Hating on Modern 40th at Modern PTQ

[lyracian]

Salutations Readers,

My friends wanted to try and win a trip to Hawaii and I went along as the driver. I have played a bit of modern but having now found a deck I liked decided to hate on the format with main deck Molten Rain and Leylines! :o)

The Deck I registed was...
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Helix
4 Boros Charm
4 Goblin Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Reveel
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Skullcrack
3 Searing Blaze
2 Molten Rain
1 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Arid Mesa
2 Marsh Flats
8 Mountain

Sideboard
3 Stony Silence
3 Rest in Peace
2 Path to Exile
2 Wear / Tear
3 Blood Moon
2 Runed Halo

The Tournament

R1: vs Dan Burnard with Scapeshift Combo; Win 2-0
G1: Villian fetched a shock (taking 3 dmaage) to counter my Molten Rain. I blazed his Snapcaster when it tried to attack to keep myself at 19 life and killed hime before he got another land drop
G2: I opened with Leyline and played Goblin Guide followed by Eidolon. He managed to cast Spellskite but it did nothing aginst two Skullcracks.

R2: vs Edward Tarnish with Splinter Twin Combo; Win 2-0
G1: I opened with Leyline and Villian tried for turn 5 (due to Molten Rain) Twin but I cracked a fetch to Blasé & bolt the Exarch allowing Goblin Guide to finished him next turn.
G2: I was able to empty most of my hand so Villian;s monstorous storbreth dragon left me on 1 life, my return attack won the game.

R3: vs Matt Harmer with Storm Combo; Win 2-0
G1: Goblin Guide followed up by Molten Rain leaving him with two pain lands won the game quickly.
G2: I opened with leyline. Villian bolts my two Goblin Guides and managed to makes 8 goblins on turn 4. I top deck a skull crack, which with the cards in hand, allows me to win on my turn.

R4: vs David Hassel with Amulet-combo; Lost 0-2
G1: Villian Pacts for Titan which he casts turn 3 getting the lifegaining land (which he keeps bouncing and replaying) and I can do nothing.
G2: He has the answer for Blood moon, pacts for Two titans and kills me...

R5: vs Fabrizio Anteri with Tron; Lost 0-2
G1: Molten Rain slows him down but he ends up with Double Wurmcoil Engine which just kill me.
G2: He has a natural Tron for turn three Karn. I try casting Blood moon; Villain just ignores it and I end up hurning myself more than him sice I can not cast Boros Charm. I get Villian to one life but he restarts the game twice...
Had the only judge call of the day which Villain asked for the head judge as he wanted to draw a card on the first turn of the new game.

R6: Vs Georage Gardner... No wait they are regenerating the pairings!
R6: vs Sam Bingham living end Combo; Win 2-1
G1: He Cycles 3 Wraiths and cascases; I mange to burn him out before he can swing in for the final points of damage.
G2: I have RIP in my opening hand but Villian combo's turn two with Spirit Guide and I can not race the team.
G3: I mull to 5 but Villains hand is even slower. Living End puts 3 creatures into play one if which I path so I am just able to finish him with Boros Charm and Goblin.

R7: John Patridge with scape shift Combo; Lost 0-2
G1: I make a mistake and let him play a second land so he can counter Boros Charm and when Villain scapeshifts he is at 5 life so I can not finish him with bolt...
G2: I get all the hate (Opening hand 2 Leylines then draw 2 blood moons). Villain kills me with Baloth.

R8: Michael Measures with Twin Combo; Win 2-0
G1: Villain is dead so quickly all I see is visions, bolt and Goyf.
G2: Guide, a fetch and double bolt put Villain 9 on turn two. He plays Spellskite but I follow up with Molten Rain.
Villain passes the turn and during my end step flashes in Exarch. Since he is tapped out I crack a fetch and Blaize Exarch. He redircts and I point out he still takes the 3 damage to target player which drops him to 2 and the last bolt in my hand wins the game.

R9: Chris Yound with burn; Win 2-0
We get deck checked and, not knowing what each other is playing, make sure the judge writes down the 9 minutes time extension. Then me finish the match 5 minutes later and play casual
G1: It is a close match but I draw golbin guide and have Helix which gives me the edge.
G2: I mull to six and play turn zero leyline. Villain looks at it and concedes.

Overall: I finished 40th with a 6-3 record and won 8 boosters (a reasonable return on the $30 entry fee).

The deck did what I wanted it to do, hate on Modern format. I should have put Ensaring Bridge in (it was the other card I was considering) and Blood Moon did not help as much as I thought it would due to finding myself without a Plains in play to use Charm/Helix. I only got Leyline game one against Twin (where it did nothing) but I do still like running it main deck.

For those interested in the final results of the day -

Quarterfinals
Twin win 2-1 vs Jund - Thanks to Blood Moon
Scapeshift wins 2-0 vs Melira Pod - Top decks shift at 1 life game one; facing lethal attack when gets to 7 lands game 2.
Patriot wins 2-1 vs Affinity - Stony Silence game 2 & 3
Rock wins 2-0 vs Patriot

Semi-final
Patriot wins vs Scapeshift
Rock wins vs Twin

Final
Rock wins 2-0 vs Patriot

[Phoenix Ignition]

If you're going burn I agree with your comments on not liking Blood Moon. Decks it would be good against are slow enough that you should be killing them with an extra burn in its slot.

I can't agree with Maindeck leylines. Against the top decks it just doesn't do enough. Affinity, birthing pod, and splinter twin are pretty much unaffected by it, and even BGx just loses out on hand hate (which over half of is Thoughtseize, which doesn't really hurt you that much). That makes it only really good against the mirror, scapeshift, Gifts decks, and UR storm (which I'm fairly sure isn't a deck anymore). I would put it in the SB if you really feel like you need it against those decks, but it's a dead draw against the majority of decks.

[Lord Seth]

I can't agree with Maindeck leylines. Against the top decks it just doesn't do enough. Affinity, birthing pod, and splinter twin are pretty much unaffected by it, and even BGx just loses out on hand hate (which over half of is Thoughtseize, which doesn't really hurt you that much). That makes it only really good against the mirror, scapeshift, Gifts decks, and UR storm (which I'm fairly sure isn't a deck anymore). I would put it in the SB if you really feel like you need it against those decks, but it's a dead draw against the majority of decks.

Not to mention that even against the decks where it isn't a dead draw, it's one less burn spell to kill them with.

[lyracian]

Not to mention that even against the decks where it isn't a dead draw, it's one less burn spell to kill them with.

With my limited testing though the combo decks tended to kill me one turn quicker than I could kill them. I won four of the five games I started with leyline in play and an extra burn spell would not have mattered in the one I did lose. Denys Miasoutov's Burn deck that went undefeated on day one at the GP was running 2 copies in the sideboard http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/c...4/d1undefeated which clearly shows other people are trying out the card.

[Phoenix Ignition]

There's a pretty big difference between 2 sideboard and 4 maindeck.

[lyracian]

There's a pretty big difference between 2 sideboard and 4 maindeck.

Sure. I get you do not like my card choice however it worked quite well for me in the expected (combo heavy) meta. I am just pointing out that it is a card that other people are using.