Tomoharu Saito is playing a pseudo warriors mono black deck at GP Memphis. The deck uses Bloodsoaked Champion and Pain Seer to refuel and Obelisk of Urd to power his warriors up. Though Thoughtseize and Hero's Downfall can make the deck a bit pricey.
Magic: The Gathering |OT3| Enchantment Under the Siege
- Thread starter The Technomancer
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"God's Beard!"
Member
Let's go Sultai control!
Edit: wow, I'm not the only one siding in mastery of the unseen?
Edit: wow, I'm not the only one siding in mastery of the unseen?
"God's Beard!"
Member
Didn't he fetch before playing dtt?
"God's Beard!"
Member
Yeah, looked like it.
What do you guys think about Grixis Twin? Thinking of finally giving up Scapeshift after realizing how poorly positioned it is post-pod. Every matchup feels 50/50 or much worse. Just not enough flex spots to hit the combo consistently while being able to survive long enough to do so.
Some reasons I want to go grixis over UR:
Tasigur is a nice backup plan. Would only consider running 2 though since it can be awkward early.
Rakdos charm has a ton of application out of the SB.
Darkblast is always a card I've wanted to try. Works well with tasigur and snapcaster and helps grind out those affinity, infect, and twin matchups.
Terminate is a pretty terrific card that can be nasty with snapcaster.
Some reasons I want to go grixis over UR:
Tasigur is a nice backup plan. Would only consider running 2 though since it can be awkward early.
Rakdos charm has a ton of application out of the SB.
Darkblast is always a card I've wanted to try. Works well with tasigur and snapcaster and helps grind out those affinity, infect, and twin matchups.
Terminate is a pretty terrific card that can be nasty with snapcaster.
Speaking of Grixis, I'm thinking of bringing back Grixis Haterator from the dead. Chalice of the Void seems super well-positioned in a Treasure Cruiseless, Podless, Burn-heavy environment, Blood Moon neuters Abzan and Night of Souls Betrayal shuts down Twin and Lingering Souls. Wish they would unban Chrome Mox though. Simian Spirit Guide is okay, but not ideal.
Does anyone here play in Austin? I'm looking to get into playing some constructed, but curious what the local scene is like. A few stores have "casual" nights; does that mean a budget build would be doable? Is most FNM expensive netdecks? I was thinking about buying some of the standard 4x uncommon/common playsets and building some decks and seeing where it takes me.
charlequin
Banned
-_-
divisionbyzorro
Member
Please tell me I'm not the only person who just saw Alex Hayne lay the smackdown at GP Vancouver...
Don't worry you weren't O_O
divisionbyzorro
Member
Holy shit, right?!
What happened?
divisionbyzorro
Member
Two straight come-from-way-behind victories, playing as Amulet Bloom against Mono-White Hatebears. It was a testament not only to the power of the deck, but Hayne's ability.
I thought the second PT was on top of his deck. I didn't realize it was in his hand. Talk about a beating.
Speaking of "Holy Shit!" Kenji just Splinter Twin comboed through a Clique, Shackles and Keranos O_O
Pretty sure his opponent punted like multiple times though
divisionbyzorro
Member
Absolutely. Not giving the Snapcaster back was incredibly stupid. I had written Kenji off two turns earlier; I thought he was in a completely unwinnable position. That's why you play it out!
EDIT: Reusing the deck techs from the PT is a clever way to fill time. Not blocking out the scrolling text at the bottom is dumb.
EDIT2: Kenji is in line to get daggered for a PT spot two weeks in a row. Unreal.
"God's Beard!"
Member
I love Sultai, but Brad is one of my favorite players 
divisionbyzorro
Member
Kenji is crossing his fingers now. He's in line for 9th place, and he needs the 8th place player to drop a little over a percent in tiebreaks. He might end up one-yard-short of the Pro Tour two weekends in a row...
charlequin
Banned
My wife walked by during game two when it was 23 - 1 or something and said "oh, I guess that guy's about to lose." I was like "I dunno......"
"God's Beard!"
Member
Steve Rubin pile shuffles between mulligans.
*shudder*
*shudder*
divisionbyzorro
Member
And yep, Kenji misses top 8. This GP wasn't big enough to where he makes the PT anyway, I assume. What a dagger.
Coverage kept saying he would have qualified if he made Top 8. Was that them being wrong (as they often seem to be)?
divisionbyzorro
Member
Pretty sure Top 8 of any GP automatically gets a PT invite these days, and if they hit a certain cap then all of the 36 pointers get one too. (Someone should verify; this is just my memory.)
X-2 will earn you a PT invite at any GP. Was he not X-2?
divisionbyzorro
Member
X-2-1.
SigmasonicX
Member
More like they just printed a +6/+6 for G
"God's Beard!"
Member
Sultai!
divisionbyzorro
Member
When they revisited Delve, they generally made a huge mess of it from top to bottom. The previous Delve spells had a floor of 2CC, and in Khans/FRF they set the floor at 1, which was a gigantic mistake.
Considering how badly they screwed it up, I think Delve is going to end up being as big of a development mistake as Phyrexian Mana was in NPH.
Agreed.
ThLunarian
Member
Revelation:
Old Fogey's Bands with Other Dinosaurs and Protection from Homarids abilities can easily be relevant if it's in a cube full of Changelings. I was on the fence about including him in my Ante Cube until I realized that. Score.
Now I'll have to figure out what "Bands with other..." actually means...
Old Fogey's Bands with Other Dinosaurs and Protection from Homarids abilities can easily be relevant if it's in a cube full of Changelings. I was on the fence about including him in my Ante Cube until I realized that. Score.
Now I'll have to figure out what "Bands with other..." actually means...
SigmasonicX
Member
It's the same as banding, except you are further restricted by what that creature can band with. In this case, it can only band with other Dinosaurs (not a creature type outside of silver-border).
Now as for what banding is, when a creature with banding attacks, you can form a band with up to one other creature without banding and any number of creatures with banding. I don't know if bands with others allows that creature to band with any number of that creature type or not. Attacking creatures in a band are all blocked if any one creature in that band is blocked, and they are all blocked by the blocking creature. You decide what order that your attacking creatures get into combat with the blocking creature.
It has different rules for blocking, and I don't remember what they are.
Seriously. Tom Martell suggested banning Glistener Elf, Amulet (corrected to Summer Bloom by Sam), Splinter Twin, Manamorphose, and Griselbrand, and possibly also Goyf.
This would be a good thing. Goyf, however, won't happen. It's funny how not much has changed: https://kirblar024.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/grand-prix-kc-modern-postmortem/
Ah you were talking about record irregardless if he made Top 8 (I thought you were specifically talking about Top8-ing). Nevermind.
Death Rattle was 5B. Murderous Cut at 4B hasn't been problematic at all. Probably comes down to proactive cards with Delve being a lot more dangerous than reactive cards.
charlequin
Banned
Another Modern event, another Twin win....
They're totally working on the next Phyrexian block right now and trying to figure out if they feel comfortable using Infect again.
As Phyrexian mana? I dunno. For one, you'd have to get them to actually consider their use of the mechanic a mistake, which I don't think will happen unless it causes problems in Standard (and right now, the delve cards feel totally fair in Standard.) But even if they do, Phyrexian mana gave us major color violations (Dismember) and a format-warping counterspell (Mental Misstep) and an oppressive archetype linchpin (Birthing Pod) and... (etc. etc. etc.) Delve just gave us overly cheap blue card draw, which R&D generally doesn't even need a broken mechanic to do.
What does that even leave you with? At some point if you make everyone throw out their deck every three months they're gonna get sick of the format no matter how much "better" it is long-term.
I'm kind of curious about Kai and Randy's theory from today which is that they should just reprint Counterspell.
They're totally working on the next Phyrexian block right now and trying to figure out if they feel comfortable using Infect again.
As Phyrexian mana? I dunno. For one, you'd have to get them to actually consider their use of the mechanic a mistake, which I don't think will happen unless it causes problems in Standard (and right now, the delve cards feel totally fair in Standard.) But even if they do, Phyrexian mana gave us major color violations (Dismember) and a format-warping counterspell (Mental Misstep) and an oppressive archetype linchpin (Birthing Pod) and... (etc. etc. etc.) Delve just gave us overly cheap blue card draw, which R&D generally doesn't even need a broken mechanic to do.
What does that even leave you with? At some point if you make everyone throw out their deck every three months they're gonna get sick of the format no matter how much "better" it is long-term.
I'm kind of curious about Kai and Randy's theory from today which is that they should just reprint Counterspell.
I would be all for those bans. Goyf probably won't happen though. It's just a dork. The most efficient dork, but nothing special. It's hilarious that Nicatl was ever banned compared to the shitty combo decks that exist today.
All U/R does is tempo the shit out of you until they can combo off or just burn you to death because Snapcaster is a thing. There isn't a lot of skill in going EoT flash critter (or even upkeep tap an important land or dude) and then untapping, drawing and playing Twin.
Phyrexian Mana is awesome. They just need to not print it in Standard/Modern legal sets.
What Modern deck plays Griselbrand?
What Modern deck plays Griselbrand?
I wouldn't read too much into the Infect thing - the Infect deck at the Modern PT is likely something they're not happy about.
Griselbrand gives you a T2 kill off Goryo's by letting you go infinite w/ Fury of the Horde. It's inconsistent but can one-shot you.
edit: Counterspell is not the answer. Mana Leak/Remand are just fine. It's other things that are the issue. The large issue with Modern is that they never actually banned the "T3" cards. They instead banned random crap and didn't go deep enough with the cuts initially, leading us to where we are today. You could unban AV, Jace, and BBE and it wouldn't do a whole lot to the format.
Griselbrand gives you a T2 kill off Goryo's by letting you go infinite w/ Fury of the Horde. It's inconsistent but can one-shot you.
edit: Counterspell is not the answer. Mana Leak/Remand are just fine. It's other things that are the issue. The large issue with Modern is that they never actually banned the "T3" cards. They instead banned random crap and didn't go deep enough with the cuts initially, leading us to where we are today. You could unban AV, Jace, and BBE and it wouldn't do a whole lot to the format.
I love that EVERY major Modern event is followed by "what cards do we have to ban?!" and by love I mean hate with every fiber of my being but WOTC kind of set the stage for this so oh well :/
I'm going to assume you don't play the deck or don't watch it being played? That's incredibly reductive (not that the deck can't mise wins but that's really not how things play out the majority of the time). "Herp derp I win" is not the reality of the situation more often than not.
I'm going to assume you don't play the deck or don't watch it being played? That's incredibly reductive (not that the deck can't mise wins but that's really not how things play out the majority of the time). "Herp derp I win" is not the reality of the situation more often than not.
blindrocket
Member
AGREED!
I know how the deck plays, I only take issue with "lack of skill" and the implication that the deck was braindead. Your opponents aren't goldfish and there are a lot of axes upon which someone can interact with the deck.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Phyrexian mana is fine in concept, the problem is that I'm not sure if they can make any cards that don't risk being broken without also being boring as shit. I don't think there's a way to make it edge playable, if a Phyrexian mana card is competitive viable its really viable
This is basically the crux of the "don't have a Modern PT format" argument: The format is secretly busted, the "T3" rationale is actually bullshit, and to actually fix the format you'd have to ban a lot of cards, which WotC doesn't actually want to do because they're afraid of scaring players off, so we're just going to instead pretend the format's not busted by not shining a spotlight on it.
The "Pros break the format" thing isn't true. The format is broken before they get to it, and WotC feels pressured to make bans/unbans right before a PT because they don't want reiterations of last week's MTGO daily decks.
The "Pros break the format" thing isn't true. The format is broken before they get to it, and WotC feels pressured to make bans/unbans right before a PT because they don't want reiterations of last week's MTGO daily decks.
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