MtG. Decks to avoid in current Modern.

Hello, crew and passengers!

In this ride I would tell you about Modern decks to avoid in Amonkhet season.

This is my opinion only, which is based on current format playtesting, data mining, and my own past experience in the game.

This post would be a very short overview, yet it will feature solid explanations.

This overview applies to competitive events where large portion of the field are top tier decks.

Infect

Chalices from Eldrazies (even Merfolks sometimes play them in the sideboard), discard spells and cheap removals from Death's Shadow decks, land destruction and other hate, loss of Gitaxian Probe to get info and cycle cheaply. All in all way to many factors to rely on the deck.

Delver decks

Grixis Delver just loses harshly in comparison to its Death's Shadow counterpart. Pretty much all Delver decks that we know just don't match up with the current opposition. I mean that the threats and answers just do not line up well at the moment against what the field is expected to be.

Mixed field can spell a better story, but I feel like to justify playing a deck of this type one has to build something radical or go the UR route imitating in part a burn deck. UR would mean punishing Shadow decks and getting wins vs others before they get their game on.  

Big mana decks (to an extent, i.e. taken with caution)

While RG Valakut and Gx Tron do not seem to number down drastically, I would approach them carefully, when picking your deck of choice for an event of the size of a Grand Prix or SCG Open. While Modern is a wide format and matchups roulette can uplift you in a tournament, it can also pair you up against the decks that take up the biggest share.

Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge, Crucible of the Worlds, Fulminator Mages (creature combo decks, Living End, Death's Shadow), and so on, coupled with things like Surgical Extraction, will just send you back to the stone age more often than you would be ready for. Abundance of discard spells doesn't help either.

Decks like Eldrazi Tron do not exactly follow this category, since they are not so dependent on ramping like other similar decks.

UR Storm

One of the decks that has to be analysed with differences between paper and online play in mind. Storm is common online due to a nice power/cost ratio. It is also not that hard to pick up and master.

But the reasons why I would shy away from the deck are: inability to combat discard spells plus a good clock, graveyard dependence, inconsistent draws, and linear game plan. Mass of cheap removals around doesn't help that much either. Overall cards that help vs Storm are also efficient in many other key matchups.

Company combo decks

Decks like Abzan Vizier Company, however powerful they are in general, are too vulnerable right now. On one hand Chalice of the Void doesn't kill the deck, but it can be tough Game 1, and then there are all the Fatal Pushes and discard.

At the premier level events I value more non-combo Collected Company decks or Saheeli-Guardian decks. Those decks either can play the fair game better, or have a two-card combo, that is not so easily disrupted and the pieces provide value on their own.

Thank you very much for reading!

Good luck at your local and online tournaments!

Stay tuned for more articles!

- Aarne Pyulze

- OthalaBor on Hearthstone

- Ekvilor or BoatBrew in other game accounts

- BoatBrew at all channels and media  

MtG. Amonkhet Standard. Threats VS Answers

Hello, folks!

This time I would like to go over old and new threats, and old and new answers for upcoming Amonkhet Standard.

This will be the era of white cards being best at answering most problems. But unlike in Modern, upcoming Standard, will have plenty interaction going on in maindecks, as well as post-sideboard.

This compilation of lists was drafted out after the first B&R announcement. Since then we lost the Cat, and had the results of the first major tournament with the new set - Starcitygames Standard Open tournament. Hence, some of these lists can lose some relevance, but are still important to keep in mind.     

Answer to the Gods

Offenders

Amonkhet Gods

Tools

Cast Out, Angel of Sanctions, Anguished Unmaking, Stasis Snare, Declaration in Stone, Quarantine Field.

Conclusion:

We haven’t really seen them at the first Starcity event, but Rhonas has been showing up quite a bit in BG Snek and GW Tokens online. Those decks and RG Beats might contend Mardu, but the target is really high. The answers are there, the cards that do their job against real current threats as well, and not just gods. I mean Gideons and Vehicles.

  

 

Vroom Vroom & Narrow Combo/Control

Offenders 1

Heart of Kiran, Harvester, Flagship

Offenders 2

Aetherworks Marvel, Dynavolt Tower

Tools  1

Manglehorn, Fatal Push, other instant removal, Sinister Concoction,

Tools 2

Natural Obsolescence, Forsake the Worldly, Fragmentize

Conclusion:

First of all, hate cards against Cycling Control variants is almost same, and this is why it is not featured separately.

Expect Marvel and Tower decks to show good numbers at the SCG and PT in coming weeks, since Mardu numbers are not expected to fall down.

(Cat Woman) - Case Closed. Kept as a food for thoughts.

Offenders

Saheeli Rai, Felidar Guardian

Tools

Gideon's Intervention, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Walking Ballista, Authority of the Consuls, Lost Legacy,

Conclusion:

It is a thing no more. The answers were there, but the Cat is no longer with Standard. Major arguments that I found in others’ responses that reason everything perfectly are: the format became too tough range wise - need to fight both Vehicles and Saheeli; and the value midrange factor, meaning that Jeskai Saheeli was much easier to answer, but 4k builds could play tempo aggro value game, and the combo was just to keep opponents up tight and distracted.

 

Fast beefy beats (BR, GR aggros)

Offenders

Plague Belcher, Rhonas, Hazored, Honored Hydra, Glorybringer

Tools

Fumigate, Dusk / Dawn, Linvala, the Preserver, Lightning Axe, Unlicensed Disintegration, Archangel Avacyn, Declaration in Stone, Immolating Glare.  

Conclusion:

It is still a fresh format, when it comes to ranking red beatdown strategies. While I do think that beefy new decks can keep up with Mardu and BG, the latter ones already have so many good counter-answers.  

RWx Humans (+Zombies?)

Offenders

Basically the entire archtype, that received a lot of new tools from the new set, and now can provide even more savage beats to opponents.

Tools

Radiant Flames, Sweltering Suns, Shock, Magma Spray, other sweepers and cheap removal, lifegain effects on flexible cards (Kalitas, Linvala).    

Conclusion:

I have my doubts about whether the deck will be strong enough, but it certainly has potentially.

As long as it will have decent Vehicles and Saheeli matchups, it should be a deck.

There have been many sweepers, but they were not efficient because of Vehicles and planeswalkers. RW Humans could change that, but the deck is very easy to hate out, if it becomes a thing, but at the Pro Tour it might be off the “playable” radar for many players.   

Planeswalkers in General

Offenders

Gideons, post-sideboard Mardu package, Tamiyo, new and old Nissa, etc

Tools

Sorin, Grim Nemesis, fliers with haste or flash, To the Slaughter, Ruinous Path, Never//Return, Cast Out, Anguished Unmaking

Conclusion:

Mardu and its sideboard is already a huge reason to pack many good answers to planeswalkers in your Standard deck. In addition to that, those answers will again be good overall (vehicles, gods). This means that when choosing threats for your deck, you will have to judge the tempo and value very carefully, because nothing will be really safe.

Thank you very much for reading!

Good luck at your local and online tournaments!

Stay tuned for more articles!

- Aarne Pyulze

- OthalaBor on Hearthstone

- Ekvilor or BoatBrew in other game accounts

- BoatBrew at all channels and media