BlippyTheSlug's picture
By: BlippyTheSlug, Volker Kirstein
Nov 27 2014 1:00pm
0
Login to post comments
2981 views


 

Terra Incognita

It has been said of Modern: "The most important thing about Modern is [its] diversity. It's by and far the most open format right now, there are huge tracts of land no one has explored. It's the new frontier of competitive Magic.", and "The nice thing about Modern is that the format is very open. There's a lot of room to explore and find decks that can work".

To hammer home this point, here are maps from some recent explorations:

 

Skred Red
Tyler Forshaw, 6th, SCG IQ, Richmond, VA, Nov 23, 2014 
Creatures
4 Boros Reckoner
3 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
8 Creatures

Planeswalkers
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Koth of the Hammer
5 Planeswalkers

Other Spells
2 Blood Moon
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Magma Jet
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
3 Pyroclasm
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Skred
3 Volcanic Fallout
24 Other Spells
Lands
2 Mutavault
21 Snow-Covered Mountain
23 Lands

Boros Reckoner

Here's an interesting take on an old classic!

Ever since Coldsnap, Skred Red has been a fringe player from left field from way back in the day. In those days, it used Stuffy Doll as the doom engine*. When Boros Reckoner came along, a new doom engine* was put in place, and it was tried again from time to time.

Here's another try, racking up a 6th place finish at the SCG IQ. Not too shabby! The basic game plan seems to be burn & beat, unless I'm missing something. 

* The "doom engine" I'm referring to is the interaction between (Stuffy Doll/Boros Reckoner/(Swans of Bryn Argoll?)) and Skred: you blast your doomgiver w/Skred for a whole bunch and redirect it to your opponent. (Or draw a whole bunch of cards w/Swans)

White Lightning
Occhio L, T4, GPT Milan, Varese, IT, Nov 16, 2014 
Creatures
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
4 Taylor Swiftspear
12 Creatures

Other Spells
4 Boros Charm
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
1 Pillar of Flame
4 Rift Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
4 Skullcrack
29 Other Spells
Lands
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Clifftop Retreat
9 Mountain
4 Sacred Foundry
1 Wooded Foothills
19 Lands

Monastery Swiftspear

Next we have T4 deck from a GP Trial in Italy. (I'm an intercontinental slug!)

Nothing really new here.

I'm just using it as an example of RDW splashing , to allow a logical progression, and give the gestalt of this whole article a more coherent flow. Anyway, it is a fine example of the type of burn decks one sees floating about these days.

Jeskai Burn
Javier Crespo, Winner, GP Madrid Last Chance, Nov 14, 2014 
Creatures
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
4 Taylor Swiftspear
12 Creatures

Other Spells
4 Boros Charm
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
4 Rift Bolt
3 Searing Blaze
1 Shard Volley
4 Skullcrack
3 Treasure Cruise
29 Other Spells
Lands
3 Arid Mesa
3 Mountain
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
4 Wooded Foothills
19 Lands

Monastery Swiftspear

Lastly, from the GP Madrid Last Chance Qualifiers, we have basically the same deck as White Lightning above, but splashing , as well, for Treasure Cruise. Again, obvious game plan is obvious.

 

Firesnaps v1.1
FNM 11/21 @ Tramps 
Creatures
4 Goblin Guide
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Taylor Swiftspear
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
13 Creatures

Other Spells
4 Electrolyze
4 Incinerate
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
3 Magma Jet
1 Searing Blood
Treasure Cruise
27 Other Spells
Lands
3 Bloodstained Mire
6 Mountain
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Scalding Tarn
4 Steam Vents
20 Lands

This is the ill-gotten offspring of that time Burn and Delver hooked up on a cruise around the South Pacific with a bottle of White Lightning. I found the abandoned hulk while rummaging through a crate of Papaya, took it home, and started playing doctor. *waggles eyebrows*

Burn decks guzzle gas. This is a gimme. Since I'm already running , a full four of Treasure Cruise is a gimme, as well. 

On turn one, I wanna be throwing down Taylor, or bolting your dome, not putting down a 1/1 flippy I gotta protect. So, out goes Delver, and in comes Snappy. Sure, he's more, but he does let me get double duty out of my burn spells, and has legs. 

 

I need to get out more, and had originally planned on playing at Amazing Stories in Saskatoon with Riddles and Devon. For me, it was going to be my first "out of area" event, and I had heard tales that the Toon Town Modern community was alive and well, and that the FNMs there were regularly five round events. Needless to say, come Friday morning as I was doing my last minute provision gathering, I was quite excited.

The plan was to head out about 1:30 in the afternoon for a two and a half hour trip north across the Prairie, with a stop at Timmys along the way. We'd get to Toon Town, have some dinner (I had packed a bag dinner), and play FNM, finishing sometime between eleven and midnight, and be home by 3:00 AM.

I knocked off work at 1, and was getting my stuff packed into the backpack when I got the text from Riddles that Devon had taken off to Toon Town solo to do some trading, and wasn't going to play in the FNM after all. Needless to say, this left Riddles and I high and dry on very short notice. 

I'm used to it; it's the story of my life this past decade. Oh well. We could still go to the local FNM, and we now had a free afternoon, which continued to be invaded by yet more hooligans, and mass quantities were consumed, and somehow we ended up at:

Modern FNM, Nov 21 @ Tramps

R1 vs Shane / Jeskai Control

In both games, I wasn't quick enough. I had him down to 1 in G1, 4 in G2. I was satisfied with how the deck came out, but could see that Electrolyze was going to be a problem: it wasn't doing what I hoped it would. Sure, it drew me a card here and there, but the burn portion was ineffectual. Ditto Magma Jet. Had I had 3 pointers in hand instead of 2 pointers, both games might have gone different directions.

-4 Snapcaster Mage, -1 Treasure Cruise, +3 Torpor Orb, +2 Searing Blood

L 0-2 / 0-1 Overall

 

R2 vs BYE

1-1 Overall

 

R3 vs Mitch / Delverstorm

Game 1 was a quick thrashing, then after sideboarding it became a much more drawn out affair. In the end, Thundermaw swung in for the win in game 2.

-1 Electrolyze, -1 Snapcaster Mage, -1 Treasure Cruise, +3 Searing Blood

W 2-0 / 2-1 Overall

 

R4 vs Keegan / GRuul Zoo

All three games were quick and brutal, and reasonably close. It seemed to come down to whoever went first won. Again, Electrolyze and Magma Jet were sub-par performers.

-1 Electrolyze, -1 Snapcaster Mage, -1 Treasure Cruise, +3 Searing Blood

L 1-2 / 2-2 Overall / 6th

 

Tweaks

 

 

The Twitterverse 

Magic Online

Other MTG/Wotc

 

 

Overdrive!, which started on July 4th, 2011, is the original Modern format Player-Run Event! In fact, Overdrive! is even older than Modern, having started out as an event in the Overextended format. Overdrive! is a single elimination event: two men enter, one man leaves. Registration is done via Gatherling. You can find more information at the main event thread here.

 

 

Overdrive! #159
Players: 15
Champion: pierakor / U Tron
Runner up: DrunkenSailor15 / Breach Ramp
Decklists and results from all Overdrive! events can be found here.  

pierakor brought his signature U Tron deck, and proceeded to put the pain to Zoo, Ghostpants (aka Boggles), Tarmo Twin, and Breach Ramp to emerge as Overdrive! #159 champion.

ScionOfJustice brought Breach Tron to the dance, and took out Angel Pod, U Tron, and Temur Loam Delver before falling to pie's U tron.

 


Watch live video from pierakor on Twitch

 


BlippyTheSlug on MTGO
Blog: Read At Your Peril (NSFW!)

 

 

Blippy's GP Vancouver Fund
All proceeds used for MTG travel/accommodations/reportage

 

3адерганный!

1 Comments

Thanks so much for putting by Joe Fiorini at Thu, 11/27/2014 - 17:45
Joe Fiorini's picture

Thanks so much for putting on these tournaments. I have had a blast the few times over been able to play .
Slugapalooza was awesome. I was 4 and 0 when v4 memory leak crashed my game and left me with 5 minutes on my clock. I was down a game, so I had no shot.
Well, the six game run I was on was fun :)
I'm really very sorry that I had to drop out, family issues and all.
Thanks for your hard work organising all these tournaments.