What to Play at Tourney
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Nov. 17, 2016, 2:56 a.m. by Tazlil007
I am going to an 8 man modern tournament but have no idea what to play. The metagame is 3-4 infect decks, 1-2 burn decks, 1 tron deck and 1 guy who is playing a random janky deck called steelio's. It plays lots of 0 mana artifacts plus Puresteel Paladin, Retract, Paradoxical Outcome, Monastery Mentor and Grapeshot.
What decks would you recommend if I want to win (if I decide I just want to have fun then I will play GRISHOALBRAND). The price of the deck isn't important at all. I just don't know the matchups very well. Any help is really appreciated.
JohnnyBaggins says... #3
A meta with 3-4 Infect Decks and 1-2 Burn decks is extremely hostile. These decks hardly interact and can kill you very quickly. Being very proactive yourself is immensely important. Do not choose a deck that loses to itself here, it's going to hurt you. I don't think Control or Tron are good choices. I'd go with Grixis Delver (Can run 7+ removal spells for Infect, has lots of interaction to beat Burn) or a more interactively tuned Bant Eldrazi, as decribed earlier. Delver should be able to beat Infect if you play your spells correctly and should be able to stop Burn enough to race it. With Bolt, Path, Helix, Electrolyze Jeskai Control seems like a possible option, but I find it to be very dangerous, as it's slow. I guess you can beat Burn with that list, but you need to get lucky to beat Infect more often than they beat you.
Yeah, I'd go with Delver. Delver also plays Probe which is fantastic to beat Infect. Between efficient creatures, cheap removal and countermagic, it has pretty much everything you need to beat Infect and Burn, Black also gives you access to Inquisition if you so choose.
November 17, 2016 5 a.m. Edited.
Skred (mono-red control, or two-coloured control including red) is actually not a bad choice in this kind of meta. I played Boros Skred for a while and it was really able to give decks like affinity and infect a headache.
I don't agree with being proactive here. You can't out proactive Infect. They're running T3-T4 wins, even when you throw removal at them. There's no way any kind of aggression on your part is going to scare them (unless you're an incredibly skilled affinity or dredge player). So I wouldn't waste time with that. My priorities would be to control and lockdown the board first and then be proactive only after you've gained control. Delver is an ok option here because it does have a high saturation of low cost spells, but including white over blue or black increases that number significantly.
So in Skred you're playing some combination of Skred and Lightning Bolt so you have a potential eight 1-mana removal cards to deal with aggro. Boros Skred has Path to Exile, which ups it to a potential 12. So your matchup against infect is at least fine, possibly great, and you'll be good against steelios as well (which I think most people just call modern cheeri0s). Out of the sideboard to deal with infect you can bring Spellskite which can also help immensely. Skred is a very good option there.
Against burn you have Timely Reinforcements, Kitchen Finks and Dragon's Claw along with all the removal. Remember that if the burn player draws a creature heavy hand then you're extremely favoured. If they don't then you might struggle a bit but you do have the tools to deal with it. Dragon's Claw is a very potent card when both players are casting red spells constantly (yes it counts both you AND the opponent), and you can pretty happily run some lifelink threat in the sideboard as a win condition.
Against Tron well.... you're going to have a tough time - but that's one dude out of 8. You have Stone Rain and Crumble to Dust. You also have various ways in white to destroy artifacts such as Expedition Map. The problem is that as the game goes longer the Tron player will probably become more favoured given that they WANT a long game. However you do have outs. For this matchup consider sideboarding something like a Goblin Rabblemaster (I know it sounds mad) but some kind of 2 or 3 drop threat that really pushes out a lot of pressure quite quickly. Combine a cheap and efficient beater with a few land destruction cards and you should be laughing all the way to a top 3 finish, or more likely, to become the victor.
Skred is a very good deck. A very, very good deck that really punishes aggro.
3 recent finishes have been notable:
and here
November 17, 2016 6:03 a.m.
JohnnyBaggins says... #5
Skred is actually a really good choice. Good thinking there.
November 17, 2016 6:08 a.m.
I felt that the idea you had of delver was also a very solid choice!
November 17, 2016 7:50 a.m.
Thanks guys these all sound great. I am familiar with delver but not with bant eldrazi or skred. Don't suppose you have any lists knocking around. If not that's fine I will just do a bit of research into it.
November 17, 2016 8:34 a.m.
I think I am gonna run skred but I need some help. What is the role of Eternal Scourge and surely tron is a great matchup with Magus of the Moon and Blood Moon?
November 17, 2016 8:48 a.m.
Eternal Scourge is basically unkillable. They try to killspell it? It exiles itself and you recast it. They try to use some other ability on it? It exiles itself and you recast it. You basically get a 3/3 that last forever. The only thing that causes problems is Liliana of the Veil because her sacrifice ability targets you (the player) not the creature.
Tron can be an extremely good matchup with Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon. However, they do run Oblivion Stone and Karn Liberated. Both of which they can fairly easily cast if you don't win the game quickly (they'll just tap their "Mountains") to cast them. It slows the deck down hugely but they can fight through it. This is why it's important to not just lock them out but also present some kind of real threat at the same time.
November 17, 2016 9:20 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #10
HeadChime I think you are misunderstanding the use of Eternal Scourge.
Eternal Scourge is your early game blocker that pairs incredibly well with Anger of the Gods and Relic of Progenitus.
If they target it it exiles and then you can cast it again yes but if they KILL it (Liliana included) you can simply target yourself with Relic and exile ES from your grave and then recast it.
The synergy with anger is obvious so I won't touch on it.
I was also going to suggest Skred, 8 1 drop killspells and anger to sweep seems really good against aggressive matchups.
Also, if you go Boros, you can sideboard Soulfire Grand Master. Anger or Skred with lifelink is awesome.
November 17, 2016 9:42 a.m. Edited.
buildingadeck says... #11
Also, Tron is not a good matchup for Skred. That's why the GP list packs 4 LD cards and 2 aggro cards (Rabblemaster) in the side. In the year that I've played Skred, I've beaten Mono-U Tron once and a UG Tron once, but I don't think I've beaten RG Tron.
November 17, 2016 9:49 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #12
I've beaten mono U tron before using LD spells and a Koth emblem to deal with wurmcoil engine+Ruins
It's challenging but doable. (This was also before Crumble to Dust, so there's that)
November 17, 2016 9:51 a.m.
How do I play boros with a consistent manabase and still have enough snow to make Scred good.
November 17, 2016 9:51 a.m.
You play fetchlands with basics, and like shockland.
buildingadeck - I did originally say "Against Tron well.... you're going to have a tough time" but as Ohthenoises points out it can run either way. I have also experienced some convincing wins against tron with skred, and also some convincing losses too.
Ohthenoises - Yeah I'm new to Eternal Scourge so I missed the micro-synergies with Anger of the Gods and Relic of Progenitus. Pretty clever!
November 17, 2016 9:55 a.m.
- You play fetchlands, basics, and one shockland.
Sorry, typo.
November 17, 2016 9:59 a.m.
Given my meta am I better of playing Spellskite than Relic of Progenitus?
November 17, 2016 10:41 a.m.
Servo_Token says... #17
Yes to this most recent question. Pack the relics in the side though because they're so useful. I'd probably go 2-2 split myself in the main.
November 17, 2016 11:01 a.m.
But what are they useful for? I am not facing anything that uses the graveyard bar delve on become immense
November 17, 2016 12:05 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #19
Well as discussed before the interaction with eternal scourge is pretty amazing. It also has the best three words in magic printed on it, "Draw a card". You're in red and have very few outlets to cycle through your deck, so you take your card advantage where you can get it. It's also another thing for your opponent to think about every turn should you decide to run it out there and just tap it every turn.
Also, you really don't need 4 spellskites. one gets the job done, and infect knows how to play around the card. It's not an instant win in the matchup, just something that hinders them a bit.
But basically it's just part of your card advantage suite. You might even find that replacing relic with a card like Magma Jet for this specific tourney would suit you better.
November 17, 2016 12:20 p.m.
ColdHeartedSith says... #20
Adamaro's Revenge They won't see it coming and against any but burn in the meta game it performs above and beyond its achilles heel. Much less hate cards out for artifact with Eldrazi and Walkers numbers sky high. This is a hyper fast win con that used to win alot before in modern and received 4 very good upgrades to the tone of Eidolon of the Great Revel and that making Cavern of Souls good for Spirit and Molten Vortex to make use of drawing excessive land and giving more reach and sideboard gaining Skullcrack and Anger of the Gods and this deck hasnt been picked up since Zendikar.
November 17, 2016 12:55 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #21
Every deck that has been mentioned by OP aside from like 2 are the type to dump their hands early making your legend often a 2/2 at best in most situations. Also, forcefeeding infect is bad, like REALLY bad.
Seems like an akward meta call
November 17, 2016 1:10 p.m. Edited.
it seems like control is your best option here. maybe play esper tokens with a few leyline mainboard, to help with burn. anything with Spellskite seems good.
November 17, 2016 2:51 p.m. Edited.
FYI it's Steeli0s and there is no Monastery Mentor...It's not just 0 drop artifacts, they need to be equipment.
November 17, 2016 3:34 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #24
There are plenty of Cheerios storm decks that also run Monastery Mentor most also run Mox Opal to Retract for free.
November 17, 2016 3:55 p.m. Edited.
I don't like Monastery Mentor because a Blighted Agent will go through it and if it's not an immediate game winning combo I will probably get wrecked next turn.
November 17, 2016 5:18 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #26
Personal bias doesn't make it any less of the norm lol. I've seen people playing Sigarda's Aid in Cheerios as a way to make "infinite" monks on your opponent's end step as well which an entertaining thought.
Regardless I think skred is the best option for your meta, I would personally run mono red over Boros but it really depends on how fancy you want to get.
Boza says... #2
Bant Eldrazi seems like a good fit for the meta. Any deck with Path to Exile will be good. I would pack main deck Dispel versus this field as well.
November 17, 2016 4:02 a.m.