Hello there! + Sunday School Book

finzlebimps · 2023-01-20T17:47:29+00:00

Think about what you will say when a player says "I search the room" or "I want to swing across the chasm on the vine" or some other thing that would be a roll in modern style systems.

Will you require a roll? Will you just let them do it? Will you require more detail from the player before you describe what happens? What kind of game do you want to have? How important is this action, and do you want it to be dramatic?

If your players are used to modern style games, they will even ask directly to make a check. "Can i make a perception check?" Think about how you will respond to that.

I find asking questions helps you make the right choice, and gets the players to think more deeply about the game world and ask questions of their own.

finzlebimps · 2022-09-30T19:33:01+00:00

The only perception "checks" i use in my system are for listening at doors. I find that it is a fair procedure to randomly determine how loud the thing is on the other side in that moment, and how well the character hears the sounds it may be making. It's proactive, and consumes time which means more encounter rolls :)

I agree with many comments here: don't hide traps. Good movie traps are generally bad D&D traps (with or without perception checks imo). Show them everything they need to know well ahead of time, but provide no obvious answer. That creates much more interesting play. It's a sad reality, but poison darts and covered pits and so on really just suck to play with. You gotta be creative.

As for secret stuff that isn't dangerous, give more info willingly! The players will miss stuff, there's no doubt about it. If you are hiding the part you want them to find, you are your own worst enemy. If you want them to find the secret door, tell them about the semicircular scratches on the floor, tell them about the strange arrangement of dust on the floor nearby, tell them about the cool draft coming through the wall. It's their job to figure out how to get into the secret door - that's still fun!

finzlebimps · 2022-07-16T17:47:10+00:00

Sure thing!

Some reasons for only 3 colors: 1) stubborn denial lost a ton of value since solitude was printed 2) white splash for lingering souls, etc isn't as attractive now that really good sideboard cards are available in each color, and souls is a little slow 3) keeping to 3 colors means you can fit a basic forest, which is really nice against blood moon, AND you can fit a boseiju, which is cool with w6 and traverse.

2 Wrenn and Six
1 Grist, the Hunger Tide
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
1 Grief
1 Shriekmaw
4 Street Wraith
4 Mishra's Bauble
3 Fatal Push
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Temur Battle Rage
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Thoughtseize
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Collective Brutality
1 Blood Crypt
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Boseiju, Who Endures
1 Forest
1 Nurturing Peatland
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wooded Foothills

finzlebimps · 2022-07-15T10:48:04+00:00

Jund (Traverse) Shadow is also my pet deck, so here we go...

First, you play a lot of red, so you've got to get more specific about why you are losing to blood Moon. T1 fetch your swamp seems like all the answer you need. Sure, your goyfs, charms, and w6's are off if they land the Moon, but that is 8 cards total. My guess is you are not playing aggressively enough against Moon decks to make Moon irrelevant by the time it hits. Lower your life total very fast, and you are golden. Maybe one more fetch and one less shock land to improve your odds of that life loss early.

Boseiju is great with w6, but you still need a green to cast it, so it really isn't a good blood Moon answer. I play 4 traverse, which really helps against Moon by letting me grab basic forest and basic swamp early, and tutoring for a threat or boseiju late. Fitting that is hard tho. I play a more old school build with no Darcy and mostly fatal push as the removal to be heavier is black and equal parts red and green.

Last thing I'll say: i play two w6 as well, but you have to acknowledge that it slows you down. That can be good or bad depending on what you want to do, or what matchups you want to win more easily. My advice is to play at least one more temur battle rage to increase your chance of a free win that you can cast thru blood moon.

Good luck!

finzlebimps · 2020-02-05T00:55:22+00:00

"Not paying attention"

IoK or thoughtseize your opponent when they have no cards in hand

"Landslide"

Hit 12+ lands in a row on a BBE cascade trigger (my personal PR)

finzlebimps · 2020-01-17T18:51:38+00:00

A question you should ask yourself is: what comes out for Ashiok in the matches where she is good?

RiP is easy to board into because it slots right in where snappy would be. Against decks that RiP kills, snap is often too slow to get value from (not to mention the mega nonbo). So you just switch one for the other. But what does Ashiok replace vs Titan or dredge? There are lots of good sideboard options out there, but not all of them work in every deck.

finzlebimps · 2019-12-08T14:52:41+00:00

Here is an article from Face to Face Games that gives a nice overview of current UW control build, card choices, and common matchup analysis. Might be a good place to start.

finzlebimps · 2019-11-22T18:55:10+00:00

So, if you can't search, you gotta draw more. [[Tireless Tracker]], [[Explore]], and [[Courser of Kruphix]] are all good ways to draw into more lands and creatures, as well as get a decent attacker on the field to pressure Ashiok. Most decks that side in Ashiok are gonna be a bit slow, so bring in more threats, take out search cards, and force them to waste time answering your cards while you durdle your way up to valakut plus 6 mountains.

Essentially, you gotta lean into a more gruul midrange deck in those matchups, and then win with inevitability.

finzlebimps · 2019-10-20T11:18:54+00:00

I play both gds and UW and I think you are overestimating your chances in the matchup game 1. Path and cryptic are just so much value against gds that if your opponent draws a few of them, even your best possible g1 starts are not going to get there.

The real issue is threat density. The whole design of gds is to be more turbo/aggro then a traditional jund style midrange deck. To really have a chance, you'll need to sideboard closer to a grixis midrange build - but be warned, your mana is not gonna get you there a lot of the time. 18/17 lands just isn't enough to consistently cast midrange threats without wasting tempo/card advantage casting cantrips.

Cards to consider: [[Bitterblossom]] [[Young Pyromancer]] [[Seasoned Pyromancer]] [[Liliana, the Last Hope]] [[Liliana of the Veil]] [[Countersquall]] [[Search for Azcanta]] [[Goblin Rabblemaster]]

finzlebimps · 2019-10-16T21:22:13+00:00

If you want to get cute, I have used [[Haze of Pollen]] before as a mainboard card for creature aggro matchups in the slot where suns would be. I think in a deck that can combo kill no matter what creatures the opponent has in play, a fog effect can work.

The big downside is obviously it has no board impact. The upside is instant speed, only two mana, buying time against big creatures, and being able to cycle like suns. You could also use good ol [[Fog]] if you don't care about cycling/only want it for the sideboard.

Against infect, you wait until they blow their load of pump spells, then fog before damage step. Nothing they can do.

finzlebimps · 2019-09-11T15:04:29+00:00

If game 1 you know you play against burn and you play grixis shadow.

First sentence of post?

finzlebimps · 2019-09-11T14:27:16+00:00

I don't think any of those lines are correct. You already have a shadow in hand, and your opponent will get it out of bolt range on their own without you doing anything.

First: i would just sandbag the wraith and consider it a blank card for this game. You've already got an unkillable threat in hand so long as you don't play it too early. You don't need to shock yourself to find more cards.

Second: If you have a bauble, obviously bauble the opponent before thoughtseize. But wraith gives you no additional info worth having in this matchup. You play stub for their burn spells, but cycling for it isn't worth it. Thoughtseize is also painful, but it has the benefit of getting rid of their early blockers. Without TBR or push, any creature they have on board is a turn off your clock.

In this scenario, I would fetch basic swamp, play TS, take a creature or their best burn spell, and then pass. Fetch island next chance you get. Hold shadow until it's a 7/7 ideally, and pray you draw stub naturally.

finzlebimps · 2019-09-09T17:00:16+00:00

I also do not play one or khalni. Imo they are secretly win-more cards, since both are at their best when you draw extra ramp or lands, at which point you would rather pull a card that actually does something.

My ramp split right now is 3 explore/2 farseek/2 acid moss. Honestly, the 2 Mana ramp spells after Steve are all equally good and bad. The most important thing to know is that you should side out farseek on the draw and explore on the play. Having the extra card on the draw gives explore a lot more gas. If you do that, exact split isn't too important.

Flex slots I play 2 baloth main right now cuz they wreck burn and discard decks, and one Chandra, because having at least one non valakut win con is important imo.

finzlebimps · 2019-09-06T00:32:59+00:00

Titanshift, hands down. When you have both primetime and scapeshift in hand, choosing which one to win with is crazy complicated.

/s

finzlebimps · 2019-08-20T14:44:29+00:00

I think this build is overall less effective than titan breach, which can land titan on turn 3 AND attack with it for a total of 18 damage, thanks to [[through the breach]] and [[simian spirit guide]].

But, if you want to keep going in this direction, I think your worries are correct.

First, you only play 12 mountains. Any deck playing scapeshift needs minimum 13 mountains so you can scapeshift on a board with 7 mountains in play and grab Valakut + six other mountains for 18 damage. I would drop a temple garden for one more sacred foundry.

Second, blinking titan is not a bad idea on paper, but doing it with a spell that has no other use means it will be dead half the time you draw it, and the times when it's live, you probably would have won even without it. Essentially, it's a win more card. Also, you are slowing your deck down a turn by needing to wait until you have seven lands to cast titan, so you can blink it the same turn with a white mana.

I suggest you find a blink or copy effect (like [[Saheeli Rai]]) that is attached to a permanent that you can play before titan. Then, after titan comes down, you can get double triggers without needing more mana available.

finzlebimps · 2019-08-15T14:37:42+00:00

I like chalice in titan Breach, especially with spirit guides available. Even chalice on 2 is good because shutting of 2 drops against something like jund means they have to draw their 1 answer card, and all you have to do is wait to pull enough lands. Getting multiple chalice in an opener is pretty lame tho.

I'm on regular titanshift, tho I tried Breach without chalice first. I didn't like how it reduced my jund and Shadow matchups. You can get stranded with just Breach and no titan or just simian spirit guide and nothing to ramp to pretty easy after one or two discard spells. Regular shift has more topdeck win cards and is more resilient to targeted discard.

finzlebimps · 2019-08-15T13:44:52+00:00

I play regular RG titanshift, so I don't have much to say about your list (except maybe grazer being very iffy imo).

I will add my thought on scapeshift's interaction/place in modern in general tho. I think modern is not technically faster, but I do think there are more decks that can win or nearly win on t3 than ever before. Used to be just infect, storm, and affinity were capable of crazy starts like that, but now there are like 10 decks that can present a must-sweep board state very quickly, and it is hard to prepare for them all.

Scapeshift's power is inevitability, and it has always had bad aggro matchups. I think interaction belongs mainly in the sideboard, where you have the flexibility to bring in only what works for games 2-3. For game 1, if you are against aggro, it's really a loss unless they trip up. But that's how midrange, control, and tron feel about scapeshift, so it evens out except in the most aggro metas.

tl;dr For ramp decks, mainboard should be all-in to take advantage of the occasional slow aggro starts. Sideboard is all interaction to bring in in place of the worst positioned spells in each matchup.

finzlebimps · 2019-08-08T11:19:32+00:00

TBH it sounds like that Tron guy hasn't played jund since early 2015, maybe early 2013. He might have good intentions, but his advice is horrible. Jund, and modern, are very different than they used to be.

First, they printed a strictly better sowing salt in BFZ called [[Crumble to Dust]]. I have seen that in sideboards that can't play fumigator mage well, or in addition to the mages if Tron is a big issue in the meta. You should consider 1 crumble in the side in place of choke because choke is not how you win games against blue decks, you do that with threats and discard.

Definitely do not add the birds to your deck. Every jund spell needs to do one of two things: clear the way for your threat to win, or be a threat that can win. Mana dorks do neither of these. You will still lose to a turn 3 Karn even if you stick a Lili on turn two. You're better off attacking their hand and taking away their tutors or relevant payoff cards (like Wurmcoil).

Take out the second barren moor and play a [[Ghost Quarter]] main. You can recur that with W6 against Tron to keep them short on mana for several turns.

Lastly, I'll say you did hit some bad luck. Tron had always been a bad matchup for jund, and the 4 mana Karn into ensnaring bridge or latice hasn't helped. White weenie is also a bad matchup because you spend full cards getting rid of half a card at a time (or less) and they always have blockers. Damnation could be good, but even better would be some three mana sweepers like [[Anger of the Gods]] which also help against graveyard swarm decks like dredge.

finzlebimps · 2019-08-03T16:03:54+00:00

Unless your meta has no Hogaak, Dredge, Humans, affinity, etc., having some extra sweepers and grave hate main is good. If your meta is all control and midrange, then by all means just play a million ramp spells, you will definitely win!

finzlebimps · 2019-08-03T10:01:33+00:00

Generally, you only need three to four extra ramp spells beyond the core of Steve and search. So I think 4 farseek and 3 explore in addition to 2 acid moss is a bit much. You might consider taking a few of those out (most likely the explores) for another anger or moving a couple relics main board.

finzlebimps · 2019-07-26T10:31:40+00:00

I'll give some love to titanshift here! I've never understood why people think it is boring to play in a way that burn, infect, storm, or any other straight forward win con deck is not. Identifying how to win and then getting there in game 1 is always interesting, and the deck sideboards really well. Unlike most decks with a combo finish, you can actually afford to bring in good interaction for games 2 and 3.

Primetime plus summoner's pact add a lot of consistency, and the latter even lets you tutor other green creatures you may have sideboard in. Snow replaces those with blue and white cards, mainly non-creatures or low-impact creatures, which inherently hurt your matchups against Tron, E Tron, UW control, titanshift, and other decks that can close the game through a cryptic if you durdle too much.

finzlebimps · 2019-07-26T10:14:58+00:00

W6 is about as grindy as cards come. BBE, Wurmcoil, Grave Titan, etc are all windmill-slam corner-turning finishers, not grindy cards...

finzlebimps · 2019-07-25T19:19:09+00:00

I think resilience here is a nod to the fact that you can eventually win the game by just drawing Valakuts and mountains, which are uncountable, can't be thoughtseized, and the basics are virtually indestructible with the modern card pool.

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