What about settle the wreckage. Either as a wrath against a swarm, or deck filtering on your part (Attack with tokens then exile them and pull out all basics from your deck, thus increasing the density of spells in your library).
Hmmm thinking Emeria Angel or Emeria Shepherd would be just insane in that case.
You had me at Cromulent and Embiggen! I was really tempted to try Mono White Vampires but I think the removal is what scared me off. I really do not like the clunky enchantment based removal. I am now leaning toward the UG pummeler deck or GW aggro. The latter I may even try online.
"Additionally, like with Aether Revolt, we're not going to have specific Prerelease events on Magic Online. Feedback from our Aether Revolt experiment with this went well, and players strongly enjoyed being able to play in the variety of events Magic Online normally offers.
Competitive and Friendly leagues will be available for sealed, and Competitive, Intermediate, and Friendly leagues will be available for draft. They will have the same entry and prize structures as they do now for Aether Revolt."
They very specifically did not have any special promotion or prerelease with the launch of Amonkhet, no free foil evolving wilds tied to it or during the week in question.
That was just a promotion stunt. "Log on during this prerelease weekend and you will receive a free foil Evolving Wilds". So all of the more hardcore customers naturally logged on with the 9 accounts that each and everyone of them have on average on mtgo. This means that the real number is close to one ninth of what is claimed.
I tend to think WW has a lot going for it against most decks that utilize, generally speaking, 4 mana 2-4 for one card advantage cards/wraths to accrue value over creature based aggressive decks. Esper or U/W control tends to fall into this realm. I don't think anyone would say Wrath of God or its progeny are bad cards, but when evaluating them I think it's crucial that I fully understand their cost. If I'm under extreme duress from creatures, then it's likely I'm in a position where slamming a sweeper style effect is utterly necessary on my T4--likely I'm at 8-12 life by this point if my aggressive opponent has been doing their job well--here's the downside--I have to take a full turn off to do this, and I also, outside of FoW or Daze, give my opponent free reign on their turn to cast whatever they'd like. And, this is the turn of these games, as the aggressive player it's my responsibility to know that's what my control opponent is trying to do, and either play cards into it that mitigate it's effect (Selfless Spirit, Hallowed Spirit Keeper, Knight of the Holy Nimbus, Smuggler's Copter, equipment {at the end of the day what is bonesplitter other than a 2 power haste attacker that can't be wrathed}) or only present those threats necessary to get my opponent to wrath on curve--this is where an aggro player turns the game--post wrath you reinvest in the board as rapidly and under countermagic--which could mean something as bad as Elspeth or Gideon, or could mean 2x WW critters that will finish the game in 1-2 turns without further interaction from the opponent. The point is you want to consistently put the U/W control player on the back foot and force them to be reactionary to you. They will get to look at more cards, but through virtual advantage of playing a land lean aggressive deck you'll draw more threats than they will, so I think WW is benefited in the TD war to a large extent.
All of that said, I tend to think the matchup is 50/50, but I certainly am not concerned if I have to face it on the more aggressive build I ran in the tournament detailed in this report or my older versions of the deck.
Hope this helps and thanks for the kind comments Michelle.
Thanks for this nice article Lowman, I enjoyed reading it.
May I ask a question: In your experience what has been your win rate vs Azorius Control with your Death & Taxes deck? I know there are different versions and builds of Azorius Control, but I am talking about the ones you have faced.
In my personal experience, I have found Azorius Control is favored vs White Weenie (Go-Wide and Over-Extend strategies), but is not favored vs the more disruptive build of D&T. Sure Winter Orb and the 2 Geddons are usually insta-wins for WW if not countered, but with no card drawing or card filtering this happens only occasionally.
Some memorable moments in this tournament on my end:
Against stsung I was able to steal Crucible of Worlds out of the library using Thada Adel, then reuse Myriad Landscape every turn thereafter.
Vs. Kokonade: In game 1 after a mulligan to 5 I was dealt 20 damage by a single Seekers' Squire! All of my merfolk were brutally murdered. However I managed to comeback and actually won game 3 by using JtMS ultimate.
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the inspiration to pick this build back up and give it further consideration (I've got about 3-4 lands decks in this format that I've played around with since the unbanning of Fastbond, but haven't felt like I got them right).
1. Damnation and Gaze of Granite: Damnation is actually already in this build, gaze was a consideration, but because the deck relies heavily on specific critters, artifacts, and enchantments to get to big mana where gaze tends to become great, I felt like it didn't really have a home here. However, I agree Horn is a bit too hopeful, but I wanted to see what it could do. Realistically, it was actually serving as a place holder for Knight of the Reliquary because I feel like this deck very much so wants to use white, primarily for the inclusion of Enlightened Tutor to find either FB, Courser, or Crucible (given the assumption that I've found one of the three previously and can establish a lock by finding another piece).
2. Rolling Earthquake: I think you're right the deck likely wants another sweeper effect, but I tend to think this build would be happier with a card like Firestorm, while it does tend to tap out pretty regularly, it's also playing a lot of tapped lands (the cyclers) and lands that don't tap for mana at all, so being able to spend one mana at the cost of cards which I can recurse with loam, crucible, excavator, makes a lot more sense I think. If firestorm wasn't a thing, then I'll likely look to Sickening Dreams before I'd look to an Earthquake sytle effect because in the early and mid game you can often find yourself with less mana available due to the use of spell lands or tapped lands--obviously on the nut draw where you go to near infinite mana (or actual infinite mana) on T1-2 with this style of deck, then the Earthquake effect is better (while I suppose not on infinite mana because that would lead to some drawn games :P)
3. Garruk: he needs to go, but I don't think oracle is quite right, I feel like the oracle is better in a deck that can afford losing her after accruing value and then cast some obnoxious monster afterwards. The 4 mana for 2/2 body is just a lot, and not that I'm looking for her to be a clock, but the fact that she just dies to any shock is pretty disheartening. I think this slot would likely go Enlightened tutor because this will tend to ensure that I can get this effect (FB or Exploration) or another relevant effect (ref Crucible or Courser) to lock the game up (ie it's a lot more flexible than Oracle). A counter argument is that Asuza dies to the same thing, but I'm a lot happier losing a 3 CMC card for a 1-2 CMC card.
4: Personal Tutor is fair, it should probably be in the deck; Mystical Tutor already is in the deck.
I don't think this deck wants two double U counterspells, so I think Counterspell should actually go and Mana Drain should get in there, it's randomly great if you have the Primeval Titan.
Another notable missing card is Karakas, which becomes a lot more free if you include KoTR and Enlightened Tutor. I think given a shift to a very moderate W splash, you'd likely want to run Savannah, Karakas, Riftstone Portal, and likely Horizon Canopy.
Another cool land that I missed on first throwing this list together was Cephalid Coliseum, which is a boss with loam and the ability to play multiple lands in a turn, basically says ancestral recall if you can afford going back a turn on mana and can play cards from your graveyard with ease. But, this was just a first attempt (well I've attempted it before, but I often just start over, so I can mind map the deck and determine its theory of play), I'm sure future iterations will get better.
Again, another creative line that could be taken is using the Dreams cycle of cards (Insidious et al) as these cards that are inherent card disadvantage at the cost of selection can be turned into legitimate card advantage with the engine of the deck--Ideas (A)Unbound :)
I'll likely keep tooling around with the build and see how good I can make it. But, don't be afraid to "explore" the changed format, there's a lot of really cool things that can be done with some of the cards we've let back into the wild.
Thanks Lowman, I really enjoyed your deck tech. I liked it a lot and thank you for your helpful advice.
Can I recommmend:
1. Damnation (or Gaze of Granite) instead of Horn of Greed, in order to stop the beats. Since the weakness of this deck is curve-out aggression/midrange, I think it's best to shore up this matchup rather than focus on the Horn. Don't you have enough card advantage without the Horn?
2. Rolling Earthquake instead of Countersquall (since you are tapping out like crazy in your lands deck). This card will really send a message to the aggressive decks. Great both early and late game.
3. Oracle of Mul Daya instead of Garruk, since both are 4 mana and Oracle capitalises on the strengths of the deck more.
4. What about Personal Tutor or Mystical Tutor? Are they not better than Preordain and Ponder in this deck?
Update: as I said, the Treasure Chest changes are up on DailyMTG, and while I'm still going through the details, one message is abundantly clear: buy Treasure Chests! A ton of chaff was removed, the complete sets are a crazy lottery ticket, and the new cards are great (even if I knew about most of the list beforehand). Honestly, that combined with the new Play Point bundles has me a bit worried (Cardhoarder was decreasing their ticket buy price), but I'll get into that in the article.
I think this card is actually playable, but I think it requires a significantly larger build around than you provided it in your list. I think it's kind of obviously a throwback card to Gifts Ungiven, which I think very few people would debate is a bad card--it is the glue that tends to hold the Modern variants of storm together. However, the reason that gifts does this is because the graveyard zone is a deliberate play zone in that specific modern deck--not incidentally providing value, but generally necessary to win. When you play a card that is similar in nature (pun intended), ie Realms Uncharted, I think it tends to narrow your construction down because you want to run more high synergy cards with it to ensure that Realms Uncharted is a 4-1 and not solely a 2-1 (which essentially means it just became a divination for the 3rd and 4th best lands in your deck, and that might not even be true...some of them may only be truly great together with another land). So, I guess where I'm going is if you intend on running this card you need to ensure your deck can truly exploit it for 4-1 advantage and not just getting 4 land cards into your hand off of loam recursion because while that is card advantage it's not actualized as a boon for 4 turns (because you're only playing one of these a turn in this deck). For example, Ramunap Excavator, Titania, Protector of Argoth, Gitrog Monster (Tracking he has B in his CMC), Crucible of Worlds, Zuran Orb, Fastbond, Exploration, Asuza, Oracle of Muldia--even more radical or all in Lands! decks would likely run 5 color, but they'd also opt to use far more utility lands, barb ring, cabal pit, glacial chasm, tabernacle etc.
Not all of the cards listed are likely good enough, but I think when you're trying to effectively use a card like Realms Uncharted you need to both break the rules often and early on how many lands you can put into play and you need to have many ways to recurs land cards from your graveyard. At this point you're likely looking at a lot of lands to even make this work and replacing many of your creatures and spells with them.
So, to close out a fairly didactic answer: Yes, this card is good enough. Is it good enough in a control shell that will tend to win with midrange threats (ie thrun, thragtusk, TNN, or tireless tracker) or possibly the DD combo? No, I tend to think you can do better--in this shell it's like running Guided Passage in 100c (ie prepare to play the world's most expensive ancestral recall for the three worst cards in your deck).
May I ask what you think about the card Realms Unchartered in a Loam deck?
Every time I drew it, I was very underwhelmed because I never had an active Loam out with Realms Unchartered. Most times I saw it, I thought "Oh, it's you. Please, anything but you!!". I'm ditching it from now on. Never again!
What about settle the wreckage. Either as a wrath against a swarm, or deck filtering on your part (Attack with tokens then exile them and pull out all basics from your deck, thus increasing the density of spells in your library).
Hmmm thinking Emeria Angel or Emeria Shepherd would be just insane in that case.
It's a fine deck and people win with it, I am just not one of those people, and that's ok.
I also intentionally wrote this article to go up with yours today.
Brand synergy!
You had me at Cromulent and Embiggen! I was really tempted to try Mono White Vampires but I think the removal is what scared me off. I really do not like the clunky enchantment based removal. I am now leaning toward the UG pummeler deck or GW aggro. The latter I may even try online.
Doesn't mean it does, either. :)
Fixed. Which shows just how much I know about iconic masters.
Another stupid mistake--Stormchaser Mage isn't the UR uncommon, Electrolyze is.
Just because something isn't within your peripheral vision doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.
That's a fascinating theory, but sadly I cannot find any evidence to support it. Indeed, as you can see here:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-online/amonkhet-magi...
"Additionally, like with Aether Revolt, we're not going to have specific Prerelease events on Magic Online. Feedback from our Aether Revolt experiment with this went well, and players strongly enjoyed being able to play in the variety of events Magic Online normally offers.
Competitive and Friendly leagues will be available for sealed, and Competitive, Intermediate, and Friendly leagues will be available for draft. They will have the same entry and prize structures as they do now for Aether Revolt."
They very specifically did not have any special promotion or prerelease with the launch of Amonkhet, no free foil evolving wilds tied to it or during the week in question.
Hope this helps. :)
That was just a promotion stunt. "Log on during this prerelease weekend and you will receive a free foil Evolving Wilds". So all of the more hardcore customers naturally logged on with the 9 accounts that each and everyone of them have on average on mtgo. This means that the real number is close to one ninth of what is claimed.
Good news, I was able to find some relevant information on this via the official Tumblr from earlier this year.
http://wizardsmtgo.tumblr.com/post/159995995569/exert
"Yesterday, Magic Online hit an all-time record for the number of concurrent users logged into the system at one time."
So, the answer to your question is 'More than 7-8 years ago and more than when you stopped playing'.
I hope this helps. :)
How many left playing mtgo now ?
Id say something like max 20 percent of the traffic 7-8 years ago.
Havent played for 3 years now, but I noticed how much slower the prerelease queues fired in 2014/2015 compared to five years earlier.
My favourite trick with Metathran was using Metathran Aerostat's ability in response to itself. Fun with Training Grounds.
Hi Lowman,
Thanks for your helpful reply, interesting to note.
May I ask which of my 5 mana sweepers your WW deck most fears:
1. Hallowed Burial
2. End Hostilities
3. Rout
4. Fumigate
Curious to know which of these sweepers most causes you pause.
Michelle,
I tend to think WW has a lot going for it against most decks that utilize, generally speaking, 4 mana 2-4 for one card advantage cards/wraths to accrue value over creature based aggressive decks. Esper or U/W control tends to fall into this realm. I don't think anyone would say Wrath of God or its progeny are bad cards, but when evaluating them I think it's crucial that I fully understand their cost. If I'm under extreme duress from creatures, then it's likely I'm in a position where slamming a sweeper style effect is utterly necessary on my T4--likely I'm at 8-12 life by this point if my aggressive opponent has been doing their job well--here's the downside--I have to take a full turn off to do this, and I also, outside of FoW or Daze, give my opponent free reign on their turn to cast whatever they'd like. And, this is the turn of these games, as the aggressive player it's my responsibility to know that's what my control opponent is trying to do, and either play cards into it that mitigate it's effect (Selfless Spirit, Hallowed Spirit Keeper, Knight of the Holy Nimbus, Smuggler's Copter, equipment {at the end of the day what is bonesplitter other than a 2 power haste attacker that can't be wrathed}) or only present those threats necessary to get my opponent to wrath on curve--this is where an aggro player turns the game--post wrath you reinvest in the board as rapidly and under countermagic--which could mean something as bad as Elspeth or Gideon, or could mean 2x WW critters that will finish the game in 1-2 turns without further interaction from the opponent. The point is you want to consistently put the U/W control player on the back foot and force them to be reactionary to you. They will get to look at more cards, but through virtual advantage of playing a land lean aggressive deck you'll draw more threats than they will, so I think WW is benefited in the TD war to a large extent.
All of that said, I tend to think the matchup is 50/50, but I certainly am not concerned if I have to face it on the more aggressive build I ran in the tournament detailed in this report or my older versions of the deck.
Hope this helps and thanks for the kind comments Michelle.
Thanks for this nice article Lowman, I enjoyed reading it.
May I ask a question: In your experience what has been your win rate vs Azorius Control with your Death & Taxes deck? I know there are different versions and builds of Azorius Control, but I am talking about the ones you have faced.
In my personal experience, I have found Azorius Control is favored vs White Weenie (Go-Wide and Over-Extend strategies), but is not favored vs the more disruptive build of D&T. Sure Winter Orb and the 2 Geddons are usually insta-wins for WW if not countered, but with no card drawing or card filtering this happens only occasionally.
Would like to see section on Collusion and Bribery please?
Hey folks,
Appreciate all the support and comments, hope to see you all out next week--bring a friend--and hopefully the articles keep coming.
Take care now and have a good week.
Great article, looking forward for the next ones!
Great write up, Lowman!
Some memorable moments in this tournament on my end:
Against stsung I was able to steal Crucible of Worlds out of the library using Thada Adel, then reuse Myriad Landscape every turn thereafter.
Vs. Kokonade: In game 1 after a mulligan to 5 I was dealt 20 damage by a single Seekers' Squire! All of my merfolk were brutally murdered. However I managed to comeback and actually won game 3 by using JtMS ultimate.
Hey Michelle,
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the inspiration to pick this build back up and give it further consideration (I've got about 3-4 lands decks in this format that I've played around with since the unbanning of Fastbond, but haven't felt like I got them right).
1. Damnation and Gaze of Granite: Damnation is actually already in this build, gaze was a consideration, but because the deck relies heavily on specific critters, artifacts, and enchantments to get to big mana where gaze tends to become great, I felt like it didn't really have a home here. However, I agree Horn is a bit too hopeful, but I wanted to see what it could do. Realistically, it was actually serving as a place holder for Knight of the Reliquary because I feel like this deck very much so wants to use white, primarily for the inclusion of Enlightened Tutor to find either FB, Courser, or Crucible (given the assumption that I've found one of the three previously and can establish a lock by finding another piece).
2. Rolling Earthquake: I think you're right the deck likely wants another sweeper effect, but I tend to think this build would be happier with a card like Firestorm, while it does tend to tap out pretty regularly, it's also playing a lot of tapped lands (the cyclers) and lands that don't tap for mana at all, so being able to spend one mana at the cost of cards which I can recurse with loam, crucible, excavator, makes a lot more sense I think. If firestorm wasn't a thing, then I'll likely look to Sickening Dreams before I'd look to an Earthquake sytle effect because in the early and mid game you can often find yourself with less mana available due to the use of spell lands or tapped lands--obviously on the nut draw where you go to near infinite mana (or actual infinite mana) on T1-2 with this style of deck, then the Earthquake effect is better (while I suppose not on infinite mana because that would lead to some drawn games :P)
3. Garruk: he needs to go, but I don't think oracle is quite right, I feel like the oracle is better in a deck that can afford losing her after accruing value and then cast some obnoxious monster afterwards. The 4 mana for 2/2 body is just a lot, and not that I'm looking for her to be a clock, but the fact that she just dies to any shock is pretty disheartening. I think this slot would likely go Enlightened tutor because this will tend to ensure that I can get this effect (FB or Exploration) or another relevant effect (ref Crucible or Courser) to lock the game up (ie it's a lot more flexible than Oracle). A counter argument is that Asuza dies to the same thing, but I'm a lot happier losing a 3 CMC card for a 1-2 CMC card.
4: Personal Tutor is fair, it should probably be in the deck; Mystical Tutor already is in the deck.
I don't think this deck wants two double U counterspells, so I think Counterspell should actually go and Mana Drain should get in there, it's randomly great if you have the Primeval Titan.
Another notable missing card is Karakas, which becomes a lot more free if you include KoTR and Enlightened Tutor. I think given a shift to a very moderate W splash, you'd likely want to run Savannah, Karakas, Riftstone Portal, and likely Horizon Canopy.
Another cool land that I missed on first throwing this list together was Cephalid Coliseum, which is a boss with loam and the ability to play multiple lands in a turn, basically says ancestral recall if you can afford going back a turn on mana and can play cards from your graveyard with ease. But, this was just a first attempt (well I've attempted it before, but I often just start over, so I can mind map the deck and determine its theory of play), I'm sure future iterations will get better.
Again, another creative line that could be taken is using the Dreams cycle of cards (Insidious et al) as these cards that are inherent card disadvantage at the cost of selection can be turned into legitimate card advantage with the engine of the deck--Ideas (A)Unbound :)
I'll likely keep tooling around with the build and see how good I can make it. But, don't be afraid to "explore" the changed format, there's a lot of really cool things that can be done with some of the cards we've let back into the wild.
Thanks Lowman, I really enjoyed your deck tech. I liked it a lot and thank you for your helpful advice.
Can I recommmend:
1. Damnation (or Gaze of Granite) instead of Horn of Greed, in order to stop the beats. Since the weakness of this deck is curve-out aggression/midrange, I think it's best to shore up this matchup rather than focus on the Horn. Don't you have enough card advantage without the Horn?
2. Rolling Earthquake instead of Countersquall (since you are tapping out like crazy in your lands deck). This card will really send a message to the aggressive decks. Great both early and late game.
3. Oracle of Mul Daya instead of Garruk, since both are 4 mana and Oracle capitalises on the strengths of the deck more.
4. What about Personal Tutor or Mystical Tutor? Are they not better than Preordain and Ponder in this deck?
Update: as I said, the Treasure Chest changes are up on DailyMTG, and while I'm still going through the details, one message is abundantly clear: buy Treasure Chests! A ton of chaff was removed, the complete sets are a crazy lottery ticket, and the new cards are great (even if I knew about most of the list beforehand). Honestly, that combined with the new Play Point bundles has me a bit worried (Cardhoarder was decreasing their ticket buy price), but I'll get into that in the article.
Wanted to back up my theory, in regards to Realms Uncharted, with something, so I suppose this is content in content (is that inception):
Use the following links to see a deck tech for a 100CS Lands! deck and some gameplay:
DeckTech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYBTWNlJeuU
GamePlay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovm3uqJHi3E&feature=youtu.be
And I actually used my headset so the sound is actually decent :)
Michelle,
I think this card is actually playable, but I think it requires a significantly larger build around than you provided it in your list. I think it's kind of obviously a throwback card to Gifts Ungiven, which I think very few people would debate is a bad card--it is the glue that tends to hold the Modern variants of storm together. However, the reason that gifts does this is because the graveyard zone is a deliberate play zone in that specific modern deck--not incidentally providing value, but generally necessary to win. When you play a card that is similar in nature (pun intended), ie Realms Uncharted, I think it tends to narrow your construction down because you want to run more high synergy cards with it to ensure that Realms Uncharted is a 4-1 and not solely a 2-1 (which essentially means it just became a divination for the 3rd and 4th best lands in your deck, and that might not even be true...some of them may only be truly great together with another land). So, I guess where I'm going is if you intend on running this card you need to ensure your deck can truly exploit it for 4-1 advantage and not just getting 4 land cards into your hand off of loam recursion because while that is card advantage it's not actualized as a boon for 4 turns (because you're only playing one of these a turn in this deck). For example, Ramunap Excavator, Titania, Protector of Argoth, Gitrog Monster (Tracking he has B in his CMC), Crucible of Worlds, Zuran Orb, Fastbond, Exploration, Asuza, Oracle of Muldia--even more radical or all in Lands! decks would likely run 5 color, but they'd also opt to use far more utility lands, barb ring, cabal pit, glacial chasm, tabernacle etc.
Not all of the cards listed are likely good enough, but I think when you're trying to effectively use a card like Realms Uncharted you need to both break the rules often and early on how many lands you can put into play and you need to have many ways to recurs land cards from your graveyard. At this point you're likely looking at a lot of lands to even make this work and replacing many of your creatures and spells with them.
So, to close out a fairly didactic answer: Yes, this card is good enough. Is it good enough in a control shell that will tend to win with midrange threats (ie thrun, thragtusk, TNN, or tireless tracker) or possibly the DD combo? No, I tend to think you can do better--in this shell it's like running Guided Passage in 100c (ie prepare to play the world's most expensive ancestral recall for the three worst cards in your deck).
Thanks Lowman for this nice article.
May I ask what you think about the card Realms Unchartered in a Loam deck?
Every time I drew it, I was very underwhelmed because I never had an active Loam out with Realms Unchartered. Most times I saw it, I thought "Oh, it's you. Please, anything but you!!". I'm ditching it from now on. Never again!