2018-11-09 D&A FNM Modern 3-1, or an Ode to Smallpox

Played 8 rack since my Seance cards hadn't all shown up.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1467005#paper

Round 1 - Ed / Unburial Rites-Soulflayer (2-1, 1-0)
Game 1 just went pretty poorly, as expected against a graveyard deck. Using Unburial Rites he reanimated a Borborygmos Enraged, but he had two Life from the Loams in the graveyard that would have stopped me from ever winning the game anyways.
In: 4x Leyline, 3x Surgical Extraction
Out: 4x Fatal Push, 2x Collective Brutality, 1x Bontu's
In games 2 and 3 I had turn 0 Leylines, and was able to strip the Assassin's Trophy in game 2 on my turn 1.
His deck seems neat, but I think blends too many strategies together and also lacks a cohesive manabase. Inclusions:

• Unburial Rites package - Rites, Iona, Elesh Norn, Griselbrand???
• Looting package - Faithless Looting, Burning Inquiry, Goblin Lore
• Soulflayer package - Soulflayer, Zetalpa, Griselbrand???
• Borborygmos package - Borborygmos Enraged, Life from the Loam, fetchlands
• Land package -  fetches, 1 of each basic (everything but Island), Ghost Quarter(s), shocklands, ???

Really not sure what the Griselbrand is supposed to do, and not a fan of the random loot effects. In game 2, while stripping the Assassin's Trophy from his hand, I noticed that he did have access to casting it turn 2... if he GQ'd the Temple Garden he played turn 1 to get a Swamp, leaving him with a single B source.
I really like the idea of trying something new, but it was just trying to use too many angles. If I were to change the deck, I'd make the following changes:

• Make GB primary - add Grisly Salvage and Sylvan Caryatids as glue
• Collective Brutality? I'm just a huge fan  of this card
• Cut the red cards to just Faithless Looting & red creatures that aren't meant to be cast - 1 Stomping Ground and 1 Blood Crypt, maybe a Mountain vs aggro
• Cut white sources, perhaps only a Temple Garden and Godless Shrine
• Probably cut Griselbrand and GQs - they're not really synergizing a ton
• Alternatively, throw some Goryo's Vengeance in there and see how that works out

Round 2 -  Alex / "Go-Bots" (2-0, 2-0)

Go-Bots is his name for the artifact-Kuldotha Rebirth-Bushwhacker aggro deck.
 He had relatively slow starts from him both games, which I was able to exploit.
My discard went after his Kuldotha Rebirths, which I think are the scariest cards in the matchup. I'm pretty sure it was the right call and luckily he never had the turn one Rebirth.
In: 2x Ratchet Bomb, 1x Bontu's
Out: 3x Thoughtseize

In game 2 I check with the judge on how Mishra's Bauble functions vs Rack effects. For the answer, check the section under reflections.

Round 3 - Andy / Scapeshift-midrange (0-2, 2-1)
Game 1
Lost to triple BBE
In: 4x Fulminator Mage, 3x Surgical Extraction
Out: 4x Fatal Push, 1x Bontu's, 2x CoBru?
Game 2
7 cards / 0 lands
6 cards / 0 lands
5 cards / 0 lands scry land on top
Never stood a chance in this game.

Round 4 - John / Jeskai control (2-0, 3-1)
Game 1
I realize I didn't de-sideboard, so I do that and mulligan to 6 (a reasonable solution at regular REL)
He mulligans to 5, I resolve a Wrench Mind and Smallpox, he concedes
In: 4x Fulminator Mage
Out: 4x Fatal Push? (1x Bontu's - I don't think I actually did this)
Game 2 - I go for a conservative line with turn 2 CoBru, not Wrench -> he t3 upkeeps a V Clique. Come close to dying, but manage to chain topdecks like a king: Smallpox, Lili, Lili, Smallpox... and end him on 0 cards with 5 rack effects out.

Reflections:

• I feel like Scapeshift is a bad matchup for 8 rack, much like the other big mana deck of Tron. They just play out a ton of lands/mana and Smallpox is ineffectual against their low creature density. They also don't need multiple cards in their hand - just the right one that just ends the game.
• I should maybe trim on Fatal Pushes, perhaps swap with some Funeral Charms
• I should probably get some Ensnaring Bridges, since they can just end the game on the spot
• Liliana of the Veil usage was kind of tough, but I think I made the right choices - she shined in closing out r4g2 (1st Lili was a 2 for 1 vs V Clique + Helix), but was terrible in r3g1 (vs BBE, mainly). Did some solid work in rounds 1 and 2 as well.
• Would I play 8 rack again? I can pull it out whenever. It's a moderately powerful deck that attempts to control the game using discard effects, which is a strong style of gameplay. It's best vs a format dominated by medium creature density decks, but is actually kind of bad vs big mana and the combo decks that only need a couple of cards to win (ex. pretty good vs Storm, bad vs Ad Nauseam)

Answer for Mishra's Bauble vs The Rack/Shrieking Affliction
The triggers go on the stack in APNAP order - that is, the active player puts their triggers on first, then the non-active player. So the non-active player's triggers resolve first. This ends up to my benefit, since the Racks deal full damage.
A similar situation arises vs Rift Bolt - if my opponent suspends a Rift Bolt, but is facing down a lethal rack, the rack effect kills them before Rift Bolt comes off suspend.