Weekly Modern Update - March 29th, 2016

Modern Monday has passed us by and here we are again with another update to how I did. I brought my Grixis Delver deck again which is listed below and I must say I thoroughly enjoy this deck and how much fun it brings. While it is not in the top tier of decks I love the many ins and outs you have. Snapcaster Mage must be my favorite card in the entire deck. Enough about the gushing of Snappy let's get to it!

 

Round 1: Grixis Delver vs. Slivers

So I've gone up against Slivers before in the past as Delver and have been able to win. This time though it was the opposite. I lost 0-2 and I did have answers to disrupt my opponent and kill their Slivers and counter but it wasn't enough. Both games being able to flood the board I was not able to do anything. At least it was over quickly!

Results: 0-2 LOST



Round 2: Grixis Delver vs. Esper Control

This was sure to be a long grueling round. Many counter battles were had, many kill spells played but in the end Grixis Delver got the upper hand. Thank you Delver of Secrets! You did your job! Nothing too special happened during the games but they were grueling.

Results: 2-0 WON



Round 3: Grixis Delver vs. Jund

This was probably my favorite round of the night. In all 3 games it was very close and we both constantly kept going back and forth. Just when my opponent thought he could kill me I would snap in a response. It was rounds like these that make me fall in love with Grixis Delver. I know I could easily go Grixis Control as well but I love my little Delver guy. The fact that I sacrifice so much life to try and get the upper edge and being able to come back when I'm at 2-3 life is so much fun. You're on the edge of your seat thinking your opponent has a kill spell ready but you manage to claw and fight your way back to victory. I lost this round though but not without giving my opponent a struggle.

Results: 1-2 LOST



Round 4: Grixis Delver vs. Burn

Normally I would write down what happened during the game but these were very much non games that I don't feel like getting into. I will say I ended up winning 2-0 but not the most gracefully.

Results: 2-0 WON


Overall: 2-2

So I'm still stuck in the 2-2 slump with Grixis overall. I need to make some additions to the deck such as Fulminator Mage, Spellskite and Blood Moon and I will get those eventually. I'm starting to become more familiar with the deck each time I play and what hands to keep and seeing the different lines of play. I need to keep going to these Monday Night Moderns in order to get better at the format so when I go to the next IQ or PPTQ that's Modern I can be better prepared.

Thanks for reading! I'm hoping to finish my Goblins deck soon and then my Ensoul Artifact pet project. My big deterrent is time right now. The older you get the more responsibilities you have! Till next time!

What's considered fair?

If you've been around your local game store long enough or even at competitive REL events you've probably heard the following few phrases tossed around:

"This deck is unfair!"

"Well, that's fair"

"Seems fair.." said with a sarcastic remark

And so on and so on. You know what I'm talking about. The people who complain that certain decks and deck archetypes are deemed unfun and unfair because they are seemingly impossible to beat against your deck. It's probably confirmation bias hitting me but it seems like I hear these phrases uttered more and more often lately. So what is fair?

If we look at the definition of fair it is as follows:

"Agreeing with what is right or acceptable"

"Treating people in a way that does not favor some over others"

"Not too harsh or critical"

So now that we have that out of the way what is fair again? Most times when I hear people complain about unfair decks it's most likely caused with them losing to a deck that is not well suited to theirs or a control deck that locks you down. Can we really call those unfair though?

Most people will argue that Magic the Gathering is about fun right? It is just a game some would say after getting lambasted that an opponent's deck was deemed unfair. So what fun is it if someone plays a deck that locks down someone else or it has an infinite combo and there is seemingly nothing you can do?

I can understand this point of view, you go to FNM or to your LGS to play some Magic and it can be no fun if the one super competitive person brings their awesome deck and beats everyone with it. Whether this just be a free for all play or a commander game. It can bring no fun for everyone else. This is where playgroups can make up house rules where they all agree not to play certain cards or combos and everyone can be in agreement and happy.

On the other hand though, Magic has always been about (to me) ways to figure out how certain cards work and figuring out cool combinations and spells and effects and building a deck from there regardless of the format. Saying that the one person who brings their one deck that can destroy yours and your playgroup that they can no longer play it or certain cards within it, how fair is that for that person? Instead of setting the game on an easy difficulty, why not take that challenge to figure out a way to defeat that particular deck?

But again, you can argue, I just play for fun and don't want the stress or non enjoyment of playing against those kinds of decks. Which is fine in itself, because Magic caters to all types of players and I can agree. I personally don't take EDH/Commander very seriously so my decks are not anywhere near being considered competitive. I don't always put the optimal cards in them either, I prefer fun cards. The only time I do not agree when people complain about decks being unfun or unfair is when it comes to competition.

When it comes to FNM or higher level Comp REL events whether or not a deck is unfair or not should not even be questioned. There are caveats to this of course. I am of course referring to bannings that have happened in Magic's past. Whether that is the splinter twin banning, the summer bloom banning as well as pod and etc..... You can find all the banned cards here:

Unless a particular card is so warping of the format or a deck is warping the format should there be someone to intervene but as a player while you are waiting for a particular card or deck to be banned, should you just sit by and let it take over or should you figure out ways to beat it?

If doing well at competitive events means a lot to you then you need to figure out ways to beat that deck that seems so unfair to you. Practice against it and even play as that deck so you can understand all the lines of play and understand it's weaknesses!

A good example of this is the takeover of Eldrazi in Modern. When Eldrazi swept the Pro Tour a few months back everyone was calling for its ban. Wizards decided to let the meta evolve and see if people can figure out ways to beat it and there have been some attempts! If you look at all the big Modern events on mtgtop8.com you'll mainly see Eldrazi Aggro running rampant everywhere! Does this mean we should ban some parts of the Eldrazi deck?

You could make a good argument that yes you should. Right now at mtgtop8.com Eldrazi Aggro

takes up 27% of the meta. I don't think there has been a Modern deck that has ever taken up that much but I ask once again should we just give up and let Wizards take care of the format or allow them to maybe print some answers to help us combat the Eldrazi invasion or have the fine pro minds develop ways to combat the Eldrazi?

Without getting too deep into the Eldrazi mess in Modern. I mainly just wanted to state, that in Magic, especially at higher level events (which is where this article sort of sparked from), if a deck is truly unfair. Maybe you just didn't prepare right for the event, or played a deck that was poorly suited for the meta. Whatever the issue may be, figure out why the deck is unfair and figure out how to fairly beat it!

Modern - Grixis Delver

When I first discovered and started "delving" (bad pun I know) into Modern I was instantly drawn towards Grixis. Dimir (Blue/Black) is easily my favorite color combination and splashing/adding in red makes for a lot more fun. So if I had to choose, I really enjoy the Grixis colors the most out of any other color combination. So what about Grixis Delver made me choose this deck to build? First and foremost it is not a linear deck, it is very reactive and always making sure you have the upper hand and ready for anything coming at you. It's also a thinker's deck, what I mean by that is, sometimes the lines of play are not always clear and sometimes you may have to sacrifice something in order to get ahead. It's definitely not an easy deck to master.

So today we are going to go over the deck and why you put in certain cards. Know this, the deck I have is still ever changing, especially the sideboard so I will not be going over that. Sideboards, especially in Modern, should be based on your local meta unless you are going to a Comp REL event and prepare for top tier decks at that point. The decklist is shown below:

Creatures:

Delver of Secrets- A most inconspicuous 1/1 creature. At face value it doesn't seem that threatening. What makes this card great is not only can you get a 3/2 with flying by potentially turn 2 you also get to kind of, somewhat Scry 1 on your next turn even though you have to reveal the card to flip the Delver. If you flipped your Delver by Turn 2 you're already pressuring your opponent into making a decision of whether to keep at their plan or dispose of this Delver as quickly as possible. 

Gurmag Angler- Since this card has come out I've found it to be a surprising addition to the list but I completely understand why it was added. A 5/5 is nothing to scoff at in Modern, the fact you can get this 5/5 by Turn 2 or maybe even Turn 3 makes it that much better. 

Snapcaster Mage- Probably one of the most iconic cards in Modern (besides Island *wink wink*) and for good reason. It's ability to add any instant or sorcery in your graveyard flashback makes it extremely valuable. Need that kill spell you used a few turns back or that counter? Snapcaster is there for you!

Tasigur, the Golden Fang- Similar to Gurmag Angler, you can manage to get Tasigur by turn 2 or 3 if you're lucky enough. Even a 4/5 is nothing to laugh at as well. Tasigur's ability is perfect for a deck like this cause even if you put something in the graveyard that your opponent doesn't choose, your Snapcaster can save you and give you what you need!

Young Pyromancer- If this card goes unanswered for long your board can get rather big and uncontrollable.  I would normally try and play this card if you have something to protect it with on the same turn because this creature normally doesn't live for long.

Spells:

Electrolyze- A more expensive Forked Bolt that has a major advantage. It allows you to draw cards which is a blue player's favorite thing.

Forked Bolt- A shock spell that has the advantage of being able to split the damage among creatures or players, perfect for when your opponent is trying to swarm you.

Gitaxian Probe- Card advantage is always going to be something you want in any format. Knowing what your opponent has helps you even more.

Kolaghan's Command- Probably the best Command card to come from Dragons of Tarkir. You're able to choose 2 out of the 4 modes and it's all pure value for you. 

Lightning Bolt- The classic smash in your face or creature's face card. One of the best burn spells in Modern at your disposal.

Mana Leak- Another classic counter. Since we have no access to Counterspell this is one of our better options.

Remand- While it has the downside of putting the spell back in your opponents hand, it does give you a card as well.

Serum Visions- The best draw card spell we have in this format. Being able to draw a card and then Scrying 2? Yes please all day!

Spell Pierce- This card has always been a hit or miss for me. Sometimes I may not even mainboard it that night or if I do mainboard it, I never see a use for it. Perhaps it is my local meta but it's still a noteworthy card.

Spell Snare- Since the CMC of most Modern cards can be 2 this card fits perfectly. You normally will never want a full playset of this in your deck it's still a very valuable card to have.

Terminate- Destroy Target Creature. What more could we want? Can't regenerate? Ok!

Thought Scour- Our delving engine. You'll normally want to target yourself with this card as it can provide delve fuel for Gurmag and Tasigur as well as more spells in your graveyard for Snapcaster to use.

So there's the deck in a nutshell. What I like about this variant of Grixis Delver, if I want to switch it to Midrange or Control it's relatively inexpensive to do so since most of the cards you'll need you'll already have. You would have to invest in Flip Jace and some Pia and Kiran's if you go that route but it's worth it in the long run.

As I've said before I enjoy this deck and the non linearity of it. The Top Tier decks of Modern as of right now are mainly linear beat 'em down type decks. While reactive decks such as this are not exactly in the spotlight right now it does not mean they are not viable. In the right hands this deck can be very nasty. Thanks for reading!

Weekly Modern Update - March 15th, 2016

Another week, another Modern Monday under my belt. I decided to take Elves for a spin again only because I felt like playing a little bit of a simpler and quicker deck. I was pretty tired and a deck like Grixis Delver can be pretty involved and some games can take awhile as well.

So I took Elves for a spin and I feel like I know the deck pretty well by now. As usual, I normally come mentally prepared on Monday's and Friday's with the thought of wanting to play better and winning comes as a by product. I have not made any changes to my sideboard yet. I plan on too eventually. Adding in maybe a Spellskite or two. Possibly Dismember as well. We shall see. Let's get to it though, how did I do? As usual my decklist is below:

 

Round 1: Elves vs. Affinity

Ah, good ol' Affinity. Let's just say I managed to lose Game 1 extremely quickly. I lost via poison counters by turn 4. A 5/5 Inkmoth Nexus is nothing to scoff at. I had no answers in hand and we quickly went to Game 2.

Game 2 was much the same as Game 1, I got over zealous and he wiped my board and then I drew nothing but land. It was over quickly.

Results: 0-2 LOST

Round 2: Elves vs. Esper Control

So this was a homebrew deck and it was a fairly good one. The guy I played against had been working on this for awhile and it's pretty good. He locked me out very well game 1 and I lost. I couldn't play any spells and he continually killed my creatures.

Game 2 however I sided in Choke and Beast Within and Aven Mindcensor and locked him out instead. After flooding the board with Elves he had no answers and I won quickly.

Game 3 was a bit trickier. He countered a few of my collected companies, and even one of the companies I managed only to draw one creature, a Mystic, and it was looking grim. He went down to 1 life but couldn't kill me and I managed to play Shaman of the Pack ending it all for him.

Results: 2-1 WON

Round 3: Elves vs. Goryo's Vengeance

This was the first time I played against this deck so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was familiar with what it could potentially do so I thought this may have been a blow out for me. Game 1 went extremely quickly for me as by Turn 4 my opponent scooped as he had no answers for the throng of elves awaiting to attack him.

Game 2 my opponent managed to combo off pretty quickly and I let him go off on the combo, mainly because I wanted to watch him and also partly to see if he would screw up to my favor.

Game 3 was very similar to Game 1. I managed to get a very quick board and it was over fast.

Results: 2-1 WON

Round 4: Elves vs. Green Devotion

Another homebrew deck to end the night. I wasn't sure what to expect but the list seemed to be a very similar Theros Green devotion standard deck with some older green cards to help speed up the mana ramp. Unfortunately for him Elves is a bit faster though. Game 1 was over by Turn 4 and Game 2 I managed to get Elvish Champion out very early and he had no answers whatsoever.

Results: 2-0 WON

Final Results: 3-1 (5th Place)

So this was the first time in Monday night Modern I managed to break my 2-2 curse and go 3-1. I managed to get 5th place, I didn't get in Top 4 but oh well, it happens. I feel like since I am getting more familiar with the match ups and general overall knowing of my deck I am smarter about what hands to keep and which ones to mulligan. I also need to learn not to get overzealous and overextend myself when I don't need to. If I have the advantage I need to hold back and keep the board state unless something changes and react accordingly. Easier said than done but I'm getting there.

Modern - Elves

When I first decided to jump into the format of Modern, I had a hard time choosing what deck I wanted to build and stick with. I spent a lot of time researching and watching Modern games to see what sort of deck fits best without completely breaking my wallet. This was also around the time when Dragons of Tarkir first released that I started to get interested in Modern. Elves for me, was a good choice as I had a lot of the cards at the time in Elves but what really pushed it over the edge for me was when Magic Origins came out that cemented my choice for Elves. With cards such as Shaman of the Pack and Dwynen's Elite being spoiled I knew I wanted to play this deck.

So I begun my slow acquirement of building Elves. It wasn't until about December 2015 I just took the plunge and bought the expensive pieces that I needed, namely Cavern of Souls. It was Christmas Time, so what the heck right? My sideboard is still not perfect, I think I can do with getting 1-2 Spellskites and then it would be fine. For now what I have will have to do with the deck tech explanation.

Just a note, I will not be going into different match ups, that's best left for my Weekly Modern updates when I bring Elves with me. Reason being there are so many different types of decks you can and will go up against it's hard to write about them all. So here's the decklist and let's go!

Creatures:

Dwynen's Elite- A 2 CMC Elf that gives you a 1/1 Elf Warrior Token Creature if there is another Elf on the battlefield. One of the newer elves to join the throng in the tribe. I feel he is a great addition especially on turn 2 if you managed to have a turn 1 Heritage Druid. Having 3 Elves right away on Turn 2 can be very rewarding for you.

Elvish Archdruid- Our 3 CMC Elf lord that also acts as a mana dork. When you see me mention the term lord, it usually refers to jargon or slang that usually buffs your creatures +1/+1. If your Archdruid manages to survive the next turn and you happen to have a lot of Elves out, welcome to endless mana for you to play with at this!

Elvish Champion- Our other 3 CMC Elf lord that gives our elves forestwalk. Now you have a chance of making your elves unblockable as well! This lord has served me well in the deck but sometimes he can be sideboarded out if your opponent is not playing green.

Elvish Mystic- Llanowar Elf of another name. He is functionally the same as Llanowar Elf and he is a perfectly capable turn 1 play.

Elvish Visionary- A 2 CMC Elf that lets you draw a card. Drawing cards is never bad. Other than that, Visionary makes a good chump blocker.

Ezuri, Renegade Leader- It's always sweet to drop him from Collected Company and proceed to pump up your elves and just manage to squeak by enough damage to kill your opponent. The bad thing about Ezuri is he will become a major target if he resolves. Keep him safe if you can.

Heritage Druid- This is the most expensive creature in the main board (If you don't main Spellskite) and for good reason. With her ability to tap 3 untapped elves immediately as she resolves gives you the ability to do a lot more on your turn. Imagine you have 3 Nettle Sentinels and a Heritage Druid, you have potential access to a crap ton of mana at that point. Living the elf dream!

Llanowar Elves- The classic mana dork of Magic the Gathering. What more can be said about him?

Nettle Sentinel- At first glance Nettle Sentinel may not seem that good. He doesn't untap normally? Paired with Heritage Druid is where Nettle's power is truly seen. Since the majority of our spells are green, Nettle Sentinel will be untapping a lot and potentially tapping for a lot of mana.

Shaman of the Pack- Probably the best Elf card to come out of Magic Origins. This card wins games just by entering the battlefield. It's always a pleasure CoCo'ing into a Shaman and proceeding to win the game.


Spells:

Collected Company- Or CoCo for short. This card not only allows for us to  potentially build up our board presence after a wipe it also helps out by triggering Shaman of the Pack, Dwynen's Elite and so on. This card has become a must in this deck now.

Lead the Stampede- Or what I like to refer to as CoCo's little brother. I've tried both the Chord of Calling variation and Lead variation of Elves and I have to say, I prefer Lead the Stampede over Chord of Calling. It acts very similarly to CoCo but they do not go onto the battlefield. It allows you to fill up your hand again though.


Normally I would go over the Sideboard but my sideboard is mainly tuned for my local meta and I change it up from time to time if I were to take this to a Comp REL event. My local meta is sort of devoid of the Eldrazi Menace right now but it has a lot of Affinity and Abzan and Jund so it's more tuned to that. What I recommend to others is study their local meta and adapt your sideboard to that. Fracturing Gust is a perfectly good card as a sideboard and I highly recommend Spellskite.

How do you play this deck then? I feel this deck can be very similar to affinity in a sense. You want to swarm the board with these little elves and kill as quickly as possible. If you know your opponent has board wipes be wary of how many elves you play and which ones and be sure to try and keep your hand as much as you can. Affinity is normally faster than Elves so try to swarm them before they swarm you.

Also, knowing which elves to play and when. Typically by turn 2 you'll want to have 3 Elves out by then so maybe by Turn 3 you have twice that many and so on. Having a Heritage Druid in your opening hand is always good as long as you have the other cards to support it, such as Dwynen's Elite or some Mana Dorks. As far as land is concerned you can get away with having 2-3 land. You're only playing with 18 land so if you get land flooded then I apologize as the gods of MTG have declared their hatred upon you.

So why play Elves? As far as Modern Decks go, it is relatively inexpensive to play. Your most expensive card will most likely be the Cavern of Souls. I see it being relatively safe from any sort of banning from Wizards as Elves is not a top tier deck in the meta of Modern. So if it's not top tier why play it? Uhm, maybe because it's fun? Also, maybe because I'm afraid of investing into the top tier decks in Modern right now because Wizards likes to ban fun? So yea, that explains it pretty well. Who doesn't like to have a board full of creatures and you play a Shaman and go, you're dead!

That about covers my Elves deck. Next i'll be going into my Grixis Delver list and more! Thanks for reading!

Weekly Modern Update - March 8th, 2016

Another week has gone by and another Modern Monday has passed at my LGS. I once again brought my Grixis Delver deck and I was very surprised at how many people showed up to the event. We had over 20 people! It's appearing like Modern is becoming more popular than Standard right now at my LGS! I'm happy about that but at the same time I don't want Standard to disappear entirely. I hope with the upcoming rotation it will bring people back to the Standard foray and have more people play in FNM.

So how did I do this week? I unfortunately had to leave early due to it getting late and I was honestly just exhausted but I feel like I am understanding the Grixis Delver deck a bit better. I'm getting excited to play it more since the deck can feel so diverse and very reactive. I didn't make any changes to my list as I haven't had the time to devote to MTG lately. So here is the deck list again below:

 

Round 1: Grixis Delver vs. Burn

When I first saw the deck was burn I thought my opponent had it in the bag. Delver is not fast enough to deal with all that damage and plus with all the fetches and shocks I have, I run into the problem of helping my opponent reduce my life even further. Game 1 was a clutch win as I was able to keep plenty of counters in hand and slowly reduce his life with a single snapcaster mage.

Game 2 went rather fast as my opponent just had a really good hand while I didn't have enough disruption or counters. Even after thought scouring myself 2 times I couldn't find what I needed. Game 3 was another clutch win because at the end he got me down to 1 life and he was at 9. I had a Gurumag Angler, snapcaster mage and a 1/1 elemental token so I dealt 8 damage and managed to kill him with a Forked Bolt in hand that I had been keeping since the start of the game.

Results: 2-1 WIN

Round 2: Grixis Delver vs. Slivers

Ahh, good ol' Slivers. Slivers can be a scary deck for me as it can go wide and fast. Game 1 was over quickly as he flooded the board and I couldn't do much to stop since he had a Cavern of Souls out and I had no way to stop it.

I sided out some counters and put in an Izzet Staticaster as well as Anger of the Gods, a Terminate and Rakdos Charm (I still plan on taking this card out eventually). Game 2 went better as I was able to consistently wipe his board and get Izzet out and kill everything he had coming out and wittle him down. Game 3 went much the same as Game 2.

Results: 2-1 WIN

I wish I had more to talk about and more games to talk about but alas I had to leave early even on a winning streak. I'm planning on still building an Ensoul Artifact deck along with budget Goblins. I'll write up some deck techs soon hopefully (Just need to find the time!). Thanks for reading!

Weekly Modern Update - February 24th, 2016

Hey everyone, here with another Modern update! This week I went away from Elves and finally took out my Grixis Delver deck. While the deck isn't the best positioned in the metagame this has been a deck I've been wanting to personally play for a long time. I'm still missing a 4th Snapcaster Mage but I think I can get away with 3 for the time being until I get the 4th.

I'll post the list below but what I found out right away with this deck is it requires a lot of thinking and different lines of play and really having to think and be ahead of the opponent. I did pretty abysmal this past Monday night Modern but I was excited to play this deck and will begin to practice with it more and more.

Round 1: Grixis Delver vs. Affinity

Ahh, good ol' Affinity. Sad to say I lost both games but I did give my opponent a run for his money. I had to make him really work for his wins as I consistently countered his spells or killed his creatures. My sideboard included Thoughtseize and some more kill and counter spells. As you can see in my sideboard I don't have any Fulminator Mages which would've helped me greatly. I lost, but I also won by learning my deck a bit more.

Results: 0-2 LOST


Round 2: Grixis Delver vs. GR Tron

I sort of underestimated this match up when I went into it. As soon as I saw the first Urza land pop down I thought, ok I'll just counter his stuff to win! Yea, that doesn't work out so well when you can't counter anything because your deck decides not to give it to you. With no land destruction in sideboard or Blood Moon I felt like I couldn't do much but stall the inevitable.

Results: 0-2 LOST


Round 3: Grixis Delver vs. Helix Pinnacle Combo

This was a deck I have never heard of nor ever been up against. Helix Pinnacle will win you the game if you have 100 or more counters on it. Game 1 I did all 3 of my Gitaxian Probes to understand his deck and tried to beat him down. I lost Game 1 but Game 2 and 3 I played the more counter package. I countered almost all of his spells and slowly won both Games by consistently disrupting his combo.

Results: 2-1 WON


Round 4: Grixis Delver vs. Affinity

Affinity again? This time I was a bit more prepared and by Round 4 I understood my deck a lot better than I did in Round 1. The problem? It was getting late and if you know me I cannot play Magic well, if at all, late at night. I make horrible stupid plays. Such as in Game 2 when my opponent plays an Arcbound Ravager and I have a spell snare in hand and I choose not to counter it because I am just that good at Magic. Game 1 I won by killing and disrupting her hand but Games 2 and 3 I WANT to attribute to me playing poorly cause I was tired. I'm not sure though so.

Results: 1-2 LOST


Final Results: 1-3


So I did pretty bad and I was expecting that and not unhappy with the results. I have a lot more learning to do with this deck and I need to upgrade the sideboard a bit as well. I was thinking Engineered Explosives perhaps? My local meta is a pretty common Modern Meta so far, not really any Eldrazi are dominating it (yet). So we shall see how next Monday goes! Thanks for reading!

Weekly Modern Update - February 16th 2016

Hello everyone and welcome to another Weekly Modern Update! I did not participate in my LGS' weekly Monday Night Modern last week so that is the reason for no article but this week I did! So let's get down to business and discuss how I did.

Before we get into the meat of the article let's discuss any changes to my Elf deck. As you can see below I took out the 2 Essence Wardens and put back in the 2 Elvish Visionary's. After trying out the Essence Wardens it came to be that they did not help as much as I wanted them too. I did however keep the Nykthos. Nykthos was very good to me and I'm thinking about putting in 1 more. I think any more than 2 would not be good for my deck.

Round 1 Elves vs. Abzan Company

So I came up against this deck again. Now having been a little bit more familiar with it I was ready to face it. I thought I had a pretty decent opening hand. 2 lands, 2 mana dorks, a heritage druid, a chord and an archdruid. Unfortunately my hand was not fast enough. By Turn 3 the game was over. My opponent managed to get out his sac engine and gain endless life with Kitchen Finks.

Game 2 was a bit more favorable for me, I managed to win by Turn 4 with Ezuri, Archdruid and some Nettle's out on the field. Very fast game.

Game 3 is where things went down. I kept a not so great hand but I sideboarded in Reclamation Sage, 2 Beasts Within and Aven Mindcensor. My opening hand contained 2 Beast Withins. It eventually came down to a topdeck game and my opponent managed to have the better topdeck in the end. I was just needing a Chord, Archdruid or Ezuri and I could've won but didn't.

Results: 2-1 LOST


Round 2 Elves vs. Bogles

Last time I faced Bogles in paper magic was at an IQ and I lost horribly. I was not looking forward to facing it again and knew ahead of time this would be an uphill battle for a deck like mine. See, in case you don't know, Bogles can win with just one creature and that creature will have hexproof and a ton of enchantments to make it unblockable, so it kills very quickly.

Game 1 started and I had an awesome opening hand of Nykthos, Gilt-Leaf Palace, 2 mana dorks, Heritage Druid, and Archdruid. I managed to draw into Ezuri Turn 2 and by Turn 3 I pumped up my army and swung and my opponent conceded.

Game 2 was very much the same as Game 1. By Turn 4 it was all over and I beat Bogles for the first time. I feel like I won just on pure luck as anytime I've tested and faced Bogles it always felt very lopsided.

Results: 2-0 WON


Round 3 Elves vs. Mono Black Control

This is the first time I've ever gone up against Mono Black Control which I heard the name of the deck was "The Rack" or "8 Rack"? Not sure on the nomenclature exactly but I was curious. I had no idea what to expect from this deck but it killed me, quickly. Both Game 1 and 2 ended quickly with him discarding my hand and playing The Rack and Shrieking Affliction very quickly. I had no outs or ways to destroy those or if I did destroy them my opponent got them out again.

Results: 0-2 LOST


Final Results: 2-2

That was the end of the night for me. The next round I got a bye so I did get to leave early which was nice. What did I learn that night? I feel like I'm understanding better what hands to keep and what hands to mull. My sideboard still needs some work but I'm not interested in investing into the deck right now as I'm so close to being done with Grixis Delver. I've been wanting to get a Pithing Needle and a Spellskite in the Elf deck but for now what I have will have to suffice.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates!

Weekly Modern Update - February 2nd 2016

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Starting a new article series that I will try and do weekly (keyword try!), where I will discuss my trials and tribulations with the Modern format and trying to break into it. Just in case you didn't know I've only recently started to get into Modern this year and I've fallen hard for it. My first deck has been Elves and I'm currently almost done with my second, Grixis Delver. My LGS has begun Monday Night Modern and I've been trying to go as often as I can. My real goal right now is to gain as much experience as I can with the format to help myself become a better player.

So, let's start shall we?

Before I ventured off into Modern Night Modern at my LGS I decided to do some research into Elves, again, and see what the meta may be like for the deck now that Twin and Amulet are all but gone. I noticed some decks that have been doing well decided to take out 2 Elvish Visionary's and place in 2 Essence Warden's and I've also seen people putting in 1-2 copies of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. That made me decide to take out Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers and put in a copy of Nykthos. My sideboard still needs some serious help, especially against my local meta. It's really geared towards Affinity, Burn and infect. I definitely need a Spellskite or two but the high price tag right now has deterred me as I'd rather invest into Grixis Delver for now. As you can see below this is my current decklist.

Round 1 Elves vs. Abzan Company

So being new to Modern still I have not had the pleasure of going up against this deck. When my opponent put down a Wall of Roots, I was a bit confused and wondering what kind of deck he was playing. Game 1 was over fairly quickly as I was able to vomit my hand all over the table with Elves and just annihilate him. Game 2 and 3 though I found out the true potential to this deck.

Infinite combos? Infinite life gain? Yea, this Abzan deck can do it. I sideboarded in Beast Within and Eternal Witness taking out my Essence Wardens and Chord of Callings. Did not help much in the end. In Game 3 it was a non game as the worst thing that could happen to Elves happened to me. Land...I got too much of it. Land flood is a real thing people, it can happen to you! Be wary!

Final Results: 1-2 LOST

Round 2 Elves vs. Jund

The player who was piloting Jund I've gone up against him before and he is a really good player. Definitely more skilled in Modern than I am. If I had to guess I would presume he primarily plays Modern as I never see him for Standard. He's beaten me previously and I was prepared for another beating. The best way I can describe how I won both games is Shaman of the Pack is very real and something people need to watch out for when it comes to Elves.

Final Results: 2-0 WON

Round 3 Elves vs. Soul Sisters

This was a new player I had never gone up against so I wasn't sure. He wasn't playing with any sleeves nor did he have a sideboard so my first thought was he was new. Which I have no problems with new players, heck I enjoy them but he didn't seem the talkative type so we just played.

Game 1 was a blowout, by Turn 4 he was dead. Ezuri and Archdruid both on the field on Turn 3. Turn 4 was just a massacre for him, there was nothing for the Soul Sisters pilot to do.

Game 2 he managed to get an infinite mill loop with Altar of the Brood, Midnight Guard, and an enchantment whose name leaves me creates 1/1 Elf Tokens each time the creature is tapped. Very surprised at how awesome the combo was. You'll come to find out I'm a sucker for combos, I get giddy whenever I see one go off.

Game 3 was much of the same as Game 1. I beast within both his Midnight Guards that came out and I just exploded with Elves. An elfsplosion.

Final Results: 2-1 WON

Final Round Elves vs. GR Tron

The pilot of this particular GR Tron deck is a pretty good player and he's a buddy so right away I knew this was going to be a fun match. I can usually beat Tron as Elves can be quick enough before he gets Tron. This match, my deck did not want to draw for me at all. I ended up mulliganing to 4 which I knew right away Game 1 was going to be a blow out. I should've kept my first hand but it was very slow, it was 3 lands, a CoCo, and Ezuri and Archdruid. Knowing how quick Tron can be this was just not doable for me. My other hands after that were just too much mana or no mana at all.

Game 2 was very similar blowout.

Final Results: 0-2 LOST

Results for the night: 2-2

So what have I learned after this? I learned that even if I mulligan, Elves can still go ahead and win. Especially with this deck I need to be more picky with my opening hand than I can be with other decks. I learned that I still have a lot of studying to do on this format. Even though I went 2-2 I was still pretty happy with the results.

Have a good one and thanks for reading!

The Experience of Losing

We've all been there, we've all been on that losing streak before. It's never fun, especially in a higher stakes tournament where each loss keeps you away from that 1st place prize. Everyone likes to win, no one likes losing, so what can you take away when you go on a terrible run in a tournament?

This past Saturday I attended my first Modern IQ and while my expectations were not overly high of myself, I did hope to do slightly better and possibly make better plays than I actually did. This will not be a tournament report going over each round and what I did wrong but let me tell you, I was ready to quit after round three but kept on going.

I am still fairly new to the Modern format so I had that going against me walking into this tournament. I'm still learning the meta game and what all the popular decks can and can't do. The decks I faced up against were ones that I never tested against and my sideboard was ill prepared. I'm currently playing Elves and while most rounds I could take a game off of someone it was still not good enough. It was five rounds before it cut to Top 8 and at the end I managed to go 1-4.

So what can I take away from all this?

Practice

Definitely practice and more playtesting. Having only done one paper modern event before this IQ, I definitely was not familiar enough with the meta as my only other means to practice are on Cockatrice and that program sometimes isn't sufficient enough.

Not only will it help decide whether or not I should keep the hand I have, it will also help knowing when to mulligan down. There were definitely some opening hands I thought were good enough until it ran out of steam quickly or were answered sufficiently.

The old adage, practice makes perfect is one to follow.


Study the Format

Not only does practice help you out a lot, studying the format you are playing helps just as much. Knowing the deck archetypes and possible sideboards you will face helps tremendously. I was ill prepared with my sideboard as well as opponent's sideboards as well. Reading articles and watching videos will aid in your studying.


Don't Give Up

When I was 0-3 I wanted to quit the whole tournament and just go home. It is never fun to be that low on the scoreboard and know there is no chance of winning or making a top 8. When I hit 0-4 the feeling intensified. I didn't quit though, I was determined to keep going just to get more experience. I didn't come to this IQ with expectations of winning the whole thing but I did expect better of myself to not misplay as badly as I did or keep bad hands that I shouldn't have.

Just like anything in life, knowing you will eventually fail is an important lesson. Pushing through and persevering is what divides you and everyone else who doesn't. My intentions with Magic are not to become to best and beat everyone but to become better than I was yesterday.

So where do I go from here? I'm going to keep trucking along and grinding the format at my local game store as well as try to go to any IQ's, PPTQ's I can. The best thing I can do is learn from my mistakes and push forward.

Thanks for reading.

My Dive into Modern

Like many others who dive into constructed formats, they first get introduced into Standard. Somewhere along the way you get to discover other formats that are just as fun, such as EDH, legacy and then there is Modern. My dive into Modern has been an exciting one so far, with my play being limited to freebie programs such as Cockatrice, it took me awhile to decide what deck I first wanted to build. Elves was it, and Elves is what I will be sticking with for awhile.

It took me almost a year to fully form my Elf deck, as some of the pieces were a bit costly and while in the grand scheme of things the deck is fairly cheap, having a wife and kids, sometimes you can't just splurge on an entire deck at once. So with my deck being fully formed as you can see the list below, I decided to take it to my first little local tournament. This tournament was mainly as some practice and to get some paper modern experience in preparation for a Modern IQ that's happening this Saturday 1/9. 

The turnout was fairly small as my LGS is still new to hosting Modern as they have been mainly a Standard and EDH shop but there has been interest shown in Modern. I was the only Elf deck there and while some of the top tier decks were showing up I was hoping to do decent still.



Round 1 Elves vs. Grixis Twin

Come to find out, Elves is not a good matchup against Grixis Twin. At least in my experience so far against the deck. Luckily Cavern of Souls was allowing me to get my Elves out but my opponent had many a Lightning Bolt and Repeal. Game 1 consisted of him killing my elves constantly and then he got the Twin combo out.

Game 2 was a rather grindy game as we both got mana flooded but he managed to win in the end as none of my sideboard cards came to fruition. I sideboarded in Fracturing Gust, Kataki's War Wage, and Beast Within but no luck. So I went 0-2 during that round.



Round 2 Elves vs. U-Tron

Admittedly I was a little excited to play against Tron as it has been one of my favorite decks to watch at tournaments. So when I saw the first Tron piece go down in Game 1 I got a tinge of excitement. The game was over rather quick as I was able to dump out my hand pretty early. Turn 1 was a Forest + Heritage Druid and then Dwynen's Elite on Turn 2 and then an Elvish Archdruid as well. My opponent was just overwhelmed and had to go to game 2.

For Game 2 I sideboarded in Choke which turned out to be extremely effective against U-Tron as well as Fracturing Gust and Kataki's War Wage. I had a very slow opening hand even after mulling down to 5. My opponent assembled Tron and had a Mindslaver combo and was able to kill me from there.

Game 3 ended much in the same way as Game 1 so this was my first true paper modern victory and I was excited. I couldn't wait to see what I would be playing against next as there was some Affinity, Burn, and Zoo decks out there as well.



Round 3 Elves vs. Rakdos Deathtouch

So this being the last round I wasn't expecting to go up against such a homebrew. The homebrew was interesting as it played a lot of little deathtouch creatures to help stave off against aggro and then he would drop a Mogis and Palace Siege to drain my life. Had to say it was interesting but a bit too slow against Elves.

Game 1 was over pretty fast with Heritage Druid and Ezuri coming out quickly and Game 2 was very similar to my second game against U-Tron where I had to mull to 5 and kept drawing land. Game 3 was the same as Game 1.


Conclusion

So overall I went 2-1 for the night and was pretty happy with how it turned out. I still have a lot to learn about Modern and the only way to learn is to keep playing and learning from my mistakes. As I mentioned before this Saturday 1/9 there is a Modern IQ by me and I will attend in hopes of getting more experience.

It's a strange new world for me in Magic and I can only be excited to dive deeper. Thanks for reading!