How early is “early?” Turn 3 Karn is hard for everyone to beat but we can generally just Bolt/attack it once to kill after resolution. Turn 4 Ugin is a little late, we should have a lot of damage by then. But yeah I don’t think we need a special “plan” for turn 4 Ugin. Tron is a good matchup because we usually beat them before they can stick their wincons. Sometimes they get the nuts, and that’s ok with me!

Recall is very good against Champion if you see a lot of Affinity but I don’t consider it necessary. A heavy removal package should get us there against that deck.

I tested this list last night, lost to tron 2-0. Both games he got turn 3 tron and the deck is really weak to planeswalkers like Ugin or Khan. Had lethal the next turn in one game but got hit by a pyroclasm.

That being said I’ve beaten tron on another occasion where my hand was super fast with double swiftspear and opponent played a wurmcoil which got snagged. I won the other game with the 1 of blood moon, but wasn’t playing it in SB last night.

Against affinity I got crushed by a pair of etched champions and felt like they are extremely hard to deal with. One of the games was close I had him on 4 life and he top decked a spellskite which was just what he needed as I top decked a bolt but it wasn’t enough thanks to skite ( extra blocker ) and a glimmervoid up for redirection.

How do you deal with an early Ugin? Seems like game over to me. Other 2 rounds I had 2 byes.. Great experience for me. Will play it again tonight and post results.

The thing I miss most about Monkey Grow is the abundance of 2-drops for Shoal (Simic Charm, Mana Leak, Snapcaster Mage sometimes). But in this deck, countering a Lightning Bolt effect is often enough. Modern removal generally costs 1. Shoal gets a lot “better” post-board, since it hits more stuff. Game 1, Mental Misstep mode wins me enough games that I don’t think I need more two-drops in the 60.

That said I think Snapcaster and Send in the mainboard could be really nice in budget versions, and may be better than Abbot there.

I tested him both in the main and in the side. There are better postboard options against aggro decks (Electrickery, Threads) and better maindeck cards that utilize the GY (Mandrills).

I’ve noticed that you do not play any 2 U drop in the main apart from Disrupting Shoal. Sometimes, it should be an issue when you want to counter some 2 drop with D Shoal… Did you have any comment about that ? For example, in round5 game1 against MonoG stompy, you countered an Strangleroot Geist roots with DShoal. I assume you pitched an other DShoal to itself but how often do you feel missing an other 2 drop with U?

I am trying very hard to make working Day’s Undoing in Modern UR Delver (without G, cause I do not own enough tarmo…) using Snapcaster maindeck, and your thoughts help a lot ! I will be trying Send to Sleep mainboard in the place of the Remand package I found unefficient lately. There is also one card I really like in my version, it’s Psionic Blast I run a split one main and one side. It gives some reach and is versatile even if it’s not cheap…

Yeah, I actually misread your comment on Bridge lol. Sorry about that. Anyway, this deck looks very interesting and I kinda wanna test it on Cockatrice now.

He’s playing a totally different deck. Abbot is sweet with Bauble and horrendous with situational cards like Shoal and Send to Sleep, which we have much more of in games 2 and 3 (which is when we want to execute a grindy midrange plan anyway; the type of plan that Abbot supports). I love it in his build because it synergizes with every card. It doesn’t do that here. This is a grow tempo deck; his is firmly aggro.

Not at all dissing it, I just don’t think it’s common enough to justify Revelries as a habitual plan against them. To Bridge’s credit, had my opponent managed to empty his hand, it probably would have won him the game.

Glad to hear this. The more we play, the more we learn. When you lose a game, just ask yourself if you could have done something differently. The players that never get better are the ones that get mad about “drawing poorly” or opponents “lucksacking.” Of course that stuff happens, but it’s not productive to focus on variables beyond our control. Keep grinding!

Fair enough. Thanks for the replies guys.

I prefer even Snapcaster to Abbot in this slot since he helps our midrange plan game 1 against aggro decks. But Mandrills is much better than either of them. I’ve tested the card a little, and have come to the conclusion that Abbot is only good in UR builds for players that don’t want to buy Tarmogoyf.

I think UR with Abbot is better than RUG with Mandrills and no Goyf, though I haven’t tested either that much. But my official position here is that if you don’t want to invest in Tarmogoyfs (understandable), you should play something else.

I am playing this deck right now with 3 hooting mandrills and 1 simic charm, you honestly don’t need 4 mandrills because of the delve mechanic and the fact that they cant clog your hand. That being said the RUG goyfless version does not play as smooth as the goyf version, but green is so nice and it honestly plays better than the UR version just because of the board.

Thinking more about this, if you flip disrupting shoal with Abbot, it’s not even bad. You just have a potentially cheap counterspell for the rest of the turn. Which would be a nightmare to play against. The worst case is even you hit days undoing and can’t cast it.

But Abbot into… Bolt, vaporiser snag serum visions. Git probe, heck this whole deck is absolute gas off Abbot. Draw a land,? that’s fine also, clears the way and gives you your land drop.

I am really just trying to find a home for it in modern. It feels strong