hello frens! this is my current configuration of living end! I have included an in-depth explanation for the list below, feel free to give it a read!
my name is Demonatarms (otherwise known as Seishin), I'm an avid modern player and pauper enthusiast, with a passion for competing with my favorite decks (pet cards, when within reason, be damned.). I have been playing modern since early 2012 and have been competing with
Living End
in multitudes of variations for almost that entire span, I've had secondary lists and meme decks I've messed around with, but for the most part I have played solely living end.
the state of living end in the modern format has always been interesting, the decks basic game plan interacts on various angles that many decks aren't prepared for, or that alter the priorities of both players in non-standard directions. The nature of the decks play patterns can confuse unaware opponents, and provide for unique corner-case interactions, like with
Grafdigger's Cage
This configuration of the list is what I've come up with to provide both an adequate to above average matchup spread against the meta as a whole, and shores up various weaknesses that have plagued the deck (mostly regardless of variation) for quite a while now.
The first big switch for the deck was to swap from a traditional Jund manabase, cycle package and Cascade enablers, this switch was prompted by The banning of
Simian Spirit Guide
, but I believe even if SSG had not been banned, this variation would stand equal to or better than jund variants in effectiveness.
so what changed?
a swap from Jund of course caused a cascade (heh) of changes for regular gameplay and matchups. Losing simian spirit guide means no longer having the ability to sneak in an extra cycler, or cast
Violent Outburst
or
Demonic Dread
at a better rate (or earlier). sideboard options such as
Blood Moon
,
Fulminator Mage
(partially less viable due to the format being sped up and sideboard slots being so precious) were made less viable, as cheating out an early blood moon or fulminator mage could potentially be back-breaking enough on unsuspecting opponents for you to squeeze out a win, be it by cheese or by speedbumping/handicapping the opponent. Blue matchups required to be re-adapted and evaluated too because some lists ran
Simian Spirit Guide
+
Ricochet Trap
out of the board, or any other silver-bullets that required being deployed earlier off the back of SSG.
The Switch to Blue:
Changing the manabase, cycling package and cascade options from Jund to Bant (splash red, We will get to this later.) required tedious and rigorous testing, optimizing and countless hours deliberating card choices before I settled on a List I'm proud to show off.
Cascade enablers:
to start
Demonic Dread
was replaced for
Ardent Plea
. this solved the issue of Dread requiring a target in order to be cast, which, if you have ever played Jund living end (or perhaps against it), in various cases you could be sitting on a dread with no target and a stacked Yard of cyclers.
Demonic Dread
being able to prevent a creature from blocking had its value and usages, but the downside of needing a target not only outweighed the pros, Additionally the Substitution of
Ardent Plea
offers a similar tangential upside, because it sticks around it can allow for early, small living ends and pump evasive cyclers like aven windcaller and
Curator of Mysteries
for pressure if needed.
Cycling package:
Older, Traditional cyclers included
Monstrous Carabid
Deadshot Minotaur
Archfiend of Ifnir
Horror of the Broken Lands
to list a few.
these Cyclers are certainly fine inclusions and for the most part get the job done, horror is a consistent threat that essentially turns additional cyclers into damage.
Archfiend of Ifnir
serves as a powerful way to clear the board should your opponent have creatures enter the battlefield after a resolved
Living End
.
The New Cyclers:
Glassdust Hulk
is arguably one of the weaker cyclers in our colors, but its triggered ability is somewhat relevant should we hard cast another copy with it in play. as with many of the creatures in living end, its also
Lightning Bolt
and
Fatal Push
proof.
Aven windcaller Provides a large flying body, and evasion to a non-flyer when cycled, all for a very efficient rate at 1 mana cycle cost.
Curator of Mysteries
provides a replacement value engine to mirror the effectiveness of archfiend, and at 1 CMC cheaper is much more reasonably hard cast should it come to that.
Striped Riverwinder
is an all around excellent strict upgrade to previous cyclers like
Monstrous Carabid
and other alara era cyclers in terms of stats and resistance to removal
Other Inclusions:
Brazen Borrower
provides a fantastic advantage to This list, Being able to interact in any fashion with the board pre-turn 3 has HUGE benefits and incentives for living end, it provides stall against aggro, disruption of problematic permanents be it grave hate, artifacts or planeswalkers and a potential clock should you lack options/avenues for cascading.
Force of Negation
one of the BIGGEST draws for playing Blue, it cannot be highlighted enough how important and powerful a piece of counterspell disruption is for a list like living end, it allows for lines like cascading with
Violent Outburst
at the end of the opponents turn with counter backup, it counters
Teferi, Time Raveler
which is a huge hindrance (potentially lights out in some scenarios) and so much more.
Rest in Peace
can now be dealt with before it hits the battlefield, no more need for
Beast Within
or
Krosan Grip
!
As Foretold
is a one-of inclusion, and while it can absolutely stand on its own as a 4 of, as foretold lists including living end tend to be radically different from a more streamlined living end focused list/approach. It allows us at least some avenue of playing living ends that end up in our hand, which can happen on a semi-frequent basis and is a solid failsafe for such scenarios. in the past I have tried
Kari Zev's Expertise
as a way to use living ends that got stuck in my hand, but it was never fantastic.
the red splash is simply to facilitate including 4 copies of
Desert Cerodon
, an aggressively statted cycler, and to play
Violent Outburst
in order to sit at 8 cascade enablers, which is a healthy number.
Sideboard:
Brazen Borrower
to bounce problematic permanents like
Rest in Peace
,
Teferi, Time Raveler
and
Leyline of the Void
or slow down faster strategies (such as bouncing a vial against humans etc).
Faerie Macabre
is a fantastic synergistic card to further break the parity on living ends effect, we board it in for matchups that can stack the yard in anticipation of our living ends, or for matchups where specific problematic creatures in the opps yard make resolving a living end less potent.
Gemstone Caverns
is for postboard games where you are on the draw. simple as that. it helps fix our mana and allow us to essentially start on the play in terms of mana production, which can really help in certain matchups
Leyline of Sanctity
offers protection against discard effects and burn spells, significantly improving the prowess matchup if we open with one and stops grave hate cards like
Nihil Spellbomb
Mystical Dispute
is specifically for matchups against Blue decks, which used to give living end quite a bit of trouble in post board games, as many blue decks in modern generally have a game plan that can deal with ours semi-reliably, this throws a wrench in their plans when we shuffle up for games 2/3 and they have to play against a living end list running 8 counter spells.
so where do we go from here?
well, as MH2 Looms on the horizon, a certain agent with a lack of shards, will be entering modern. with
Shardless Agent
being added to modern, changes to this list will most likely be cutting the cerodons and running anywhere from 2-4 agents to reach 10-12 cascade cards, I need to crunch the math and do quite a bit of testing, but I believe having more than 8 cascade enablers will be beneficial.
additionally,
Foundation Breaker
seems very promising as a sideboard option against artifacts and enchantments, but the 1G cycling cost could be prohibitive.
