Notable mainboard change: Replaced Tidehollow Sculler with Blood Artist! I've been having tremendous difficulty lately with Torpor Orb, since the only answer is preempting it with a discard spell or Qasali Pridemage. If I've used or somehow lost the Pridemage already, I'm screwed (lately to an insane level when my opponent played Ensnaring Bridge to prevent the beatdown alternative). It occurred to me that Blood Artist is an alternative combo, as I can still recur a persist creature forever with Melira down, and Blood Artist will still trigger with a Torpor Orb out.
Tidehollow, on the other hand, is too inconsistent. He's great if paired with a Voice, as I can pod the Voice away to get to 3CMC, but if he's my only remaining 2-drop, things get awkward. I'll find him a spot in the sideboard, he's still great for matchups where I side out the pods.
Hehe yeah the combo works, its pretty spicey. I've dicked around with it some, but I still am on my USA deck in modern for real tournaments. My meta has shifted now though to where nobody plays "real" decks, everything is a brew, so I'm tweaking out a U/R Tron deck (with emrakuls! Yeah!) to be my pet project. My USA one is tuned for real turnys already.
Mine's similar except for a few people playing things like Scapeshift that they've clearly netdecked and have no idea how to play.
My own USA deck is SO close to done! I just need 4x Arid Mesas and a bunch of little cheap cards. I won a VIP Qualifier and might go to the TCGPlayer championship in Ohio in October or November, it's split Standard/Modern, I really want this deck done and tested/tuned in time.
I might be, depends on if I can share a hotel with a friend who is considering going. What week is that again?
I have a 5k this weekend in Orlando, I'm actually going to blow 40 points on two byes....if the attendance is the same as the last one in March it should be 7 rounds, with 2 byes I need to go 2-3 to make money or 3-2 could very well get me into top 8. I'll still have enough points left to enter in Ohio if I want.
Winning would obviously be sweet: $1500 and more than enough points.
EDIT: Running Bant Hexproof again, same build I won the VIP event with, so that should be pretty easy.
Yeah ive been seeing the bant pants show up in lots of places. If I was going to compete in standard, I'd probably run that. I'm seriously displeased at the current standard though. Once theros hits, control is so dead it's not even funny. I'll probably throw in the towel and just play whatever the best turn-dudes-sideways deck is once the shift happens. On a positive note, I'm 3 flooded strands away from having my legacy USA landbase built, meaning I can play USA delver or countertop (the like, most skill intensive deck ever lol). Super excited about that. Keep me up to date if you decide to come to Atlanta? I may end up being there. Would be nice to actually say hello :)
Will do. Depending on my work situation I probably will, the new job's just hectic and unpredictable (it's Wednesday and I've already put in 63 hours this week, but other weeks I put in maybe 10).
I was thinking the other day how Archangel of Thune provides yet another infinite win condition. Kitchen Finks + Archangel of Thune + Sacrifice Outlet = Infinite Life + Infinite Counters on everything on the field.
Just wanted to throw this comment out there as evidence that I did come to this realization independently and did not copy it when inevitably someone makes the same connection >.>
Ohh. I turn 2'd a Thalia lastnight vs eggs, and turn 3'd it the following game. Needless to say, he died horribly to the straight up melira aggro plan.
Just took down my first modern tournament with this. It helps when round 2 I get paired against someone running infect and hit a turn 2 Melira both games.
Moved Inquisitions to the side, replaced in the main with Orzhov Pontiff and Harmonic Sliver. Tempted to put the Shriekmaw in the main to have something more at the 5 slot to pod into. Unless I have a bunch of Meliras and Viscera Seers that got killed, Reveillark is just a flier for me that can pod into Mikaeus. If I don't need to resurrect those, I'd rather pod into removal.
On the side I added a Thalia I picked up last night and another copy of Inquisition and got rid of the second Baloth and the 4th Melira.
I couldn't agree more, I despise eggs. My hatred is sufficient to confirm that I need to find a copy of Thalia by tomorrow.
I see a lot of Pithing Needles and Nevermores around here. I hate interrupting the pod chain, but that's what Qasali Pridemage is for I guess.
I think I may indeed put Pontiff in the main, I've been thinking back and remember SO many 1 toughness creatures that were a pain in the ass. There's this one Shaman deck I can't stand....I'd love to clear out his Flamekin Harbingers before he can start tossing down his Rage Forgers.
Yeah it's heavily dependant on your meta. My Meta sideboards in static hate for combo, like stony silence / pithing needle / nevermore / meddling mage (odd how most of that is standard, lol). The only slaughter games in my meta is from one jund player, and stone beat his face lastnight 2-0. Not sure if he removed it or not, but he just flopped around and died. Absolutely isn't a deck you can just pick up and run with. Gotta get a good feel for it. Thalia is important for eggs too. Pod out a mana dork or two for canonist and thalia, proceed to watch eggs player QQ like a bitch.
I take, far too much enjoyment, in beating egg player's faces in. Absolutely detest that deck. At my latest PTQ I was paired against three, of the 5 eggs players. Got free lunch from the people at the PTQ being happy I beat their face in (rounds 1/2/3). Basically knocked them out of the competition, heh.
Don't need the 4th melira. I'd sideboard out the inquisitons and run abrupt decays. You need some way mainboard to unstoppable kill small shit (sideboard hate). Thalia is a very strong sideboard card, really hinders everyone else (much more so than you). Not sure how much I like Mikaeus. Hard casting him is a bitch, and you can only pod into him off revilark. He does provide another fixer for persist though. Orzhov Pont might should be mainboard. That's a board wiper against U control decks that are going to beats with cliques and snapcasters. Only need one baloth, thats boarded in vs jund. Sun Titan is sexy.
Mikaeus has flipped betweent he side and main a few times, and like you said he's there as an alternative to Melira. When I face a lot of things like Slaughter Games I love having him so I don't lose the combo.
I've been meaning to remove the 4th Melira, don't know why she's there still. I had the second Baloth there along with Thrun when I am facing heavy combo hate where I need to win with good old-fashioned beatdown. Sun Titan is definitely a sexy beast, I usually swap him in for Mikaeus when I am struggling to finish.
I appreciate the suggestions, I think I'm sticking with the Inquisitions for now...I've found that having information is far more valuable with this deck (at least in my local meta) than straight up removal. When I'm tutoring off of a pod into Ranger of Eos, for example, I want to know if I need two Seers as a fail-safe or if I can risk springing for a Shaman or Hierarch.
On the side, I would love to replace the second Balot with Kataki, War's Wage, but alas, after a month of searching I cannot find a single copy someone is willing to trade me and I'm too broke to buy even that right now.
Will definitely consider moving the Pontiff into the main, and again I keep going back and forth with the Titan and Mikaeus between main and side, though I do think I want to keep both available in either case.
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Tidehollow, on the other hand, is too inconsistent. He's great if paired with a Voice, as I can pod the Voice away to get to 3CMC, but if he's my only remaining 2-drop, things get awkward. I'll find him a spot in the sideboard, he's still great for matchups where I side out the pods.
My own USA deck is SO close to done! I just need 4x Arid Mesas and a bunch of little cheap cards. I won a VIP Qualifier and might go to the TCGPlayer championship in Ohio in October or November, it's split Standard/Modern, I really want this deck done and tested/tuned in time.
I have a 5k this weekend in Orlando, I'm actually going to blow 40 points on two byes....if the attendance is the same as the last one in March it should be 7 rounds, with 2 byes I need to go 2-3 to make money or 3-2 could very well get me into top 8. I'll still have enough points left to enter in Ohio if I want.
Winning would obviously be sweet: $1500 and more than enough points.
EDIT: Running Bant Hexproof again, same build I won the VIP event with, so that should be pretty easy.
Just wanted to throw this comment out there as evidence that I did come to this realization independently and did not copy it when inevitably someone makes the same connection >.>
On the side I added a Thalia I picked up last night and another copy of Inquisition and got rid of the second Baloth and the 4th Melira.
I see a lot of Pithing Needles and Nevermores around here. I hate interrupting the pod chain, but that's what Qasali Pridemage is for I guess.
I think I may indeed put Pontiff in the main, I've been thinking back and remember SO many 1 toughness creatures that were a pain in the ass. There's this one Shaman deck I can't stand....I'd love to clear out his Flamekin Harbingers before he can start tossing down his Rage Forgers.
I take, far too much enjoyment, in beating egg player's faces in. Absolutely detest that deck. At my latest PTQ I was paired against three, of the 5 eggs players. Got free lunch from the people at the PTQ being happy I beat their face in (rounds 1/2/3). Basically knocked them out of the competition, heh.
I've been meaning to remove the 4th Melira, don't know why she's there still. I had the second Baloth there along with Thrun when I am facing heavy combo hate where I need to win with good old-fashioned beatdown. Sun Titan is definitely a sexy beast, I usually swap him in for Mikaeus when I am struggling to finish.
I appreciate the suggestions, I think I'm sticking with the Inquisitions for now...I've found that having information is far more valuable with this deck (at least in my local meta) than straight up removal. When I'm tutoring off of a pod into Ranger of Eos, for example, I want to know if I need two Seers as a fail-safe or if I can risk springing for a Shaman or Hierarch.
On the side, I would love to replace the second Balot with Kataki, War's Wage, but alas, after a month of searching I cannot find a single copy someone is willing to trade me and I'm too broke to buy even that right now.
Will definitely consider moving the Pontiff into the main, and again I keep going back and forth with the Titan and Mikaeus between main and side, though I do think I want to keep both available in either case.