I went with Elves since I was convinced (and still am) that it's the best Evo shell for the following reasons:

- Consistency. Elves plays more 1 CMC dorks than any other deck, which means more turn 2 Evos, which means it deploys hate faster/better.
- Low curve. With one exception, elves top out at 3 CMC, which means all cards can be fetched by sacrificing a dork.
- Non graveyard-dependent. This was important to me because I expected graveyard strategies and I wanted to be able to deploy the big guns (Rest in Peace) without crippling myself.

I took this list from OGW and made a bunch of changes.

Other decks I like, but decided against:

- Lantern Control (I love it but it doesn't match up well with GY strategies, also matches can last aeons)
- Blue-White Midrange (GY-dependent, which I expected hate for)
- Infect (kinda obnoxious)
- Affinity (same)
- Grishoalbrand (obnoxious, high variance AND GY-dependent)

Main deck

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Boreal Druid
Standard 1 CMC dorks. No Arbor Elf because I only run 2 Forests.

4 Heritage Druid
Heritage Druid is not the best turn 1 acceleration, since it needs two other 1-drops or one Dwynen's Elite to explode on turn 2, but turning all your elves into hasty dorks is so broken, playing less than 4 is never an option.

4 Elvish Visionary
4 Dwynen's Elite
VALUE! T1 Heritage Druid, T2 Elite+a bunch of other stuff is our single most explosive start.

4 Elvish Archdruid
Another must, contends with Heritage Druid for the "best elf in Modern" spot.

4 Collected Company
This is pure fuel and our best topdeck.

2 Eldritch Evolution
Turns your 1-ofs into 3-ofs, kinda. Makes us weaker to removal and counterspells.
After playing the league, I'm not totally sold on it. I think Chord of Calling would have been better in many cases.
This card is best when the meta is more vulnerable to creature-borne silver bullets (Melira, Kataki, etc).

1 Sylvan Messenger
It plays more like a sorcery speed fifth Collected Company.
Can't be hit off Company, unfortunately.
Draws 2.2 Elves on average with the starting 60.

1 Shaman of the Pack
A cameo from BG Elves.
The manabase is totally unsuited to cast this guy (just 4 black sources), but it can be CoCo'd or Evo'd.
For when you can't attack for some reason, or as a finisher.
Even though it insisted in getting stranded in my hand, I wouldn't cut it.

1 Elvish Champion
Forestwalk is pretty great against those who play Forests.
An unexpected MVP.

1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
The most typical aggro Elves finisher.

1 Eternal Witness
Can regrow a lost 1-of, or chain with CoCo for insane value.
Not an Elf, and graveyard-dependent, so I only run one.

1 Reclamation Sage
Nobody expects the main deck artifact/enchantment removal!

1 Mirror Entity
Another classic Elves finisher. Less mana intensive than Ezuri, but can't regenerate your guys.

1 Eldrazi Displacer
This was a pretty wacky choice for a 1-of.
Flicker-Tap is such a good ability, it enables value chains (with Visionary, Messenger, Witness, Sage or Shaman), protects your guys, removes blockers...
The problem is, it's slow and I only have 8 colorless sources. Also, not an Elf even though it has pointy ears (?).
Probably doesn't belong in the 75, much less the main deck.

1 Bow of Nylea
Removes small fliers, gives deathtouch to the swarm, puts dead creatures back where they can be grabbed with Evo, also incidentally gains life.
Could have been cut, and I never really used it in this league, but I liked the options.

4 Cavern of Souls
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Horizon Canopy
2 Windswept Heath
1 Pendelhaven
1 Nyxthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Temple Garden
1 Snow-Covered Forest
Pretty typical GW Elves mana base. Differences with the article list: +2 Cavern (just for Nihilm, who loves counterspells), +1 Windswept Heath, -1 Nyxthos, -3 Forest. I only just realized I cut a land; I probably shouldn't have done that.

Sideboard

1 Kataki, War's Wage (for Affinity)
1 Kitchen Finks (for Burn)
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast (for Infect)
1 Phyrexian Revoker (catch-all)
1 Scavenging Ooze (for graveyard strategies)
1 Selfless Spirit (for damage-based sweepers and destruction-based wraths)
1 Spellskite (for Burn, Auras, Infect, also less often as a removal shield)
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar (for decks with greedy mana bases and little removal. Magus of the Moon or Old Thalia might have been better choices)
1 Thrun, the Last Troll (for countermagic/removal-heavy decks)
3 Rest in Peace (nuke graveyard strategies)
3 Path to Exile (catch-all)

More stuff I could have run: grindy cards such as Asceticism/Privileged Position/Fertility/Grim Haruspex/Evo Leap/Duskwatch Recruiter, card draw haterade such as Spirit of the Labyrinth. Gaddock Teeg.

My own verdict on Evo: can be worth it if you expect more Burn/Infect/Affinity/Combo and less Jund/Junk/Grixis/Fair. Really wants Magus of the Moon or similar to fish some free wins against the latter; wish I had thought about it.

[aldeayeah]

What I'd probably run now against an unknown meta

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Boreal Druid (-1)
4 Heritage Druid
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Collected Company
2 Eldritch Evolution
1 Sylvan Messenger
1 Shaman of the Pack
1 Elvish Champion
3 Ezuri, Renegade Leader (+2)
1 Eternal Witness
1 Reclamation Sage
0 Mirror Entity (-1)
0 Eldrazi Displacer (-1)
1 Magus of the Moon (+1)
0 Bow of Nylea (-1)
2 Cavern of Souls (-2)
2 Razorverge Thicket (-2)
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Windswept Heath (+2)
1 Pendelhaven
1 Nyxthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Temple Garden
4 Forest (+3)

Sideboard
1 Eldritch Evolution (+1)
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Spellskite
0 Thalia, Heretic Cathar (-1)
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Gaddock Teeg (+1)
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth (+1)
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (+1)
3 Rest in Peace
0 Path to Exile (-3)

[Ratman]

Alright, I'm on Cockatrice throughout the rest of today. Raff and Siriel, PM me if you want to wrap it up.

[Nihilm]

Do you guys want to do EDH tonight?

[Seika]

I'm finally in a position to do that, so yeah.

[Ratman]

I have an EDH deck I've wanted to try for a while, so I'm game. Still waiting for Raff and Siriel though.

Also had a pretty nice out-of-league game with aldeayeah. Thassa is really a useful addition into Esper Grounds. Shame about having to mull to 4 in the last game, though.

[aldeayeah]

It was unfortunate, indeed. Between that and the mana screw of game 1...