Blood Moon or Boil??

Modern forum

Posted on Jan. 19, 2021, 11:27 a.m. by Lowenstein

I'm still not yet very familiar playing against Uro and Titan decks. I play a UR combo deck and am trying to decide what do sideboard here. I currently have a couple Blood Moon, but I am wondering if Boil is better. I do know that lots of decks sideboard Boil, but also lots of decks mainboard Blood Moon. So as a combo deck vs Uro and Titan, what do you recommend?

Xianling69 says... #2

can you link your decklist?

January 19, 2021 11:34 a.m.

Lowenstein says... #3

Haha yeah it's my Seismic Swans deck so honestly not anything too crazy but I still really like it XD it does win haha

[[Primer]] Best Deck in Modern (41 lands)

I also think Moon or Boil might be better than Confounding Conundrum, but I'm just not that knowledgeable on this rn.

January 19, 2021 11:39 a.m.

gatotempo says... #4

I am trying to solve the same problem in burn. My conclusion has been that slower decks should play Boil, because it costs more but is, in general, more effective, but faster decks run Blood Moon, because they can win in the time it takes for the opponent to remove it. Hopefully this is helpful.

January 19, 2021 11:41 a.m.

Xianling69 says... #5

you have far too many nonbasics for Blood Moon, and the uro omnath list on mtggoldfish has less than 1/3 of its lands with the island type. so i don't think either option will really work

January 19, 2021 11:44 a.m.

Lowenstein says... #6

I know that Blood Moon can damage me, but the majority of the time it does what I need to. I also know that Boil can hurt me, but yeah. I'm not so worried about when can through me off a little as what will through off my opponent most.

Xianling69 do you recommend Confounding Conundrum then? Or something else vs Uro?

gatotempo thanks that makes sense. The problem is that sometimes I win fast but other times I don't get the draw I need, so it's not consistently fast or slow :P XD

January 19, 2021 11:56 a.m.

Xianling69 says... #7

i think you mean "throw" off. i would not recommend Confounding Conundrum. its a bad late game draw after they have their lands, and they can just play around it. i actually think your best bet would be counter spells, and something that exiles their entire graveyard so they can't cast uro with escape or use W6 to get back fetch lands.

January 19, 2021 12:04 p.m.

sergiodelrio says... #8

Against those specific decks... maybe Torpor Orb would do the trick?

January 19, 2021 12:07 p.m.

Xianling69 says... #9

sergiodelrio: uro omnath only runs 6 creatures. and omnath's etb isn't even the biggest reason people use it. landfall will still trigger with a Torpor Orb out.

January 19, 2021 12:10 p.m.

Lowenstein says... #10

Yeah I had thought about counter spells as well too. Something like Mana Leak to counter the Titan then?

January 19, 2021 12:15 p.m.

gatotempo says... #11

I think that your deck is more vulnerable to blood moon than it is to boil, so for that reason, boil may be better.

January 19, 2021 12:33 p.m.

Xianling69 says... #12

Mana Leak could work, or even Rune Snag if you have enough card draw.

January 19, 2021 1:34 p.m.

Flooremoji says... #13

Isn't Boil mostly just for Dryad of the Ilysian Grove rather than being good in general?

January 19, 2021 1:45 p.m.

gatotempo says... #14

Flooremoji I think it helps beat the mystic sanctuary shell, which runs more islands, as well.

January 19, 2021 4 p.m.

TriusMalarky says... #15

Blood Moon is pretty much always better due to the fact that it hits nonblue decks. Which means Jund, and a lot of other decks.

However, you have 4 cards that have double blue. And they're SUPER important to your strategy.

So, what you need is fetchlands. I recommend Prismatic Vista is okay, any blue fetch such as Flooded Strand is fine as long as you find a copy or two of Steam Vents. Evolving Wilds can replace some of your taplands.

This is one of those things where your problem is finding a way to afford fetchlands. Blood Moon is 100% better in this case.

Unless, of course, you splash green and use tri-lands like that Triome and Frontier Bivouac and cut all your islands. Then you can use Choke.

January 19, 2021 4:18 p.m.

Lowenstein says... #16

TriusMalarky fetchlands are actually pretty bad for the deck. They thin in, making it hard to combo off. I have just enough lands in.

The problem with Jund is that pretty much every other card they run kills me, so I don't normally sb in Blood Moon. I've played a lot with the deck and I'm fine with the Moon, and I could see it being fine with Boil as well.

I think the question that I should've asked is how to sideboard best against Uro and Titan with UR?

January 19, 2021 4:40 p.m.

Xianling69 says... #17

the deck thinning by fetchlands is extremely minimal and won't hurt your deck.

January 19, 2021 11:44 p.m.

Lowenstein says... #18

It actually will, I’ve played the deck a lot. I usually finish comboing with 5-15 lands left.

January 20, 2021 12:40 a.m.

Xianling69 says... #19

it actually won't. the deck thinning thing was debated in modern for a while, with people wondering if mono colored decks should run fetches just to thin the deck. the consensus was that the increased chance of drawing a spell was so minimal, it wasn't worth the loss of life. with more lands, this effect gets even smaller.

lets use your deck as an example and do the math. lets say you're on the draw, keep your opening 7, and are able to make a land drop for the first 4 turns before running out of lands. at this point, you have 49 cards left in your deck, 37 of which will be lands. this gives about a 24.5% chance of drawing a spell turn 5.

now lets compare that to what the situation would be if all 4 of those land drops had been fetch lands (which likely won't happen, but i'm over estimating on purpose to further prove my point). you would then have 45 cards left in the deck, 33 of which would be lands. this gives about a 26.5% chance of drawing a spell the following turn. that 2% chance is so extremely minimal, and again, thats an overestimation that assumes you're playing a fetch land every turn, which generally won't happen.

January 20, 2021 12:52 a.m.

Lowenstein says... #20

I appreciate it, but like you said the 2% doesn’t make much of a difference. The mana base is consistent rn, and there are some situations when I really need to draw a non land and others when I really need a land, and sometimes don’t get it. I mean the deck is jank, and the plan isn’t to draw into the combo (and obviously it goes that way sometimes) but I have to have enough lands. I’ve played games where it literally came down to the difference of one or two.

I mean I might be one of the only ones who ever plays this and I have the experience.

The point of this though was how to sb vs Uro and Titan decks.

January 20, 2021 2:09 a.m.

Xianling69 says... #21

well i'm glad you understand now that fetch lands wouldn't hurt your combo. thats why other seismic assault decks use them. you're not the only one to play seismic assault, i've seen it before at fnm. the idea of using fetch lands though is directly relevant to your decision of using Blood Moon. you'll want to have those fetch lands available so you can grab basic islands before you drop the blood moon. or it might be worth it to splash green for Life from the Loam and drop some of the other less impactful spells you have.

January 20, 2021 1:15 p.m.

Please login to comment