Another coverage for the Modern event at MTG-Asia @ Aliwal Street. Again, it's my Ally deck. This time round, my focus will be more on the sideboard, rather than the gameplay.
Deck: 5C Ally Reanimator
I did a bit of tweaking to include Life from the Loam. The sideboard received a fair bit of rework to replace some cards and as well as to test out a couple of cards to see the effectiveness against certain match-ups.
Round 1: Jeskai Pyromancer (2-1)
UR Delver with a twist; Jeskai Ascendancy... This game was interesting to play as there are many things happening in the 3 games. I won the first game by stabilising the board after reanimating empyrial archangel. He managed to kill off 1 first before I reanimated it again, and later, the other.
I lost game 2 due to the speed of the deck and again, no combo pieces.
The third game proved that Iona, Shield of Emeria is really a good deck hoser if named the right colour. I named "blue" against the deck, shutting down his draw and digging spells.
I lost game 2 due to the speed of the deck and again, no combo pieces.
The third game proved that Iona, Shield of Emeria is really a good deck hoser if named the right colour. I named "blue" against the deck, shutting down his draw and digging spells.
-2 Izzet Charm
-1 Harabaz Druid
-1 Kazandu Blademaster
-1 Angel of Glory's Rise
+1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
+1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
+1 Batterskull
Against aggro deck, my initial thought was to remove Izzet Charm and a few creatures to push to stabilize or hoser. I specially included batterskull for that reason (later games showed it's not really that good for my deck) due to its lifegain.
Elesh Norn and Iona is in there to hose almost any deck; however, the former is better against aggro beatdown plan, while the latter is better off in spell-based decks; so the latter may be better in this match-up.
I managed to resolve a Chalice of the Void for 1 in game 2, but it's not as effective as it seems as the opponent can work around it easily. In this case it's not really effective in shutting the opponent down as I had hoped.
Round 2: GW Bogle (0-2)
Turn 1 Slippery Bogle with a lot of auras is too much for my deck to handle. It's simply too fast. The scaling of its power on a single creature is beyond my reach once it hits turn 4.
In game 2, my opponent shut my game plan with Rest in Peace. So things goes downhill from there.
So the idea was simple when I tried sideboarding. I wanted to either get out Chalice (x=1), land a t4 Iona, Shield of Emeria to hose the opponent. Ended up I drew my Batterskull too late and yea, the 4 lifegain is irrelevant here.
In game 2, my opponent shut my game plan with Rest in Peace. So things goes downhill from there.
SB:
-2 Izzet Charm
-1 Harabaz Druid
-1 Kazandu Blademaster
-1 Angel of Glory's Rise
So the idea was simple when I tried sideboarding. I wanted to either get out Chalice (x=1), land a t4 Iona, Shield of Emeria to hose the opponent. Ended up I drew my Batterskull too late and yea, the 4 lifegain is irrelevant here.
Round 3: Abzan Midrange (1-2)
Won the first game by milling my opponent 144 cards. I later lost the other 2 games due to hate plans and well, no recovery plans; my opponent made a beat down plan after casting and targeting surgical extraction onto my reanimating Angel of glory's Rise. Third game is given due to the scavenging ooze running around... yea... a pain in the neck...
SB:
-1 Angel of Glory's Rise
-1 Harabaz Druid
-3 Izzet Charm
+3 Pithing Needle
+1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
+1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
+1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
+1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
No comments for the sideboard as nothing came out for this match post-sideboarding. Yes, both games, nothing came out... so I can't comment.
Pointers for this week;
- Chalice of the Void under-performed in my opinion. It doesn't hose as well as it should. I'll remove it for other things.
- A suggestion was to include lifegain cards like Kitchen Finks, Wurmcoil Engine, etc.. I dismissed the idea as lifegain may help to prolong the game, but it does not actually help in stabilizing the game against aggro decks. Early game boardwipes of some sort or hosers will be a better options instead.
- I often overlooked Izzet Charm as a removal / counter-spell. I should look into taking out other cards instead of Izzet Charm. It's really useful as a utility tool.
- Iona, Shield of Emeria has proven her worth here. Even it is just for a match, it's enough to show me her power as it really rendered the opponent useless.
- Always remember to go for the game-plan!
So far for my Sideboard:
4 more slots. I have the following as consideration:
3x Slagstorm
It probably seems that I would be sideboarding in 4-slot replacements. I'll look into the cards to affirm the slots, but until then, this would be my sideboard.
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