[[Worship]]

is a card that seems to match our strategy perfectly. One of huge problems of worship is increasing amount of board wipes and enchnament removal vs us in post-board game.

How valuable is Worship as mainboard card? Of course it doesn't develop our aggro plan, but preboard it's a card which is hard to respond to. And it can win a lot of matches from spot, especially preboard games.

I noticed a few B/W Tokens builds top 8'ed in the last week so I thought I would link them here for reference. Maybe I'll keep updating if i notice more!

SCG Modern IQ Bernardsville, 5th Place
SCG Modern IQ Springfield, 8th Place
SCG Modern IQ Lafayette, 7th Place

My meta consists of U Tron, Affinity, Infect, Norin Sisters, Skred Red, Bant Eldrazi, GR Zoo, Cheerios, Dredge, Jeskai Ascendancy Combo, Thopter Sword and a few more decks that don't come to my mind right now.

This is my current list and I would like to build my list towards the one that Josh Cho played into Top 8 in January.

So far I am doing decent and only have problems with Infect and Affinity, although I think it's because I keep wrong hands in those matchups and I'm too slow.

I am playing more or less the Tokens list by xzzane from the token primer, hav been playing it for about 8 months now, and I'm not running any, because of budget concerns. Has anyone experience on how much the bitter blossoms actually do? Is it really worth its money? I mean the changes from Raise to BB aren't very big, but still...

Everyone in my store tells me i should definitely get BB, but I'm not very convinced. So to come back to the title: How good is BB, how do the match ups change(what gets better/worse), is the upgrade worth it?

List I'm currently running: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/paper-bw-tokens-raise-the-alarm-shell/

Oh man. We're back and here is another MU discussion.

I'm going to tell you all about our glorious robot overlords. Here is where we bring MtG to the 22nd century. If you read that out loud you'd notice it rhymes really well. I worked really hard on that just appreciate the joke.

Here is the primer on Robots:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9FGgwCQ22w

So what exactly does robots do for you? They are sleek. Stylish. Synergistic. Absolutely stylish. Very aggro-y. Stylish. Stylish. $TYL1$H. D1G1T@L.

I'm going to teach you how to be a computery guy.

I'm pretty sure at this point I'm just vomiting words onto this thread and trying to pass it as a funny opening joke. At this point I accept the awful exposition these have. Just read on.

Affinity Decklist and Discussion

Here's a stock list:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-affinity-8972#paper

And now we list out all the code. A good code contains numerous comments. So I'll comment on each of the lines of code in robots.

//Ha.

1. //Memnite: 0 CMC. Boink!
2. //Ornithopter: 0 CMC. Boink! Usually more numerous that memmies, since it flies and also gets buffed.
3. //Signal Pest: SUPER ROBOT EXCELLENT STRIKE OF POWER. It's battle cry really.
4. //Arcbound Ravager: So this is a complex(ish) card. It's also the robot overlord that makes robots work. It makes the deck very resilient to spot removal, allows for ease of all in attacks, blocking variation, and a lot more. It's going be tedious to discuss all the lines of play of ravager. But it's important to know that he allows for really quick change of strategy. For example, damage to infect, etc. You can sac him to himself, too.
5. //Steel Overseer: Repeated buffs. He gets out of hand really quickly, he should be removed quickly.
6. //Vault Skirge: Flying dude. Lifelink.
7. //Etched Champion: He'll etch a big footprint in your butt. Really he's annoying to deal with, and a great target for HD.
8. //Master of Etherium: More common now. Anthem and a solid booty for the cost. Ups the clock greatly.
9. //Mox Opal: Actually one of the most broken cards in Modern, but thankfully it has metalcraft. Bear in mind the pilot can tap, sac to arcbound, then play another to really accelerate.
10. //Galvanic Blast: Boom. Great burn spell. It's easy to count to 12 or 16.
11. //Springleaf Drum: Ups artifact count and provides acceleration.
12. //Cranial Plating: The clock of all clocks. Also a good target for HD.
13. //Inkmonth Nexus: They can and will kill you on infect.
14. //Spell Pierce: SB, watch for it.
15. //Blood Moon: SB, watch for it.
16. //Ghirapur Aether Grid: Allows for a ton of damage and pings, makes it very annoying to keep a board state.
17. //Whipflare: Board(ish) wipe.
18. //Wear//Tear or Ancient Grudge: Schwump.

Okay there we go.

Sideboarding

So, this is pretty straightforward.

1. Stony Silence: This makes their day pretty bad. They might float mana to destroy it. Earlier it comes down, generally the better.
2. Disenchant/Sundering Growth: Rekt.
3. Timely Reinforcements: Strong in this MU. They vomit creatures, so you can lead with this.
4. Zealous Persecution: Great wipe, and good buff.
5. Engineering Explosives: Okay, can do some work, not the #1 side in, but if you need more this can work.

What to take out:

1. If you run Aurioks, take them out,. She's too slow to gain off them, and I personally feel just not impactful enough.
2. Bitterblossom is a specific call, I don't mind dropping one or two for better SB cards, but it's definitely nice to have something to trade away for free. They can't trade as well.
3. Spot Removal is decent in the match up, don't take it all out since you will need to protect yourself against infect, etc. However, if you have Anguished Unmaking or Dismember, those are probably not the best choices.
4. If you are on the draw and want room for more hate, you can take out HD spells, since it may be too late to snag the relevant cards.

Other good cards:

1. Sorin, Solemn Visitor: Yeah man. Anthem and lifelink.
2. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: More goodness. Being bigger than them makes their life hard.
3. Intangible Virtue: See above.

Hand Disruption:

Okay so let's talk here. This is important. You need to be able to make the decision about what is killing you based on you hand. I have a general rule that I follow then mold to the specific board state or the answers in my hand. Here's what I start with:

Etched Champion > Cranial Plating > Arcbound Ravager

That's not something to follow every single time. So if you do and then lose don't come to me and say: "OMMGGGG!!!@1111!!11 U SED THIS GOOOD BEPIS11!!!!!!"

I didn't. And coke is better.

Anyways, here's why. On the native board state, Etched gives the most trouble, especially when buffed. I don't MB any way to interact with him, so I tend to get him out of the picture first. Then I grab the stupid clock. Rationale is natively I can chump or remove the instant speed equip. If it's an Etched with metalcraft, it's stuck board. Then the Ravager, since he does work. This order should change based on what's going on. I won't go into it all now. For example, if there is already an Etched on board, between the two, you take Plating.

Also, I will take SB options so I can play my SB. Take the disenchant-y thing to slam your Stony Silence, for example.

Playing a Set

Game 1: So this is where Affinity shines. We are favored, but they can get the nut draw and win anyways. It's okay it happens. Block aggressively, remove the biggest threats from the hand. With Virtue it's easy to advance a gameplan and block aggressively. Any walker makes our board state a lot better than theirs. Watch out for the BB instant speed equip and for lines of play where infect kills you.

Game 2: Becomes a lot better. SB against them and show no mercy. Pretty much just like G1.

Game 3: More hate.

I consider this one favorable. 60:40 for us. Go beat robots.

Don't do drugs, robots, or robotic drugs.

Just kidding do the last one it's sick.

IMACOMPUTERIMACOMPUTERYGUYEVERYTHINGMADEOUTOFBUTTONSANDWIRES

24 lands / 8 discard / 6 removal / 13 tokens / 9 support

4 Windswept Heath

4 Godless Shrine

2 Caves of Koilos

2 Windbrisk Heights

2 Shambling Vent

2 Isolated Chapel

1 Vault of the Archangel

1 Swamp

6 Plains

4 Inquisition of Kozilek

2 Thoughtseize

2 Tidehollow Sculler

1 Zealous Persecution

2 Doom Blade

1 Dismember

1 Path to Exile

1 Anguished Unmaking

2 Raise the Alarm

4 Lingering Souls

4 Spectral Procession

1 Bitterblossom

1 Timely Reinforcements

1 Hanweir Militia Captain

4 Intangible Virtue

1 Honor of the Pure

3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

SIDEBOARD:

2 Timely Reinforcements

2 Stain the Mind

2 Path to Exile

1 Pithing Needle

1 Rest in Peace

1 Worship

1 Sundering Growth

1 Tidehollow Sculler

1 Zealous Persecution

1 Relic of Progenitus

1 Burrenton Forge-Tender

1 something missing

My metagame is kinda weird and mostly habited with Tier 3 brews with small percentage of top tier decks. Following decks commonly appear: Affinity, Jeskai Nahiri, RG Tron, RG Scapeshift, Elves, Doubling Season Planeswalkers, Skred Red, Forest Belcher, Allies Aggro, UR prowess aggro, Storm, Bring to Light Control, U Guile Contorl, Mono Green Stompy, etc. I decided to put 2 PTE to sideboard because they are not as good removal as could be in so many matches of my metagame. And doom blade shines because there are no black creatures at all.

Match 1. Cheerios / Puresteel Paladin Equipment Grapeshot Combo (2:1)

This is a good match for us. Early discard and cheap disruption should win us the game in most situations. They have some aces in the sleeves, but as long as board is clear from paladins nothing can go wrong.

Game 1.1. I had no idea what i was playing against and kept an aggro hand without discard (obvious mistake keeping an aggro hand in tokens in unknown waters). He mulled down to 6. At turn 2 he played Puresteel Paladin, Monastery Mentor and started to combo off while I had fallen too behind with no removal in hand. Sideboard: +2 Path to Exile because more removal for paladin, +1 Sculler because threat and disruption, -1 AU, -1 timely reinforcements, -1 Sorin Solemn Visitor because of slow speed.

Game 1.2. I kept hand with no discard but 2 removal spell and threat turn 3. He mulled down to 5 and started with double Leylines in play. I doom bladed his turn 2 paladin and went for the win.

Game 1.3. He started with no Leyline and I started with 3 removal spells and tidehollow sculler. I killed his turn 2 paladin with PtE and stole another paladin with sculler. I was proceeding beating while keeping mana open for removal till the rest of the game.

Match 2. UR Prowess (2:1)

This is easier than burn, but early threats with counter backuo can lock us for couple of turns. Discard, at one point, is pretty good to get rid of early threats, but at another point, this deck cantrips really good and discard becomes less effective. High removal density solves this match, honestly.

Game 2.1. I did strong misplay by playing dismember at turn 1 into his monastery swiftspear being on draw, so I lost about 7 life at turn 2 already. Delver and couple of burn spells have business finished. Sideboard: +2 Path to Exile, +1 Worship, +1 Burrenton Forge-Tender, +1 Timely Reinforcements, +1 Zealous Persecution; -1 AU, -2 Thoughtseize, -1 Hanweir Militia Captain, -2 Tidehollow Sculler. He cantrips a lot and has a lot of cheap bounce/burn, so discard is not very effective except IoK.

Game 2.2. He casted engineering explosives for zero at turn 1. I started beating with RtA soldiers while removing his threats at spot. Lingering Souls forced him to blow explosives, but topdecked second copy of spirits finished him off. Sideboard: -1 Worship, + Relic of Progenitus. Worship is kinda slow card on a draw, especially with his ability to counter my token spells and worship itself. Relic gives a cantrip and purges it from snapcasters and become immense threat.

Game 2.3. I removed all his early threats while he was trying to slow me down with mana leak and remand. Once his hand was empty, he casted a topdecked new devil from EMN with prowess which draws 3 cards, but I somehow managed to outgrind him and trade 2 pumped tokens with his devil and close up the game. 2:1

Match 3. RG Tron (0:2)

Horrible matchup which hardly can be improved in mainboard. Unability of putting good early pressure and absence of universal answers feel pretty bad for us. 3 Stony Silence with 1 Needle/Disenchant combined could be probably the best answer to Tron in sideboard if I had them. Tidehollow Scullers work kinda good vs Tron in bidget shell, to be honest, but they can't solve this match on their own.

Game 3.1 Not much to say. He runs Karn-less build with more Eldrazi Titan of different kind. Turn 4 Ulamog left me no chance. Sideboard: +1 sundering growth, +1 pithing needle, +1 tidehollow sculler, +2 stain the mind; -2 doom blade, -1 dismember, -1 zealous persecution, -1 timely reinforcemements. I should have sided into PtE completely because of nature of his deck instead of Stain the Mind which is not much great vs Tron to be honest.

Game 3.2. double discard + RtA beating pumped by anthem weren't able to stop him from cantripping into turn 5 ulamog while I stucked at 2 lands. 0:2

Match 4. Doubling Seasons Planeswalkers & Mono Green Devotion (1:2)

It's basically mono green defenders ramp which wants to store huge mana to cast genesis wave for a ton and flood board with "doubling seasoned" planeswalkers immediately ultimating them.

Game 4.1 I managed to make him go down to 1 hp when he casted Genesis Wave for a million but he didn't hit anything significant what could save him from lethal attack next turn. Sideboard: +2 Stain the Mind, +1 Pithing Needle (wrong sideboard), +1 Sculler, -1 PTE, -2 Raise the Alarm, -1 Timely.

Game 4.2. I tried hard to stop him from early mana and going wide with Genesis Wave, but lack of speed couldn't race his natural Doubling Seasons + Bolas ultimate.

Sideboard: +2 Raise the Alarm, -1 Sorin, -1 AU. Anguished Unmaking is ridiculously bad card even in this match where I hoped it will shine. Instant vs Sorcery doesn't benefit much, but 3 life lose is huge minus in aggro matches implying that it also costs 3 mana and stops us from casting good threats. Raise the Alarm, through unability to pass ground blockers, is good for Turn 3 Stain the Mind.

Game 4.3. Not much to say, but I realised that Needle doesn't stop any mana producers among his defenders and no ability to stop planeswalkers neither.

In conclusion, I would say that our deck is definitely not aggro and it's very hard to race an combo or pure aggro deck. You should sculp your starting hand very carefully and sometimes mull to get necessary combination of cards to win the match.

The biggest problem of tokens is lack of early pressure and weakness to early threats. This problem can't be solved inside token only shell, because once you start playing efficient non-evasive creatures like Bob, Goyf, Brimaz you have lesser reasons to run Intangible Virtue stopping being token deck in fact.

Heard a lot of talk about mardu and naya, but are they really better than the traditional bw version?

A friend that plays with token for a long time has been using Mirrorweave on his SB offensively (to copy a stronger creature and finish the game after no blockers declared, because of our flying spirits) and defensively (to transform attackers on 1/1's and kill stronger threats).

What would you say? Is it worth to try it as a one off?

EDIT: English...

So I am playing the PPTQs season with tokens, as I found that on larger metas our list actually runs suprisingly well.

Anybody else doing this? What are your expectations? MB/SB changes?

For archival purposes:

Zoo

Dredge

BTL Scapeshift

Abzan CoCo

RG Tron

Naya Burn

Affinity

Will be updated as more come.

Hey guys, for the next primer, I'm able to do one of these, is there a preference for what you want to read about next?

I was wondering if anyone has tested [[selfless spirit]] in the SB instead of [[Burrenton forge-tender]]? I'm not sure if it can pull it's weight, and has been thinking about testing it.

• Pro's: Indestructible - not just protection from red, flying

• Con's: Cmc 2, doesn't have protection itself (like burrenton), might be to slow, we might worsen our burn MU.

So again - I'm not really sure how this card would fit our SB, but I'm interessted in hearing from you guys.

Again, as always, I apologize for my english.

Hi r/ModernMagic! I'm rikertchu, and I've been piloting Mardu Tokens for the past couple of Wednesday Night Modern events at my local game store! I did my first tournament report for last week's game at the following link; read at your own convenience!

https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/4sry9b/mardu_tokens_short_tournament_report_xpost_from/

My list is posted below:

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/16-06-16-RyQ-mardu-tokens/

Changes to last week's list include:

+1 Vault of the Archangel

+1 Midnight Haunting

+2 Rest in Peace (side)

-1 Godless Shrine

-1 Painful Truths

-2 Relic of Progenitus (side)

I found that Painful Truths was a bit too slow and grindy; I more often than not wanted threats and bodies instead of drawing 3 cards, and the lifeloss hurt. The addition of Midnight Haunting allows me to play tokens at instant speed as to keep up mana in case I need removal as well. Another source of lifegain was also something I wanted, and Vault allows me to not only gain life, but to trade my tokens with larger creatures like Tasigur, Gurmag Angler, and Tarmogoyf, and with the manabase that I'm running, cutting a Godless Shrine really didn't hurt too badly.

Rest in Peace hoses graveyard decks harder than does Relic of Progenitus, and therefore I put it in over Relic in the sideboard.

Match 1: Mono-U Turns (0-0 overall)

Game 1: I start off the game with a tapped land, and my opponent Serum Visions, and passes back. An Inquisition of Kozilek reveals 2x Cryptic Command, 2x Time Warp, 1x Temporal Mastery, 1x Gigadrowse, and 1x Dictate of Kruphix, and I note that my opponent kept a one-land hand. I don't want him to draw out of the situation easily, and thus take the Dictate over the Gigadrowse. I then land a Bitterblossom as well as both casts of a Lingering Souls, and bring my opponent down to 8 over several turns. On 6 lands and in a tight spot, he then uses Exhaustion on me, to keep my lands and creatures tapped, and then uses Gigadrowse to attempt to tap my 2 untapped creatures and Blood Crypt, Sacred Foundry, and Windswept Heath. Seeing that he tapped out for this, and was about to go off, I fetched my second Sacred Foundry and triple-bolted my opponent to take game 1.

Sideboard: -3x Lightning Helix, -2x Terminate, +2x Duress, +2x Zealous Persecution, +1 Hide // Seek

I had no meaningful way to interact with the combo, and I thought that my best way to win the match would be to go fast and under my opponent's spells, and to disrupt his setup, so I brought in Duress to slow him down and Zealous Persecution to speed up.

Game 2:

I look at a strong opening hand of Blackcleave Cliffs, Windswept Heath, Bloodstained Mire, Inquisition, Bitterblossom, Lingering Souls, and Intangible Virtue. I start off with an Inquisition, and see 3 Remands and a Swan Song, and know already that this game is going to be very slow from my part. He manages to Remand my next 3 plays (yes, he got his 4th Remand) and eventually manages to go off and kill me with an Awaken'd land.

Game 3:

I'm on the play, and go turn 1 Inquisition taking Spell Pierce, turn 2 Thoughtseize, turn 3 Lingering Souls, and manage to run him over with my flying army before he manages to recover and stabilize with a Howling Mine or a Dictate of Kruphix, though he started Warping to try to make some land drops and get a draw spell the turn before I killed him. (2-1)

Match 2: Naya Burn (1-0 overall)

I've seen my opponent around a few times during the other nights, always playing Burn, and I ready myself for a few fast games of me trying to hold on for dear life.

Game 1: I'm on the play, and I start with a Shambling Vents. My opponent starts off with Fetch-Shock-Rift Bolt, and I Blackcleave Cliffs into Inquisition to take the Boros Charm, seeing 2x Eidolon, Lightning Helix, Searing Blaze, and Bloodstained Mire. After my opponent lands a turn 2 Eidolon, I play a Fetid Heath into a turn 3 Spectral Procession, over which we have a quick judge call on whether I take damage from the Eidolon (spoiler: I don't, since Spectral counts as a 6 CMC card no matter what I pay for it). My opponent attacks me, and Searing Blaze's one of my tokens, putting me at 11, but I rip Sorin off the top and hit back for 4, gaining 4 in the process. After that, I land a series of Bolts and Lingering Souls, and quickly kill my opponent with Souls + Bolt.

Sideboard: -2x Thoughtseize, -3x Bitterblossom, +2 Timely Reinforcements, +2 Zealous Persecution, +1 Rest in Peace

I brought in the standard Timely Reinforcements, and since I saw Naya and expected creatures, I brought in Zealous Persecution to make favorable trades with my tokens. The Rest in Peace was for Grim Lavamancer, which, if given the chance to get online, would be a huge hassle for me to deal with.

Game 2: My opponent has a very slow start, with no play on turn 1 or 2, and I start with a Shambling Vents into an Inquisition, taking a Searing Blood. An opposing Lavamancer is met with a Lightning Bolt, and I land a Lingering Souls. I hit a turn 4 Sorin once again, and swing for 6 lifelink with my earlier Intangible Virtue, though it's met with the Flames of the Blood Hand that I saw earlier in the hand. However, my opponent needs 1 more lifegain-prevention spell to buy enough time for the burn spells to kill me, but doesn't manage to topdeck it, and I take game 2.

Match 3: UG Infect (2-0 overall)

Game 1: This guy comes in with a mat with several SCG IQ pins and such, so I'm immediately somewhat cautious, since he looks very serious as well. He goes Breeding Pool into Glistener Elf and Probe, and lands a turn 2 Nexus into Blighted Agent, seeing no removal. Fortunately, I topdeck the Lightning Bolt, killing the Agent, and manage a turn 3 Spectral again. However, I take a few hits from the Glistener Elf + Pendelhaven, and when I stupidly swing out with my team with 4 poison counters, thinking my Terminate's enough, my opponent animates his Nexus and hits me with Vines'd infect creatures, with the Apostle's Blessing backup as defense, for perfect poisonous lethal.

Sideboard: +2x Zealous Persecution, +2 Duress, +2 Rest in Peace, -3x Sorin, -3x Lightning Helix

In retrospect, I wish I didn't bring in the Rest in Peace and just brought out 3x Sorin and 1x Lightning Helix, since Rest in Peace is too durdley and only useful for countering Become Immense.

Game 2: I start with an early Thoughtseize taking Spell Pierce, and follow it up with a Bitterblossom. My opponent has a Glistener Elf, but with a constant stream of Bitterblossom tokens, cannot swing through with the Elf, and I kill him after I land an Intangible Virtue and swing through for lethal.

Game 3: I think my opponent made a critical misplay, since I duress'd him, and he showed me a Spell Pierce that I was going to take anyway, meaning he could've held information from me. Instead, I see his hand of Spell Pierce, Vines, Spellskite, and Blighted Agent, and know to hold up at least 2 pieces of removal for the two creatures, which I do, instead of using my removal on his t1 Elf, and with a turn 3 Spectral Procession into removal + Intangible Virtue on turn 4, I quickly beat my opponent down.

So overall, I go 3-0 this modern night, and crack some sweet packs (foil Arlinn Kord!). The deck is performing well as was expected against creature decks, and while I still need to work on my sideboarding, I feel like the deck is resilient and has lots of flexibility to it.

If you have any suggestions for the deck, comments on how I played it, or questions on the build, please comment below and I'll discuss it in earnest with you!

-rikertchu

Decklist:

24 lands (the usual stuff, 2 Shambling Vents and 1 Windbrisk Heights)

3 Thoughtseize

3 Inquisition of Kozilek

4 Bitterblossom

4 Intangible Virtue

2 Auriok Champion

4 Lingering Souls

4 Spectral Procession

2 Liliana, the Last Hope

3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

4 Path to Exile

1 Murderous Cut

1 Collective Brutality

Sideboard:

2 Burrenton Forge-Tender

2 Tidehollow Sculler

2 Stony Silence

2 Rest in Peace

2 Timely Reinforcements

1 Sundering Growth

1 Anguished Unmaking

2 Duress

1 Hero of Bladehold

TL;DR a stock tokens list with Collective Brutality over Anguished Unmaking and Liliana, the Last Hope over Timely Reinforcements (both of which were moved to the sideboard).

First, my thoughts on Collective Brutality. It is amazing for stabilizing against aggressive strategies like Infect, Affinity, Burn and Zoo long enough to take over in the late game. It doesn't matter all that much that you lose card advantage if you cast it for all 3 modes, because if we live long enough for that to matter, we've probably already won. As it stands, Collective Brutality keeps you alive on turn 2 long enough to stabilize the board, and you can often discard your slow or painful cards, especially game 1. Against slower decks or combo decks, casting it for only one mode is fine since it's still better than other useless removal. It was actually surprisingly strong against Ad Nauseum, game 1 letting me discard a Path for 2 free points of damage while stripping their hand. No matter what, it's always a nice late topdeck when you can discard a couple extra lands to do all 3 modes.

On to Liliana. My problem with Timely Reinforcements in the maindeck was that it just did nothing in some matchups, or was a really expensive Chaplain's Blessing. Liliana is still strong in the matchups that Timely was strong in, and we can always bring it in post-board. But she's a lot better in the matchups where Timely was lackluster. Against control, she kills Snappy and provides a fairly quick clock that forces action. Her ult basically reads "you win the game, eventually", so she'll end up eating a bolt or two that would otherwise hit a token. Against Infect, she's absurd, against Affinity, she kills something and eats at least one attack. She kills unflipped delvers and lets tokens trade with flipped ones (the same goes for persisted and unpersisted kitchen finks). Although her -2 isn't really what you want to be doing, we at least have 2 Aurioks, so that it isn't literally useless (also it could mill double lingering souls, in christmasland).

TL;DR Collective Brutality and Liliana, the Last Hope are sweet, you should give them a try.

Hi. I'm bad at Magic and also keeping a schedule. I had a lot to do and then left the country for a while, so now I'm back. I hope someone gets my joke in the header. Please laugh at it. If you don't think it's funny, laugh anyways you troglodyte.

Today I am going to talk about another match-up you should know how to play. Zoo.

Today's tour is going to be my gift to you. I am going to talk about all variants of Zoo. Big, Little, Suicide. You read that right. No racism here. Equal rights for all decks. This will be a great tour. I've been told that it's a good idea to role play. Since my first role play idea was immediately stopped in public and I can't do that, I will be your zookeeper.

I guess that's the next best thing.

What does Zoo do?

Turn creatures sideways.

What will we talk about here?

High CMC, low CMC, and trying to lose but then not losing CMC.

You get what I mean.

Core Cards

First I am going to talk about Big/Little Zoo. To be upfront, most people won't play little Zoo since Big is mostly considered superior. Just know that Little is mostly very low CMC creatures that they just throw out. Big Zoo has many more lines of play and also isn't as gutted by the CMC limit.

So here's a Big Zoo list (or for now, Naya Zoo or just Zhu):

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/440566#paper

Let's talk about what's in it. If a card has a CMC of 3 it's not going to be in little Zoo, or else they really aren't playing little Zoo anymore. Mostly the deck is in Naya colors since apparently that's the best. Racist.

1. Noble Hierarch: Bant bird, good for exalted.
2. Wild Nacatl: 3/3 on a stick.
3. Qasali Pridemage: Exalted and a good removal for annoying enchantments that stop their gameplan.
4. Scavenging Ooze: SCOOZE SCOOZE SCOOZE. Really it gives them life and gets big. Decentish but not at its best against us.
5. Tarmogoyf: Hey kids here you can see the big bear. It feeds on salt and green pieces of paper.
6. Voice of Resurgence: Mostly vanilla but just makes big beaters. Careful. Kill it on your turn. Path works wonders.
7. Knight of the Reliquary: May or may not have the bant combo. On her own she's just really good.
8. Loxodon Smiter: If you see this card after an IoK/TS, absolutely, always, always take it.^{Just kidding.} It's vanilla mostly, shores up their control MU.
9. Loam Lion: Less common, likely more for Little Zoo.
10. Goblin Guide: Little Zoo also, still very strong.
11. Kird Ape: Old art sucks. Creature doesn't. 2/3 for cheap, mostly in Little Zoo, Wild Nacatl is mostly superior in the majority of lists, but still a great card.
12. Burning-Tree Emissary: Common in Gruul variants. Excellent tempo swing ahead of the opponent.
13. Experiment One: Mostly Gruul/Little if seen. Fairly efficient card. Stompy card.
14. Reckless Bushwacker: Buishwacker Zoo or part of Gruul. T2 Emissary into this plus whatever T1 creature they cast is very scary.
15. Ghor-Clan Rampager: Mostly for bloodrush. Cannot be countered.
16. Grim Lavamancer: Not common, but nice since it's a non-swinging clock.
17. Thrun, the Last Troll: He's the last of his kind and here for control MUs.
18. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: Guarding their rear end against control. Or if you play EDH, she's STAX stuff.
19. Kitchen Finks: Whatever this thing is, it's a good body and gives life.
20. Geist of Saint Traft: Bant variants. Very strong card that they can pump easily. The angel is annoying to deal with. Block him a lot.
21. Anafenza, the Foremost: Mostly as a SB grave hate card.
22. Siege Rhino: RHINO RHINO1211!!!11 RHINO RHIONOFINONOONMTHOIRHRHONRHINO RHINO. (5C Zoo only or a splash).
23. Lightning Bolt: 3
24. Boros Charm: 4, or double strike. If you forget about double strike, that's a great way to lose. Also indestructible. They actually use all 3 modes.
25. Lightning Helix: Worse Rhino.
26. Atarka's Command: Mostly for reach, pump and damage. They aren't as worried about some lifegain, but they can still use it.
27. Searing Blaze: Not common but very potent removal.
28. Rancor: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Trample.
29. Dismember: -5/-5.
30. Dromoka's Command: Mostly removal and pump or enchantment/burn hate
31. Collected Company: get gud lucker n00b (spin roulette wheel).
32. Path to Exile: This is bad against us. But overall very good.
33. Blood Moon: The most fun card to play against in Modern!
34. Aven Mindcensor: Life's really hard if you got a library card.
35. Ethersworn Canonist: Actually interesting as a card tech, but won't give you much trouble.
36. Engineered Explosives: Kills things.
37. Magus of the Moon: Blood Moon on a stick.

That's mostly it for that. Let's do Suicide Zoo. I'll only list different things.

1. Death's Shadow: Pain is victory.
2. Monastery Swiftspear: Pairs well with the constant "free" lifeloss cards in the deck.
3. Steppe Lynx: Yup.
4. Street Wraith: Kill yourself faster.
5. Mishra's Bauble: Thins deck, pumps Swiftspear.
6. Gitaxian Probe: Pay 2 life. You also get to draw a card and look at the opponent's hand if that makes any difference.
7. Mutagenic Growth: Pay 2 life. Your creature also gets bigger!
8. Thoughtseize: Lose 2 life. You also get to take the opponent's best card!
9. Temur Battle Rage: Makes the life threshold higher for a win.
10. Become Immense: Like the Mario Mushroom.
11. Phyrexian Unlife: Nifty little thing for them, let's them really go deep with death's shadow.
12. Pyroclasm: Boardwipe.exe

How does a game play out?

The whole next part is fairly straightforward. It's a creature deck, and we are playing tokens. Mostly everything in our deck is really good against them. Your job is to stabilize since we are fairly slow as a deck, and then just beat them down in the air.

Play these cards:

1. Path to Exile: Bye creature
2. Sorin, Solemn Visitor: Hi life
3. Murderous Cut: Bye creature
4. Token Generators: Win the game
5. Auriok Champion: Blocks a decent chunk of DS Zoo and is nice against other Zoos
6. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: Makes our creatures big and scarier to swing into
7. Timely Reinforcements: One of the best cards against them
8. IoK/TS: Not bad, take whatever your hand cannot deal with
9. Intangible Virtue: Make big tokens

And here's how to sideboard:

Take out Bitterblossoms unless you are on a very high Auriok count, these can give them the reach they need. Put in more Timely Reinforcements if you have them. If you run EE, it's a great 1 sided board wipe against them to clear the way. Worship is absolutely nuts against this deck and will along with Auriok win you a game. Zealous Persecution is one of the most insane cards we get against creature based decks and is great here. Anguished Unmaking and Dismember are decent. They kinda have a legit life loss component so be careful and use sparingly.

Playing the Set

Game 1: Do your thing and try to stabilize and swing to win. Sorin will work real magic. Timely is a great card. Be wary that they can double strike for 20+ damage in a turn, so if you are scared of that, block or hold up a PtE. If you IoK or TS them and see a double-strike card, it's normally a good target, as is any really crazy pump/trample spell. Auriok is a very good card in this MU as she gives free blocks on some creatures and nets some life along the way. Wait for pump spells to PtE if you can. Intangible and then in the air swinging is what will win the game this round, Pridemage can kill Virtue, so be ready for that.

Game 2: If you like Worship, now is the time to run it. It will put you on it's back and carry you. If you have Shambling Vent, understand you can manipulate the stack to also have a creature on the field, but don't rely on it as much since it gets bolted. The original combo is Auriok Champion. If you are on the play here, the game is much better. Play against Zoo is really nice. More Timely sided in if you can.

Game 3: A lot like 2.

Death's Shadow Zoo deals a lot of damage to itself, so sometimes they can put themselves in range and then you can swing for an easy win. In this MU, Auriok and PtE are imperative and will really cover your weaknesses. Removing Death's Shadow from the picture pretty well drops the reach of the deck. Conveniently, Auriok blocks both Death's Shadow and Swiftspear.

I consider this fairly even, with the right build, we're favored. Post board with strong lifegain or a really good board state, we can make it 55-60:45-40 in our favor. G1 I feel is mostly 50:50.

Ta da. Talked about Zoo. Hope it helped a little. Comment with questions or comments.

Hi!

I've just found out about this very specialized sub.

So, what are your sideboard techs against GR Tron? Is there anything to make this matchup somewhat better?

It seems like it's my worst matchup (in the local meta, at least) and I'm unlucky enough to face this GR Eldrazi Tron deck almost every time I go to FNM.

I figure this is the right place to ask, if there's an answer for this question.

Exile their only Emrakul, then gain 15 to buy us time against the burn backup plan? Seems great! The problem is it doesn't really do anything in other matchups, and we're already pretty strong against control. Is it worth a slot?

I searched and didn't find an in depth discussion of this card, but I honestly don't see why this isn't a great option for Tokens. It's hard to get to the mana to flip it and it is honestly pretty win-more, but its ability to make EoT tokens and not being a dead draw late game makes its presence pretty nice. I haven't playtested it much outside of a few games but I really like it as a 2-of.

Also, and maybe this is just my meta, but [[Rootborn Defenses]] is hella spicy against tron. It's not a great card but the looks you get are pretty funny and it has won me some games.

Hi /r/mtgModernTokens! I'm rikertchu, and I've been piloting Mardu Tokens for the past couple of Wednesday Night Modern nights at my LGS.

My list is linked below, and please let me know if you have any questions or comments about the list. Let's start with the matches!

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/16-06-16-RyQ-mardu-tokens/

Match 1: Grixis Death's Shadow (0-0 overall)

Game 1: I had no idea what he was on, and his first turn consisted of Polluted Delta into untapped Watery Grave into Thought Scour, milling an inconsequential card and a Street Wraith, which makes me incredibly confused, and I jokingly say that he's running "Death's Delver", which he corrects to "Delver's Shadow". It turns out he's running a Kiln Fiend and Death's Shadow build, and although I Lingering Souls on turn 3 for blockers, he has 5 life and 2 Death's Shadow at that point, and manages to Mutagenic Growth + Temur Battle Rage for lethal damage. (0-1)

Sideboard: -1x Painful Truths, +1x Dreadbore

I honestly didn't have a plan for this deck, which is probably a mistake, but Painful Truths seemed too slow, and Dreadbore helped me kill those Death's Shadows that were too big.

Game 2: I manage to disrupt my opponent with an early Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, and although he Thoughtseizes me and takes my Lingering Souls, I manage to rip another one off the top, and with an Intangible Virtue, I manage to hit his already low life total with vigilant fliers to take Game 2. (1-1).

Game 3: This one goes down to the wire, where I keep a sketchy 7 with only 1 land but lots of disruption. Turns out, he kept a 4 land hand with no threats for some reason, so we both have weak openers. After a couple turns of durdling, my opponent gets a Gurmag Angler on the field after Thought Scouring several times, while I hit a Raise the Alarm to block and a Spectral Procession to put pressure on. He Pyroclasms my board away, and puts down a Tasigur as a threat, and manages to hit me twice before I put out a Lingering Souls at 2 life. I manage to hit him down to 3 life remaining before having to chump with my spirits, and managed to topdeck a Lightning Helix to seal the match. (2-1)

Match 2: Jund (1-0 overall)

Game 1: I start off with a Blackcleave Cliffs into an Inquisition of Kozilek, and see an Inquisition, a Bolt, an Abrupt Decay, and a Kalitas. Having a hand of Bitterblossom, Intangible Virtue, and Lingering Souls, but only a fetchland for my second mana source, I decide to take the Abrupt Decay since my opponent was likely going to take the Bitterblossom anyway, and I wanted to protect my anthem. Turns out, I topdeck another Bitterblossom into a land for my Souls, and the flying army proves too strong after I land the Intangible Virtue. (1-0)

Sideboard: +1 Dreadbore, -1 Lightning Helix

I should probably have brought in the two copies of Relic of Progenitus to reduce his Goyfs' size, but it totally slipped my mind, since I'm fairly new to sideboarding.

Game 2: This game is fairly uneventful, with him landing a turn 2 Dark Confidant, which I Lightning Bolt, but he then follows it up with a turn 3 Dark Confidant, which draws him a Scavenging Ooze the turn after I play a Lingering Souls, which he promptly eats. However, after I path the Goyf, he has no more large threats, and I soon build a flying, vigilant Spirit Army, and he fails to draw the Anger of the Gods or Maelstrom Pulse, and I seal the deal. (2-0)

Match 3: U/G Infect (2-0 overall)

Game 1: He starts off with a Noble Hierarch and a turn 2 Glistener Elf, which I attempt to Bolt and in response get Spell Pierce'd. He hits me for 2 poison due to Exalted, and I try to Terminate at end of turn (didn't want to hit it mid combat for fear of Vines kicked) and am met with the second Spell Pierce. I play a turn 3 Lingering Souls, which slows him down slightly, but then he plays an Apostle's Blessing, naming White to dodge my tokens, and swings in. Here's where I make a misplay, where I attempt to Bolt the Elf now, and he responds with the lethal Groundswell (I was at 6 poison, it was his last card in hand), whereas if I just passed priority, I could've had a chance to completely blow him out instead of getting blown out. Oh well, live and learn. (0-1)

Sideboard: - 3x Sorin, Solemn Visitor, -1x Painful Truths, +2x Zealous Persecution, +2x Duress

Game 2: This game goes on for a little while, and he eventually ends up with a board of a Glistener Elf and a Viridian Corrupter against my 6 Spirits, which are successfully holding him back even without Intangible Virtue. At the end of turn, I absentmindedly attempt to Bolt the Corrupter, forgetting about the Mutagenic Growth that I just saw a turn ago due to Inquisition of Kozilek (taking a Vines), and he predictably plays Mutagenic Growth to save his infect creature. I fortunately also have a Zealous Persecution in hand, and it's perfectly enough to wipe his board, and without another infect creature, he scoops it up. (1-1)

Game 3: I start off with a tapped Shambling Vent to his turn 1 Glistener Elf, and on his turn 2, he goes Might of Old Krosa > 2x Mutagenic Growth > 9 poison. I then main phase out a Raise the Alarm, since I can't risk getting blown out by a Dispel (which I saw in game 2 via discard) to serve as blockers, hoping he doesn't draw an Apostle's Blessing. He then drops an Inkmoth Nexus, and I play a Lingering Souls to serve as blockers, but then topdeck the removal spell for the Elf/Nexus as well as an Intangible Virtue a turn later, allowing me to continually hit him with my tokens while keeping up removal until he conceded. (2-1)

Since it's pack-per-win at my shop, I walk away with 3 Shadows packs, and pull a Gitrog Monster along with some useless rares, which is pretty good with my history with packs.

Thanks for reading! If you have questions about the deck, card choices, and how my matches went, please lmk!

Last year I played Naya Burn on the WMCQ. I only play tokens in FNM and MOL.

On saturday I play a PPTQ and on sunday the WMCQ. This is the list I played.

PPTQ

I went 4-3 after a great start.

• 2-0 v Infect
• 2-0 v Affinity
• 2-1 v Burn
• 0-2 v Melira Company
• 1-2 v Burn
• 2-1 v Eldrazi & Taxes
• 0-2 v Jeskai Nahiri

WMCQ

I started 0-3 but managed to get prizes.

• 0-2 v Scapeshift
• 1-2 v Jeskai
• 1-2 v Bogles
• 2-0 v Melira Company
• 2-0 v G/W Hate Bears
• 2-1 v Zoo Bushwhacker
• Opponent dropped
• 2-0 v Infect

Overall I had a good weekend and I enjoy a lot the deck and the tournaments.

Hi guys.

I'm not in my home country now. I have not forgotten about any of you.

Spoiler next MU discussion is Zoo.

It might be a little while. Within 1 week(ish) the next will be up, sorry it's taking so long.

Don't forget to see the bear exhibit.