Hey Badd Business, how viable do you think this is strategy is? I'm willing to build a fourth deck and want something on the midrange-to-control spectrum and am looking at Eternal Command, Grixis Control and this deck (mainly the UR/w and Grixis versions).
Is it able to compete with Pod, Scapeshift, Affinity, Twin and Tron decks? Any good results lately?
It's a very good deck. But that's just my humble opinion. I will warn you, this is VERY far on the control spectrum, possibly even further than UWR wafo-tapa draw go, so if you're looking for more midrange, this probably isn't the best choice. It's pretty key that you tune it properly as well. I have a feeling that the Grixis variant may be the best right now in the current meta, but that really depends on what you want to beat the most.
It is pretty strong against pod and affinity, and probably even to favorable against twin (it really depends if you're playing path to exile or just bolts). Having access to maindeck pithing needle off trinket mage gives you a ton of options in these matchups. Affinity has a very difficult time dealing with a resolved shackles as well.
Pod has artifact hate, but they'll usually have to beat Shackles and pithing needle while also having to deal with lots of removal and counterspell effects. Even if they can find their pridemage or harmonic sliver, they may have to deal with academy ruins grabbing them back later on.
Tron is a bad matchup as is the case with most control decks. If you want to beat tron, you can play sowing salt and shadow of doubt in the sideboard, and you should be able to win g2 and g3. It just depends how much hate you want to play against tron, since sowing salt doesn't do much against other decks that aren't tron. I would suggest shadow of doubts as they're really strong cards against pod, tron, scapeshift and gifts, and can sometimes be relevant in control mirrors.
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I'm fine with a full control approach - I used to be a dedicated control player back when I played competitively (2004-2007). After a long hiatus I'm trying a bit of everything.
I'm fine with a full control approach - I used to be a dedicated control player back when I played competitively (2004-2007). After a long hiatus I'm trying a bit of everything.
Depends. Grixis is good at dealing with combo decks, tron, and hexproof creatures.
UWR is best at dealing with aggro decks and most other creature matchups while still being strong against combo.
Personally, I think it's much more consistent than eternal command. Eternal command is very dependent on an active vial. UWR gifts is pretty strong, so that's a tough call. In the UWR variant, I've actually played a Gifts / Rites package before out of the sideboard and it was very strong, especially when your opponent would sideboard into artifact hate, you just bring in gifts for Iona or Elesh Norn. If you have experience with UWR gifts, you can put the gifts stuff in your board and keep a lot of the same pieces, and I've even played a maindeck singleton gifts in that variant just for the draw-value you can get off it.
It would probably be best to say they have different strength and simply play differently, rather than being better or worse.
It is an updated version of what I used to play on MODO but this version doesn't have much testing behind it. The games I have played felt a lot better than the deck felt before. There are a lot more win cons and drawing 3 off of Thirst feels great.
Trading Post makes a lot of people roll their eyes, but it is fantastic with Shackles and lets me throw things to Thirst without worrying too much about being able to get them back.
I'll try to remember to make notes. Entirely possible I will find something to cut for a second Shackles main deck, but I am pretty happy with how this is working right now. Tezzeret of course will often go for shackles when he resolves so I see it in a lot of games. The flip side is that against a deck without creatures, Tezzeret can +1 and then win the game the next turn.
EDIT: Todd Anderson is testing Tezzeret control for the Modern GP this weekend. He wrote about it in his most recent Premium article.
@Chaam This list really reminds me of a legacy UR control deck that Caleb Durward wrote about a few months ago. I really liked that deck and I really like your deck. They seem really similar. Burn and countermagic until shackles or some other win con can take over.
Could you explain why you cut cryptic?
Any opinion on trinket mage?
Do you have an updated list? I want to start testing this asap.
@Chaam This list really reminds me of a legacy UR control deck that Caleb Durward wrote about a few months ago. I really liked that deck and I really like your deck. They seem really similar. Burn and countermagic until shackles or some other win con can take over.
Could you explain why you cut cryptic?
Any opinion on trinket mage?
Do you have an updated list? I want to start testing this asap.
Trinket mage by itself improves your matchup against birthing pod decks, planeswalker decks (liliana) and tron many tron variants by at least 50%.
I really don't think most people understand how far a trinket mage + explosives, pithing needle, and relic package can go even without anything else. Especially for control decks, the biggest problem is dealing with cards on the board that can get recursive value like Birthing pod, Planeswalkers, Manlands, etc etc. Pithing needle shuts these strategies down, and often results in card advantage when your opponent draws doubles of whatever card it is that you shut down.
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This thread is great. I think ill start with URb Tezzeret and go from there (I like the idea of Tezzeret as a card advantage engine and then a win-con; seems like a very compact engine for this sort of deck. So black splash for Tezzeret and Slaughter Games out of the board; Galvanic Blast seems awesome (kills relevant creatures early as shock, then an instant-speed flame slash for restoration angels). Pyroclasm is the best sweeper in the format.
Great thread, very inspired to be brewing!
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so I just took my 3x vedalken shackles out of my faerie deck and now I can put full resources to building this deck in paper.
I think Gifts Ungiven is worth a shot somewhere, as an instant-esque tutor engine with Academy Ruins, while not turning this into 4c Gifts (at all), has anyone done any testing with it in decks like this? I want to use gifts loam as purely a graveyard-esque tutor and a method of getting lands but loam itself has the added use of giving trading post more discard fuel. If I am suffering from "too many good cards" please tell me, but I think it could work with this deck engine in truth
Decks I have in my bag of tricks- Needless to say, someone who wants to play will probably have a deck UB/x Faeries UR Storm XURWB Affinity G Elves UW control
so I just took my 3x vedalken shackles out of my faerie deck and now I can put full resources to building this deck in paper.
I think Gifts Ungiven is worth a shot somewhere, as an instant-esque tutor engine with Academy Ruins, while not turning this into 4c Gifts (at all), has anyone done any testing with it in decks like this? I want to use gifts loam as purely a graveyard-esque tutor and a method of getting lands but loam itself has the added use of giving trading post more discard fuel. If I am suffering from "too many good cards" please tell me, but I think it could work with this deck engine in truth
I know ive mentioned it in passing throughout the thread, but gifts can be very powerful in here since you are already running an academy ruins and grave package with thirst. The best part of a gifts sideboard is that it can mitigate artifact hate. I will say, the less geist of saint traft exists in the format, the better this deck is, which is where the meta is going.
In all honesty, with loam, its only as useful as loam is. Against tron, loam will be sweet, but most other matchups, it will be very irrelevant.
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I don't think geist would be such a huge thing for this deck if he's not sneaking under the radar. glaring spotlight is a trinket mage toolbox card that allows you to not only handle geist but alpha strike with all your tezzeret animated guys if that's the direction you are headed
Decks I have in my bag of tricks- Needless to say, someone who wants to play will probably have a deck UB/x Faeries UR Storm XURWB Affinity G Elves UW control
After getting torn up by Melira-Pod recently, I tried Trinket Mage recently and Relic of Progenitus specifically. That does a number on the Melira decks, since they can't use the graveyard-based combo any more. Many of those decks aren't even running Pridemage maindeck anymore, meaning we can dramatically narrow their options.
Also, Voice of Resurgence is actively bad if you've got Shackles around. If it dies while you controlled it, you get the token. A Relic and a Shackles on the board basically mean that they're not going to combo and they're not going to aggro you out. It's game-changing.
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I played this at a local tournament and made a report here in the Tezzerator thread.
I have since moved the Spell Snares to the sideboard and play 2 Izzet Charms and another Engineered Explosive in the main deck. Izzet Charm can basically kill or counter everything I was using Spell Snare for except Tarmogoyf but it is more flexible and, critically, can kill Deathrite Shaman and all of the Melira Pod pieces.
UBr Tezzeret. Tezzeret as a draw engine and win-con.
Red splash is for Slaughter Games out of the board.
Curse of Death's Hold is to hose Twin and Affinity, but another Engineered Explosives is probably cleaner; alternatively Illness in the Ranks is great, but doesn't interact with Nexi.
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Well I haven't played the match a whole lot but I'd imagine against there midrange plan it still gets rid of the annoying persist abilities that makes are removal a lot better because everything only has one life rather than having Finks plus Township shenanigans.
I put a Miren, the Moaning Well into my Shackles control list from FNM last night and was super impressed with it. I thought it was cute going in, but that land is frequently amazing with 2-3 Shackles in your deck. The idea is that you can Shackle a monster and then eat it with Miren, letting you lock down the board even more. I had several situations where people would kill a dude and I could eat it for value with Miren. I suggest trying it as a 1-of if you've got the space.
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I put a Miren, the Moaning Well into my Shackles control list from FNM last night and was super impressed with it. I thought it was cute going in, but that land is frequently amazing with 2-3 Shackles in your deck. The idea is that you can Shackle a monster and then eat it with Miren, letting you lock down the board even more. I had several situations where people would kill a dude and I could eat it for value with Miren. I suggest trying it as a 1-of if you've got the space.
Yeah, Miren is a surprisingly useful tool to turn a soft-lock into more of a hard lock. Especially against decks like zoo which can burn you off, being able to repeatedly sac their creatures and gain life back becomes highly relevant.
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Hehe I don't think my thirst will ever be quenched! The trick with this deck is probably to not go nuts on the cute artifacts or lands. Shackles isn't realy needed in multiples and breaking your life total for what is a late game card (or even dead card in some mus) is just to much, 1-2 is fine. The singleton scepter is great too and can have similar effects on the game as shackles. So even 6-7 artifacts is fine, thirst is still an amazing filter spell on its own, then just fill the deck out with the usual UWR control cards.
Also starting to like and toy around with this BUG list Gifts hybrid. Ravens crime or tec edge + loam is good against a lot of decks, no need to mess around with bulky reanimation stuff. Heheh messing around trying perilous myr, he is like an arc trail vs some decks, could just be an executioners capsule or another shackels, but i wanted something more flexible and cheaper.
I've been playing Cruel Control recently and loving it. I saw this deck, thought it looked really cool, and it shared enough cards with Cruel Control to that I could put it together pretty easily. I've only played a few games with it, but so far I've wrecked all the creature-based beatdown/aggro decks I've come up against and the only games I've played against control I either won or punted (playing Magic is hard lol). It's been fun so far, but I don't play in any big-time events or anything.
If anyone's playing Thirst, what do you guys think of it in the current meta?
Thanks KTkenshin - I requested this get moved out of the archives because it's a REALLY strong deck that I put a lot of work into. Not that it was a legitimate Grand Prix or anything, but in lantern's IQ events, I took this to the finals 2/3 times I played it beating mostly tier 1 decks at the time. It's a very strong control deck, and realistically has answers to just about anything the meta could throw at you.
With that said, this is a very difficult control deck to play optimally in my opinion, and requires a decent knowledge of how to play specific cards and the overall meta. It also requires a pilot to be able to be good at tuning nuances of their deck to the meta to optimize it. If you're a very experienced control player, it may be a good deck for you to play, but it may not be the best deck for someone looking to break into control from playing aggro, midrange, or combo.
It also has a few challenges to deal with, namely being that it's at least slightly weak to permanent hate (abrupt decay can be played through, but it's still annoying). With that said, my Jund matchups were usually pretty even, even with bloodbraid elf around. The less abrupt decay is played, the better your jund matchup will be.
I'll be starting to re-work this once again in the near future here.
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Hey all, it's been a while since I've revisited this shell. In short, Modern season died and without a huge support for the format every week I too faded into finding other things to tinker with, namely legacy. The one thing I loved about this deck was the enigma of Trinket Mage and cmc 0-1 artifacts that shut off engines, or render a resource null. Since GP San Diego the only Modern decks I've been playing with have been UWR, Jund, and Junk. So I have a fair bit of knowledge I feel like that I didn't before I went down to San Diego.
So right now I've been putting the core concept of the deck through its paces again. Previously I was on UWR, before that BUG. Now it is Esper colors with a major twist and I think it deviates to a large extent from where this journey started.
So I've identified that Tezzeret isn't nearly as good as he is in Legacy. It sounds blasphemous to cut out what attracted me to the build in the first place, but that's what I've identified. The deck at its core was a prison/control deck that utilized soft locks to land a haymaker and close the game out in quick succession. Tezzeret is a wonderful grind card, but the thing that after testing/researching/debating/realizing was that once you had the corresponding artifact to lock your opponent Tezzeret didn't help sustain you in the realm of keeping your opponent locked out of doing other things to kill you, nor did it force your opponent's concession since it was an unbeatable threat. There isn't a Thopter/Sword combo to lean on to stabilize, nor is Chalice on 1 lights out for most decks in the format. I leaned on Wurmcoil for a lot of my matches in testing, so I wanted to push that angle a little more but it has been so intermittent since then I haven't really given it much thought till this past week.
This isn't to say Tezzeret doesn't have a place in this deck, but I'm diverging away to see where this takes me and hope to collaborate ideas with the greater internet community to see where this takes off. So there isn't much question what I've filled in since then by looking at my deck list. There's a Modern 1k coming up soon in my local area and my group have been starting to ramp up testing for it since most of us who play legacy already have had a fair share of playing legacy since SCG LA. I'm more than certain if this is the final direction I'm taking with Uxx Thirst/Shackles, I'm probably gonna have to jump off this thread since it is drastically different from what it was intended for but who knows, I might just go back to playing BUG since I had the most success with that build.
So I've reassembled this deck for the most part on MTGO, and I've found the meta is actually set up fairly well for it right now.
1. Geist of Saint traft is almost nonexistant right now. Geist was a pain in the rear for this deck to deal with, and the less geist decks, the better.
2. Abrupt Decay is seeing a low volume of play. Jund is skimping down to 2 copies in most decklists
3. Splinter twin has been a fairly popular deck recently, and this deck is really strong against the tempo twin variants since they are terrible at beating a resolved Vedalken Shackles. Pithing needle also conveniently shuts down their combo ability.
4. Tron is still a pain, but thats why you play Sowing salt & Nevermore in the sideboard, while pithing needles do a lot of maindeck work here.
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Kind of a Thread Bump, glad to see this thread back from the grave though. Two cards that I feel should be auto includes in most lists as they boost consistency. Singletons of fabricate and expedition map feel like safe bets for successfully toolboxing ways to end the game. I keep wishing I could search for my 1-ofs over 1cmc like the finisher-artifacts like BatterskullVedalken Shackles and Isochron Scepter and these really do help moreso. Even in the stages of Abrupt Decay being played Academy Ruins is a huge answer for that situation, and expedition map digs for your man-lands to assist in a win condition...so it really is a well-oiled machine.
Decks I have in my bag of tricks- Needless to say, someone who wants to play will probably have a deck UB/x Faeries UR Storm XURWB Affinity G Elves UW control
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It's a very good deck. But that's just my humble opinion. I will warn you, this is VERY far on the control spectrum, possibly even further than UWR wafo-tapa draw go, so if you're looking for more midrange, this probably isn't the best choice. It's pretty key that you tune it properly as well. I have a feeling that the Grixis variant may be the best right now in the current meta, but that really depends on what you want to beat the most.
It is pretty strong against pod and affinity, and probably even to favorable against twin (it really depends if you're playing path to exile or just bolts). Having access to maindeck pithing needle off trinket mage gives you a ton of options in these matchups. Affinity has a very difficult time dealing with a resolved shackles as well.
Pod has artifact hate, but they'll usually have to beat Shackles and pithing needle while also having to deal with lots of removal and counterspell effects. Even if they can find their pridemage or harmonic sliver, they may have to deal with academy ruins grabbing them back later on.
Tron is a bad matchup as is the case with most control decks. If you want to beat tron, you can play sowing salt and shadow of doubt in the sideboard, and you should be able to win g2 and g3. It just depends how much hate you want to play against tron, since sowing salt doesn't do much against other decks that aren't tron. I would suggest shadow of doubts as they're really strong cards against pod, tron, scapeshift and gifts, and can sometimes be relevant in control mirrors.
Would you say the Grixis variant is stronger than Eternal Command and UWR Gifts (http://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=588430)?
Depends. Grixis is good at dealing with combo decks, tron, and hexproof creatures.
UWR is best at dealing with aggro decks and most other creature matchups while still being strong against combo.
Personally, I think it's much more consistent than eternal command. Eternal command is very dependent on an active vial. UWR gifts is pretty strong, so that's a tough call. In the UWR variant, I've actually played a Gifts / Rites package before out of the sideboard and it was very strong, especially when your opponent would sideboard into artifact hate, you just bring in gifts for Iona or Elesh Norn. If you have experience with UWR gifts, you can put the gifts stuff in your board and keep a lot of the same pieces, and I've even played a maindeck singleton gifts in that variant just for the draw-value you can get off it.
It would probably be best to say they have different strength and simply play differently, rather than being better or worse.
This is what I will be taking to a small tournament on Saturday:
3 Spell Snare
4 Galvanic Blast
3 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Cryptic Command
Sorceries
2 Firespout
Enchantments
2 Blood Moon
Creatures
2 Trinket Mage
1 Spellskite
1 Epochrasite
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Mox Opal
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Coalition Relic
1 Trading Post
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
2 Karn Liberated
Lands
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
3 Darksteel Citadel
9 Islands
1 Mountain
1 Academy Ruins
It is an updated version of what I used to play on MODO but this version doesn't have much testing behind it. The games I have played felt a lot better than the deck felt before. There are a lot more win cons and drawing 3 off of Thirst feels great.
Trading Post makes a lot of people roll their eyes, but it is fantastic with Shackles and lets me throw things to Thirst without worrying too much about being able to get them back.
I'll try to remember to make notes. Entirely possible I will find something to cut for a second Shackles main deck, but I am pretty happy with how this is working right now. Tezzeret of course will often go for shackles when he resolves so I see it in a lot of games. The flip side is that against a deck without creatures, Tezzeret can +1 and then win the game the next turn.
EDIT: Todd Anderson is testing Tezzeret control for the Modern GP this weekend. He wrote about it in his most recent Premium article.
Ux Whirza
Rb Goblins
Legacy
U Urza Stompy
Duel Commander
Sai, Master Thopterist
Could you explain why you cut cryptic?
Any opinion on trinket mage?
Do you have an updated list? I want to start testing this asap.
Trinket mage by itself improves your matchup against birthing pod decks, planeswalker decks (liliana) and tron many tron variants by at least 50%.
I really don't think most people understand how far a trinket mage + explosives, pithing needle, and relic package can go even without anything else. Especially for control decks, the biggest problem is dealing with cards on the board that can get recursive value like Birthing pod, Planeswalkers, Manlands, etc etc. Pithing needle shuts these strategies down, and often results in card advantage when your opponent draws doubles of whatever card it is that you shut down.
Great thread, very inspired to be brewing!
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I think Gifts Ungiven is worth a shot somewhere, as an instant-esque tutor engine with Academy Ruins, while not turning this into 4c Gifts (at all), has anyone done any testing with it in decks like this? I want to use gifts loam as purely a graveyard-esque tutor and a method of getting lands but loam itself has the added use of giving trading post more discard fuel. If I am suffering from "too many good cards" please tell me, but I think it could work with this deck engine in truth
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
I know ive mentioned it in passing throughout the thread, but gifts can be very powerful in here since you are already running an academy ruins and grave package with thirst. The best part of a gifts sideboard is that it can mitigate artifact hate. I will say, the less geist of saint traft exists in the format, the better this deck is, which is where the meta is going.
In all honesty, with loam, its only as useful as loam is. Against tron, loam will be sweet, but most other matchups, it will be very irrelevant.
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
Also, Voice of Resurgence is actively bad if you've got Shackles around. If it dies while you controlled it, you get the token. A Relic and a Shackles on the board basically mean that they're not going to combo and they're not going to aggro you out. It's game-changing.
I have since moved the Spell Snares to the sideboard and play 2 Izzet Charms and another Engineered Explosive in the main deck. Izzet Charm can basically kill or counter everything I was using Spell Snare for except Tarmogoyf but it is more flexible and, critically, can kill Deathrite Shaman and all of the Melira Pod pieces.
Ux Whirza
Rb Goblins
Legacy
U Urza Stompy
Duel Commander
Sai, Master Thopterist
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Everflowing Chalice
1 Mox Opal
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Vedalken Shackles
2 Cryptic Command
1 Damnation
3 Disfigure
1 Go for the Throat
3 Mana Leak
1 Stoic Rebuttal
4 Thirst for Knowkedge
4 Thoughtseize
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Misty Rainforest
2 River of Tears
2 Watery Grave
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
4 Island
1 Academy Ruins
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Damnation
1 Darkblast
3 Duress
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Go for the Throat
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Mana Leak
2 Slaughter Games
1 Spellskite
1 Spellsnare
1 Stoic Rebuttal
UBr Tezzeret. Tezzeret as a draw engine and win-con.
Red splash is for Slaughter Games out of the board.
Curse of Death's Hold is to hose Twin and Affinity, but another Engineered Explosives is probably cleaner; alternatively Illness in the Ranks is great, but doesn't interact with Nexi.
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They have to have an answer in hand or deck becomes a bad midrange deck.
Ux Whirza
Rb Goblins
Legacy
U Urza Stompy
Duel Commander
Sai, Master Thopterist
Yeah, Miren is a surprisingly useful tool to turn a soft-lock into more of a hard lock. Especially against decks like zoo which can burn you off, being able to repeatedly sac their creatures and gain life back becomes highly relevant.
1 Trinket Mage
3 Snapcaster Mage
Artifacts
1x Vedalken Shackles
1x Isochron Scepter
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Pithing Needle
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Batterskull
Instants / Sorceries
2x Cryptic Command
2x Spell Snare
4x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Electrolyze
2x Remand
2x Mana Leak
2x Izzet Charm
2x Path to exile
3x Lightning Helix
3x Lightning Bolt
3x Sulfur Falls
3x Celestial Colonnade
1x Academy Ruins
2x Tectonic Edge
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Island
3x Steam Vents
2x Hallowed Fountain
3x Arid Mesa
1x Plains
1x Mountain
1 Counterflux
2 Sowing Salt
2 Disenchant
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Spellskite
1 Grafdigger's cage
2 Shadow of Doubt
1 Elixir of Immortality
4 Creatures
1 Eternal Witness
1 Perilous Myr
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Gifts Ungiven
3 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Mana Leak
2 Cryptic Command
2 Remand
3 Spell Snare
1 Damnation
1 Darkblast
1 Disfigure
1 Dismember
1 Life from the Loam
1 Raven's Crime
1 Academy Ruins
2 Breeding Pool
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Forest
1 Hinterland Harbor
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Watery Grave
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Disfigure
2 Duress
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Golgari Charm
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Negate
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Trinket Mage
1 Wurmcoil Engine
I've been playing Cruel Control recently and loving it. I saw this deck, thought it looked really cool, and it shared enough cards with Cruel Control to that I could put it together pretty easily. I've only played a few games with it, but so far I've wrecked all the creature-based beatdown/aggro decks I've come up against and the only games I've played against control I either won or punted (playing Magic is hard lol). It's been fun so far, but I don't play in any big-time events or anything.
If anyone's playing Thirst, what do you guys think of it in the current meta?
Whatever I build from my Box-o-EDH stuff
Legacy
Sneak and Show
UR Delver
Scapeshift Nic Fit
Modern
Merfolk
With that said, this is a very difficult control deck to play optimally in my opinion, and requires a decent knowledge of how to play specific cards and the overall meta. It also requires a pilot to be able to be good at tuning nuances of their deck to the meta to optimize it. If you're a very experienced control player, it may be a good deck for you to play, but it may not be the best deck for someone looking to break into control from playing aggro, midrange, or combo.
It also has a few challenges to deal with, namely being that it's at least slightly weak to permanent hate (abrupt decay can be played through, but it's still annoying). With that said, my Jund matchups were usually pretty even, even with bloodbraid elf around. The less abrupt decay is played, the better your jund matchup will be.
I'll be starting to re-work this once again in the near future here.
So right now I've been putting the core concept of the deck through its paces again. Previously I was on UWR, before that BUG. Now it is Esper colors with a major twist and I think it deviates to a large extent from where this journey started.
1x Pithing Needle
1x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Executioner's Capsule
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Talisman of Progress
2x Talisman of Dominance
1x Vedalken Shackles
Sorceries
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Unburial Rites
Instants
3x Remand
3x Path to Exile
2x Cryptic Command
3x Thirst for Knowledge
3x Mystical Teachings
1x Gifts Ungiven
1x Sphinx's Revelation
1x Consume the Meek
3x Trinket Mage
2x Snapcaster Mage
1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Lands
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Seachrom Coast
1x Academy Ruins
1x Darksteel Citadel
3x Celestial Colonnade
2x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Island
3x Watery Grave
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Calciform Pools
1x Ashen Rider
1x Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1x Relic of Progenitis
1x Sunbeam Spellbomb
1x Zelous Persecution
1x Far // Away
1x Celestial Purge
1x Hero's Downfall
3x Thoughtseize
4x Lingering Souls
So I've identified that Tezzeret isn't nearly as good as he is in Legacy. It sounds blasphemous to cut out what attracted me to the build in the first place, but that's what I've identified. The deck at its core was a prison/control deck that utilized soft locks to land a haymaker and close the game out in quick succession. Tezzeret is a wonderful grind card, but the thing that after testing/researching/debating/realizing was that once you had the corresponding artifact to lock your opponent Tezzeret didn't help sustain you in the realm of keeping your opponent locked out of doing other things to kill you, nor did it force your opponent's concession since it was an unbeatable threat. There isn't a Thopter/Sword combo to lean on to stabilize, nor is Chalice on 1 lights out for most decks in the format. I leaned on Wurmcoil for a lot of my matches in testing, so I wanted to push that angle a little more but it has been so intermittent since then I haven't really given it much thought till this past week.
This isn't to say Tezzeret doesn't have a place in this deck, but I'm diverging away to see where this takes me and hope to collaborate ideas with the greater internet community to see where this takes off. So there isn't much question what I've filled in since then by looking at my deck list. There's a Modern 1k coming up soon in my local area and my group have been starting to ramp up testing for it since most of us who play legacy already have had a fair share of playing legacy since SCG LA. I'm more than certain if this is the final direction I'm taking with Uxx Thirst/Shackles, I'm probably gonna have to jump off this thread since it is drastically different from what it was intended for but who knows, I might just go back to playing BUG since I had the most success with that build.
1. Geist of Saint traft is almost nonexistant right now. Geist was a pain in the rear for this deck to deal with, and the less geist decks, the better.
2. Abrupt Decay is seeing a low volume of play. Jund is skimping down to 2 copies in most decklists
3. Splinter twin has been a fairly popular deck recently, and this deck is really strong against the tempo twin variants since they are terrible at beating a resolved Vedalken Shackles. Pithing needle also conveniently shuts down their combo ability.
4. Tron is still a pain, but thats why you play Sowing salt & Nevermore in the sideboard, while pithing needles do a lot of maindeck work here.
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control