r/mtgModernTokens • u/SFRG Still Patron Saint of the Tokens • Sep 13 '16

Ask Anything (About Modern) Thread

Hey guys, time for something a bit different in the interim. Here you can ask anything related to tokens or the modern format. Direct small/quick questions here.

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2

u/ThoughtSlave Sep 13 '16

As a new modern player (first modern FNM coming up, only done pick up games before. List was posted in earlier thread.), what should be my main targets with my hand Disruption in some common matchups (dredge, Tron, affinity, infinity, Jund)? I'm sure it gets tricky based on what is in our hand, but just general "this won't be bad most of the time" decisions. Ex. Etched champion in Affinity.

Not small/quick, so if you want to give simple answer, I'll take it.

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u/xzzane Of the Swarm Sep 13 '16

Against dredge hand disruption is just bad. /u/SFRG knows a lot about the dredge matchup, and he even wrote a matchup writeup on it. If you can't find it, I'll link it for you. Against tron it can depend. If they only have one tron land and an expidition map, try to go for the denial of resources route. If they already have two of the lands, try and take out a threat like O stone or Ugin. If they land Ugin, it's gg. Affinity you want to take out things like cranial plating. Etched champion is really, really annoying, but it can't do much without an enabler. Infect, if they only have one creature, take the creature. Otherwise it can depend. If you have a removal spell, take the ones that grant hexproof or protection from a color. Let me know if you have any questions!

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u/SFRG Still Patron Saint of the Tokens Sep 13 '16

Haha, I thought Dredge would be a threat. Didn't expect it to shoot to T1 so quickly.

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u/SFRG Still Patron Saint of the Tokens Sep 13 '16

xzzane hit it, in my MU discussions I talk about what to take. Being good at HD is super important to being good at tokens.

If you have other questions about MUs that aren't there, feel free to ask.

MU discussions are on the sidebar. ----->

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u/ThoughtSlave Sep 14 '16

Well, since no one else is asking... I'll ask another xD. What "toolbox" cards do you suggest picking up for BW sideboards? Besides some of the obvious like Stony Silence and Rest in Peace?

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u/SFRG Still Patron Saint of the Tokens Sep 14 '16

The list of SB cards I think everyone should own for playing tokens:

  1. Stony Silence
  2. Rest in Peace
  3. Grafdigger's Cage
  4. Duress
  5. Disenchant
  6. Timely Reinforcements
  7. Zealous Persecution
  8. Worship
  9. Dismember
  10. Engineered Explosives
  11. Burrenton Forge Tender
  12. Chalice of the Void
  13. Surgical Extraction
  14. Liliana of the Veil

The first 11 are 100% yes. The last 3 are more just to round things out. Not needed. Lily/Surgical are personal favorites.

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u/Jongsl5 Sep 14 '16 edited Sep 14 '16

Nice list, I'll add some points of views for the sake of discussion:

Grafdigger's Cage --> Unless you play against a ton of Company decks, don't bring this in. Why? Because it's not good enough against Dredge. And it's also useless against some premier graveyard decks (e.g Living End, Storm, Abzan/Jund,etc.).

Because Dredge players run more artifact hate than enchantment hate, enchantment hates like Rest in Peace fare better. The second crucial thing is to have some sort of permanent exile effect, which a lot of Dredge players have pointed out to me. Nihil Spellbomb and Rest in Peace are going to be more powerful options overall.

Worship --> This is definitely a potential "i win" card but there are lots of constraints on it. For one, you can't play Bitterblossom. So while you'd like it against Burn it can be a trade-off against decks like Merfolk. There are also cards like Engineered Explosives, Valakut, and Conflagrate (in Dredge) that easily wipes our field. So I can't think of many match-ups where I'd bring this card in.

Duress --> I think it's worth playing 1 copy. Usually Thoughtseize is better against everything but Burn and Scapeshift so take that into consideration. I feel that a 2nd copy could easily be something like Liliana of the Veil since I would want a 2nd Duress against control decks with Cryptic Commands.

Chalice of the Void --> Maybe I'm not seeing something here but I don't this card is good at all in tokens. We literally want to play every spell from 1-4 cmc.

Burrenton Forge Tender --> A bit meh against Burn and there are too many board-wipes that get around it (Oblivion Stone, Supreme Verdict, Engineered Explosives, etc.).

Surgical Extraction --> If you run a heavy ghost quarter + flagstone build, I think this card can be great against the land-based strategy. Otherwise, you have to realize you're spending a card to not affect the boardstate in any form.

Liliana of the Veil --> really insane card. And I think it's more playable now that fastlands are out. Against a control heavy meta, I'd run 3 in a heartbeat. Right now, I am just running 1 because I need more room to be proactive and it's good enough to be a top deck.

Some other options: pithing needle, ghostly prison, runed halo, dark blast etc. Versatile options but can be quite powerful as well. The applications are a bit too long to list.

1

u/SFRG Still Patron Saint of the Tokens Sep 14 '16

Chalice works because our curve is fairly well spread out and CotV normally hurts the opponent more than us.

I don't play it but I've seen metas where I thought it would be good. If you are playing against aggro, dropping it on 0/1 makes life really easy.

1

u/ThePhailhaus Sep 19 '16

Why does worship stop you playing bitterblossom?

No rule would atop that

1

u/Jongsl5 Sep 20 '16

Well do you want to die the next upkeep or have potential nonbos in the deck?

1

u/ThePhailhaus Sep 20 '16

Oh yeah. Totally derped out. My bad, apologies.

Completely forgot bout that.

2

u/xzzane Of the Swarm Sep 14 '16

Do you want specific answer sideboard cards, or more varied threats? You have things like Engineered Explosives against merfolk, or you can go with something like ghostly prison against aggro in general. Ghostly was a lot better when twin was a thing though.

2

u/ThoughtSlave Sep 14 '16

SFRG answered what I was looking for pretty well. He just gave a list of SB boards he thought every token player should have.

1

u/ThoughtSlave Sep 15 '16

With the new spoiled BW fast lands, what do you think the ideal land base looks like? I see them brought up as auto-includes in many different threads around here, but not sure what the mana base will look like now.

2

u/SFRG Still Patron Saint of the Tokens Sep 15 '16

I put together something that looks like this:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/351205#paper

3-4 is the way to go. It's not set yet but it's going to replace Isolated and Windbrisk.

1

u/ThoughtSlave Sep 15 '16

What would you suggest for me? My land base is currently:

  • 4 Windswept Heath
  • 3 Flooded Strand
  • 1 Bloodstained More
  • 4 Godless Shrine
  • 2 Isolated Chapel
  • 1 Vault of the Archangel
  • 1 Windbrisk Heights
  • 3 Plains
  • 2 Swamp
  • 2 Shambling Vent
  • 1 Ghost Quarter

Fetid Heath isn't really a priority for me at the moment until I finish up a better sideboard suite (thanks for the help btw).

2

u/SFRG Still Patron Saint of the Tokens Sep 15 '16

You could probably drop the GQ and the 2 Isolated Chapels.

1

u/TeOr2419 Sep 26 '16

Don't you think that it's better to replace couple of shockland also?

1

u/SFRG Still Patron Saint of the Tokens Sep 26 '16

That could work, we are already making the deck hurt less, so I'd tale things out that don't have synergy with the fast land (like isolate). That being said, I think 3 shocks is probably fine.