Random MtG Thoughts

[Spammy V]

So I finally put together a Mono-Green Tron list to start playing and practicing at my local store. My first night playing I managed to Top 8 at exactly #8 and make $3.50. Since hubris and luck are fake I'm clearly a natural and will sign up for the next GP and guaranteed cash out.

I beat Abzan Counters Company and Scapeshift, and lost to Dredge and 8-Whack. In hindsight the Dredge match was one that I punted. I pulled the trigger too early on some of my Relic activations and misboarded, bringing in my Nature's Claims with no evidence my opponent was on Alpine Moon. Thought-Knot Seer and Thragtusk would have been far more impactful. Even with that, it still went to game 3 and my opponent having to draw Conflagrate after I managed to get to ten mana to use Oblivion Stone and Relic of Progenitus in the same turn.

Sorcerous Spyglass was what actually beat Counters Company, naming Devoted Druid in game 1 and Fulminator Mage game 2. My Scapeshift opponent actually had Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, so Crucible letting me replay Tron lands and Blast Zone won there.

Going forward I'm going to replace the Relic of Progenitus in the sideboard with a Tormod's Crypt so that I have a 0 mana way to exile the graveyard in case I'm in a matchup where that's needed and I'm off of Tron.

Anyway, I am clearly the next Hall of Fame player and it certainly wasn't that enough people with my record dropped that I squeaked into the top 8.

[tombombodil]

So I finally put together a Mono-Green Tron list ...

How does it feel to be a complete sellout piece of crap

JK mostly, Tron is an interesting mainstay of the format. One of the few top-tier decks that has been around since the beginning and not been banned out or significantly altered by the addition of new cards. Probably because there has always been pretty solid reliable sideboard tech for it, and they just keep printing more. It has only ever been edged out of the format in a big way when there was 1 or 2 REALLY dominant decks that were also edging everything else out and then got banned.

[Spammy V]

So I finally put together a Mono-Green Tron list ...

How does it feel to be a complete sellout piece of crap

JK mostly, Tron is an interesting mainstay of the format. One of the few top-tier decks that has been around since the beginning and not been banned out or significantly altered by the addition of new cards. Probably because there has always been pretty solid reliable sideboard tech for it, and they just keep printing more. It has only ever been edged out of the format in a big way when there was 1 or 2 REALLY dominant decks that were also edging everything else out and then got banned.

Feels pretty good with this level of success!

Tron was definitely a conscious deck choice on power, affordability, and resiliency. Since I started paying attention to Modern, Tron's ebbed but never gone away, and with the new Karn, the Great Creator combo and wishboard package I think it's gotten stronger. Granted if we're moving into a real aggro graveyard focused period with GaakVine then I don't think Tron is such a good pick, but OH WELL. With three pieces of graveyard hate main, two in the side, and the ability to exile Bridges with Walking Ballista I don't feel COMPLETELY hopeless yet.

Going forward I'd still like to pick up more pieces for the deck toolbox, including the things that were in the sideboard before the Karn package became common (Warping Wail, Spatial Contortion, so on) as well as some other key Wish targets (Ensnaring Bridge, Torpor Orb, Trinisphere in the dreamland future) to experiment and adjust as needed.

[tombombodil]

It definitely is one of the least complicated decks to pilot in modern. Due to the power level of the format no game is going to be that simple, but Tron definitely requires the least basic game knowledge to pilot on a base level which kind of makes it an ideal entry point compared to all the other T1 decks.

Lord Foul complained about my phones automatic sig so I changed it. - Sent from jizzmop 4040 using bollocks

[Spammy V]

So I drove up to MagicFest Dallas to hang out and play side events with my new Tron list, and as much as you can spike the three-round side events, I spiked the three-round side events. In both the double prize events I somehow summoned tribal matchups that Tron can beat (Elves, Elves (Two Elves players out of like 50 people!), Merfolk, Spirits) and did so. 2-1 in one event and 2-0-1 (they let you drop after two wins and give you a draw on the last round) in the second. Between that, their turbo events, and Commander games I got a pretty considerable stack of prize tickets. I spent about half of them on the Standard singles they had at the table so I could get stuff I wanted in the collection for Commander and the rest on a box that gave me enough trade-in value that I finally got an Ensnaring Bridge for my Tron deck for about a quarter of what it would normally cost. I'm going to call this weekend a success.



Also in every Commander game when I was on the Teysa Triple Threat deck that can crank out tokens like mad someone played Coat of Arms and it killed them. Don't run Coat of Arms.

[tombombodil]

So I drove up to MagicFest Dallas to hang out and play side events with my new Tron list, and as much as you can spike the three-round side events, I spiked the three-round side events. In both the double prize events I somehow summoned tribal matchups that Tron can beat (Elves, Elves (Two Elves players out of like 50 people!), Merfolk, Spirits) and did so. 2-1 in one event and 2-0-1 (they let you drop after two wins and give you a draw on the last round) in the second. Between that, their turbo events, and Commander games I got a pretty considerable stack of prize tickets. I spent about half of them on the Standard singles they had at the table so I could get stuff I wanted in the collection for Commander and the rest on a box that gave me enough trade-in value that I finally got an Ensnaring Bridge for my Tron deck for about a quarter of what it would normally cost. I'm going to call this weekend a success.



Also in every Commander game when I was on the Teysa Triple Threat deck that can crank out tokens like mad someone played Coat of Arms and it killed them. Don't run Coat of Arms.

Was the Merfolk player not playing Spreading Seas? Because I don think I've ever lost a best of 3 to Tron with my fish list at a major tournament.

Glad you had fun! Magic Conventions are pretty much always a blast imo. They try really hard these days to accommodate every type of player, casual to hard core, limited, constructed, and collectors.

Lord Foul complained about my phones automatic sig so I changed it. - Sent from jizzmop 4040 using bollocks

[Spammy V]

They did have Spreading Seas and it was an inconvenience, however I was on the play with maindeck Oblivion Stones that gave me an out of Turn 4 Oblivion Stone, PRAY, Turn 5 crack the stone and have Tron online. That let me stabilize at some low but nonzero life total and start playing Karns and Ugins. Blast Zone is also a problem for Merfolk considering how their lords and their hate cards are stacked at 2 CMC. Elves has a 1-3 spread, although 2 is the most important number for their hate too.

Merfolk gets much stronger against Tron post MH1 since Force of Negation is such an easy include.

Frankly if Elves can get Collector Ouphe and Damping Sphere down then Blast Zone is my only real answer.

Really, I think it might have been because my opponent seemed mentally defeated when I played my first Tron land but the Spirits deck gave me the least trouble. Probably did not draw their hate but also they didn’t present nearly the same clock and Tron doesn’t care much about Unsettled Mariner.

[tombombodil]

Huh maybe things have changed since I played. Folk just has such a fast clock that one spreading Seas, and maybe a Vapor Snag or a V-Clique to grab 0 stone was more than enough to seal the deal in my day.

Lord Foul complained about my phones automatic sig so I changed it. - Sent from jizzmop 4040 using bollocks

[Spammy V]

So a way back when within the last year jeez I read an article somewhere about using Lord Windgrace as the commander for a Superfriends list, and getting an Evolution Sage in the War of the Spark box I got inspired me to start going through my bulk Planeswalkers to put something together. This is what I've ended up with, using a Wrenn and Six art card as a proxy. If you count the flip Nissa, 26% of the deck is Planeswalkers.

The pros of the deck are that games where Windgrace sticks just flow so smoothly with either drawing an extra two cards per turn or getting extra lands out. I have not actually needed to use Windgrace's ult so far. I also enjoy the deck having multiple ways to win. Avenger of Zendikar+Alrinn Emblem. Sarkhan the Masterless making all my Planeswalkers dragons. Sorin+Domri+Prossh with haste. Retracing Jaya's Immolating Inferno, Genesis Wave, or Planewide Celebration with Wrenn and Six emblem. Nissas making my lands into creatures for the beatdown.

The cons of the deck is that at times it feels too powerful if I can start deploying Planeswalkers, and... Sometimes turns just take too long. Long solitaire turns annoy me when other people take them, and I'm not that much a fan of tutors (note this deck doesn't have a way to tutor Planeswalkers. That is by choice). But when I have seven Planeswalkers on the board, six cards in hand, and Karn's Bastion as a proliferate option, finding a line and sequencing my turn can take a while and that makes me feel self-conscious. This may ultimately be an every-other-week type deck because of those factors.

[tombombodil]

So a way back when within the last year jeez I read an article somewhere about using Lord Windgrace as the commander for a Superfriends list, and getting an Evolution Sage in the War of the Spark box I got inspired me to start going through my bulk Planeswalkers to put something together. This is what I've ended up with, using a Wrenn and Six art card as a proxy. If you count the flip Nissa, 26% of the deck is Planeswalkers.

The pros of the deck are that games where Windgrace sticks just flow so smoothly with either drawing an extra two cards per turn or getting extra lands out. I have not actually needed to use Windgrace's ult so far. I also enjoy the deck having multiple ways to win. Avenger of Zendikar+Alrinn Emblem. Sarkhan the Masterless making all my Planeswalkers dragons. Sorin+Domri+Prossh with haste. Retracing Jaya's Immolating Inferno, Genesis Wave, or Planewide Celebration with Wrenn and Six emblem. Nissas making my lands into creatures for the beatdown.

The cons of the deck is that at times it feels too powerful if I can start deploying Planeswalkers, and... Sometimes turns just take too long. Long solitaire turns annoy me when other people take them, and I'm not that much a fan of tutors (note this deck doesn't have a way to tutor Planeswalkers. That is by choice). But when I have seven Planeswalkers on the board, six cards in hand, and Karn's Bastion as a proliferate option, finding a line and sequencing my turn can take a while and that makes me feel self-conscious. This may ultimately be an every-other-week type deck because of those factors.

EDH is all about relative power. No deck is universally "too powerful to be fun", you just have to know your play group. My playgroup avoids truly degenerate combos because they're often just boring, but no one would say that our decks aren't all extremely powerful.

Honeslty the #1 thing that you should consider when contemplating if the power level of your EDH deck is appropriat for your play group is how many slots in their lists they dedicated to answers: sweepers, removal for every permanent type, counterspells, bounce, hate cards, hate bears, and tutors for all of those effects. Most powerful, and well constructed EDH lists will dedicate a pretty substantial number of slots to just making sure you have a way to interact with your opponents at all times. When that's the case, almost no combo or engine is too powerful to be fun, because the second you try to bring it online, it's almost guaranteed that at least one person will have one way to interrupt or disrupt it.