MTGNexus

This is a placeholder thread. If you are interested in taking over the thread and/or writing a primer, PM the moderator team.

This is the thread to discuss the Living End archetype in Modern.

I don't feel comfortable enough writing the primer or going over history of the deck but I randomly bough most of the deck last year and finished updating since it's pretty good now
here's my list I'd like feedback on:
it feels like I might have too many lands, I doubt I need the basic mountain at all and could be a cycler. I don't know if sb numbers are correct but any feedback would be great

18 lands is fine. I played the deck aggressively a few years ago.. and that amount of lands is ok. Our experiences might be different, but I actually had to go up to 19 land, due to having too many one land openers and not finding a second or third land.

I recommend Desert Cerodon instead of Monstrous Carabid. Six power of cerodon and the ability to block can sometimes decide games, it can trade with primeval titan and 5/6 goyfs. The only downside is there should be sufficient red to be able to cycle cerodon regularly.

yeah the ceredon is probably just better than carabid. I had carabid in because the hybrid made it easier to cycle. I'll probably go down to 19 lands instead of 20

are you going to play the deck in fnm's? Looking forward to see how you pilot it.

Monstrous Carabid is decent, and agreed that he's much easier to cycle. And in my experience, carabid can also be hardcasted easily. What made me stop using carabid is someone in our playgroup had a mono black deck with Phyrexian Obliterator, and carabid automatic attack is suicide. Also with the rise of Shadow decks in those years, Cerodon is better, as he can trade with the Gurmag Angler.

If you can I would consider adding Subtlety. I know they are kinda pricey but having even more interaction to defend your combo seems important especially given the recent pacing and tempo provided by the izzet blitz and tempo deck

@ulka I have all of one copy of Subtlety and haven't tried too hard to get them, but I'll look into them.

@The Fluff I plan on playing fnm with it. Any advice I can get would be amazing

interested to see how Shardless Agent performs. It was not legal when I was active in the deck, so had to use Demonic Dread for cascade.

best moment I had with the deck is against a combo elves player, he has a large army of elves out, he attacks and I outburst in response. He concede after that.

@motleyslayer

on sideboard. If there are plenty of swarm decks.. for example, elves, gobs, and affinity in your meta.. I recommend one Archfiend of Ifnir in the sideboard, He's tailor made for our deck to get rid of multiple low toughness creatures on the other side of the board, he mows down the small ones, and permanently weakens the bigger ones, as long as you can cycle one or two cards when he's around.

I don't know too much about the meta right now as I haven't played paper since late last year but will follow up. It'll be an experience since I've never played the deck in any event

played a 23ish person paper "FNM" type event last night to a 2-2 finish.

Round 1 beat all spells. G1 he did his thing. G2 I kept him off artifact mana and won with a small living end. G3 he mulled to 4 and had to go off with a small Empty the Warrens to try and put pressure on. Didn't matter, cast living end

round 2 get paired against elementals. G1 he recovered from my living end t make a huge presence. G2 he kept a slow hand, discarding Omnath, Locus of Creation to hand size. I thought I should just go off early to put pressure on. I was wrong. Also got stuck with my other copies of living end in hand

Round 3 I get destroyed by Jund Shadow. G1 I didn't draw a green source in what otherwise would have won me the game. Game 2 I mulligan to 6 and didn't see a cascade spell

Round 4 I 2-1 burn in what was actually closer than I would have thought it would have been. G1 she didn't really know how to pressure me and I'm a pretty linear deck. G2 she outraces me. I get g3 because I had double Force of Negation to stay at like 8 life. I kept street wraith in just to have a free cycle

I still don't know how well I'm playing/making mulligan decisions but that probably comes with time. Sideboard needs work

I'm not gonna go over both events I've played in the past few weeks but I've gotten 2 X-1s at FNM lately. My losses were to mono red prowess where I couldn't answer both gy hate and blood moon g2 after dropping g1. The second week I lost to burn where he outraced me g1 and got a t2 rip g2. Couldn't recover. Both those matches might be worse than I expected before.

I also have a few questions. First is how many cyclers should I board out post board? Second question is how should I mulligan with this deck?

I suggest adding some Brindle Boar to the sideboard if you keep having problems with red burn.

personally, I only bring out 2 or 3 cyclers when sideboarding.. bringing out more than that makes the deck clunky.

an opening hand with at least one land, and 2 or 3 cyclers that the land you have can cycle is a playable hand imo..

I ended up getting 3 copies of Grief, so those will make their way into my 60. will post list soon

nice, those should go well with the deck.

ended up going 3-1 at fnm this week with living end, first time playing it in a while

round 1 got n easy 2-0 vs GB squirrels. Not much to write.

r2 beat izzet blitz 2-0. another easy one as he didn't really know how to play the match and tried to race me. Unsure if this is a bad match or not

r 3 lost to mono red prison. g 1 he resolved a Blood Moon and a chalice, with beatdown from Seasoned Pyromancer and tokens. G2 he mulled to 5. G3 I was in a weird spot where I need to get rid of his moon, chalice and cast a Shardless Agent in the same turn to get around Scavenger Grounds

r4 I 2-1 mono red goblins. Games 1 and 3 he couldn't put on enough pressure before I went off. G2 he did

I feel like I need to just sit down and learn the deck

figured it's about time to post my updated list, as it's pretty different now

so a bit on card choices before I go into my fnm from last Friday. Basic island and forest are so I can answer hate cards easily and cast them through a blood moon (which is everywhere in stores I play in). Leyline of Sanctity is for burn and discard decks. Burn seems like it's on the uptick and I still don't know how I feel about the match. There's a lot of BXx midrange decks in my area. I didn't realize I only had 3 Architects of Will so I need to get 1 more and probably replace the carabids for the last one and maybe another Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft

anyways onto the easy 3-0-1 fnm I got for first at a 21 person event

round 1 got the bye.

1-0, easy mode

Round 2 I 2-0 UWr control, red is for Prismatic Ending . g1 I could have gone off on his 4, when I had 3 mana but I noticed he had 4 mana open and quickly passed. So I didn't wanna play into Cryptic Command . I went up with him and a few buddies and I knew he said he didn't really update his deck much over covid so I put him on it. I drew into a grief, which he countered with cryptic. He then tapped out for a jtms so I went off. G2 I believe he mulled to 6, I forced the Dovin's Veto on my first living end. I drew into a living end so I decided to suspend it. I decided to take a weird line where I cast another cascade spell to see if I could kill him before my suspend went off, because I could just go off soon anyways. I was able to kill him by then using Violent Outburst as an anthem. Note my architects of will showed me the one of Rest in Peace at the top so good thing I took that line

2-0.

Round 3 I 2-0 the cascade Glimpse of Tomorrow deck. G1 I go off on 3, counter his Glimpse of Tomorrow the win. g2 he mulls to 5, I living end in response to Teferi, Time Raveler . he bounces something but I can cast again anyways

3-0.

Round 4 opponent offers me the draw, which I accept because I was in first after 3rd round so I figured my standing wouldn't change. Turns out he's on dredge, which isn't a match I really know. While I'm thinking of it, who's favoured in this match?

anyways got first, played against matches I don't know well. I don't know if the build of UWr control is good for me, didn't see chalice but counters galore. I don't know about how the glimpse match should go and dredge feels like it could have been weird

congrats on the good finish.

yeah, Architects can be helpful like that sometimes. Nice line of play there.

being able to rearrange top cards of either player's deck is almost as good as the fact it pitches to both force of negation and grief