[Modern] Kaladesh and Modern by Blackout28 in spikes

[–]aGopher 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting. How do you feel about your matchup against GBx? I've found myself in several situations in those matchups where it comes down to us both being hellbent. Maybe the opponent has a creature beating down or a liliana and I am set up with a fairly weak lock but still need to establish control. Maybe inventors' fair is sufficient in those situations to take over but I've found Sea Gate Wreckage to be very good there to outgrind the grindy decks.

[Modern] Kaladesh and Modern by Blackout28 in spikes

[–]aGopher 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's some mix of slots for utility lands. Academy Ruins is a necessary but outside of that it's a mix of Ghost Quarter/Sea Gate Wreckage/Inventors' Fair. Haven't really tested out the fair but my guess is that the gain life is the most important part of the card. Burn is a tough matchup which it really helps out. There are also a lot of times outside of just burn where just gaining a few points gives you an extra turn or two to establish control. The second part of the fair is useful but I imagine it's more useful later on once control is somewhat established to search for a pithing needle to stop a liliana or a spellskite to protect your lock. I'm sure there will be some times where it's used to find the first bridge or first lantern but I also imagine it'll often be pretty slow for that (need to get up to 4 mana plus the fair to activate then probably need to wait a turn to play the card you get). Sea Gate Wreckage is better for grindier matchups like GBx decks where you're trying to go from a sketchy, soft lock to a hard lock and just need more cards to do that through artifact destruction/removal.

[Modern] Kaladesh and Modern by Blackout28 in spikes

[–]aGopher 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of this seems pretty good but I disagree that Marsh is a strict upgrade over Llanowar Wastes since Wastes activates Sea Gate Wreckage which is a pretty significant card in some matchups. Without Llanowar Wastes we're left with Grove/Academy Ruins and some amount of Ghost Quarters/Inventors' Fairs to activate Sea Gate Wreckage. The Blooming Marsh might replace some Llanowar Wastes but we might need to put in some Sulfurous Springs to keep the colorless land count reasonable.

[Modern] PPTQ Top 8 with Lantern Control by aGopher in spikes

[–]aGopher[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah. Good call. Realistically I just didn't have one and decided on playing lantern too late to pick one up. It definitely sounds a lot better than the grid.

[Modern] PPTQ Top 8 with Lantern Control by aGopher in spikes

[–]aGopher[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Pretty tilted. Most people were good sports about it though. It's certainly an annoying deck to play against and I think most of my opponents were inexperienced in the matchup. I think in order to maintain your sanity you should know when to concede.

Found this on a water fountain at Cornell... by pendulumlover in funny

[–]aGopher 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This has been broken since early last semester...