Introduction
I was jamming Nadu for a while. Did well with it at GenCon but played relatively loose locally. Probably should have been mulliganing for more nut draws than keeping lands & spells.
After the ban (deserved) I opted to pivot to Ring control, an archetype I have some familiarity with. Phlage recoups life and is a VERY quick win condition. It might not be the absolute best archetype, but it can tussle with just about everything.
Quick thoughts on August 26 B&R:
- Modern: good riddance to Nadu. Deck was kind of neat, but had numerous issues - insane card advantage engine, punished interaction, non-deterministic kill, complexity of kill, enormous feelsbad to topdeck, etc.
The Grief ban was a quite admittance that they should have banned Grief last December. Whether Fury should come back ... idk, RWx energy decks might vanish overnight?
TOR will probably be banned next year, I think Up the Beanstalk could return, personally. - Pioneer: top two decks got killed. They should have banned them earlier. 2023 B&R timing was nonsense - last B&R they said they didn't want to touch Pioneer in the middle of RCQ season, then they smacked Nadu down in the middle of modern RCQ season.
- Legacy: UB Scam-Reanimator was clearly a problem as witnessed at the GenCon SLS. Grief was generally too pushed for constructed play in retrospect.
- Core is the energy removal suite: Galvanic Discharge, Wrath of the Skies, Tune the Narrative
- Counterspell suite: Counterspell, Spell Snare, Stern Scolding, Force of Negation
- Supporting cast: Prismatic Ending, Teferi Time Raveler, The One Ring, Lorien Revealed, Supreme Verdict
- Creatures: 3x Phlage core, Subtlety, Snapcaster Mage
- There's a few flex slots but honestly I think the list is quite tight. The deck is playing insanely high quality removal and there's not enough room to play pet cards like Fact or Fiction much as I would like to.
- Land base: fetches, surveil lands, shock lands, one Xander's Lounge for Prismatic Ending on 4 & the SB Surgicals, *two* utility lands and two Mystic Gates.
- Sequencing of lands: I think UR is the priority and consider the deck to be a UR deck splashing WW spells.
- I started sideboarding Surgical Extractions again during my Nadu phase - it could basically solo the game vs Jeskai on Phlage.
- Four Obsidian Charmaws: this deck has to be the beatdown vs Tron & nonsense mana decks, and Charmaw fits the bill to a tee.
Saturday Swiss
- R1 Kam Wood on Domain Zoo WW (1-0)
I have to play around Stubborn Denial, and Leyline-Draco is annoying for my targeted removal. Wrath of the Skies for 4 or 6 can be big game here, as well as Teferi. - R2 Thomas Brisbane on U Affinity WW (2-0)
Blast from the past. I played against Tom almost a decade ago at my college shop. - R3 Austin Belter on Crabvine LL (2-1)
Lost to him taking mulligans to 5. Recursion > Removal - R4 Justin Moses on RW Energy WW (3-1)
He's pretty fresh to the deck. Major thing was sequencing removal vs Ajani to avoid flipping. - R5 Michael Nusinov on B Zombie Combo WW (4-1)
Breakers were weird, it was possible I could have scooped him into top 4 but I didn't trust it. Game 2 he had 3 Spymaster's Vault as his first three land drops which made it straightforward.
Saturday Playoff
- Second seed going in
- SF vs Tom Brisbane (3) on U affinity LWW
G1 I draw pretty cold for like 6 turns and Kappa Cannoneer kills me. Game 3 also quite close. - F concession from Austin Belter
Sunday Swiss
- R1 Jerry Gao on UB Murkfrog WLW (1-0)
- R2 Johnathan Garman on 4C Omnath WW (2-0)
Grindy games but I know his archetype better than he does (borrowing it, first time)
I just can't let continuous value spells stick. - R3 Matt Gausebeck on R Storm WLD (2-0-1)
G1 an impulse spell hits bot his Wishes. I stabilize at 10, and then a counter war into Grapeshot puts me to 2 but I kill him with a Subtlety.
G2 die to Wish Empty the Warrens
G3 I think I have him to rights, but still need several turns to kill. G1 was a slog.
Idk if I could have forced G1 to be faster without insisting upon managing my opponents' storm count & mana for him. - R4 Leland Bliss on Gx Eldrazi LL (2-1-1)
Sol lands are good, G2 was maybe winnable if I fetched a third red source to cast more Obsidian Charmaw. - R5 Matt McComb on UB Murkfrog WW (3-1-1)
G1 he mulligans to 5 but I think we both miss a ton of land drops? Key to this matchup is not letting Frog stick.
Sunday Playoff
- In at 4th seed.
- SF vs Leland Bliss on Gx Eldrazi WW
Both games he keeps pretty slow hands, very Sol-light. Early turns I remove Utopia Sprawl and also Wrath of the Skies for 0 a Malevolent Rumble spawn token, which are correct plays. G2 I make an oopsie, going turn 2 Damping Sphere into a turn 3 hasted Obsidian Charmaw off Arena of Glory. Realize mistake ~5 turn cycles later, call judge. Opponent got quite unlucky this game, drawing ~1 land in ~7 extra draws from TOR. - F concession from Matt Gausebeck aka ScoopPhase
Conclusions
- Happy with deck choice. I think I could tune a little more. Drop a Surgical for something else, maybe play around with flex slots (Snapcaster Mage, Subtlety, Supreme Verdict) but these choices are decent enough for local meta.
- Gameplay: I could/should pressure opponents to play faster, very unhappy with the unintentional draw. But this is also a format issue with Nadu & Ruby Storm in general - you shouldn't just scoop to non-deterministic combo decks if they aren't presenting a kill. So they might go through the motions for a ten, fifteen, twenty minute turn and then pass turn.
- Matchups: I think the format is relatively weak to graveyard shenanigans right now. White decks can't run Rest in Peace because of their own Phlages, Endurance & Force of Vigor are MIA with no good green decks, Leyline of the Void is so ehhh since you still need to execute your gameplan.
- Card power: the format keeps powering up. It's harder and harder for cards to compete, even the staples of just last year. I don't know how sustainable it is. Yes there is a variety of strategies. Yes, your fringe archetype can compete if you jam Modern Horizons cards and/or TOR. But sometimes you just die to an unloseable turn 2 Psychic Frog or get bodied by 4 bodies on turn 2. The sheer number of cards in hand is often the deciding factor of games.
