Nice report and great results! When I get some more time and also update my deck with the new "Wrath to Exile," I'll prob get into some Comp Mod Leagues again myself sometime in the near future.
Good to hear you like the 3rd Teachings. I think 2-3 is the right place to be and funnily enough, when I played 3 copies I felt like I never get flooded ever since I've always got a way to utilise my mana with a teachings in the yard. The only mental problem I have with playing 3 copies of Mystical Teachings is that I'm also playing 3 copies of Bolt, Path and Snap - All cards I want to see in my opening hand. It just didn't rub well mentally with me playing 3 copies of Teachings also, as then I'm basically wanting to see this card in my opening hand, hence the "3 copies," but Teachings is exactly the type of card I don't want to see until mid-late game. That's basically why I decided to cut it down to 2 copies and then I added the V.Clique.
I do agree with your point about Vendilion Clique. I originally had her in the side since it is quite a "narrow/specific" card, as the ability is obviously directed at targeting non-redundant combo decks. I actually cut my 3rd Mystical Teachings to move the V.Clique from the side to the main, but may move her back to the side again. Clique has always been a hell of a card to evaluate as it appears so general, but specific at the same time. She seems like an odd but nice fit as a teachings target to answer oddball things such as Proclamation of Rebirth forecast mechanic . Also, I think V.Clique works a little bit better with the addition of Lightning Bolt as it lets me play the tempo game quite well as well as Kolaghan's Command for recursion vs removal decks.
I chose to include 3 highly conditional yet highly efficient counterspells as to me, Modern is still a turn 4 format - Spell Snare, Mana Tithe, Spell Pierce. I settled on this this 1/1/1 split as each have their own strength and weakness in a "turn 4 format" so to speak. The reason I chose Spell Pierce and Mana Tithe instead of extra removal like Fatal Push was that I want an answer to problem strategies like RG Ponza where you're looking at turn 2 land destruction. Both Spell Pierce and Mana Tithe were the best answers I could come up with against super unfair strategies like this as even Spell Snare doesn't help in this case. Turns out in my testing that Tithe, Snare and Pierce are actually very playable against a lot of decks and keeps me safe against anything in the early game. That's the main reason I've chosen to include these conditional counterspells as opposed to more removal like Push.
You don't like Surgical Extraction in the side, or even main? I think it's a super sweet teachings target to nullify Loam Pox decks first and foremost but can come in handy against a lot of oddball things.
Anyways, hope you continue to test and report and keep up the good work!
1. Land base - Added 1 Wandering Fumarole and a 2nd Swamp. Cut 1 Celestial Colonnade and 1 Ghost Quarter. This change gives me a 5th R & B tap-for-mana source which makes me pretty resilient to land disruption, which is everywhere these days. Too much W was unnecessary and just excess for no real gains and GQ isn't too useful being only a 1-of with no way to tutor for it.
2. Maindeck changes - Cut 1 Logic Knot for 1 Spell Burst and cut 1 Murderous Cut for 1 Wrecking Ball. The 2nd Knot has been a bit awkward on my yard than it should be. Maybe Knot isn't the best in Teachings since it uses it's yard more than the other draw-go control decks. Not sure. I tested Deprive in place of the 2nd Knot, but ultimately didn't think it was the correct counter for this deck. I then remembered Spell Burst, a card that has done everything from stopping a turn 2 Goblin Guide to completely locking out Bogles in my prior testing. Perfect card to replace the 2nd Logic Knot and works very well with the Teachings engine. I also added Wrecking Ball in place of the singleton Murderous Cut. MC hasn't been too exciting, just solid, so can't really complain. The problem I was having was that Ghost Quarter cannot be tutored in my deck, and playing against Emeria, the Sky Ruin was miserable since I couldn't find my land destruction/Extraction combo. Wrecking Ball can be tutored with Teachings and it also is a stock kill spell so never dead.
3. Sideboard - Added 1 Ravenous Trap, 1 Psychic Spiral and 1 Celestial Purge and cut 1 Surgical Extraction. Rav Trap is similar to Surgical vs Dredge and does some things better and I want to diversify hate if possible. Psychic Spiral is a silver bullet instant win vs UBx Mill as I've always wanted a hate card for mill strategies which can be difficult to beat sometimes if they mill all win conditions. Purge was my last addition as it's a tech answer to Skred decks which are nasty to play against. Not sure if I'll stick with Purge, since it's too general of an answer for my liking, but I can't really deny that it is a very hateful card in some match ups like Skred, which is exactly what I'm looking for in my sb cards. Will stick Purge in for the time being and test more to see if it solidifies it's spot.
Do you think there's any particular reason for all those mulligans or just a bad day? I think 8 counterspells in the main is a good number to shoot for.
1. Gone with an alt win con plan in Nephalia Drownyard. I played against Jeskai Draw-Go yesterday and I literally milled him out by choice. This card I think is good right now.
2. Made some MB & SB adjustments and happy with how every thing sits now. Just in need of the 15th card in my SB, still searching...
3. Reflected on my list's mana ratio in particular the third R and fourth B colours of the deck -
Coloured Land Sources: Coloured Card Symbols
U 20:37 W 14:16 R 13:12 B 12:11
Basically means my deck is UWRB and the mana base reflects this correctly.
4. Reflected on my curve (total 75) -
0: 1
1: 12
2: 12
3: 10
4: 9
5: 1
6: 1
7+: 2
Happy with this curve. Feels balanced in that I have enough early game interaction but have a powerful mid-late game as well with the inclusion of higher mana cost card to fill out the 26 land mana base.
PS. Cannot wait for Scuttle the Wreckage. I've lost too many games due to Retaliate owning me and if I could of killed the attacking creatures before damage is assigned, I would have won. Magic is a game of inches when playing control.
Nice, good work on re-doing a Primer, I'm all for it since the original Primer is fairly old. A couple notes from briefly reading through it from me based on the assumption that this Primer is for Mystical Teachings decks in general, rather than your personal build of the deck:
1. Maindeck Staples - The only staples I truly see can be Mystical Teachings, Think Twice, Path to Exile, Fatal Push, and Snapcaster Mage. Why? Because those cards allow the deck to optimally function at a minimum, in a fast or slow meta, anything else is bonus. These cards allow the deck a solid level of redundancy which means the rest of the deck must be full or "specific" answers such as Surgical Extraction for example to take advantage of the deckbuilding constraints Mystical Teachings places on us. But at the same time, being able to consistently find these "specific" answers in the main of every game 1 allows us a stronger chance to win matches in a diverse meta that is ever-growing more diverse.
2. Maindeck Options - This is where everything else should be. Teachings is the most flexible control deck in the format since it doesn't want excess redundancy like the other control decks which leads to game losses due to "wrong half of the deck." Teachings still needs a certain level of redundancy and I believe the cards mentioned above are enough to achieve that against any meta. But, the rest of the deck should be filled out with answers that can be search with via MT, which should come under this heading.
3. Sideboard - I don't think it's possible to truly have a "stock" sideboard. This deck is probably THE most difficult deck in the format to complete a sideboard since there are an infinite amount of options available that work hand in hand with Mystical Teachings. I've personally looked at every single Instant/Flash card type on MTG search engine that wasn't G and it's taken me the good part of 3 months to finally lock down my own sideboard, which is going to be completely different from yours or others. The best way to build the sideboard with this deck I believe is to look at this deck as 75 cards as opposed to 60 and go from there.
4. Used to be good but not good anymore cards - Firstly, I mostly disagree with your opinions on the cards you've chosen under this heading for various reasons, but otherwise, I don't think this should really be included in the Primer anyway.
Good to see the passion to revive this archetype but there is a little ways to go in regards to completing the Primer. It looks like this Primer is based off your personal list, which I can see issue with since Mystical Teachings promotes a heavy tool-box strategy which means it's very difficult to nail down a stock list most people should be playing and the more diverse the meta, the more diverse the answers.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: Draw, Go? WUBR
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Good to hear you like the 3rd Teachings. I think 2-3 is the right place to be and funnily enough, when I played 3 copies I felt like I never get flooded ever since I've always got a way to utilise my mana with a teachings in the yard. The only mental problem I have with playing 3 copies of Mystical Teachings is that I'm also playing 3 copies of Bolt, Path and Snap - All cards I want to see in my opening hand. It just didn't rub well mentally with me playing 3 copies of Teachings also, as then I'm basically wanting to see this card in my opening hand, hence the "3 copies," but Teachings is exactly the type of card I don't want to see until mid-late game. That's basically why I decided to cut it down to 2 copies and then I added the V.Clique.
I do agree with your point about Vendilion Clique. I originally had her in the side since it is quite a "narrow/specific" card, as the ability is obviously directed at targeting non-redundant combo decks. I actually cut my 3rd Mystical Teachings to move the V.Clique from the side to the main, but may move her back to the side again. Clique has always been a hell of a card to evaluate as it appears so general, but specific at the same time. She seems like an odd but nice fit as a teachings target to answer oddball things such as Proclamation of Rebirth forecast mechanic . Also, I think V.Clique works a little bit better with the addition of Lightning Bolt as it lets me play the tempo game quite well as well as Kolaghan's Command for recursion vs removal decks.
I chose to include 3 highly conditional yet highly efficient counterspells as to me, Modern is still a turn 4 format - Spell Snare, Mana Tithe, Spell Pierce. I settled on this this 1/1/1 split as each have their own strength and weakness in a "turn 4 format" so to speak. The reason I chose Spell Pierce and Mana Tithe instead of extra removal like Fatal Push was that I want an answer to problem strategies like RG Ponza where you're looking at turn 2 land destruction. Both Spell Pierce and Mana Tithe were the best answers I could come up with against super unfair strategies like this as even Spell Snare doesn't help in this case. Turns out in my testing that Tithe, Snare and Pierce are actually very playable against a lot of decks and keeps me safe against anything in the early game. That's the main reason I've chosen to include these conditional counterspells as opposed to more removal like Push.
You don't like Surgical Extraction in the side, or even main? I think it's a super sweet teachings target to nullify Loam Pox decks first and foremost but can come in handy against a lot of oddball things.
Anyways, hope you continue to test and report and keep up the good work!
2 Arid Mesa
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Celestial Colonnade
2 Flooded Strand
1 Wandering Fumarole
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Nephalia Drownyard
2 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
Creature (4)
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
Instant (29)
3 Path to Exile
1 Spell Snare
1 Mana Tithe
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Burst
1 Surgical Extraction
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Lightning Helix
1 Blessed Alliance
4 Think Twice
1 Disallow
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Kozilek's Return
2 Mystical Teachings
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Cryptic Command
1 Retaliate
1 Logic Knot
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Wrecking Ball
1 Cast Out
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Patrician's Scorn
1 Gather Specimens
1 Commandeer
1 Extirpate
1 Crypt Incursion
1 Sulfur Elemental
1 Notion Thief
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Hide // Seek
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Wear // Tear
Made some changes to fix some flaws in my list:
1. Land base - Added 1 Wandering Fumarole and a 2nd Swamp. Cut 1 Celestial Colonnade and 1 Ghost Quarter. This change gives me a 5th R & B tap-for-mana source which makes me pretty resilient to land disruption, which is everywhere these days. Too much W was unnecessary and just excess for no real gains and GQ isn't too useful being only a 1-of with no way to tutor for it.
2. Maindeck changes - Cut 1 Logic Knot for 1 Spell Burst and cut 1 Murderous Cut for 1 Wrecking Ball. The 2nd Knot has been a bit awkward on my yard than it should be. Maybe Knot isn't the best in Teachings since it uses it's yard more than the other draw-go control decks. Not sure. I tested Deprive in place of the 2nd Knot, but ultimately didn't think it was the correct counter for this deck. I then remembered Spell Burst, a card that has done everything from stopping a turn 2 Goblin Guide to completely locking out Bogles in my prior testing. Perfect card to replace the 2nd Logic Knot and works very well with the Teachings engine. I also added Wrecking Ball in place of the singleton Murderous Cut. MC hasn't been too exciting, just solid, so can't really complain. The problem I was having was that Ghost Quarter cannot be tutored in my deck, and playing against Emeria, the Sky Ruin was miserable since I couldn't find my land destruction/Extraction combo. Wrecking Ball can be tutored with Teachings and it also is a stock kill spell so never dead.
3. Sideboard - Added 1 Ravenous Trap, 1 Psychic Spiral and 1 Celestial Purge and cut 1 Surgical Extraction. Rav Trap is similar to Surgical vs Dredge and does some things better and I want to diversify hate if possible. Psychic Spiral is a silver bullet instant win vs UBx Mill as I've always wanted a hate card for mill strategies which can be difficult to beat sometimes if they mill all win conditions. Purge was my last addition as it's a tech answer to Skred decks which are nasty to play against. Not sure if I'll stick with Purge, since it's too general of an answer for my liking, but I can't really deny that it is a very hateful card in some match ups like Skred, which is exactly what I'm looking for in my sb cards. Will stick Purge in for the time being and test more to see if it solidifies it's spot.
My updated list:
2 Arid Mesa
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Wandering Fumarole
1 Celestial Colonnade
2 Flooded Strand
1 Nephalia Drownyard
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
Creature (4)
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
Instant (29)
3 Path to Exile
1 Mana Tithe
1 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Burst
1 Surgical Extraction
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Lightning Helix
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Hallowed Moonlight
4 Think Twice
1 Disallow
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Kozilek's Return
2 Mystical Teachings
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Cryptic Command
1 Retaliate
1 Logic Knot
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Wrecking Ball
1 Cast Out
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 To the Slaughter
1 Patrician's Scorn
1 Gather Specimens
1 Commandeer
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Extirpate
1 Crypt Incursion
1 Sulfur Elemental
1 Notion Thief
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Hide // Seek
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Wear // Tear
1. Gone with an alt win con plan in Nephalia Drownyard. I played against Jeskai Draw-Go yesterday and I literally milled him out by choice. This card I think is good right now.
2. Made some MB & SB adjustments and happy with how every thing sits now. Just in need of the 15th card in my SB, still searching...
3. Reflected on my list's mana ratio in particular the third R and fourth B colours of the deck -
Coloured Land Sources: Coloured Card Symbols
U 20:37
W 14:16
R 13:12
B 12:11
Basically means my deck is UWRB and the mana base reflects this correctly.
4. Reflected on my curve (total 75) -
0: 1
1: 12
2: 12
3: 10
4: 9
5: 1
6: 1
7+: 2
Happy with this curve. Feels balanced in that I have enough early game interaction but have a powerful mid-late game as well with the inclusion of higher mana cost card to fill out the 26 land mana base.
PS. Cannot wait for Scuttle the Wreckage. I've lost too many games due to Retaliate owning me and if I could of killed the attacking creatures before damage is assigned, I would have won. Magic is a game of inches when playing control.
Nice, good work on re-doing a Primer, I'm all for it since the original Primer is fairly old. A couple notes from briefly reading through it from me based on the assumption that this Primer is for Mystical Teachings decks in general, rather than your personal build of the deck:
1. Maindeck Staples - The only staples I truly see can be Mystical Teachings, Think Twice, Path to Exile, Fatal Push, and Snapcaster Mage. Why? Because those cards allow the deck to optimally function at a minimum, in a fast or slow meta, anything else is bonus. These cards allow the deck a solid level of redundancy which means the rest of the deck must be full or "specific" answers such as Surgical Extraction for example to take advantage of the deckbuilding constraints Mystical Teachings places on us. But at the same time, being able to consistently find these "specific" answers in the main of every game 1 allows us a stronger chance to win matches in a diverse meta that is ever-growing more diverse.
2. Maindeck Options - This is where everything else should be. Teachings is the most flexible control deck in the format since it doesn't want excess redundancy like the other control decks which leads to game losses due to "wrong half of the deck." Teachings still needs a certain level of redundancy and I believe the cards mentioned above are enough to achieve that against any meta. But, the rest of the deck should be filled out with answers that can be search with via MT, which should come under this heading.
3. Sideboard - I don't think it's possible to truly have a "stock" sideboard. This deck is probably THE most difficult deck in the format to complete a sideboard since there are an infinite amount of options available that work hand in hand with Mystical Teachings. I've personally looked at every single Instant/Flash card type on MTG search engine that wasn't G and it's taken me the good part of 3 months to finally lock down my own sideboard, which is going to be completely different from yours or others. The best way to build the sideboard with this deck I believe is to look at this deck as 75 cards as opposed to 60 and go from there.
4. Used to be good but not good anymore cards - Firstly, I mostly disagree with your opinions on the cards you've chosen under this heading for various reasons, but otherwise, I don't think this should really be included in the Primer anyway.
Good to see the passion to revive this archetype but there is a little ways to go in regards to completing the Primer. It looks like this Primer is based off your personal list, which I can see issue with since Mystical Teachings promotes a heavy tool-box strategy which means it's very difficult to nail down a stock list most people should be playing and the more diverse the meta, the more diverse the answers.