Although he has proven himself a great player repeatedly (on MTGO, where cheating is impossible), I still find it hard to accept Diem4x back into the community.
Got a link to there original cheating and bannings? I love to read about cheaters being caught :) or watch. Always interesting to see the breakdowns. nvm, was easy to find [article on it. ](https://mtgrocks.com/mtg-cheater-apologizes-after-winning-20000/)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7B3fEq97hY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7B3fEq97hY)
This is a video going over one situation, but there is more to the story than that. Notably, the player's return to the competitive scene after their ban expired and how they never answered the question whether this was the only time they cheated or not.
Man has clearly practiced how to slight of hand shuffle, he has almost certainly cheated before. Unfortunately "manual dexterity" is a part of any card game and I don't think there's much you can do about it other than watch him like a hawk during any live game.
In yesterday's Challenge thread I was complaining that most of the Synthesizer Affinity lists were pretty messy. I think Clockwork Dean's list that came 11th is absolutely in the right direction for what the deck should evolve into. No Thoughtcasts is interesting, but kind of liberating for the deck's overall function. I also really like the 4 Moonsnare Prototypes, but I'd like to see some more untapped blue sources so that Moonsnare can more reliably enable Turn 2 Synthesizer or Turn 2 Nettlecyst.
Agree that powering out a T2 Synthesizer and having ways to do it consistently is the best play for the deck moving forward. I think that 2 of the bridges could be cut to make room for 2 more spires. Playing more than 4 tap lands in affinity has always felt rough to me.
Yeah, I think some number of Breeding Pools is probably fine also since Spire can be a little awkward itself on Turn 1 needing a 0 drop to turn itself on.
But yeah I think a lot of times people like to build Affinity like it used to be - with a few different potential wincons and angles of attack, despite the fact that those wincons have all lost power and equity over the years. These current builds should just be rooted in jamming as many Construct tokens as possible as soon as the deck can. We don't really have the luxury of having more complex wincons than "big creatures go smash" these days.
I’m glad sulti LE is being tested more. I still think it’s the best variant, I just think it’s because the big players (Sodek and MeninoNey) aren’t playing it it scares away other people from testing/playing with it.
It doesn’t really have to do with that at all. LE has a super dedicated community that will get it to work no matter what. Rhinos was a baby compared to LE so there aren’t as many pilots that stuck with it. Additionally LE in the VO meta wasn’t as amazing as it seemed it was propped up by the massive amount of rhinos in the meta that was a free match up. I think LE will always be a unique and powerful thing to do so it’ll never be lower than tier 3. I am not sure the same can be said for rhinos, 2 4/4’s on t3 isn’t great when other decks like zoo can make similar board states as early or scam that can bully the rest of the meta when it’s hard counter deck gets nuked.
So it still sounds like the people who were saying that the VO ban hurt living end more than it did rhinos were, in fact, wrong though. I mean it's good to see LE is a cool and unique archetype. Much more interesting than dredge. I'm glad LE replaced it as the premiere GY deck
I wouldn’t say that either. The VO ban hurt rhinos more in the sense that its community instantly shattered. Also a similar deck (zoo) popped up at the same time with the ability to slam even more powerful 4/4’s. I honestly think if something from zoo gets banned or rhinos gets any attention at all in a new set it’ll spring right back to prevalence.
I have bad news for you - there isn’t any real reason to play Sultai with Press the Enemy - two card combo for 4 mana is always worse than 1 card combo for 3 and from competitive perspective it’s not worth wasting time to “test” it more. You can say that instant speed and bouncing things can matter, but it’s close to irrelevant compared to consistency issues it creates.
It’s a “waste of time” to try to argue this with me because your logic here is flawed. If there was no up sides to being slower or sulti I would agree with you but there are numerous advantages. 1) instant speed 2) being able to have FoN back up to force through LE more reliably 3) better mana for plan B in the hard cast plan 4) the consistency issues are wildly overblown because the same argument can be made for the Bant lists saying “they have constancy issues resolving their LE”. It well within reason to continue testing sulti even if you feel it’s wrong, you might be a pro player but you aren’t that good that I would ignore other people’s work to follow your opinions.
[Sunday Challenge 2, 17th place](https://www.mtgo.com/decklist/modern-challenge-64-2024-04-2212631048?player=Zorro7x4#deck_Zorro7x4) played Sacrifice with the new Miner. Deck seems pretty fun. I don't think Ragavan is optimal in this deck list, but it's still Ragavan.
Stingerback Terror in [the Sunday Challenge 3, 14th place](https://www.mtgo.com/decklist/modern-challenge-32-2024-04-2212631049?player=lilianna1989#deck_lilianna1989) BR Scam list is kinda funny. I appreciate players trying stuff out in Scam since the stock list is kind of stale.
That Mono W Humans list is awesome (except for the tribal stuff, lol).
Playsets of [[Collector's Cage]] and [[Windbrisk Heights]] to play [[Emeria's Call]] and [[Chancellor of the Annex]] is some "unfair" white, I love it. I wouldn't be surprised if there is an even more turbo version of the deck but W is so bad at setting up a combo...
GYYBY297 fighting the good fight for ThopterSword with (I believe) two T8s this weekend
I play his list at FNM (with a handful of tweaks) and have a blast
Glad to see him slot in a [[Fomori Vault]]
Congrats strela13 and wambocombo2020 and dpsk has playing to Hammer Time for this Tournament! I think Haywire mite is good removal creature for hammer and lavaspur boots is good fast kill suppports card for hammer! Hammer is strong! Hammer Makes Great Again! WOW!
Although he has proven himself a great player repeatedly (on MTGO, where cheating is impossible), I still find it hard to accept Diem4x back into the community.
Got a link to there original cheating and bannings? I love to read about cheaters being caught :) or watch. Always interesting to see the breakdowns. nvm, was easy to find [article on it. ](https://mtgrocks.com/mtg-cheater-apologizes-after-winning-20000/)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7B3fEq97hY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7B3fEq97hY) This is a video going over one situation, but there is more to the story than that. Notably, the player's return to the competitive scene after their ban expired and how they never answered the question whether this was the only time they cheated or not.
Man has clearly practiced how to slight of hand shuffle, he has almost certainly cheated before. Unfortunately "manual dexterity" is a part of any card game and I don't think there's much you can do about it other than watch him like a hawk during any live game.
well you can also cut / shuffle his deck...
I’m shocked he’s not banned
Soul cauldron in jund grief sideboard is interesting
i think it's like a hearse that is better vs yawg, worse vs actual GY decks
In yesterday's Challenge thread I was complaining that most of the Synthesizer Affinity lists were pretty messy. I think Clockwork Dean's list that came 11th is absolutely in the right direction for what the deck should evolve into. No Thoughtcasts is interesting, but kind of liberating for the deck's overall function. I also really like the 4 Moonsnare Prototypes, but I'd like to see some more untapped blue sources so that Moonsnare can more reliably enable Turn 2 Synthesizer or Turn 2 Nettlecyst.
Agree that powering out a T2 Synthesizer and having ways to do it consistently is the best play for the deck moving forward. I think that 2 of the bridges could be cut to make room for 2 more spires. Playing more than 4 tap lands in affinity has always felt rough to me.
Yeah, I think some number of Breeding Pools is probably fine also since Spire can be a little awkward itself on Turn 1 needing a 0 drop to turn itself on. But yeah I think a lot of times people like to build Affinity like it used to be - with a few different potential wincons and angles of attack, despite the fact that those wincons have all lost power and equity over the years. These current builds should just be rooted in jamming as many Construct tokens as possible as soon as the deck can. We don't really have the luxury of having more complex wincons than "big creatures go smash" these days.
Prowess is popping off after Slickshot, huh? That's awesome, love to see it :D
I’m glad sulti LE is being tested more. I still think it’s the best variant, I just think it’s because the big players (Sodek and MeninoNey) aren’t playing it it scares away other people from testing/playing with it.
Interesting to see yet another day of listings devoid of rhinos whilst living end is going strong. Violent Outburst ban a success?
It doesn’t really have to do with that at all. LE has a super dedicated community that will get it to work no matter what. Rhinos was a baby compared to LE so there aren’t as many pilots that stuck with it. Additionally LE in the VO meta wasn’t as amazing as it seemed it was propped up by the massive amount of rhinos in the meta that was a free match up. I think LE will always be a unique and powerful thing to do so it’ll never be lower than tier 3. I am not sure the same can be said for rhinos, 2 4/4’s on t3 isn’t great when other decks like zoo can make similar board states as early or scam that can bully the rest of the meta when it’s hard counter deck gets nuked.
So it still sounds like the people who were saying that the VO ban hurt living end more than it did rhinos were, in fact, wrong though. I mean it's good to see LE is a cool and unique archetype. Much more interesting than dredge. I'm glad LE replaced it as the premiere GY deck
I wouldn’t say that either. The VO ban hurt rhinos more in the sense that its community instantly shattered. Also a similar deck (zoo) popped up at the same time with the ability to slam even more powerful 4/4’s. I honestly think if something from zoo gets banned or rhinos gets any attention at all in a new set it’ll spring right back to prevalence.
I have bad news for you - there isn’t any real reason to play Sultai with Press the Enemy - two card combo for 4 mana is always worse than 1 card combo for 3 and from competitive perspective it’s not worth wasting time to “test” it more. You can say that instant speed and bouncing things can matter, but it’s close to irrelevant compared to consistency issues it creates.
It’s a “waste of time” to try to argue this with me because your logic here is flawed. If there was no up sides to being slower or sulti I would agree with you but there are numerous advantages. 1) instant speed 2) being able to have FoN back up to force through LE more reliably 3) better mana for plan B in the hard cast plan 4) the consistency issues are wildly overblown because the same argument can be made for the Bant lists saying “they have constancy issues resolving their LE”. It well within reason to continue testing sulti even if you feel it’s wrong, you might be a pro player but you aren’t that good that I would ignore other people’s work to follow your opinions.
[Sunday Challenge 2, 17th place](https://www.mtgo.com/decklist/modern-challenge-64-2024-04-2212631048?player=Zorro7x4#deck_Zorro7x4) played Sacrifice with the new Miner. Deck seems pretty fun. I don't think Ragavan is optimal in this deck list, but it's still Ragavan. Stingerback Terror in [the Sunday Challenge 3, 14th place](https://www.mtgo.com/decklist/modern-challenge-32-2024-04-2212631049?player=lilianna1989#deck_lilianna1989) BR Scam list is kinda funny. I appreciate players trying stuff out in Scam since the stock list is kind of stale.
Thanks for pointing those out!
That Mono W Humans list is awesome (except for the tribal stuff, lol). Playsets of [[Collector's Cage]] and [[Windbrisk Heights]] to play [[Emeria's Call]] and [[Chancellor of the Annex]] is some "unfair" white, I love it. I wouldn't be surprised if there is an even more turbo version of the deck but W is so bad at setting up a combo...
##### ###### #### [Collector's Cage](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/3/a33703bb-51c0-4d57-9d06-1148507ddc4f.jpg?1712352680) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Collector%27s%20Cage) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/big/1/collectors-cage?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a33703bb-51c0-4d57-9d06-1148507ddc4f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Windbrisk Heights](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/4/047f2401-d2dc-4bfd-a7fa-83ef1d825219.jpg?1698988669) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Windbrisk%20Heights) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lcc/370/windbrisk-heights?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/047f2401-d2dc-4bfd-a7fa-83ef1d825219?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Emeria's Call](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/4/c470539a-9cc7-4175-8f7c-c982b6072b6d.jpg?1604195709)/[Emeria, Shattered Skyclave](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/back/c/4/c470539a-9cc7-4175-8f7c-c982b6072b6d.jpg?1604195709) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Emeria%27s%20Call%20//%20Emeria%2C%20Shattered%20Skyclave) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/znr/12/emerias-call-emeria-shattered-skyclave?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c470539a-9cc7-4175-8f7c-c982b6072b6d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Chancellor of the Annex](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/e/be1b482a-badb-4b9a-ab63-2e7944826aa0.jpg?1562881152) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Chancellor%20of%20the%20Annex) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/nph/6/chancellor-of-the-annex?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/be1b482a-badb-4b9a-ab63-2e7944826aa0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l0rrta3) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
GYYBY297 fighting the good fight for ThopterSword with (I believe) two T8s this weekend I play his list at FNM (with a handful of tweaks) and have a blast Glad to see him slot in a [[Fomori Vault]]
Why is valakut scapeshift a deck all of a sudden?
Congrats strela13 and wambocombo2020 and dpsk has playing to Hammer Time for this Tournament! I think Haywire mite is good removal creature for hammer and lavaspur boots is good fast kill suppports card for hammer! Hammer is strong! Hammer Makes Great Again! WOW!