Before everyone gets swallowed up in Modern Masters 2015 madness, I wanted to give my sealed pool from GP AC last weekend. After failing pretty spectacularly in the main event and reading some of the coverage, I felt as if the firm grasp of the format I thought I had was not so firm any more.
Here's my pool:
If you want to try and build it yourself, here's a link to download my pool in MTGO .dek format.
(Note: This is an 85 card pool, The 86th card was a foil Swamp.)
After a brief scan of this pool, it's clear that black and red are the deepest colors. They also contain a nice rare in Boltwing Marauder, so I don't think there's much incentive to deviate from B/R. The three (!) lands from Fate Reforged are all red, so it's not too much of a stretch to splash any color you want, but there's nothing outrageously splashworthy except perhaps Ruthless Deathfang.
I went with straight B/R. Here's what I submitted:
Relevant sideboard cards are in the first column on the right.
Here are some notes about some of my card choices:
2 Summit Prowler, 2 Gore Swine, 2 Alesha's Vanguard
These cards were all competing for my 23rd slot basically. I went with one Gore Swine, one Prowler, and zero Vanguard. This deck definitely felt more controlling than a normal B/R deck, so I thought Summit Prowler would be a way better 4 drop than Vanguard. I also didn't have any real incentive to have a warrior other than Blood-Chin Rager, and the 4th power on the Prowler is super nice. I played one Gore Swine over the second Prowler for curve purposes (didn't have enough good guys on 3), mana purposes (didn't want to have to rely on double red so frequently), and just general beatdown purposes (I wanted to be able to go 2 drop, 3 drop, removal removal win, and have my 3 drop be something stronger than Dutiful Attendant).
Berserkers' Onslaught
I didn't play this card. I don't like this card very much. I didn't have a whole lot of creatures first of all, and second of all, my impression of this format is that there's a lot of trading going on - if you curve from 2 to 4, your creatures are either trading with your opponent's, or you're winning - spending 5 mana and a card to give your team double strike is only good against control type decks that play low power, high toughness creatures. It would probably have been excellent in Khans of Tarkir. As is, I didn't expect to have more than 2 creatures in play very often, so it sat on the bench.
Mob Rule
I was excited to open this card since I remember it being a bomb, but after playing with it all day I was very frustrated by it and I recall Owen Turtenwald complaining about it on Twitter when Fate Reforged was released. Now I understand his sentiment - I don't think this card is a bomb or even very good. It's obviously frustrating to lose to it since when it's good, it will often win you the game, but almost every time I drew it in the GP it would be just so far from what I want (a card that either insta-wins or presses my advantage without compromising my board state). I think I would still start it in the future, but I can honestly see not starting it or boarding it out if I have enough other good cards.
Kolaghan Monument
I think the monuments are all great. I've heard a few people wonder if they were even playable, and I think that opinion is kinda crazy. I agree that ramping from 3 to 5 is not generally very useful since you'd rather be spending your turn 3 building your board, but fixing your mana is pretty nice, and having some extra power in the late game is always welcome (since I think this format is otherwise very unkind to mana flood). Another sneaky bonus is that this card is good against Goblin Heelcutter if you have the mana, since you can wait until after the trigger to activate it.
Tormenting Voice
I didn't start this card since I'm still stubborn about it not being super playable and I don't usually consider it when deckbuilding. In retrospect, I wish I had started it. I often complain about flooding out in this format, and this card definitely helps with flood. I also feel like I was over-emphasizing the importance of 2 drops before this event and felt like I wouldn't want to play this card because I'd rather just be casting a 2 drop on 2, but that sentiment is stupid for a lot of reasons. Not only is this card perfectly fine to play on turn 2 (since your opponent has a 2 drop less often than you might think), but it's great once you get to the topdeck stage of the game.
Kindled Fury
This is another card that I like a lot, but I didn't feel like I had enough creatures for it to be useful. I definitely boarded it in a couple times, but I think I like my decision not to start it.
If I could rebuild this deck, I think I would keep it as is, except I'd start the Tormenting Voice. I'm not sure what I would cut though. My 3 considerations are Mob Rule, Zurgo Bellstriker, and Dutiful Attendant. I think the attendant makes the most sense since it's the lowest impact card that doesn't synergize very well with the rest of my deck, but I was also unhappy with the performance of Mob Rule and Zurgo.
How would you have built my deck?
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