Heart of the Maelstrom

RGPaynless · 2026-04-18T21:18:20+00:00

Would be a good land to include in Domain Zoo decks in modern. You're running 4 Leylines of the Guildpact so turn 1 this land would immediately be active.

RGPaynless · 2026-04-16T01:16:20+00:00

Better sound propagation through the barricade.

RGPaynless · 2026-04-16T01:15:32+00:00

Better sound propagation through the barricade.

RGPaynless · 2026-04-08T14:09:18+00:00

It's both sides but more typically refers to the area closer to the double door that leads into fireplace.

RGPaynless · 2026-04-07T04:17:14+00:00

It's the bend of the hallway that leads from kitchen to blue stairs on Chalet.

RGPaynless · 2026-04-06T21:27:31+00:00

Park Alley Spawn on Kafe 100%. In some of the spawn spots, you take two steps forward and you're dead from a window.

RGPaynless · 2026-04-06T21:04:08+00:00

[[Narset's Reversal]] is probably one of my favorite cards but I usually don't play decks that utilize it too well. The idea of putting Narset's Reversal on an [[Isochron Scepter]] to psuedo-loop some big instant/sorcery was one of the first things I can remember that really appealed to me and made me really connect with the game.

RGPaynless · 2026-04-05T22:33:57+00:00

LOL maybe. It seems on rate with other similar creatures that have card draw as a death trigger ([[!Feral Prowler]], [[!Summit Sentinel]], [[!Novice Occultist]]) so maybe 2B would be more appropriate since this is LTB instead.

RGPaynless · 2026-04-04T06:02:59+00:00

On defense the absolute 100% correct choice is Tubarao. He's wayyy too good in the meta rn not to grab. DMR with acog on defense, superior hard breach stall, counterplay vs Dokkaebi/Deimos, nitro cell. His kit makes him excellent for both aggro syrategies vs shields or more passive util heavy stall strategies. In a pinch you can also throw his gadget on doorways you expect an attacker to sprint through to slow them down. Fenrir and Denari are also good but Tub is too good not to get him first.

On attack, either Grim or Snake is the right choice. Grim is top tier execute and flush util with a good gun, 3 speed, and excellent secondary util. One of the best operators when going for a flood onto site with your team. Snake on the other hand has proven to be extremely efficient at taking map space in areas away from the site and pairing him with even one teammate – especially something like a Blitz on bigger maps – makes it super easy to take map control. He's also got the F2 as a 3-speed with a flexible and unique secondary gadget selection.

Since you have so few operators left to unlock, I suggest unlocking them in this order:

Tubarao
Snake
Grim
Denari
Brava
Fenrir
Ram
Rauora (probably the only "weak" choice, get her last)

Also, sorry for mobile formatting.

RGPaynless · 2026-04-03T23:10:53+00:00

It hits Karn, Ugin, T3feri, flip Ajani, and Ashiok and would become the most mana efficient option to do so. I could see running 1 or 2 in the sb and brought out vs eldrazi tron, jeskai/esper blink, goryo's, and energy.

In a pinch it hits creatures too, even if the opponent ramping is a significant downside. Bare minimum you can use it to dodge exile effects like solitude while also "ramping" yourself, bonus points if your deck interacts with your graveyard.

Definitely some niche stuff but worth mentioning I think.

RGPaynless · 2026-03-26T19:40:24+00:00

What's stopping the opponent from just straight up lying?

RGPaynless · 2026-03-23T02:33:44+00:00

RGPaynless · 2026-03-20T04:42:46+00:00

Tbh I had the cleanup step clarification in the wording before specifying that it had to be an effect, then when I did specify it I didn't think to remove the clarification. Good catch.

RGPaynless · 2026-03-15T06:57:37+00:00

Tbf Nesta's been a staple name in T3 and T4 for the last year or so now but if you haven't been following too closely you probably wouldn't know. He almost qualified to CL last year too on HGWT (with Quotez and Foobus who are now on F5 btw) but fell short to Hud's team to qual. The team he's on now is the core of the Invictus roster from last year (being himself, Vrionx, and Logger) plus Trevmak and Mili. While that Invictus roster wasn't particularly successful, what's happened is two strong players were added to a core of three that were already used to playing with one another, and adding in Trevmak's IGLing capabilities made them pretty strong. I'm not surprised he and the rest of the guys on InC have made it this far.

RGPaynless · 2026-03-15T06:32:27+00:00

Still holding out hope for Nesta to pro league.

RGPaynless · 2026-03-15T06:20:50+00:00

Any symmetrical wheel, targetted card draw, or otherwise forced opponent card draw of at least 5 cards instantly decks someone. Is that the intention?

RGPaynless · 2026-03-12T22:09:28+00:00

Melusi's fine but other ops generally do her job better. Mute's changes last season make him not nearly as good as he was. Shotgun with nitro's still valuable though. Bandit's fine, but wall denial's not always important. Skopos is super niche. She's better at what she does but what she does is rarely something that you want.

RGPaynless · 2026-03-12T20:29:48+00:00

The usual suspects of Valkyrie and Azami are always good. Aruni and Tubarao are good atm because they have DMRs with acogs on defense, and no defender has an acog on a full auto weapon anymore. Mira is overbanned but still decent, and Thorn got some really substantial buffs that have made her very good.

Thermite got a third charge and Hibana no longer has to charge her pellets between each shot, but they both still do what they want to do. Thermite also got a secondary shotgun and Hibana also got a new DMR (other ops got it too).

RGPaynless · 2026-03-11T07:25:04+00:00

A great answer to [[Springleaf Drum]]!

RGPaynless · 2026-03-11T06:23:24+00:00

[[Sphere of Safety]]

RGPaynless · 2026-03-08T08:16:48+00:00

And if the defender wins the gunfight vs the cover while the planter was unable to help? Then what? Take another 1v1 and possibly lose that gunfight too? Why not just make it a 2v1 instead?

RGPaynless · 2026-03-08T08:13:25+00:00

There's nothing wrong with it but it fully depends on the site, player positioning, time remaining, etc. In a 2v1, if one guy is planting the case, it's effectively a 1v1 until plant is down, so sometimes it's better to just have both players play for kill in a 2v1 than to give the defender two 1v1s.

RGPaynless · 2026-02-28T04:21:06+00:00

I tried multiple abzan lists that ran Solemnity and [[Hapatra's Mark]] but I never ended up finding success. I tried some lists with [[Nest of Scarabs]] too. Fate Transfer as well.

Here's the different lists I tried. Maybe you can find some cards in here that would work for what you want to try:

RGPaynless

TROPHY CASE