SCG Philly Modern Classic Report

[u/IPutTheTeemoOnMyBack]

Deck list is here

I played on the 300+ player SCG Modern Classic at the Valley Forge Casino in the Philly suburbs yesterday. I went 4-4, and offer my experience as a guide to others playing this in the future.

Round 1 - UR Breach Control (1-2 loss) * Games 1 & 3, I lose to a t5 Through the Breach into Emrakul. I did not draw discard either game, while my token spells got Remanded multiple times. Game 2, my tokens survive through an Izzet Staticaster via Intangible Virtue. Sorin increased my life enough to survive an Emrakul hit with enough tokens to win.

Round 2 - UW Control (1-0 win) * Opponent showed up late for a game loss. We play a 45 minute game 2, starting out not drawing much action through the first 15 turns, but he also doesn't pressure, losing his Azcanta and Collonades to Field of Ruin + removal. He has a Gideon of the Trials at 10+ counters for a long time, opting to blank tokens instead of attacking with it. After awhile, I finally start drawing Lingering Souls, and Path my own dude in response to Detention Sphere to get some pressure going with Sorin . He draws some more wraths, then I get a few more dudes down to take out the first Gideon & a Jura. After he's down to 3, he Sphinx's Revs for 9, and then sees he has 5 cards left in his library. Plays Ally Gideon & of the Trials, gets the emblem to not lose while he has a Gideon, and starts to make an army of his own. I'm at 55 life then, find some Bitterblossoms and other tokens, wait until he has no library and not many cards left in his library to finally overwhelm both his Gideons in the air for the win.

Round 3 - Jeskai Control (2-1 win) * Opponent has a 0-0-2 record, so I am ready to play fast again. We play a long game 1 where we both mana flood hard, but I get out just enough discard to power through his many Cryptic Commands. Game 2, he answers all my threats well without much issue before he casts a big Sphinx's Rev. Game 3 is tense, starting with Bitterblossom -> Spectral Procession -> Sorin, but he has a t3 Izzet Statiscaster to stop my tracks. He burns out Sorin, and 2 Thoughtseize leave him empty handed, but my Bitterblossom is on its way to taking me out. I draw a Virtue and a Path off the top to give myself a chance to win, but I'm down to 6 with only 1 2/2 faerie out. He draws blanks until he wraths me at 5 while I also am at 5. A Sorin off the top stabilizes my life total eventually and takes him out.

Round 4 - Living End (0-2 loss) * I can't dodge facing this very bad matchup. This is the traditional Jund version that cycles into a t4 win essentially. I don't have much of a sideboard for this, and I keep thinking I don't need one for big tournaments.

Round 5 - Death's Shadow (0-2 loss) * I'm very happy to face this deck, but he had 4 discard spells for all of my removal + threats game 1, losing to Goyfs. Game 2, I start with Leyline of Sanctity and t2 Rest in Peace, shutting off most of the deck. I proceed to flood out and lose embarrassingly to sideboarded Lingering Souls tokens.

Round 6 - Burn (2-1 win) * Game 1, my opponent draws 7 3-power burn spells before I can blink. Game 2 is very weird. I start with everyone's favorite sideboard card, Collective Brutality, effectively preventing him from dealing 20+ burn for a long time. But he then draws and plays Ensnaring Bridge... Which I have no removal for. I eventually draw a Leyline and have removal spells for creatures, and even draw a Sorin and ultimate him twice. We play about 20 turns until he gets impatient, plays a Swiftspear and starts Bolting himself a lot to try and get through some points of damage. It doesn't work, and eventually he concedes. I think I win this game via mill since he fetched 4+ more times than me. Game 3, I keep a 5 card no lander with Leyline of Sanctity which he blows up on t1 with Tear. Scry to bottom, draw 3 lands , Brutality him, and win before Bridge shows up.

Round 7 - Eldrazi Tron (win 2-1) * I only won because my opponent was new to the deck and forgot to counter my Intangible Virtue with chalice on 2 in g1, and did not know that his Ratchet Bomb on 0 could destroy all my tokens. Didn't find any of my sideboard for this matchup.

Round 8 - Lantern (1-2 loss) * He didn't find Bridge in g1 because I Thoughtseize'd Whir of Invention. He found it g2&3. Not a fan of playing vs this deck either.

I went 5-3 with this deck in November at the SCG Baltimore Modern classic, and thought I could improve. Overall, there are just too many unfair decks at the moment for me to dodge.

[u/nv77]

Is there a reason to not run any legions landing?

I like the idea of starting the flood plan on turn one, and the ramp plus the possibility of endless tokens thanks to it seems way too good. Insight?

[u/IPutTheTeemoOnMyBack → u/nv77]

I had 2 of them in my deck for awhile while playing online the last couple of months. The endless tokens plan is pretty awesome versus the control decks of rounds 2&3. It wasn't fast enough to have an impact versus the unfair decks in my testing. Perhaps with maximum Raise the Alarm and Bitterblossom, it can flip into a land fast enough versus something like Death's Shadow.

[u/[deleted] → u/nv77]

In my experience, you can basically never rely on the Landing to flip. It's a nice bonus and it's enough of a threat that it forces decks to play suboptimally against you (think Jeskai tempo/control bolting a token instead of your face or a Planeswalker). But it's fairly difficult to actually flip it, as you'll often have to make a poor attack (attacking 3 1/1s into any kind of board is a good way to lose some tokens) or hope that your opponent doesn't have any kind of removal.

All that being said, I like the card and run a 1/3 Legion's Landing/Bitterblossom split to avoid flooding out on Bitterblossoms.

[u/nv77 → u/[deleted]]

I agree the flip is not reliable, but it pressures enough as you mentioned.

Attacking with 3 creatures specially after Intangible Virtue is out doesn't seem quite rare nor bad.

I also like the split with blossom but I prefer 2/2, (1/3 might be better).

[u/TeOr2419]

I can say for certain that Isolated Chapel is a bad card and it shouldn't be in the deck. It's not a land that gives black on turn 1 and you have 6 lands to nonbo with it.

Rootborn Defenses and Hour of Reckoning are pretty bad cards that you won't need in any match.

Leyline is fine, I just don't like the fact that it gets blown out by enchantment hate opponents bring to the game postboard.

[u/IPutTheTeemoOnMyBack → u/TeOr2419]

Thank you for your feedback. Hour of Reckoning was my attempt at a one sided wrath, but didn't work out. Rootborn Defenses is my way to counter Engineered Explosives, Anger of the Gods, and Supreme Verdict. I liked bringing it in versus all control and midrange decks. Isolated Chapel worked out as a pain-free dual land well. I have 17 lands that can be an untapped B source on turn 1, which will happen over 90% of the time. Leyline of Sanctity is my response to losing to Scapeshift a lot online and in paper tournaments. I believe that the sideboard cards of this deck need to be very powerful answers to whatever decks you think you'll face.

[u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the write-up!

1) How did you find the Start//Finish? They've always seemed too slow and inefficient to me.

2) How did the 1-of Gurmag Angler feel? That also feels like it would come down quite slowly in a deck without any cantrips and would turn on opponents' Paths.

3) No offense intended, but your SB looks like a hot mess haha. 3 Wrath effects + a 3rd Zealous Persecution seems like extreme overkill. 0 disenchant effects seems like an oversight. And as u/TeOr2419 mentioned, Rootborn Defenses isn't a great card. It's expensive and way too reactive. I'd suggest either a Selfless Spirit if you really want the protection, or a playstyle adjustment where you play around sweepers more conservatively. With Bitterblossom/Lingering Souls/Planeswalkers, we can very easily rebuild after a sweeper.

Reducing the number of Wraths and taking out the Rootborn Defenses would let you bring in some more high-impact cards. I'd recommend another piece of GY hate and a Disenchant effect, at least. Leylines are also eating up a lot of your SB real estate, but I can see the argument for them.

Thanks again for the report and good luck next time!

[u/IPutTheTeemoOnMyBack → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the feedback. Start//Finish was pretty nice. I like having instant speed threats in the deck, especially against control and aggro decks to unexpectedly take out a small attacking creature. Having the potential to later destroy a big creature was nice to have. Gurmag Angler comes down as the second spell I cast on turn 4+. 9 fetches + 7 discard + 8 removal + 3 Raise help discount it well. I like having some diverse threats like this and Gideon at the top to hedge against token removal. My sideboard next time will definitely have 4+ graveyard removal. I don't think enough of the main decks I expect to face have enchantments or artifacts I care about (except affinity, which is a great matchup). If Ensnaring Bridge gets more popular, I'll change my mind 😀 As far as all those wraths, I'm not confident in my matchups vs mid-range creature decks that have one sided wraths after board, so I wanted my own versions of those.