Author

About the Author
I am a full time student at Hampshire College and a Modern format specialist. I have been playing Big Zoo since the unbanning of Wild Nacatl. I hope you enjoy my writing and through it I can help us all improve and people and players in the Magic community.

Why Linear Decks are Not a Bad Thing.

Splinter Twin got banned, Summer Bloom got banned, players raged at the world, at their family, at their lives, but mostly they just raged. I feel it was a net positive for the Modern format to grow and adapt. I think unbans should have occurred with [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card] and [card]Ancestral Visions[/card] but thats not what I want to get into today.

Its been awhile since I’ve had the itch to write but I’ve been seeing this argument for a long time and nobody is stepping up to support the idea of linear decks in Modern being a net positive. the Merriam-Webster definition which I assume is a good source because its pretty high up on google is a (1) :  of, relating to, resembling, or having a graph that is a line and especially a straight line :  straight (2) :  involving a single dimension” The part pertaining to Modern is latter half that speaks about a single dimension. A term I like to use when describing my decks and something I look for in a deck is elasticity. I want a deck that can hit the ground running but stretch itself in the late game to get the most out of its cards. This is why I gravitate towards midrange decks like Jund and Big Zoo or more aggressive combos like Grishoalbrand. The main culprits that fall into the category of linear are as follows in no particular order.

  1. Burn (okay actually #1)
  2. Bogles
  3. Affinity
  4. Infect
  5. Ad Nauseam
  6. Grishoalbrand

In this list we do have some of the big players in the format but half of them are combo decks which help differentiate the format from being a midrangefest like standard and the other half are the hyper aggressive decks that are here to keep us honest. Overall this list holds only a 30% of market share of the format.

Outside of Bogles which is just dudes with pants and Burn which is just angry people throwing fire at stuff, all of these decks contain a certain amount of the elasticity that I look for during deck building. Affinity has the tools to slog through a [card]Stony Silence[/card] with cards like [card]Ghirapur Aether Grid[/card] or [card]Etched Champion[/card], Ad Nauseam can just punch you with a [card]Grave Titan[/card], Grishoalbrand can attack you with a 15/15 Wurm, and Infect moves to a more conservative tempo based attack.

Why is it bad to be linear?

Seriously why is it a bad thing? The goal in a game of Magic in its broadest sense is to win the game. There are those amazing games out there with a beautiful give and take from both sides that usually end in a savage top deck causing a memorable end for all parties involved. These games feel great to play every now and then but they are exhausting. If the goal of your deck is to be as efficient as possible to help you win a long tournament you can’t let these epic games happen. You need to be tight and go for the jugular. The argument against this is that the long drawn out games allow people to leverage their superior play skill to beat their opponents into submission. This may be true in formats like Legacy which I don’t play and hold no knowledge on or some standard formats but for as long as I have played Modern it has been about metagaming, deckbuilding and sideboarding.

Sideboard Cards

This is the thing that I encounter the most outrage on and I feel like people think that It’s not okay to have dedicated hate cards. In large formats we need to keep the degenerate decks in check somehow. We need a strong push and pull and sideboarding is the best way to do that in Modern. Just because this hasn’t been the norm in Magic before doesn’t make it wrong. I have heard the arguments for Force of Will but I think our free counterspells in [card]Pact of Negation[/card] and [card]Disrupting Shoal[/card] provide solid options for different types of shells although I would love to see [card]Misdirection[/card] make an appearance in the format I will leave that for another article. Overall our hate cards are just as powerful as our synergies, Stony Silence for Affinity, Rest in Peace for Grishoalbrand, Rule of Law for Ad Nauseam and Storm, Night of Souls Betrayal for Infect, etc. Our format is strong but there is a tool to deal with everything if you try and look hard enough.

Being Linear

Without linear decks in our format the great Eldrazi Menace will start to lurk in our top 16s and Tron will step into the limelight. We need them to keep the big mana threats down and keep the format in its rock, paper, scissors state. Linear decks are the real glue that holds Modern together so it really isn’t that bad to be linear. People will bring strong synergistic decks to the table and you need to be prepared to break their synergy. Every deck is capable of packing some hate cards and ways to fight the hate which include alternative win conditions but a good old punch to the face and a kick below the belt is what keeps Modern honest and out of the hands of the big mana decks.

In the next week or so I hope to get a write up of my new Grishoalbrand and Zoo lists put together as well as an article about my ideal Modern format. Thanks for reading and I hope this helped provide an insight into linear strategies being a good thing for Modern.

Deck is Great, Magic is Great, I’m Great: A PPTQ Win Tournament Report

So I just won a PPTQ… Yeah it feels good. It feels better than good actually, it feels fucking great to be one tournament away from a dream I have had for a very long time. Apparently the best way to prepare for a tournament is to have a bunch of friends over have a drink or two go for a late night swim make some smores and team draft MMA2. Ya know, just your average tournament testing. I got to reanimate [card]Ulamog’s Crusher[/card] with [card]Artisan of Kozilek[/card] which was so gasssss!!!

Anyway back to the point of serious competitive Magic and not crushing mildly inebriated team drafts. I have been playing the same Nightmare Jund list for the past two months and the deck is pure gas.

[Deck Title= Nightmare Jund]
[creatures]
4 Dark Confidant
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Olivia Voldaren
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
[/creatures]
[Spells]
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Kolaghan’s Command
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Thoughtseize
3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Raging Ravine
1 Blood Crypt
1 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Watery Grave
2 Forest
2 Swamp
[/lands]
[sideboard]
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Damnation
2 Feed the Clan
4 Fulminator Mage
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Leyline of the Void
1 Night of Souls’ Betrayal
1 Outpost Siege
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Last weekend I 0-4 dropped from a PPTQ. I wasn’t having fun. I wanted to win more than anything else and I was killing myself just trying to get the win. That whole plan was not working out for me. It turns out though that casual kitchen table drafting with great friends is a great way to correct my mindset and start climbing out of the Levine trench that I have fallen pretty deeply into.

elevine41

 

Although I still feel like I’m in the trench I feel as though I am no longer as far down as I used to be and I at least like to think I’m somewhere around the Average area on the graph although with my constant chatter and horribly sarcastic jokes I can totally understand people lumping me in with Kind of a D-Bag. Such is life and anyway now I get to talk about Magic more and all of my matches woo!

Round 1: GB Elves

Actually nothing much to see here. I had tons of removal game 1 and my opponent didn’t. Game 2 I mulliganed to four and game three my opponent got stuck on two lands in a five card hand. It was a pretty easy 2-1 although the matchup can get really grindy. I feel as though the matchup is in my favor just on the basis that as a Jund variant we have a solid 50% matchup game 1 and we can sideboard into five different Wrath effects which can just slaughter the match. 1-0

Round 2 :UR Delver

No offense to my opponent intended but this deck without the addition of black and the powerful delve creatures feels like a joke. [card]Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver[/card] is more insane vs Grixis Delver but they also get there in this matchup when it turns out that the best creature Jund can have in play while drawing two cards a turn is [card]Young Pyromancer[/card] and it is even better when you can steal them. Swag points from this match came when I bolted then Snapped back the bolt off of Ashiok to finish off my opponent. 2-0

Round 3: Bant Company

So this was my first matchup of the day where the namesake card of the deck really was shining. Ashiok is in the deck to dominate the BGx mirrors and also slaughter some creatures matchups and with the addition of [card]Eternal Witness[/card] to all of the [card]Collected Company[/card] decks you just start rolling in value. I was playing against a player who is known for some very unsavory things and has been banned once or twice by the DCI. I let it get to me a little and I punted game one when I had him dead on board while playing Russian Roulette with a [card]Dark Confidant[/card] desperately trying not to die. Games 2 and 3 I was able to use some of our power board wipes while riding Ashiok’s value train to winnersville. 3-0

Round 4: Death and Taxes

Somehow a mono-white Death and Taxes deck was 3-0 and I was more than happy to be their opponent. I killed a lot of creatures game 1 and had a great meal at [card]Olivia Voldaren[/card]’s ultra gassy taco hut. I lost game 2 to [card]Archangel of Tithes[/card] which is so gas but [card]Damnation[/card] and Ashiok’s express train to value town won game 3.

Round 5: Jund

I intentionally drew with a local Jund player I know because it was in my best interest to lock up top 8 and lock a good matchup into it as well.

Round 6: Jund

I intentionally drew with my eventual finals opponent because like we drove together and could lock up top 4 seeds so it was just kinda better all the way around. Like no need to shit on a friend when you can both come out ahead.

Quarterfinals: Affinity

I played my friend Charles this round who you may remember from when I won NJ states a couple months ago. I died super hard game 1. Like just so dead, like I was the dead horse that I am beating right now about how dead I was. Game 2 we both weren’t able to count. I was at 10 life and he sacrificed all of his artifacts to have a 10/10 [card]Arcbound Ravager[/card] and attacked it was then seen that I had a [card]Night of Souls Betrayal[/card] in play and I went to one life and won the game. Game 3 I got a sick 4 for 1 off of Anger of the Gods followed by a Kolaghan’s Command 2 for 1. It was sick. I won. It was great!

Semifinals: BW Tokens

I was dreading this matchup so much because one for one removal is just dead vs token generators that are routinely 3 or 4 for 1s. I died super hard game 1 because like I legit can’t beat spirit tokens with every single deck I ever play in Modern. Game 2 I found out that [card]Maelstrom Pulse[/card] is actually BAE and [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] targeting Maelstrom Pulse is like super ultra BAE. Long story short I drew A LOT of board wipes and was able to win the match in game 3.

Finals: Jund

Remember that guy from round 6? Yeah his name is Alvaro and he wanted prizes and I wanted an invite so this one was super easy. I got my congratulatory handshake and hug. It was great, I won, and now my plans for Sunday and the rest of my summer weekends are completely ruined #Tilt.

So back to the deck now which is totally GAS. Breeding Pool is mostly interchangeable with Steam Vents because both seem to be correct about 50% of the time and right now I am enjoying having the extra green source in the deck. One of my big things that I did today was dropping my second copy of Night of Souls Betrayal so I could play Izzet Staticaster and that card is great.

Anyway I’m incredibly hungry and tired and need to go eat something so I’m gonna wrap this up. This deck is great if you want to grind out all of the midrange creature matchups while sacrificing some points versus combo. That is basically the gist of it and Magic is an amazing game. P.S. Alvaro can rap about Spiderman like its nobodies business like I think hearing that was the greatest part of the day and I Q’ed for the RPTQ today.

Oh I totally have this deck on MTGO now so expect some videos or even streaming sometime soon! I’ll update when I get everything together.

Just. Play. Jund. …Well sorta.

To quote Todd Anderson,

“Just. Play. Jund.

Just do it.

Stop being an idiot and go pick up the cards you need to play it.”

While Todd was speaking about Standard back in 2013 I feel as if this applies more than ever to Modern right now.

SCG Columbus Invitational.

I’ve been playing Infect for awhile now to some very strong results but this tournament was abysmal. I managed to make Day 2 with a record of 5-2-1 but I was carried by Dragon Megamorph in standard giving me a 3-0-1 record with my new best friend [card]Dragonlord Silumgar[/card]. On day 2 I managed to bring my Modern record to a pitiful 4-4 including a massive punt against Ben Friedman in round 10. After round 13 I dropped having been knocked out of prizes with a loss in standard. The Modern metagame in Columbus was not what I was expecting and was incredibly hostile towards Infect as a result. I had seen the rise of Jund in the weeks before so my initial goal was to beat the rock paper scissors of Tron, Jund, and Infect while having game against most forms of Splinter Twin as well. I played against every flavor of Grixis, Twin, Delver, and Control and they all felt horrible to play against especially when they got to cast [card]Kolaghan’s Command[/card]. On top of that picking up a loss to Jund made me feel as though I was on the bad side of the metagame and I needed to change for GP Charlotte.

GP Charlotte

Picking up a deck with only a week to learn it is not something I am a big fan of but after messing around with Zoo for a little bit I decided I should just play Jund. Our Jund however is just a little bit spicier.

Before I reveal the decklist I just want to give credit where credit is due. This deck was designed by Barrett Goss who played it in the Invitational and went 6-2 in Modern beating Brad Nelson in a pseudo mirror and taking the only match in Modern off of Luis Alfonso who went 7-1 with Grixis Control.

[Deck title=Jund]
[creatures]
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Tasigur the Golden Fang
[/creatures]
[Spells]
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
3 Terminate
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Watery Grave
1 Steam Vents
2 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Raging Ravine
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Feed the Clan
1 Damnation
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Night of soul’s Betrayal
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Golgari Charm
1 Outpost Siege
1 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Ancient Grudge
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

So you may have noticed a sever lack of [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] and the strange addition of Blue mana. The main thinking behind this is  you will beat the mirror and most creature decks by playing Ashiok including beating the CoCo combo deck even after they have achieved infinite life. You also get to attack the Grixis decks from a different angle in the long games and use their utility creatures like [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], [card]Young Pyromancer[/card], and [card]Vendilion Clique[/card] against them. While our maindeck is the same my sideboard is incredibly different as I chose to play Keranos and a more diverse suite of board sweepers while Barrett was more conservative with his mana base besides being an idiot and sideboarding Blood Moon.

I do want to make some key changes to the list. I feel like Bonfire of the Damned is just not what we need to be doing especially because Anger of the Gods is infinitely better against the Collected Company decks while also being very strong vs both Elves and Merfolk which I expect to both see an upswing in popularity after their recent success in the Invitational and at the GP. I also feel that we need some type of graveyard hate but I am still testing out whether [card]Grafdigger’s Cage[/card] or [card]Leyline of the Void[/card] is the correct play.

In the GP I ended up dropping at 4-3 after losing to a turn 1 Blood Moon against affinity followed by a beating from GR Tron. Barrett ended the day at a solid 6-3. In the Super Sunday Series I ended 6-3 while he finished at 7-2 good for prizes but nowhere near Top 8 contention. Overall I think this deck is very real and will be playing it in a bunch of PPTQs this summer and hopefully some SCG 5ks if I can make it out.

Tournament 2-for-1

Hey People,

So two weeks ago I was able to take down TCGPlayer Modern States at Top Deck Games and luckily StarCity Games Modern States were being held at the same store a weekend after. I decided to run it back.

Star City Games Modern States Top 16

Round 1. Affinity

This matchup feels incredibly good for game one as you are almost always just a bit faster than they are. I managed to take it pretty convincingly after my opponent had to mulligan. Unfortunately for me Infect doesn’t mulligan well and I lost in three games. Nothing really to write home about except a disappointing start.  0-1

Round 2. Burn

I got lucky. My opponent put me down to 1 in our first game and I was able to hit him for 10 poison and steal the game. Game two was fantastic. My hand wasn’t great and neither was my opponents. We went back and forth a little bit with him killing my creatures and me just trying to survive against a [card]Goblin Guide[/card] until I was able to resolve a [card]Wild Defiance[/card] followed by an [card]Ichorclaw Myr[/card]. By this point I had two copies of [card]Nature’s Claim[/card] in my hand and Goblin Guide had handed me an [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] the turn prior. I was able to pump my Myr with [card]Might of Old Krosa[/card] trigger Wild Defiance and move my opponent to 9 poison. While he was tapped out I Nature’s Claimed my Myr and also my Wild Defiance to give myself enough cushion to get the last point on my following turn with my Nexus. 1-1

Round 3. Jund

This is a pretty bad matchup for Infect and I got slaughtered in three games. again not much to write home about except hope you never see this one. 1-2

Round 4. Storm

This match was loads of fun. I thought I was completely out of contention at this point so I just wanted to have some fun playing Magic. I won the race game one. Game two my opponent makes a stupid block throwing away a [card]Goblin Electromancer[/card] when he didn’t have to and proceeded to try and storm off a turn or two after. with a storm count of 19 he fizzled out. He had a [card]Blood Moon[/card] and access to three lighting bolts but decided to dig for the kill instead of putting me under a Blood Moon and killing all of my creatures. After the game he agreed that he should’ve just gone for that line and it could have forced a game three. 2-2

Round 5. White Moon

You know you are in the dregs of a tournament when you play against something like this. While the deck seems cool it just seems too low on power. I wish there was more to say here besides I survived an [card]Isochron Scepter[/card] with a [card]Boros Charm[/card] on it game one and kept a no land 7 on the draw with a probe and rattled off two lands into a turn 3 kill. I played like an idiot and got rewarded for it. 3-2

Round 6. Burn

This match was just a race and nothing really spectacular happened. I won.

4-2

Round 7. Mardu Midrange/Tokens?

My opponent fetched a [card]Sacred Foundry[/card] off of a [card]Marsh Flats[/card] which to me meant they were on a brew and I should probably expect Lingering Souls. I didn’t see any game one and took it pretty quickly but I assumed my opponent was smart and had them in their list. Finally I got to board in my extra [card]Distortion Strike[/card] for all these [card]Lingering Souls[/card] matchups. I didn’t event get to use it as I used [card]Apostle’s Blessing[/card] for the evasion I needed to grab a turn 4 kill. 5-2

At this point I knew I was out of Top 8 contention but I’m happy with my performance and how I was able to rally back and end with a solid day and 13th place which was good for a nice chunk of store credit and an overall fun day of Magic. I got to watch one friend make their first big event top 8 and another miss by 0.041% on tiebreakers.

 

A Modern PPTQ

This past weekend I went to a PPTQ or as I now like to affectionately call them an LMNOPTQ. I haven’t been playing many of them lately but I saw one at The Comic Book Store in New Jersey only 30 miles away so I jumped at the chance especially because it was a credit 1k paid to top 8.

Round 1. RG Tron

I played against a friend of mine this round and got crushed game 1 by a turn 2 [card]Spellskite[/card]. Game two I had a [card]Glistener Elf[/card] turn one and was able to fire off two [card]Mutagenic Growth[/card]s to move him to five poison. He played a chalice on 1 and I was able to burn some spells and kill him with Become Immense on my turn. That card is Broken. Game 3 I had Nature’s Claims to deal with his two Spellskites and quickly stole the game from there. 1-0

Round 2. Burn

My opponent was play multiple copies of [card]Searing Blaze[/card] and it was a great call for the tournament. I died in two quick games.

1-1

Round 3. Scapeshift

So I got to ask my opponent “do you have it” multiple times. He only had it once and I was able to win. 2-1

I punted incredibly hard in this match. I have been dealing with some personal issues lately and I was too distracted and only won because things broke in my favor. Before throwing money on the line just make sure you are in a good headspace to play well in a tournament you want to win as I spent the entire day not wanting to be there.

Round 4. Scapeshift

There were two in the room and I pulled them back to back. It went very similarly to my prior round and I was able to catch some breaks and win the round while my opponent just didn’t draw well. 3-1

Round 5. Burn

I got a little tilted at this point because I was already not in a great head space to be playing Magic and I was not up for this race. Luckily my deck played itself and although I misplayed heavily sometimes Become Immense is just too broken for you to lose. 4-1

I felt really weird going into round 6. I had been punting a lot the entire day and I didn’t want to be there but when you play a good deck sometimes things like this can just break your way as you stumble into Top 8 with a handshake.

Round 6. BUG

Shook hands and tried to relax for a little bit. It didn’t work.

Quarterfinals. Burn

This was against my Round 2 opponent and the match went about the same as it did in round 2. I mulliganed pretty deep and wasn’t able to overcome it and squeak a win. My opponent ended up going on to beat a friend of mine in the finals of the tournament and I got $100 in store credit out of it so it could have been worse but I definitely never want to play a tournament in that head space again.

What I Took Away From These Events

These events showed me that Infect is a really powerful deck but I’m also not sure it is the deck for me. I love how aggressive it is but not being able to hold up well in longer games and grind out a win is something I feel that I’m lacking. The deck also mulligans quite poorly and while a lot of the time it is powerful I find myself keeping decent 7 card hands instead of digging deeper for a stronger hand and rolling the dice on that. I wan’t to get Zoo back together and test out some new cards with it as well as a Bant brew just because I want to play cards like Wilt-Leaf Liege and Rhox War Monk. Also one more thing,

My Top 8 Cards

I saw Jim Davis write an article about this topic and I definitely think anyone reading this should go check it out on the select side of StarCityGames.com. Well here goes nothing

8. [card]Heartless Summoning[/card]

This card was the engine of the first deck I ever tried to play competitively. I was trying to go infinite with this, [card]Havengul Lich[/card], [card]Perilous Myr[/card], and [card]Priest of Urabrask[/card]. When the combo couldn’t happen I could always grind people out with fatties like [card]Runescarred Demon[/card] and [card]Inferno Titan[/card]

7. [card]Elvish Piper[/card]

Clear and simple the reason I play Magic is to play fatties and crush my opponents under huge creatures. While I no longer use [card]Duskdale Wurm[/card] or play a deck full of Wurms and [card]Levitation[/card] this card helped shape the style of Magic I love.

6. [card]Kessig Wolf Run[/card]

This card is just sweet and I love giving my already big creatures Trample. This card in tandem with a few others on my list have given me the majority of my tournament successes.

5. [card]Wild Nacatl[/card]

I love aggressive cards and I love big creatures. I knew we were meant to be once my friend came back from an extended vacation to the Modern Format. Just a few weeks after I played my first GP and my 11-3-1 record has a lot to do with Wild Nacatl.

4. [card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/card]

At that GP while playing against Jund in round 11 I got to put a Batterskull on my dragon and live out my own version of one of my favorite Magic players finest moment, becoming a Dragon Master.

3. [card]Wilt-Leaf Liege[/card]

Wilt-Leaf starred in my very first modern deck which was GW Hatebears during the Reign of Deathrite Jund. My Lieges carried me through tournaments and cemented my love of large creatures crushing my opponents face.

2. [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card]

My knights are special to me. They have been in every build of Zoo I have ever played and fall into one of my favorite color combinations. I love to do shenanigans with lands as well and crush peoples faces and Knight makes both of those worlds a reality.

1. [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card]

My favorite Planeswalker is just value all around. He has helped me win countless matches and his pop vinyl figure adorns the dashboard of car.

 

I hope you all enjoyed reading this and hopefully I can get another article written soon enough.

Winning TCGplayer Modern States

Believe it or not, I haven’t written a tournament report in a long time and I don’t think I have ever written a report on a deck that wasn’t Zoo. But that’s what I’m going to do today.

Here goes nothing!

The Deck

[deck title=Infect]
[creatures]
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent
2 Spellskite
1 Ichorclaw Myr
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Become Immense
2 apostle’s blessing
2 Distortion Strike
2 Wild Defiance
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
2 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
2 PendelHaven
4 Inkmoth Nexus
[/lands]
[sideboard]
4 Nature’s Claim
2 Dispel
2 Spell Pierce
2 Twisted Image
2 Spellskite
1 Wild Defiance
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Distortion Strike
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

I love how the maindeck feels with this configuration. However, I want to make some sideboard changes. I love having the third [card]Distortion Strike[/card] in my sideboard but since the deck is such a dog to [card]Chalice of the Void[/card], I want to cut it and possibly one of my [card]Nature’s Claim[/card]s for [card]Viridian Corrupter[/card].

The Tournament

The tournament was held at Top Deck Games in New Jersey, which is one of my favorite stores to play at in the area. Since Pennsylvania states were six hours away in Pittsburgh it was logical to go battle in New Jersey. For those who don’t know me, I will mercilessly talk shit on New Jersey, as any self-respecting Philadelphian does. Suffice to say I will never live this down.

The first few rounds were mostly easy wins. I played against the [card]Goryo’s Vengeance[/card] deck and killed it before they could go off in two quick games. Following that I beat up on [card]Splinter Twin[/card] a bunch before picking up losses to Grixis Delver and their [card]Izzet Staticaster[/card]s, as well as Green-Black Infect, which just obliterated me.

inkmothnexus

 

Going into the final round of Swiss, my opponent assumed we were dead for top 8 and conceded to me. He didn’t realize while we were 9th and 10th in the standings that 7th and 8th were also battling it out against each other. Based on tiebreakers, the winner of our match would be the 8th seed. I guess this was my lucky day.

Quarterfinals: Infect Vs Affinity

I played against the first seed, who was a person I know pretty well, as we play at the same local store. We both knew what the other was playing, and that Infect versus Affinity is always a race. I won game one on an easy kill before dying to [card]Chalice of the Void[/card] in game two.

Game three, I took my first turn: just a land, nothing special. My opponent responds on his turn by putting six permanents into play. Instead of deploying a threat, I held up [card]Spell Pierce[/card] and I got rewarded when I got a target on turn two.. After that a couple of pump spells sealed the deal and I was through. Pretty lucky day I’d say.

Semifinals: Infect Vs RWg Burn

I lost game one, which is just an awful game for Infect anyway. I Probed on turn one and say a hand that told me I was dead on turn four. My opponent had revealed [card]Skullcrack[/card] to me off my Probe and decided to mock me after I called a judge for an oracle text because I wanted to make sure it had the damage prevention clause so I didn’t burn an [card]Apostle’s Blessing[/card] trying to block. He of course thought I was an idiot and assumed I wanted to redirect it to my [card]Spellskite[/card].

I won game two and he punted game three when I was dead on board, because instead of reading [card]Wild Defiance[/card] he just assumed it would trigger off of [card]Grim Lavamancer[/card].

I guess it was a little bit of karmic justice helping me get the win. People, please treat your opponents with respect.

Finals: Infect Vs Affinity

My opponent for this round was an incredibly good Affinity pilot named Vipin Chackonal, the runner up of Grand Prix Richmond. Luckily, my deck decided I would have an unblockable, nearly unstoppable, turn-three kill in game one, so that was nice.

In game two, I mulliganed down to three cards and didn’t see a land, but at least I didn’t reveal any information and I would get to be on the play.

In our final game, I played a fetch land on turn one and simply passed. Vipin played a [card]Glimmervoid[/card] followed by a [card]Mox Opal[/card], in response to which I made the heads-up play of Spell Piercing. After that, he Thoughtseized me and then placed his Glimmervoid in the graveyard. My [card]Blighted Agent[/card]s were able to finish off the game.

I had won the tournament.

furnacecelebration

Going Forward

This deck is insane to play and I’m having loads of fun with this change of pace. I was considering brewing up a CounterCat-esque Zoo list for Star City Games States next week, but after this tournament, I’m going to just make some sideboard changes and run this one back.

I hope you enjoyed this and hopefully I’ll have another one for you after next week!

Why Infect?

Why Infect?

Well to start off, I think Infect is currently one of the best decks in Modern and is in my opinion the best aggressive deck in the format at the moment. Bogles, Zoo, and Affinity can all struggle against [card]Lingering Souls[/card]. While each deck has the necessary tools to defeat those pesky spirit tokens, they are just not the cards you want to see or even sideboard in most matchups. Bogles, of course, does have [card]Spirit Mantle[/card], but they also get blown out by [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] a majority of the time.  With all other aggressive options either out of favor or unappealing (Bogles), I decided to do a thing I haven’t done since I first started playing Magic: play pump spells on mediocre creatures.

Infect’s Place in the Metagame

In the current Modern metagame, Infect seems poised to do well. According to MTGTop8, Junk, Burn, and Twin make up 17, 14, and 16 percent of the metagame respectively. The great thing here is that the worst early play out of 47 percent of the meta is [card]Eidolon of the Great Revel[/card] cast at an early point in the game. I love these odds. Another fun matchup that is a byproduct of Junk being a large player in the metagame is that it is only a matter of time until Tron comes crawling out of the woodwork—and that matchup is incredibly good for Infect.

On the play, Infect can be the fastest deck in the format and a lot of slow draws end up with wins between turns four and six while the average aggressive draw can win on turn three or four pretty consistently.

The decks with the strongest matchup against it would be decks like my own Big Zoo list or Jund, but since those decks are both outclassed by Dr. Siegeman Rhinocerous, you’re not likely to face either of those decks.

The Cons of the Deck

I’ve talked about some of the great reasons to play the deck, but there are some critically bad components of the deck that must be taken under consideration before picking it up for a tournament.

This deck mulligans poorly. When you are playing 19 lands and 12 creatures that can kill your opponent, it can be very hard to find a strong opening hand. The blue mana in the deck is only a splash and you can easily win games without ever seeing it, so I consider these the key components to a strong opening hand:

  1. An infect creature.
  2. Two mana sources with at least one being green.
  3. A form of protection.

The most important pieces are the first two, while the third is very helpful as half of your maindeck protection doubles as pump spells and one quarter of it serves as evasion. I don’t include [card]Wild Defiance[/card] in the protection I look for unless I am playing versus [card]Splinter Twin[/card] or other [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] decks, because for the most part it serves as additional pump and gets sided out for the matchups you don’t need it.

Another big con is that [card]Spellskite[/card] is widely played and that card can be a big thorn in your side as an infect player. Wild Defiance is great against it though because it triggers when your creatures get targeted, and every pump spell is at least a [card]Giant Growth[/card], which is not the worst card, especially when your creatures have infect.

Where I’m At

I’ve updated my list, although I only changed one card. I decided to cut the [card]Piracy Charm[/card] from my sideboard so I could place a copy of [card]Distortion Strike[/card]. That way, I’ll have up to three of them in the [card]Lingering Souls[/card] matchup as well as against Affinity where there can be a bunch of blockers mucking up the ground and the air.

I plan to make an update to Zoo soon, too, and I have a fun Esper brew featuring [card]Monastery Mentor[/card] that is heavily influenced by [card]Time Warp[/card] Faeries, so if it proves to be good I hope to write about it soon, as well.

In the meantime, if you have any comments, you know what to do!

 

Quick Hit: Premier IQ Spotlighting

I was looking through the StarCity Games Premier Invitational Qualifier decklists from the Richmond Open and I came across a Zoo list played by Jeff Szablak to an eighth-place finish that looks really interesting to me.

Jeff Szablak 8th Place SCG Premier IQ

[Deck title=Jeff Szablak Zoo]
[creatures]
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
[/creatures]
[spells]
3 Collected Company
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Arid Mesa
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 forest
2 plains
[/lands]
[sideboard]
1 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Stony Silence
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Bonfire of the Damned
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

The reason I want to bring this deck up is because it uses [card]Collected Company[/card] as a powerful card advantage engine that adds directly to the board. This is definitely something I want to test out because it looks like a blast to play. I love the use of hatebears in the sideboard like [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card] and I’m curious to try some other cards like [card]Aven Mindcensor[/card], [card]Gaddock Teeg[/card], or even something like [card]Magus of the Moon[/card] to try to attack people off of Collected Company.

As a Zoo enthusiast, I just wanted to bring this build to everyone’s attention. I plan on trying out [card]Collective Company[/card] Zoo in some of my next few local Modern events. I’ll let you know how it goes!

 

Identity Crisis

Hey, everyone, it’s been awhile.

For the past few months, I’ve been having an identity crisis with Modern. As the writer of half a dozen articles on Zoo for this very website, saying that I’m considering not playing Zoo now sounds like insanity, but I feel like I have settled down with the deck. I know all of its lines and I can always find the one I need and once I had that mastered I got bored. My play became sloppy and I was not focusing on my matches as much as I should have been. I was going through the motions but I wasn’t getting the enjoyment from the deck that I once did. I needed a change.

Where I Started

Of course, when I think about Modern my first inclination is to play a big Zoo list. I initially started off with my traditional three-color Naya list as well as working through a five-color [card]Tribal Flames[/card] list featuring [card]Siege Rhino[/card] and [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card]. For those who don’t know me, I despise Siege Rhino and I feel that if it is allowed to run rampant, then [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card] needs to come back to the format. That is an argument for a different article, though.

Siege-Rhino-Khans-of-Tarkir-Spoiler

[card]Lingering Souls[/card] ended up being too oppressive against the lists I was playing in local IQs and PPTQs, and I found if I changed my deck to make those matchups better, I would be too slow most of the time to fight decks like Tron, Scapeshift, and Splinter Twin. It was time to close down the Zoo.

Lets Watch The Pro Tour

While I was going through this process I was lucky to have some strong results from Pro Tour Fate Reforged to look at. I always take Modern pro tour results with a grain of salt, as the metagame can sometimes become inbred. I immediately latched onto what could be considered an inbred meta deck in Little-Kid Junk, which Jacob Wilson made top eight with and was built by Team Channel Face to Balls (Face to Face Games and Channel Fireball Prime worked together for the tournament).

Through testing I found the deck was pretty strong against the Modern metagame but I realized I wasn’t having fun. [card]Wilt-Leaf Liege[/card] and [card]Loxodon Smiter[/card] are some of my favorite cards but the deck didn’t grind the long games in a way I enjoy and it didn’t have some of the explosive opening I have grown to love with Wild Nacatl. I decided to shelve the deck and try something a little more off the beaten path.

WildNacatl

Playing an Old Favorite

One of my friends, when I first met him, was casting an insanely powerful card-advantage engine known as [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card]. I had been looking for a way to ignite the fun of Modern for me, and this felt right up my alley.

Casting Gifts for [card]Life from the Loam[/card], [card]Raven’s Crime[/card], [card]Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth[/card], and either [card]Ghost Quarter[/card] or [card]Tectonic Edge[/card], as well as ending games before they had even begun by casting Gifts for [card]Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite[/card] and [card]Unburial Rites[/card] was fun, but the mana base felt too inconsistent and it always felt like an uphill battle unless I could resolve Gifts to take control of the game.

giftsungiven

My Final Decision… For Now

After testing those decks, I decided I wanted to be more aggressive and more explosive. I have played with a few Zoo lists using [card]Steppe Lynx[/card] and other hyper-aggressive creatures, but those lists were too explosive to the point they would sometimes explode on you and give you no hope of winning.

I realized I owned all the expensive cards for Infect, so I decided to give it a shot. All I can say is this deck is bonkers. I have only played two events with it so far, and although they haven’t been the most successful, I have ended each tournament with a positive record and I feel most of the deck’s losses come from mulligan decisions. I find it amusing that a deck I used to prey upon with my Zoo list is now the deck that I am battling with, but I think it is one of the best decks in the format right now and I feel like I can win with it whenever I sit down across from my opponents.

blightedagent

For those interested, here is my current Infect list:

[Deck Title=GU Infect]
[Creatures]
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent
2 Spellskite
1 Ichorclaw Myr
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Might of old Krosa
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Become Immense
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Distortion Strike
2 Wild Defiance
2 Apostle’s Blessing
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
2 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Pendelhaven
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Piracy Charm
1 Wild Defiance
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Dispel
2 Spell Pierce
2 Twisted Image
2 Spellskite
4 Nature’s Claim
[/sideboard]
[/Deck]

I plan to start writing more frequently, and my next article will discuss some of the factors that lead to my current deck selection. Until next time, get out there and go have fun playing Modern.

The Zoo is Dead, Long Live The Zoo!

After falling short of top eight at a Modern IQ/PPTQ that I played in recently, I was itching to play some more Magic. Luckily, SCG Philly was right around the corner. I was still up in the air about what I should play for the Sunday Premier IQs: either Constellation in Standard or some form of Zoo in Modern. I stuck to my guns and my best deck and played Zoo.

[Deck Title=Slightly Bigger Zoo]
[creatures]
4x Wild Nacatl
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Scavenging Ooze
4x Qasali Pridemage
4x Knight of the Reliquary
2x Thrun, The last Troll
[/creatures]
[spells]
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
2x Ajani Vengeant
1x Garruk Wildspeaker
1x Gideon Jura
[/spells]
[lands]
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Windswept Heath
4x Arid Mesa
2x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
1x Sacred Foundry
2x Forest
2x Plains
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Kessig Wolf Run
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
3x Blood Moon
3x Ancient Grudge
2x Choke
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Spellskite
2x Batterskull
1x Back to Nature
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

So as you can see, it is my normal Zoo list, but with the key change of cutting [card]Lightning Helix[/card] for the two planeswalkers, [card]Gideon Jura[/card] and [Card]Garruk Wildspeaker[/card]. I ended up going 5-2-1 on the day, good for a top 32 finish which equated to two open points and $50 cash money. The decks I played against were as follows

Round 1: Affinity, W

Round 2: Junk Pod, W

Round 3: RG Aggro, L

Round 4: Delver, L

Round 5: Junk, W

Round 6: Junk, T

Round 7: Affinity, W

Round 8: Affinity, W

I won every post sideboard game against Affinity and I can safely say that was due 100 percent to having three copies of [card]Ancient Grudge[/card] to bring in.

My two losses on the day came at the beginning and the middle of a grueling headache. I feel like I punted at least a portion of each match, but I decided to stay in and try to grind it out. Luckily, after wandering the floor asking every single player and judge that I knew (easily over 30 people), I was able to acquire something [Ed. note: Drugs, most likely] to make my headache subside marginally.

[card]Garruk Wildspeaker[/card] and [card]Gideon Jura[/card] were overachievers on the day and I’m glad I made the decision to play them roughly 30 minutes before the start of the tournament.

Overall, it felt like a decent day, but I knew I needed to be doing something more powerful, so I set my eyes on [card]Birthing Pod[/card] because I owned most of the deck already. As of January 19, 2015, though, this became a terrible idea as Pod just got the banhammer.

On To The Next Idea

Naya Zoo is just not cutting it anymore. I need to go big and I need to hit hard. I took some inspiration from Craig Wescoe and his top-16 finish at GP Omaha and crafted the new Zoo, featuring our new lord and savior Dr. Siegeman Rhinoceros.

Siege-Rhino-Khans-of-Tarkir-Spoiler

My New List

[Deck Title=Tribal Zoo]
[creatures]
4x Wild Nacatl
4x Noble Hierarch
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Siege Rhino
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Tribal Flames
3x Path to Exile
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Bant Charm
1x Garruk Wildspeaker
1x Gideon Jura
[/spells]
[Lands]
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
3x Flooded Strand
2x Bloodstained Mire
1x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
1x Breeding Pool
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Godless Shrine
1x Watery Grave
1x Forest
1x Plains
1x Kessig Wolf Run
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
3x Ancient Grudge
3x Slaughter Games
2x Negate
2x Flashfreeze
2x Spellskite
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Batterskull
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

I have only just begun fleshing this deck out, but it feels immensely powerful and I am excited to see how the Modern metagame will adapt with the fall of Delver and Pod, and presumably the rise of BGx and Splinter Twin.

I will keep updating my progress in Modern and Standard and my quest to meet my obscene goals for 2015. Thank you all for reading, and until next time, do yourself a favor and just start casting Siege Rhino—assuming you aren’t already.

Stoking The Flames

Feeding The Fire

I just lost my win-and-in for top eight and I’m two hours away from home. This sucks.

I played some of the best Magic I have played in a long time today and I desperately wanted this win more than any tournament before. I won games and matches off of bluffs, strategies, and good old-fashioned luck, but in the end I got beat by variance—and those are the losses that hurt the most. The thing is: this one was different. I was told I looked basically dead, empty, despondent. While, yes, it did create those feelings, this one poured gas on the fire. I don’t know why it did, but I’m excited that this is the life I’ve chosen to lead for at least the next few years.

My Goals

Going into 2015, I set some goals for myself to improve as a player and I put some big-ticket items on my wishlist.

1. Win a Star City Games Open

This one is huge and just one of the big-ticket items sitting on the list

2. Day two all four Star City Games Invitationals.

Thanks to my late-in-the-year successes from 2014, I found myself qualified for the next three, and picking up a fourth invite shouldn’t be that hard.

3. Top eight multiple Star City Games Premier Invitational Qualifiers.

These are where I first found success and I feel at home in a tournament of this size.

4. Have fun with friends new and old traveling and grinding the Open Series.

I love to travel and see new places and I love to play Magic. I love small towns and weird cities, and grinding IQs on the weekends lets me visit these places. When an Open is in driving distance, I’ll happily go do battle.

The Tournament Today

Today, to me, felt like it was supposed to be the start to this journey, and I guess it was just not the way I wanted it to play out. I’m still gathering my thoughts and piecing it all together as I write this, so please bear with me. I, of course, battled today with my usual Zoo list and a couple sideboard changes (like adding a third [card]Choke[/card] and experimenting with different Affinity hate in my sideboard for the observed field of Delver, Affinity, UWR Geist, and Pod).

Round one I beat Bogles. This one is still sinking in. My boogieman, my nemesis, my worst nightmare: and I slew it. I felt good and nearly unstoppable afterwards. Following that, I beat Tribal Zoo thanks to outplaying an opponent who didn’t know how to play the deck or the matchup as well as I did. I lost the next round to RG Tron. I got to battle against UWR Geist and Pod after that, and while the UWR Geist matchup was close, I was able to keep the Lightning Angels at bay and just 2-0 smash my mana-screwed Pod opponent. My deck likes to mulligan to five far more than theirs does.

Round six, and I’m in ninth place. I have a clear-cut win-and-in for top eight: 5-1 is in and 4-2 is out. Every single person in the building was there for a PPTQ, but I wanted those Open points more than anything else. The short story is I lost. I was lax about watching my opponent shuffling my deck this round and I lost to the mono-lands draw. You know, the one I’m all too familiar with. Crack fetch, draw fetch, crack fetch, draw fetch and repeat until they find a threat to kill me with or I fetch every fetchable land from my deck.

While I don’t have any concrete proof of anything fishy going and I do blame myself for not being as vigilant as I was during the other five rounds, I feel like something must’ve been happening—or that when the variance gods strike their vengeance down upon me, they do it in the most heartbreaking fashion possible.

The New Fifth Goal

This brought me to a fifth goal for the year, and a list of five looks much nicer than four.

5. Promote good clean play on the Open Series and within any other tournaments I happen to play in.

Simply put, Magic is a game and I feel it should be played for enjoyment and not just money and prizes. I have been a victim before and I don’t want others to have to go through the heartbreak of being cheated.

Moving Forward

I’m up in the air about what I want to do with Modern. I was talking on the long drive home with my friend Barrett about Modern and he was pointing out that maybe some variation would be good for me. He recently set his Faeries aside for Pod and I feel like because of this and how we have dealt with our decks quite similarly, he knows what he is talking about. I know Zoo is good for me and I can attack the format very well with it, but I autopilot far more matches than I should and I win a lot based on surprise factor and play skill with my deck—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I do see how it can definitely hinder growth to be just a Zoo player.

I own most of the cards to build a Junk Pod list and I have easy access to the few I am missing. Maybe it is time for me to branch out and learn more of the format and attack it from different angles instead just for three damage on turn two. I’m still planning on developing Zoo lists, and I have a fun five-color list in the pot right now, but it’s still cooking and needs time to thicken. This will all shake itself out. I love this deck and all it has done for me, but I think I need to branch out and grow as a player more. I’m still going to be battling with Zoo for SCG Philly’s Modern Premier IQ, but I don’t know after that. The Baltimore Open is coming up in a month and hopefully I’ll have a better idea by then.

For Standard, I toyed with the idea of playing Jeskai Tempo right before the deck came screeching to a halt and died. I realized I wouldn’t enjoy myself playing a deck that to me always felt like it was digging for a win and just barely getting there. I’m now on the Constellation deck and I’m loving it. I think a third color would be amazing, though, and I am debating moving the shell into an Abzan Whip deck or jumping more towards a Sultai Sidisi Whip. I’ll be watching the format closely, but I don’t think I want to be doing anything besides slamming [card]Doomwake Giant[/card]s and drawing my entire deck off of [card]Eidolon of Blossoms[/card]. Maybe I’ll add a crash of Rhinos to the deck, because for lack of a better term: [card]Siege Rhino[/card] is sweet!

Well, thats all for now so thank you for reading and I hope I can keep you all updated throughout the year and hopefully the successes of last year were just the beginning. I feel a fire under my ass, and no, it isn’t just the seat heaters from my new car. I want to win and I want to succeed, but most importantly I want to have fun.

P.S. I know I still owe you guys a few Zoo combo matchups. Life has been hectic and hopefully I’ll be able to set some time aside and bang out those last few matchups for the guide.

 

Welcome to the Jungle: Sideboarding versus Combo Decks

Hello once again!

I hope everyone in the US had a wonderful holiday, and for those of you from everywhere else in the world, I hope you had an amazing Thursday.

I’m back this week with the final installment of my sideboarding series about my Zoo deck. If you all have any ideas of things you would like me to write about next, I would love to hear them in the comments section below or on Twitter here.

Without further ado here is a quick refresher on my deck:

A Quick Refresher

The Deck

[Deck Title=Big Zoo (Azooni) ]
[Creatures]
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Thrun, The last Troll
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
2 Ajani Vengeant
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
4 Arid Mesa
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Forest
2 Plains
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Spellskite
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Sideboard Breakdown

Blood Moon

Blood Moon is a fantastic card out of the sideboard and is there to give you free wins or stall the game until you can reach a dominant position. This card is a must against all three-or-more-color decks and can even dominate two-color decks.

Choke

If your opponent plays Islands, you play Choke. I don’t think it can be any clearer than that.

Spellskite

I really like Spellskite. It stonewalls aggro early on and can help you win the burn matchup. I like Spellskite especially in game three of the control and Pod matchups to protect your Blood Moons andChokes from their removal.

Engineered Explosives

Board sweepers are really good and Explosives is no different. If they play creatures, you should play Explosives.

Batterskull

Burn, midrange, control: all of these are matchups where Batterskull can shine. It is your most resilient threat (next to Thrun) and when paired with your creatures can be very potent.

Ancient Grudge

Good versus artifacts.

Bow of Nylea

I think this card is the best card in my sideboard. Every ability on the card is good. The graveyard one, although you use it the least, can be very strong. It lets you bottom some strong cards from your graveyard, and with your large amount of fetch lands, you can shuffle and redistribute your used powerful spells back into your deck.

Deflecting Palm

If you expect to get hit with a lot of damage from a single source, play this card. Creatures holding Cranial Plating, Tron’s creatures, Bogles, Ascendancy Combo (choose the creature, and yes, you can choose Caryatid) are great sources for this card to choose. Palm also has bonus points versus Burn, where it basically acts as an extra Lightning Helix.

Birthing Pod, The Neapolitan of Magic

So imagine a tub of ice cream that contains three different flavors, Vanilla (Melira Pod), Chocolate (Angel Pod), and Earl Gray Sriracha (Kiki Pod). Before I go any further I would just like to point out that Melira Pod and Angel Pod are variants of the same style of deck, while Kiki Pod is a beast of its own.

Melira and Angel Pod

[Deck title=Melira Pod]
[creatures]
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Voice of Resurgence
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Thragtusk
1 Reveillark
1 Siege Rhino
1 Restoration Angel
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Eternal Witness
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Sin Collector
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Spellskite
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Viscera Seer
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
[/creatures]
[spells]
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Chord of Calling
4 Birthing Pod
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
3 Razorverge Thicket
3 Gavony Township
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plains
1 Swamp
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Lingering Souls
1 Darkblast
4 Thoughtseize
1 Shriekmaw
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Memoricide
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

[Deck title=Angel Pod]
[creatures]
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Wall of Roots
3 Voice of Resurgence
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Siege Rhino
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Archangel of Thune
1 Restoration Angel
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Eternal Witness
1 Spellskite
1 Spike Feeder
1 Shriekmaw
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Sin Collector
[/creatures]
[spells]
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Birthing Pod
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Razorverge Thicket
3 Gavony Township
3 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plains
[/lands]
[sideboard]
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Sin Collector
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Thoughtseize
2 Choke
2 Fracturing Gust
2 Path to Exile
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

While both of these decks contain combo potential, it is rare that they are able to achieve the combo kill against you. Expect both decks to play a much more midrange slugfest rather than them trying to combo you through your disruption. Game one, you need to use your [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card]s to stop every [card]Birthing Pod[/card] that you see and crush them under a large [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] or with [card]Thrun, The last Troll[/card]. I feel the need to mention and remind you all that you should always bolt the bird or hierarch.

Sideboard out: 4 [card]Noble Hierarch[/card] and 2 [card] Lightning Helix[/card]

Sideboard in: 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card], 2 [card]Batterskull[/card]

Similar to the BGx matchups, you just want to fight a really grinding midrange battle and try to out topdeck your opponent. Just try to one for one a lot of initial threats and lock them out with a Blood Moon to try and seal the game.

[Deck Title=Kiki Pod]
[Creatures]
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Restoration Angel
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2 Deceiver Exarch
2 Wall of Roots
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Spellskite
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
[/creatures]
[spells]
2 Chord of Calling
4 Birthing Pod
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Copperline Gorge
2 Stomping Ground
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Breeding Pool
1 Steam Vents
1 Temple Garden
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Gavony Township
[/lands]
[sideboard]
2 Path to Exile
1 Thragtusk
2 Domri Rade
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Kataki, War’s Wage
2 Negate
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Combust
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

I have some history with this deck and I always tend to be on the losing side of the matchup against some very good opponents. One of my friends, who has helped me become a much better player, has been playing Pod variants since I first met him and I think I have a record of 2-12 in Modern against him. I have also run into this deck in the top four of the two Star CIty Games Premier IQs I have played. The first time I got blown away by a [card]Stonehorn Dignitary[/card] being chained with [card]Restoration Angel[/card] and [card]Phantasmal Image[/card]. The second time, my opponent thumbed lands to the top of my deck in our game three and is now banned by the DCI for four years. This deck, when in the hands of a great player, is truly amazing to witness and can be very hard to defeat.

Sideboard out: 2 [card]Thrun, The last Troll[/card], 2 [card] Ajani Vengeant[/card], 2 [card] Scavenging Ooze[/card]

Sideboard in: 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card], 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card]

Try to lock them out as fast as you can. Kill everything you see and try to force through as much damage as you can while holding up a decent amount of disruption. Blood Moon wins the game almost immediately, so try to drop it ASAP—but hold removal in case they can hardcast [card]Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker[/card] and win the game.

Let’s Talk Twin

[deck title=Splinter Twin]
[creatures]
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Deceiver Exarch
2 Pestermite
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Serum Visions
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Remand
2 Spell Snare
2 Dig Through Time
1 Izzet Charm
1 Dispel
1 Cryptic Command
1 Electrolyze
1 Flame Slash
4 Splinter Twin
1 Vedalken Shackles
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Mountain
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Stomping Ground
[/lands]
[sideboard]
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Pyroclasm
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Hibernation
1 Echoing Truth
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
1 Batterskull
1 Blood Moon
1 Negate
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Splinter Twin is a fun game where each player can’t really tap out without the other one gaining a large advantage. Try to keep your [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card]s in play or a [card]Path to Exile[/card] in hand to disrupt your opponent’s combo if they go for it. If you can delay them from winning you should be able to win handily as long as you are turning creatures sideways each turn.

Sideboard out: 4 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card], 2 [card]Lightning Helix[/card]

Sideboard in: 2 [card]Choke[/card], 2 [card]Spellskite[/card], 2 [card]Batterskull[/card]

The way I like to play post-sideboard games against Splinter Twin is as if they are more of a control deck. Just bring in your resilient sideboard threat ([card]Batterskull[/card]), your combo breaker([card]Spellskite[/card]), and of course the Island killer ([card]Choke[/card]). All that remains is a game of cat and mouse to let you resolve a way to win the game while still holding back disruption to stop your opponent.

I don’t like [card]Engineered Explosives[/card] in this matchup, even though when it is set to three counters it will stop your opponent from combo killing you—but setting it to three is a hard task while fighting through counter magic, especially [card]Remand[/card].

[Deck Title=RUG(not Temur)TarmoTwin]
[creatures]
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Deceiver Exarch
2 Pestermite
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Vendilion Clique
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Remand
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Serum Visions
2 Izzet Charm
2 Dig Through Time
2 Cryptic Command
2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Electrolyze
3 Splinter Twin
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Island
3 Steam Vents
2 Hinterland Harbor
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Mountain
1 Forest
[/lands]
[sideboard]
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Dispel
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Negate
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Batterskull
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Ancient Grudge
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

So this matchup is a really fun one (I say that about every matchup I know, I just love this game). When your opponent’s combo plan is their backup plan and you can disrupt it pretty well while outclassing their aggressive creature plan, things start to feel really good.

Sideboard out: 2 [card]Lightning Helix[/card], 1 [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card], 4 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]

Sideboard in: 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 2 [card]Choke[/card], 2 [card]Spellskite[/card]

The goal here is just to lock them out from playing their big threats and then kill them with one of yours.

Scapeshift

[deck title=Scapeshift]
[creatures]
4 sakura tribe elder
2 snapcaster mage
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Cryptic Command
4 Scapeshift
4 Remand
4 Search for Tomorrow
3 Dig Through Time
2 Izzet Charm
2 Pyroclasm
2 Electrolyze
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Stomping Ground
4 Steam Vents
3 Breeding Pool
3 Island
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
2 Forest
2 Mountain
1 Flooded Grove
[/lands]
[sideboard]
2 Krosan Grip
2 Negate
1 Swan Song
1 Batterskull
3 Obstinate Baloth
2 Inferno Titan
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Ancient Grudge
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

The [card]Scapeshift[/card] matchup should be treated in the first game as if it is a control deck because, well, it is. Deploying a lot of threats in the early game and racing should be your game plan and [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card] can help slow them down enough to win game one.

Sideboard out: 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card], 2 [card]Lightning Helix[/card]

Sideboard in: 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 2 [card]Choke[/card], 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card]

In post-sideboard games you should expect all the heavy hitters to come crash the party and provide a very strong backup plan to fight your creatures. As usual, an early [card]Blood Moon[/card] basically seals the game in your favor and your powerhouse creatures should be able to keep your opponent on their back foot long enough to let you seal the game.

This article ended up longer than expected so I will be writing a fifth part where I will cover matchups against Storm, Ad Nauseam, Living End, and because of the added space, I will throw in the Jeskai Ascendancy Combo. I hope this article and my others have been helpful and informative for you all. Thanks for reading and check back soon for my final piece in this series.

Welcome to the Jungle: Sideboarding versus Midrange and Control

Welcome back again! I hope my previous article was able to help you all with the more explosive matchups you will face and I hope this one will help you with the more grinding matchups.

A Quick Refresher

The Deck

[deck title= AZooni (Big Zoo) ]
[Creatures]
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
2 Ajani Vengeant
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
4 Arid Mesa
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Forest
2 Plains
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Spellskite
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Sideboard Breakdown

[card]Blood Moon[/card]

Blood Moon is a fantastic card out of the sideboard and is there to give you free wins or stall the game until you can reach a dominant position. This card is a must against all three-or-more-color decks and can even dominate two-color decks.

[card]Choke[/card]

If your opponent plays [card]Island[/card]s, you play Choke. I don’t think it can be any clearer than that.

[card]Spellskite[/card]

I really like Spellskite. It stonewalls aggro early on and can help you win the burn matchup. I like Spellskite especially in game three of the control and Pod matchups to protect your [card]Blood Moon[/card]s and [card]Choke[/card]s from their removal.

[card]Engineered Explosives[/card]

Board sweepers are really good and Explosives is no different. If they play creatures, you should play Explosives.

[card]Batterskull[/card]

Burn, midrange, control: all of these are matchups where Batterskull can shine. It is your most resilient threat (next to Thrun) and when paired with your creatures can be very potent.

[card]Ancient Grudge[/card]

Good versus artifacts.

[card]Bow of Nylea[/card]

I think this card is the best card in my sideboard. Every ability on the card is good. The graveyard one, although you use it the least, can be very strong. It lets you bottom some strong cards from your graveyard, and with your large amount of fetch lands, you can shuffle and redistribute your used powerful spells back into your deck.

[card]Deflecting Palm[/card]

If you expect to get hit with a lot of damage from a single source, play this card. Creatures holding [card]Cranial Plating[/card], Tron’s creatures, Bogles, Ascendancy Combo (choose the creature, and yes, you can choose Caryatid) are great sources for this card to choose. Palm also has bonus points versus Burn, where it basically acts as an extra [card]Lightning Helix[/card].

Let’s Begin with UWR

[Deck Title=UWR Control]
[creatures]
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Restoration Angel
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Keranos, God of Storms
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mana Leak
3 Electrolyze
3 Lightning Helix
3 Path to Exile
3 Cryptic Command
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Remand
2 Spell Snare
1 Sphinx’s Revelation
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Ajani Vengeant
[/Spells]
[lands]
4 Celestial Colonnade
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Island
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Flooded Strand
2 Steam Vents
1 Arid Mesa
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Mountain
1 Plains
[/lands]
[sideboard]
2 Stony Silence
1 Batterskull
1 Spellskite
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Combust
2 Counterflux
1 Celestial Purge
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Wear // Tear
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

I personally love this matchup. You need to establish multiple threats early and luckily your deck is great at that! They have no answers to [card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card] in the first game and you can ride him or a large [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] to victory. I approach this matchup as if they are a critical mass burn deck so I want to apply a lot of pressure and force them to engage with me before they want to.

Sideboard out 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card],  2 [card]Lightning Helix[/card], and 1 [card]Path to Exile[/card]

Sideboard in 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 2 [card]Choke[/card], and 2 [card]Batterskull[/card]

The sideboard plan is to lock them out and kill them while they sit there doing nothing. [card]Batterskull[/card] is great because you can cast it through your [card]Blood Moon[/card]s, which in and of themselves are game winners in their own right.

Blue Moon

[Deck Title=Blue Moon]
[creatures]
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Serum Visions
4 Cryptic Command
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Remand
3 Spell Snare
3 Vapor Snag
2 Electrolyze
2 Mana Leak
1 Dig Through Time
3 Blood Moon
2 Vedalken Shackles
1 Batterskull
[/spells]
[lands]
8 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Steam Vents
2 Flooded Strand
1 Mountain
[/lands]
[sideboard]
1 Blood Moon
1 Batterskull
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
1 Counterflux
1 Magma Spray
2 Negate
1 Keranos, God of Storms
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Vandalblast
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

In the first game its easy to get caught thinking you are playing against UR Delver or Splinter Twin, but in both of those matchups (Delver moreso than Splinter Twin), you should be fetching basics to keep yourself from getting burnt out. Qasali Pridemage is your allstar keeping [card]Vedalken Shackles[/card] at bay and your [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]s under your control.

Sideboard out 4 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]

Sideboard in 2 [card]Choke[/card], 2 [card]Batterskull[/card]

If you choke your opponent, you should win. I like to leave in all of my removal, including the [card]Path to Exile[/card]s, because I expect to see [card]Batterskull[/card] and [card]Spellskite[/card] in the post-board games.

Pick Your Poison (BG, Jund, or Junk)

In these matchups, your sideboard plan is the same in all matches but for shits and giggles, here are three decklists.

[Deck Title=The Rock]
[lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Treetop Village
4 Twilight Mire
4 Swamp
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Marsh Flats
1 Forest
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Woodland Cemetery
[/lands]
[creatures]
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Phyrexian Obliterator
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Courser of Kruphix
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Dismember
1 Slaughter Pact
4 Liliana of the Veil
[/spells]
[sideboard]
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Creeping Corrosion
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Damnation
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Torpor Orb
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Batterskull
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

[Deck Title=Jund]
[creatures]
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Olivia Voldaren
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Thoughtseize
2 Slaughter Pact
1 Terminate
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Anger of the Gods
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Raging Ravine
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Forest
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Swamp
1 Marsh Flats
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
[/lands]
[sideboard]
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Choke
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Batterskull
1 Shatterstorm
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Golgari Charm
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Grim Lavamancer
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

[Deck Title=Junk]
[lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Stirring Wildwood
2 Twilight Mire
2 Treetop Village
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Misty Rainforest
[/lands]
[creature]
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
3 Scavenging Ooze
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Slaughter Pact
2 Path to Exile
2 Lingering Souls
1 Darkblast
1 Dismember
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
[/spells]
[sideboard]
1 Lingering Souls
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Stony Silence
2 Skinrender
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Black Sun’s Zenith
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Sideboard out 4 [card]Noble Hierarch[/card] and 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card]
Sideboard in 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 2 [card]Batterskull[/card], 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card], and 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card]

In these matches, you want to try and topdeck better than the BGx decks, and yes, it is possible. This is why you cut all the little fluff that couldn’t become a threat late in the game. [card]Blood Moon[/card] wins games on its own, and the player with the last [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] standing also tends to win the game. Seriously, it is the best card in the matchup, so make sure you deploy Goyf into removal first so you can eat it with your Ooze.

[deck title=The New Junk]
[creatures]
4 Siege Rhino
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Courser of Kruphix
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Thoughtseize
3 Lingering Souls
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Darkblast
1 Duress
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Dismember
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Liliana of the Veil
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
3 Treetop Village
2 Swamp
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Twilight Mire
2 Windswept Heath
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Forest
1 Plains
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Golgari Charm
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Stony Silence
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Creeping Corrosion
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Honestly, I would sideboard the exact same way as I do with other BGx decks and just fight the topdeck/attrition battle.

GR Tron

[Deck Title=GR Tron]
[creatures]
4 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Pyroclasm
4 Sylvan Scrying
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Karn Liberated
4 Chromatic Star
4 Oblivion Stone
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Expedition Map
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Eye of Ugin
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Torpor Orb
2 Platinum Angel
1 Sundering Titan
2 Choke
4 Nature’s Claim
4 Combust
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

You have to be a conservative aggro deck in this matchup—and I know that sounds weird. You don’t want to overextend against them into a [card]Oblivion Stone[/card]. [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] will hopefully be there to be your second wave of attacking.

Sideboard out 2 [card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card], 2 [card]Lightning Helix[/card], and 1 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]

Sideboard in 3 [card] Blood Moon[/card], and 2 [card]Ancient Grudge[/card].

Just add better removal and try to lock them out. Blood Moon while ticking up [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card] is a blowout, or just use the Moon to delay until you can kill them.

Mono U Tron and UW Tron also exist, but I don’t view them as being the most competitive.

For Mono U, I would side out 4 [card]Lighting Bolt[/card], 2 [card] Lightning Helix[/card], and 1 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card].

I would side in 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 2 [card]Choke[/card], and 2 [card]Ancient Grudge[/card].

For UW I would board the same as GR Tron, unless they played an insane amount of Islands.

The Faerie Conclave

[Deck title=UB Faeries]
[Creatures]
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Mistbind Clique
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Snapcaster Mage
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
3 Cryptic Command
3 Spell Snare
2 Dismember
2 Mana Leak
2 Shadow of Doubt
2 Smother
1 Go for the Throat
1 Tragic Slip
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Bitterblossom
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Mutavault
4 River of Tears
4 Secluded Glen
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Island
3 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Ghost Quarter
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Negate
1 Squelch
1 Damnation
2 Duress
1 Darkblast
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Spellskite
1 Pithing Needle
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Batterskull
1 Memoricide
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

What I have found with the Faerie matchup is that you just need to be all-out aggressive in game one. Killing their [card]Bitterblossom[/card] and deploying a large amount of threats is just too much for them to handle. Maindeck Thrun also just makes them jump through hoops to win.

Sideboard out: 2 [card]Lightning Helix[/card], and 4 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]

Sideboard in: 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card], and 2 [card]Batterskull[/card]

Just kill their meager threats post board, and if you resolve a Blood Moon, you should win. I think it appears obvious why you don’t side in Choke for this matchup, but I’ll explain anyway: Faeries does not play Islands.

Sideboarding Mastery

Well thats all for this week! thanks for checking in and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you could have and I will be back next week with my final installment on sideboarding versus the combo decks of the format.

Welcome to the Jungle: Sideboarding Versus the Aggressive

Welcome back, everybody!

I assume since you are here you want to learn how to sideboard with my Zoo deck against the more aggressive decks in Modern. If not, tough luck. Against these decks, you want to start off as the control deck and stabilize before transitioning into being the beatdown to close the game.

The Deck

[deck title= AZooni (Big Zoo) ]
[Creatures]
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
2 Ajani Vengeant
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
4 Arid Mesa
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Forest
2 Plains
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Spellskite
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Sideboard Breakdown

[card]Blood Moon[/card]

Blood Moon is a fantastic card out of the sideboard and is there to give you free wins or stall the game until you can reach a dominant position. This card is a must against all three-or-more-color decks and can even dominate two-color decks.

[card]Choke[/card]

If your opponent plays [card]Island[/card]s, you play Choke. I don’t think it can be any clearer than that.

[card]Spellskite[/card]

I really like Spellskite. It stonewalls aggro early on and can help you win the burn matchup. I like Spellskite especially in game three of the control and Pod matchups to protect your [card]Blood Moon[/card]s and [card]Choke[/card]s from their removal.

[card]Engineered Explosives[/card]

Board sweepers are really good and Explosives is no different. If they play creatures, you should play Explosives.

[card]Batterskull[/card]

Burn, midrange, control: all of these are matchups where Batterskull can shine. It is your most resilient threat (next to Thrun) and when paired with your creatures can be very potent.

[card]Ancient Grudge[/card]

Good versus artifacts.

[card]Bow of Nylea[/card]

I think this card is the best card in my sideboard. Every ability on the card is good. The graveyard one, although you use it the least, can be very strong. It lets you bottom some strong cards from your graveyard, and with your large amount of fetch lands, you can shuffle and redistribute your used powerful spells back into your deck.

[card]Deflecting Palm[/card]

If you expect to get hit with a lot of damage from a single source, play this card. Creatures holding [card]Cranial Plating[/card], Tron’s creatures, Bogles, Ascendancy Combo (choose the creature, and yes, you can choose Caryatid) are great sources for this card to choose. Palm also has bonus points versus Burn, where it basically acts as an extra [card]Lightning Helix[/card].

To Begin, Let’s Start Off With UR Delver

UR Delver is a very interesting matchup that I feel lands in the favor of Zoo 60 percent of the time. The main goal for Delver is to play a tempo game versus you. To counter that, you should try to kill every creature they play on sight and try to go wide with your threats. An uncontested creature from them can spell the end for you, but as long as you have two or three blockers and some of your 12 removal options, you should be fine.

Sideboard out: 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card], 3 [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]

Sideboard in: 2 [card]Choke[/card], 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card], 2 [card]Spellskite[/card], 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card]

Out of their sideboard, I would expect counterspells and maybe combust for Knights.

Pro tip: [card]Insectile Aberation[/card] has a converted mana cost (CMC) of 0, and therefore will die along with [card]Young Pyromancer[/card] tokens to [card]Engineered Explosives[/card].

Next Up At Bat: Burn

[Deck Title=Burn]
[Creatures]
4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skullcrack
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Treasure Cruise
2 Shard Volley
2 Searing Blaze
[/Spells]
[Lands]
5 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Arid Mesa
2 Steam Vents
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Destructive Revelry
4 Dragon’s Claw
2 Searing Blood
2 Smash to Smithereens
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

Burn is one of your rougher matchups, and can be a deterrent to playing Zoo, but after you learn the matchup, it isn’t that bad. I would consider it 45 percent pre-board, and post-board it is completely draw dependent on your end.

In game one of each match, once you find out your opponent is playing Burn, you want to try not to kill yourself with your lands. Basic lands are your best friends, making [card]Windswept Heath[/card] your best fetch. Every single creature that they play is worth killing with any removal spell you have, so don’t be picky. [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card], [card]Lighting Helix[/card], and [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card] are how you stay alive in game one, so please try your best not to get [card]Skullcrack[/card]ed.

Sideboard out: 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card], 2 [card]Path to Exile[/card]

Sideboard in: 2 [card]Batterskull[/card], 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card], 1 [card]Deflecting Palm[/card], 2 [card]Spellskite[/card]

Just like your plan versus Delver, you are going to try to stonewall their aggressive creatures. Spellskite helps block the aggressive starts and subtracts one damage from most burn spells (except when coupled with Hierarch and you are able to pay the blue mana to activate its ability). [card]Deflecting Palm[/card] is basically another Lightning Helix in this matchup—it is better than your other cards so you play it. [card]Batterskull[/card] and [card]Bow of Nylea[/card], if unanswered, basically read, “You win the game.”

Pro Tip: Although you board them out for games two and three, you should remember that Qasali Pridemage kills [card]Eidolon of the Great Revel[/card].

Affinity for Affinity

[deck title=Affinity]
[Creatures]
2 Etched Champion
2 Master of Etherium
2 Memnite
3 Steel Overseer
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Vault Skirge
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Cranial Plating
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
3 Ensoul Artifact
3 Galvanic Blast
[/spells]
[Lands]
1 Island
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Glimmervoid
4 Inkmoth Nexus
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Thoughtseize
1 Whipflare
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Gut Shot
1 Dismember
1 Nature’s Claim
1 Blood Moon
2 Spellskite
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Torpor Orb
1 Etched Champion
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Affinity is a race, and one you are primed to lose. Disruption and killing all of their threats is key to winning this matchup. [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card] is a three-mana removal spell that sometimes sits around to block, but if your board is full of them, you are doing something wrong. One-for-one removal on key threats and two-for-oneing your opponents when they use [card]Ensoul Artifact[/card] are your best ways to get any semblance of card advantage. [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] is a champ and helps you stick a big threat while you try not to die.

Sideboard out: 2 [card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card], 2 [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card], 1 [card]Noble Hierarch[/card]

Sideboard in: 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card], 2 [card]Ancient Grduge[/card], 1 [card]Deflecting Palm[/card]

Engineered Explosives and Ancient Grudge are how you get your card advantage here. The same thing is true here as in the previous matchups: you just try not to die until you can close out the game. Kill everything on sight, and if they crack in with a [card]Cranial Plating[/card] or even just an Ensouled Artifact, throw it back at their face.

Pro tip: Be mindful of [card]Arcbound Ravager[/card]. You can use removal to coax them into going all in on a creature if you have another removal spell to kill its target. Never let a [card]Steel Overseer[/card] untap or you will lose the game.

Brainstorm Brewery is a Great Place for Merfolk

[deck title=Merfolk]
[creatures]
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Lord of Atlantis
1 Phantasmal Image
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
3 Master of waves
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Aether Vial
4 Vapor Snag
2 Spell Pierce
4 Spreading Seas
[/spells]
[lands]
14 Island
4 Mutavault
2 Cavern of souls
[/lands]
[sideboard]
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
4 Gut Shot
2 Spellskite
2 Steel Sabotage
2 Swan Song
3 Tidebinder Mage
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Merfolk is a matchup that is never close. If you let them develop a board, you can plan on getting blown out, while if you keep their board clear and don’t let them establish three lords, you should be fine. I don’t have a percentage for this matchup because it is so draw-dependent, but I feel favored.

Sideboard out: 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card]

Sideboard in: 2 [card]Choke[/card], 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card]

Post-board, you really just want to Choke them out or decimate their board with Explosives, but otherwise play the same as game one. If they are on a UW build rather than a mono U build you can bring in Blood Moon to decimate them. 

Bogles, AKA Your Worst Nightmare

[deck title=Bogles]
[Creatures]
4 Slippery Bogle
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Kor Spiritdancer
[/creatures]
[Spells]
2 Path to Exile
4 Spider Umbra
4 Rancor
4 Ethereal Armor
3 Hyena Umbra
1 Spirit Link
3 Spirit Mantle
4 Daybreak Coronet
2 Unflinching Courage
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
3 Sunpetal Grove
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Wooded Foothills
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Supression Field
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Torpor Orb
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Rest in peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Nature’s Claim
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

You have four cards to interact with this deck, period. Prepare for a beating and losing game one. I’d call it a 10-percent chance to live past turn five in game one.

Sideboard out: 2 [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card], 2 [card]Lightning Helix[/card], 4 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]

Sideboard in: 2 [card]Spellskite[/card], 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card], 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 1 [card]Deflecting Palm[/card]

I leave [card]Path to Exile[/card] in for games two and three over [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] because it gives me a way to deal with [card]Kor Spiritdancer[/card], but I think they are interchangeable if you would rather burn faces.  Your game plan post-board is to stick an early [card]Spellskite[/card] to steal their enchantments or to [card]Blood Moon[/card] them out of the game ASAP. It doesn’t matter if you lock yourself out, either—just hope you draw basics before them. Explosives is your reset switch on one or two, usually to try and rip apart their Voltron. Good luck, because you will need it.

Pro tip: Funerals and coffins are a waste of money, just get cremated because there wont be anything besides a bloody pulp to see at a viewing.

Little Zoo: It Ain’t No Big Zoo

[Deck Title=Little Zoo]
[Creatures]
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Helix
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Arid Mesa
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Temple Garden
2 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Plains
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Molten Rain
2 Wear//Tear
1 Magma Spray
2 Boros Charm
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Stony Silence
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Historically, Big Zoo was built to prey upon Little Zoo, and that is what you do. I played this exact matchup at SCG Worcester in the quarterfinals and got a quick 2-0 victory. As long as you don’t get blown out by a [card]Ghor-Clan Rampager[/card], you should be able to win game one off of having more [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]s.

Sideboard out: 4 [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card], 4 [card]Noble Hierarch[/card]

Sideboard in: 3 [card]Blood Moon[/card], 2 [card]Batterskull[/card], 1 [card]Bow of Nylea[/card], 2 [card]Engineered Explosives[/card]

In games two and three, you should just kill them. Sweep their board and play stronger and more resilient threats until they die. Thrun is a card they have a lot of trouble with, and locking them out with a Blood Moon is just GG.

Now You Know

Thank you all for reading. I’ll be back soon with another installment, where I will talk about sideboarding against more midrange and control-oriented decks. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I will try to get to them as soon as I can.

Welcome to the Jungle!

Hello, everybody! I’m back, but this time, instead of a tournament report, I am here to teach you how to play Big Zoo in Modern.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg]

It All Started Here

To give you all a background of where this deck came from, I’ll give you my background as a player. I was introduced to Magic: The Gathering by two of my teachers in my sophomore year of high school. This was when I was going through a very bad, depression-filled period of my life. Magic gave me an outlet where I could have fun showcasing my creativity in my own style.

From the beginning, I was trying to find a way to play insanely large creatures while still playing silver-bullet cards to help me beat my friends. A memory that I now look back on fondly was when a friend built a deck based around [card]High Tide[/card] and the “free” mechanic featured on blue cards in Urza’s Saga block. I eventually got sick and tired of the deck and played a deck with four copies of each of [card]Red Elemental Blast[/card], [card]Pyroblast[/card], and [card]Choke[/card], along with every creature in the deck having protection from blue. Unbeknownst to me, this was my first foray into what is now my favorite part of Magic: metagaming.

The summer of 2013 is when I finally took the plunge into competitive Magic. I had seen Brian Kibler’s Hate Bears decklist from Worlds earlier that summer and I had fallen in love with it. I traded every card I owned that was worth any money, and by September, I had GW Hate Bears built and was ready to take on Modern. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing at first, but in time, I learned how to properly tune my main deck and sideboard to help me maximize my matchups. I started to finally make the top eight of a bunch of Grand Prix Trials in preparation for Grand Prix Richmond.

A Fateful Meeting

In February 2014, I was introduced to my friend [card]Wild Nacatl[/card] right when she got back from her long vacation. We hit it off pretty quickly. I ended up lucking into a GPT win for Richmond at the last possible moment with a crude Zoo list, a lot of luck, and the help of my friend Barrett running blocker for me and giving me a quarterfinals concession. On Thursday, March 6, 2014, the day before I had to drive down to my first Grand Prix ever, I finalized my decklist, with the help of  some friends and the best players in my area.

[Deck title=Old Zoo*]
[Creatures]
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Loxodon Smiter
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
1 Naya Charm
2 Ajani Vengeant
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Arid Mesa
2 Stomping Grounds
2 Temple Garden
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Forest
2 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Kessig Wolf Run
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Batterskull
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Rule of Law
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Stony Silence
2 Combust
2 Spellskite
2 Engineered Explosives
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

*This list is so bad and so out of date. You can read my report that I wrote up for Reddit here

After losing my first two rounds of the tournament, I was 2-2 and looking at elimination. Long story short, I ended up closing out the tournament with a 9-1-1 record, finishing at 11-3-1 and in 75th place. I had fallen in love with my deck and I was hooked on Zoo.

Since Richmond, I have played different iterations of Zoo in tournaments at least once a week in a mix of small local affairs, Star City Games IQs, and whatever other Modern tournaments I could find within a reasonable driving distance (80 to 120 miles in my case).

Now for the Reason You Came Here

With how the Modern metagame has shifted since Khans of Tarkir, I feel that my deck is no longer my rogue pet deck and is poised to make a real dent in the format. Now let’s break it down.

[deck title=Current Zoo]
[Creatures]
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
2 Ajani Vengeant
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
4 Arid Mesa
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Forest
2 Plains
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Spellskite
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

I have made one change since SCG Worcester: I replaced [card]Grafdigger’s Cage[/card] with [card]Spellskite[/card].

[card]Noble Hierarch[/card]

Noble Hierarch is my mana dork of choice for this deck. Although it doesn’t cover all of your colors, it can help power out turn-two Knights and turn-three Thrun or Ajani. Its exalted triggers are fantastic for helping win a Tarmogoyf battle, and when facing down an [card]Ensnaring Bridge[/card], she can crawl under and still get in damage. Although for budgetary reasons you may play [card]Birds of Paradise[/card] over Hierarch, the power-level dropoff is insane.

[card]Wild Nacatl[/card]

What more could you ask for from only one green mana? Wild Nacatl is some of the best early pressure in the Modern format and can win games by itself. Nacatl is an integral part of the deck’s early game and is still a solid top deck late in the game when you want a threat.

[card]Tarmogoyf[/card]

This is #bigdumbidiot, also known as the greatest creature ever printed. It is a threat at every point in the game, and if you need me to explain how good Tarmogoyf is to you, then you shouldn’t be playing Modern.

[card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]

This little Ooze doesn’t stay little for long. I have found this card alone can make bad matchups winnable. Against [card]Living End[/card], which is one of Zoo’s worst matchups, an early Scavenging Ooze can neuter them. In the BGx matchup, it boils down to who is able to have their Ooze stick around the longest. Being relevant versus [card]Kitchen Finks[/card] is also just value.

[card]Qasali Pridemage[/card]

This card is fantastic! Because [card]Splinter Twin[/card], [card]Birthing Pod[/card], and Affinity decks still run around in Modern, you need four of this cat. The synergy of him killing himself and Scavenging Ooze eating him is fantastic and provides a lot of the disruption you need in the format so you can hang around long enough to kill your opponents. He is my most sideboarded-out card, although when he is relevant, all four need to stick around.

[card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card]

Brian Kibler has great taste in cards, and his signature covers the text box of my Knights, annoying my opponents who basically never remember its abilities (yes, of course, I explain it and offer to call a judge for oracle text). This deck of mine is built around Knight and making her huge. We will address my mana base further down, but basically, she is the reason I run every single land in my deck. A beatstick, combat trick, and mana accelerant all rolled into one, I feel Knight is the best card in the deck.

[card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card]

At GP Worcester, I got beat badly by a Jund deck packing main-deck Thrun. I figured if you can’t beat them, join them, so for awhile I replaced one of my [card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/card]s. As BGx died and Delver started to take over, I realized Thrun was a near unbeatable threat as long as you had the mana to regenerate. He is now no longer a refugee of Mirrodin and has found a home.

[card]Lightning Bolt[/card]

Lightning Bolt is the premier removal spell in Modern. It is quite rare to find a red deck in the format that isn’t packing at least three or four somewhere in its 75. Always bolt the bird or other mana dork that they play in the early game, and close the game out by hitting their face.

[card]Lightning Helix[/card]

Lightning Helix in this list is just Bolts five and six, with an obvious upside versus Burn, Delver, and other aggressive strategies.

[card]Path to Exile[/card]

What Lightning Bolt is to red, Path to Exile is to white. Path is a card that should be saved to deal with troublesome creatures, like anything with four or more toughness that can’t be killed in combat.

[card]Ajani Vengeant[/card]

Like most of this deck, Ajani is a pet card of mine. Because this deck has very little card advantage, I like running two to four planeswalkers in each of my builds. I was running [card]Chandra, Pyromaster[/card] for most of the summer, but with the metagame change and how many two-or-more-toughness creatures are running around, I felt swapping her for Ajani would be stronger. Since most Delver and Burn decks are light on mana, you can sometimes drop him and immediately mana screw them, or just use him as a four-mana [card]Lightning Helix[/card] that they need to waste an attack step on killing. He is very good right now and will be as long as blue decks are popular.

Mana Base Time

[card]Wooded Foothills[/card]

[card]Windswept Heath[/card]

[card]Arid Mesa[/card]

[card]Stomping Ground[/card]

[card]Temple Garden[/card]

[card]Sacred Foundry[/card]

[card]Forest[/card]

[card]Plains[/card]

[card]Kessig Wolf Run[/card]

[card]Horizon Canopy[/card]

I don’t feel like I need to do a card-by-card breakdown here, as it should be pretty easy to understand. I play [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card], and because of that, I play 12 fetch lands. The basic lands that I play are only Forests and Plains. This helps not only provide more fodder for Knight to sacrifice, but it also helps me play around or with [card]Blood Moon[/card] post sideboarding. [card]Kessig Wolf Run[/card] is a premium combat trick and [card]Horizon Canopy[/card] is for when you need an extra card to get back in the game. Learning all of the tricks with Knight is the quickest way to master the deck.

Next week, we’ll cover sideboarding. Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions or comments!

Vengeance Shall Be Mine (in the Form of Cooperating with an Investigation): Playing Trevor Humphries in a Top Eight Last Weekend

This past week has been a whirlwind of good luck and bad fortune all tied into one.

On Saturday morning around 1:00 a.m., I was in a car accident driving my friend Barrett home from a night of Magic at Stomping Grounds in Hatboro, Pennsylvania (yes, that was a shameless plug for a good store). We both walked away from the hunk of metal scrap that used to be my car alive and relatively uninjured but I spent the week leading up to SCG Worcester talking to lawyers and insurance agents and I was really looking forward to a stress-free day of Magic.

My sister lent me her car so I could drive back to Hampshire College and still be able to drive around to work and, most importantly, Magic tournaments.

I woke up at 6 a.m. on the 19th, excited to spend the day playing Magic with my friend Leandro Taveras and hang out with everybody’s favorite person, SCG NJ Open winner Kevin Jones. After an hour and forty-five minutes of driving, including getting lost in Worcester, I was able to find parking where I was subsequently gouged for $20 cash. I only had $40 cash in my wallet and so I was short $10 for entry to the tournament, but luckily, Leandro saved my day and lent me the money. After buying in to the tournament I checked a post I had made on Facebook asking my friends what my 15th sideboard card should be.

Screen shot 2014-10-20 at 10.29.31 PM

I went with Brett’s suggestion and it almost cost me big time! I had jammed a bunch of change in my pocket to pay for vending machines, but I decided Magic cards would be a much better use of the money. I walked up to the counter, placed my black wallet on the black counter, and dug around for the $2.50 to pay for a [card]Deflecting Palm[/card]. In my haste to add Deflecting Palm to my sideboard, I forgot my wallet on the counter. A couple minutes later I heard my name over the loud speaker calling me to the stage and someone had returned my wallet with the $1 and my debit cards/bank info all intact. I walked over to Leandro and I excitedly told him this was going to be a lucky day.

After making fun of Kevin Jones for registering his Legacy decklist at basically the last minute as a judge impatiently waited next to him, I was off to play Modern.

[deck title=My List]
[Creatures]
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
[/creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
2 Ajani Vengeant
[/planeswalkers]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
[/spells]
[Lands]
2 Forest
2 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Bow of Nylea
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Round 1: William Grogan, UR Delver

This was a quick round and made me feel quite confident in myself because the field was majority UR Delver. I believe I took game one of this matchup and dropped game two only to win game three in convincing fashion.

1-0

Round 2: Tanner Hall, UR Delver

Tanner outplayed me this round and crushed me with [card]Monastery Swiftspear[/card]. Game one, he had a triple Swiftspear opening and destroyed me before I put up much resistance. Game two, I was able to muck up the ground and stop his pressure to take a solid win. Game three, I misplayed by not bolting a Swiftspear turn one and I lost the match because of it. 1-1

Round 3: Joseph Chagnon, R/u Cruise Burn

The whole day was moving at such a whirlwind pace that I don’t remember much from this match except our game three. I was at seven life and he was at 12. I passed the turn and he played [card]Searing Blood[/card] on my [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] which I shrugged off and pointed out that nothing would happen. Unfortunately, I forgot to respond with my [card]Lighting Helix[/card] to go up to 10 life. He drew for turn and did nothing, so I cast Helix into a [card]Skullcrack[/card] on his end step. I untapped and attacked with two [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]s and a 6/6 [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card], stealing the match from under his nose.

2-1

Round 4: Karl Delatorre, Melira Pod

Game one, I was able to stick an early Thrun and protect him from my opponent’s Shriekmaws until I landed some big creatures to punch through to kill him. Game two, I was able to stick an early [card]Bow of Nylea[/card] followed by Thrun to make a humongous threat to beat down with. After my opponent podded a [card]Kitchen Finks[/card] into a [card]Siege Rhino[/card], I played two [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]s and he conceded.

3-1

Round 5: Joshua Hoppenbrouwer, Affinty

Somehow I beat Affinty two games in a row on the draw… I don’t know how.

I don’t remember which game was which, but I know one game was won with a huge [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] and tons of removal, while the other game was won with two huge Knights. The games felt very close and I should have lost game two, but I got lucky and squeaked it out.

4-1

Round 6 Leandro Taveras, Scapeshift

Getting paired against a good friend in a tournament, especially in a do or die situation, can be stressful. Leandro and I had been discussing strategy and card choices leading up to the tournament and we both knew that my matchup, especially post board, was incredibly favored against him. Going into the round, I was in 6th place at 4-1 with 64.8-percent breakers while Leandro was in 11th place at 4-1 with breakers somewhere around 50 percent. Leandro asked me for an intentional draw and after we discussed it, we agreed that if we were 1-1 going into game three we would intentionally draw to both try to get into win-and-in situations to meet up in the top eight later on.

Game one, I was able to come out of the box quickly and Leandro got stuck on only blue and red mana with multiple ramp spells and [card]Scapeshift[/card] in hand. Game two, I came out much slower off of a mulligan and he was able to [card]Cryptic Command[/card] when I tried to cast [card]Blood Moon[/card], only to follow up with an 8th land and [card]Scapeshift[/card] to end the game.

Since we were 1-1, we drew game three so we wouldn’t completely knock each other out of contention.

4-1-1

Round 7: Zachery Erickson, Affinity

I was paired down this round, with my opponent on 12 points while I was on 13. I told him that the way the standings looked, not a single 15-pointer (5-2 record) would make it into the top eight, and I asked him to concede. This is probably my least favorite question in Magic to ask or be asked, and I don’t really know if it is right or wrong to do so. On one hand, my opponent could give me a top eight berth, but on the other hand, he still had the difference between $50 and $100 hanging in the balance. I don’t know if my question was right or wrong but all I know is that he told me he was going to make me sweat, so sweat I did. These were the standings after round six:

Screen shot 2014-10-20 at 11.56.50 PM

In game one, I was utterly demolished. I put up no fight and got crushed. I was starting to stress and I could feel my anxiety building up. I had put myself on this bubble and I was not ready for it to burst out from under me!

Game two, I looked at an opening hand of three [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card], one [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card], one [card]Lighting Helix[/card], a [card]Wooded Foothills[/card], and a Forest. I think about it for a little while and decide to keep. On turn one, I had to fetch for a [card]Temple Garden[/card] so I could play my Pridemages out before (hopefully) stabilizing with [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]. He kept me pinned pretty tight but I drew into a red source and [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] when I needed it most to crash through and win the game.

Game three was incredibly tight. He committed some early pressure with an ensouled [card]Ghostfire Blade[/card] but I was able to use Pridemage to take it away. I was able to topdeck an [card]Ancient Grudge[/card] and used a [card]Path to Exile[/card] to remove two [card]Arcbound Ravager[/card]s and an [card]Ornithopter[/card] and finally push through the lethal damage.

I wouldn’t say I celebrated that victory as hard as Ari Lax or Lee Shi Tian, but there was a lot of jumping around and fist pumping until the sweat settled in. I found Leandro and unfortunately saw him lose his match to Storm because he couldn’t find a Scapeshift. I’m not sure he would have made it anyway, but it always sucks when a friend loses. I went over to the pairings board and began to sweat until final standings would be posted.

When I saw a judge carrying the green paper that contained my future, I ran to it to see if I made the cut. As I looked up at the sheet, I heard, “In eighth place: Max Perlmutter!” I went nuts. This was the SCG IQ version of Owen Turtenwald making the top eight of PT M15. I jumped for joy and ran back into the main hall excited to be in…but the sweat wasn’t over. There had been a mishap with the results and some placement had been in contention and the word was it might affect the top eight. A kind judge could see my anxiety and came over to reassure me that I should be fine. I don’t know who you were, but thank you for that.

Screen shot 2014-10-21 at 12.17.50 AM

I made it by 1.4 percent, but I was in!

Quarterfinals: Frederic Boileau, Little Zoo

I know I should pay attention to the top tables when I am doing well, but I completely overlooked it this time and had no idea what deck my opponent was on. I got a little anxious when I saw him drop [card]Horizon Canopy[/card] on turn one, fearing my worst matchup (Boggles) only to erupt into smiles and laughter when he dropped [card]Wild Nacatl[/card]. I quickly bolted it and countered his follow up ‘Goyf with one of my own. Soon I had him down to one life and was able to push the final damage through thanks to [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] and [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card].

Our match ended very soon after when I was able to drop a turn-three [card]Blood Moon[/card] into turn-four [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card] to kill his Nacatl. I followed up with turn-five [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card], into turn-six [card]Batterskull[/card]. He extended his hand and wished me luck in the remainder of the top eight. Unfortunately for me, luck cannot beat a cheater.

The Part of the Article You’ve All Been Waiting For

This is where I diverge from a regular tournament report. I was paired against a man who was seemingly unknown, at least to me, going into this weekend—but is now sitting in infamy along with names like Alex Bertoncini and Mike Long. I 100-percent believe that Trevor Humphries cheated in both the top eight of the Standard Open and against me in the top four of the Modern Premier IQ.

In our first game of the semifinals, I had a decent opening after a mulligan and then flooded out as he comboed with [card]Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker[/card] and [card]Restoration Angel[/card]. After our first game, the two judges sitting next to us stepped away to talk. Upon returning, they pulled Trevor aside and told him his shuffling looked fishy and not to shuffle like that. I played a Blood Moon in our second game and it quickly led to a concession. Our third game is where the evidence in my mind truly lines up.

 

In the video posted here, you can clearly watch Trevor stacking his opponents deck and reddit user u/Divisionbyzorro broke it down very clearly.

“This is one of the more obvious cheats we’ve seen on camera in a long time, but I feel like breaking it down anyway. Starting from the 1:00 mark, with repeated pauses and unpauses, you can observe the following:

  • He’s shuffling the deck “underhanded” (for lack of a better term) which means that the cards are clearly visible from above. Normally when I shuffle an opponents deck, I do it “overhanded,” where my hands block the view of the deck.
  • His eyes are constantly flicking down to look at the deck as he shuffles. This is particularly concerning because of the aforementioned shuffling style. I would understand a player wanting to watch what their hands are doing if they’re not confident in their shuffles, but he’s clearly quite adept at using his hands to shuffle. (Personally, when I shuffle, I look away from the deck, off into space.)
  • He has two shuffling patterns (watch this very closely). The first is a traditional “mash,” which he does underhanded. He picks up part of the deck, and “mashes” it into the rest of the deck. He then fans out the deck slightly to let the cards fall back into place. Critically, this lets you see how well the deck is actually being shuffled. You can see that the cards at the top of the deck are “stuck” together each time he does this, meaning they’re staying on top.
  • The second shuffling pattern is the most damning. A few times (usually right after glancing down at the deck), he switches it up and uses his right thumb to push the card at the bottom of the deck to the top. I don’t want to prematurely pitchfork here, but an honest person would never do this. There’s no reason to, as part of your natural shuffling routine, push one card from the bottom (the part of the deck that you could see, deliberately or accidentally) to the top for any honest reason.

He’s clearly very, very practiced at this. I have no evidence for anything other than the taped match we have here, but it would shock me if he hasn’t been doing this for a very long time and screwing over numerous opponents.

Why does he get away with it? He seems nice. He’s a good-looking man. He has a powerful presence about him as well. Even if something “feels” wrong, his stature is intimidating. And you have to be watching your deck carefully to see what he’s doing when you don’t have an overhead angle.

The last statement truly hits home. Trevor is an intimidating person. I was intimidated and he used this to his advantage. I would not consider myself timid, but I am not an overly aggressive person. Magic is a hobby to me and it just so happens to be one I am somewhat good at. I like to spend my games having a fun conversation with my opponents while playing the game I love dearly. Not only is Trevor intimidating, but he is also quite rude to play against. His trash talking definitely goes too far and I felt like I needed to keep up and dish some back to keep my head in the game. In hindsight, I should have asked the two judges next to us for assistance. However, when I started to dish it back, I feel as if I consented to the verbal abuse.

The third game of our match, his cheats worked. I was distracted and intimidated by the verbal abuse he would spit out and I was too trusting in him. I like to believe there is good in most people and I don’t like feeling suspicious of someone that I don’t know or know the reputation of—and this played right into his trap.

I mulliganed to five cards, keeping four fetch lands and a [card]Wild Nacatl[/card].Turn one, I drew a land and fetched a [card]Stomping Ground[/card] to play [card]Wild Nacatl[/card] and passed. Turn two, I dreww another land. I proceeded to fetch and attack for three. Turn three, I drew another land and played a fetch. At the end of his turn, I cracked it, only to be greeted by a land off the top again. I repeated this process again and am gifted another land off the top. I drew one more land on turn five and played it. I passed the turn with five lands in play with a [card]Wild Nacatl[/card] and four more lands in hand staring down a packed board from him. Turn five, I had not played a fetch land and drew my first nonland card of the game: [card]Grafdigger’s Cage[/card]. I looked at my hand and the board and conceded.

Ouch

Let’s dig deeper. I played 22 lands in my deck.

12 Fetch lands

4 Shock lands

4 Basic lands

2 Utility lands.

With four fetches, five lands in play, and four more in my hand, I saw 13 of my 22 lands in this game. After the game I spoke to Kevin Jones who was watching me play and we chalked it up to a good run ended by bad luck. After looking at the footage of Trevor’s other matches and his shuffling, I feel like I can comfortably accuse him of cheating.

I have spoken briefly and sent what I would consider a rushed and hurried statement to both Jared Sylva and Eric Shukan (who is an L3 Judge and leader of the Investigations Committee in the judge program). I will not divulge what they said to me in this public of a fashion in case it has any affect on their current investigation. I have also spoken to a few other players who were his opponents that weekend and in the past, but again, I do not feel comfortable divulging what they said in private to me on such a public forum. All I can say is similar issues with land flood/screw were frequent.

I would like to thank my friends Leandro Taveras, Kellen Pastore, Chris Tartamella, and Barrett Goss for pointing out the Reddit thread that alerted me to this almost immediately after it happened. It means a lot to me, so thank you again, guys. You can find the thread here.

Now we get to the fun part: Zoo is back on the map!

I feel that with how the current metagame of Modern is playing out, Zoo feels well positioned. Unless I find through testing that Little Zoo is stronger against the field, I will remain on Big Zoo.

[deck title=My List, Azooni]
[Creatures]
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
[/creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
2 Ajani Vengeant
[/planeswalkers]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
[/spells]
[Lands]
2 Forest
2 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Bow of Nylea
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

 

[deck title=Frederic Boileau’s List]
[Creatures]
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
[/creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
[/lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stony Silence
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Boros Charm
1 Magma Spray
2 Wear // Tear
3 Molten Rain
[/card]
[/deck]

I see a few key differences between these builds. Frederic is trying to go under and beat people with [card]Steppe Lynx[/card] and Ghor-Clan plus burn spells for a quick win, whereas my build tries to smash through you. I think both builds are great jumping-in points for any new Zoo players. I feel that his deck has a better matchup pre-board against UR Delver, while my deck is stronger post-board. I think Frederic’s build also has the ability to set the tempo and be the beatdown versus Affinity, where with a Big Zoo build you have to try and stabilize then turn the corner before you can really go for a kill shot. I think my deck has a stronger matchup when we need to go big and midrange versus [card]Birthing Pod[/card] decks, but I don’t know where they will fall in the current metagame yet.

I had not been intending to write an article this weekend, but I feel that with how this week played out, I wanted to get my side of the story out there. Hopefully I can come back soon and give a more in-depth analysis on Zoo in the current metagame—and I will if time and my college course schedule allow me.

Thank you for reading,

Max Perlmutter