Translated by Yoshihiko Ikawa
The original Japanese text is here.
(2018/02/14)
(2018/02/14)
Hello. My name is Yoshihiko Ikawa, sponsored as one of Hareruya Pros.
This is the first time for me to translate from Japanese to English, so please forgive me my poor English. If you want to read in Japanese, please check here.
Recently Tron has a many good results around the world and Magic Online and I am strongly sure that Tron is one of the best deck in Modern now.
Today I explain to you my BG Tron, which I played with in 3 events through GP Oklahoma City 2017 (11-4), PT Rivals of Ixalan (Day1 Drop) and GP Toronto 2018 (12-3).
Note: To avoid misunderstandings, I was not blindly playing Tron only. November to February I tested almost all Tier 1 decks on Magic Online. I played over 350 matches with them and I played over 150 matches with Tron.
The Advantage of Tron
Having two different game plans -Control or Ramp-
If you hear just “Tron”, maybe you imagine “Turn 3 《Karn Liberated》/《Wurmcoil Engine》 deck”. But it is only one side of Tron.
In game 1, Tron has two-sidedness that the control deck which has sweeper and finisher and the ramp deck which plays big dudes and Planeswalkers in early turn.
Tron often plays “Urza’s lands completed and play 《Oblivion Stone》/《Ugin, the Spirit Dragon》 on turn 4″ especially against aggro decks like Affinity and Humans, and sometimes “Turn 3 《Wurmcoil Engine》 or 《Karn Liberated》” and immediately dominates the game regardless of opponent’s deck.
Correspond to those different two plans is so difficult for any decks. Because Tron has some cards which are resistant to countermagic like 《World Breaker》 and 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》, the plan that you just wait and counter big spells does not work well.
Tron can transform to good midrange deck with 《Thought-Knot Seer》 and 《Thragtusk》 post-board, so Tron can particially ignore the disruption like 《Spreading Seas》《Ceremonious Rejection》《Negate》. This transformation is one of the strength of current Tron.
High Consistency -Best Cantrips In Modern-
Tron has many cantrips like 《Chromatic Star》, 《Chromatic Sphere》 and 《Relic of Progenitus》. Also Tron has《Ancient Stirrings》 which is the best draw spell in Modern and two tutor spells like 《Expedition Map》 and 《Sylvan Scrying》, so always deck works well so stably.
It is sure that Urza’s lands are completed on turn 4, and it is not rare case completed on turn 3. Sometimes I heard that “Oh, you’re so lucky to get all Tron pieces on Turn 3”, but it is the big misunderstanding. Tron is consistent enough for that, and you should think that getting whole Tron pieces on turn 3 is not lucky. For example, Tron’s best move “Turn 3 《Wurmcoil Engine》 or 《Karn Liberated》” happens more frequently than BG’s best move “Turn 1 《Inquisition of Kozilek》/《Thoughtseize》, turn2 《Dark Confidant》/《Tarmogoyf》, turn 3 《Liliana of the Veil》“.
And these cantrip/tutor cards are still useful after completing Tron pieces. Because you can use them to find finisher. 《Ancient Stirrings》 is the best and much stronger than 《Preordain》 and 《Ponder》 in this deck. 《Sylvan Scrying》 and 《Expedition Map》 are also good because they can search 《Sanctum of Ugin》 and 《Ghost Quarter》.
High Durability to Mulligan -Produce 7 mana with only 3 lands-
Usually double or Triple mulligan causes deck worse activity, and often lose the game by shortage of spells and/or lands to cast spells.
For clear example, some decks which win by one card and one card like Burn and Infect or which require both good balance of lands/spells and many lands to win the game like UW Control are easy to lose the game by multiple mulligans.
But it is not true for Tron. Urza’s lands can produce 7 mana with only 3 lands, so it means that you can recover 4 cards advantage when you can complete Urza’s lands unlike other decks.
And the spells played by Urza’s lands are all strong, so you can ignore the disadvantage of multiple mulligans and win the game with heavy and strong spells.
Smallness of the Unfavorable Match -Strengths of highly responsive decks-
In qualitatively of the deck, the land destruction cards are painful, and sometimes suffer from 《Stony Silence》 or 《Rest in Peace》 on turn 2. But the land destruction cards without damage clock – like 《Spreading Seas》 and 《Field of Ruin》 of UW Control – are just killing time and Tron is not suffered so hard. It goes same for 《Stony Silence》 and 《Chalice of the Void》. They need some clock to win the game.
This is the video-clip where I played against UW Control at GP Toronto. My Urza’s lands had never completed because of multiple 《Spreading Seas》 and 《Field of Ruin》 from my opponent, but I played land every turn and finally won the game with casting 《Oblivion Stone》, 《Wurmcoil Engine》, 《Karn Liberated》 and 《World Breaker》 one after another.
“《Blood Moon》 is very good card against Tron” is not that true or it lacks some words to explain perfectly. Some 《Blood Moon》 decks which can win during the decelerating like RB 《Hollow One》 is so strong against Tron, but 《Blood Moon》 from a deck which doesn’t have fast clock like Mardu Pyromancer or UR Blue Moon is not so effective. In that case, usually 《Oblivion Stone》 crushes everything or 《Wurmcoil Engine》《Thragtusk》 beat them and Tron wins the game at last.
Overall, there is no real hate card for Tron which can win the game itself like 《Leyline of Sanctity》 for Burn or 《Blood Moon》 for Scapeshift. In addition, there are only few decks which can be good against Tron. “Too fast deck” like Elves, Infect, Grishoalbrand and “Continuously land destruction deck” like RG Land-Destruction or Living End are bad match-ups for Tron, but other than that Tron doesn’t have specific bad match-ups and those factors are the reason why Tron is great nowadays.
About My Deck List
- Yoshihiko Ikawa
- 「GB Tron」
- GP Toronto 2018
- (12-3, 25th)
3 《Forest》
1 《Overgrown Tomb》
1 《Llanowar Wastes》
4 《Urza's Tower》
4 《Gemstone Mine》
4 《Urza's Power Plant》
1 《Ghost Quarter》
1 《Sanctum of Ugin》
-Land(19)- 3 《Wurmcoil Engine》
1 《World Breaker》
3 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》
-Creature(7)-
1 《Overgrown Tomb》
1 《Llanowar Wastes》
4 《Urza's Tower》
4 《Gemstone Mine》
4 《Urza's Power Plant》
1 《Ghost Quarter》
1 《Sanctum of Ugin》
-Land(19)- 3 《Wurmcoil Engine》
1 《World Breaker》
3 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》
-Creature(7)-
4 《Ancient Stirrings》
4 《Sylvan Scrying》
2 《Dismember》
4 《Chromatic Sphere》
4 《Chromatic Star》
4 《Expedition Map》
3 《Relic of Progenitus》
4 《Oblivion Stone》
4 《Karn Liberated》
1 《Ugin, the Spirit Dragon》
-Spell(34)-
4 《Sylvan Scrying》
2 《Dismember》
4 《Chromatic Sphere》
4 《Chromatic Star》
4 《Expedition Map》
3 《Relic of Progenitus》
4 《Oblivion Stone》
4 《Karn Liberated》
1 《Ugin, the Spirit Dragon》
-Spell(34)-
3 《Thoughtseize》
3 《Collective Brutality》
2 《Thought-Knot Seer》
2 《Thragtusk》
2 《Nature's Claim》
1 《Spatial Contortion》
1 《Seal of Primordium》
1 《Swamp》
-Sideboard(15)-
3 《Collective Brutality》
2 《Thought-Knot Seer》
2 《Thragtusk》
2 《Nature's Claim》
1 《Spatial Contortion》
1 《Seal of Primordium》
1 《Swamp》
-Sideboard(15)-
Yuuya Watanabe – my good friend and well known as one of the best player in the world – made good result (7-3) with my decklist at PT RIX (He played same 74 cards). And I finished 12-3 at GP Toronto last weekend. I played the same 75 cards consecutive for 2 weeks PT RIX to GP Toronto. As you can see from this, I’m satisfied with all the 75 cards on this list at the moment.
So let’s explain the reasons for card choice.
Why do I play 3rd 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》?
3
The most characteristic of my deck list is 3rd 《Ulamog》, isn’t it?
《Ulamog》 is super heavy 10 mana card, but it’s amaizingly good. Because the value is strong enough to pay 10 mana, very good against all Blue decks, and it also makes it easier in bad match-ups to win with “best move”.
I played only 2 《Ulamog》 at first and joined GP Oklahoma City, but testing more and more, I decided to play 3rd 《Ulamog》 at last. In many testing, I found that I always want to draw 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》 after completing Urza’s lands, drawing it directly is more quickly and easier than searching by 《Sanctum of Ugin》 , and I should increase the probability of the best move; play 《Ulamog》 on turn 4.
Post-board, basically you should keep 3 《Ulamog》 and aim to turn 5 《Ulamog》 with 5 lands for the goal except for match-ups where opponent attaks your Urza’s land. This is the simplest and the strongest plan.
Thank you for Yuuta Takahashi who advocated me 3rd 《Ulamog》!
Which is better 《Dismember》 or 《Fatal Push》?
If you look their performance, 《Fatal Push》 is better than 《Dismember》. But the basic plan of this deck is “Play colorless land every turn”, so the necessity for black to play 《Fatal Push》 is crucial for this deck.
If you use 《Chromatic Star》 for playing 《Fatal Push》, it often makes the delay to play 《Ancient Stirrings》《Sylvan Scrying》. Moreover you can play 《Fatal Push》 almost only through 《Chromatic Star》《Chromatic Sphere》, it means 《Fatal Push》 is almost 2 mana card which is hard to play and after all it makes delay to deal with the threats like 《Steel Overseer》.
Compared to 《Fatal Push》, 《Dismember》 causes lose 4 life to play but you can play it with colorless mana immediately, so 《Dismember》 fits Tron than 《Fatal Push》!
As the same reason, I chose to play 《Spatial Contortion》 as the additional removal spell in sideboard. You can play 《Spatial Contortion》 on turn 2 without 《Sphere》/《Star》, it is very imporatant against very fast decks.
Which is the Best, Mono-green ,Splash Black or Splash Red?
As I mentioned, Tron doesn’t need 《Fatal Push》, so Mono-green is the best build in mainboard. But how about post-board?
Let’s consider the difference depending on the each version.
If you splash black to Tron, you can play 《Collective Brutality》 and 《Thoughtseize》 mainly. 《Collective Brutality》 is very strong card against Burn, Infect and 《Collected Company》 decks as you know. 《Thoughtseize》is very strong against many Blue decks with countermagigc and all combo decks. It is also very useful in mirror-match.
If you splash Red to Tron, you can play 《Pyroclasm》 and 《Blood Sun》 mainly. 《Pyroclasm》 is the best card for swarm decks like Affinity, Humans and Elves. 《Blood Sun》 is great card against Titanshift. It is important to note that 《Grove of the Burnwillows》 is strong against 《Death's Shadow》 decks.
Both colors are very good but I chose to play “splash black” because splash black makes Tron to more wide range of opponents, and it is suitable for metagames that are widely played many archtypes like current Modern.
The advantage of mono-green is that you can play more basic lands to care about 《Path to Exile》《Field of Ruin》《Blood Moon》. But weak sideboard makes you easier to lose post-board and the match win-percentage will decrease. So I don’t like mono-green.
What is the Best BG Land?
I checked many decklists in building BG Tron at first, most decks played 《Blooming Marsh》 as BG land. But the best and basic plan is “Play Urza’s land on turn 1 to 3”, there are not many cases that you should play green mana within the 3rd turn. And also Tron uses all mana in every turn because Tron has many cantrips, so tap-in effect of 《Blooming Marsh》 on turn 4 or after is very fatal.
Easy example for that; You completed Urza’s lands and played 《Karn Liberated》 on turn 3, but countered. Next turn, you want to play 《World Breaker》……but if you have 《Blooming Marsh》 as a only green mana source, it is tap-in and you can’t play it! This is likely occur frequently and horrible situation, you know?
《Blooming Marsh》 is rejected in the reason, I decided to play 《Llanowar Wastes》 and 《Overgrown Tomb》. Both of these have advantages and disadvantages. Basically 《Llanowar Wastes》 is better than 《Overgrown Tomb》. 《Overgrown Tomb》 makes 2 damage immediately in every game, you can postpone paylife or sometimes it makes no damage with 《Llanowar Wastes》. However, in fact 《Llanowar Wastes》occasionary made 3 or more damage in a game, especially when turn 1 《Ancient Stirrings》 and turn 2 《Sylvan Scrying》 plan.
Finally, I chose to play 1《Overgrown Tomb》 and 1 《Llanowar Wastes》 to be able to distribute the risk when multiple these lands drawn.
Which is better 《Nature's Claim》 or 《Seal of Primordium》?
Basically, 《Nature's Claim》 is better than 《Seal of Primordium》 because it’s cost is cheaper than another and it gives you 4 life when you faces Burn.
But I like the strengths of 《Seal of Primordium》 which is that you can put on the battlefield in advance against Lantern Control or 《Blood Moon》 deck and that you don’t need to keep 《Sphere》 /《Star》 and go ahead to draw to find another Urza’s land. Finally I decided to play 2《Nature's Claim》 and 1《Seal of Primordium》 for this deck.
You can change this balance to adjust for the metageme. If you think Burn, Affinity and Bogles is strong now, you should play 3 《Nature's Claim》. If you want to care about 《Blood Moon》 decks or Lantern Control, you can play 2 or 3 《Seal of Primordium》.
《Swamp》 in Sideboard?
I never want to play 《Swamp》 in mainboard because it is almost no ability colorless land and reducing the green mana source causes more mulligan.
But I want 《Swamp》 in 75 cards because I want to play many great black cards in sideboard, so I decided to open a space the sideboard for 1 《Swamp》. You can search 《Swamp》 thanks to 《Path to Exile》 and/or 《Field of Ruin》 against UWx deck and play 《Thoughtseize》 to resolve your finishers.
Playing 4 basiclands, 3 《Forest》 in mainboard and 1 《Swamp》 in sideboard, makes stronger against 《Field of Ruin》《Ghost Quarter》《Path to Exile》. Usually BG/RG Tron play only 2 or 3 basiclands in the deck, so it is also one of the strengths of this decklist.
Mulligan Guide
As mentioned above Tron has high durability to multiple mulligan, so understanding the mulligan correctly is the most important thing for playing Tron.
“Complete Urza’s lands in 3 turn” or “Complete Urza’s lands in 4 turn with sweeper” are Tron’s basic strategy. For that, you should keep these hands; 1) 3 Urza’s lands (or 2 lands + 《Expedition Map》), 2) 2 Urza’s lands + green mana source + something draw/search, 3) 1 Urza’s land + green mana source + 2 search cards. Of cource it depends on situations, number of hands, play/draw, opponent’ deck, but please remember that you should take mulligan strictly and finally you can win with completing Urza’s lands in early turn.
Let’s go through some sample hands to see how this works in action:
Sample Hand 1
Keep
This hand corresponds to “3) 1 Urza’s land + green mana source + 2 search cards”. Though there is only 1 land in hand, you can search 2nd land with turn 1 《Chromatic Star》and turn 2 《Ancient Stirrings》. If you can get 2nd Urza’s land by turn 2, you can complete Urza’s lands with 《Sylvan Scrying》 and play 《Karn Liberated》 on turn 3. It is the strength of Tron that it is possible to keep a hand with one land only.
Sample Hand 2
Keep
This hand seems like the middle of “2) 2 Urza’s lands + green mana source + something draw/search” and “3) 1 Urza’s land + green mana source + 2 search cards”. In this case, you shouldn’t plan to complete Urza’s land on turn 3. You should plan to sweep with 《Oblivion Stone》on turn 4, so set 《Forest》 and play 《Ancient Stirrings》 to search the lacking Urza’s lands or 《Expedition Map》 on turn 1.
Sample Hand 3
Mulligan
This hand don’t correspond to any hands above, so I recommend to mulligan this hand. You can’t play 《Ancient Stirrings》 or 《Sylvan Scrying》 without green mana, not enough cantrip cards, so you must draw 《Urza's Power Plant》 or 《Expedition Map》 in a few turn. It is very difficult to complete Urza’s lands. If you took mulligan already, you can keep similar hand, otherwise, you shouldn’t keep this hand. If there is a 《Chromatic Star》or 《Chromatic Sphere》 in similar hand, you can keep.
Sample Hand 4
Mulligan
Already you took mulligan once, and there are 2 cantrips, but still you should take mulligan. Taking mulligan the trap hand like this and keep 5 cards which have high possibility to complete Urza’s lands makes improvement in winning percentage. Even if you take mulligan three times and you started with 4 cards only, sometimes you can win the game easily with these hand; 《Urza's Power Plant》《Gemstone Mine》《Chromatic Sphere》《Ancient Stirrings》.
Sample Hand 5
Keep
It does not apply to any of the above and there may be controversial arguments, but I have decided to keep the hand like this exceptionally. The differences from sample hand 3 are that; there are multiple cantrips in hand, and more than anything, there are 2 《Urza's Tower》 which makes play 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》 in early. Draw cards with 《Relic of Progenitus》 and extra draw in a few turn, so let’s aim for upward swing “《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》 in 4 turn”.
Sideboarding Guide
I show basic sideboarding plans and thought about common archtypes.
But it depends on opponent’s list, sideboarding and play/draw, so for reference only. And this is also the guide for pre-unban, I don’t accomodate about 《Bloodbraid Elf》 / 《Jace, the Mind Sculptor》.
Affinity
Against Affinity
Out
In
Even or Slightly favored I think. 《Oblivion Stone》 is the most important card in this match. You always should care about poison-death by 《Inkmoth Nexus》 because 《Oblivion Stone》 doesn’t work for it. At once Urza’s lands comleted, you can search 《Ghost Quarter》 and prepare for it.
On the draw, you should board-in a few 《Collective Brutality》 as additonal removal to destroy 《Steel Overseer》 certainly. You can board-out a 《Karn Liberated》 and a 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》 because they will not make it in time.
5C Humans
Against 5C Humans
Out
〔l_$Karn. the Liberead〕
Slightly unfavored match-up. This is 60-40 match-up when you are on the play, but this is only 35-65 match-up when you are on the draw. This defference depends on how 《Thalia, Guardian of Thraben》 works. If you want care about this match-up more, I recommend to play 《Walking Ballista》 or 《All Is Dust》 in mainboard.
Burn
Against Burn
Out
In
It seems like a terrible match-up, but in fact this is not that bad because you often can win very easily with turn 3 《Wurmcoil Engine》 on the play.
As everyone knows, 《Collective Brutality》 is the best sideboard against Burn. When you on the draw, don’t keep the hand without 《Wurmcoil Engine》 or 《Thragtusk》 or 《Collective Brutality》 even if Urza’s lands are completed.
RB 《Hollow One》
Against RB 《Hollow One》
Out
In
《Wurmcoil Engine》 is the best card as against Burn. I think this match-up is slightly favored, but elements of luck occupy a large proportion, how fast opponent move, how 《Burning Inquiry》‘s random draw/ discard effects on each other.
If you have multiple Urza’s lands in hand, you should take care of 《Burning Inquiry》; for example, when you have 2 《Urza's Tower》 and 1 《Urza's Mine》, you should set 《Urza's Mine》 at first.
A
A
B
Dredge
Against Dredge
Out
In
Main losing pattern is facing the 5 or more clocks on turn 2 on the draw. But you have 《Relic of Progenitus》 and 《Ugin, the Spirit Dragon》 in mainboard, so this is slightly favored match-up.
Dredge want to beat you as fast as possible, so 《Thragtusk》 helps you a lot with gain 5 life and as a good blocker.
Bogles
Against Bogles
Out
In
The key-cards in this match-up are 《Oblivion Stone》 and 《Ugin, the Spirit Dragon》. If you can make these in time, you will win the game as it is.
It is better not to board-out the spot removals, because 《Kor Spiritdancer》 makes massive card advantage and become huge clock and《Gaddock Teeg》 causes serious problem.
Eldrazi Tron
Against Eldrazi Tron
Out
In
It is good on paper as a deck structure but there are many ways to lose such as turn 2 《Thought-Knot Seer》 and turn 3 《Reality Smasher》 with 《Ghost Quarter》 or turn 2 《Chalice of the Void》 on the draw. So I think slightly favored match-up for Tron.
You can board-out 《Ghost Quarter》 on the play because not to need to interact with your opponent. On the other hand, you can keep 《Ghost Quarter》 on the draw. 《Swamp》 can only be used to play 《Dismember》, but lfe total is very important in this match-up and you can search it by opposing 《Ghost Quarter》 in most cases.
Abzan / Jund / BG
Against Abzan / Jund / BG
Out
In
Great match-ups, but you often lose easily if your opponent is strongly conscious about Tron.
Against Abzan, you can board-in 《Nature's Claim》 if opponent plays 2 or more 《Stony Silence》.
Against BG, your opponent has 8 land-destrucion(《Fulminator Mage》/《Field of Ruin》) , so you should board-out heavy cards more like 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》 and you should board-in an additional basic land and the spot removal to kill 《Dark Confidant》.
Grixis Shadow
Against Grixis Shadow
Out
In
《Relic of Progenitus》 is very good card in this match-up. And more than anything, 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》 is the best card in this match-up.
Heavy non-creature spells are countered by whatever –《Stubborn Denial》, 《Disdainful Stroke》 and 《Ceremonious Rejection》-, so it is dangerous to rely too much on them. On the other hand they don’t interact your lands, so let’s complete Urza’s lands and play 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》 as soon as possible.
Traverse Shadow
Against Traverse Shadow
Out
In
Unlike Grixis Shadow, Traverse Shadow tends to not have a large number of counter spells so far. So you can use the same tactics as pre-board. 《Ugin, the Spirit Dragon》 shuts out the game when it is resolved at once because Traverse Shadow doesn’t have any creatures with high converted mana cost like 《Gurmag Angler》 nor removal spells for Planeswalkers.
Jeskai Tempo
Against Jeskai Tempo
Out
In
You don’t lose the game except “Turn 3 《Geist of Saint Traft》” and Jeskai Tempo mostly doesn’t interact your Urza’s lands, so this is very good match-up for Tron I think. On the draw, you don’t mind board-outing more 《Karn Liberated》 and keeping more 《Wurmcoil Engine》 to face 《Geist of Saint Traft》.
On the play 《Thoughtseize》 is usually used for support to resolve the heavy spells and on the draw often used on turn 2 to discard 《Geist of Saint Traft》. If you think opponent plays many 《Stony Silence》, you can board-in a few 《Nature's Claim》.
UW Control
Against UW Control
Out
In
UW Control plays 4 《Spreading Seas》 and 4 《Field of Ruin》 but they don’t have decent clock, so eventually you can complete Urza’s land and win the game 1.
You should not board-out 《Forest》 because they have 《Field of Ruin》 and 《Path to Exile》. You don’t need 《Ghost Quarter》 to destroy 《Celestial Colonnade》 unlike against Jeskai because they don’t have decent damage source and there is afford of life.
Recently they often play 《Monastery Mentor》 post-board. You can play a few removals like 《Dismember》, 《Spatial Contortion》 or 《Oblivion Stone》 on the draw.
Mardu Pyromaner
Against Mardu Pyromancer
Out
In
Be careful to 《Blood Moon》, but keep it to the minimum sideboarding as possible because this match-up is great for Tron.
You want to deal with 《Young Pyromancer》 on turn 2, so you can play 《Dismember》 or 《Spatial Contortion》 on the draw.
UR Storm
Against UR Storm
Out
In
You have 3 《Relic of Progenitus》 in mainboard, and you can play many hand-destruction and additional removals, so this match-up is slightly favored for BG Tron unlike Mono-Green or RG Tron.
Basic plan is here; play lands with keeping mana up for 《Relic of Progenitus》 or removal at the ready as possible, and disrupt opponent with hand-destruction, and finally win the game with 《Karn Liberated》 or 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》.
You should play 1 more 《Collective Brutality》 to care about 《Goblin Electromancer》 on the draw. If your opponent plays not 《Shivan Reef》 but 《Scalding Tarn》, you can also board-in some 《Nature's Claim》 or 《Seal of Primordium》 for 《Blood Moon》.
Tron Mirror
Against Tron Mirror
Out
In
〔l_$Seal of Promordium〕
《Karn Liberated》 on turn 3 is always the storngest. The player on the play wins the match by it in almost case.
It is so hard to win on the draw, you should think that how you can stop opponent’s 《Karn Liberated》 on turn 3 and that how you can win if opponent is hard luck. 《Thoughtseize》 and 《Nature's Claim》 is very useful especially on the draw.
Lantern Control
Against Lantern Control
Out
In
This is the greatest match-up for Tron definitely. They can’t disrupt to complete Urza’s lands perfectly and you can crush their strategy from many angles with 《Karn Liberated》, 《Oblivion Stone》, 《Ugin, the Spirit Dragon》, 《World Breaker》 and 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》. Even they have many 《Pithing Needle》, it is not enough.
The key is to save your 《Chromatic Sphere》 as long as possible. The draw by 《Chromatic Sphere》 is a part of “mana ability” and it is not on the stack and you can draw with ignoring opponent’s 《Codex Shredder》 or 《Pyxis of Pandemonium》 unlike 《Chromatic Star》! They don’t have any clocks at all, you just play lands every turn and draw fatal card with 《Chromatic Sphere》. Easy win.
Titan Shift
Against Titan Shift
Out
In
This is bad match-up for Tron. Especially you sometimes lose game 1 even if you play 《Karn Liberated》 on turn 3 or play 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》 on turn 5.
Splash black is very useful in this match-up. Basically you should play hand-destrucions to discard fatal cards such as 《Primeval Titan》《Scapeshift》《Hour of Promise》《Chandra, Torch of Defiance》. They often play 《Tireless Tracker》 post-board, so you should not board-out 《Dismember》.
Unbanning & Conclusion
As you know Modern is changing now with unban 《Jace, the Mind Sculptor》 and 《Bloodbraid Elf》.
I’m looking forward to what kind of decks rise and I also will challenge some decks with these 2 cards. I want to play Faeries coexisted 《Jace, the Mind Sculptor》 and 《Liliana of the Veil》, my memorable Jund with 《Bloodbraid Elf》 and another deck like RUG with both 《Jace, the Mind Sculptor》 and 《Bloodbraid Elf》. Of course there is no doubt that already existing decks such as UW Control and UR Breach will be strengthened by some 《Jace, the Mind Sculptor》.
However, this unban could make big chance for Tron. Both blue control decks which want 《Jace, the Mind Sculptor》 and midrange decks such as Jund are good match-ups for Tron. It will not need many changes in accordance with this unban, some cards such as《Pithing Needle》 and 《Sorcerous Spyglass》 enter the option in sideboard.
How do 《Jace, the Mind Sculptor》 and 《Bloodbraid Elf》 flourish and what is the final winner? I can’t wait for new Modern!
If you have any questions, please ask me on Twitter or Comments. I’m not good at English, but I promise to do my best effort. Thank you for reading!
Yoshihiko
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Specializing in Constructed formats, he earned a Top 8 appearance at Pro Tour San Diego 2010, and placed 10th at Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir using WR Soldiers of his own design . In the 2017-18 season, he finished 17th place in Pro Tour XLN that went with brilliant 9-1 record in Standard round with 25 lands Ramunap Red.
He plays a precise, tight game with consummate objectivism, making him a trusted playtest partner, particularly when rigorously preparing for Grand Prix and Pro Tours with top players of Japan.
