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On January 15 2015 23:44 mr_tolkien wrote:Show nested quote +On January 10 2015 14:46 deth2munkies wrote:
Modern PPTQ on Sunday. Thinking of playing. Only Modern deck I currently fully own is Living End. What think ya'll for specific build for this metagame? I think Living End is not very good in the current meta. Delver has pressure + counters to be annoying and if you don't land a very fast Living End + win the die roll I think you have a pretty poor match-up. Combo decks that aren't focused on developing a board just wreck you (Scapeshift, Ascendancy Combo, Bloom Titan). Even Burn is a hard match-up. If you really want to play it, I'd advise to play main deck Faerie Macabre to counter-act Cruises, Snaps, and Stitchers, and a few Simian Spirit Guides to really have possible explosive starts. Fulmi will still be your best card as usual and the reason to play the deck, especially with Delver running around playing only ~9 "real" lands. (Edit : didn't realize "next sunday" was already a few days ago I think. Did you fare well with the deck ?) On another note, Tasigur is nuts. Grixis Delver is now a very viable option and I feel it might be the best version of the deck moving forward.
0-2 drop.
R1 was against Twin, I won G1 really easily because he went for the T3 Exarch into T4 Twin and I just went off in response. G2 he just never tapped mana and went off when we both had 8 lands in play with 2 counters up and there's just nothing I can do about that. G3 I mulled to 5 with 4 land cycler, cycled once and drew nothing but land and Demonic Dreads till he combo'd me on T4.
R2 was Scapeshift. G1 I fizzled his combo with Beast Within and hardcast a bunch of giant monsters, but he had all 4 of his Cryptics to bounce and tap my team for long enough to just burn me out with land drops anyway. He was at 1 life though 
G2 I misplayed because I didn't consider Swan Song as a possible counter he could have and tried to go off into 1 open mana with enough to pay for Spell Pierce. I could have played it differently and had 2 chances to go off (I Violent Outbursted EoT when I could have DD'd on my turn then Violent Outbursted to go off twice in response to a counter), but I drew the last Living End out of the deck that turn so the DD in hand was useless. I used Gnaw to the Bone to get to 36 life, but he just killed me with T9 Scapeshift anyway.
I think the deck is fine, tbh, but is prone to bad draws, especially when you draw the Living Ends. I just had bad luck combined with a couple little misplays.
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On January 16 2015 00:20 deth2munkies wrote:Show nested quote +On January 15 2015 23:44 mr_tolkien wrote:On January 10 2015 14:46 deth2munkies wrote:
Modern PPTQ on Sunday. Thinking of playing. Only Modern deck I currently fully own is Living End. What think ya'll for specific build for this metagame? I think Living End is not very good in the current meta. Delver has pressure + counters to be annoying and if you don't land a very fast Living End + win the die roll I think you have a pretty poor match-up. Combo decks that aren't focused on developing a board just wreck you (Scapeshift, Ascendancy Combo, Bloom Titan). Even Burn is a hard match-up. If you really want to play it, I'd advise to play main deck Faerie Macabre to counter-act Cruises, Snaps, and Stitchers, and a few Simian Spirit Guides to really have possible explosive starts. Fulmi will still be your best card as usual and the reason to play the deck, especially with Delver running around playing only ~9 "real" lands. (Edit : didn't realize "next sunday" was already a few days ago I think. Did you fare well with the deck ?) On another note, Tasigur is nuts. Grixis Delver is now a very viable option and I feel it might be the best version of the deck moving forward. 0-2 drop. R1 was against Twin, I won G1 really easily because he went for the T3 Exarch into T4 Twin and I just went off in response. G2 he just never tapped mana and went off when we both had 8 lands in play with 2 counters up and there's just nothing I can do about that. G3 I mulled to 5 with 4 land cycler, cycled once and drew nothing but land and Demonic Dreads till he combo'd me on T4. R2 was Scapeshift. G1 I fizzled his combo with Beast Within and hardcast a bunch of giant monsters, but he had all 4 of his Cryptics to bounce and tap my team for long enough to just burn me out with land drops anyway. He was at 1 life though G2 I misplayed because I didn't consider Swan Song as a possible counter he could have and tried to go off into 1 open mana with enough to pay for Spell Pierce. I could have played it differently and had 2 chances to go off (I Violent Outbursted EoT when I could have DD'd on my turn then Violent Outbursted to go off twice in response to a counter), but I drew the last Living End out of the deck that turn so the DD in hand was useless. I used Gnaw to the Bone to get to 36 life, but he just killed me with T9 Scapeshift anyway. I think the deck is fine, tbh, but is prone to bad draws, especially when you draw the Living Ends. I just had bad luck combined with a couple little misplays.
Well for the G2 against Twin there's something you could do about that, and that's fighting on mana. That's the strong point of Living End against decks like Twin, between Fulmi and Beast Within you can try to get ahead on mana to land a cascade spell. You can also play Ricochet trap to fight counters. A T3 Fulmi into a T4 cascade spell with Ricochet backup usually does the trick.
For Scapeshift well Swan Song is a pretty popular side card. You should never ever ever ever have gnaw in your deck against Scapeshift though, it's just cheesy and even though it might steal you a game here and there it's a bad choice against a capable opponent (I agree your opponent wasn't one, seeing how he lost game 1...). Once more, your best card here is Fulmi.
You didn't have bad luck from what you're telling. Living End is the deck with the fewest bad draws in the format as it plays so many cantrips + 8 tutors for its actual important card. As I told you, the problem is that it's slow and doesn't interact properly with what matters currently.
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On January 16 2015 01:31 mr_tolkien wrote:Show nested quote +On January 16 2015 00:20 deth2munkies wrote:On January 15 2015 23:44 mr_tolkien wrote:On January 10 2015 14:46 deth2munkies wrote:
Modern PPTQ on Sunday. Thinking of playing. Only Modern deck I currently fully own is Living End. What think ya'll for specific build for this metagame? I think Living End is not very good in the current meta. Delver has pressure + counters to be annoying and if you don't land a very fast Living End + win the die roll I think you have a pretty poor match-up. Combo decks that aren't focused on developing a board just wreck you (Scapeshift, Ascendancy Combo, Bloom Titan). Even Burn is a hard match-up. If you really want to play it, I'd advise to play main deck Faerie Macabre to counter-act Cruises, Snaps, and Stitchers, and a few Simian Spirit Guides to really have possible explosive starts. Fulmi will still be your best card as usual and the reason to play the deck, especially with Delver running around playing only ~9 "real" lands. (Edit : didn't realize "next sunday" was already a few days ago I think. Did you fare well with the deck ?) On another note, Tasigur is nuts. Grixis Delver is now a very viable option and I feel it might be the best version of the deck moving forward. 0-2 drop. R1 was against Twin, I won G1 really easily because he went for the T3 Exarch into T4 Twin and I just went off in response. G2 he just never tapped mana and went off when we both had 8 lands in play with 2 counters up and there's just nothing I can do about that. G3 I mulled to 5 with 4 land cycler, cycled once and drew nothing but land and Demonic Dreads till he combo'd me on T4. R2 was Scapeshift. G1 I fizzled his combo with Beast Within and hardcast a bunch of giant monsters, but he had all 4 of his Cryptics to bounce and tap my team for long enough to just burn me out with land drops anyway. He was at 1 life though G2 I misplayed because I didn't consider Swan Song as a possible counter he could have and tried to go off into 1 open mana with enough to pay for Spell Pierce. I could have played it differently and had 2 chances to go off (I Violent Outbursted EoT when I could have DD'd on my turn then Violent Outbursted to go off twice in response to a counter), but I drew the last Living End out of the deck that turn so the DD in hand was useless. I used Gnaw to the Bone to get to 36 life, but he just killed me with T9 Scapeshift anyway. I think the deck is fine, tbh, but is prone to bad draws, especially when you draw the Living Ends. I just had bad luck combined with a couple little misplays. Well for the G2 against Twin there's something you could do about that, and that's fighting on mana. That's the strong point of Living End against decks like Twin, between Fulmi and Beast Within you can try to get ahead on mana to land a cascade spell. You can also play Ricochet trap to fight counters. A T3 Fulmi into a T4 cascade spell with Ricochet backup usually does the trick. For Scapeshift well Swan Song is a pretty popular side card. You should never ever ever ever have gnaw in your deck against Scapeshift though, it's just cheesy and even though it might steal you a game here and there it's a bad choice against a capable opponent (I agree your opponent wasn't one, seeing how he lost game 1...). Once more, your best card here is Fulmi. You didn't have bad luck from what you're telling. Living End is the deck with the fewest bad draws in the format as it plays so many cantrips + 8 tutors for its actual important card. As I told you, the problem is that it's slow and doesn't interact properly with what matters currently.
Drawing Fulminator Mage once out of 2 games that both went 10+ turns against Scapeshift is pretty bad luck (I play 4). I also drew Fulminator Mage g1 against Twin and never in G2. I cut the Avalanche Riders before the tournament in favor of the other 2 Shriekmaws. I would basically be stuck Beast Withining Twin's lands and just hoping to somehow resolve a Living End though his counters while the 3/3s kill me.
Also G2 against Twin he hit every land drop, so even if I did Fulminator him it wouldn't matter, he never cast a spell all game and was just discarding cantrips with the combo and 5 counters in hand (he showed it to me after the game). The only way I win that game is if I get Violent Outburst + Demonic Dread + Dryad Arbor before he gets 4 lands in play and manage to Outburst EoT and Dread the arbor while he's tapped too low to remand again and I have mana to pay for Pierce. Then I have to hope he doesn't combo me while I'm tapped out.
Twin is just a borderline unwinnable matchup for Living End, but IMO it's really the only unwinnable matchup in all of Modern.
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True that Twin is a bad match-up, but it's not unwinnable at all. They usually play 3 to 4 counters main, and most of them are soft counters/Spell Snare. You can navigate through that.
G2 and 3 they can have a few Negate/Swan Songs/Vendilion Clique but you should still be able to play around it. Twin doesn't have that much permission most of the time, especially Tarmo Twin versions.
UWR control sounds like a 10 times worst match-up, or Scapeshift with 4 Cryptics and Remand main. Cryptic can also buy a full turn after you resolved Living End. G2 and G3 they have way more counters than other decks since they're basically a full-on control deck with a combo finish.
I really don't see where Living End fits in the current meta. It's godlike against GBx decks but those are far and few at the moment.
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On January 16 2015 02:08 mr_tolkien wrote:
True that Twin is a bad match-up, but it's not unwinnable at all. They usually play 3 to 4 counters main, and most of them are soft counters/Spell Snare. You can navigate through that.
G2 and 3 they can have a few Negate/Swan Songs/Vendilion Clique but you should still be able to play around it. Twin doesn't have that much permission most of the time, especially Tarmo Twin versions.
UWR control sounds like a 10 times worst match-up, or Scapeshift with 4 Cryptics and Remand main. Cryptic can also buy a full turn after you resolved Living End. G2 and G3 they have way more counters than other decks since they're basically a full-on control deck with a combo finish.
I really don't see where Living End fits in the current meta. It's godlike against GBx decks but those are far and few at the moment.
The match I played was against a Twin deck with no Kiki and extra counters in his place so it was worse than normal. UWR control isn't as bad because you can deal with Collonades and make them burn you out, eventually they run out of counters and you start hardcasting things. Scapeshift is a pretty good matchup if you draw Fulminators at the right time, since they have to kill Fulminator before they can combo.
Living End crushes Zoo decks, is 40/60 against Delver, and beats Junk/Jund into the ground easily. Creature based combo decks like Infect are also easy.
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I'm surprised there wasn't much discussion on Fate Reforged here? Anyone do the pre-release? Thoughts on the format for draft, sealed?
I did an early morning pre-release and hadn't read up too much on this expansion set, and was deciding between Jeskai and Temur. I decided on Temur thinking I still get Red and Blue which gave me evasion and burn, and then I get some efficient creatures with Green. My pool really had no where else to go but Temur, but I don't feel I built my deck well from it. I was splitting pretty evenly across all 3 colors and didn't really have the mana fixing to easily support it so I knew I'd run into some issues with it - especially with two double-red Dragons and the double-green 4/4 manifest every end step creatures in my deck.
I wasn't sure what to think of manifest, but the one game I had out the manifest enabler at every end step it quickly became apparent to me I should have put more manifest cards in my deck. I had a lot of burn + cantrip spells with izzet such as Master of the Way, and the shock creature + shock player + draw a card one (forget the name). So I'm not sure what I would have replaced there.
I'm not sure what to think of the format from a limited perspective. I liked the flexibility in KTK with morph cards to fill in your 3-drop curve and there will be much less of those now. Manifest cards don't really replace them, but offer the same morph-on-morph type mindgames, which might make them interesting still.
I'll be doing the pre-release tomorrow as well - probably going Jeskai this time. Anyone notice a stronger clan for this pre-release?
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Supposedly there are good reasons not to bother splashing for full clan colours in the Sealed draft. Can't remember where I read it or why though tbh.
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On January 18 2015 06:57 EscPlan9 wrote:
I'm surprised there wasn't much discussion on Fate Reforged here? Anyone do the pre-release? Thoughts on the format for draft, sealed?
I did an early morning pre-release and hadn't read up too much on this expansion set, and was deciding between Jeskai and Temur. I decided on Temur thinking I still get Red and Blue which gave me evasion and burn, and then I get some efficient creatures with Green. My pool really had no where else to go but Temur, but I don't feel I built my deck well from it. I was splitting pretty evenly across all 3 colors and didn't really have the mana fixing to easily support it so I knew I'd run into some issues with it - especially with two double-red Dragons and the double-green 4/4 manifest every end step creatures in my deck.
I wasn't sure what to think of manifest, but the one game I had out the manifest enabler at every end step it quickly became apparent to me I should have put more manifest cards in my deck. I had a lot of burn + cantrip spells with izzet such as Master of the Way, and the shock creature + shock player + draw a card one (forget the name). So I'm not sure what I would have replaced there.
I'm not sure what to think of the format from a limited perspective. I liked the flexibility in KTK with morph cards to fill in your 3-drop curve and there will be much less of those now. Manifest cards don't really replace them, but offer the same morph-on-morph type mindgames, which might make them interesting still.
I'll be doing the pre-release tomorrow as well - probably going Jeskai this time. Anyone notice a stronger clan for this pre-release?
My LGS has just recently sorted out a couple of the issues that they had in the process of becoming DCI sanctioned, so they weren't able to do a Fate pre-released. But instead, we will have two release events (One sealed and one draft). Do note though that both my LGS and my city isn't particularly big
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I really, really liked the sealed environment at the shop. The best decks were heavily 2 color with a single splash for one or two cards
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I just got back from my Prerelease and have to say the format felt boring. I went 4-1 placing 3rd out of almost 40 people with my only 2 losses coming in round 4 with my 1-2 loss when I misplayed horribly in the last game.
It's definitely a slow format and playing 4 or 5 colors is very rewarding if you have the fixing to support it. I played Abzan splashing U for Villainous Wealth, Ethereal Ambush(actually just insane), and the ability of Yasova Dragonclaw. Also had Warden of the First Tree, Dromoka, The Eternal, and Dragonscale Elder and I had good cards in Abzan so my deck essentially built itself from there.
Manifest is actually really fucking good in sealed. Ethereal Ambush felt like so much value. when you cast it at instant speed and hit lands you dont need you still have 2/2s or if you hit a bomb you just morph it and give no fucks anyways since removal is so spotty. Bolster is also a really strong ability even though I originally thought it was kind of bad.
Random thought, in the top 3-4 tables there were nothing but Jeskai or Abzan based decks so I dont know if that was a fluke or if that is just showing the strength of the cards in those colors.
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Did prerelease yesterday and went 2-2. I've always loved prereleases and so I had fun with it.
I was super happy though, because the moment I opened up my box I saw a foil Soulfire Grand Master staring at me. Promos FTW haha.
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Went 2-1 at my midnight prerelease with Jeskai plus a green splash to run Yasova dragonclaw on Saturday morning. My pool wasn't the best sadly nothing like a soulfire grand master or mentor and I had crappy tiebreakers but I had some really fun games, one that I won with 1 life because my opponent needed red for atarka.
The deck i lost to and my deck as well as several other good decks were all running cloudform. Seems like easily the best manifest enchantment and a potential constructed card. A 2/2 flying hexproof for 3 is already pretty decent and the potential to turn over a big temur fatty later or Jeskai staple and give it those seems pretty gross. At the very least a very early draft pick for limited IMO.
Oh, and I pulled both a regular Ugin in my Jeskai box, AND the alternate art Ugin from the alternate art booster at the end of the night. So in reality, I won prerelease anyways.
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On January 16 2015 02:08 mr_tolkien wrote:
True that Twin is a bad match-up, but it's not unwinnable at all. They usually play 3 to 4 counters main, and most of them are soft counters/Spell Snare. You can navigate through that.
G2 and 3 they can have a few Negate/Swan Songs/Vendilion Clique but you should still be able to play around it. Twin doesn't have that much permission most of the time, especially Tarmo Twin versions.
UWR control sounds like a 10 times worst match-up, or Scapeshift with 4 Cryptics and Remand main. Cryptic can also buy a full turn after you resolved Living End. G2 and G3 they have way more counters than other decks since they're basically a full-on control deck with a combo finish.
I really don't see where Living End fits in the current meta. It's godlike against GBx decks but those are far and few at the moment.
depending on the number of remands UWR is playing, UWR is really awefull vs living end, you just cycle a bunch, cast LD early prompting either cheap counters to be used or UWR's mana to stay low, and eventually you go eot violent outburst, untap cascader(eot the beast LD is also extremely frustrating as you often cant afford to counter it), returning all creatures including fulminator mages. scapeshift is awesome vs living end, but there are few decks worse vs living end then uwr control
(i have played this mu alot of times, and tried quite a few approaches from uwr side, it gets better if you play remands and more wogs, but wogs are so terrible in the mu's they are bad in, and mediocre in quite a few other mu's ).
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I was undefeated in my prerelease. My pool was busted. Citadel Siege is ridiculous. Also had Ivorytusk Fortress, the G/W dragon, and the demon that makes them sac all but two guys. And I had solid removal and a solid curve to get there consistently.
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Drew a match cause I misplayed (to be fair I was dead on board for 2 turns, earlier in game 3). Then I misplayed again 2nd to last round by not tapping an Abzan Guide over an Armament Corps with Citadel Siege and lost the match 1-2.
Finished 6th with 4-1-1. Highlight of the night was definitely beating a t1 Warden, t3 Warden draw. The salt was real.
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Judi I pretty much had the same experience. Finished 4-1-1 5th place. The game I lost I punted by not reading the 3/2. Didn't know he could give himself double strike, thought it was only other creatures. I opened Sultai box and then ended up BG splash valorous stance and utter end.
Temur Sabertooth is the most busted thing ever by the way. First pick material all day.
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can you see your opponent's decklist before you play her in a tournament?
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Not unless it's published somewhere.
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On January 19 2015 05:54 Risen wrote:
Judi I pretty much had the same experience. Finished 4-1-1 5th place. The game I lost I punted by not reading the 3/2. Didn't know he could give himself double strike, thought it was only other creatures. I opened Sultai box and then ended up BG splash valorous stance and utter end.
Temur Sabertooth is the most busted thing ever by the way. First pick material all day.
For me it was miscounting the post time turns. The loss was because I milled out before could kill him as he was at too high of a life from the Abzan lifegainer.
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Did 3 prereleases this weekend.
Went 3-1 on the first flight with a Mardu (Mardu Strike Leader promo) splashing blue for Silumgar. Felt alright learning the format. Sandblast, Douse in Sorrow, Reach of Shadows, Bathe in Dragonfire and Harsh Sustenance were defining cards to play around.
Went 4-0 on the second flight. Picked Jeskai (Soulfire Grand Master promo) but ended up going W/B/u/g warriors and Dragons after Crux of Fate, 2x Mardu Strike Leader, Bloodsoaked Champion and Chief of the Scale put me solidly in black. Mindscour Dragon and Dromoka were the finishers that were splashed for. Channel Harm over performed.
Went 4-1 on Sunday. Picked Mardu (Arcbond promo) and was not happy with my pool at all. I struggled to get my fixing and only had 13 playable creatures counting Soul Summons and Fierce Invocation. That left me with too many enchantments, bolster effects and one of my Harsh Sustenance in the Board. Bloodfire Enforcers overperformed on Sunday and Hooded Assassin underperformed all three flights but is still in the realm of playable.
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EPT
