Boros, Beats, Battlestar Galactica

[hamfactorial]

I played Affinity in the last round, won game 1 easily, punted game 2 by messing up combat math, then flooded out hard in game 3.

[hamfactorial]

Guess what card is unexpectedly good in my deck? Cloudshift.

It's like a Restoration Angel with "Evoke [mana]W[/mana]".

I've been trolling fools with Flickerwisp today, in place of Lightning Helix. It has some tricky plays to it, like playing it on turn 3 vs. Twin, exiling a Sacred Foundry in case he has the EOT Pestermite / Deceiver Exarch. Or blinking it with Restoration Angel to remove a creature in response to removal. Or resetting the counters on a Pyromancer Ascension. Or letting me re-use my Temple of Triumph for an EOT scry. There's probably more, but I haven't found it yet.

I'm 2-0 in a daily right now with this -

[deck]Modern BBBSG v. 1.25[/deck]

I submitted with the 3rd Bonfire by mistake, there should be 2 and a Batterskull in there.

The SB is a terrible mess, I've been cutting it apart and playing with various cards. It's good to have my old buddy Spellskite back as a general purpose Twin hoser, with upside against that retarded Bogles deck and Ad Nauseam. I punted the first game of this morning's daily against Ad Nauseam by not playing out 'Skite and getting comboed out even with a Blood Moon in play.

Let's hope this daily goes better.

[Toddington]

Balls deep.

[magicdownunder]

What MUs would the morph Akroma, Angel of Fury + Blink combo improve?

[Toddington]

The ones where you need to win more .

[Blackhound]

Just read this thread, an interesting take on boros

[hamfactorial]

Heh, good old Akroma. No synergy with Restoration Angel or Kiki, but one scary looking bitch.

[Valdarith]

Actually, it does have synergy with Resto Angel since you can flip the morphed Akroma when you flicker it.

Too cute for my tastes, but it's there.

[hamfactorial]

I thought that the morphed Akroma is still a Legendary Angel, but I'll have to look it up. Fun idea though

[Valdarith]

Morphed creatures are colorless and have no creature type, so it is a legal target for Resto Angel.

[hamfactorial]

I'll try it for yucks

[Pedros]

So how did your Cloudshift test finished?

[hamfactorial]

I like it, I've been running 3 as a way to protect the combo and occasionally get bonus value out of my ETB guys.

I'm going to play tonight to grind the last 2 QPs I need for the Force of Will, then write up more notes.

[Abomai]

Tron is back! In lots: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/Ma ... rn/7035709

[hamfactorial]

Fuckin Tron!

-admires my Blood Moons-

[hamfactorial]

I tested for a few hours with Akroma, and while it was fun, I found her too slow without mana acceleration, and I always had better things to do on turn 4.

There were a few games where I hard-cast her in the late game vs. UWR and won almost on the spot, so maybe there's a place for her as a miser's copy.

I've also been enjoying Vulshok Sorcerer as a way to control the board against Pod/Affinity. It does a nice Bonfire impression, and plays well with Kiki. If the mana ends up too restrictive, Cunning Sparkmage is the obvious replacement.

Vault of the Archangel plus one of those guys is turbo-lulz.

[hamfactorial]

I've been itching to jam some games at my LGS, since they offer Modern on Saturday afternoon. Having already sold off my fetchland collection, I want to see if a budget version could be developed without fetches.

Here's what I came up with:

[deck]Fetchless BBBSG, aka the budgcaj menace[/deck]

The last time I played in person, I saw a bunch of UWR and jank combo players, so I'm leaning hard on Thalia and Spellskite to disrupt them while my usual cast of misfits beats down.


No fetches means no 3rd color splash, and thus I have to stick harder to white for my sideboard.

Suppression Field hates on fetches in general, combo of all types (Twin, Pod, Ad Nauseam with Lightning Storm). It's a non-bo with Figure of Destiny, so I might swap him with Hero of Bladehold.

Blood Moon because Blood Moon.

RIP is the best of the GY hate imo.

Stony Silence because Affinity is cheap and should be active locally.

If Lightning Helix isn't enough, it will become Path to Exile.



Brimaz, Spellskite and Blood Moon are the most expensive cards (nearly half the price) of the deck, but I'm a greedy speculator and bought them already for great yolos.

[hamfactorial]

Current working version

[deck]Modern BBBSG v. 1.26[/deck]

Nailed it! Haven't lost a match in ~6 hours of testing yesterday and this morning before downtime.

This configuration is much stronger vs. the big bruisers of the format (Twin, Pod, Affinity, Storm) but likely weak vs. rogue horseshit like pillow fort, mono white enchantment control, hexproof and mill. I'm ok with that. If it really becomes a problem, I'll put more narrow hosers in the SB.

[Valdarith]

Daddy like.

[hamfactorial]

Sweet, now give me all the prize packs, MTGO!

[hamfactorial]

Played a few matches last night, still haven't lost. Will run that exact list tomorrow morning on stream.

My inclusion of Volcanic Fallout seems to have coincided perfectly with the rise of UR Delver / YP$ decks for some reason. Feels good.

[Valdarith]

People are getting on the Delver train now that a high profile player has shown that it's a viable strategy in Modern.

Speaking as a UR Delver player, I'd hate to play against maindeck Fallout. Huge beating.

[hamfactorial]

No kidding, Fallout has been bonkers. I especially enjoy casting it with my Finks Persist trigger on the stack, or swinging with Brimaz and using Fallout with the token trigger on the stack to wipe blockers and get in for 4.

[Chma]

Played a few matches last night, still haven't lost. Will run that exact list tomorrow morning on stream.

My inclusion of Volcanic Fallout seems to have coincided perfectly with the rise of UR Delver / YP$ decks for some reason. Feels good.

Did you end up not streaming, or was it just not archived? I'd enjoy watching the new list in action

[hamfactorial]

I was in and out of the office/guest room where I play yesterday morning, and didn't think I could engage the audience for 4 hours. I ended up going 2-2 with a series of terrible, awful, no good, very bad draws against a Tron player and a UR Delver player to knock me out.

[hamfactorial]

Eidolon of Rhetoric has solved all of my Storm woes.

[Toddington]

Eidolon of Rhetoric has solved all of my Storm woes.

It's worth paying 1 more for the extra toughness then? And the 1 power is better than Rule of Law?

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, the only discussion I've heard about the card is how you can pod into it. It seems like a reasonable alternative to the other options.

[hamfactorial]

Yeah, previously Storm could kill my Canonist with a Lightning Bolt. They can still bounce Eidolon with Echoing Truth, but I have Restoration Angel to blink it for max lulz.

[hamfactorial]

Here's what I've been up to:

[deck]Modern BBBSG v. 1.27[/deck]

It's been running smooth as silk. I have the Thalia/Spellskite goon squad to protect me against dumb uninteractive combo decks, the best blink target in Blade Splicer, Brimaz aka kitty army in a can and the degenerate Kiki Resto combo for lulz.

The SB is now just hosers for stupid stuff like Storm, Affinity, GY decks and Runed Halo as a catch-all against rogue stuff and
single win con decks. If anything I could probably swap the 4th Halo/Stony for an extra RIP, but so far it's been just fine.

The only deck I have serious trouble against is that mono white enchantment deck, which I don't see often but can never beat without diluting my sideboard.

[Valdarith]

This deck looks so goofy but I still love it.

Seriously, four Spellskite main? Who does that?!?!

[hamfactorial]

Haha, it's ridiculous, I know. Spellskite just protects me from so much Modern silliness, I can't give it up.

[Pedros]

I like your manabase, especialy inclusion of shinka, eiganjo and slayers tronghold, dont know about forge, however if they are better than temples good 4 ya

I know you like 4 offs, but man 4 skites, brimaz and thalias? Didnt you have problems of having multiples of them doing nothing in your hand?

I love vulcanic falout in md,.

[hamfactorial]

Yeah, I sometimes get annoyed at having 2 Brimaz or Thalia in hand, but the flip side is "if I cut some, what goes in their place?" Kitchen Finks is the obvious choice but I'd always rather play Brimaz if I have both. If I have an active Brimaz with one stranded in hand, I'm probably winning.

The 4 Spellskites are probably overkill, but I have enough Slayers' Strongholds that they can get in for 2 reliably. They also protect my combo like champs, while disrupting Twin which remains the format bogeyman.

The Forges are an overreaction from a very frustrating game I played against mono G Nykthos. He had a field full of x/2s while I was stuck with 2 lands and a Temple of Triumph that he kept bouncing with Primal Command until I died with Volcanic Fallout stuck in my hand.

I could (and probably should) cut 1 land, switch back to Temples and run a singleton Hero of Bladehold or make a 3/2 split with Brimaz. Or
go to 3 Skites and keep the full book of Brimaz.

I'm never satisfied.

[hamfactorial]

And yes, Volcanic Fallout has been great

[Pedros]

Oh yeah I now know what I was missing. another combo piece.

Imo you should try running 1-2 hero of bladeholds. Hero into kiki jiki is similar game to angel into kiki. ^^



I will try to find you something to trim those thalias, spellskites and brimaz to a 3 off. My first impression would be hero of bladehold.

[hamfactorial]

Heh, why play 1 unfair combo when I can play 2?

[hamfactorial]

Made a slight adjustment, to unexpectedly good results.

[deck]Modern BBBSG v. 1.28[/deck]

The swap is Electrickery in for Volcanic Fallout and Figure of Destiny in for Spellskite.

The Twin decks have become inbred to fight the mirror, hence the prevalence of maindeck Twisted Image. I've always considered Spellskite a necessary evil vs. Twin, but when I can't even rely on that plan, I have to
adopt a more aggressive strategy. FoD and Thalia let me commit to the board while still allowing me to play reactively as needed (sit on removal, pump Figure EOT if they don't make a play). Thalia is disruptive enough that G1 isn't an auto-loss vs Storm, which is nice, and aggressive enough against aggro.

The Volcanic Fallout swap came about after too many games vs. Affinity where I sat idly for 2 turns with Lightning Helix and Fallout in hand while I got chipped at by Signal Pests and Vault Skirges.

Electrickery delivers the same blowout potential in the Affinity and Delver matchups while being a good piece of removal on the draw, which Fallout never was. It sometimes lets me deal with hexproof if I have it in my opener, which is sweet.

A list of relevant format creatures that Electrickery deals with:

Snapcaster Mage
Delver
Young Pyromancer + tokens
Pestermite
Vendillion Clique
Vault Skirge
Steel Overseer
Blinkmoth/Inkmoth Nexus
Dark Confidant
Grim Lavamancer
Mans dorks (birds, elves,
noble hierarch)
Viscera Seer
Leftover Persist creatures (Finks, Redcap)
Eternal Witness
Flickerwisp
Thalia
The Soul Sisters
Blade Splicer
Empty the Warrens tokens
All the Infect creatures
Lingering Souls / Bitterblossom tokens
Most of the Goblin deck (minus Lords)

I've been satisfied with Electrickery's performance, and letting me get the extra bit of damage to kill a Deceiver Exarch cheaply is great value. It doesn't go upstairs, but we can't have everything.

The downside to Electrickery is the potential to be countered, the inability to kill a GoST, and situations where I really want to kill a board full of x/2s (Merfolk, combo Elves). Those decks are soft to the Kiki combo, so it might not be a big deal.

[Abomai]

Wassup, Ham. This is my current list (pasts FNMs here in my city I did 4-0 (all 2-0s) and 3-1 in the last one (lost to damn scape by 2-0, couldnt cast blood moon in g1 as the guy has tons of counters and was never tapping himself up and g2 blood moons just didnt come).

MAINDECK (60 Cards)
20 Creatures
4 Blade Splicer
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Restoration Angel
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2 Hero of Bladehold
15 Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
2 Blood Moon
1 Batterskull
25 Lands
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Plains
2 Rugged Prairie
2 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Mountain
SIDEBOARD (15 Cards)
3 Mirran Crusader
3 Stony Silence
2 Rule of Law
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Wear/Tear
1 Blood Moon
1 Rest in Peace

I'm actually thinking about that idea to put 1 Blood Crypt and maybe jamming 3
Slaughter Games in SB instead of Mirrans. Also thinking about cutting 1 Brimaz or Batterskull for putting 1 extra Blood Moon MD.
I did like the idea of using Thalias though, but still don't like much the thought of having a creature that completely dies to a single lightning bolt (but yet, it's good to make the opponent pay 2 for it).

[Pedros]

https://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/M ... rn/7143443

N00bits (4-0)

[hamfactorial]

Wassup, Ham. This is my current list (pasts FNMs here in my city I did 4-0 (all 2-0s) and 3-1 in the last one (lost to damn scape by 2-0, couldnt cast blood moon in g1 as the guy has tons of counters and was never tapping himself up and g2 blood moons just didnt come).

MAINDECK (60 Cards)
20 Creatures
4 Blade Splicer
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Restoration Angel
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2 Hero of Bladehold
15 Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
2 Blood Moon
1 Batterskull
25 Lands
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Plains
2 Rugged Prairie
2 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Mountain
SIDEBOARD (15 Cards)
3 Mirran Crusader
3 Stony Silence
2 Rule of Law
2 Anger of the
Gods
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Wear/Tear
1 Blood Moon
1 Rest in Peace

I'm actually thinking about that idea to put 1 Blood Crypt and maybe jamming 3 Slaughter Games in SB instead of Mirrans. Also thinking about cutting 1 Brimaz or Batterskull for putting 1 extra Blood Moon MD.
I did like the idea of using Thalias though, but still don't like much the thought of having a creature that completely dies to a single lightning bolt (but yet, it's good to make the opponent pay 2 for it).

Sweet, glad to hear you're getting good results

Thalia is the flex slot for me, used to be Boros Charm but went with her because Storm and Twin can be rough without her.

I played Slaughter Games for a while against the Scapeshift decks and really liked it!