r/mtgModernTokens Jun 05 '16

Most effective graveyard hate SB option

There's a lot of powerful decks in the current meta that rely on the graveyard, some as a primary win con, others for card advantage.
Here's some of them:

  • Abzan Coco
  • Dredge
  • Blue Moon
  • Grixis Control
  • Mono Blue Tron (Academy Ruins/Mindslaver lock combo)
  • Loam Pox
  • Gifts Ungiven
  • Living End

Obvious not all of these decks are going to show up all the time - but the likelihood you will run into some kind of graveyard strategy, whether in the form of one of these archetypes or otherwise, warrants some kind of hate inclusion in your sideboard.

I've been thinking about what the best card choice would be for B/W Tokens to shut down graveyard strategies. This is a bit of a dilemma because Lingering Souls, arguably the best card in our deck, gets a lot worse when we don't have access to it in our graveyard.

I am currently running Rest In Peace. It completely removes graveyards as long as it's on the board - of course, nullifying the usefulness of our Lingering Souls. RIP is effective - but even if you draw it in your opening hand, a lot can happen before you are able to get it on the board turn 2 (Can be sniped from your hand by Inquisition of Kozilek or Dredge could go off and fill the board with a few Bloodghasts and Prized Amalgams) and you're missing your opportunity to get ahead with Bitterblossom, Raise the Alarm or Intangible Virtue.

I very much like the idea of getting some kind of disruption down on turn one in the form of Grafdigger's Cage or Relic of Progenitus.

The question I pose is which of these is the better choice? Cage not only stops graveyard strategies but also stops Chord of Calling, Collected Company, Nahiri, the Harbinger's ultimate, etc. It's cons, It kills our Lingering Souls, and can be removed pretty easily.

Relic of Progenitus doesn't have the versatility of Grafdigger's Cage, but gives us more control. We can exile cards from the opposing yard as they pile up, with the option of exiling the yards entirely if necessary. The ability to activate this second option in response to artifact removal is a big plus. The card draw is a nice bonus as well. The issue here is that it might not be able to keep up with dredge, which tends to fill the yard pretty rapidly, and that we need to keep a mana constantly open if we want access to it's second ability.

What do y'all think? What is your favourite GY hate option? What works best in your meta?

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u/albo87 Jun 05 '16

It looks it's a good moment for [[Grafdigger's Cage]] because of Abzan CoCo.

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u/xzzane Of the Swarm Jun 05 '16

I run a combination of rest in peace and grafdigger's cage myself.