I had a rough outing, since I was new to the format, and playing Shadow proved to be challenging. I had no idea what my opponent was doing in matchups I hadn’t tested. My tournament ended with a 3-3 drop, and I was pretty down on myself for punting my last two rounds. All of my losses in the tournament were against decks that I’d never seen before while testing at my smaller local events. Which is good for Modern deck diversity, I guess.

After dropping from the Main Event, I hopped into a Standard event that I went 3-0-1 with a pretty slick humans list that I came up with on the spot.  Sadly, I never saved the list, but it was fast enough to win three rounds against Aetherworks Marvel (rest in peace). I ended up splitting the last round so I could catch up with some buddies to go get some food (my most pro play of the day).

After a long discussion with friends who are much smarter than me, I realized I had one of two choices.  Either bail on Modern all together, or finally take the good advice, and play something that requires less of a knowledge of the format. The next morning, I got to the venue early and traded in a ton of junk that had been clogging up my binder, to get what I needed to finish Burn. I sleeved the deck up, and registered for the Classic.  I’d heard that Burn was easy to play, and expected to just pick it up and crush the event.

I made two bad assumptions about the Classic.  One, I entered a large event with a Modern List I’d never played before. Two, I assumed that the competition would be easier in the second chance event. As far as number two goes, this was quite the miscalculation.  I faced tougher decks and opponents day two than I did in day one. This was the first Classic event that I’d ever played (never showed up day two). The day two field was full of players that traveled far to get here, barely missed day two of the Main Event, and wanted to grind as much value as they could. Whoops!

As for my first bad assumption, I was under the impression that anyone could pilot Burn.  I thought it was just a matter of attacking, and casting spells – counting to twenty, as they say. I was wrong.  I know now that anyone can play burn, but not everyone can play burn well. There were many situations where I could have easily won if I had sequenced my spells correctly.  But alas, I went 0-3 and dropped from the event.

Admitting to myself that my terrible performance this weekend was my fault and highly avoidable was a big step for me.  This event was a wake-up call about Modern.  I realized that I wouldn’t be able to figure out the format and do well at larger events without studying the format, and practicing against more decks. I am fully committed to leveraging Burn, to allow me to be competitive while I learn the format.  Burn allows the pilot to play their own game, and have little regard for what the opponent is doing.

So far playing FNM hero with this list, I have won over $200 in cash prizes, and am using my profits to work towards building Abzan.  I will be writing a deeper analysis of my card choices for the sideboard, the main board for these decks are pretty standard, but the sideboards are very meta dependant.

After my success at the few LGSs in my area, I am ready to start venturing out again and playing some slightly larger local events.  Who knows, maybe I will spike an IQ, or PPTQ with a consistent deck. The idea is to play this deck until I am so comfortable in all of my matchups that the decisions are reactionary, and not actually forced thought.  This will take months and months of work, and I’m looking forward to sharing this journey with you guys.  I know, my long time readers and friends are thinking ‘Yeah Yeah, you have said your gonna write more, and haven’t!’ Well, actions speak louder than typed words, so bear with me, and enjoy the ride.

-Strictly

Jeremy Beardsley

Jeremy aka “Strictly Average” is an ‘average’ guy with ‘average’ plans. He is the creator and overboss of Strictly Average Gaming, which includes the Patreon group and StrictlyAverageMTG.com

https://strictlyaveragemtg.com

I moved onto Esper Walker Control for a while.  I was in the long process of collecting the cards I needed when someone sent me a list for Grixis Death’s Shadow. This list immediately inspired me.  Most of the value in the deck lay in the cards that overlapped with Esper, and Modern Masters 2017 hit just in time for me to acquire Snapcaster Mages at a decent price.

To be honest, I had no idea how broken Death’s Shadow was. I had just wanted to play the card for a long time.  When I first saw it on coverage during the last Modern Pro Tour, I thought it was a cool way to play magic.  Sadly, at the time the flavor of Death’s Shadow Aggro was a JUND version that ran Tarmogoyf’s.  I did not own a full playset of Goyfs, and didn’t have the income to afford them either.  I refuse to play a gutted version of a deck because I do not own the cards; if I am playing competitively I will only play a fully optimized list. When the Grixis list appeared, and I already had a chunk of the cards, I was in love.

I have been playing this deck and changing and tweaking the list to suit my needs for nearly 3 months. My current list can be found here. I have gone from 0-2 dropping to repeatedly cashing in at various local events. I have been bouncing around different locations and venues to get a feel for different metagames.  I feel I have successfully hit the recommendation for playing any high-level Modern event: I am now comfortable and familiar with this deck. I can play under stressful circumstances, and/or after a long day of Magic, and still navigate. It just so happens that this list is arguably one of the best decks in Modern right now, and has a very good placement to do well at events like the Open.

With everything I have just discussed, it sounds like a slam dunk to register Shadow for Saturday. But, sadly, I am still undecided. In February I read an article Cedric Phillips wrote about Revolt Zoo.  I love this list because it showcases some new cards, including Narnam Renegade and Hidden Herbalist. And I’ve always been fascinated by Wild Nacatl and Goblin Guide, despite never owing/playing with them. This list is hyper aggressive: I have actually drawn the god hand twice while testing. The opening hand of any Fetchland, at least 1 Burning-tree Emissary, any combination of 2 additional Emissaries or Hidden Herbalist, Reckless Bushwhacker and a Simian Spirit Guide. By playing the fetch, and exiling Simian Spirit Guide for mana, you set a chain reaction that allows you to play 3 2/2 creatures and then Surge in a Reckless Bushwhacker giving everyone haste, and swinging for 11 on turn 1. There are not many decks that can recover after taking that big of a hit on the first turn.  I know this is a rare occurrence, but other similar openers are fun and pretty impressive when they fire.

In no way am I claiming that this is a better choice for regular play then the Shadow list. However, I may actually decide to register Revolt Zoo.  It would allow me to have lightning-fast rounds, with time between to actually get food, and chillax.  Believe it or not, this is important when possibly looking at 9 rounds of play.  That amount of time is exhausting for professional players; we know I am far from their caliber. The thought of playing a grindy control deck for that long makes me tired just sitting here, drinking a beer and writing.

I have also accepted the fact that I will likely be done by early afternoon on Saturday (as I drop from the tournament in shame, because I am still new to Modern).  If I actually thought I had a solid chance at Day 2, I would be registering Death’s Shadow without a second guess. Chances are, there will be side events where I can play the deck I didn’t register for the Main Event.  And Sunday will also be a great time to unveil my take on RW Humans in Standard.  Yeah, I did it again.  I refuse to let my Thalia’s Lietenants go without being played.  Exert is cool with Always Watching, and I just refuse to stop trying to make the human tribal thing work.

If you are going to be at SCG Charlotte, drop me a line! We can meet up for a beverage of your choice (and your purchase).

-Strictly

Jeremy Beardsley

Jeremy aka “Strictly Average” is an ‘average’ guy with ‘average’ plans. He is the creator and overboss of Strictly Average Gaming, which includes the Patreon group and StrictlyAverageMTG.com

https://strictlyaveragemtg.com

I started to learn Dredge because I found the deck to be super interesting. It operates on an axis that other decks don’t. Just as I finished collecting the last pieces of it, it would be banned. Probably due to the rumblings of angry mobs with pitch forks demanding Wizard of the Coast’s intervention in the oppressive reign of Dredge as the Dictator of Modern. I expected WoTC to cave into the angry rabble, so as soon as the deck was done, I began the process of converting the deck into a Legacy Variant and looking for a new deck.

A friend recommended an Eldrazi & Taxes list by Craig Wesco, so I began to work on getting the Aether Vials and other expensive pieces.  I built the list with paper cards and tested a lot of matches online. Before I even played my first match with the deck at a live event, I was feeling some concerns with running this list at a large event.  My biggest issue was that I do not enjoy what I consider ‘Non-games of Magic’.  This deck wins by denying an opponent the ability to play their cards in what is better known as ‘Locking them out.’ I actually found this to be zero fun while playing at a live event and hated being the guy who won by stopping my opponents from playing Magic. I do not mind this approach if I am playing just one event, and it is the strategy for the best deck, but if I am going all in on a strategy, I prefer it to be with a more interactive strategy.

A few weeks ago, another friend invited me to a private forum designed to discuss a fairly fringe Modern Deck, Esper Transcendent. The current iteration of this deck was originally designed by Francesco Neo Amati.  This group consists of nearly a thousand supporters of this deck, all working to test, practice and refine the deck for larger events. After reading many discussions about this list, and the different card choices, I began to get really interested in trying it out. The cost associated with these variants is no insignificant, and not having a limitless Modern collection, building this list for June will not be easy.

The desire to learn this deck, and find a good deck candidate for the Open in June, spawned an idea for a fantastic idea for a series of Modern Articles entitled Strictly Learns Modern. Over the course of the next few months, I will be chronicling the process of me trying to find a deck, build it, and learn a format that I am very unpracticed in. This will be a sort of ‘learn with me’ series.

I have done some preliminary testing of the Esper list, using the exact list from GP Brisbane that took 21st place, piloted by Dylan Brown.

Creatures (4)
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Planeswalkers (7)
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Narset Transcendent
Spells (25)
3 Fatal Push
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
3 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
2 Esper Charm
4 Lingering Souls
2 Supreme Verdict
Lands (24)
2 Concealed Courtyard
2 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Flooded Strand
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
2 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
3 Polluted Delta
2 Shambling Vent
1 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
Sideboard (15)
1 Dispel
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Countersquall
1 Disenchant
2 Meddling Mage
2 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Wrath of God
1 Baneslayer Angel

I tested a series of matches on Xmage making notes on the matchups without actually reading the guides available on this deck.  The goal was to see what I could gather about the strategy and the process of playing the deck from the cards alone.  My first impression of the deck is that it played like a toolbox deck as opposed to straight control list.  When I needed to be a beatdown, I was able to swarm my opponent with damage from Gideon, Tokens, and Snapcasters. When I needed to control the game and let my opponent run out of steam, I was able to control the board state with my variety of answers. I really liked this concept, because it didn’t play like a normal control deck in the sense where I didn’t feel like I was playing ‘Draw-Go Magic.’

Match 1 – Rakdos Tibalt Demonic Pact Offering

In game 1 my opponent worked so hard to get his Tibalt on board, as I disrupted his hand until he was out of cards. My Creeping Tar Pit and Spirit tokens killed Tibalt.  In game two, he played his Liliana of the Veil, and I discarded a multitude of Lingering Souls while shaping my hand to deal with his threats. I flashed in double Snapcaster Mage without using the flashback ability during opponent’s End of Turn with his Lili on 6 Loyalty.  I attacked her and dropped her to 2 loyalty. He sacrificed Lili to force me to sacrifice one of my Snapcasters. On my next turn, with 7 lands in play, I played another copy of Lingering Souls, flashed it back to add 4 tokens to the board, leaving me enough mana for the Countersquall in hand.  The opponent was out of cards in hand and had a clear board.  He drew Thoughtseize which I Countersqualled and proceeded to beat down with tokens and Snapcaster.

Match 2 – Naya Burn

Game one, after a quick beating, I started to stabilize on the back of Shambling Vents gaining life, until my opponent untapped and laid down double Boros Charm plus a Lightning Bolt, 11 damage was enough to close the game. Looking at my notes for Game two, they are very revealing in how the rest of the testing would go.  I simply wrote ‘Just got wrecked. Maybe I should read a primer.’ My notes also had some spots that looked like water-damaged, probably from the salty tears.

Match 3 – Sram/Cheerios

This match was also easy to define. In game one, my opponent played a sub-par threat, dumped a bunch of 0 cost bad artifacts on board, and drew a ton of cards. I untapped and killed his threat – skill game. My opponent eventually scooped to escape the disgrace of decking himself. Game two, he conceded to a second copy of Fatal Push.

Match 4 – Grixis Delver

This matchup felt very fun.  There was a lot of back and forth, and I eventually won. All of the games came down to very close life totals.  The ability for this deck to burn me out with Bolts and other instants seems to be a weakness that I need to understand more from reading how to actually play. I almost wonder if Rest in Peace is a good inclusion for the current online meta in the sideboard since I also faced some Dredge in testing.  In both games that I won, it was able to jam a Tasigur after they wasted their removal on lesser threats.

Match 5 – Dredge

I lost in another close matchup.  I feel like my plan could come together better if I had a better understanding of the sideboard and which cards to deal with when.  This matchup felt like a coin flip that was decided by how poor or how well my opponent drew (dredged) his threats. As it turns out, I was wrong in thinking WoTC would gut this deck, they just banned one dredge card (Golgari Grave-Troll) and was replaced with its little dredge cousin (Golgari Thug).

This short testing session was meant to help me understand the viability of this deck in my hands and to understand if what it’s doing is what I wanted to be doing while playing Magic.  So far I decided that I prefer to let my opponent play things, and then get satisfaction from killing those things.  It feels much more rewarding to let them play cards, then cut them out of the game altogether. I definitely understand that Modern will take a lot of practice to learn and is not easily figured out by playing a winning deck list.  I also understand that in the matches I lost, I most likely could have won if I was more practiced and seasoned with this deck.

My current Modern homework is to actually read the primers and guides provided to me and understand the right way to play this deck.  In my next Strictly Learns Modern, I will play some tests matches after researching the proper play lines, and see if I am still interested in playing this.  If I had to make a decision today, on where I thought I would want to go in June, it would be with Team Transcendent, as this deck does the things I want to be doing while playing Magic.

Good Luck and Have Fun!
Strictly

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Jeremy Beardsley

Jeremy aka “Strictly Average” is an ‘average’ guy with ‘average’ plans. He is the creator and overboss of Strictly Average Gaming, which includes the Patreon group and StrictlyAverageMTG.com

https://strictlyaveragemtg.com