Suicide Squad in Modern 1.0

The Suicide Squad

History behind this list, with explanations for odd card choices:

Creature Base:

x3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang – The new and improved black goyf. Did I mention that in this deck he can come down on turn two with spell snare/stubborn denial backup on that same turn. (fetch, thought scour, fetch, tasigur for 1 mana, 1 land still up for counters). Also, be aware that you will flood, and how you delve cards away will play a major role later in the game as tasigur will start grabbing cards back for you if the game stalls.

x4 Gurmag Angler – I have to give a grand majority of the credit to my friend Matt Simpson for introducing this concept into our local metagame. His iterations were similar to the online lists, in that he loved mishra’s bauble, mana leak’s, deprives and delvers. We both agreed early on that Young Pyromancer was incredibly underwhelming as any piece of removal countered him, and his effect was only relevant after the third spell was cast with him on the board (a la, he was a worse version of lingering souls). We wanted more goyfs, and Gurmag Angler was beautiful in every way for this.

x4 Death’s Shadow – For my first month of testing I had x4 death’s shadow in the sideboard as the secret tech to beat Burn and Zoo decks, and found that I also happened to board it against Affinity, Jund, and Junk decks as I continued testing. Occasionally I found myself wishing I had it against Twin as well. Delver’s kept getting blown out by any and every piece of removal my opponents leveraged against me, and their primary purpose was to be a bad version of thought scour insofar as they sped up my delving abilities. Finally, one night, Chris Girardo, a local player here commented that he was banning delver for an evening of testing, and I had to try out death’s shadow main instead. This did the trick, and within 10 games against various archetypes I was sold that despite it being inherently weak against 2-3 tier 1 archetypes, it’s strengths against the other 7 far outweighed this weakness.

x3 Snapcaster Mage – Snapcaster Mage was found to be more effective than Kolaghan’s Command in grinding, and as such has retained it’s slot. In the end, it’s about Snapcaster being given a solid set of 4 options each game that you typically want to utilize; 2 being removal, and 2 being counters.

Utility Spell Base:

x4 Stubborn Denial – The main divergence for me was the realization that stubborn denial was ridiculously good in this format. This one-mana negate keeps our black goyfs on the table, and is a hard counter against all the combo decks you’ll see. It has between 8-30 targets in any given deck you’re playing against.

x4 Spell Snare – As I continued my testing, I came to realize that spell snare countered a minimum of 8 spells against existing tier one archetypes, and occasionally as many as 20 spells, and even more importantly, it ensured that our goyfs were not getting remanded, terminated, purged or leaked. There is a noticeable absence of conventional counters, which is explained by the fact that we are faster, cheaper, and more efficient than other decks, and want to stay that way.

x4 Lightning Bolt – The best 1-CC removal spell in modern currently given that our plan is tempo based (path is so awkward).

x4 terminate – The best 2-CC removal spell in modern currently. There are arguments for going green and in that scenario this flips over to abrupt decay. I personally think red is a far stronger outlet for the suicide squad.

Cantrip Base:

x4 Gitaxian Probe – look at the title of the deck, look at the 4 death’s shadow. Perfect knowledge with a very minor downside (that occasionally is entirely a benefit to us) is where you want to be in the early turns with this deck. Free is good, free is great.

x4 thought scour – the engine that makes this deck run, no need to explain further.

x4 serum visions – helps allow you to run only 18 lands, while setting up your game-plan.

Land Base:

The Fetches –

x4 polluted delta, x4 scalding tarn, x2 bloodstained mire: we want cards in our grave, we want to be pulling lands out of our deck to minimize chances of drawing them, we want to hurt our life total at a whim (being able to play a fetch when you have a 3/3 death’s shadow and hold it up against them on the attack is like having a spare giant growth), and finally we love being able to have perfect mana for our blood moons.

The duals –

x2 steam vents, x1 watery grave, x1 blood crypt: we have a heavier red base due to anger of the gods being in the board, if anger leaves, we likely go back to cutting the blood crypt for a watery grave. Similarly, if anger goes and drown in sorrow replaces it, we cut a steam vents for a watery grave.

The basics –

x2 island, x1 swamp, x1 mountain – pretty standard plan, the only question left is whether we want to cut the mountain for the 3rd island, and that depends rather heavily on our board plan (whether we rock anger or not). Personally, I like the balance that this base offers in terms of fetching for basics when we need to conserve our life total.

The main-board:

Creatures –

x4 Gurmag Angler

x4 Death’s Shadow

x3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

x3 Snapcaster Mage

Utility Spells –

x4 spell snare

x4 stubborn denial

x4 terminate

x4 lightning bolt

Cantrips –

x4 thought scour

x4 serum vision

x4 gitaxian probe

Lands –

x4 polluted delta

x4 scalding tarn

x2 bloodstained mire

x2 steam vents

x1 blood crypt

x1 watery grave

x2 island

x1 swamp

x1 mountain (the only potential land to change)

Archetypes by plan post-board (Percentages reflect the modern metagame online as of 6/1/15): This is for a level 0-1 meta-game only.

1. Attrition –
   1. (Temur Delver, Sultai Aggro, 4-color control, Jeskai Control, Esper Tokens, Grixis Control = 4.4%) Jund (4.4%), Junk (3.3%), Grixis Delver (11.4%), twin potentially (8.5%).
   2. Total of 32% of the Meta (roughly 1/3 rounds)
   3. Attrition selection for sideboard: (4-6 slots)
      1. Ashiok, Lily of the Veil, sulfur elemental (conditionally), Kolaghan’s Command
2. Land Destruction –
   1. Amulet (5.5%), R/G Tron (6%), Blue Tron (2.5%), Scapeshift (*6.3%)
   2. Total of 20.3% of the Meta (roughly 1/5 rounds)
   3. Land Destruction selection for sideboard: (2-4 slots)
      1. Fulminator Mage, Ghost Quarter, Blood Moon
3. Board Sweepers –
   1. Elves (6.6%), CoCo (2.6%), Merfolk (3.7%), B/W Tokens (*3.7%) (Boggles (2.9%) & Affinity (6.6%)
   2. Total of 26.1% of the meta (roughly 1/4 rounds)
   3. Board Sweepers selection for sideboard: (3-4 slots)
      1. Anger of the Gods, Pyroclasm
4. Spot Removal –
   1. Infect (*6.3), Twin (8.5%)
   2. Total of 14.8% of the meta (roughly 1/10 rounds)
   3. Spot Removal selection for sideboard: (2-4 slots)
      1. Dismember, Spellskite (conditionally).
5. Lifegain –
   1. Burn (7.4%) & Zoo (2.9%)
   2. Total of 10.3% of the meta (roughly 1/10 rounds)
   3. Lifegain selection for sideboard: (0-1 slot))
      1. Dragon’s Claw
6. Grave Hate/Counters –
   1. Storm (2.6%) & Living End (2.6%)
   2. Total of 5.2% (roughly 1/20 rounds)
   3. Grave Hate/Counters selection for sideboard: (0-1 slot)
      1. Relic of Progenitus, Tormod’s Crypt, Nihil Spellbomb
      2. Spell Pierce, Dispel
7. Artifact Hate –
   1. Affinity (6.6%)
   2. Total of 6.6% (roughly 1/20 rounds)
   3. Artifact Hate selection for sideboard: (0-1 slot)
      1. Hurkyl’s Recall, Vandalblast, Shatter, Shattering Spree’s, Kolaghan’s Command

Sideboard:

x3 Ashiok, the nightmare weaver (Attrition War)

x3 Blood Moon (L.D. spell that is most effective against Amulet)

x3 Anger of the Gods (Board Sweeper)

x3 Dismember (Spot Removal)

x3 Hurkyl’s Recall (Affinity) – yes I’m aware that this is a large overcorrection potentially, but affinity has historically showed up in the hands of competent pilots, and I expect to face it 1-2 times in a live tournament despite that being a heavy disparity with what the online metagame is.

Match-ups against Tier 1 archetypes:

Burn – (50/50) Your counters are all hard counters, your removal is all quick enough to deal with their speedy one-drops, and your creatures are bigger and badder. Death’s Shadow shines here, and  the key is often to let them drop you down to 5 or so life, and enjoy your 1-mana 8/8 stomping their face in. Your game plan is to race once you can shove a couple goyfs on the field, and use your counters strictly to protect your life total once it is below 13. The only exception is countering Eidolon if you have zero removal in hand. Fetch conservatively.

Sideboard: – 3 gitaxian probe, +3 anger of the gods. If you’re paying life, you want it to counter their spells more effectively.

Twin – (80/20) Welcome to your best matchup, as always, respect the combo pre-board, and be aware that competent players are going to try and grind you post-board generally, so worry less about blowing up deceiver exarch’s/pester-mites. As always, you are the tempo deck, make sure you set the tempo and force them into a war of top decking solutions constantly to stay alive. Your creatures kill in 4 hits or less (death’s shadows have killed in two before). Use your own life total very aggressively here to allow death’s shadow to hit by turn 3.

Sideboard: -3 lightning bolt, +3 dismember. Lightning bolt is usually quite ineffective against them, but if you see a large number of Vendillion Cliques or Grim Lavamancers feel free to leave them in, and look more towards spell snares if need be. Terminate opposing Tasigur/olivia voldaran on sight if they’re grixis twin, and any other grindy creatures.

Infect – (60/40) This matchup is rough depending on whether they get to set the initial tempo. Some important notes here, kill their creatures on your turn, not on theirs. They may have x2 mutagenic growth to beat your lightning bolt, but you are much more comfortable when it doesn’t add 4 infect to the equation. If they draw threat dense, and you’re light on removal, you lose, vice versa and you win. Anything in between is going to be a war. Game one you use your life total suicidally (pay 3 life per fetch, and 2 life per probe.)

Sideboard: -4 death’s shadow, +1 anger of the gods, +3 dismember. Obviously death’s shadow is awful in this match, and you just want more removal.

Affinity (60/40) – Stubborn denial is just plain awful here due to their speed. Game one will likely go to them, either due to a fast draw, or the impossible to deal with etched champion scenario, or occasionally just a mass of flyers. No need to be aggressive with your life total here, they’ll be helping you there.

Sideboard: -4 stubborn denial, -2 gitaxian probe, +3 hurkyl’s recall, +3 anger of the gods. Now you have answers to their speed, and you can set the tempo effectively. I’m often a fan of letting them knock me down to 5 or 6 before recalling, just so the death’s shadows become impossibly large to deal with. As always, beware the galvanic blast-range.

Jund (60/40) – Lily of the Veil is their trump card, do not let it land, and if it must land, do not let it stick around. It will singlehandedly beat you if you aren’t careful. Be very aggressive with your life total here to get death’s shadow on board and enjoy your perfect mana/their hand knowledge.

Sideboard: -3 gitaxian probe,  +3 ashiok, the nightmare weaver. This match-up is a war of attrition. If they don’t kill Ashiok immediately, we win this war hands down. Be careful about playing Dark Confidant with it though, for obvious reasons.

Junk (50/50) – There are roughly 4 separate builds of Junk. Some go heavy on voice of resurgence’s and tokens, some go heavy on Goyfs and Lily’s, and other will move towards Wilt-Leaf Lieges, then you have that 4th build that has some elements of the first three. Your game plan will depend on their. If they go on the Goyf and Lily plan, they aren’t all that different from Jund, and you just counter lily and crush. Lingering Souls + Gavony is agonizing as a clock, so be aggressive here and get on the board. They have inevitability, you have to race. Be very aggressive with your life total here to get death’s shadow on board and have that perfect mana.

Sideboard: -3 gitaxian probe, +3 ashiok, the nightmare weaver (sometimes -3 lightning bolt for +3 anger of the gods). We want to be threat-dense post-board, and Ashiok will steal games if they don’t answer her. Anger of the gods is for the token heavy/voice heavy iterations.

R/G Tron (30/70) – Your worst match-up. Your game plan here is to suicide a death’s shadow onto the board as fast as possible. Do not waste your counters trying to keep them off tron, play with the understanding that spell snare only counters sylvan scrying, stubborn denial + black goyf will keep karn/ugin/o. stone off the field. Wurmcoil engine is usually how they beat you, as that card is unbelievably difficult to handle.

Sideboard: -4 terminate, -2 spell snare. +3 blood moon, +3 hurkyl’s recall. All about tempo post-board. Suicide your creatures out as fast as you can, and try to drop a blood moon before they deploy a serious threat. The 3 hurkyl’s recall’s are there to help you bounce wurmcoil’s and swing through.

Amulet Bloom (70/30) – This deck may be tier 2 to some, but most of the high-level pro’s around the midwest have embraced this as their deck of choice for the upcoming Grand Prix and Pretq events. Be prepared. Counter everything you can to hamper their speedy progress, and land a creature as fast as you can. You can handle primeval titans usually, but smart players just use prime-time to set up the hive mind victory. Be super aggressive with your life total, they’re killing in one hit generally anyways.

Sideboard: -3 lightning bolt, +3 blood moon. Blood moon just flat-out steals games here.

Grixis Delver (semi-mirror) (70/30) – Your version is goyf heavy, and their is all about delver/Young Pyro. They will often get out ahead of you at the start of the match, but are reigned in when you start dropping goyf after goyf against them, and kill their delvers. Make sure you counter Young Pyromancer, or kill him immediately, he is their chance to run away with the game.

Sideboard: -3 gitaxian probe, +3 dismember. This gives you a bump in removal that for 1 mana will flat out answer opposing goyfs. If they are much more into the “go wide” plan with young pyromancer, anger of the gods is worthy of consideration.

Podless Pod (70/30) – This may be a tier 2 deck to some, but I’ve been playing against iterations of this since collected company was spoiled, and some local players have tuned it quite well, to the point that I’ll give it the tier 1 status I believe it deserves. These lists have the same weaknesses that birthing pod decks of old did: Anger of the Gods. Pre-board force them into unfavorable trades with your goyfs, and use your life total aggressively to force those death’s shadows onto the board/tempt them into making foolish swings against you. Your removal should target their anafenza’s and melira’s for obvious reasons. Your stubborn denials will counter their collected company’s and chords.

Sideboard: -4 spell snare, +3 anger of the gods, +1 dismember (unless they shift to a 4-toughness Junk deck post-board, in which case we want the 3 Ashiok in the board, and can afford to cut a couple of gitaxian probes potentially.

Pretq Winning Report:

Background – I have now qualified for all 3 regional PTQ’s this year, and this time we did it on week one of the new season, in the first tournament, with the suicide squad.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Pretq. 38 players, 6 rounds of swiss, then top 8.

Props to the store owner for playing bounce metal while we were there, made my day so much more relaxing.

Round 1 – Two-Time Two-Time State Champion Jeremiah Nelson (Temur Twin).

Game 1 – We start with a quick gitaxian probe, which show us the tell-all deciever exarch to let us know he’s on twin, and the green based fetches to confirm the type of twin. We shove a goyf on the field, and ride it to victory with a hail of removal and counters.

Game 2 – (-3 bolt, +3 dismembers). This was another quick one-sided affair as we play a more efficient game than twin does, and they have at most, very narrow windows to beat us in.

1-0

Round 2 – R/G Tron (random player I do not know)

Game 1 –

Game 2 – (-4 terminate, -2 spell snare. +3 blood moon, +3 hurkyl’s recall). He wins this game at -2 life due to a timely platinum angel off the top, and my lack of removal for said angel. At least I died with two 12/12 death’s shadows on the field and 1 bolt in hand.

Game 3 – Turn 1 death’s shadow is good, thanks gitaxian probe. We suicide down to 6 life as fast as possible and keep on dropping threats, followed by a blood moon to seal this out.

2-0

Round 3 – R/G Tron (the luckiest tron player I’ve ever watched in the history of this game)

Game 1 – I suicide into death’s shadows, and he rips an emrakul off the top after I stubborn deny 3 consecutive karn’s/ugin’s to have him dead on board. I’m admittedly a little bitter.

Game 2 – (-4 terminate, -2 spell snare. +3 blood moon, +3 hurkyl’s recall). I drop goyfs and win the race as he doesn’t get a turn 3 tron and I get a turn 3 blood moon.

Game 3 – A true showing of the power of x2 wurmcoil engine against us. This was just brutal and over quickly as he dropped them on turns 3 & 4.

2-1

Round 4 – Abzhan Tokens/Mid-Range (new player, did not know the format very well)

Game 1 – Mana-screwed slightly on his part, helped in large part by my bolting both of his birds of paradise. Goyf beatdown commences shortly after and he looks disheartened.

Game 2 – (+3 anger of the gods, +1 dismember, – 4 bolt). He keeps an awkward hand with x2 gavony townships and x1 dual, and it doesn’t do much for him as he stumbles through his turns while I drop a goyf and control the game from there.

3-1

Round 5 – Steve Medanic on Affinity (Intentional Draw to put us both to 3-1-1. We play for the same team, and didn’t want to knock each other out when odds were we could take down the final round.)

3-1-1

Round 6 – Wyatt Darby on U/W/R Ojutai Control (a sweet grudge match for us, as our last competitive battle was in modern a year ago, when I beat his U/W/R mid-range list with scapeshift due to a lucky topdeck in game 3 of the finals of the PTQ in Minnesota).

Game 1 – Goyf train on turn two comes out, and we push past his removal with a flurry of counters to take down game 1.

Game 2 – (-4 bolt, +3 Ashiok, +1 dismember). He has the path’s/wrath’s the take down the goyfs 1 by 1, and once ojutai comes down with our board on empty, we know the game is finished.

Game 3 – We shove a Tasigur onto the board early in the game with no counter backup, and he has no remand or path to answer it.

4-1-1

Top 8 – Brad Selken on Affinity (Solid local player).

*Affinity on the play

Game 1 – Affinity does what it’s supposed to and puts pressure on me, followed by an etched champion. We lose hard.

Game 2 – (+3 hurkyl’s recall, +2 anger of the gods. -4 stubborn denial, -1 gitaxian probe). Hurkyl’s recall is amazing against affinity, and casting it twice in one game makes you feel like a god among men in this match.

Game 3 – (-1 more gitaxian probe. +1 more anger of the gods). I keep a sketchy 7 (gurmag x2, tasigur x1, bolt, fetch, fetch, dual.), and am rewarded with top decked anger of the gods, hurkyl’s and snap caster in a timely manner to take down the game.

5-1-1

Top 4: R/G Tron player from Round 4

*Tron on the play

Game 1 – we suicide our life total and push through before he can kill us. Phew.

Game 2 – (-4 terminate, -2 spell snare, +3 blood moon, +3 hurkyl’s recall). Wurmcoil’s for days…well time to roll the dice on game three.

Game 3 – We keep the following hand (x1 death’s shadow, x3 lightning bolt, x2 fetch, x1 stubborn denial). We play as follows on the play: turn 1, fetch. End of his turn, take 3 from the fetch and bolt ourselves. Turn 2, play and crack another fetch going to 11, play death’s shadow. end of his turn, bolt ourselves. Turn 3, Bolt ourselves, play a dual (going to 3) and another death’s shadow, keeping up stubborn denial. Swing for 10. He attempts an ancient stirrings which we stubbornly deny and then we crack for the last 10 points of the game on turn 4. We win.

6-1-1

Finals: Scott Lewis on U/R Twin (for those who do not know Scott, he is one of the best players in Iowa on any given Sunday. This man played back in Alpha, and has a knowledge of the game that is far deeper than most, along with a pro tour or two under his belts from the late 90’s).

*Suicide Squad finally on the play

Game 1 – Terminates, black goyfs and stubborn denials are a hard combination to deal with. He has no windows by the end of it.

Game 2 – (-3 lightning bolt, +3 dismember). turn 2 Tasigur, go. Need I say more? We run the tempo of the game from there on out.

7-1-1