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Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
The store I go to are gonna start running FNMs in May, and the plans for now is to make them a 1/3 split between Standard and Modern. This was made, as far as I know, mostly because none of the other stores in town plan on ever running a Modern FNM, plus the fact that most of the people who come to the store tend to like modern as a format.

I'm really looking forward to it, mostly because I finally built 99.5% of my Living End deck and have been itching to play it outside of casual games with random people.

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Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
I would love to see that decklist too.

Also, another recommendation for Living End. That deck is very fun to play. I feel more fun than it has any right to be.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
MTG Salvation has a pretty good Primer on Living End.

The list you posted is fine, though there's some stuff I'd change.
- I think running all 4 demonic dreads is a must. You must draw a cascade spell, or else your deck doesn't do poo poo.
- Ridge Rannet is fine, though Jungle Weaver is generally accepted to be the better 2 mana cycler, due to his higher toughness. Same with Valley Rannet. The 3 toughness makes it way too fragile. I personally run only one, along with 4 Pale Recluses (I don't have any fulminators, which is why I run more cyclers. Even if I had the fulminator mages, I'd still prefer the Pale Recluse to the Valley Rannet.
- There's almost constant debate on maindeck Ingot Chewers. I feel like it's a waste of a slot keeping it maindeck, but there's good arguments for having one or two in there anyway. I think this is an entirely meta-dependent choice. Shriekmaws have no place maindeck though. They're a sideboard card, since against certain matches they are simply a dead card in your hand that you can't even cycle for another card.
- Faerie Macabre is good. Real good. I run 2 maindeck, and am seriously considering scrapping the Jund Charm and some random cycler and running just a full 4. It does make a bit of anti-synergy with the Deadshot Minotaur, but whatever.
- Graven Cairns is probably a bad choice for the deck. I've tried filter lands, and the problem with them is that they do not allow you to produce colored mana on turn on, and you should be able to always cycle on turn one if possible. Copperline gorges and blackcleave cliffs are best for that, with fetches and shocks filling the rest. If you run the Pale Recluses a single Temple Garden is usually a good idea too, just so you can cast them if it comes to it.
- 3 Forbidden Orchard feels like asking for trouble. While it's really not that good of a card, most people use Dryad Arbor for their Demonic Dread enabler, since it can be fetched at instant speed by a Verdant Catacombs, or you can cycle for it in a pinch. Either that or just run a one-of Orchard.
- Beast Withins are usually played a straight 4-of in the main. I can see maybe switching them to sideboard depending on the meta, but they are your universal answer to everything and anything your opponent does, and they are always useful to help cripple an opponent who has mana problems (if they miss a land drop it's usually a good idea to take out one of their lands with a beast within just to make sure they won't be doing much any time soon).
- Avalanche Riders are another story. I run 2 main board, due to the aforementioned lack of Fulminator Mages, but they cost 4 and as such are not all that impressive. Like Ingot Chewers, there's a lot of debates going on from time to time on where the Riders should be, or if they should even be played at all.
- Some sort of life-gain might be useful in the sideboard, since a lot of aggro decks can actually outrace you if you don't have a perfect draw or opening hand. Classic choices are Gnaw to the Bone and Brindle Boar, though I've seen Timely Reinforcements (with the lists that run a big heavier white in their mana base) and some guy on the salvation thread actually sides out his Living ends for Heroes Reunion as a form of super-secret tech (so much for it being secret).
- A card that sees some play is Architects of Will. Most decks don't bother running blue to actaully cast them, so they are just used as more 1 mana cyclers. I run two, and They have usually been pretty good, since once you cascade and they get on the board they can help make sure your opponent won't draw an answer immediately after you combo off. (or at least warn you that they will)

Jesus, this turned into a bigass wall of text. Hope any of this is useful to anyone.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
Remand does ruin Living End like nobody's business. That's what the Ricochet Traps are for in the sideboard. God help you if you need to combo off and don't have the trap in hand.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
As you can imagine, this thing has a primer on MTG Salvation for it. I like it, but I think it just might be mostly too cute, without having any actual game in it. I can just see this folding to some hand disruption in game one and then artifact removal in games two and three and not being able to do poo poo, since the rest of the deck is loving awful.

Speaking of awful, anyone here plays/has played the modern Ad Nauseam combo? I've been thinking of building it for FNM, but it honestly seems way too slow and inconsistent, which is a shame since I love lovely modern combos and am itching to try it.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

Tharizdun posted:

What on earth do you Ad Nauseam for?

Everything.

You either have Phyrexian Unlife or play Angel's Grace so you can't die this turn, Ad Nauseam, draw your entire library then either kill them with Lightning Storm or a flashback Conflagrate, whichever you so chose. Here's a deck tech video from a while back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSpTlyylP7A

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

JerryLee posted:

Since Top is banned I'm thinking probably not. :v:

Not that top. This top.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

JerryLee posted:

Welp, boy is my face red.

I remember seeing that deck; I just had no idea they'd named it that.

To be fair this was sort of my first reaction when I first saw it too. "Wait, isn't Top banned in Modern?"

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
I'm actually quite interesting in seeing the deck in action as well.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
Just to chime in that the second post of this thread is still lacking in GP Portland reports of any kind.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
Considering Scapeshift was in the finals of GP Portland, I don't think the deck can really be considered "fringe" or even that rogue, to be honest.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

Shavnir posted:

R14 - French Dredge. No way I'd ever beat this deck but holy hell it was a blast to play against
R15 - Fish. Again. With blood moon. :psyduck:

The hell? You can't just drop these like that at the end and not elaborate. What the hell is French Dredge, and how is it any different than non-french dredge? And what the hell was that Fish player doing with blood moons?

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

Shavnir posted:

It was a new ish build of dredgevine featuring a top end of demigod of revenge. Turns out my opponent, Olivier Ruel is in the hall of fame. Welp.

That actually sounds amazingly fun. I'd love to see a list too.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
I hate Urza Tron because they won't allow me to play with my Cloudposts instead.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
Isn't that just Soul Sisters or am I missing something?

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
Don't most mono-colored decks like Soul Sisters, Death and Taxes, Merfolk and so on also play a lot of Ghost Quarters/Tec Edges just because they can afford the colorless mana?

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
There's a guy I follow semi-regularly on twitch that plays Restore Balance, and with what I've heard him say about the deck and what we've chatted about it, he sums it up that it's "Viable, really fun, but in no way an actual good deck" and from what I've seen of how the deck performs, this seems to be a pretty good summery.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
So I found I have most of the cards for a modern U/R Storm deck. Would you say the deck is consistent enough to waste money getting the cards I don't have (some of the rituals, pyromancer's ascensions and past in flames) and how well does it handle against dedicated hate (Graveyard removal, ethersworn canonist, stuff like that?)

Also, is there a list that's generally been accepted to work well that I can just steal, or do I have to figure this out on my own?

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
Yeah there aren't any "real" decks at the FNMs I play at. Mostly it's some sort of white-based aggro or some people with counter spells.

Stony Silence - if I'm running this, does this mean I have to run white in the deck as well? Because I don't have any fetches and I honestly don't think I can afford them in the foreseeable future, so I can't just splash a color that easy into the deck.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
There simply no way I can afford fetches with them costing 30$ each. I am not paying that kind of cash for cardboard, not with the kind of money I make right now. It'll have to work without fetches.

I'd still appreciate a deck list though, just so I'd know what exactly I need and what I have already. Like I have stuff like 4x Manamorphose, gitaxian probe, serum visions, sleight of hand and stuff like that, but I want to know how many Past in Flames and such I need to run. Some friends of mine will be ordering stuff online soon, and I'd like to know how much of what I'd need, since I can't afford to just order 4x of everything and work things out from there.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
Not really, no. I mean, sure, if it's turn 8, you have most of your stuff in the graveyard for some reason, they haven't killed you and they have an Ooze out and all of their mana is green and untapped... then yeah.

But Living End should, and usually does go off on turn 3-5, at which point there's not much an Ooze can make. That and after sideboard you get stuff like Dismember and/or Shriekmaw which just kill the drat thing before it can do much of anything.

It will still make things difficult, there's no denying that. But it's not a card that you just auto-lose if they play.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
But...but that deck looks horrible and bad! How does that even work?!

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
The price of non-online Fulminator Mages is absurd too. It's now stuck at around $15 which is just silly. They are the last thing I need to get my Living End deck right and properly finished, but I just can't force myself to pay that much money for a play set of Fulminator Mages.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

Tonde Mo Nai posted:

Well they're running closer to $25 now, so picking them up at $15 would actually be a deal.

Okey what the loving hell?! Seriously, Fulminators used to cost ~$5 when I first started putting together Living End, and now they're reaching 30!

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
Soo first FNM with modern storm and it was a blast. I only lost one round, and that was because game 1 I mulled to 3 before I saw a land, then drew pretty well, but my opponent just bashed my face in too fast for me to get a critical mass of cards. Game 2 I simply didn't draw a past in flames or ascension. At all.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

AgentSythe posted:

Did you guys seen the Top 8 for GP Detroit? loving yaaaaaaawn

I didn't, but let me guess? Jund/Pod all over the place?

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

Filthy Monkey posted:

Well, if they did some blue unbannings shardless bug would instantly become viable in modern. Would need to get get, jace, ancestral vision, and ponder back.

And, ya know, Shardless Agent.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

WhitemageofDOOM posted:

You're really underestimating how good fetches are.
If you are running shocks fetchlands are pretty much 5 color lands.

Banning the fetches and printing this...

Super evolving wilds
Land
Pay 1 life, T: Search your deck for a basic land and put it into play.

Is noticeably worse than fetches because of number of copies and the fact you get dual lands from cracking the fetch.


Note: I have no opinion on how moderns manabase should be or what to ban, i'm just pointing out how good fetches+shocks really are.

Funny story, I thought of this too.



Which reminds me I really need to finish working on the Planescape MTG set.

One thing a friend and I were discussing, was the fact that with the continued printing of more and more "good" cards and less "cards that are good when in a synergy" we'll eventually start seeing more and more Jund-like decks, where it doesn't really have much of a strategy or synergy to it, just "these are all the best cards in these colors. I'm playing all of them.", which I don't think I really enjoy as a way of deck building.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

Tharizdun posted:

If I wanted to run living end but didn't have x4 Fulminator Mage, is there anything else I could run in its place. The deck already goes x4 Fulminator, x2 Avalanche Riders, and while I'm not happy about it, I could go x4 Rider, x2 "something else," right? Or do I need to go old school Stone Rain just to keep my opponent's mana hosed to stay ahead long enough to win? Or are creatures too valuable to go the Sorcery route?

From my experience playing Living End, 2 Riders is usually even more than enough. I've had many games that I've just sided them out. I didn't have any Fulminators either, and it didn't cause me too many problems (I guess how effective that card is is also related to the meta you're in). I just filled those slots with more cyclers - Architects, some more Jungle Weavers.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

Tharizdun posted:

How the gently caress is it supposed to beat Infect?

You don't? :v: Either that or play Dismembers?

Or you might just accept that you have a match you more or less auto lose to. I prefer that than playing something like Jund and having 60% win against everything. Yawn.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
Let me give you an idea of how easy it is to get into Legacy from a person trying to do it just now - Legacy has no support by Wizards. This, as much as you might not want to think so, matters a lot. Oh sure, you guys have SCG over there, but unless you live in the States or in a big enough western European country that SCG supports legacy tournaments there, there is exactly ZERO actual support of the format.

It's honestly impossible to find people to play modern with, and that one gets supported all the time. The community in my country is relatively small (due to being part of a relatively small country), and as such trends tend to be very strong here, and people here play Standard and, very occasionaly - draft. That's it. Every time you bring up Legacy in a conversation, most people just look at you as if you just said something rude about their mother, and tell you that nobody's interested in that poo poo, so just go play Standard (which, of course, is a lie, since if you're talking about it, there's obviously at least one person interested in the format).

So okay, the established community is poo poo and it won't support it - what about new players? No chance. Now, I'm sure we're all aware that, at the end of the day, Magic is 'just a game' (God I loving hate that phrase). Because of that, most people who start playing just flat out don't feel like remembering the many cards that see play in Modern, let alone something like Legacy. They just shoot straight for Standard, since that requires less cards and decks to remember and there's a lot more people playing it. So the chance of getting someone who's new into the game to even consider playing a non-rotating format like Modern or Legacy is very, very slim.

I guess the conclusion I've come to is that I should probably just leave the country.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

Gravy Train Robber posted:

What country are you from?

Bulgaria, which would explain a few things. I mean, for starters, there's just not that many people here who can afford to play Magic in a serious manner, and even stuff like boardgames is still fairly niche (it's been getting better and better the last 10 years or so though, so that's at least optimistic). And keep in mind - I live in the capital city, so I'm in the middle of the largest Magic community in the country. There's a guy here who keeps trying to make cheap legacy tournaments (6 proxies allowed) with pretty decent prizes with the hope of 1. Raising interest in the format and 2. Getting more cards into circulation.

That didn't really work, since the last few months we can't even get 8 people together. What's disheartening is that this is all in the people, not in card availability. There are people with 3-4 decks, who are very willing to give them to people so they can play, but there's just not enough people interested IN playing.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
gently caress Omni-Show, build Hyper-genesis and live the dream. It doesn't matter if it's good or not.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

ScarletBrother posted:

What would you run instead? A basic?

I'd use Shivan Reef, I play those in my Storm deck, since I am too cheap for fetches and need lands that come untapped. The life loss may or may not be relevant.

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

JerryLee posted:

Speaking of Bitterblossom in Legacy, did anything ever come of that weird Goblin Bombardment deck? It was big news at like one major tournament and then was never seen again.

I always thought that the zombie bombardment deck was just a rouge brew Sam Black made for a tournament, did well, and then abandoned it?

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

C-Euro posted:

does red have anything that deals with enchantments?

I suggest prayer to whatever deity you believe is your protector, or philosophical contemplation upon the meaninglessness of playing Magic, and thus the lack of reason to worry about dealing with enchantments in red.


Or, I dunno, splash white for enchantment removal or something.

Jenx fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Feb 6, 2014

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
I am sure I've seen a bunch of Mishra, Artificer Prodigy Modern deck lists running around, and I absolutely love the thing. However, for the life of me I can't find the one I'm looking for, so if anyone could point me in the general direction of a deck list for it, I'd appreciate it. (Yes, I know it's not all that amazing, I don't care. It does awesome things, and I will play it.)

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

Mortimer posted:

Nope, doomsday. There are definitely more than that, but doomsday continues to be the bar to which difficulty is set. Unless you're being sarcastic, in which case I'd say affinity is a bit harder than you would think.

I really, really want to see someone play Doomsday as an aggro deck. Someone, go do this!

Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!

tzirean posted:

I would not be surprised if most people had the same record playing Doomsday as an aggro deck as they did playing it as a combo deck.

Failing completely and giving up in frustration?

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Jenx
Oct 17, 2012

Behold the Bull of Heaven!
Honestly, as a Living End player I can tell you the worst possible thing you can do to the deck is Remanding the Living End, stranding it in their hand. It feels so frustrating, it's not even funny.

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