Boros, Beats, Battlestar Galactica

[hamfactorial]

Everything is worse than cat tribal, aka the bogeyman of Legacy.

[Mcdonalds]

Aka the modern menace

[hamfactorial]

[deck]Modern BBBSG v. 1.14[/deck]

Ran this in an 8-man this morning -

Win 2-1 vs. Zoo (Dismember/Bonfire blowout in game 1, he beat me while I flooded in game 2. Game 3 I landed a Rest in Peace and his Goyfs/KotRs never recovered)
Win 2-0 vs. Merfolk (Dismember/Bonfire blowout in game 1, he boarded Tidebinder Mages for some reason, never had targets.)
Loss
0-2 vs. Affinity (blew him out with Bonfire in both games, but in both games he landed an Etched Champion the turn after and I couldn't find a Stony Silence or Hide // Seek for his Cranial Plating) can't always draw the answer

Deck felt very good. Precinct Captain did serious work!

[hamfactorial]

Also tested Mogg War Marshal and hated it

Wasting a turn to pay the Echo cost is very disappointing, especially when the 3 slot is full of so much value.

[hamfactorial]

The more I play, the more I think I should just be jamming Hero of Bladehold in multiple and playing more removal in the 1-slot instead of Figure of Destiny. FoD gets boarded out in a lot of matchups, this is worth exploring.

[Valdarith]

I think FoD is fine as a two-of. Four definitely feels wrong. It's good because it's a great topdeck, but bad early in the game, so you don't want to see it a lot.

[hamfactorial]

2 FoD seems right, thanks Val.

I keep struggling to fill up a nice descending curve, but most of the stuff I want blink or copy with Kiki is in the 3 spot.

My ideal core is 3 Brimaz, 4 Blade Splicer, 3/4 Kitchen Finks, but that leaves a mostly blank 2 slot.

The paper solution is to fill it with 2 drop creatures, but they don't have a great deal of synergy.

If I treat FoD and Dismember as "2 drops", the curve starts to look better and the bump at 3 isn't so jarring.

I looked at other successful aggro decks in recent past and found that awkward curves aren't necessarily an indication of the deck's strength or weakness. The desire to have a nice parabolic curve is perhaps my own OCD getting the better of me.

Most of my sideboard costs 2, so perhaps I should just look at the 75 instead. Beautiful staircases all around

[Valdarith]

It's a midrange deck without ramp so the curve will be awkward. That's just part of it.

[Pedros]

Sth to consider is to play naya to get turn 1 accelerators in Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise.

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles ... in-modern/

Going 1->3->4 is much more powerful in your type of deck, leaving only thalias and spellskites in 2 drop slot.

[hamfactorial]

Cool article Pedros

I've never been comfortable playing a deck with mana dorks. They just make me mad when I see them after a draw step, but it's hard to argue with the power of ramp.

[hamfactorial]

Cunning Sparkmage made me laugh uncontrollably, though. Blinking and making Kiki copies of that to wipe an opponent's board would have me quivering with delight.

[hamfactorial]

Green as my third color gives me access to Gavony Township and sweet Goyf beats.

-scratches chin thoughtfully-

[Valdarith]

Soon enough you'll be throwing in Knight of the Reliquary and Kessig Wolf Run and turn into a Big Zoo deck.

[hamfactorial]

Nooooo!

Actually yes

[hamfactorial]

[deck=Modern BBBSG v. 1.15 aka who needs a 2-drop?]
Creatures:22
2 Figure of Destiny
4 Blade Splicer
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Restoration Angel
2 Hero of Bladehold
3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Spells:13
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
3 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Dismember

Lands:25
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Rugged Prairie
1 Blood Crypt
1 Eiganjo Castle
3 Plains
1 Mountain

Sideboard:15
4 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Hide // Seek
1 Slaughter Games
1 Batterskull
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
[/deck]

Now that I'm not trying to curve 1-4 every game, I can play the RW scryland. I've enjoyed seeing it in my test games, letting me dig further into the deck as needed, and bottoming dead cards depending on the matchup. It's very satisfying to play a scryland, leave a Bonfire on top, and play into the blowout.

Testing for 2014-04-04

2-1
Win vs. RU Twin
2-1 Win vs. BW Midrange (piloted by our friend immapwner)
2-0 Win vs. Storm (Ethersworn is amaze-balls)

I'd love to face Scapeshift and see if Slaughter Games does what I expect.

[Toddington]

Looking good. Is having 3 Bonfire the sweet spot?

Any thoughts on Dismember vs. Lightning Helix? On second thoughts, they do very different things.

[hamfactorial]

Bonfire should be 2 or 3, I think. Against the decks where it's good (Pod, Affinity) I want it in the opener and maybe another off the top in the midgame. This suggests 3.

Against decks where it's marginal (Zoo), I want it midgame. This suggests 2.

Since I'm more likely to see a deck it's good against, I picked 3. Even against decks where it's marginal, Bonfire acts as a nice mana sink, letting me turn disastrous flooding into a shot at recovery.

Dismember is my solution to really nasty fuckers like Deceiver Exarch, Goyf and Phyrexian Obliterator. I don't want a ton of these, they mainly act as additional copies of PtE. They can be cast off of any land in an emergency, and I'm only using them if the creature is likely to kill me or do more than 4 damage if unanswered.

I tested a build with Lightning Helix in place of Kitchen Finks and enjoyed it. Only 18 creatures sometimes left me feeling too reactive, but
it helps the same matchups that Finks does, and is guaranteed damage when it counts.

[Toddington]

It's nice seeing the Scry lands. The more I play them, the more I like them.

The Lightning Helix/Kitchen Finks slot is very interesting. I guess with Resto, Finks gives the most (chance at) value.

[hamfactorial]

I like the scry lands, too, the free deck manipulation is quite valuable.

The only reason I'd play Helix over Finks is Affinity. I always want a Splicer on T3 to fight off an Etched Champion, and a Helix deals nicely with an Inkmoth Nexus. The threat of 1 shot Infect kills keeps me up at night, and Affinity is basically everywhere.

Between Restoration Angel and Kiki, Blade Splicer is my favorite target for value.

[hamfactorial]

Played a daily yesterday, went 2-2 but the deck played very well. It was streamed, you can watch it if you like.

2-1 Win vs. Ad Nauseam (Slaughter Games MVP)
2-1 Win vs. Affinity (this match is worth watching, Slayers' Stronghold did serious work)
1-2 Loss vs. Burn (I think my game 3 keep was loose)
1-2 Loss vs. Naya Pod (his play was excellent, can't be mad that he also had it all)

[Pedros]

I watched your stream and deck looks really promising. Some stuff I thought while watching:

Vs Red you should play Cannonist on turn 4 when you had temple. He had suspended Rift Bolt, meaning he could not cast any other spell that turn. It would give you then 1 more turn (as he could only cast spell on your turn and then on his. Game ended when he cast 3 spells one turn).

Game vs Naya (I think it was game 2) you should get 2nd resto angel and trade 1 angel with thrun when he was tapped out after trying to blink resto. Also your sb was little bit loose -> Hide//Seak is quite good against kiki pod, as you can hide his pod or seek for his target after he pod some creatures. It plays a lot of specific 1 offs to enable some chains. Rest in peace isnt great but still works a little bit so this sb was quite good.

I also noticed that you dont use your Slayer's stronghold agressive enough. You had numerous games where
you kept defending with hero when you could give him vigilance and swing.

I dont know why, but I feel mana is a little of too. You had some games, where you drew too many scry lands and it hurt your tempo quite a bit.

[Pedros]

Also noticed you cut another basic for sth else. I was a fan of 4 basics to fetch.

[Pedros]

Not really fan of cutting brimaz completely, however I agree with some amount of finks.

26 mana is nono. I would get some scalding tarns first.

[hamfactorial]

Agreed on the 2nd Canonist. I actually saw it on my hand after I'd passed the turn and realized my punt.

I tried 26 land as an experiment, it was ok but probably not worth it. I'll work on the mana more, I like 25 land with 4 basics.

I've given some thought to cutting the Figures of Destiny and a land for some Boros Signets. I have no turn 2 plays, and they ramp me a turn faster to the combo, or let me play a 3 drop and hold up removal.

[hamfactorial]

I'll review the stream tonight, looking for missed Slayers activations. I remember using it well in my Affinity match, but I'm sure I missed the chance to really abuse it.

Thanks for reviewing the matches, Pedros.

[hamfactorial]

I'm certainly going to bump my fetch count up to enable more reliable black splash. G2 vs. Ad Nauseam was frustrating when I had a Hide // Seek but no black mana. I still got value from Hide, but Seek would have been game over.

[Pedros]

Btw Hide Seek is really powerful...

When are you bringing slaughter games?

[hamfactorial]

Yeah, I think Hide // Seek is an excellent card. I bring Slaughter Games in vs. Ad Nauseam and Scapeshift because they pack counter magic and only 1 win con.

[hamfactorial]

Given that I already have enough Storm hate, I'm going to swap Rest in Peace for Grafdigger's Cage to provide extra Pod protection. Yesterday, Cage would have helped against Chord of Calling where RIP did very little.

[Valdarith]

Seems fine.

I don't like your three-drop list. It looks icky. I know there's a tendency to want cards like Blade Splicer in a list with Restoration Angel and Kiki-Jiki, but at what point are you actually making the list worse by doing that? I say Finks + Resto Angel is more than enough value and the Splicer slots could be better served as Thalia or Wall of Omens.

[hamfactorial]

Blade Splicer is really good, I'd run it before Finks all day every day. I don't think I can run Thalia with all these Bonfires, but I'm happy to jam Wall of Omens in and test it.

In the daily I ran 4 Lightning Helix instead of Finks, which makes it less clunky.

[Valdarith]

I can see that Splicer would be more desirable since it can produce more value when flashed multiple times. Finks seems really good against burn though, and your deck seems unfavorable in that matchup without Finks.

[hamfactorial]

Yeah, Burn really put it in my butt during that match. I should have mulled into a better hand in game 3, I got greedy leaning on Batterskull.

I should have taken the Kikis out for Hide//Seeks to act as extra life gain along with my Helixes.

I think I just played sloppily, as I've never lost to Burn in testing.

#punt

[hamfactorial]

Here's what I ran:

[deck]Modern BBBSG v. 1.17[/deck]

[hamfactorial]

I'm going to experiment with Aurelia's Fury as a way to sweep x/1 dorks and man-lands on my opponent's turn. Being able to tap down blockers for an alpha is also the nut. I'll play with a 2/2 Bonfire/Fury split for testing.

[Pedros]

Aurelia fury is awful. X = 2-3 max.

[hamfactorial]

just an experiment, homie

[Valdarith]

I would run one tops. It is nice that it doubles as Storm hate while being playable against everything else, but I'm afraid it isn't good enough to consider as anything more than a one-of. I'd never EVER want two in my hand.

[hamfactorial]

Alright, 2/1 split. Harsh critics

[hamfactorial]

I'd also love to run a single Batterskull in the main. Think I will!