Search found 6 matches

by Platypus
Mon Nov 25, 2013 6:51 am
Forum: Aggro
Topic: Gruul Zoo
Replies: 14
Views: 9548

Some short notes on Saturday's GPT. Deck as above except for this last minute SB:

[deck]
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Combust
1 Dismember
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Faerie Macabre
3 Molten Rain
3 Pyroclasm
[/deck]

Only 14 players, so five rounds and top 4.

Round 1: GW Hatebears

Game 1: Got a good curve, we go back and forth for a while. I finish with a GCR Bloodrushed Boar, followed by Bolt. Took him by surprise a bit.
Game 2: Second turn Thalia, followed by Leonin Arbiter, then Ghost Quarter when I was stuck on two lands. So I lost.
Game 3: Second turn Kor Firewalker...then another. I chained one, but he got it back with Ghost Quarter. Really starting to question Chained as a decent PtE replacement. Lost. 1-2

Round 2: Melira Pod

Why did I leave out the Torpor Orbs?
Game 1: Got a decent start and managed to finish him before he combos out.
Game 2: Didn't get a good start, had to mulligan and should have
gone down to 5 really, because my 6 hander was too slow. Lost.
Game 3: He got a bad start, I got a decent. But I couldn't get damage through fast enough. He got out a Spellskite (I hadn't sided in artifact destruction, wanted to be as fast as possible). For some reason I thought he could redirect my GCR (had two in my hand) so I didn't bloodrush as early as possible. Got him down to 1 before he comboed out. Realised right after the match that there were two reasons why he couldn't redirect CGR. Stupid, stupid noob mistake, really inexcusable. 1-2.

Round 3: UB Tron

That mistake in the previous match really got me into tilt mode, since I knew that a 3-2 wouldn't make the top 4.
Game 1: Got an awesome start, one-drop into double BTE. Then I overextended with a Goblin Guide (my fourth and last creature in my hand), because I wanted to just finish him as fast as possible. Then Damnation hit. Why didn't I remember those 4 Damnations he had maindeck (I had seen the list before the tournament)? Again,
stupid mistake. So I got him down a bit in life, but in pretty much topdeck mode, and then Wurmcoil Engine hit the table. Thank you and goodnight!
Game 2: Serious tilt mode in this game. Played badly, couldn't decide on lines of play, stuff like that. Didn't see any of the SB hate cards. Chained a Wurmcoil Engine, which got promptly return by a one-mana Engineered Explosives, together with other one-drop (Chained fails again as a PtE substitute). 0-2

Round 4: Some Grixis Control deck

Don't remember much about this one. Removal and sweepers were played. Won it 2-0.

Round 5: Grixis Cruel Control

Game 1: Couldn't build a good board presence, then Cruel Ultimatum hit and there's no way to win after that.
Game 2-3: Played marvelously around sweepers and won before he reached seven mana. 2-1

Afterthoughts:

- Need to study modern decks more.
- Should have gone with the sideboard in post 4, would've been of more use.
- Chained to the Rocks is a lousy Path to Exile replacement.
- I'm
unsure if this deck can do well without Tarmogoyf? It has very few late game cards.
by Platypus
Fri Nov 22, 2013 10:13 am
Forum: Aggro
Topic: Gruul Zoo
Replies: 14
Views: 9548

Any last minute thoughts on the sideboard?

[deck]
Land (19)
4 Stomping Ground
4 Copperline Gorge
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
1 Mountain
1 Forest
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa

Creatures (32)
4 Kird Ape
4 Goblin Guide
4 Experiment One
4 Dryad Militant
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager

Spells (9)
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Chained to the Rocks
3 Rancor

Sideboard (15)
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Volcanic Fallout
1 Destructive Revelry
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Faerie Macabre
3 Molten Rain
3 Combust
[/deck]
by Platypus
Wed Nov 20, 2013 11:06 pm
Forum: Aggro
Topic: Gruul Zoo
Replies: 14
Views: 9548

I'm going to keep the maindeck above, although I might drop one Rancor for another Sacred Foundry.

Right, but the sideboard need some tweaking. Any suggestions? I can probably expect a varied meta with the usual modern suspects. Looks like we're getting some out-of-towners joining, so that shakes things up a bit.
by Platypus
Tue Nov 19, 2013 7:16 am
Forum: Aggro
Topic: Gruul Zoo
Replies: 14
Views: 9548

It spews out creatures very fast, so Lillys +1 don't remove many cards unless you want to sandbag creatures. And lands in excess of 2-3 can be tossed easily. Her -2 ability takes down creatures from turn 3 onwards, worst case scenario they have removed one each turn before that. But you have a lot of them so hopefully you have one left that can attack her. A second Lilly right after that might be bad though. So yeah, I'm not that worried about her.

I'm going to sleeve up the latest version tonight and see how it feels.

Edit: Corrected some errors
by Platypus
Mon Nov 18, 2013 7:58 am
Forum: Aggro
Topic: Gruul Zoo
Replies: 14
Views: 9548

I'm not a modern master (since I only play BW Tokens and BRW Burn in modern, going to swap to Brobots soon) I don't think Boros Charm (as a protection spell) is good in Modern due to all the Sac and Exile effects, chains is good since it deal with goyf but so does Dismember (which would most likely hurt you less then all the pain lands you have to take to get white).
I'm pretty inexperienced with Modern myself, I've basically done one FNM in February using a BRg Burn deck (went 2-2). So I'm going in pretty much blind in this one. I asked a guy about the local meta and his response was:

Popular: Pod (assuming both types), Affinity, UWR, MonoR.
Somewhat popular: Junk, Jund. BW hatebears, GW hatebears, W hatebears, Boros landfall, Pox (
monoB), RUG Vial.
Fringe: Combo (scapeshift, storm)

He counted me among the MonoR decks, so I'm not sure how many of those are around. We usually get around 20 players, so it's going to be a varied meta.

Your thoughts on Boros Charm is valid, I think. It's hard to test it in a vacuum, but black will be played in several decks which means Liliana of the Veil and other sacrifice effects. So, yeah it's not any good against those. I was thinking of having it as a surprise against mainly Supreme Verdict and Anger of the Gods (or other red sweepers), maybe it's not worth it and it's probably better to play around those anyway.

Chained is good against Wurmcoil Engine as well, but I don't know how many of those there will be. It's basically damage from lands or damage from Dismember if I play either one of them. In my testing I usually took 4-5 damage from the lands during the first two turns. Now, Dismember does 4 damage since I don't have any black sources. So it doesn't look too bad, and it
can always be played with my mana. But here's the thing, does it really only cost 4 damage or is it 4 in addition to those 1-3 damage I've taken during turn 1-2 from fetches and shocks even in a RG deck? So in that light, taking that 4-5 damage in order to get Chained isn't so bad after all.
I don't like Keldon Marauders or Stormblood Berserker in Zoo but that is just me, Dryad Militant is really cool tech vs Snapcaster Mage and Goyf though.
My deal with the Berserker is the situation where you go E1, BTE->Berserker. You want to play BTE->something with 3 power or toughness before the attack so that E1 is a 3/3, but then you don't get bloodthirst for Berserker. I like Dryad Militant for just those reasons you mention. And with BTE I have 8 red one-drops and 8 green one-drops to chain, and that's just sweet.

So, with all this in mind I arrived at this version:

[deck]
Land (19)
4 Stomping Ground
4 Copperline Gorge
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
n1 Mountain
1 Forest
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa

Creatures (32)
4 Kird Ape
4 Goblin Guide
4 Experiment One
4 Dryad Militant
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager

Spells (8)
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Chained to the Rocks
3 Rancor

Sideboard (15)
2 Chained to the Rocks
3 Shattering Blow
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Faerie Macabre
3 Molten Rain
3 Torpor Orb
[/deck]

Between fetches and shocks I have 9 lands that get me a white source. Assuming I want to get rid of a big Goyf, then on the play that's turn 3 at the earliest, that's a 79.4% chance to have a white source available. I can live with that. The Gorges and lower amount of white shocks help keep the land damage down a bit. I'm dropping the Boros Charm and a land. The land drop might be a bad idea The deck need two lands in play by turn 2, and 19 lands mean dropping by 2.8% to 79.6% chance for that. The slots left by the Charms need to be filled, I'm leaning towards Rancor
right now because it pushes damage through and it together with Bolt is another decent BTE chain targets.

Edit: Changed the sideboard. I really want those Torpor Orbs against Pod.

Edit 2: Blarghh...I need to check the chance of drawing a Chained without having any white as well...
by Platypus
Sun Nov 17, 2013 11:25 pm
Forum: Aggro
Topic: Gruul Zoo
Replies: 14
Views: 9548

I have no idea, honestly.

But since I'm taking some sort of Gruul Zoo deck to a local GP Trial next weekend, I'm just going to repost this from the restricted forum. Maybe I can get some help. My meta will Jund and Affinity as well, among other stuff.
-----------

Ok, so there's a local modern GP trial in a week, and I've basically decided to run a Gruul Zoo deck, despite not having Tarmogoyfs to put in it. But I've been goldfishing (it sucks not having any playtesting buddies) a variant with a slight white splash for Boros Charms/Chained to the Rocks.

[deck]Land (20)
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
1 Mountain

Creatures (32)
4 Kird Ape
4 Goblin Guide
4 Experiment One
4 Dryad Militant
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager



Spells (8)
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Boros Charm
2
Chained to the Rocks



Sideboard (15)
2 Chained to the Rocks
3 Shattering Blow
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Molten Rain
1 Boros Charm[/deck]
Why Boros Charm and Chained? Well, Chained basically removes most big creatures for one mana, and I don't have any Path to Exiles. Boros Charm's all three modes are sweet here: 4 damage to the dome as a finisher, Indestrucible creatures survive the inevitable sweeper spells (UW/UWR decks are popular here, so Verdicts and Anger or the Gods will probably be played), and Double Strike might be useful sometimes. Sideboard is geared towards artifact decks, which have been played locally as well. The SB is still being considered, so any suggestions are welcome. Especially against Pod decks and various hatebear decks (Volcanic Fallout?), which also seem to be popular around here.

Anyway, the mana base feels solid enough. But, I will usually be taking 4-5 damage on turn 1-2 from the fetches and shocks. The deck can function well enough on two mana,
so later shocks can usually enter play tapped. But how awkward is it really to be taking 4-5 damage during the first two turns? The deck feels quite solid apart from that though, lots of turn 4 wins.

I've tried this second manabase tonight, because I noticed that I usually fetched for a Stomping Ground first turn if I had to. So I thought that the Gorges would work well. And they do, I seem to take less damage for lands, but it's harder to guarantee getting that white mana. Maybe I should go with 3-3-2 ( Foundry-Garden-Gorge) instead, or 3-2-3? If I had more Arid Mesas I'd drop the Gardens completely, but that ain't going to happen...

[deck]2 Sacred Foundry
4 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
4 Copperline Gorge
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
1 Mountain[/deck]

Or maybe I should forget about the white splash and just go with this:

[deck]Lands (19)
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Stomping Ground
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
2 Forest
3 Mountain

nCreatures (32)
4 Kird Ape
4 Experiment One
4 Goblin Guide
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Stormblood Berserker
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager

Spells (9)
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Dismember
3 Searing Blaze

Sideboard
3 Torpor Orb
3 Faerie Macabre
1 Dismember
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Deglamer
3 Volcanic Fallout[/deck]

It's more consistent colorwise, and easier on the land damage as well. Although I'm not completely sold on those Berserkers...

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