Magic: The Gathering,GO TEAM MS!

[panthaleon]

I don't think that combo is really ever the answer. I would prefer it if there was better nonbasic land hate, but in the meantime I'm tooling with reclamation to see if I can find a control deck I like playing.

[Inferno390]

I hear Agent of Treachery is very good at stealing Field of the Dead

See what I think is going to crack the code is some sort of hyper Aggro deck who’s individual pieces aren’t that strong, but together can pressure from a lot of different angles all at once. The average CMC should probably work out to 2.5. The deck should feature a decent of board removal to turn off field of dead, as well as spot removal to kill big threats. Maybe Black-Red?

[popsofctown]

I think the way to beat field of the dead is to get under it, but I doubt you're putting board wipes in your aggro deck to do it. Board wipes can only clear the zombies currently on the table, new ones appear immediately and you're back to getting blocked. I think the better approach is going to be playing an aggressive deck that can do a good job making a 2/2 zombie token irrelevant, either by evasion or transitioning to face-burn spells around the time the zombies start rising.

[InflatablePie]

been jamming Grixis Fires and haven't had too many problems against FotD decks (although Game 1 is probably harder than post-sideboard), you just have to rush a Bolas/Lili ult game 1 - Circuitous Route is a preferred Thought Erasure target because you really don't have time to fuck around and can ignore Teferi/Krasis etc for the most part. postboard gets a lot better, but you're dead if you don't keep a hand with much interaction game 1 for sure, which is awkward when the deck wants to keep 4-land-hands and runs so many 5/6-drops.

Unmoored Ego is pretty decent if you can draw it before they drop a Field, but even if they do, with 3x Ritual of Soot, 3x Cry, and 2x Chandras in the 75 you can usually stall lategame til you ult a Lili or Bolas, since a sweeper lets you get off two planeswalker abilities even if a bunch come back next turn. Unmoored Ego is also great at hitting Agent post-sideboarding because it's particularly good against Fires decks, so it still does a decent job. Narsets help block off Hydroid Krasis/Growth Spiral/Teferi minus, Angrath's Rampage can choose sac an artifact to take out Golos, and I've even won off Bolas -> Elderspell targeting 2 PWs -> Bolas ult post-SB.

two spicy options I've considered are Role Reversal to steal FotD (meh. cute in the mirror though cuz Narset doesn't block Drawn from Dreams or other Narsets so you can trade your 1-loyalty ones for better things) or Revenge of Ravens (this one I'm seriously considering). not sure if making space for one in the 75 is better than adding a third Ashiok cuz honestly the mill plan is viable post-board if you keep the board clear and Narsets can lock down draw after threats are removed (Hydroid Krasis for 7 still dies to Murderous Rider and fastens the mill clock). each mills for 20 and you can usually keep them off pressuring it til it gets through each activation.

idk if it's a favored matchup or by how much, but I've rarely felt completely screwed when up against Field outside of nut draws game 1.

also Grixis Fires stumbles against RB aggro and gets dunked on by Simic Flash (which is a miserable matchup that I may have won once or twice) so there's that



my 75, two Unmoored Ego out of shot. also 1x Island needs to be a Castle Vantress or Fabled Passage #3. haven't decided which. probably Passage. I also fiddled with Cavalier of Gales as a fun-of again, because Brainstorm on a stick with those two lands is cute, but I don't think the deck needs it.

idk I think I can fiddle with like 5 slots here. Legion's End doesn't pull as much work as I want but it's good in many matchups, Aether Gust has been fine between other Fires decks/Gruul Aggro/etc, was running Mystical Dispute for Simic Flash but switching to Negate for now. counterspells are still great in these matchups but obviously they're awful post-Fires (but then again, so are sweepers in the mirror game 1, so idk).

[popsofctown]

I was testing Jeskai Fires yesterday and the Field of the dead matchup was depressing me.

Grixis fires having a batter matchup makes plenty of sense to me, it'd just be disappointing because I own more copies of relevant cards for Jeskai Fires IRL.

[InflatablePie]

I also seem to have a great matchup against Jeskai Fires but Sarkhan can be annoying to deal with. also Teferi bouncing Fires. Fires mirrors are pretty fun regardless - my opponents on Arena always seem to concede in sideboarding tho. :(

I'm more depressed when dealing with Agent/Mass Manipulation for PWs and/or my Fires, or *gestures to the entirety of Simic Flash*

[McMenno]

I hear Agent of Treachery is very good at stealing Field of the Dead

See what I think is going to crack the code is some sort of hyper Aggro deck who’s individual pieces aren’t that strong, but together can pressure from a lot of different angles all at once. The average CMC should probably work out to 2.5. The deck should feature a decent of board removal to turn off field of dead, as well as spot removal to kill big threats. Maybe Black-Red?

you know which decks run agent? right. fotd decks

[popsofctown]

I went 3-1 with dredge it's so fun to have the deck back.

I need to pick a deck to not hate for standard though. I've been playing something similar to Pie's Grixis Fires a bunch online but I'm not getting converted into a believer too easily.

[McMenno]

I got owned at gp utrecht

[DrDolittle]

im planning to make a petitioner standard mill deck. you think I should revolve it around deputy of detention (w) or tamiyo (b)

[popsofctown]

Mill is not the strongest standard deck, and petitioners is not going to be the strongest way to do mill (especially with Legion's End in the format), but you probably know both these things and just want to see how strong you can get the advisors to be.

Deputy of Detention is a solid standard magic card that you can put in any deck including a mill deck, but saying "revolve it around" makes me think maybe you're misreading the card - you can't use it do a "names matter" wombo combo on your Persistent Petitioners and untap them because Deputy of Detention says to exile a permanent "an opponent controls".

So out of those two options I'd say Tamiyo (who is green, not black).

Tamiyo self mills, and Persistent Petitioners can self target, which makes me think you might actually want to do it as a self-mill deck and win with Jace? Maybe that's weaker because you can get into trouble if people counter or murder Jace. But it is deliciously memey.

[popsofctown]

I have a major modern tournament coming up.

Whirza won't be banned (yet?) and I'm wondering whether I should do Collector Ouphe in sideboard in place of some of the Ancient Grudges even though it can't be played from dredgery. Ancient Grudge seems like such a drop in the bucket against the deck.

Or also, Ashiok would be kinda cute? If you can cast it before they have the combo, they can't cast Whir anymore, and if they have a Sword of the Meek that was yarded from Goblin Engineer and are tapped out you might manage to nab it. And of course Ashiok can mill yourself and could be relevant in other matchups. Three mana is a lot though.

[Inferno390]

I don't play modern
But I did break platinum in MTGA today
Apparently Temur Elementals still hauls ass against the tempo decks right now
Just enough aggro to burn em out, just enough control to keep their board free of threats
And then there are the games where the aggro is the control, which is really awesome

[popsofctown]

Good job.

I think a lot of current standard is about piloting your deck correctly and you're probably piloting well because you've stuck with the deck.

[Micc]

I have a major modern tournament coming up.

Whirza won't be banned (yet?) and I'm wondering whether I should do Collector Ouphe in sideboard in place of some of the Ancient Grudges even though it can't be played from dredgery. Ancient Grudge seems like such a drop in the bucket against the deck.

Or also, Ashiok would be kinda cute? If you can cast it before they have the combo, they can't cast Whir anymore, and if they have a Sword of the Meek that was yarded from Goblin Engineer and are tapped out you might manage to nab it. And of course Ashiok can mill yourself and could be relevant in other matchups. Three mana is a lot though.

With the disclaimer that I've never played with either archetype, I can see the argument for Ouphe over Ancient Grudge. I'd say it would be worth spending the time to test at least. Urza has moved on from the Whir/thopter/sword core and into a Emery/Sai/paradoxical outcome core in my experience. I wouldn't expect Ashiok to be effective against those builds even if you found a way to get it down fast enough.

[popsofctown]

I hadn't heard of that. Found a list. Man, it looks like Ancient Grudge is even worse! It has no artifacts that represent any investment, against Whirza you could at least hit Ensnaring Bridge.

It looks like you could use Runeflare Trap against it for giggles.

I'm not sure whether or not Collector Ouphe would actually be as effective against this Paradoxical Outcome version. There's cards in the deck like Mishra's Bauble where it's like, cool, I can't activate Mishra's Bauble, helps me play correctly because it'd be better to Paradoxical Outcome it twice and get more than one card.

The thing that might make Collector Ouphe good is if the 7 moxes are being included as part of the land count and you can mana screw them. But Ancient Grudge should be just as good for that.

Think I might ought to assume all sideboard cards are pretty ineffective and use sideboard space for different matchups.

I think I'm going to bite the bullet and buy dredge on mtgo so I can test and practice.

[Micc]

Again I'm just theory crafting here, but if dredge can remove urza at instant speed every time he shows up then the beats should get there in time. So maybe your best plan is to just jam a bunch of lightning axes?

[popsofctown]

You need split second don't you? Urza and paradoxical in hand, a bunch of 0 cost artifacts on the table, Urza player casts Urza, after it resolves he holds priority and taps 4 blue mana off zero cost artifacts, casts Paradoxical Outcome, you Lightning Axe in response but he likely draws into another Urza.

I thinking maybe you board the Lightning Axes in anyway for Emery which is part of my thinking in saying maybe this matchup shouldn't have additional sideboard slots because it's really hard to remove cards from the maindeck of dredge. And you could use the Lightning Axes on Urza too if the player drew Urza but didn't draw Paradoxical Outcome and is planning to use Urza's activated ability to hunt for it once he untaps. But in that case it's not particularly relevant that Lightning Axe is "instant speed", it would have worked if it was a sorcery. (although, holding up one red mana for either Haggle, Forgotten Cave, or Lightning Axe is a super cool new part of dredge now).

edit: Urza's first ability counts as a mana ability, I think, so split second doesn't actually matter perhaps.

[popsofctown]

I can't start testing because all the bots are sold out of Life from the Loam

Either that is the bottleneck card of dredge and dredge is on an uptick or people are doing dumb shenanigans with Wrenn and Six that probably aren't that good?

Life from the Loam is such a cool magic card. I wants.
Last week at FNM:
"Ok, I cast Life from the Loam."
"Counter it. I Spell Pierce it."
"Ok, it's countered."
"Wait, did you have any targets?"
"No, and you Spell Pierced it."

[popsofctown]

Since Field of the Dead is likely to be banned and change things a lot, I tried to build a deck out of cards I already own and try it out on arena to use for the 2 standard showdowns before the likely ban. I did gates since I played Nexus of Gates when it was tier 1.5 and have some of that stuff.

Weirdly, I always win against Field of the Dead! But I lose to LOTS of other stuff so it's not omg amazing. Also I don't queue against Field of the Dead on MTGA as much as I think it's represented at FNM, the matchup might actually be bad. But it's definitely winnable.

Spoiler: Gates of Lab Maniac

1 Archway Angel (RNA) 3
1 Selesnya Guildgate (GRN) 255
4 Gates Ablaze (RNA) 102
4 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246
4 Gate Colossus (RNA) 232
4 Guild Summit (GRN) 41
4 Izzet Guildgate (GRN) 251
4 Growth Spiral (RNA) 178
4 Circuitous Route (GRN) 125
1 Teferi, Time Raveler (WAR) 221
1 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries (WAR) 54
3 Arboreal Grazer (WAR) 149
1 Forest (ELD) 269
1 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales (WAR) 220
2 Narset, Parter of Veils (WAR) 61
1 Azorius Guildgate (RNA) 243
1 Golgari Guildgate (GRN) 249
4 Gruul Guildgate (RNA) 249
4 Simic Guildgate (RNA) 258
4 Plaza of Harmony (RNA) 254
4 Boros Guildgate (GRN) 243
1 Deafening Clarion (GRN) 165
1 The Great Henge (ELD) 161
1 God-Eternal Bontu (WAR) 92

The deck keeps drawing cards, spreading out lands, and wiping the opponent's board. Gate Colossus is just a blocker. I pulled the Gatebreaker rams out when I realized I wasn't casting them. Eventually the deck wins by using 9 mana to cast Bontu + Jace and self deck. The cool fancy part is since Growth Spiral procs Guild Summit, you can prepare a response to instant speed planeswalker removal that will still make you win. In some standards this would be really foolish because what if someone counters Jace but man this is sure not that format.

I need to take Bontu out because he's unnecessary, I usually seize control of the game by that point or have already died. I can just draw cards by playing more and more gates onto Guild Summits. But I'm definitely keeping the Jace. I win some games against grindy Sultai-ish decks where they could have chumpblocked the Colossuses until I decked but they conceded because they saw Tamiyo requesting Jace. Suggestions on how to tweak are welcome but especially if they are commons/uncommons from Ravnica block. I have dupes of Clarion and Time Raveler but 3s is crowded.

I've been playing best of one, this deck is probably also bad because of bad sideboard dynamics I'm guessing. But the silliness of it is pretty fun.

The time I ran into the Elementals matchup it absolutely wrecked me, because I can't put a Colossus in front of a Risen Reef to answer it, and I can only remove a Risen Reef or Omnath by spending a Gates Ablaze that is equal mana + costs more cards + had more meaningful deckbuilding cost for me so I get wrecked. I'm sure that makes Inferno happy.

[Inferno390]

It does

[InflatablePie]

Spoiler: @pops

-1 Colossus
-1 Henge
-1 Bontu
-2 Narset
+1 Archway Angel
+1 Teferi
+3 Prison Realm (or some # of Assassin's Trophy (2 Trophy/1 PRealm?) but that's a Rare so)

yes it's overall two more three-drops but you usually play your board wipe on turn 4 or 5 anyway. you draw enough cards with Guild Summit to not need Narset, Bontu/Henge seem unnecessary, and a 2nd Angel over 4th Colossus to help stabilize/still provide a threat. Teferi bounces your Summits, opponents' Fires, counters Simic Flash, replay Archway Angel... would definitely run a second. maybe third but idk (and also you're strapped for rares which is understandable)

I also think you can actually just go with two Prison Realms, cut Clarion (that lifelink is nice on big Colossus/Ram swings tho), and add two Gatebreaker Rams back for your threat suite (and Jace working as backup). gives you more to do in the midgame.

I also like four Grazer over Growth Spiral because it's less annoying on the mana, comes down a turn earlier which is important in Gates, is a solid blocker, and doesn't get countered by Narset if you auto-pilot mainphase cast it. buuut maybe 4 Spiral/3 Grazer is correct, I really don't know. I'm probably wrong here.

think after Field of the Dead ban (assuming) we're either gonna see an surge in Oko decks or aggressive decks (Adventures) so I'd hedge out of the lategame stuff as much and go for more early/midgame development, especially in Bo1

Spoiler: speaking of jank (edit - no one was speaking of jank)

not actually building this but I was bored and wanted to brew



Simic Ascendancy and Oko with X/Xs. seems silly. could maybe cut a land and Incubation Druid (or a Conjurant, I think 6 X/X artifact spells is fine) for 2x Nissa idk

and yes the deck loses to counterspells and Blightbeetle but who's actually playing those outside of me grinding Constructed Events on Arena with Simic Flash

[McMenno]

how tf are oko and hydroid krasis "jank"

[InflatablePie]

because the deck runs Ugin's Ascendant, Simic Ascendancy, Karn's Bastion and Shambling Suit


but yes that's fair

[popsofctown]

Spoiler: -

I don't own any A-trophies, I'll see if I can find some Prison Realms though.

I'm definitely not cutting a Gate Colossus though! It's really good. I promise. It is so good.

I might play around with Rams some more but they really don't work as well in practice I expect them to. If I draw Ram against a BG or RG aggro board that includes a Questing Beast and have to choose between casting Guild Summit and tapping a bunch of gates, or casting the Ram to block, I always have to cast the Guild Summit and hope for Gates Ablaze because I know the Ram will die, and then fail to solve the other problems unless I am lucky enough to get more rams on my next draws. If I draw Colossus, I can play the Colossus and block because I -know- the Colossus is coming right back and can be replayed to start addressing the other threats.

I think Narset for Prison Realm is probably a really good call though. I felt like I needed more draw for some of my hands that were floody, but spot removal naturally makes you survive for more draw steps and I can Prison Realm opposing Prison Realms to reclaim Guild Summits, the best draw spell, instead of playing a weaker one in Narset.
I didn't really think of Prison Realm being an uncommon. Any card that would be good in UW control must be a rare.