While I disagree that Geist of Saint Traft is bad in modern right now, I love all of the effort he has put into discussing the jeskai delver deck. He does say that Geist makes the 75 though.
Finally made a trade for Search for Azcanta and had a 8 hour marathon session today. I am extremely encouraged by the card.
G1 vs Abzan: Both games we went toe to toe. He T1 Thoughtseize, I recovered later with Serum Visions, Opt and/or Chart a Course. Our creatures didn't stay in play for long as both of our decks were heavy on removal. I resolved Search for Azcanta and it flipped before he got to draw his Abrupt Decay. Search for Azcanta drew me to victory. I Spell Pierce his Maelstrom Pulse that tried to take out my Fire Elementals.
G2 vs Grixis Death Shadow: Another Thoughtseize deck. Same old story. T1 Thoughtseize or IoK. My Spell Pierce is good value here as they have a very low mana base. I either Vapor Snag or Path of Exile the Delver of Secrets or Death's Shadow. One game ended with my Bolt/Snap/Bolt and another game ended with Young Pyromancer and Fire Elemental Tokens overrunning him. Serum Visions/ Opt/ Remand devalued his discard spells. A late game Search for Azcanta didn't really matter as I was ahead on the board and life total (he was at 5 and I was at 15). Lightning Helix and Spirebluff Canal rocks. I deliberately played into his Stubborn Denial for bigger plays by baiting him with cards like Path to Exile his Death's Shadow and then Snap/Path in my main phase with Spell Pierce up.
G3 vs Storm: Not the easiest deck for me to play against because they also pack Remand so I must try hard to not get blown out. Kept his Goblin Electromancer or Baral off the board to stall as long as possible. I lost one game because I drew blanks. I won the other one because I drew hot. Last game I stalled long enough to resolve Search of Azcanta and drew myself to victory. A mix of Smuggler's Copter crewed by an unflipped Delver of Secrets and Spell Queller sealed the game for me.
Possible tweaks with the deck is taking our Smuggler's Copter. I sided it out against decks with Kolaghan's Command but performs in the midgame. I am not really keen on Bedlam Reveler (a great card but I have so much cantrips I can't bare to discard my hand or ever went hellbent) and Cryptic Serpent doesn't have evasion but dodges IoK and Fatal Push. I will seriously consider a 2nd copy of Spell Queller.
Deck's great. I know I haven't played against Eldrazi/Tron or Valakut decks which pose a different set of problems for me.
Finally made a trade for Search for Azcanta and had a 8 hour marathon session today. I am extremely encouraged by the card.
G1 vs Abzan: Both games we went toe to toe. He T1 Thoughtseize, I recovered later with Serum Visions, Opt and/or Chart a Course. Our creatures didn't stay in play for long as both of our decks were heavy on removal. I resolved Search for Azcanta and it flipped before he got to draw his Abrupt Decay. Search for Azcanta drew me to victory. I Spell Pierce his Maelstrom Pulse that tried to take out my Fire Elementals.
G2 vs Grixis Death Shadow: Another Thoughtseize deck. Same old story. T1 Thoughtseize or IoK. My Spell Pierce is good value here as they have a very low mana base. I either Vapor Snag or Path of Exile the Delver of Secrets or Death's Shadow. One game ended with my Bolt/Snap/Bolt and another game ended with Young Pyromancer and Fire Elemental Tokens overrunning him. Serum Visions/ Opt/ Remand devalued his discard spells. A late game Search for Azcanta didn't really matter as I was ahead on the board and life total (he was at 5 and I was at 15). Lightning Helix and Spirebluff Canal rocks. I deliberately played into his Stubborn Denial for bigger plays by baiting him with cards like Path to Exile his Death's Shadow and then Snap/Path in my main phase with Spell Pierce up.
G3 vs Storm: Not the easiest deck for me to play against because they also pack Remand so I must try hard to not get blown out. Kept his Goblin Electromancer or Baral off the board to stall as long as possible. I lost one game because I drew blanks. I won the other one because I drew hot. Last game I stalled long enough to resolve Search of Azcanta and drew myself to victory. A mix of Smuggler's Copter crewed by an unflipped Delver of Secrets and Spell Queller sealed the game for me.
Possible tweaks with the deck is taking our Smuggler's Copter. I sided it out against decks with Kolaghan's Command but performs in the midgame. I am not really keen on Bedlam Reveler (a great card but I have so much cantrips I can't bare to discard my hand or ever went hellbent) and Cryptic Serpent doesn't have evasion but dodges IoK and Fatal Push. I will seriously consider a 2nd copy of Spell Queller.
Deck's great. I know I haven't played against Eldrazi/Tron or Valakut decks which pose a different set of problems for me.
I like dropping the drake and going to 2 queller. It's just stupid good lol whats the sideboard you're rocking ? I can understnad taking out the copter. Filter is nice (and letting a unflipped delver actually be freakin useful lol) but giving them another thing to throw a fatal push or k command at isn't doing you any favors.
Eldrazi is tough. for sure. when you play against it pay close attention so you can see how the deck favors vs it. I wouldn't worry as hard about valakut, its on the fringe right now. However through the breach + blood moon decks are ticking up, which can sometimes intertwine but sometimes they are completely different decks lol
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In other news with jeskai being in a huge upswing i think its important i follow suit and put a few remand in my maindeck to help combat it. so Ill be testing 3 cryptic, 2 remand, 2 logic knot, and 1 spell snare instead of 4 cryptic, 2 snare and 2 logic.
I've been pummeled by remand in counter wars lately and i miss remand anyways so here goes nothing lol
I like dropping the drake and going to 2 queller. It's just stupid good lol whats the sideboard you're rocking ? I can understnad taking out the copter. Filter is nice (and letting a unflipped delver actually be freakin useful lol) but giving them another thing to throw a fatal push or k command at isn't doing you any favors.
Eldrazi is tough. for sure. when you play against it pay close attention so you can see how the deck favors vs it. I wouldn't worry as hard about valakut, its on the fringe right now. However through the breach + blood moon decks are ticking up, which can sometimes intertwine but sometimes they are completely different decks lol
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In other news with jeskai being in a huge upswing i think its important i follow suit and put a few remand in my maindeck to help combat it. so Ill be testing 3 cryptic, 2 remand, 2 logic knot, and 1 spell snare instead of 4 cryptic, 2 snare and 2 logic.
I've been pummeled by remand in counter wars lately and i miss remand anyways so here goes nothing lol
Thank you for your ideas and suggestions! A 2nd Spell Queller would fit nicely in the deck if I may say so.
My sideboard choices versus the specific decks I played:
vs Abzan:
Out: 2 x Smuggler's Copter / 1 x Vapor Snag / 1 x Enigma Drake / 2 x Remand
In: 2 x Auriok Champion / 2 x Spell Piece / 2 Surgical Extraction
Heavy Spell Pierce presence is for LotV and later game Discard (have to protect my cantrips and burn). Surgical Extraction was for troublesome cards like LotV and Goyf. Game 2 I Spell Pierced a LotV and Surgical Extraction at end step. That Spell Pierce against that Maelstrom Pulse I mentioned was off Snapcaster Mage.
vs GDS:
Out: 2 x Smuggler's Copter / 1 x Vapor Snag / 1 x Enigma Drake / 2 x Remand
In: 2 x Auriok Champion / 2 Surgical Extraction / 2 Spell Pierce
Oddly, I did the same sideboard changes. Mainly because I felt that both decks are Thoughtsieze decks. Auriok Champion did some heavy lifting. It could block Death's Shadow all day and dodge all the removal in the deck. Opponent didn't see it coming. Gained quite a bit of life off a mid game Young Pyromancer.
vs Storm:
Out: 1 x Vapor Snag / 1 x Enigma Drake / 4 x Path to Exile / 1 x Young Pyromancer
In: 3 x Surgical Extraction / 2 x Spell Pierce / 2 x Auriok Champion
This one I just winged. Auriok Champion was mainly for the Empty the Warrens alternate win-con but it didn't come up. It was hard for me to try and figure out what to Surgical Extraction. I wasn't big on waiting for Grapeshot and attempt to win the counterspell war. I did Surgical Extraction Baral which slowed the deck down enough for me to do some beat down and burn him out towards the end.
With 2 Spell Pierces going into the deck fom the Sideboard, I might actually go for 3 / 4 Spell Pierces main... but that is a metagame call. Vapor Snag always has its uses as I won too many games with it to cut it totally from the deck.
To add on, Opt has been great. I didn't find an answer when I casted it in response but many times drew into other cards like Serum Visions or Chart a Course to look for more options which usually found me answers or options. I would love to run one more Opt but Serum Visions have been instrumental in setting up my Delvers to draw removal out.
Need More DPS- I agree with both of your recent thoughts. I too added a second Spell Queller to my main deck and it has been very good. It fits very well into our deck because it gives us additional pressure and adds additional "counter magic" at the same time.
Search for Azcanta has been amazing for me in the sideboard. I don't have room to add a copy to the main, but it has been great in the sideboard for my build against grindy matchups. The scry ability alone is nice so you don't hit too many land drops in those matchups because I typically win those matchups by having a greater mass of spells than they have.
Something I have been noticing is a lot of Blood Moon going around. I added a second Island to the maindeck a little while back. With the breach deck doing well lately and with people likely wanting to try Gerard Fabiano's Temur Moon deck, I will be making sure to play around blood moon.
The matchup of the week for this week is - Mardu Pyromancer.
I jammed against this matchup in my last playtest group and the results were rather promising. We have tons of removal for their threats and the deck seems fairly week to counter magic, especially Remand. They want stuff in their graveyard and when you remand the spell you basically time walk them. In addition, you can remand flashbacked spells and they are countered. They also have no way to stop you from burning them out. I won probably a little over 65% of the games against them, so I from my small sample size, I don't think this will be a tough matchup for us. The games that the opponent won were typically when they were on the play and had multiple hand disruption spells in their opener and/or were able to cast multiple Lingering Souls and/or Bedlam Revler.
Important cards in the matchup are - Geist of Saint Traft, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, Electrolyze, Slip Through Space, Remand. I know Geist sounds a little counter intuitive because they play tokens, but all of their removal is blanked by a geist. He is especially good in this matchup if you have Slip Through Space, Distortion Strike, or Emerge Unscathed. I spoke about Remand above. The burn spells are very effective as removal and for their life total. They take a rather large amount of damage from their fetches and thoughtseize so burn becomes very attractive in this matchup. Cards like Electrolyze and Forked Bolt do double duty by being able to remove multiple tokens or go to the face. Echoing Truth is great against tokens, but didn't make the cut because it is poor against Bedlam Reveler.
Anything that deals with tokens as well as most things that deal with the graveyard are very good against them. Celestial Purge hits nearly all of their important permanents so that is a great catch all against them.
Let me know what I missed and what you think of this matchup. Here is the list I am currently running-
WickedApp had a great idea for adding a "Matchup Guide" to the primer. I am going to compile the information from each of the "matchup of the week" topics we run and will break down each matchup in modern as well as the sideboard cards we typically play that can be good against the given matchup. I will basically take what everyone has said about each matchup of the week and cut it down to the main points brought up by everyone and will give a detailed breakdown of the pre-board matchup including favored vs unfavored, the sideboard cards we side in, and the post board matchup.
Thanks WickedApp for the idea. It will obviously be an ever changing section, but new players will benefit greatly from having that info.
Greetings from Planet Mardu. Saw the matchup guide, thought id offer some insight from the other side of the table. Selfeiseks list has been getting a bunch of spotlight as of late, but as Corbin Hostler showed with his list (Thank you mr hostler for playing midrange for a change) youre probably going to see a lot of variation from deck to deck. I personally run pack rat over pyro cuz they end games faster, and i have a planeswalker suite to back it up, but thats just me.
Anyway, i first have to give Curd a nod on the counterspells, after the initial discard barrage there isnt a whole lot Mardu can do about them. Cryptics in particular are crippling due to the inherent card advantage. Longer games tend to favor jeskai as well, so dont be afraid to slow roll threats and drag it out, we have no cantrips and cant refuel without (usually) sorcery speed spell and creatures. Your manland (collonade) is also leagues better than vents as the game grinds on, so protect that as much as possible.
The burn is incredibly relevant. Bolt snap bolt to the dome is great against everyone (except maybe souls sisters) but Mardu in particular is notorious for punching itself in the face. I run a playset of helix and burn is still a problem match up, that carries over to jeskai when im taking 6 a turn from geist, or even 2 a turn from a queller holding my removal.
Mardu beats Jeskai tempo by stripping its answers early and overwhelming it before it can recover. If you run spell pierce, dont hesitate to stop a Thoughtseize or IoK. Just keeping that hand info away from Mardu is sometimes enough to slow them down and get it into your court. Save remands for the back half of souls, thats all its really good for against us unless your coming in for the kill. Dont assume that Lily isnt in the 75 when getting ready to drop a geist, i dont think selfeiseks list is the final iteration and she is too powerful to be completely left out. All in all, play patiently, embrace the grind, and know that the longer the game goes the better your chances.
I leave you with this final bit of spice to warn you of the unfinished nature of Mardu. Guttural Response is a card, and i have ran them in my 75. It has made for some game ending plays and eyebrows raised through their hairlines. =)
Hope this wall of text has some value for you all. From all of us at planet mardu: Safe Journies, and Kill All the Things.
Greetings from Planet Mardu. Saw the matchup guide, thought id offer some insight from the other side of the table. Selfeiseks list has been getting a bunch of spotlight as of late, but as Corbin Hostler showed with his list (Thank you mr hostler for playing midrange for a change) youre probably going to see a lot of variation from deck to deck. I personally run pack rat over pyro cuz they end games faster, and i have a planeswalker suite to back it up, but thats just me.
Anyway, i first have to give Curd a nod on the counterspells, after the initial discard barrage there isnt a whole lot Mardu can do about them. Cryptics in particular are crippling due to the inherent card advantage. Longer games tend to favor jeskai as well, so dont be afraid to slow roll threats and drag it out, we have no cantrips and cant refuel without (usually) sorcery speed spell and creatures. Your manland (collonade) is also leagues better than vents as the game grinds on, so protect that as much as possible.
The burn is incredibly relevant. Bolt snap bolt to the dome is great against everyone (except maybe souls sisters) but Mardu in particular is notorious for punching itself in the face. I run a playset of helix and burn is still a problem match up, that carries over to jeskai when im taking 6 a turn from geist, or even 2 a turn from a queller holding my removal.
Mardu beats Jeskai tempo by stripping its answers early and overwhelming it before it can recover. If you run spell pierce, dont hesitate to stop a Thoughtseize or IoK. Just keeping that hand info away from Mardu is sometimes enough to slow them down and get it into your court. Save remands for the back half of souls, thats all its really good for against us unless your coming in for the kill. Dont assume that Lily isnt in the 75 when getting ready to drop a geist, i dont think selfeiseks list is the final iteration and she is too powerful to be completely left out. All in all, play patiently, embrace the grind, and know that the longer the game goes the better your chances.
I leave you with this final bit of spice to warn you of the unfinished nature of Mardu. Guttural Response is a card, and i have ran them in my 75. It has made for some game ending plays and eyebrows raised through their hairlines. =)
Hope this wall of text has some value for you all. From all of us at planet mardu: Safe Journies, and Kill All the Things.
This is awesome info Twinacus! I'm glad some of my feelings about the matchup actually bear out on the other side of the table.
I agree that this is only the tip of the iceberg for the Mardu Reveler archetype. I played with the deck against others during our testing session and the deck definitely is a competitive deck already and I do think it will become a regular player in the modern meta game. It doesn't hurt that it has one of my favorite cards in Bedlam Reveler!
I haven't seen a Guttural Response in awhile, but that is a great idea. I know I would never expect it and I would get blown out by it so I assume many other blue mages would not see that coming. Good thinking.
I agree, very interesting list. It would look much more usual if the three Mentors would be Pyromancers.
@CurdBros: Now this list must have finally convinced you that Search for Azcanta belongs in the main and not side board
Settle the Wreckage in the SB looks very interesting. "Path to Exile all your attackers"... Never thought about that card. A one-sided board wipe can decide the whole game in a single turn. I'll try this card in my SB too.
Takase Ryousuke's deck is atypical of a Japanese style of play. Aggressive with a pinch of tempo. The lack of other counterspells apart from Remand in the main deck denotes a strategy to keep the opponent on the backfoot/defense.
I can understand the use of Mentor instead of YP here... a force of 3/3 monks swinging for lethal is more formidable then a group of 1/1 elementals. prowess monk tokens also make blocks awkward.
Takase Ryousuke's deck is atypical of a Japanese style of play. Aggressive with a pinch of tempo. The lack of other counterspells apart from Remand in the main deck denotes a strategy to keep the opponent on the backfoot/defense.
I can understand the use of Mentor instead of YP here... a force of 3/3 monks swinging for lethal is more formidable then a group of 1/1 elementals. prowess monk tokens also make blocks awkward.
I so badly want to play Monastery Mentor so maybe I should just take a page from Ryosuske's book and just jam him into my list. I used to think having 6 tap out 3 drops wouldn't work all that well, but he has been having success with it so maybe I should just give it a try.
StevomatUWR- I agree that Settle the Wreckage is interesting. I have never run Anger of Gods because I didn't want to kill our board, but settle might be worth a look. I don't think the downside hurts us too much.
As for Search for Azcanta, if I had room in the maindeck for it I would love to run it. It basically owns any grindy matchup if it sticks around. I don't fault anyone for running it in the main deck. I just don't have room for it in my game one gameplan. There is no arguing the card isn't amazing and possibly broken in grindy mirrors. I drew 6+ cards in the last UW control matchup off of it. It basically won the game for me. It will likely be a staple in UWR decks for the foreseeable future.
I can understand the use of Mentor instead of YP here... a force of 3/3 monks swinging for lethal is more formidable then a group of 1/1 elementals. prowess monk tokens also make blocks awkward.
I so badly want to play Monastery Mentor so maybe I should just take a page from Ryosuske's book and just jam him into my list. I used to think having 6 tap out 3 drops wouldn't work all that well, but he has been having success with it so maybe I should just give it a try.
StevomatUWR- I agree that Settle the Wreckage is interesting. I have never run Anger of Gods because I didn't want to kill our board, but settle might be worth a look. I don't think the downside hurts us too much.
I really like settle the wreckage. I have been theory testing with it and there are not a lot of downsides. Most modern decks run few basic lands, so between Paths and wreckage you are going to only give them +2 in most games. Also Settle can be used on your own creatures to fetch land(s).
Mentor looks good with this build as he is looking at T4 for attacks, He almost looks to chain cantrips with it, and use it as a main win play over the Geist.
The Deck top 4 so he did something right. Lack of counterspells is odd. Im not sure if I could do that in my meta, most games are nearly decided at T4-5.
Seeing this deck did get me thinking about Brewing.
I love the list Mazeron. It's extremely similar to what I am playing, but the minor differences in the creature base make a huge difference in how the game plays out. That's why I always say to start with your creature base if you are planning on building jeskai aggro-control or tempo and go from there. They dictate how the games will play out. Where you have Mentor I have swiftspear which really changes the decks gameplan.
I am currently working on possibly getting 4 snapcasters into the deck. In conversation with Great Nate he asked why there were only three snaps in my list and it got me thinking. There are several reasons such as curve considerations, spell density, etc, but not playing 4 of the best creature ever printed is likely just wrong.
Keep us posted on how well mentor plays out in the current meta. Monastery Mentor is one of my favorite creatures of all time so I would love to fit him into the deck.
On another note. I am currently trying to find the perfect build for my personal deck. Here are the two options. Let me know which one you like - Option 1 or Option 2.
I can understand the use of Mentor instead of YP here... a force of 3/3 monks swinging for lethal is more formidable then a group of 1/1 elementals. prowess monk tokens also make blocks awkward.
I so badly want to play Monastery Mentor so maybe I should just take a page from Ryosuske's book and just jam him into my list. I used to think having 6 tap out 3 drops wouldn't work all that well, but he has been having success with it so maybe I should just give it a try.
StevomatUWR- I agree that Settle the Wreckage is interesting. I have never run Anger of Gods because I didn't want to kill our board, but settle might be worth a look. I don't think the downside hurts us too much.
I really like settle the wreckage. I have been theory testing with it and there are not a lot of downsides. Most modern decks run few basic lands, so between Paths and wreckage you are going to only give them +2 in most games. Also Settle can be used on your own creatures to fetch land(s).
Mentor looks good with this build as he is looking at T4 for attacks, He almost looks to chain cantrips with it, and use it as a main win play over the Geist.
The Deck top 4 so he did something right. Lack of counterspells is odd. Im not sure if I could do that in my meta, most games are nearly decided at T4-5.
Seeing this deck did get me thinking about Brewing.
other lands also but this is just a ruff idea but it might be a nice shell
I have no experience at all with jotun grunt and grimoire thief so I won't be much help, but this deck looks spicey! I love really innovative decks. LEt us know if you play the deck and how it goes. It looks sweet.
I couldn't make a lot of time lately to play, just a few games online last week and FNM yesterday.
Unfortunately only 10 players showed up for FNM so we only played 3 rounds. I won 2-0 against classic Jund in round one. First game was single-handedly decided by Search for Azcanta. Second game I drew the perfect mix of disruptive spells, removal and threats.
Round two I won 2-0 against Infect. First game I was super lucky that I didn't die when I was at 4 poison and couldn't remove his blighted Agent but he couldn't find enough pump spells to finish me even though he had 4 cards in hand... Then he died to my attack with flipped Delver and 2 dmg from Hazoret's discard trigger. Second game I kept 1 land, 2 Bolts, 1 Path, 1 Dispel and something else. I drew a second land from the top and he had no chance against that hand.
Round three I lost 0-2 against Esper Control. First game I fought through Ashiok and Narset and even got him down to 2 but then I died to a combined attack of 4 spirit tokens and 2 activated Creeping Tar Pits. Second game we both had to mulligan down to 5. After 5 turns he had 5 lands in play and I only had 2. Never had a chance to win from there...
Yesterday I was running this list with one change: I tried 1 Settle the Wreckage for fun (replaced one of my 4 Paths). I even got to cast it one time and exiled one Glistener Elf. He had two at that time but he only had to attack with one because he also had a Noble Hierarch. Too bad
The deck still feels very good. I'd love to play 1 Electrolyze main but I have no idea which card to take out for it. Any ideas? (I won't cut my 2 Charms for it)
What I really want to discuss today is my sideboard. At the moment it looks like this:
The upper tow rows are the cards I am currently using. The seven cards at the bottom are cards I can imagine putting in my sideboard as well. Sulfur Elemental would have been so good against that Esper Control deck yesterday...
Anyways, Modern Nexus compiled the current Meta very nicely this week.
I'd say that my deck fares pretty well against the current Tier 1 opponents.
Affinity is maybe 50-50 before and 55-45 after sideboard
Gifts Storm is 50-50
Jeskai Tempo is 50-50 (haven't played against this deck enough though)
Burn is 60-40 before and 70-30 after sideboard
Humans is 60-40
Eldrazi Tron is 50-50
Grixis Shadow is 60-40 and even slightly better after sideboard
Counters Company is 60-40
RG Valakut is the only real unfavorable match-up, I'd say 35-65
So, at tournaments this deck should do very well currently, but unfortunately there aren't any big Modern tournaments on my continent in the near future
-_-
How would you change the sideboard looking at these current Tier 1 match-ups? I feel that I need more cards against Valakut decks. Maybe add one more Shadow and/or a second Disdainful Stroke? The latter is good againt Eldrazi too and maybe even worth using against Storm (hits Past in Flames, Gifts, Empty the Warrens).
I couldn't make a lot of time lately to play, just a few games online last week and FNM yesterday.
Unfortunately only 10 players showed up for FNM so we only played 3 rounds. I won 2-0 against classic Jund in round one. First game was single-handedly decided by Search for Azcanta. Second game I drew the perfect mix of disruptive spells, removal and threats.
Round two I won 2-0 against Infect. First game I was super lucky that I didn't die when I was at 4 poison and couldn't remove his blighted Agent but he couldn't find enough pump spells to finish me even though he had 4 cards in hand... Then he died to my attack with flipped Delver and 2 dmg from Hazoret's discard trigger. Second game I kept 1 land, 2 Bolts, 1 Path, 1 Dispel and something else. I drew a second land from the top and he had no chance against that hand.
Round three I lost 0-2 against Esper Control. First game I fought through Ashiok and Narset and even got him down to 2 but then I died to a combined attack of 4 spirit tokens and 2 activated Creeping Tar Pits. Second game we both had to mulligan down to 5. After 5 turns he had 5 lands in play and I only had 2. Never had a chance to win from there...
Yesterday I was running this list with one change: I tried 1 Settle the Wreckage for fun (replaced one of my 4 Paths). I even got to cast it one time and exiled one Glistener Elf. He had two at that time but he only had to attack with one because he also had a Noble Hierarch. Too bad
The deck still feels very good. I'd love to play 1 Electrolyze main but I have no idea which card to take out for it. Any ideas? (I won't cut my 2 Charms for it)
What I really want to discuss today is my sideboard. At the moment it looks like this:
The upper tow rows are the cards I am currently using. The seven cards at the bottom are cards I can imagine putting in my sideboard as well. Sulfur Elemental would have been so good against that Esper Control deck yesterday...
Anyways, Modern Nexus compiled the current Meta very nicely this week.
I'd say that my deck fares pretty well against the current Tier 1 opponents.
Affinity is maybe 50-50 before and 55-45 after sideboard
Gifts Storm is 50-50
Jeskai Tempo is 50-50 (haven't played against this deck enough though)
Burn is 60-40 before and 70-30 after sideboard
Humans is 60-40
Eldrazi Tron is 50-50
Grixis Shadow is 60-40 and even slightly better after sideboard
Counters Company is 60-40
RG Valakut is the only real unfavorable match-up, I'd say 35-65
So, at tournaments this deck should do very well currently, but unfortunately there aren't any big Modern tournaments on my continent in the near future
-_-
How would you change the sideboard looking at these current Tier 1 match-ups? I feel that I need more cards against Valakut decks. Maybe add one more Shadow and/or a second Disdainful Stroke? The latter is good againt Eldrazi too and maybe even worth using against Storm (hits Past in Flames, Gifts, Empty the Warrens).
Honestly I'd cut a land for the Electrolyze. You'll have 20 lands + 4 cantrips and 2 "cyclers" in Remand plus the newly added Electrolyze. It'll slightly help with delver flips.
As for your sideboard, I wouldn't use any of the cards you lined up
I'd certainly add an Izzet Staticaster, which will help with your Lingering Souls problem in general and I'd put a 2nd Deflecting Palm in there. The only efficient and/or consistent way for the deck to attack mana bases in all the games, with all the different iterations of Jeskai X I've ever played with, has been Blood Moon. Crumble has always been too slow for me.
Also, beautiful deck, too few foils for me though (missing 1 Snapcaster and 4 fetchlands and I'm finished with the main and probably most of the sideboard)
I couldn't make a lot of time lately to play, just a few games online last week and FNM yesterday.
Unfortunately only 10 players showed up for FNM so we only played 3 rounds. I won 2-0 against classic Jund in round one. First game was single-handedly decided by Search for Azcanta. Second game I drew the perfect mix of disruptive spells, removal and threats.
Round two I won 2-0 against Infect. First game I was super lucky that I didn't die when I was at 4 poison and couldn't remove his blighted Agent but he couldn't find enough pump spells to finish me even though he had 4 cards in hand... Then he died to my attack with flipped Delver and 2 dmg from Hazoret's discard trigger. Second game I kept 1 land, 2 Bolts, 1 Path, 1 Dispel and something else. I drew a second land from the top and he had no chance against that hand.
Round three I lost 0-2 against Esper Control. First game I fought through Ashiok and Narset and even got him down to 2 but then I died to a combined attack of 4 spirit tokens and 2 activated Creeping Tar Pits. Second game we both had to mulligan down to 5. After 5 turns he had 5 lands in play and I only had 2. Never had a chance to win from there...
Yesterday I was running this list with one change: I tried 1 Settle the Wreckage for fun (replaced one of my 4 Paths). I even got to cast it one time and exiled one Glistener Elf. He had two at that time but he only had to attack with one because he also had a Noble Hierarch. Too bad
The deck still feels very good. I'd love to play 1 Electrolyze main but I have no idea which card to take out for it. Any ideas? (I won't cut my 2 Charms for it)
What I really want to discuss today is my sideboard. At the moment it looks like this:
The upper tow rows are the cards I am currently using. The seven cards at the bottom are cards I can imagine putting in my sideboard as well. Sulfur Elemental would have been so good against that Esper Control deck yesterday...
Anyways, Modern Nexus compiled the current Meta very nicely this week.
I'd say that my deck fares pretty well against the current Tier 1 opponents.
Affinity is maybe 50-50 before and 55-45 after sideboard
Gifts Storm is 50-50
Jeskai Tempo is 50-50 (haven't played against this deck enough though)
Burn is 60-40 before and 70-30 after sideboard
Humans is 60-40
Eldrazi Tron is 50-50
Grixis Shadow is 60-40 and even slightly better after sideboard
Counters Company is 60-40
RG Valakut is the only real unfavorable match-up, I'd say 35-65
So, at tournaments this deck should do very well currently, but unfortunately there aren't any big Modern tournaments on my continent in the near future
-_-
How would you change the sideboard looking at these current Tier 1 match-ups? I feel that I need more cards against Valakut decks. Maybe add one more Shadow and/or a second Disdainful Stroke? The latter is good againt Eldrazi too and maybe even worth using against Storm (hits Past in Flames, Gifts, Empty the Warrens).
We have a ton of 50-50, 60-40 matchups which is one of the main reasons to play the deck. Similar to death shadow, this deck is very hard to play extremely well. We don't have to worry as much about our life total, but knowing when to be aggressive and when to be controlling takes a long time to master and depends on the matchup. That's part of the fun in playing the deck. I personally have not run Disdainful Stroke, but that would be a great option in a tron and RG Titanshift meta.
I would love to have additional options against Titanshift. That is a super tough matchup. I agree with Mr.Tzoulis that Deflecting Palm is surprisingly good against them. We can typically get them down to 6 or less life before they land a large threat or scapeshift. Then we can deflecting palm for the remainder of the damage.
I also agree that Izzet Staticaster is really good. I didn't play staticaster for a long time, but gave it a try and it single handily won me a match against storm when they cast empty the warrens in both post boarded games. I can't bring myself to play Blood Moon because I utilize all three colors pretty extensively and because I personally dislike the card. That is not to say it's a bad option. If you can run blood moon profitably in a deck you probably should be running it.
I am currently working on getting the deck back to the basics. I have muddled the speed a little and wanted to get back to an aggressive slant. I am working with the list and will let you guys no when I land on something.
@ StevomatUWR: Your deck looks like it has no more fat to cut. I cannot see anything to replace with Electrolyze.
@ Curdbros: I am siding with Deck 2. Mainly because Spell Queller won me a game last night.
Search of Azcanta won me games again last night. The both times I drew it in my opening hand and casted it, allowed me to filter away cards I didn't need. Game ended in my favor even before the card could flip. Over-performing or really good? Hard for me to tell... I don't think its an auto-include in any UX deck but it has made my Jeskai Delver deck alot more consistent.
Hi guys, me here again. So, coming from tempo, I decided to try to make to more midrange-y. Fortunately, I think it's quite good (Or at least I liked it)! Basically, trade some explosiveness with more resilient threats and late game powers.
On mana base, I haven't thought about it throughly, but so far so good. Feel Free to giving me suggestions regarding the mana base though.
On Search of Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, I haven't played that yet (never so far lol). But basically, if tempo and control plays it and get positive results with it, why not this midrange-y list use it as well? I believe if I can squeeze it in, it'll shine here, since longer list tend to get more benefit from it.
I only use 6 counterspells, all which able to cycle itself (draw a card). The reason is, I don't want for the game to go too long, even though I'm able to (somewhat), so I need consistently to go through the deck as quickly as possible. In total, I played 13 cards which can draw me a card, and 15 if you count Vendilion Clique as well.
Last but not least, the best thing is, I can play Thundermaw Hellkite in an optimal list in modern! I love that card so much! HAHAHA. But in all seriousness, it gives Jeskai new form of threat that is guaranteed to connect the moment it hit. It's not common as well in modern so everyone tend not to expect that.
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
Hi guys, me here again. So, coming from tempo, I decided to try to make to more midrange-y. Fortunately, I think it's quite good (Or at least I liked it)! Basically, trade some explosiveness with more resilient threats and late game powers.
On mana base, I haven't thought about it throughly, but so far so good. Feel Free to giving me suggestions regarding the mana base though.
On Search of Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, I haven't played that yet (never so far lol). But basically, if tempo and control plays it and get positive results with it, why not this midrange-y list use it as well? I believe if I can squeeze it in, it'll shine here, since longer list tend to get more benefit from it.
I only use 6 counterspells, all which able to cycle itself (draw a card). The reason is, I don't want for the game to go too long, even though I'm able to (somewhat), so I need consistently to go through the deck as quickly as possible. In total, I played 13 cards which can draw me a card, and 15 if you count Vendilion Clique as well.
Last but not least, the best thing is, I can play Thundermaw Hellkite in an optimal list in modern! I love that card so much! HAHAHA. But in all seriousness, it gives Jeskai new form of threat that is guaranteed to connect the moment it hit. It's not common as well in modern so everyone tend not to expect that.
Hi Moz. It's always good to hear from you . This is definitely more of a midrange list than delver/prowess. With that said, jeskai midrange has been proven to be extremely good with several high finishes lately. I do think the a more aggressive or delver version of jeskai is better suited for a meta full of tron and valakut, but the midrange deck also has game against them.
I agree that Thundermaw Hellkite is superior to Stormbreath Dragon. If you cast a hellkite you typically win that game. In addition, Lingering Souls is a tough card for use to deal with so anything the helps with souls is always good.
I honestly think you should give one or two Search for Azcanta in your sideboard or possibly one main and one side. The card is truly bonkers and is absolutely devastating in any grindy matchup. I would say you could easily play 23 lands in this list and add a search for azcanta. Other than that, I can't really see anything I think needs to be changed for the midrange deck. I would like to see a couple more Serum Visions but there is nothing really to cut except for maybe on Electrolyze.
I know that Great Nate has a lot of thoughts about this style deck and thundermaw hellkite. He could definitely give you some pointers.
Now onto the matchup of the week- I think the matchup definitely needs to be G/B Tron-
Tron is one of the main reasons to chose jeskai delver over jeskai midrange. Midrange has a very tough tron matchup, but can still beat them. Jeskai delver has a far better tron matchup due to it's early clock. Let me know what you think about the Tron matchup.
Overall- I have always found Tron to be a favorable matchup. As long as we can get a clock down fairly early we can control the game and burn them out. They typically take 3-4 turns of searching for their tron peices before doing anything substantial. Once they have tron cards like Remand, Negate and even Spell Pierce can be devastating. In my opinion Remand is the best card in this matchup. Numerous times we will have a decent clock going and the opponent will play a Karn, Liberated or a Oblivion Stone only to have it remanded giving us another turn of damage. Wurmcoil Engine can sway games, however, we have a lot of answers for wurmcoil in Path to Exile, Vapor Snag, and Echoing Truth. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is likely their strongest card against us, but again is a juicy remand target.
Sideboard- Post sideboard is much of the same. We have several very good options against them. Some people prefer land destruction in cards like Molten Rain, Spreading Seas, and/or Blood Moon. These are great options and we have more options to attack from other angles. Stony Silence is superb, Deflecting Palm is great, Negate, and Blessed Alliance are also decent options. Artifact removal is also good in this matchup in small doses. Anti-search affects can also be very good against Tron such as Aven Mindscensor and Shadow of Doubt.
Overall I would say most Tron matchups are fairly favored for jeskai prowess/delver. This is nice because most jeskai decks have a very bad tron matchup.
Hi Moz. It's always good to hear from you . This is definitely more of a midrange list than delver/prowess. With that said, jeskai midrange has been proven to be extremely good with several high finishes lately. I do think the a more aggressive or delver version of jeskai is better suited for a meta full of tron and valakut, but the midrange deck also has game against them.
I agree that Thundermaw Hellkite is superior to Stormbreath Dragon. If you cast a hellkite you typically win that game. In addition, Lingering Souls is a tough card for use to deal with so anything the helps with souls is always good.
I honestly think you should give one or two Search for Azcanta in your sideboard or possibly one main and one side. The card is truly bonkers and is absolutely devastating in any grindy matchup. I would say you could easily play 23 lands in this list and add a search for azcanta. Other than that, I can't really see anything I think needs to be changed for the midrange deck. I would like to see a couple more Serum Visions but there is nothing really to cut except for maybe on Electrolyze.
I know that Great Nate has a lot of thoughts about this style deck and thundermaw hellkite. He could definitely give you some pointers.
Now onto the matchup of the week- I think the matchup definitely needs to be G/B Tron-
Tron is one of the main reasons to chose jeskai delver over jeskai midrange. Midrange has a very tough tron matchup, but can still beat them. Jeskai delver has a far better tron matchup due to it's early clock. Let me know what you think about the Tron matchup.
Overall- I have always found Tron to be a favorable matchup. As long as we can get a clock down fairly early we can control the game and burn them out. They typically take 3-4 turns of searching for their tron peices before doing anything substantial. Once they have tron cards like Remand, Negate and even Spell Pierce can be devastating. In my opinion Remand is the best card in this matchup. Numerous times we will have a decent clock going and the opponent will play a Karn, Liberated or a Oblivion Stone only to have it remanded giving us another turn of damage. Wurmcoil Engine can sway games, however, we have a lot of answers for wurmcoil in Path to Exile, Vapor Snag, and Echoing Truth. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is likely their strongest card against us, but again is a juicy remand target.
Sideboard- Post sideboard is much of the same. We have several very good options against them. Some people prefer land destruction in cards like Molten Rain, Spreading Seas, and/or Blood Moon. These are great options and we have more options to attack from other angles. Stony Silence is superb, Deflecting Palm is great, Negate, and Blessed Alliance are also decent options. Artifact removal is also good in this matchup in small doses. Anti-search affects can also be very good against Tron such as Aven Mindscensor and Shadow of Doubt.
Overall I would say most Tron matchups are fairly favored for jeskai prowess/delver. This is nice because most jeskai decks have a very bad tron matchup.
Hmm, Stony Silence right. I never board it vs tron in though. I think i'll try it. A bit rusty after a while not playing magic haha.
Idk about Deflecting Palm, I'll try to find place for it in this list. I usually I board in 1 more Thundermaw against tron for a bit explosiveness.
LD options such as Molten Rain is interesting to try, plus it's feels nice to destroy opposing land. LOL.
I'll try Azcanta later, and I'll tell you what I think later.
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
@CurdBros: I like your option 2 better. The 2 quellers will do you good, taking care of un-counter-able spells and dodging non-revolt pushes. Not missing much in the 1 swiftspear and 1 logic knot you took out for it either. Logic knot is a lot more mid-range and controll-y, and post board often is usless in the face of graveyard hate the opponent may bring in against snapcasters.
Super stoked about this Japanese mentor list! Would be awesome to see mentor work well in modern.
Only issue is game one against combo... i run 6 counterspells and 2 quellers in my list and already i find it hard to fight storm and the like. a playset of remands and threats (delver aside) that start at 3 mana won't cut it against things like storm. I suppose that's why there's 2 counterflux in the sideboard, but it's almost just giving up G1.
Sideboarding is the skill i'm working on... Last weekend I went 4:0 and in all 4 matches lost G1 and came back after boarding. I know SBs are meta-specific, but with delver, we really have to plan what goes in and out to maintain delver's flip-ability. That's the single reason i took blood moon out of my sb. In MUs i'd side it in, i'd be trading instants/sorceries for 3 copies and delver never flips after that. Delver really makes SB planning a bit more intricate.
@CurdBros: I like your option 2 better. The 2 quellers will do you good, taking care of un-counter-able spells and dodging non-revolt pushes. Not missing much in the 1 swiftspear and 1 logic knot you took out for it either. Logic knot is a lot more mid-range and controll-y, and post board often is usless in the face of graveyard hate the opponent may bring in against snapcasters.
Super stoked about this Japanese mentor list! Would be awesome to see mentor work well in modern.
Only issue is game one against combo... i run 6 counterspells and 2 quellers in my list and already i find it hard to fight storm and the like. a playset of remands and threats (delver aside) that start at 3 mana won't cut it against things like storm. I suppose that's why there's 2 counterflux in the sideboard, but it's almost just giving up G1.
Sideboarding is the skill i'm working on... Last weekend I went 4:0 and in all 4 matches lost G1 and came back after boarding. I know SBs are meta-specific, but with delver, we really have to plan what goes in and out to maintain delver's flip-ability. That's the single reason i took blood moon out of my sb. In MUs i'd side it in, i'd be trading instants/sorceries for 3 copies and delver never flips after that. Delver really makes SB planning a bit more intricate.
IF I could "like" this comment more, I would. I totally agree with you EncaliburMTG. You make a great point about the sideboard. One of the major strengths of our deck is it's postboard gameplan. This deck is almost always favored post board. I have won countless matches after losing game one and then winning the next two very easily. This is mainly due to the fact that we can really mold our deck to whatever works best in the matchup. If we have to start aggro we can, if we want to draw the game out we can, etc.
The sideboard is what I am working on right now as well. I currently only have a 12 card sideboard so I will be adding a few cards. I know I want another copy of Negate. I have also been extremely happy with Hallowed Moonlight lately. I played against GW Vizier combo and Goryo's Vengeance this week and it was bonkers in both matchups. There isn't much better than casting hallowed moonlight in response to Collected Company.
I have also been running one copy of Spell Snare and one copy of Spell Pierce in the main deck. Snare is not a card I am super fond of, but it's very good right now. Thanks for letting me know which version you like. It seems like more people like version 2 so that's what I will take this week with a few minor tweaks.
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http://www.modernnexus.com/boremandos-enraged-brewing-jeskai-delver/
While I disagree that Geist of Saint Traft is bad in modern right now, I love all of the effort he has put into discussing the jeskai delver deck. He does say that Geist makes the 75 though.
G1 vs Abzan: Both games we went toe to toe. He T1 Thoughtseize, I recovered later with Serum Visions, Opt and/or Chart a Course. Our creatures didn't stay in play for long as both of our decks were heavy on removal. I resolved Search for Azcanta and it flipped before he got to draw his Abrupt Decay. Search for Azcanta drew me to victory. I Spell Pierce his Maelstrom Pulse that tried to take out my Fire Elementals.
G2 vs Grixis Death Shadow: Another Thoughtseize deck. Same old story. T1 Thoughtseize or IoK. My Spell Pierce is good value here as they have a very low mana base. I either Vapor Snag or Path of Exile the Delver of Secrets or Death's Shadow. One game ended with my Bolt/Snap/Bolt and another game ended with Young Pyromancer and Fire Elemental Tokens overrunning him. Serum Visions/ Opt/ Remand devalued his discard spells. A late game Search for Azcanta didn't really matter as I was ahead on the board and life total (he was at 5 and I was at 15). Lightning Helix and Spirebluff Canal rocks. I deliberately played into his Stubborn Denial for bigger plays by baiting him with cards like Path to Exile his Death's Shadow and then Snap/Path in my main phase with Spell Pierce up.
G3 vs Storm: Not the easiest deck for me to play against because they also pack Remand so I must try hard to not get blown out. Kept his Goblin Electromancer or Baral off the board to stall as long as possible. I lost one game because I drew blanks. I won the other one because I drew hot. Last game I stalled long enough to resolve Search of Azcanta and drew myself to victory. A mix of Smuggler's Copter crewed by an unflipped Delver of Secrets and Spell Queller sealed the game for me.
My current decklist:
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Spell Queller
3 Young Pyromancer
2 Mantis Rider
1 Enigma Drake
4 Lighting Bolt
4 Path to Exile
3 Lightning Helix
2 Spell Pierce
3 Remand
1 Vapor Snag
1 Search of Azcanta
2 Opt
4 Serum Visions
1 Chart a Course
4 Flooded Strand
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Inspiring Vantage
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
4 Spirebluff Canal
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
Possible tweaks with the deck is taking our Smuggler's Copter. I sided it out against decks with Kolaghan's Command but performs in the midgame. I am not really keen on Bedlam Reveler (a great card but I have so much cantrips I can't bare to discard my hand or ever went hellbent) and Cryptic Serpent doesn't have evasion but dodges IoK and Fatal Push. I will seriously consider a 2nd copy of Spell Queller.
Deck's great. I know I haven't played against Eldrazi/Tron or Valakut decks which pose a different set of problems for me.
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
I like dropping the drake and going to 2 queller. It's just stupid good lol whats the sideboard you're rocking ? I can understnad taking out the copter. Filter is nice (and letting a unflipped delver actually be freakin useful lol) but giving them another thing to throw a fatal push or k command at isn't doing you any favors.
Eldrazi is tough. for sure. when you play against it pay close attention so you can see how the deck favors vs it. I wouldn't worry as hard about valakut, its on the fringe right now. However through the breach + blood moon decks are ticking up, which can sometimes intertwine but sometimes they are completely different decks lol
~~~~~~~~~~
In other news with jeskai being in a huge upswing i think its important i follow suit and put a few remand in my maindeck to help combat it. so Ill be testing 3 cryptic, 2 remand, 2 logic knot, and 1 spell snare instead of 4 cryptic, 2 snare and 2 logic.
I've been pummeled by remand in counter wars lately and i miss remand anyways so here goes nothing lol
Thanks you very much DarkNightCavalier for the Sig.
Thank you for your ideas and suggestions! A 2nd Spell Queller would fit nicely in the deck if I may say so.
My 15 was a loose one with some borrowed cards:
2 Spell Pierce
3 Stony Silence
1 Mana Leak
2 Auriok Champion
2 Dispel
1 Wear//Tear
1 Opt
My sideboard choices versus the specific decks I played:
vs Abzan:
Out: 2 x Smuggler's Copter / 1 x Vapor Snag / 1 x Enigma Drake / 2 x Remand
In: 2 x Auriok Champion / 2 x Spell Piece / 2 Surgical Extraction
Heavy Spell Pierce presence is for LotV and later game Discard (have to protect my cantrips and burn). Surgical Extraction was for troublesome cards like LotV and Goyf. Game 2 I Spell Pierced a LotV and Surgical Extraction at end step. That Spell Pierce against that Maelstrom Pulse I mentioned was off Snapcaster Mage.
vs GDS:
Out: 2 x Smuggler's Copter / 1 x Vapor Snag / 1 x Enigma Drake / 2 x Remand
In: 2 x Auriok Champion / 2 Surgical Extraction / 2 Spell Pierce
Oddly, I did the same sideboard changes. Mainly because I felt that both decks are Thoughtsieze decks. Auriok Champion did some heavy lifting. It could block Death's Shadow all day and dodge all the removal in the deck. Opponent didn't see it coming. Gained quite a bit of life off a mid game Young Pyromancer.
vs Storm:
Out: 1 x Vapor Snag / 1 x Enigma Drake / 4 x Path to Exile / 1 x Young Pyromancer
In: 3 x Surgical Extraction / 2 x Spell Pierce / 2 x Auriok Champion
This one I just winged. Auriok Champion was mainly for the Empty the Warrens alternate win-con but it didn't come up. It was hard for me to try and figure out what to Surgical Extraction. I wasn't big on waiting for Grapeshot and attempt to win the counterspell war. I did Surgical Extraction Baral which slowed the deck down enough for me to do some beat down and burn him out towards the end.
With 2 Spell Pierces going into the deck fom the Sideboard, I might actually go for 3 / 4 Spell Pierces main... but that is a metagame call. Vapor Snag always has its uses as I won too many games with it to cut it totally from the deck.
To add on, Opt has been great. I didn't find an answer when I casted it in response but many times drew into other cards like Serum Visions or Chart a Course to look for more options which usually found me answers or options. I would love to run one more Opt but Serum Visions have been instrumental in setting up my Delvers to draw removal out.
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
Search for Azcanta has been amazing for me in the sideboard. I don't have room to add a copy to the main, but it has been great in the sideboard for my build against grindy matchups. The scry ability alone is nice so you don't hit too many land drops in those matchups because I typically win those matchups by having a greater mass of spells than they have.
Something I have been noticing is a lot of Blood Moon going around. I added a second Island to the maindeck a little while back. With the breach deck doing well lately and with people likely wanting to try Gerard Fabiano's Temur Moon deck, I will be making sure to play around blood moon.
The matchup of the week for this week is - Mardu Pyromancer.
Here is the list- https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/mardu-aggro-decklist-by-selfeisek-718311
I jammed against this matchup in my last playtest group and the results were rather promising. We have tons of removal for their threats and the deck seems fairly week to counter magic, especially Remand. They want stuff in their graveyard and when you remand the spell you basically time walk them. In addition, you can remand flashbacked spells and they are countered. They also have no way to stop you from burning them out. I won probably a little over 65% of the games against them, so I from my small sample size, I don't think this will be a tough matchup for us. The games that the opponent won were typically when they were on the play and had multiple hand disruption spells in their opener and/or were able to cast multiple Lingering Souls and/or Bedlam Revler.
Important cards in the matchup are - Geist of Saint Traft, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, Electrolyze, Slip Through Space, Remand. I know Geist sounds a little counter intuitive because they play tokens, but all of their removal is blanked by a geist. He is especially good in this matchup if you have Slip Through Space, Distortion Strike, or Emerge Unscathed. I spoke about Remand above. The burn spells are very effective as removal and for their life total. They take a rather large amount of damage from their fetches and thoughtseize so burn becomes very attractive in this matchup. Cards like Electrolyze and Forked Bolt do double duty by being able to remove multiple tokens or go to the face. Echoing Truth is great against tokens, but didn't make the cut because it is poor against Bedlam Reveler.
Sideboard options- Engineered Explosives, sweepers, all graveyard hate, Izzet Staticaster, Surgical Extraction, Celestial Purge.
Anything that deals with tokens as well as most things that deal with the graveyard are very good against them. Celestial Purge hits nearly all of their important permanents so that is a great catch all against them.
Let me know what I missed and what you think of this matchup. Here is the list I am currently running-
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Spell Queller
1 Bedlam Reveler
Spells (26)
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
1 Boros Charm
2 Vapor Snag
3 Path to Exile
3 Remand
1 Spell Pierce
1 Logic Knot
2 Slip Through Space
4 Opt
2 Serum Visions
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
3 Spirebluff Canal
1 Inspiring Vantage
1 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
As always I am playing the deck at 61 cards and 19 lands. I have found this to be my sweet spot for the land count.
Thanks WickedApp for the idea. It will obviously be an ever changing section, but new players will benefit greatly from having that info.
Anyway, i first have to give Curd a nod on the counterspells, after the initial discard barrage there isnt a whole lot Mardu can do about them. Cryptics in particular are crippling due to the inherent card advantage. Longer games tend to favor jeskai as well, so dont be afraid to slow roll threats and drag it out, we have no cantrips and cant refuel without (usually) sorcery speed spell and creatures. Your manland (collonade) is also leagues better than vents as the game grinds on, so protect that as much as possible.
The burn is incredibly relevant. Bolt snap bolt to the dome is great against everyone (except maybe souls sisters) but Mardu in particular is notorious for punching itself in the face. I run a playset of helix and burn is still a problem match up, that carries over to jeskai when im taking 6 a turn from geist, or even 2 a turn from a queller holding my removal.
Mardu beats Jeskai tempo by stripping its answers early and overwhelming it before it can recover. If you run spell pierce, dont hesitate to stop a Thoughtseize or IoK. Just keeping that hand info away from Mardu is sometimes enough to slow them down and get it into your court. Save remands for the back half of souls, thats all its really good for against us unless your coming in for the kill. Dont assume that Lily isnt in the 75 when getting ready to drop a geist, i dont think selfeiseks list is the final iteration and she is too powerful to be completely left out. All in all, play patiently, embrace the grind, and know that the longer the game goes the better your chances.
I leave you with this final bit of spice to warn you of the unfinished nature of Mardu. Guttural Response is a card, and i have ran them in my 75. It has made for some game ending plays and eyebrows raised through their hairlines. =)
Hope this wall of text has some value for you all. From all of us at planet mardu: Safe Journies, and Kill All the Things.
This is awesome info Twinacus! I'm glad some of my feelings about the matchup actually bear out on the other side of the table.
I agree that this is only the tip of the iceberg for the Mardu Reveler archetype. I played with the deck against others during our testing session and the deck definitely is a competitive deck already and I do think it will become a regular player in the modern meta game. It doesn't hurt that it has one of my favorite cards in Bedlam Reveler!
I haven't seen a Guttural Response in awhile, but that is a great idea. I know I would never expect it and I would get blown out by it so I assume many other blue mages would not see that coming. Good thinking.
WUR Traft. Builder: Takase Ryousuke. — MTG
Top4 in 晴れる屋モダン杯 [36 Players] — 02-Dec-2017 SUGGEST ARCHETYPE
Creature [15]
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grim Lavamancer
3 Monastery Mentor
4 Snapcaster Mage
Instant [19]
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
4 Opt
4 Path to Exile
4 Remand
Sorcery [6]
2 Chart a Course
4 Serum Visions
1 Search for Azcanta
Land [19]
3 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Seachrome Coast
2 Steam Vents
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Counterflux
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Negate
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Rest in Peace
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wear/Tear
1 Wrath of God
interesting build, 8 fetchlands, and lots of board wipes in SB. 3 mentors is interesting, 15 draw options. Looks like a midrange deck?
@CurdBros: Now this list must have finally convinced you that Search for Azcanta belongs in the main and not side board
Settle the Wreckage in the SB looks very interesting. "Path to Exile all your attackers"... Never thought about that card. A one-sided board wipe can decide the whole game in a single turn. I'll try this card in my SB too.
I can understand the use of Mentor instead of YP here... a force of 3/3 monks swinging for lethal is more formidable then a group of 1/1 elementals. prowess monk tokens also make blocks awkward.
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
I so badly want to play Monastery Mentor so maybe I should just take a page from Ryosuske's book and just jam him into my list. I used to think having 6 tap out 3 drops wouldn't work all that well, but he has been having success with it so maybe I should just give it a try.
StevomatUWR- I agree that Settle the Wreckage is interesting. I have never run Anger of Gods because I didn't want to kill our board, but settle might be worth a look. I don't think the downside hurts us too much.
As for Search for Azcanta, if I had room in the maindeck for it I would love to run it. It basically owns any grindy matchup if it sticks around. I don't fault anyone for running it in the main deck. I just don't have room for it in my game one gameplan. There is no arguing the card isn't amazing and possibly broken in grindy mirrors. I drew 6+ cards in the last UW control matchup off of it. It basically won the game for me. It will likely be a staple in UWR decks for the foreseeable future.
I really like settle the wreckage. I have been theory testing with it and there are not a lot of downsides. Most modern decks run few basic lands, so between Paths and wreckage you are going to only give them +2 in most games. Also Settle can be used on your own creatures to fetch land(s).
Mentor looks good with this build as he is looking at T4 for attacks, He almost looks to chain cantrips with it, and use it as a main win play over the Geist.
The Deck top 4 so he did something right. Lack of counterspells is odd. Im not sure if I could do that in my meta, most games are nearly decided at T4-5.
Seeing this deck did get me thinking about Brewing.
I came up with this
4 delver of secrets
2 jotun grunt
2 invisible stalker
2 geist of saint traft
4 path to exile
4 lightning bolt
2 trepanation blade
4 smuggler's copter
2 chart a course
4 serum visions
3 remand
2 ghost quarter
1 hostile desert
other lands also but this is just a ruff idea but it might be a nice shell
I am currently working on possibly getting 4 snapcasters into the deck. In conversation with Great Nate he asked why there were only three snaps in my list and it got me thinking. There are several reasons such as curve considerations, spell density, etc, but not playing 4 of the best creature ever printed is likely just wrong.
Keep us posted on how well mentor plays out in the current meta. Monastery Mentor is one of my favorite creatures of all time so I would love to fit him into the deck.
On another note. I am currently trying to find the perfect build for my personal deck. Here are the two options. Let me know which one you like - Option 1 or Option 2.
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Bedlam Reveler
3 Lightning Helix
1 Boros Charm
3 Path to Exile
1 Vapor Snag
1 Echoing Truth
3 Remand
2 Spell Pierce
1 Logic Knot
1 Slip Through Space
4 Opt
2 Serum Visions
3 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Spell Queller
1 Bedlam Reveler
3 Lightning Helix
1 Boros Charm
3 Path to Exile
1 Vapor Snag
1 Echoing Truth
3 Remand
2 Spell Pierce
1 Slip Through Space
4 Opt
2 Serum Visions
I have no experience at all with jotun grunt and grimoire thief so I won't be much help, but this deck looks spicey! I love really innovative decks. LEt us know if you play the deck and how it goes. It looks sweet.
I couldn't make a lot of time lately to play, just a few games online last week and FNM yesterday.
Unfortunately only 10 players showed up for FNM so we only played 3 rounds. I won 2-0 against classic Jund in round one. First game was single-handedly decided by Search for Azcanta. Second game I drew the perfect mix of disruptive spells, removal and threats.
Round two I won 2-0 against Infect. First game I was super lucky that I didn't die when I was at 4 poison and couldn't remove his blighted Agent but he couldn't find enough pump spells to finish me even though he had 4 cards in hand... Then he died to my attack with flipped Delver and 2 dmg from Hazoret's discard trigger. Second game I kept 1 land, 2 Bolts, 1 Path, 1 Dispel and something else. I drew a second land from the top and he had no chance against that hand.
Round three I lost 0-2 against Esper Control. First game I fought through Ashiok and Narset and even got him down to 2 but then I died to a combined attack of 4 spirit tokens and 2 activated Creeping Tar Pits. Second game we both had to mulligan down to 5. After 5 turns he had 5 lands in play and I only had 2. Never had a chance to win from there...
Yesterday I was running this list with one change: I tried 1 Settle the Wreckage for fun (replaced one of my 4 Paths). I even got to cast it one time and exiled one Glistener Elf. He had two at that time but he only had to attack with one because he also had a Noble Hierarch. Too bad
The deck still feels very good. I'd love to play 1 Electrolyze main but I have no idea which card to take out for it. Any ideas? (I won't cut my 2 Charms for it)
What I really want to discuss today is my sideboard. At the moment it looks like this:
The upper tow rows are the cards I am currently using. The seven cards at the bottom are cards I can imagine putting in my sideboard as well. Sulfur Elemental would have been so good against that Esper Control deck yesterday...
Anyways, Modern Nexus compiled the current Meta very nicely this week.
I'd say that my deck fares pretty well against the current Tier 1 opponents.
Affinity is maybe 50-50 before and 55-45 after sideboard
Gifts Storm is 50-50
Jeskai Tempo is 50-50 (haven't played against this deck enough though)
Burn is 60-40 before and 70-30 after sideboard
Humans is 60-40
Eldrazi Tron is 50-50
Grixis Shadow is 60-40 and even slightly better after sideboard
Counters Company is 60-40
RG Valakut is the only real unfavorable match-up, I'd say 35-65
So, at tournaments this deck should do very well currently, but unfortunately there aren't any big Modern tournaments on my continent in the near future
-_-
How would you change the sideboard looking at these current Tier 1 match-ups? I feel that I need more cards against Valakut decks. Maybe add one more Shadow and/or a second Disdainful Stroke? The latter is good againt Eldrazi too and maybe even worth using against Storm (hits Past in Flames, Gifts, Empty the Warrens).
Honestly I'd cut a land for the Electrolyze. You'll have 20 lands + 4 cantrips and 2 "cyclers" in Remand plus the newly added Electrolyze. It'll slightly help with delver flips.
As for your sideboard, I wouldn't use any of the cards you lined up
I'd certainly add an Izzet Staticaster, which will help with your Lingering Souls problem in general and I'd put a 2nd Deflecting Palm in there. The only efficient and/or consistent way for the deck to attack mana bases in all the games, with all the different iterations of Jeskai X I've ever played with, has been Blood Moon. Crumble has always been too slow for me.
Also, beautiful deck, too few foils for me though
We have a ton of 50-50, 60-40 matchups which is one of the main reasons to play the deck. Similar to death shadow, this deck is very hard to play extremely well. We don't have to worry as much about our life total, but knowing when to be aggressive and when to be controlling takes a long time to master and depends on the matchup. That's part of the fun in playing the deck. I personally have not run Disdainful Stroke, but that would be a great option in a tron and RG Titanshift meta.
I would love to have additional options against Titanshift. That is a super tough matchup. I agree with Mr.Tzoulis that Deflecting Palm is surprisingly good against them. We can typically get them down to 6 or less life before they land a large threat or scapeshift. Then we can deflecting palm for the remainder of the damage.
I also agree that Izzet Staticaster is really good. I didn't play staticaster for a long time, but gave it a try and it single handily won me a match against storm when they cast empty the warrens in both post boarded games. I can't bring myself to play Blood Moon because I utilize all three colors pretty extensively and because I personally dislike the card. That is not to say it's a bad option. If you can run blood moon profitably in a deck you probably should be running it.
I am currently working on getting the deck back to the basics. I have muddled the speed a little and wanted to get back to an aggressive slant. I am working with the list and will let you guys no when I land on something.
@ Curdbros: I am siding with Deck 2. Mainly because Spell Queller won me a game last night.
Search of Azcanta won me games again last night. The both times I drew it in my opening hand and casted it, allowed me to filter away cards I didn't need. Game ended in my favor even before the card could flip. Over-performing or really good? Hard for me to tell... I don't think its an auto-include in any UX deck but it has made my Jeskai Delver deck alot more consistent.
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
On mana base, I haven't thought about it throughly, but so far so good. Feel Free to giving me suggestions regarding the mana base though.
On Search of Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, I haven't played that yet (never so far lol). But basically, if tempo and control plays it and get positive results with it, why not this midrange-y list use it as well? I believe if I can squeeze it in, it'll shine here, since longer list tend to get more benefit from it.
I only use 6 counterspells, all which able to cycle itself (draw a card). The reason is, I don't want for the game to go too long, even though I'm able to (somewhat), so I need consistently to go through the deck as quickly as possible. In total, I played 13 cards which can draw me a card, and 15 if you count Vendilion Clique as well.
Last but not least, the best thing is, I can play Thundermaw Hellkite in an optimal list in modern! I love that card so much! HAHAHA. But in all seriousness, it gives Jeskai new form of threat that is guaranteed to connect the moment it hit. It's not common as well in modern so everyone tend not to expect that.
Stormbreath Dragon is also an option against Path to Exile, but I think 5/5 and the ability to clear Lingering Souls and shut down blockers is flat out better.
Improvements that I consider is to play more 4-powered creatures so that I can play Stubborn Denial. But I'm not sure what to include. We'll see.
// 13 Creature
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Spell Queller
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Restoration Angel
// 21 Instant
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
3 Lightning Helix
3 Remand
2 Opt
3 Cryptic Command
3 Electrolyze
// 24 Land
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Steam Vents
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Sacred Foundry
1 Arid Mesa
1 Cascade Bluffs
2 Celestial Colonnade
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Desolate Lighthouse
2 Serum Visions
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Batterskull
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Stony Silence
1 Wear // Tear
1 Volcanic Fallout
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Crumble to Dust
Feel free to give comments or anything!
My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube
Hi Moz. It's always good to hear from you . This is definitely more of a midrange list than delver/prowess. With that said, jeskai midrange has been proven to be extremely good with several high finishes lately. I do think the a more aggressive or delver version of jeskai is better suited for a meta full of tron and valakut, but the midrange deck also has game against them.
I agree that Thundermaw Hellkite is superior to Stormbreath Dragon. If you cast a hellkite you typically win that game. In addition, Lingering Souls is a tough card for use to deal with so anything the helps with souls is always good.
I honestly think you should give one or two Search for Azcanta in your sideboard or possibly one main and one side. The card is truly bonkers and is absolutely devastating in any grindy matchup. I would say you could easily play 23 lands in this list and add a search for azcanta. Other than that, I can't really see anything I think needs to be changed for the midrange deck. I would like to see a couple more Serum Visions but there is nothing really to cut except for maybe on Electrolyze.
I know that Great Nate has a lot of thoughts about this style deck and thundermaw hellkite. He could definitely give you some pointers.
Now onto the matchup of the week- I think the matchup definitely needs to be G/B Tron-
Tron is one of the main reasons to chose jeskai delver over jeskai midrange. Midrange has a very tough tron matchup, but can still beat them. Jeskai delver has a far better tron matchup due to it's early clock. Let me know what you think about the Tron matchup.
Overall- I have always found Tron to be a favorable matchup. As long as we can get a clock down fairly early we can control the game and burn them out. They typically take 3-4 turns of searching for their tron peices before doing anything substantial. Once they have tron cards like Remand, Negate and even Spell Pierce can be devastating. In my opinion Remand is the best card in this matchup. Numerous times we will have a decent clock going and the opponent will play a Karn, Liberated or a Oblivion Stone only to have it remanded giving us another turn of damage. Wurmcoil Engine can sway games, however, we have a lot of answers for wurmcoil in Path to Exile, Vapor Snag, and Echoing Truth. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is likely their strongest card against us, but again is a juicy remand target.
Sideboard- Post sideboard is much of the same. We have several very good options against them. Some people prefer land destruction in cards like Molten Rain, Spreading Seas, and/or Blood Moon. These are great options and we have more options to attack from other angles. Stony Silence is superb, Deflecting Palm is great, Negate, and Blessed Alliance are also decent options. Artifact removal is also good in this matchup in small doses. Anti-search affects can also be very good against Tron such as Aven Mindscensor and Shadow of Doubt.
Overall I would say most Tron matchups are fairly favored for jeskai prowess/delver. This is nice because most jeskai decks have a very bad tron matchup.
Hmm, Stony Silence right. I never board it vs tron in though. I think i'll try it. A bit rusty after a while not playing magic haha.
Idk about Deflecting Palm, I'll try to find place for it in this list. I usually I board in 1 more Thundermaw against tron for a bit explosiveness.
LD options such as Molten Rain is interesting to try, plus it's feels nice to destroy opposing land. LOL.
I'll try Azcanta later, and I'll tell you what I think later.
My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube
Super stoked about this Japanese mentor list! Would be awesome to see mentor work well in modern.
Only issue is game one against combo... i run 6 counterspells and 2 quellers in my list and already i find it hard to fight storm and the like. a playset of remands and threats (delver aside) that start at 3 mana won't cut it against things like storm. I suppose that's why there's 2 counterflux in the sideboard, but it's almost just giving up G1.
Sideboarding is the skill i'm working on... Last weekend I went 4:0 and in all 4 matches lost G1 and came back after boarding. I know SBs are meta-specific, but with delver, we really have to plan what goes in and out to maintain delver's flip-ability. That's the single reason i took blood moon out of my sb. In MUs i'd side it in, i'd be trading instants/sorceries for 3 copies and delver never flips after that. Delver really makes SB planning a bit more intricate.
IF I could "like" this comment more, I would. I totally agree with you EncaliburMTG. You make a great point about the sideboard. One of the major strengths of our deck is it's postboard gameplan. This deck is almost always favored post board. I have won countless matches after losing game one and then winning the next two very easily. This is mainly due to the fact that we can really mold our deck to whatever works best in the matchup. If we have to start aggro we can, if we want to draw the game out we can, etc.
The sideboard is what I am working on right now as well. I currently only have a 12 card sideboard so I will be adding a few cards. I know I want another copy of Negate. I have also been extremely happy with Hallowed Moonlight lately. I played against GW Vizier combo and Goryo's Vengeance this week and it was bonkers in both matchups. There isn't much better than casting hallowed moonlight in response to Collected Company.
I have also been running one copy of Spell Snare and one copy of Spell Pierce in the main deck. Snare is not a card I am super fond of, but it's very good right now. Thanks for letting me know which version you like. It seems like more people like version 2 so that's what I will take this week with a few minor tweaks.