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I rebought my Okos :/

I'll keep writing this: If Oko is in your colors, play it.

The closest cards to being cut are the Manglehorn (haven't cast it except as a shatter), the Bird, the Breeding Pool, and the maindeck Vines.

The closest cards that didn't make the cut are 2nd Plains, 2nd Bird, 4th Horizon Land, 3rd Path, and Devout Lightcaster.

Results

4-1 (9-4). Deck's amazing; play it. It plays three of the most revolutionary cards in Modern: Oko, Once, and Veil.

The best deck for those three cards is right here.

Improve the manabase somehow if you can, though. I hate that Breeding Pool.

OO Jund T8, T12 Lifetime 9-5 vs Jund

XOO Paradoxical Urza T3, T3 Lifetime 4-3 vs Paradoxical

XOX Jund T4 Lifetime 9-6 vs Jund

OO Burn T3, T4 Lifetime 17-13 vs Burn

OXO Eldrazi Tron T5, T3 Lifetime 9-4 vs Eldrazi Tron

Rounds!

Round 1 on the draw vs loosesherman on Jund

I'm pretty sure this matchup is unbelievably good now. Veil and Oko and Shalai and Giver and the ability to steal a game 1 are all making this better and better for us every month.

Win Game 1

I call this hand the "Oko Trap." It's good against almost no one; this isn't a lands-and-spells deck. I want to repeat this for those in the back: THIS IS NOT A MIDRANGE DECK. THIS HAND IS BAD. This is a kill-your-opponent-with-Oko-as-your-backup-plan deck. Mulligan 4-land hands with a mana dork and nothing but your backup plan.

Feels bad but it's a keep; it's a T4 win technically:

Bottomed the Temple Garden. Opponent takes all three of these spells by T2 with triple discard. I play a Noble which gets Bolted. Then I lose my last two cards to a K Command.

Sigh.

Luckily, opponent's deck is not playable because Veil exists; hopefully we give them the message in the postboard games.

Wait wait WAIT; I was thinking about sideboarding, but after they slam Bob on 6, I draw Oko off the top.

It's Midrange Battle Time I guess.

Who wins this battle?

Answer: Oko and Bob together can definitely piece together 9 damage to the opponent.

Win T8.

+4 Veil +1 Colossus +2 Path -1 Bird -2 Vizier -2 Once (Long Game) -2 Lunge (Someone on Bob is on Ooze for sure)

I normally bring in Second Vines but I'm coming around to it not being strong vs discard + liliana for sure.

Win Game 2

Sure: This demands they have it -- "it" being an answer to Oko.

Thoughtseize takes Noble; Inquisition takes Oko. Once Upon a Time is Shalai.

I draw second Oko and slam it T3.

←

I think Oko might be pretty good, since this was their T3 play.

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Anyway they manage to whittle it down and have the Ghost Quarter + Push for my Shalai to go with BBE to fight their way through the Oko. Then we Call for Giver into Call for second Shalai, and play the Shalai endgame.

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What a final combat.

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Shalai is a VERY good backup backup plan.

If anyone ever asks you "why are there two Shalai in the deck?" just remember today, when you saw a Liliana of the Veil on 11 loyalty.

Win T12.

Round 2 on the play vs mell0n on Simic Whirza

Okay the Urza decks evolve really fast. This week they are an extreme midrange over-the-top grind-machine with Paradoxical Outcome as their ultimate.

We hope to steal game 1s, and steal later games too by exploiting their durdly draws or by Oupheing their interaction.

This matchup is bad only because opponent's deck is way more powerful than ours.

Lose Game 1

I'm fine with these hands; I probably have a Druid, and if I miss a lot I get a lot of redraws.

Unfortunately Once Upon a Time is only backup Druid, so this isn't great.

Opponent slams T2 Oko from Mox Opal; I get T3 Giver + Shalai active. Oko is actually blanked by this but still draws a card with Outcome T4.

This is their board after they cast Outcome T4. I miss Vizier sources on both draws (2 draws at 12 hits out of 50 cards is 42% to hit).

They draw all the rest of their deck, crack EEs on 1 and 2, and put 50 artifacts onto the table the next turn. They probably felt like they won by a lot, and didn't know it was a coinflip.

+2 Ouphe +1 Caterpillar +1 Manglehorn +2 Veil

-1 Bird -1 Vines -3 Oko -1 Shalai (we are racing on the play??)

I hate this board plan. I feel like Oko is good against them. But maybe it's not -- maybe they are the true kings of Okotown, and playing Oko is just playing their game. In that case boarding out Oko is correct.

Win Game 2

I kept this, Once'd for a land and played T1 Noble, then drew and played T2 Druid with Veil up.

Opponent has nothing but value and cantrips; win T3.

+1 Shalai -1 Lunge (?? Help; I feel uncertain and lost; is this right ??)

Win Game 3

I kept this:

Opponent went T1 nothing (in Modern!), T2 Ramp, T3 Dispatch your Druid. I killed it of course.

I am a moderately lucky person, so I hit two lands in the top three (3 draws at 18 hits in 2 draws out of 53 is 26%), so I win with Lunge T3.

Interesting to note that you can't Lunge + Finale + Finale unless you have 4 mana, so the Noble is truly excellent in this hand.

Round 3 on the play vs BadMagicPlayer1 on Jund

As I said, this matchup gets better and better for us every month.

Lose Game 1

Sad hand:

Sure; bottom the Once Upon a Time since it is not definitely a Druid and the other cards are.

Noble gets Bolted. T2 Call, T3 Druid gets Decayed, and I slam T4 Oko. It dies to Ooze + Bolt. (!!)

We end up in the position at left, which I kind of like.

Using life total as a resource, I pump the team the next turn to stonewall Raging Ravine, all while holding up Vines to protect the Shalai.

T8 I play an Oko and kill the opponent's planeswalker leaving me in a very sketchy situation with not much plan for dealing with a Scavenging Ooze in the long term.

I'm not quite able to stabilize, and I die to a K Command plus the Ooze.

-1 Bird (Long Game, Discard) -2 Vizier (Long Game), -2 Once (Long Game), -2 Lunge (Incidental Grave Hate), +4 Veil, +2 Path, +1 Colossus

Win Game 2

What? Why is this happening (6 landers out of 19 are 0.3%)

Holy .. no! (0-landers out of 19 are 5.8%)

Welp, the deck has rebelled against me I guess!

Here's my 4:

Mulligans to 4 are great against Jund, right? Keep Land, Land, Veil, Druid.

T1 Veil the Inquisition, T2 Druid. Opponent taps out for T2 Wrenn and Six (!!!)

I hit a Call but miss the payoff draw to win T3.

Opponent taps out AGAIN to play a Tarmogoyf.

Win T4.

What a deck.

Lose Game 3

I keep this:

Lose Oko to Inquisition and my combo plans get picked apart. I also completely bungle a Bob situation:

I pick the line that I will try to kill the opponent with combat damage and their Bob triggers. Then when they start holding the Bob back to block at 5 life, I path the Bob so I can keep attacking??? Agh, I very much deserved to lose this game.

The first Path was basically useless and the second Path I just let sit there until I discarded it 10 turns later to a Liliana.

1) I really shouldn't play magic when I am this tired.

2) Maybe Path is just not very good against Jund? Path certainly would have helped in Game 1, but here I am with two sideboard cards in hand and I am not happy to see them -- in this case they were actually worse than dead. I've never drawn that many Paths before in the matchup, and I've always been skeptical of the "kill their threats" plan (people used to play Plaguecrafter to board in against them???) since they play more threats than Shadow and half their threats are walkers. Interesting to think about. I feel like there is a lot of room for improvement here.

Round 4 on the play vs nsg1989 on Burn

We are getting stronger and stronger vs Burn too.

Win Game 1

Yup!

Once Upon a Time could be backup Druid or Noble or Ballista, so I pick Ballista and play Giver on 1.

Opponent suspends a Rift Bolt. Sorry Giver. But my Pro Red resolves, and opponent taps out for Eidolon. Nice die roll!

Win T3.

-1 Bird (always ) -2 Vizier (Long Game), -1 Call (Eidolon), -2 Lunge (Lava Spikes), -1 Once (Long Games)

+2 Forgetender, +2 Path, +1 Firewalker, +1 Caterpillar (Eidolon), +1 Vines (double duty)

Win Game 2

I feel kind of obligated to keep this hand.

Opponent goes land pass, which is similar to screaming "I HAVE A BOLT" in my ear, so I slam T1 Forgetender and grin like a child.

Then they go T2 Rest in Peace (???)!

I draw an Oko, so I play T2 Noble holding up Vines, and save the Noble with the Vines. T3 I slam Oko.

They Bolt then Boros Charm the Oko, and I save it with the Forgetender.

They concede because of how they are super dead.

I'm calling this "Win T4" since that's when I stabilized with the Oko and made the opponent quit.

Round 5 on the play vs Yaggdryzzill on Eldrazi Tron

This is much harder than normal Tron because they play games of Modern: "interact a little and then go tremendously over the top."

Of course the matchup is still good, because we are built to smash exactly that kind of opponent, but it is still interesting and very swingy.

Win Game 1

I kept this; the upside of Once being a Druid would be fantastic, and even if it isn't Druid, we might hit the payoff for the T4 win on the play.

Once Upon a Time hits Druid, so I slam T2 Druid. Of course they have the Dismember, so I have to T3 Call T4 Druid.

Aand of course they have natural Tron, so yea, they Chalice me on 2.

In response, I Once Upon a Time and hit Ranger-Captain (!!!)

And topdeck the Finale(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

This deck is so much gas.

Win T5.

+2 Path (Thought-Knot), -1 Bird (Always), +1 Vines (Always), -1 Call (Chalice), -1 Giver (All Is Dust)

I am so shaky on this sideboard plan; I have no idea if it is correct. Actually wait; I know it's wrong; we have to bring in Caterpillar. But I didn't.

Lose Game 2

Nooo; not close -- you won't hit your land here. Two draws at 18 hits out of 53 is only 57%. Maybe it's ok.... I tossed it.

Oh no, no no no:

Land Land and 3 combo pieces it is; sorry Nobles!

Opponent has T3 Smasher + Contortion for my Druid + more Contortions and I don't have much chance with this few resources.

I still get two shots at a Lunge to win, but it doesn't come together.

+1 Giver -1 Vines on the play.

Win Game 3

If this Once Upon a Time is Druid (33%) then this hand is pretty gas. If not then it is still probably *some* piece of the combo (5 looks at 12 hits out of 53 is 74%) in which case the hand is okay. THIS IS THE POWER OF ONCE UPON A TIME. I'm keeping.

Once is Druid. Let's go.

Win T3 with Giver backup.

L E T S G O

Once Upon a Time does not do much for truly bad hands.

Once Upon a Time takes mediocre hands and gives them a 33% chance of being nut draws. That's all we want in Modern.

4-1! Not bad. Deck is powerful. No changes going forward.

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