Modern

Modern Musings: UR Tron and making the case for Living End

From the moment you are born and as you progress in life, you often stumble upon what people call “universal truths”, a couple of simple things that are true to pretty much everyone and applicable to all places, all things and all people.

When I was two-years old, I found out that the sky is blue, when I was six-years old, I was taught that 2+2 is always 4, after I turned ten, a friend told me that if a girl hits you, it usually means she likes you and as I got older, I realized that if the same girl keeps hitting you, then she probably never really liked you in the first place! But it was only a few weeks ago, while playing in a Modern PTQ, that I came across yet another universal truth: “Everybody loves Tron.”

Seriously, everybody loves Tron! Timmy loves it because he gets to smash his opponents by casting incredibly large creatures early, Johnny loves how he can build thousands of decks with the good old Urza lands and play his favorite one-ofs in every single one of them and how could Spike not love it as it allows him to always have more mana than his opponent and play cards like [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card], a very complicated yet quite powerful card that is not only capable of getting you the cards you were desperately looking for, but is also able to cause a great deal of pain and exasperation to your opponent, the kind of pain only a true Spike could enjoy, as he agonizes about which cards should go to the graveyard and which should go to hand.

I, however, was never a fan. It just seemed to take too much. Too many colorless lands, too many mana-producing artifacts, too many fingers crossed hoping for the next card to be the right one, too much effort and just too much variance. All of a sudden though, the PTQ was only two weeks away and due to some health issues, I found myself unable to keep up with the evolution of the Modern format and therefore, I had no sick brews or updates to any under the radar decks to take to battle. It was time to look for something interesting, something fun and most importantly, something new. -“I guess I’ll try Tron this time.”- I said to myself, not knowing that once you climb up the Tower, step into the Mine and fuel the Power Plant, you can never go back. Sure, it sucks when you have all the wrong Tron pieces or end up never having access to colored mana, but the guilty satisfaction you get when you can cast a turn three [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] or a turn four [card]Through the Breach[/card] into Emrakul is just way too sweet not to blame variance for a couple of your losses, shuffle up and try again. At least, that’s what I did.

But what flavor should I put on my Tron cone? Green and Red-Green based strategies looked to power out an Eldrazi as quickly as possible, using mana creatures, [card]Summoning Trap[/card] and [card]Through the Breach[/card]. Blue-White based strategies used counter magic, card drawing, [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] and redundant spells in order to find an expensive win condition. The new cool thing now is casting [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] for only two cards, since you can fail to find the other two, those cards being [card]Unburial Rites[/card] and a massively disruptive creature such as [card]Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite[/card] against the aggressive matchups and [card]Iona, Shield of Emeria[/card] for the combo and control decks. That certainly made the deck more powerful and consistent, not to mention casting Gifts a lot more easier, but it also made it a lot more popular and facing multiple Tron mirrors over the course of an eight-round tournament was not exactly my idea of a good plan. Well, at least, not until I found a blue-red version.

The blue-red Tron version had everything I looked for in a deck. Not only did it have the counter magic, card drawing and [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] that I really liked in Blue-White Tron, but it also had the possibility of ending the game pretty quickly by using [card]Through the Breach[/card] to get an early Eldrazi into play. It was truly the best of both worlds, plus it still had [card]Electrolyze[/card], a guaranteed two for one that’s amazing against the Delver decks and the [card]Lingering Souls[/card] strategies that are getting more and more popular.

So, after a lot of practice games, a small tournament and a few tweaks, this was the list that I registered:

[deck title=UR Tron]
[Lands]
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
1 Tolaria West
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower
1 Eye of Ugin
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Burst Lightning
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Noxious Revival
1 Condescend
2 Repeal
3 Expedition Map
1 Pyroclasm
4 Remand
4 Izzet Signet
1 Prismatic Lens
2 Electrolyze
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Gifts Ungiven
3 Through the Breach
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
3 Dispel
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Combust
1 Pyroclasm
1 Firespout
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
2 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Round 1 vs UW Tron

As soon as he led with a [card]Celestial Colonnade[/card], I knew this was going to be a long one. He quickly won the first game with an Iona on red and I won a long and grindy second game after using multiple [card]Dispel[/card]s on his [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] and cast an Emrakul. The third game was even longer and after we both completed Tron and traded [card]Eye of Ugin[/card], none of us found Emrakul to take the match and ended up with a draw. 0-1-0

Round 2 vs Esper Control

He stalled on mana in the first game and I had an early [card]Through the Breach[/card] into Emrakul and in the second he tapped out for a [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card], letting me cast a [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] that found me the Eldrazi I needed to put into play with the powerful red instant. 1-1-0

Round 3 vs Flash Gordon

I was actually paired against a friend piloting a deck I designed, a Blue-white tempo deck featuring the likes of [card]Vendilion Clique[/card], [card]Stonecloaker[/card] and [card]Venser, Shaper Savant[/card]. I won the first game since he got stuck on three lands for too long, and lost the second one after a mulligan to five. I had to take a trip to Paris and mulligan to six in the decider and it was now my turn to be the one stuck on three land for too long and not being able to bounce back. 1-1-1

Round 4 vs UW Tron

The UW mirror is actually quite simple. If they get an early Iona on red, you are a huge underdog to win the game, since you have to quickly assemble Tron and either cast an Eldrazi or find one of your two [card]Repeal[/card]s in order to return the legendary creature to it’s owner’s hand, but if you are able to resolve a [card]Through the Breach[/card] into Emrakul at any point in the game, they are probably just dead. I was lucky enough to do it in the first game and after boarding the Blue-Red deck gets and even bigger advantage . While Blue-White boards in [card]Disenchant[/card] and [card]Negate[/card] Izzet Tron boards in [card]Ancient Grudge[/card] and [card]Dispel[/card], which are strictly better and more efficient. I won the second game by casting and protecting an Ulamog. 2-1-1

Round 5 vs Zoo

When he started with fetch land into dual land into [card]Steppe Lynx[/card], I felt as if someone had cracked open a window and let in a breath of fresh air. Then I took four damage as he played another fetch and another [card]Steppe Lynx[/card]. I ended up winning the game at three life with a second [card]Through the Breach[/card], this time into Emrakul, after a [card]Path to Exile[/card] on an earlier Ulamog. I lost the second to a couple [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]s and burn spells and won a really tough third game after using [card]Pyroclasm[/card] to kill a [card]Steppe Lynx[/card] and a [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card] and then [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] to cast [card]Pyroclasm[/card] again, killing another Geist, topdecking a [card]Through the Breach[/card] in one of the last possible turns. 3-1-1

Round 6 vs (What else?) UW Tron

The first game was so long that there was only four minutes on the clock by the time it was over. I had less than twenty cards in my library and three [card]Through the Breach[/card] in hand after drawing my first Emrakul. I was able to cast [card]Through the Breach[/card] at the end of his turn, get it countered, and then resolve it on my turn with counter magic up. I mulliganed some really bad hands all the way to four cards and he got very aggressive with a [card]Celestial Colonnade[/card]. He won the game in turn four of extra turns but decided to concede so that at least one of us would Top 8. 4-1-1

Round 7 vs (Surprise!) UW Tron

He got an early Iona on red and a turn later I cast [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] for two irrelevant cards, my missing Tron piece and a [card]Repeal[/card]. He gave me the irrelevant cards and we were off to the second game. He mulliganed to six and I kept a pretty good one, casting [card]Through the Breach[/card] into Ulamog with [card]Dispel[/card] up. He mulliganed to six again and we had a real game this time, casting a lot of [card]Thirst for Knowledge[/card], [card]Remand[/card]ing a bunch and trading our [card]Eye of Ugin[/card], but in the end I was lucky enough to be the first one to cast an Emrakul and take the match. 5-1-1

Round 8 vs Living End

The dreaded win and in! The last round- for all the marbles. I must say that after he went [card]Copperline Gorge[/card] into [card]Blackcleave Cliffs[/card], I thought that it made sense to face, at least, a Jund deck on my way to the Top 8, but then he cycled a [card]Valley Rannet[/card] in order to search for a Mountain and I couldn’t help but smile.
You see, [card]Living End[/card] has always been one of my pet decks and one I had seriously considered for this tournament. It seems so well positioned right now, since it preys on aggressive decks like Zoo, Tokens or Jund. You can board in a large number of [card]Ingot Chewer[/card]s and [card]Jund Charm[/card]s against Affinity. Delver decks are falling out of flavor . A mana denial plan with [card]Fulminator Mage[/card], [card]Avalanche Riders[/card] and [card]Beast Within[/card] is actually pretty good against control and slower combo decks. [card]Living End[/card] is also one of the only decks that have a maindeck answer to a resolved [card]Seismic Assault[/card] in [card]Beast Within[/card]. Also, the fact that pretty much every deck is choosing [card]Grafdigger’s Cage[/card] over [card]Tormod’s Crypt[/card] or [card]Relic of Progenitus[/card] as their graveyard hate dedicated slot, due the popularity of both Aggro Loam and Melira Combo, can only make the case for [card]Living End[/card] stronger and I encourage you to consider testing the combo deck for the remaining Modern PTQs. That is, if you are willing to lose to Storm, I’m afraid that matchup is pretty much unwinnable.

I won the first game after casting [card]Through the Breach[/card] into Emrakul and [card]Remand[/card] his [card]Living End[/card], lost the second one after not being able to find the red instant and running out of counters and lost the very last game of the tournament by being a bit too quick on the trigger and also not thinking through all the possible scenarios. In fact, let’s see if you get it right:

Puzzle Time

It’s my turn.

My opponent has five cards in hand and six untapped mana, two [card]Copperline Gorge[/card]s, one [card]Blackcleave Cliffs[/card], one [card]Overgrown Tomb[/card] and two Forests.

I just drew my card for the turn, a [card]Remand[/card], have access to seven mana, two [card]Izzet Signet[/card]s, one [card]Steam Vents[/card], two [card]Urza’s Mine[/card], one [card]Urza’s Power Plant[/card] and an Island. I have six cards in hand, them being [card]Remand[/card], [card]Through the Breach[/card], two copies of [card]Emrakul, the Aeons Torn[/card], [card]Dispel[/card] and a [card]Burst Lightning[/card].

I’m at sixteen life and my opponent is at seventeen. I have a 3/3 [card]Beast Within[/card] token in play while he has nothing, although his graveyard is full goodies such as [card]Valley Rannet[/card], [card]Architects of Will[/card], [card]Deadshot Minotaur[/card] and [card]Monstrous Carabid[/card]. Mine only has a [card]Thirst for Knowledge[/card] and [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] that I discarded to the blue instant.

I decide to go for it and cast [card]Through the Breach[/card], getting and Emrakul into play and leaving [card]Steam Vents[/card], [card]Urza’s Power Plant[/card] and Island up. I move to attack and he casts [card]Violent Outburst[/card] in response, cascading into [card]Living End[/card]. I [card]Remand[/card] the black spell.

Before the [card]Remand[/card] resolves, he responds with yet another [card]Violent Outburst[/card], cascading into Living End (every time!), to which I respond by cursing the fact that [card]Living End[/card] is a sorcery and not an instant, looking at the useless [card]Dispel[/card] in my hand.

The [card]Living End[/card] resolves, bringing back my [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] and his army of fatties. My [card]Remand[/card] resolves and I draw a land. I pass the turn only to see my opponent cast a [card]Demonic Dread[/card] on my Wurmcoil, revealing no more [card]Living End[/card]s and he wins the match.

Now, I wasn’t able to see the play that not only would not make me lose the game, but it would actually put me in a great position to take the match, can you?

The answer is at the bottom.

Thanks for reading,

André Mateus.

Puzzle Answer – The correct play here would actually be letting the [card]Living End[/card] cast in response to the [card]Remand[/card] resolve, return my opponents creatures and my [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] to play, then using [card]Dispel[/card] on my own [card]Remand[/card], letting the first [card]Living End[/card] resolve as well, making my opponent sacrifice his creatures and my Wurmcoil, leaving me with two 3/3 tokens and him with his creatures back into the graveyard, with no more [card]Living End[/card]s to cascade into.

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