Hello everyone and welcome to the newest chapter of Modern Hero. I am back this week after a week off from hero to work on my new series of Magic on a budget. Just a reminder that Modern Hero will now be a bi-weekly article with MoaB also being bi-weekly. So here we are in week 7 and have gone from a sixty dollar mono black zombie modern deck to where we are now which is below.
BW Zombies
4 Dread Wanderer
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Gravecrawler
4 Wayward Servant
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Gifted Aetherborn
3 Lord of the Accursed
3 Geralf’s Messenger
4 Victim of Night
3 Cast Down
3 Smuggler’s Copter
11 Swamp
1 Plains
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Isolated Chapel
SB
4 Rain of Tears
3 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Pithing Needle
3 Doom Blade
3 Disenchant
Let’s look at the budget after our last upgrades.
Credit – 43.50
Cash – 20.00
We have a lot of flexibility right now with what we have available to us. But before we get to that lets get to our tournament reports. I am going to try a different format. Let me know what you think.
Tournament Report Sunday July 8th
Round 1 2-0 Duston BW Eldrazi and Taxes
Round 2 1-2 Doug KCI
Round 3 2-1 Joe Bant Knightfall
Round 4 2-1 Brad Kiki Grixis
Round 1 BW Eldrazi and Taxes
Game 1
He seemed to have kept a slow hand. I was on the draw and able to get down a couple of my one drops followed up by Smuggler’s Copter and Lord of the Accursed. The game ended with me at 16 life.
Game 2
On the draw again. One drop into one drop backed by removal into Copter and it was a quick game.
Round 2 KCI
Game 1
I was on the draw game one. I was able to land four one drops over the course of the first 3 turns and get him before he got set up.
Game 2
On the draw. Got down double one drop and chipped in for damage to get him down to 6 before he landed Wurmcoil Engine. I was dead within a few turns.
Game 3
On the play I got down two one drops and….essentially the same thing happened here that happened in game 2. No removal from my side and it was a sad round.
On a side note. The Meta at my LGS has went more towards KCI and Lantern. There are usually 4 or 5 players mixed between those two decks.
Round 3 Bant Knightfall
Game 1
Good ole Joe B. Seems like every week we are at the same event we get paired up one way or the other. I am on the draw here and mulligan down to 5. I come out with a couple one drops followed by Gifted Aetherborn(This card I am a huge fan of). That combined with a couple removal spells and it was a quick game.
Game 2
On the draw. He ended the game at 1 life. He was able to control my early creatures and then he dropped a Thrun, the last Troll on turn 4. It was over not long after that.
Game 3
On the play. A mulligan to 6 and then this went more like game one. Three one drops backed by removal.
Round 4 Kiki Grixis
Game 1
This whole match was a total grind fest that could have gone either way. I am on the play on a mull to 6. I finally get to see Wayward Servant shine in this one. I get it turn two and start cascading into more zombies while controlling his side of the field with removal. I got four or five servant triggers in this one.
Game 2
On the draw I got him down to 8 before he stabilized and Kiki’ed me out of the game.
Game 3
On the play. Grindyyyyy….. This almost went to time. It was a matter of play a guy kill a guy from both sides. I was able to bring him down and finish him off with a three Geralf’s Messenger triggers.
So we have another 3-1 finish which is good for another fifteen in store credit. Which brings our totals to this.
Credit – 53.50 after 5 dollar entry and adding the 15 credit.
Cash – 20.00
Tournament Report July 18th
Round 1 Bye (Free win)
Round 2 1-2 John Lantern Control
Round 3 2-1 John Infect
Round 4 2-0 Randal Mono Black Devotion
Round 1 Bye
I took this time to play test storm. I just finished building it before I hit the shop. Which is pretty amusing because a lot of folks was watching and put me on storm for the event.
Round 2 John Lantern
Game 1
On the draw. He hits turn three Ensnaring Bridge and I scoop it up because I have no way of dealing with it.
Game 2
On the play. I drop multiple one drops and Disenchant the bridge he played on his end step to finish it up.
Game 3
On the draw he gets me in the lock by turn 4. I had considered playing it out with Wayward Servant on the field. His four Codex Shredder though made that impossible.
Round 3 John Infect
Game 1
On the draw. I played a one drop to match his Glistener Elf and then held up for removal. Turn 3 with me already at 2 infect he plays Vines of Vastwood kicked. I try to Cast Down and he comes up with Blossoming Defense. Just gross.
Game 2
On the play I get down one drop, two drop, and see enough removal to keep his field cleared.
Game 3
On the draw. Repeat game 2.
Round 4 Randal Mono Black Devotion
Game 1
On the Draw I get a couple one drops to match his Phyrexian Arena. His hand is still a little slowish and I get him to 5 before he plays Gary. I take him down a turn later.
Game 2
On the draw. This game proves to me that Victim of Night needs to be changed. He had Gray Merchant and Vampire Nighthawk. But I was still able to finish it with two Tidehollow Sculler, two Gravecrawler, and two Lord of the Accursed.
Another 3-1 finish good for another fifteen. So let’s look at our numbers again and then we will talk upgrades.
Credit – 63.50 after 5 dollar entry plus 15 credit.
Cash – 40.00(After 20 dollar boost)
Before we take a look at upgrades let’s take a step back and look at how it is going since the start. Over the course of seven events so far I have scored credit in 5 out of 7 of them. Which for a deck that started out at sixty dollars and has had multiple upgrades I would say that this is working fairly well. Plus my record in all of the events is 16-8-1. That’s a 66% win percentage. I will take that all day long.
As it goes with playing modern. Yes it can be an expensive format if you are playing a Tier 1 deck all the way down to Tier 2.5ish. Starting with a 100 dollar budget you can go in several different directions. Be it tribal with Zombies, Goblins, Humans, and even Knights. And then build from there.
Upgrades
This I have given some thought as to which direction to continue to take. I considered sticking with BW Zombies and evolving it into more of a Julien Berteaux with Dread Wanderer, Gravecrawler, Bloodghast, Tidehollow Sculler, and support cards like Lingering Souls, Path to Exile, and discard spells. However, after some research I feel like incorporating some real monsters into. With that I am going to start working towards bringing this motley crew to party.
BW Eldrazi. Now I know it is going to take a little more time and can’t be all done at once. So my purchases this week are aimed to start going that way. While still maintaining the strength of the zombies.
4 Path to Exile – 8 apiece 32.00
4 Inquisition of Kozilek – 5 apiece 20.00
2 Fatal Push – 6 apiece 12.00
Total 64.00
A quick review of the remaining budget.
Credit – 0
Cash – 39.50
After acquiring these and making changes here is where we are.
4 Dread Wanderer
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Gravecrawler
4 Wayward Servant
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Gifted Aetherborn
3 Lord of the Accursed
3 Geralf’s Messenger
4 Path to Exile">Path to Exile
3 Cast Down
3 Smuggler’s Copter
11 Swamp
1 Plains
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Isolated Chapel
SB
3 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Doom Blade
4 Disenchant
I removed the Victim of Night from the main in favor of Path to Exile. Going to be a wait and see as to how it goes. The sideboard is a little clogged. But with the metagame as it is where I mainly play it fits pretty well. More removal, discard for combo/control, Tormod’s Crypt for graveyard shenanigans, and Disenchant for my Lantern/KCI/Affinity players. That’s it for me this week. Drop me a line and let me know how I am doing or what you would like to see going forward. Next week I will be back with another Magic on a Budget. And between now and the next Modern Hero the plan is to hit 3-4 events and keep grinding. Have a good weekend and I will see you back next week.
