DECK: Modern RG Ramp (with Inferno Titan!) 5/31/19

Here is my latest Modern Gxx pile of cards:

Maindeck

Sideboard

I played this at FNM last night and went 3-1.

Round 1: UB Faeries, W (2-0)
Round 2: The Rock, W (2-1)
Round 3: UWR Control, L (1-2)
Round 4: Dredge, W (2-1)

The list was inspired by this Naya deck I was playing a few months ago. The Angels honestly didn't feel that great, so I decided to try Inferno Titan at the top end of a similar shell instead. The deck was a ton of fun and didn't seem awful so I'll probably play it a bit more with some adjustments. 

DECK: Modern GW Aggro, 2/22/19

My latest Modern experiment has been this GW Aggro/Midrange pile. Basically, the point of the deck is to play Hero of Bladehold. This is the list as of my 2/22/19 FNM:

Maindeck

Sideboard

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Its quite similar to a "Little Kid" -style Junk deck, basically replacing Lingering Souls with Kitchen Finks, and Siege Rhino/Wilt-Leaf Liege with Hero/Elspeth.

Honestly, losing Rhino & Souls is a big deal due to the reach and resiliency they bring to a GW creature deck. Losing access to other Black cards such as Thoughtseize and Assassin's Trophy limits the dimensions of interaction available as well.

The primary upside of not splashing Black is a smoother, less painful manabase, which is perennially relevant in Modern - but this likely doesn't outweigh its downside.

This is how my rounds went at the FNM:

Round 1: Lantern Contol (L 1-2)
Round 2: UR Phoenix (W 2-0)
Round 3: Jund (W 2-0)
Round 4: Grixis Shadow (W 2-1)
Round 5: UR Phoenix (W 2-0)

Hero of Bladehold killed the opponent in six games over the course of the evening. I did not lose a game in which I untapped with a Hero. All is right with the world.

DECK: Modern Big Naya, 2/15/19

The Modern metagame has became full of relatively linear and noninteractive aggressive decks like Humans, Spirits, Dredge and Phoenix, to the point that Baneslayer Angel has become a staple in UW decks. This led me to think: why not play Baneslayer Angel in a Green midrange shell? If the card is good, isn't ramping into it even better? Starting from one of my favorite decks played by the Naya God himself, I have arrived at the list below:

Maindeck

Sideboard

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While by no means revolutionary or top-tier, this archetype definitely has legs. It has performed well at the FNM level, producing frequent prize finishes. I took it to one medium event, SCG Regionals last November, and went 4-4 with many misplays. Doing OK playing cards I like is good enough for me.

The maindeck has been quite static (despite many 2- and 3-ofs, it seems to work) until re-examination this week. Elspeth, Knight-Errant was replaced with Ajani Vengeant, and Tireless Trackers were replaced with Huntmasters. Two Bolts became two Helixes. These moves were a concession to the wild popularity of Phoenix and Burn at my store in particular. Its been so long since I played Huntmaster that I still have English ones...

Furthermore, in the sideboard Blood Moons were replaced with Damping Spheres, and Bonfires were replaced with Flame Slash + Dromoka's Command. I am contemplating swapping Rest in Peace for Relic of Progenitus in future as well.

Here's how the FNM went:

Round 1: UW Midrange (W 2-1)
Round 2: Jund (W 2-0)
Round 3: Affinity (W 2-0)
Round 4: Mono-Red Phoenix (L 1-2)
Round 5: Valakut (we drew, but L 0-2 in games)

DECK: UW Delver, 12/28/18

Its been a while since I did one of these. Here is the UW Delver deck I played at a local event recently (4-0 - beat UWr Twin, TES, UR Delver, and 5C Humans).

Maindeck

Sideboard

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I first tried this archetype in some side events at Eternal Weekend and had a blast. Legacy players love to hate Delver/Stoneforge Mystic decks for some reason, but I've always liked them and this is my favorite iteration so far. Earlier this year I played a lot of UWr Delver, but it just hasn't felt the same since Probe got banned.

The list is pretty "stock", not deviating significantly from Owen's GP list except for some sideboard choices. The amount of graveyard hate he had seemed egregious, so I trimmed it down. The omission of a 2nd Back to Basics is based on my card availability, but I'm not sure two is even the correct number. Spell Snare is fantastic right now so I had to dedicate a slot for it.

More recently a Japanese player made top 8 of GP Shizuoka with this deck, but I dislike several of their choices, primarily 1) cutting the 4th Spell Pierce and 2) running zero Council's Judgment in the side. The full set of Spell Pierce is sooo good with Snapcaster, and the versatility of Judgement necessitates its inclusion despite its clunkiness by my estimation.

DECK: Punishing Maverick, 1/19/18

In January 2018, I finally finished acquiring all the significant foils I planned on having in my Punishing Maverick deck. Here is the result:

Creatures

Noncreatures

Lands

Sideboard

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In the maindeck, the basics, Karakas, and Sylvan Library remain un-foiled. This is intentional, and I don't plan on acquiring foil versions of these. For Karakas and Library, Legends is more pimp than any foil version in my opinion. In this sideboard, and my pool of Maverick sideboard cards, there are still a number of non foils. While I might pick up foils of some of these here and there, its not something I'm actively pursuing. As such, I consider the foiling of this deck to be finished. It took over 3 years, with my first Maverick foils being purchased at GP New Jersey in November 2014. As for my next pimp project...maybe I'll be upgrading my dual lands, who can say.

DECK: Esper Mentor

Esper Mentor was an archetype that always vaguely interested me, but I never saw I list I liked and didn't invest any effort into developing my own. I was spared by Hanni Alnimer, who made Top8 at Eternal Weekend a month ago with this list.

I don't think there's anything innovative in Hanni's list, but something about it just "clicked" with me. I picked up Mentors and Therapies and have now played four weekly events with the deck (11-5-1 record), tweaking it along the way. Here is where I'm currently at:

Win-cons

Instants & Sorceries

Lands

Sideboard

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As you may notice, I haven't changed Hanni's MD spellbase at all, which feels very good and tight so far. This is my first experience playing with Cabal Therapy and Monastery Mentor (not to mention 12 cantrips), which give the deck a different texture than classic Esper Deathblade and have led to many misplays. What I've enjoyed casting the most is Gitaxian Probe. While obviously great with Therapy and Meddling Mage, even individually the card is incredibly powerful. 

DECK: Esper Deathblade, 1/13/17

Here is my current Esper Deathblade list:

Creatures

Noncreatures

Lands

Sideboard

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DECK: Punishing Maverick, 1/8/17

This is the latest Punishing Maverick list I'm tinkering with:

Creatures

Noncreatures

Lands

Sideboard & Tokens

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DECK: Esperblade, 10/7/16

Over the past few months I've spent most of my time playing various UWx Stoneforge Mystic decks. When this Esper list popped up in Japan a few weeks ago, I was inspired to play a pure Esperblade deck again, despite having argued that Esper lists without Deathrite Shaman are obsolete.

The list incorporated a lot of interesting ideas, but what stood out to me the most supplementing Stoneforge Mystic with Lingering Souls and Tasigur, the Golden Fang instead of True-Name Nemesis.

Here is my first draft list:

Stuff

Other Stuff

Lands

Sideboard

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It was an interesting deck as expected, and I'll definitely play something similar again.

Possible future card inclusions:

• Academy Ruins
• Painful Truths
• Baleful Strix
• Mana Leak
• Humility

DECK: Mono-Green Cloudpost, 7/30/16

Cloudpost, while not midrange (!!), is a very enjoyable strategy in its own way. I love doing broken things with lands, especially alongside a playset of Primeval Titan, a card that is surely close to the heart of every Green mage.

Lands

Noncreature Spells

Creatures

Sideboard

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DECK: Bant Stoneblade, 7/21/16

At the moment I have no major events coming up soon, so I probably won't focus on any one deck in the near future. I sleeved up this Bant Stoneblade deck for my FNM. I still haven't jumped on the Bant Deathblade hype train and continue to rock GSZ + 4 Hierarchs. I really love Hierarch in Bant because of how good it is with True-Name Nemesis.

Overall its a very "stock" GSZ list:

Creature Spells

Noncreature Spells

Lands

Sideboard

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DECK: UW Stoneblade, 7/11/16

I decided to take a break from Maverick to play something a bit different for my Monday Legacy event. I came up with this UW Stoneblade list and had a blast. I'll probably run it again soon.

Stuff that wins the game

Stuff that helps win the game

Lands

Sideboard

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DECK: Punishing Maverick, 7/3/16

I'm continuing to test Maverick in preparation for the SCG Legacy Open in Worcester this coming Saturday. I sleeved up GWb Maverick for a few events, but was pretty unsatisfied with it overall, so I'm going back to Punishing Maverick. Punishing Maverick is probably a "worse" deck, but suits me much better, which is ultimately quite important.

This time around, I've decided to try dropping the maindeck Loam and Dark Depths combo to play a 4th Wasteland and a full Equipment package of 3 SFM + 1 Jitte + 1 Sword + 1 Batterskull. The Loam was ok, but never quite pulled its weight. One reason I decided to play Loam was to have the ability to buy back the Dark Depths combo, but this situation never arose in the many games I played with it. While Dark Depths has been great, I sometimes miss having all 4 Wastelands.

In the sideboard I'm trying Xenagos, the Reveler in place of Garruk Relentless. I'll definitely play Garruk at Worcester, but Xenagos might not be terrible. Another card I'm trying is Winter Orb, which I've never played before. It looks solid against unfavorable matchups like Miracles, Lands, and Cloudpost while fitting into an E-Tutor package.

Creature Spells

Noncreature Spells

Lands

Sideboard

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DECK: Punishing Maverick, 5/22/16

I have a few bigger events coming up this Summer and I'm strongly considering playing some kind of Punishing Maverick deck, so I've been playing the it extensively for the last few weeks. I tried to come up with a build that had game against Miracles, Shardless BUG, Lands, and Eldrazi. This pile was the result:

Creature Spells

Noncreature Spells

Lands

Sideboard

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The list felt pretty good overall. I'm still on the fence about whether Deathrite Shaman should be played in Punishing Maverick. I do often miss the cleaner manabase of a pure Naya version with a basic Plains, and the intermittent mana production of Deathrite Shaman can sometimes be a liability in a deck that wants to make a lot of mana. However, Deathrite's sheer versatility as a hedge against random stuff can't be ignored and is probably best for a large, unknown meta. 

DECK: Burning Wish Loam, 5/6/2016

I played Aggro Loam with Burning Wish at FNM last night. I have sworn off playing this deck multiple times, but the allure of Burning Wish and Devastating Dreams proved too strong yet again.

Lands

Noncreature Spells

Creature Spells

Sideboard

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I put the deck together in a bit of a hurry so there were a few mistaken card choices-the Windswept Heath was supposed to be a 3rd Grove, and the 2nd G. Teeg in the sideboard was supposed to be the 3rd Canonist.

In future I will consider cutting a Tarmogoyf and Green Sun's Zenith out of the maindeck for a Scavenging Ooze and the 4th Abrupt Decay. In the sideboard, I'm still unsure of the right mix of hatebears to have and may throw in Thalia. The slightly toned-back 10 sorcery Wishboard felt good and will probably remain the same.