Dies to Removal

A huge trap is falling into a "standardized" sideboard guide without taking into consideration your position. For example, on the draw against Affinity or Burn, you should absolutely be removing some Eidolons.

I also think I need more YOLO in my play style/mulligans.

If you think you should mulligan, you absolutely should.

I think shard volley doesn't need to stay in the deck now that we have Atarka's Command

I disagree. Shard Volley is excellent as a 1-of. I've won games I shouldn't have because of that card. It's terrible early or when drawn in multiples, as it is mostly a finisher card. A s singleton is more than acceptable in my experience. If it's in my opener, I know that I could draw more lands and not more Shard Volleys. Eventually I will have excess lands and now Volley is an extra Lightning Bolt.

Atarka's Command does not replace Skullcrack whatsoever. If you were to play it, it's merely Skullcrack 5-8. The deck hurts itself enough fetching for [mana]W[/mana] in Game 1 and it shouldn't need to do that for [mana]G[/mana]. In postboard games, you may have to fetch for [mana]WW[/mana] to play Firewalker along with [mana]G[/mana] to play Revelry. With access to four Skullcrack, you have to ask yourself how badly you need more anti-lifegain effect at the expense of the life loss. Is the juice worth the squeeze? You decide. If you want the creature buffs, you gotta ask yourself if you're playing enough critters to reliably support that card for the effect. I

If you are, then why aren't you just playing Zoo?

I edited a paragraph in that post about Shard Volley to clarify my point.

A huge trap is falling into a "standardized" sideboard guide without taking into consideration your position. For example, on the draw against Affinity or Burn, you should absolutely be removing some Eidolons.

It isn't absolute, I didn't have time to write down separate lists for play/draw. But I needed to at least go through the decks and think about it.

3-0 so far against Storm, Affinity, and Junk. Four more rounds to go...

Update: 5-0, I can maybe ID twice into the top 8. We're at most two guys on 15 points.

Update 2: Top 8 secured, 1st or 2nd after round 7.

Hell yeah! What's the current update? You win this thing yet?

Had a feature match round 5 (against Twin), video will probably be available after the event.

sweet.

And I'm in the final against Bloom.

I hope Bloom player draws like complete garbage and forgets triggers!

He forgot to pay for Summoner's Pact in the third game. So yay! I won!

Congrats!

My voodoo magic worked!

Thanks! I should've won in game two already, but I didn't notice a lethal attack.

Congrats!

Bloom players aren't really people.

They're subhumans.

Thanks! I should've won in game two already, but I didn't notice a lethal attack.

He forgot to pay for Summoner's Pact in the third game. So yay! I won!

Sounds like some high level play!

Check your combo privilege.

Thanks! I should've won in game two already, but I didn't notice a lethal attack.

He forgot to pay for Summoner's Pact in the third game. So yay! I won!

Sounds like some high level play!

Well, that's the kind of errors you make after playing for ten hours, with too little real food. I made a few errors in some of the earlier matches, but overall I played well.

Well done, Platypus. Congratulations, must feel great!

Bloom players aren't really people.

Like burn players are any better. We're both pretty much robots.

But robots players...

Nah. Affinity players are cool. Sometimes. Except for the kind that write a primer for the deck for a site then delete it just because it fits their spergrage nature.

Congrats for the result !
I strongly agree with shard volley as a one-of. It's always the last card you play (unless you absolutely need to kill something and don't have other removal), but the fact that it costs 1 rather than 2 can win games ..... mana efficiency is absurdly important in burn. I think it can also be played as a 2 of, but if you want to be super safe just play one and you won't regret it.
About atarka's command, i'm just tempted to play 4 boros charm and 4 commands main deck. Stock lists already play 14-15 creatures (depending on the number of lavamancers), and that's enough to make command as strong as boros charm when you don't need the anti life gain clause. Not to mention possible blowouts when you draw a creature heavy hand. That said i know that going full 3 colors will hurt, but i will try because if there is a card that can make the splash worth it, it is atarka's command.

I think the splash is fine as long as people don't skimp on Helixes. That was the main problem I had with Blaklanner's build.

Congrats platypus! What was the event? Did you buy power 9 with your winnings?

All:with atarka command out, thoughts on going heavier into green and maybe picking up goyf and nacatl? Still just 16 critters or so and the rest burn. Too fancy?

Just play zoo then.

What he said.

Just play zoo then.

Yeah I thought someone would say that. But that's not what I'm looking for. Something like this: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/naya-tarmoburn/

Just spit balling. Might be horrible.

I must echo the sentiments of Khaos and Valdarith on this one. It is very easy to fall into the trap of adding creatures for Command. This dilutes our primary strategy. Command is good enough to play without creatures as it is extra Skullcracks or perhaps even ramp at times for us to deploy multiple 2-CMC spells a turn. The fact that it boosts our creature package is only a bonus on top of that. Adding more creatures, especially ones without haste or utility like Eidolon or Lavaman, only opens us up to more removal.

At that point your a bad zoo deck because you're playing slightly too many non-nactl enabling cards. having said that, adding maybe a rampager or 2 and adjusting your mana some and you have a reasonable looking new zoo deck(which may or may not be better then burn).

Having said that, I'd attempt 8 skullcrack burn and call it a day. Not sure if the curve works out as you'd probably have to skimp on helix's making your mirror match weaker, but you have tangible gains vs. most of the format and your creature heavy draws get much better.

I'd definitely keep the creature package to just swiftspear, guide, eidolon and lavaman and go from there.

Fair enough. Thanks for the feedback.

Congrats platypus! What was the event? Did you buy power 9 with your winnings?

We don't get events of that size around here...

It was a bigger event called Modern Champs that the local organizer started doing last year, which they plan to organize each spring. The idea is to have a Modern event with decent price support to try to gather people from around the country. By bigger I mean 71 participants, so it can't really be compared to any bigger events in the US for example. But by comparison, our three WMCQs had 70-90 participants each last autumn. The pricepool was 1000€ total in products and store credit, mostly distributed to the top 8 (9-16 got 4 boosters each). I got 100€ store credit, a box of DTK, a Duel Deck Antology set, a Modern Event deck, and a trophy. So in the grand scheme of things, nothing big, mostly bragging rights. But on a personal level the win meant a lot to me, since the best I've done so far is a second place on the M14 Game Day. I've felt like I've stagnated in Magic, and never been getting any better. But now I know I can make it all the way in a tournament and it's like I've finally improved as a player.

Good stuff, man. Progress!

Congrats!

I remember even less details than usual from my matches, but I might as well list them. I haven't seen a list of the decks in the event yet, but it was quite varied.

Match 1: UR Storm.

I won the first game quickly, got out an early Eidolon. I saw the lands and some cantrips, before he scooped at 10 life. So didn't know what I was facing which made sideboarding a shot in the dark. I expected some sort of UWR control so I took in the Combust and a couple of Revelries (in case of Dragon's Claw). An early Ascension hit the table, but he couldn't combo out before I removed it and that sealed the deal. 2-0

Match 2: Affinity

Good local player who has played Affinity since forever and can play the deck well blindfolded. I fully expected to lose this match. We won one game each, and in the third he had enough board presence to put me down to 1 life (with no cards in hand) in an all out attack when he himself was at 1. So I was basically forced to topdeck for the win. And I drew a Lightning Bolt. 2-1

Match 3: Junk

I don't remember much details from this one, won it 2-0.

So by now I realized that I had to focus and stay calm, so I started a routine of listening to music (Death Hawks - Black Acid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L3yxnSdM34) instead of mingling/watching matches, and some fresh air, between matches. To find my own personal space and empty my mind.

Match 4: Some BR homebrew

I don't really know what this was. Had some discard (IoK), burn of course, Liliana of the Veil, good Chandra, saw a discarded Confidant, but I saw no really good win conditions. Won it 2-0 without much trouble.

Match 5: Twin

Feature match, they had a continous stream going throughout the event. Didn't know what I was facing after game one, saw some cantrips and removal, nothing definite. Second game went nowhere for him either. I had to ask him after the match was over what he was playing, so a very fast 2-0 win.

We were only two players with a 5-0 result, so:

Match 6-7: IDs into the top 8. I finished second in the swiss standings.

In the morning before the event I never expected to get to the top 8, so I really didn't care at all how it went after this. I would've been fine with losing in the quarter-finals. So I could play without any pressure at all, I had already outdone what I set out to do.

Quarter-final: GW Hatebears

Second really hard match. I won the first game, lost the second to a turn 2 Kor Firewalker. Game 3 I kept a maybe questionable hand, but it had a PtE and I really didn't want to risk facing another early Firewalker. The game went back and forth for a while, he got out a couple of Voices and an Ooze out and I was again facing a situation where I had to topdeck a win, and I did. 2-1.

Semi-final: Affinity

I felt more confident against this opponent than my match 2 opponent, maybe because I didn't know him before. He seemed to be a bit more nervous than me about being in the semi-final as well. We won one game each. In the third I got a good hand (double Lavamancers for instance), but he got out a good board position as well. Removed creatures that needed to be removed (Vault Skirge), and sandbagged some Bolts. When he was at 7 I removed a Steel Overseer with a Revelry and he made the mistake of not sacrificing it to his Ravager in order to fizzle the spell and damage. So I could finish him with two Bolts on my next turn. 2-1

Final: Amulet Bloom

This was a matchup I hadn't given much thought, so I didn't feel very confident about it. But hey, second place was perfectly fine for me anyway! Game 1 I won quickly, he couldn't find the combo. Game two went better for him and I think he got out a Leyline of Sanctity at some point so I was forced to do creature damage and from Searing Blazes. At one point I didn't attack with my Lavamancer, I thought of some other line of play and messed up my plays somehow. Shortly afterwards I realized I've made a mistake, I could have won if I had attacked with it. So it was down to the third game. I fought bravely against three(!) Thragtusks (only one could be responded to with a Skullcrack). I was losing the game so badly. Then he Summoner's Pacted out a Titan. I just went through the motions in my turn, I mean I had basically lost already some turns ago. Then he drew his card for the turn, without putting the Pact trigger on the stack and paying for the Pact. Whoops, I won! 2-1.

The decklist felt really great for this event. It might have been nice to have one Shard Volley in there instead of the fourth Searing Blaze, but then again, I liked having 4 Blazes and 1 Searing Blood against Affinity. Searing Blood was a third Lightning Helix for a long while, but when I thought about the matchups where I'd side it in (Mirror and Affinity) I realized I wanted the damage instead of the life gain.

Decks in the tournament:

8 Burn
7 Junk
5 UR Twin
4 Amulet Bloom
4 BW Tokens
3 Grixis Twin
3 GW Hatebears
3 MonoG Beats
3 BUG
2 Bogle
2 Affinity
2 Infect
2 Merfolk
2 Bant
2 UR Delver
2 Grixis Control
2 Esper Control
2 Ad Nauseam
1 GR TRON
1 UW TRON
1 BW Control
1 Black Moon
1 UR Storm
1 UWR Kiki-Angel
1 Jund
1 Simic Beats
1 RW Prison
1 4c Gifts
1 Living End
1 Mardu Control
1 Scapeshift

Top 8 decks:
1st: Burn
2nd: Amulet Bloom
3rd-4th: Infect, Affinity
5th-8th: Junk, GW Hatebears, UR Twin, Bogle

Sounds like you played the quarter finals Affinity match perfectly.

Also, regarding that Bloom match, if he had a Leyline out, you shouldn't have been able to play Searing Blazes because you have to target a player and a creature.