Another Fruitless Attempt at Having a Good Time
I've tried to plan a Secret Santa blind deck swap with Collin at two other events in the past and circumstances always caused it to fall through. The idea is you build a 75 card deck for the other person and they don't find out what they are playing until round 1. I originally wanted to do this for the 2018 Hunter Burton Memorial, but the unbanning of Jace, the Mind Sculptor had me wanting to play the newly available card. Then again I planned on doing it for this year's Hunter Burton Memorial, but I messed around and qualified for the Mythic Championship in London and didn't want to waste a good testing opportunity for that event. At least Zac Elsik and friends managed to pull it off.
Collin and I were planning on Secret Santa for this SCG. We assumed Hogaak would be banned, and nothing else would change. He didn't really need to do well since he's already qualified for the Players Championship at the end of the year, and I'm not trying to grind the SCG circuit, so it was the perfect opportunity. I decided I would give him Neoform, and even ordered the last few cards I was missing for the deck. He had planned on giving me an Esper Mentor list. This was all for naught as the Monday morning ban and restriction announcement really shook things up. I agree with almost every decision they made except maybe the unbanning of SFM, but I won't complain about getting my favorite card back.
The Starting Point
I was scheduled to take the GRE on Tuesday morning, so I wasn't going to have much time to brew at all. Then I got a call telling me the testing center was having network issues and my test would be rescheduled. This freed me up to do lots of brewing (and maybe even play some actual games!)
The UW shell is probably where most people started. Jace is still great with SFM. Batterskull is a great way to blank aggressive strategies, and the blue counters (especially Force of Negation) are strong against unfair decks. I looked at possibly adding SFM to Spirits, but the main question was what other creatures do you play with in UW.
I played a few games Monday night with a basic UW shell against Eldrazi Trona and Humans. Batterskull really shined against Eldrazi, but Humans still had enough interaction that it wasn't immediately game over by untapping with a SFM. You could still win, especially with Supreme Verdict, but the SFM wasn't a consistent way to close out games. This is probably a good sign that SFM isn't unhealthy on power level (but I'm still skeptical about white decks that choose not to play it).
Trying to find a second or third playable creature to pair with equipment was the tricky part in UW. Spell Queller is great, but a bit clunky when you start adding the Teferi you want to support it. Snapcaster is good but non-evasive. Squadron Hawk isn't exactly Modern playable (though I personally played it in Legacy as recently as 2016 so I'm not opposed). Ice-Fang Coatl was the discovery that seemed most promising.
The first Ice-Fang deck we made was very similar to the list Edgar Magalhaes played at the event. Flash creatures and Sword of Feast and Famine are obviously very synergistic, but the mana was a bit awkward with Field of Ruin and Cryptic Command. We thought about it more and decided to go a more proactive route.
The Main Deck
I'll be including chat logs from the conversation between Collin and I to show how we arrived at some of these decisions. Included are some screenshots of the deck along the way.Ty Thomason 10:45
what about hexdrinker?
Collin Rountree 10:49
woah
it would be good
in my gw deck i think
Ty Thomason 10:49
you can also search him up with ranger captain if you need to
Collin Rountree 10:50
hmm gw ranger with teferi and quller
or is that too many three drops?
Ty Thomason 10:50
i think with mana dudes you can play a few more 3s
Collin Rountree:
Ty Thomason 10:52
okay i think 4 teferi 4 queller is just what we have to play
Collin Rountree 10:52
ok
im down to lock that in
i think green cards are just going to be the best pair with those right
like these other cards are just going to make you so clunky
Ty Thomason 10:53
yeah noble is just too good with teferi
The discovery of Hexdrinker as a Ranger target that can be decent with a Sword was the catalyst to move in the more midrange creature direction.
Collin Rountree 10:55
I like giver hexdrinker coatl ranger
all those are good
you like these pridemage?
also we could play a ballista, but probablyy not good
also bant has best sideboard
Ty Thomason 10:57
i like 1 ballista i think
is there a way to tutor artifact destruction with ranger?
Collin Rountree 10:57
really?
yeah casutic catapiller
Ty Thomason 10:58
i guess its same total mana to kill something as pridemage
Collin Rountree 11:01
i mean its much worse
for sure
but maybe you split
i'm looking at one drops right now
Ty Thomason 11:03
how many birds do we play
Collin Rountree 11:03
1-2
i think maybe 0-2****
we have enough good one plays
we might not want any
Caustic Caterpillar as a value tutor target was also key to the process (and very key to many of our match wins on the weekend)
do we want to play township
or horizon canopy/waterlogged grove?
Collin Rountree 11:06
i dont think so
well we need snow lands
Ty Thomason 11:06
i think we have to play path and then just enough snow basics to make coatl reasonable
and maybe SB some thin ice
Collin Rountree 11:07
why do you think this
i think the on thin ice is legit good
Ty Thomason 11:07
the early mana is demanding for teferi, ranger, etc on turn 2
Collin Rountree 11:07
oh you think its just a mana problem
i see
Ty Thomason 11:08
yeah we're going to probably want 2 breeding pool 2 temple garden
at least we don't have any double U
Collin Rountree 11:08
yeah those are all good points
The first glance at the mana led me to cut On Thin Ice for Path to Exile. Note: the mana here is still very very bad, but for some reason (not playing any games) we hadn't noticed yet.
Collin Rountree 11:14
these are the ones i've got for you:
Ty Thomason 11:16
k forge tender and parasite reasonable sb
the rest aren't playable
We didn't play any of these, but should have had the Forge-Tender in the sideboard.
Ty Thomason 11:18
okay witness is def better than 4th ranger
and rebuy on caterpiller
Collin Rountree 11:18
lol
we are playing catapiller
in a modern tournament
and i am excited
Ty Thomason 11:19
we going in as catapiller
and leaving as butterflies
Caterpillar Hype! At this point, the deck looks like this:
The Sideboard
After some brief discussion, we end up with the first draft of the sideboard.
Collin Rountree 11:28
Ty Thomason 11:29
i don't like 2 purge
Collin Rountree 11:29
wren and six is scaryyyyy
Ty Thomason 11:30
i know
can we spyglass?
Collin Rountree 11:30
lol no
Ty Thomason 11:30
or just side out some 1 toughness duds
Collin Rountree 11:30
we could winds of abandon
Ty Thomason 11:30
i like winds
i like 1 winds 1 purge to have vs death shadow
Collin Rountree 11:31
i mean i like needle
against urza
or spyglass****
Ty Thomason 11:31
no
need revoker to stop mana
maybe we just gotta linvala
do we need Rest in Peace?
Collin Rountree 11:32
instead of purge
yeah we need it
for urza and jund
Ty Thomason 11:32
okay
and ravager
any good answer to ballista?
Collin Rountree 11:33
linvala
ceremonios
Ty Thomason 11:34
ok
knight is reasonable too to stop early ones
Collin Rountree 11:34
Ty Thomason 11:35
okay i like that
maybe we don't need 2 teeg? its so good though right?
Collin Rountree 11:35
its probably not needed with so many blue cards in our board
and i was thinking maybe i wanted another card for burn
Ty Thomason 11:36
yeah get the forge tender back in
The Swords
Ty Thomason 11:36
okay are we playing the right swordsfeast and famine is great
i don't even know what the 2 new ones (from MH1) do but remember thinking they weren't playable
Collin Rountree 11:37
i could be down for double batterskull + sofaf
Ty Thomason 11:37
i don't want double skull in this deck
but might want light and shadow
its better vs burn right?
Collin Rountree 11:37
i mean its hot
with ranger
and pretty much just wins
against uw right
like teferi ranger
Collin discovers the SoLS + Ranger-Captain lock.
Ty Thomason 11:38
when do we want fire and ice?
against jace only?
Collin Rountree 11:38
thopter sword i guess?
Ty Thomason 11:38
oh sure
thopters are blue
Collin Rountree 11:38
killing goblin engineeer
shooting other sfm
thats about it
We start to figure out (as did a lot of other people) that SoFI isn't as good outside of Legacy. Back when I won the Legacy Open with True-Name Nemesis on the first weekend it was legal, I was replacing SoFF with SoFI to beat other TNN that didn't show up. SoFI became the standard as TNN caught on, but wasn't widely played before that.
Ty Thomason 11:40
okay lets list decks
and which 2 swords we want vs each
Collin Rountree 11:41
tron
Ty Thomason 11:41
feast and famine, light and shadow?
Collin Rountree 11:41
humans
Ty Thomason 11:41
fire ice, light shadow
Collin Rountree 11:42
jund
Ty Thomason 11:42
both black ones
Collin Rountree 11:42
yeah
Ty Thomason 11:42
and clearly both black ones vs abzan
Collin Rountree 11:42
urza
Ty Thomason 11:42
fire ice, light shadow?
Collin Rountree 11:42
i think you want those yeah
it seems we want light and shadow in all of them
Ty Thomason 11:43
yeah
Collin Rountree 11:44
and your guy is just unblockable against humans if you have bg
and bw sword
so we are cutting sword of fire and ice
We moved the SoFI to the SB, but eventually it got cut for something higher impact.
The Mana Base
At this point, we have most of a maindeck and sideboard. Our mana is awful, but we don't know it. Eventually we figure it out.
Ty Thomason 11:52
its never time to cut a teferi right
it might be time
i know we started at 4 teferi 4 queller but i'm happy with 3 teferi 1 jace
Collin Rountree 17:35
Our mana is close to close to correct right?
Ty Thomason 17:47
Yeah
I thought maybe cut a forest for a vista when talking about supreme verdict but probably not worth it
Could also see maybe wanting 2nd island post board
Collin Rountree 17:49
Pass
Collin Rountree 06:13
Also let’s not play three sac draw lands
I think I like two
Ty Thomason 07:02
Ashiok is neat
Do we have enough blue for force
vista sucks you are right, and concern about needing two islands you can just fetch duals post board because you won't need deathtouch
i'm also down to cut a horizon land, but for what? a vista?
Ty Thomason 10:43
okay we just gotta be ready to fetch shocks and also never have deathtouch
Collin Rountree 10:43
i already thought that was the plan
Ty Thomason 10:43
it is
Collin Rountree 10:43
thats why i could neverunderstand
all these vistas
the vista is
a big yikes
Ty Thomason 10:44
flooded strand?
Collin Rountree 10:44
yeah we should just be playing 11 fetches
or 10 at least
and one canopy
I start thinking about Flooded Strand and how often we want to be fetching forests.
Ty Thomason 10:52
maybe plains is bad
okay we just don't have perfect mana (ed: DING DING DING!)
i'm down to just play jace and hope i can cast it
Collin Rountree 10:54
i mean the interent says 14 for one drop mana sources
so i think we can cut a forest for a flooded to help our other mana sources
and still keep the greeen
Ty Thomason 10:55
i also like these thickets
maybe 2 island is right
i got to go to a meeting i'll keep thinking
but maybe the 1 forest 2 plains 2 island is actually correct
we don't have scooze or anything
Collin Rountree 10:56
kk sounds good
I go to meeting then come back with the revelation:
Ty Thomason 12:10
maybe forest sucks so we should play lot of flooded strands
Collin Rountree 12:10
yeah that way we can aggro fetch basics lol
forest hollowed fountain
is the dream
lol its not
but you know what i mean
windswept is best land
Ty Thomason 12:13
i think 2 islands is reasonable
Collin Rountree 12:14
i think its reasonable but unnessecary
lets play first seachrome
Ty Thomason 12:14
i think i'd just rather have it than 2nd forest
Collin Rountree 12:14
over that
can we only play four basics lol
Ty Thomason 12:15
no we need at least 5
Collin Rountree 12:15
we are def going to want to fetch basic island a lot i agree on that for sure
Ty Thomason 12:15
i think we want to fetch basic island and plains a lot
so strand is best
Collin Rountree 12:15
It’s plains island then forest
But drawing forest
Is best right?
So that’s why forest best
Ty Thomason 12:16
i don't think so
Collin Rountree 12:16
Over island
Ty Thomason 12:16
you never want to draw the 2nd forest
Collin Rountree 12:16
same with island
maybe 1/3/1?
Ty Thomason 12:16
no plains is too bad with snake
Collin Rountree 12:17
yeah so we have to play an island or a forest for sure
ok
let me think
youre right
island is better than forest
by a good amount
i am just delusional
before
Ty Thomason 12:19
okay so last land is misty/breeding pool/waterlogged grove
one of those 3
misty better for snake so yeah makes sense
Collin Rountree 12:20
all of this
is much better for these sketch ashioks
in our board too
which is nice
Ty Thomason 12:20
right
and the jace
just our deck is UW splashing for noble hierarch
Collin Rountree 12:21
lol yeah
i love it
Ty Thomason 12:21
but thats actually fine
Collin Rountree 12:21
exactly
The last change we made was cutting the 4th Giver of Runes for 2nd Jace the Mind Sculptor the night before the event.
The Event
I went 10-5. I lost to RG Eldrazi, MonoRed Prowess, Jund, Grixis Death Shadow, and Amulet. I beat TitanBreach, Death and Taxes, UW Flash, Burn, Dredge, Bant Soulherder, UWg Stoneforge, Surge Nodes, Jund, and WhirZa.
Collin also went 10-5. He lost to Burn, MonoRed Prowess, Tron x2, and UWg Stoneforge. He doesn't remember the victories.
Most of the matches were really interesting, but I'm running out of time to share all the stories. Maybe in a future post, but not likely.
The Deck Going Forward
Giver of Runes was disappointing. It was fine but didn't do enough to warrant playing 4 or even 3. I think playing just 2 going forward is reasonable.
Teferi was great, I should have played 4. Never let me play a Modern deck without 4 Teferi in the future, it just isn't fair.
Ranger was way better than I expected and could also see going up to 4. Hexdrinker won me some games so probably still makes the cut.
I didn't love RIP vs Jund and think a different SB plan is needed for that matchup. I also think you need to play the Forge-Tender
Collin played on camera round 2. You can watch the match here at about the 1:20:00 mark.
Thankful
I had a great time playing Magic this weekend. Playing SFM and Jace was very mentally exhausting, in a good way! It's why I keep coming back to this style of deck after all these years.Thanks to Collin for helping me with the list. Thanks to Berni for going out of his way to come drive us to Fort Worth and back. Thanks to my wife for letting me spend the weekend playing cards. Thanks to Wizards for unbanning Stoneforge Mystic.
Thanks,
Ty
*I linked to Collin Rountree list because it accurately reflected what we played. The version on the SCG website with my name on it was our initial version before changing a Giver to a Jace the night before. When I resubmitted the list, it either didn't go through or I did it incorrectly. Either way, I'm lucky I didn't get deck checked. I wish SCG would use a similar process to ChannelFireball for deck submissions.
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