If you want to beat aggro, you're better off just running more Bolt effects in UR (and maybe reaching into something like Dragon's Claw for the SB) than splashing white for Helix IMO. Good luck tomorrow.
Currently, you might be right. Deck was designed during the Wild Nacatl/Kird Ape surge of this spring, so 3 damage mattered. 3 still matters when it goes upstairs though, so we'll see! Thanks.
I think that the issue with running more bolt effects in straight izzet is that most of them are bad.
Lava spike isn't where we want to be, and while shard volley is maybe playable, its still not ideal. Lightning helix just blows them all out of the water.
Being able to close a game out with bolts in grixis control vs jeskai control is night and day, specifically because you have more playable damage, and I think to some extent, here as well.
On the other hand, mana tithe and boros charm are two pretty cool reasons to be in white right now.
Tithe doesn't play the best with path, but if you're all in on swiftspear/guide/delver/etc, its a fairly solid choice.
I really am curious to see how bedlam reveler fairs for you, because I'm still not sold on it in counter-heavy decks, but with only a single copy, you could do worse.
Agreed on Reveler. There are some very awkward moments where I'm holding it and a Remand and I really need the Remand, so I pass the turn and my opponent does nothing. Lesson learned is that if I'm behind on board, I don't have a choice. If I'm ahead though, or at parity, I'm happy to wait until Remand has a good target, blow out the rest of my hand, and then slam the Reveler next turn. It's a very good card, but makes you work for it. I was trying to find room for a second in the board, but decided in the end it was a bad idea.
Hey guys - I actually started as a Monastery Mentor/Young Pyromancer deck with lots of instants and sorceries, in particular Mutagenic Growth which is my favorite Jeskai card. I eventually realized that I was a Delverless Delver deck. I added Delvers because I love the ability to kick ass early if it lives. I run a lot fewer counters, leaning on the ones that cost one mana and protect my threat like Dispel and Spell Pierce. In the board I have others, mostly for combo. I changed it around a lot, but this is basically what I settled on before I started experimenting with Bedlam Reveler.
I had a hard time letting go of 4 copies of Path to Exile, but I have come to agree with a lot of what was said about that not being the most important removal spell. I find that it helps the opponent too much. I prefer Magma Spray against Kitchen Finks and Voice of Resurgence and also against Snapcaster Mage in the Grixis builds.
Please note the Bribery in the sideboard - it is amazing! If you think 5 mana is too expensive, please look up Caleb Durward's articles about why he is able to run Batterskull in his UR Delver lists. The same logic applies and it works - in the matchups that want it I have no problem getting to 3UU by the time I need it, long before they can cheat out an Emrakul. Also, stealing opponent's Primeval Titan or Inferno Titan or Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is lots of fun too.
I have since taken out the Manlands and gone down to 18 lands and it is working out well for me.
Regarding Reveler, I think it works better for me because I run fewer counters, but I think I'll still go down to 2/1 instead of 3/0...
For those wondering, I managed to finish 5-4 at SCG Syracuse this past weekend. Full writeup will be available on MTGCanada.com tomorrow. I'll come back and post a link. Deck performed well. Pilot performed so-so. Day two required 6-2-1 or better, and I think that's the absolute best I could have hoped for given the matchups I got. (Grixis Control is unbeatable, Jund is hard, Affinity/Burn are coin-flips, the rest are doable, and Merfolk is a walk in the park.)
Overall, very happy with the performance. Used every sideboard card, won the matches I was supposed to win (plus Eldrazi D&T), lost the matches I was supposed to lose, and split the matches I was supposed to be 50/50-ish in. Wouldn't mind the second affinity match back, but sometimes Arcbound Ravager is Arcbound Ravager.
Anyways, I hope this is interesting.
I lost the die roll, but won the deck roll. Bolts versus fish was a very gentle welcome to the event.
I blindly kept an interaction-heavy seven with two lands, and he went down to six and opened with the ideal Island – Aether Vial. Gee, I wonder.
I cast Serum Visions, leave a third land on top and bottom a Remand. He plays a Silvergill Adept which I can’t Helix on my turn with his Vial on 1 (in case of Cursecatcher), so I pass. Thankfully, he ticks the Vial up to two and flashes in a lord while the Adept attacks, and I get to Helix the lord and net a life.
He plays another Adept and passes, and I get to stick a Young Pyromancer with Vapor Snag up to let my Elemental token trade for one of his adepts, despite him vialing in another lord. The game was looking bad for him, and getting the the Path to Exile he pointed at my Pyromancer hit with a Spell Pierce led him to scoop with 13 life still left.
In game two I’m blessed with a similarly interactive hand, and am able to effectively spend my first three turns bolt, helix, snap-bolting his threats to untap on turn four with his board reduced to a Mutavault and a Silvergill Adept and my life total kept high at 15.
My turn four Young Pyromancer quickly ate a Gut Shot, but not before making a token off a Gitaxian Probe. Seeing a hand still ripe with two-mana lords, I cast an Engineered Explosives on two and passed the turn back.
This put us in a favorable lock for the next few turns, as he wouldn’t swing his 2/1 into my 1/1, nor would he take his Vial off two until I cracked the Explosives. I could handle his three-drops and Mutavaults with removal, as I continued to craft my hand, and a low-devotion Master of Waves isn’t something I’m scared of.
Eventually I played another Pyromancer and had enough ammunition to make a small token army, and he was forced to play multiple bodies on defense, giving me enough reason to crack the explosives.
The tables were almost turned with an aggressive sequence though, where he cast a Lord of Atlantis and then flashed in Master of Waves on my end step (and I immediately Pathed the latter), and then next turn cast a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and a vialed in a second Master of Waves on his own turn, making five tokens to equal my own.
I couldn’t actually deal with the second Master without first killing Kira, as despite having two Snapcasters in hand, I only get one shot at Snap-Path in my one-Path deck. I awkwardly couldn’t Helix-Snap-Bolt it because my only remaining land would be a fetch which I’d need to Spell Snare his Negate I’d seen twelve or so turns ago - but I’d just put a Vapor Snag on top of my library as another way to deal with Masters, and I couldn’t afford to shuffle it away.
Had I not thought this through thoroughly, I could have misstepped here and cost myself the game, but thankfully it was early in the day and my wits were still sharp.
I untapped, drew the Snag, used it to hit Kira’s shield, then Helixed her, Snap-Pathed the Master, Spell Snared the Negate, swung to bring him to three, and sat back happily with Snap-Bolt up next turn as he optimistically cast yet another token-making four-drop.
Generally speaking, the more four-plus toughness creatures my opponent has, the worse I am. Make them uncounterable with Aether Vial and Cavern of Souls, and the situation quickly gets worse. Despite him going down to six on the play, I wasn't feeling good about my odds when he curved a Vial into a Tidehollow Sculler, taking my Lightning Helix.
I played a Young Pyromancer, hoping to Electrolyze the Sculler and get my bolt back, but a second Sculler stripped me of that option, and a follow-up pair of Thought-Knot Seers (thankfully one of which I got to Remand for a turn) kept me low on removal.
However I was rich in cantrips, and was able to frustrate his offense enough with chump blockers for the 4/4s that he came in with the 2/2s as well and forced me to trade off my Pyromancer to avoid death. This proved to be a huge mistake, as reclaiming my Electrolyze was the catalyst to a sequence of events where I also got back the helix, Snap-block-helixed one Thought-Knot and survived the other at two life, and quickly took the game back over with a second Pyromancer and a little luck not sending a Reality Smasher my way.
Match two was less dramatic by far. I kept a seven with a Pyro, Spell Snare for his Sculler, a bolt, and several draw spells.
He didn't lead with a vial, and his turn two and three Leonin Arbiters ate removal rather than the Snare, and I effortlessly overwhelmed him with elemental tokens and Vapor Snags to keep the board clear and my Pyro safe from attempted Wasteland Strangler takedowns.
He didn't hit me once, and I took myself down to 14, then back up to 19.
We exchanged sideboard swaps after the match and he showed me that he removed all three Reality Smashers, presumably playing around the countermagic I lightened up on. With eight-plus disruption spells, this seemed like a massive miscalculation. Never do this.
I dread this matchup, but thankfully my opponent has a delightful Southern drawl that somehow eases the suffering. It's a tough match to win in the first place, and it became immediately apparent that he also knew his deck extremely well, as he made a lot of very smart control decisions.
Game one I'm on the draw yet again, and despite a good seven, it's a value blowout in his favour. I try to be the aggressor, but there’s only so much of a board I can develop through Kolaghan’s Command before he plays a T4 Kalitas. I have the Vapor Snag for it, and a Snapcaster and Remand in hand too, but I can only play that game so long. Instead though, he doesn’t replay it, and goes for a Tasigur with mana up instead, which I can only afford to Remand once because of the Kalitas I can’t let resolve. I don’t have enough tokens to swing through the 4/5, and he Cryptic Commands my attempt to take it down on defense with blocks + bolt, and it’s all downhill from there.
Sideboarding here is awkward, because on the play I certainly have a chance at winning aggressively, but I also need to plan for the likelihood of the game going long. For example, I’d like to keep my Spell Pierces to protect an early Pyromancer, but it’s effectively card disadvantage after turn 4-5, outside of picking off a greedy Cryptic Command.
I did manage to come out of the gate hot with a Grim Lavamancer and a Young Pyro that made a few tokens before eating a Terminate, but he stabilized at seven life with enough mana up that I couldn’t just aggressively throw bolts at him. He had resolved two Ancestral Visions, so if I was going to win any counter wars, it would be on efficiency rather than attrition.
After getting him down to four, and sitting at eight myself, I bolted him at the end of his turn, trying to commit his resources to a counter war I thought I might win and see if I could topdeck another point of burn FTW. It was a bit of a longshot, but I was losing soon if I didn’t try.
My hand was bolt, Surgical Extraction, Spell Snare, Dispel, and Gitaxian Probe.
What resulted was the largest stack I’ve ever been involved in while playing Modern.
<ul>
<ul>
<ol>
<li>I bolted him.</li>
<li>He cast Snapcaster Mage, which I let resolve, targeting his Countersquall.</li>
<li>I cast Surgical Extraction, targeting Countersquall, going down to a critical six in doing so.</li>
<li>Before that resolved, he bolted me, which I let resolve and went down to three.</li>
<li>He cast another Snapcaster Mage, which I Spell Snared.</li>
<li>He cast another Snapcaster Mage, which I let resolve, targeting his Lightning Bolt.</li>
<li>He flashed back his second Bolt for lethal, which I dispelled.</li>
</ol>
</ul>
</ul>
Ten spells later, everything else resolved, leaving him with two Snapcasters on the board, at one life, a deck stripped of Countersqualls, and tapped out with a revealed hand of Kolaghan’s Command and Tasigur, and me at three with an empty board and only a Gitaxian Probe in hand. On one hand, I’m now dead if I draw blank, but on the other, him having a board also makes a Vapor Snag lethal.
I untapped and drew a promising Serum Visions, cast it drawing a land and seeing two more, cast the Probe, drawing another, and casting that to draw a Remand and extend the handshake.
The kicker is that early in this game, I had trouble calculating what to do with my Lavamancer - attack for one or shock for two - and naturally there was at least one instance in which attacking was the wrong call. As has been the case in testing with this deck, tight decisions around single points of damage often wind up mattering.
Frankly though, I was okay not going to a third game, as my odds were low, and this was a taxing match.
Yet again, I'm on the draw, but yet again I get to keep a decent seven. Still, a decent seven is little match for a turn two 7/1 Vault Skirge.
To make matters worse, he plays a turn three Ornithopter and Arcbound Ravager which I point a bolt at as soon as he attacks, leaving up a fetch for the emergency Vapor Snag.
If he wanted to maintain decent stats on the swinging Skirge, his choices were nothing, a 4/4 Ravager, or a 3/5 Ornithopter. Given that I looked like a Path-rich deck at this point, he wisely went the Thopter way, and I snagged it and went down to 8 from the Skirge, Snap-bolting it the next turn while he couldn't afford the BB to move the Plating over to a Blinkmoth.
I gradually let him peck me down to five, and tested his one-land hand for Galvanic Blast by fetching myself down to four but with Lightning Helix mana up. It worked like a charm, and I got to Snap-Helix my way back up to six before taking the game over with the Bedlam Reveler that had been weighing my hand down for a long time.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 4 Remand, 1 Bedlam Reveler (but thank you for your hard work), 1 Spell Pierce
In: 2 Engineered Explosives, 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Twisted Image
Game two was a different affair, as I Vapor Snagged the early 6/1 Vault Skirge again, which he couldn't immediately replay. That was the perfect window for me to stick a Pyromancer and go off with tokens, comfortably taking 4-5 damage per turn from a Signal Pest and some Nexii, and outracing him down to zero on turn six.
As an aside, this was the third consecutive match in which I'd been asked "... what deck are you playing?!?". <i>Ooooooooh</i> that tickles me in a very special way.
I roll a twelve, he rolls a twelve. I roll a ten, he rolls a twelve. That's magic, I guess.
Leading with a tapped Sacred Foundry, I'm misled to believe I'm facing Jeskai Control, but thankfully don't have the Serum Visions to prompt a fetch-shock start. Instead he sticks a turn-two Eidolon of the Great Revel, which I get to fetch a basic and bolt, going down to 17.
I play a Young Pyromancer as a defensive investment, and he follows up with a second Eidolon and a Lava Spike to the dome. I untap, lead with a Lightning Helix, and start enacting Plan A, winning the game at 10 life a few turns later.
He leads with a Monastery Swiftspear and starts chipping away. My early Grim Lavamancer is met with a Searing Blaze, and my 18-land deck is failing exactly how you would expect it to versus a pair of Goblin Guides.
I manage to stabilize the board with an Engineered Explosives and Dispel mana up, but I can't counter the Lava Spike and he outwaits me with his Skullcrack versus my Helix.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 1 Remand
In: 1 Spreading Seas
I'm tempted with just a Steam Vents for land with two bolts and a Burst Lightning, but I can't take that risk. Top two cards are land of course, but so it goes.
Instead I keep a questionable six with two Snapcasters and only a Vapor Snag for removal, but it's playable enough.
He doesn't have any early threats, and I get to Spell Snare a turn two Eidolon, but I'm drawing bolts and so is he, and that doesn't bode well for me. I stick a Snapcaster just to have presence on board and it's quickly met with a predictable Searing Blaze.
I don't damage him once until I double-bolt him on the stack of my own impending death.
I learned an interesting thing from my opponent while discussing sideboards, as he told me that he boarded out a lot of his creatures against me in game three, realizing that he was better suited to trade spells for damage than spells for spells. Pretty clever, <i>for a burn player</i>. *cue arguments*
On the plus side, I improved to four consecutive "What are you playing" comments, so in my own special way I'm 4-1, not 3-2.
Ideally I don't want a third loss, so I'm now faced with the challenge to win four straight. Opening with a Sacred Foundry into a Grim Lavamancer (him, not me) - I'm not entirely sure what I'm up against, but quickly feel a pit in my stomach as the Goblin Guides come out.
Burn is actually a half-decent matchup for me though, so despite my recent loss, I'm confident that I can Helix my way out of this one. Indeed I do, and coast my way to victory on the back of a Snapcaster and my own Lavamancer clearing the way.
Despite what I learned from the last match, there isn't really a different sideboarding angle I can take, so I repeat the same and cross my fingers for success.
I don't draw any way to gain life this time, but a hand with red and blue spells does the trick just as well too sometimes. I luck into my Lavamancer again and control his board at little cost, and get some absurd value off Dispel and Spell Pierce as he tries to go for the Searing Blaze twice.
An Electrolyze goes upstairs because the board is empty, and I bolt-snap-bolt him out of the game in no time, surviving with ten life.
This guy doesn't seem to care what it is I'm playing, so I'm now 4-2 either way you want to look at it.
This deck specializes in efficiently dealing with smaller threats. Tarmogoyfs, Liliana of the Veil, and Kalitas are a bit of a different story, and Scavenging Ooze is no walk in the park either.
It's not the worst matchup in the world, but a third Spell Snare was a contender for the sideboard for this matchup alone, to give you a idea of the challenge. It's certainly possible to tempo Jund out, but it requires some early offense before focusing on interacting, as going 1-for-1 all game is a losing proposal.
Game one delivered as expected. A turn one Inquisition of Kozilek grabbed an Electrolyze, and with my turn two Young Pyromancer getting hit with a Terminate, I was behind early and found it difficult to catch up. Similar to my Eldrazi D&T matchup, I did manage to very effectively use Snapcaster Mage on defense, though, with the block-bolt approach, taking down Kalitas without going down a card. In doing so, I was holding on better than expected.
Eventually, though, I was overrun by Raging Ravines. This was likely going to happen eventually either way, but it's worth noting that I made the massive gaffe here of letting the Ravine get a +1/+1 counter and move itself out of bolt range. I didn't leave up enough mana to flashback a bolt for the first one, and had to rely on Snap-Block-Bolt the turn after instead. The impact of being down the extra 2/1 body was devastating, as the second Ravine also got to grow to 4/4, definitively out of range at that point.
Played correctly, there's a 33% chance I'd turn that game around. Whoops.
Game two started strong for me, as I resolved a Young Pyro on turn two with a follow up Gitaxian Probe for the token. It immediately met its Terminate fate, but that effectively put me ahead a turn, and I'd gotten to see that my opponent only had a third land in hand, so Spreading Seas was about to do some work.
I had the Spell Pierce for Liliana, so I decided to limit his green rather than his black, and was happy to lock down a Raging Ravine at the same time. With Vapor Snags and Remands at the ready, I gave his Tarmogoyf a ride to bounceytown, and slowly chipped away at him until I had him down to five and he'd stabilized the board. I cast Bedlam Reveler into its immediate Terminate-ion, but its effect drew me a bolt, so I was just waiting on another burn spell or a Snapcaster to seal the deal.
And I waited, and I waited as the lands flooded in. His board quickly outsized mine, and he took me down to two after I'd drawn land three turns in a row. I threw my bolt at him to take him to two at his end step because why not, and shrugged as I flipped over my top card: Burst Lightning. Playing with flair achievement unlocked.
Game three was unfortunately far less interesting. I had to mulligan down to six, and had an average-at-best hand greeted with Inquisition-Tarmogoyf-Inquisition-Inquisition.
I stalled the game out a bit with Snapcasters and managed to peck him down to ten, but this was a quick one.
All of my Valakut-based testing had been against Prime Time variants, so I wasn't sure what to expect against the traditional spell-based approach, but this turned out to be a walk in the park. In part, it was because tempoing out Scapeshift and Cryptic Command is easy, but it was made even easier by drawing five Young Pyromancers over the first five turns of both games combined.
Game one I went first against his mull to six and resolved Pyros on turns two and three, and with a glut of Gitaxian Probes at the ready, I managed to get the elusive turn four kill. (Shocked himself for three, three pyro attacks for six, five elemental attacks for five, and a pair of bolts for the final six.)
Noteworthy observation was seeing him play a Prismatic Omen.
Yes, I forgot to bring in my Dispels against a blue control deck. I'm not accustomed to playing eight rounds of Magic, so my head was a bit scrambled at this point. (Note: Don't eat the convention centre food - it doesn't help!)
Thankfully, my opponent decided his best odds were to shave down his countermagic game and focus on getting his lands online as early as possible, as he later showed me he pulled out a pair of Cryptics, among other cards.
I had a slow but keepable start, and did my first four-five points of damage with an attacking Lavamancer while attacking his ramp spells and Prismatic Omen with counters.
I chopped him down to seven with a helix at he end of his turn, putting myself up to 19 and out of range should he survive to make his seventh land drop and Scapeshift me. He wouldn't though, as I had Bolt-Bolt-Burst Lightning up next turn, and got to do the fun Remand-your-own-spell thing against his counter-lethal Negate, recasting my burn for the easy win.
He got his revenge during side events the next day though, where I got stuck on three lands without white (and three helices in hand), and then two lands, as he threw mountains at me without any resistance.
As I mentioned before, I went into this match knowing that odds were reasonable for me to make day two if I won it, so a lot was riding on it and I did my best to pull what remaining mental faculties I had together.
I won the draw and shocked myself to cast a Serum Visions, filling my hand up with bolt effects. I was pretty happy when his first turn was just a land, a Mox Opal, a Springleaf Drum, and a Vault Skirge, as I had blindly crafted a strong anti-affinity start.
The Skirge died immediately, but what I didn't anticipate happening was him following it up with three consecutive Etched Champions. I couldn't turn off Metalcraft, thanks to his other artifacts being noncreature, and my offensive game was hiding elsewhere in my deck, so I quickly died while doing almost nothing.
I don't recall my rationale for sideboading slightly differently this time, but I know I'd become more careful with Probes as the day went on.
Game two can only be described as epic. It was the longest game I'd played against affinity ever, and there were multiple turns where one of us couldn't kill the other because of one <i>something</i> - damage, blocker, or mana.
The beginning didn't go overly well for me, as he had an early Cranial Plating on an Ornithopter, but I was able to Wear // Tear the Plating and keep his board under control... atleast until he drew into back-to-back Etched Champions again, demonstrating the rare scenario in which Remand can matter against Affinity.
I responded with back to back Pyromancer-Snap-Helix-Pyromancer, though, and amassed a defense which was adequate to stop his attacks by having him dead on the crackback if he attacked with anything at all, if I had any playable, even though I couldn't block anything. The trouble was, the same was true in reverse.
His board was two Etched Champions, an Inkmoth Nexus, a Blinkmoth Nexus, a Memnite and an Ornithopter. He was at five. Mine was two Young Pyros, a Snapcaster, and one elemental token, and soon-to-be more. I was at eleven.
My plan was to simply hold back until I could make another pair of tokens, but I'd drawn two consecutive Spell Pierces and had no targets to cast them. I'd have Pierced my own bolt at this point (and paid for it), just for the extra bodies.
Before I could draw something relevant though, I was that interrupted by his one perfect draw: Cranial Plating. With a Springleaf Drum in play, he could equip and deal twelve to send me packing. Except that he only had eight mana available, and would need to activate at least one of his X-Moth Nexii in order to get the required 11 power. So I Spell Pierced it once, and he paid it, and then again, and had him realize that paying for the second and the equip cost would leave him short the mana to make the lands into an artifact for the full pump and would leave me at one, and that actually paying for the Spell Pierce at all would leave him dead thanks to tapping a blocker for the Springleaf (no longer a maybe, thanks to the new elementals). So the late game Spell Pierces somehow mattered, and I got to untap unscathed, now with five elementals.
I drew an Electrolyze, and started doing the math. Any way I sliced it though, I was one off too. I could attack in and get two through, and burn him down to one. I could kill either the Thopter or one of the manlands (the Inkmoth made them both effectively 2/2), get in for three, and have him down to two. Further damage on top would do it, but I didn't want to chance it. Similarly, though, I didn't want to chance another Plating situation, so I needed to cut down his artifact numbers either way, so I attacked with everything. He blocked the Pyros with his Champions, the Snapcaster with the Memnite, and three of the five elementals with the rest.
I needed to cast the Electrolyze before the Pyros died, but I gambled that he'd give me a good opportunity to do so, and he did by pumping the Blinkmoth. In response, I Electrolyzed it for one and him for one, leaving him with only the Champions and the Thopter and at two life, and myself with only four elemental tokens (still one too few), and praying for a bolt on top.
I got a fetch. But at least he was now attacking for a maximum of nine, and was dead if he attacked with anything.
I played the fetch and cracked it to go down to ten at his end of turn, and asked him to topdeck me something nice. It was a bit of a convoluted finish, but it worked out. I drew a Bedlam Reveler, cast it for two, drew two lands and an Engineered Explosives, set it on three, blew it up, and swung through for lethal.
PHEW.
<u>No addition sideboarding for game three</u> (As we had five minutes on the clock and neither of us would survive a draw.)
I was worried about speed on this one, so I happily accepted a hand of seven with two Pyromancers and some cantrips, hoping to go on early offense.
He started, though, and did the thing everyone hates Affinity for: He dumped his entire hand of seven cards on the table, and said go. Land, Mox Opal, Ornithopter, Two Memnites, Springleaf Drum, and Vault Skirge. Thankfully none of these were immediately threatening, but suddenly my Pyromancer plan didn't look so hot.
I drew a timely bolt, and hoped to stifle his life gaining plans at the very least.
But everything fell apart when he topdecks and played an Arcbound Ravager. I bolted the Skirge, knowing I could bluff the Vapor Snag to prevent him from wrecking me with the Ravager.
It worked, but the only problem now is that I needed to hold blue mana up until I could deliver on the promise. He drew another Skirge, and a Plating the turn after it, and my plan fell to pieces. My bluff lasted long enough to take us to turn five or six, but there were still two minutes left in the round when I died with him above thirty.
Newlamog is definitely annoying, but Tron is a reasonable matchup because of how well we can slow them down otherwise, and how quickly we can kill them due to their lack of early board presence. Remanding it is definitely a low-value play, but it's one of those "you gotta do what you gotta do" moves.
And frankly, Pathing it isn't the best plan in the world either. Game plan vs Tron is aggro. Newlamog doesn't do stink-all vs 5+ pyromancer tokens. Twisted Image is on average better to take out dorks, Wall of Omens/Roots, and the occasional main-board Spellskite, while cantripping. Cantrips are just too good with Snap, Pyro, and Reveler.
If you decide to play it, the shortcut lessons to success are to never cast Young Pyromancer unless you can get a token out of it (even if it's just T2 cast + Git Probe). You can ride a 1/1 token a surprisingly long distance. But T3 w/ Spell Pierce/Dispel is where you really want to me.
Second biggie is that Snapcaster on defense is incredible, particularly with Electrolyze. If you're facing X/4s and X/5s, this is your Plan A route to victory.
Finally, don't be afraid to take some big-body-beats. It's usually worth taking the 4 damage from a Goyf and holding Vapor Snag until EOT, rather than preventing damage with it.
You will also never feel in control of the game, except against things like Affinity and Infect where your game plan is to make them most first. Otherwise you're just barely keeping your opponent off-step and pecking in damage until they're in bolt-snap-bolt range.
Not the more powerful deck I've ever played, but by far the most fun I've had since the 90s.
Hi All. It's been awhile since I have posted on here. I have been spending a lot of time on the Jeskai Tempo/Prowess forum topic. Since there are lists floating around in the Jeskai Delver forum that don't play delver, maybe we can merge the two topics into one. I will just continue to post on both forums for the time being. Here is my list for those who don't also frequent the Jeskai Tempo forums:
Here is what I am currently playing for reference:
Bedlam Reveler has been an absolute godsend. He is really what the deck was lacking at the top end for the midrange matchups. This style falls on the aggressive end of the spectrum as opposed to the more control oriented jeskai delver/tempo decks. Reveler fits wonderfully in this style of build, but I have still found two copies to be enough (possibly one in the board). In addition,Unsubstantiate continues to over perform in the main deck. I think it's especially well suited for a Geist of Saint Traft deck because it can clear blockers and it fits in a proactive tempo style build because it can be played both defensively and offensively. In addition, it has been great against Bant Eldrazi with Cavern of Souls. I would like to get one more counter spell in the deck. I was running Izzet Charm and at one point had a second copy of Spell Pierce in the deck. I am currently running a Twisted Image in the main, but that may move to the sideboard as my last sideboard slot making room for one more counter spell.
The deck can side into a more control oriented deck post sideboard, but due to only having 19 lands it will almost always play much closer to the tempo style rather than the draw-go UWR Flash style decks.
I'm currently debating the last sideboard slot. Engineered Explosives has been in my deck since the day I started playing Jeskai Delve (back in the boremandos days), but this deck is the most aggressive version of the deck I have ever played and EE has been sub par lately so it may be leaving.
Taptwo- Awesome right up! I checked out the site and the article is really well done. Congrats on the great day and the awesome article. People don't realize when Hoogland goes 5-4 on SCG he actually went 2-4 or 1-4 depending on byes. With no bye 5-4 is a solid day. That's slight variance away from a 6-3 day two finish. You make the Jeskai Delver/Tempo players proud!
Initially I wanted to play this deck because I wanted to play delver but as many players mentioned, we don't really have ways to reliably flip him, except for serum visions.
And I am glad I did cut the delvers (I want to try a u/r delver deck with them :P)
I had a couple of test matches against a possibility storm combo, a jund and a mono blue tron deck and I think it went pretty well.
I am playing a list pretty similar to yours, SB is a little bit different (1 geist, 1 path just to try it out for myself)
I did cut the burst lightning because I wanted to test out 1 geist in the main, because I think it's pretty good against jund.
I also swapped 1 hallowed for eiganjo castle.
I personally think more aggro/tempo is the way to go with the deck right now. Bedlam Reveler is too good not to play. You are also correct about the tron matchup. The tron matchup is a lot easier than it used to be with the more midrange version. I have had a couple people ask how Geist worked in the main and he has actually been great. He is basically part of the second wave of attacks (Geist, Bedlam Reveler, and Snapcaster to some extent). Once they spend their removal on Delver/Swiftspear we can land a Reveler or Geist and end the game. My deck is a little different because I utilize some lesser played cards in Distortion Strike and Unsubstantiate (was playing one Emerge Unscathed, but went to Twisted Image). They help the game one win percentage and then I can side into a tempo deck with specific hate for the opponent post board.
I think Bedlam Reveler will bring the delver archetype back to tier 1 or 2 in modern and I also think that Jeskai is the best shell for Reveler given all of the burn and protection it offers. I do have to run less counter magic than I would like, but with Izzet Charm and Unsubstantiate I can squeeze in 5-6 "counter spells" in total and maintain a very aggressive approach. I prefer Spell Pierce and Remand as my counter spells of choice in the more aggressive versions of the deck, however some do prefer Mana Leak and Spell Snare I wouldn't say that was wrong in any way, just a matter of preference.
A card I would like to hear other player's opinion on is Thought Scour. I have never liked this card and I still can't bring myself to play it in my deck even with Reveler and Snapcaster. I have just always prefered Serum Visions and Gitaxian Probe as my cantrips. I also feel we get 4-6 spells in the graveyard fairly quickly so I don't think thought scour is necessary. How do others feel about Thought Scour?
I'm glad to see the WUR delver activity is booming again and hopefully we will see the deck pop up in some major tournaments shortly!
I personally think more aggro/tempo is the way to go with the deck right now. Bedlam Reveler is too good not to play. You are also correct about the tron matchup. The tron matchup is a lot easier than it used to be with the more midrange version. I have had a couple people ask how Geist worked in the main and he has actually been great. He is basically part of the second wave of attacks (Geist, Bedlam Reveler, and Snapcaster to some extent). Once they spend their removal on Delver/Swiftspear we can land a Reveler or Geist and end the game. My deck is a little different because I utilize some lesser played cards in Distortion Strike and Unsubstantiate (was playing one Emerge Unscathed, but went to Twisted Image). They help the game one win percentage and then I can side into a tempo deck with specific hate for the opponent post board.
I think Bedlam Reveler will bring the delver archetype back to tier 1 or 2 in modern and I also think that Jeskai is the best shell for Reveler given all of the burn and protection it offers. I do have to run less counter magic than I would like, but with Izzet Charm and Unsubstantiate I can squeeze in 5-6 "counter spells" in total and maintain a very aggressive approach. I prefer Spell Pierce and Remand as my counter spells of choice in the more aggressive versions of the deck, however some do prefer Mana Leak and Spell Snare I wouldn't say that was wrong in any way, just a matter of preference.
A card I would like to hear other player's opinion on is Thought Scour. I have never liked this card and I still can't bring myself to play it in my deck even with Reveler and Snapcaster. I have just always prefered Serum Visions and Gitaxian Probe as my cantrips. I also feel we get 4-6 spells in the graveyard fairly quickly so I don't think thought scour is necessary. How do others feel about Thought Scour?
I'm glad to see the WUR delver activity is booming again and hopefully we will see the deck pop up in some major tournaments shortly!
The deck has been running very well lately.
Thanks for the comments, and I like your take on the deck a lot.
A key difference between our decks is the 4 copies of Young Pyromancer in mine. Relying on YP as your main source of offense, the value of cantrips like Remand shoot through the roof. I would actually love to run Mana Leak instead, but I've found that sticking an early YP and cantripping all day is my version of Geist, in terms of aggro.
There is certainly some awkwardness with that though, as I can't afford to play very many sorcery-speed effects. With the exception of playing an early YP, I seldom ever tap low on my own turn, which makes Geist an awkward inclusion for me.
I think you have 100% the right approach on Reveler, though. Dedicated counters are bad with it, and you're far better off churning through spells to fill up the yard. However consider that this direction pushes you towards the benefits of Thought Scour, which is a card more suited to Grixis lists than Jeskai, because of the Delve bodies you can power out with it. This also complements Prowess creatures arguably better than Jeskai, and Terminate is a major upgrade over Lightning Helix in over 70% of matches if you're leaning more on your creatures for damage than your spells.
I think that's actually going to be my next angle on the deck. Going into black also has a lot of benefits in a meta that is likely to become heavy in Dredge, as it doesn't get any better than Nihil Spellbomb when it comes to matching prowess with grave hate.
I totally agree with you. I have found that a lot of people are either big fans of Delver of Secrets or a big fan of Young Pyromancer with a few people loving both. I know that Shaun Mclaren LOVES Young Pyromancer, but hates Delver. He told that much when I tried to talk him into playing delver on his stream :). I agree with you that it comes down to the direction of the deck. If you want to really get value off of deck manipulation spells and permission that there is no better card than Young Pyromancer. Except maybe Monastery Swiftspear, but a 3 CMC creature that dies to bolt is tough to play in modern.
I have an slight obsession with Geist of Saint Traft. I have tried the deck with him in the sideboard instead of the mainboard, but the replacement cards (vendilion clique, another snap/reveler) just didn't perform as well as he did. Especially against removal heavy decks. It is tough to tap three mana to cast him, but he is at the top of my curve and it's more of an aggro deck so it's a bit easier than tapping out in the mid game to play a three mana threat.
I also think your correct about grixis. I have looked into grixis before, but I just love having access to Geist, Helix, Boros Charm, and the great sideboard options that white allows (wear/tear, stoney silence, blessed alliance, hallowed fountain, deflecting palm, etc). I do feel that the main deck of grixis is slightly more suited to this style of deck because the dredge creatures can take advantage of the lands/spells in the graveyard and because the hand disruption plays early also pair well with reveler. Grixis is a more linear and "concise" deck in my opinion in game one. However, it can't match the aggression that jeskai can offer with burn spells in game one. I like being able to play a pseudo burn role in game one and then being able to side into a more control oriented role in game two if I have to. I don't think you can go wrong with either grixis or jeskai, and I also agree that a majority of players will go with the grixis build because it's the more obvious (for lack of a better word) or built-in synergy tempo deck.
@CurdBros - thanks for mentioning Jeskai Tempo forum; I didn't even know about it and my list is definitely tempo, not so much Prowess but I'm experimenting with Swiftspear.
For dredge, the best plan is to race them and have Pyromancer tokens for chump-blocking. Vapor Snag is great, and I always have 2 Magma Sprays somewhere in my 75. Of course Path to Exile stays in for this one.
For Tron, I also go hard on aggro. I usually find that better than playing around Pyroclasm/Kozilek's Return because if you do that you probably run out of time. Spell Pierce stays in for their nut T3 Karn draws. After sideboard, Molten Rain + Surgical Extraction takes them off tron and also seems to demoralize them a lot!
Has anyone tried Blood Moon in a Jeskai Manabase? I play three in my U/R builds and it is really strong!! I haven't had time to test if fetching for plains is realistic.
Regarding Thought Scour, I run two in my U/R deck and I'm not sure if I like it, I board them out a lot. On one hand, it makes Reveler cheaper, but I'm not trying to rush him out all that early. It also gives Snapcaster targets which is fine. I find it awkward with Serum Visions because it can mess up my scrys. One thing I do like is to target the opponent with Thought Scour when I have a Surgical Extraction in hand.
Here's my current list; I always tweak the threats and right now I'm trying out 6 one-drops. I will not play less than 4 copies of Young Pyromancer. In my low-curve build, it is the best threat by far. I've gone down to 2 Bedlam Revelers and I like that too.
@CurdBros - thanks for mentioning Jeskai Tempo forum; I didn't even know about it and my list is definitely tempo, not so much Prowess but I'm experimenting with Swiftspear.
For dredge, the best plan is to race them and have Pyromancer tokens for chump-blocking. Vapor Snag is great, and I always have 2 Magma Sprays somewhere in my 75. Of course Path to Exile stays in for this one.
For Tron, I also go hard on aggro. I usually find that better than playing around Pyroclasm/Kozilek's Return because if you do that you probably run out of time. Spell Pierce stays in for their nut T3 Karn draws. After sideboard, Molten Rain + Surgical Extraction takes them off tron and also seems to demoralize them a lot!
Has anyone tried Blood Moon in a Jeskai Manabase? I play three in my U/R builds and it is really strong!! I haven't had time to test if fetching for plains is realistic.
Regarding Thought Scour, I run two in my U/R deck and I'm not sure if I like it, I board them out a lot. On one hand, it makes Reveler cheaper, but I'm not trying to rush him out all that early. It also gives Snapcaster targets which is fine. I find it awkward with Serum Visions because it can mess up my scrys. One thing I do like is to target the opponent with Thought Scour when I have a Surgical Extraction in hand.
Here's my current list; I always tweak the threats and right now I'm trying out 6 one-drops. I will not play less than 4 copies of Young Pyromancer. In my low-curve build, it is the best threat by far. I've gone down to 2 Bedlam Revelers and I like that too.
I'm glad you like the jeskai tempo forum. I have really enjoyed being the OP and we have a great group of regular posters. We always love to hear about great jeskai decks like yours.
I love the bribery tech in the sideboard! That's awesome.
Your deck looks sweet. I played Emerge Unscathed up until about two weeks ago and it will probably find it's way back into my deck. I love the rebound cards with prowess creatures. That's actually what got me started on my deck.
I am interested that you only run 3 delver. I used to run three swiftspears and 4 delvers, but when I went more aggro I added the fourth. Is this just a slot consideration or do you like making sure you don't have too many 1 drops?
Another question I had was how is the timely reinforcements in the main? We take a ton of damage from our lands so I am interested to see how that plays out. It could be a great one of to mitigate that problem on top of lightning helix.
I think that hallowed moonlight will be at least be a one off in our SB.
Outracing them seems fine but difficult against a deck that can have 8+ power on board as early as turn 2.
Chumping with elemental tokens is ok but it at some point we have to get aggressive because they will outgrind us.
I feel like surgical and hallowed moonlight will be our go to cards.
I love Blood Moon, actually if I could, this is the one card I would like to play in every single deck.
But our mana base is very intensive, we want the right mana at the right time. We are fine with 1-2 plains but we need 2+ blue sources.
I do not think we are in the position of playing this card, we are kind of a jund deck regarding the mana base with the only difference that we play way less mana.
Blood moon in a u/r shell is a completely different story.
I agree Mazereon. I have really like Hallowed Moonlight in my sideboard. It comes in against more decks than I had originally anticipated (aether vial decks, grislhoardbrand, evolution/chord decks, dredge, etc). In addition, cantrips are excellent in our deck.
Dredge is a very interesting deck. I have been beaten by it quickly and I have played games against it where they did absolutely nothing. I think we have enough to compete with them with cage, surgical extraction, negate, dispel, distortion strike, EE, hallowed moonlight, other counter magic, etc. Obviusly if there is a ton of dredge in someone's area they will want more, but I haven't seen it a lot in my area so I am not going to utilize any more sideboard slots for it.
I have never tried Blood Moon in my deck. My personal build is a true three color build. It leans more heavily on blue and red in the mainboard, but adds more white post board. I definitely can't play blood moon, but if you can play it I would suggest doing so. It nerfs soooo many decks. I don't like the card, but as long as it is legal its just a great choice.
Wow. Great card. Probably doesn't fit in classic delver ,but we may see some new builds.
Thassa is still better than this in a classic delver build, specially if it runs Geist so you can make him unblockable. Saheeli is good, but not delver good, I think
Wow. Great card. Probably doesn't fit in classic delver ,but we may see some new builds.
Thassa is still better than this in a classic delver build, specially if it runs Geist so you can make him unblockable. Saheeli is good, but not delver good, I think
I had the same initial thought as well. I will definitely be testing her out for sure and building a few ideas with her in mind, but she is probably better in a different style deck. Here is to hoping she fits right and my first thought is wrong :).
With that said, there is no doubt that she is really really really good. She will definitely see play in my opinion.
The scry is nice for setting up draws/delvers but I don't think she could replace for instance serum visions.
Has anyone of you tried out Myth realized?
And if yes, how did it perform?
It is a manasink if we keep mana open for counterspells and is not easy to remove
I did try Myth Realized when it was first printed, but haven't tried it since. It wasn't great at that time because it just felt too slow. It's definitely something we should not forget. Especially in the more all in Bedlam Reveler builds with lots of cantrips.
Myth Realized has been decent for me in WUR control builds, but I'm not sure how well it would work in a Delver deck. The activation is a lot cheaper than Colonnade, it doesn't require you to do anything you're not already doing, and if someone loses to it they often side in enchantment removal that doesn't do anything against the rest of the deck.
Very cool build that leans on Spell Queller. I tend to play a slightly more aggressive build, but this deck looks very consistent and would be right in the wheel house of a more tempo/control oriented delver player.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Enthusiasts
Current Decks/Archetypes
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Currently, you might be right. Deck was designed during the Wild Nacatl/Kird Ape surge of this spring, so 3 damage mattered. 3 still matters when it goes upstairs though, so we'll see! Thanks.
WBG Abzan Midrange
BRG Dredgevine
Agreed on Reveler. There are some very awkward moments where I'm holding it and a Remand and I really need the Remand, so I pass the turn and my opponent does nothing. Lesson learned is that if I'm behind on board, I don't have a choice. If I'm ahead though, or at parity, I'm happy to wait until Remand has a good target, blow out the rest of my hand, and then slam the Reveler next turn. It's a very good card, but makes you work for it. I was trying to find room for a second in the board, but decided in the end it was a bad idea.
WBG Abzan Midrange
BRG Dredgevine
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Grim Lavamancer
27 Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Mutagenic Growth
3 Lightning Helix
2 Magma Spray
3 Vapor Snag
2 Path to Exile
2 Dispel
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Wandering Fumarole
1 Needle Spires
2 Auriok Champion
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Bribery
2 Spell Pierce
2 Mana Leak
2 Emerge Unscathed
3 Spreading Seas
2 Wear // Tear
I had a hard time letting go of 4 copies of Path to Exile, but I have come to agree with a lot of what was said about that not being the most important removal spell. I find that it helps the opponent too much. I prefer Magma Spray against Kitchen Finks and Voice of Resurgence and also against Snapcaster Mage in the Grixis builds.
Please note the Bribery in the sideboard - it is amazing! If you think 5 mana is too expensive, please look up Caleb Durward's articles about why he is able to run Batterskull in his UR Delver lists. The same logic applies and it works - in the matchups that want it I have no problem getting to 3UU by the time I need it, long before they can cheat out an Emrakul. Also, stealing opponent's Primeval Titan or Inferno Titan or Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is lots of fun too.
I have since taken out the Manlands and gone down to 18 lands and it is working out well for me.
Regarding Reveler, I think it works better for me because I run fewer counters, but I think I'll still go down to 2/1 instead of 3/0...
WBG Abzan Midrange
BRG Dredgevine
Overall, very happy with the performance. Used every sideboard card, won the matches I was supposed to win (plus Eldrazi D&T), lost the matches I was supposed to lose, and split the matches I was supposed to be 50/50-ish in. Wouldn't mind the second affinity match back, but sometimes Arcbound Ravager is Arcbound Ravager.
Anyways, I hope this is interesting.
I lost the die roll, but won the deck roll. Bolts versus fish was a very gentle welcome to the event.
I blindly kept an interaction-heavy seven with two lands, and he went down to six and opened with the ideal Island – Aether Vial. Gee, I wonder.
I cast Serum Visions, leave a third land on top and bottom a Remand. He plays a Silvergill Adept which I can’t Helix on my turn with his Vial on 1 (in case of Cursecatcher), so I pass. Thankfully, he ticks the Vial up to two and flashes in a lord while the Adept attacks, and I get to Helix the lord and net a life.
He plays another Adept and passes, and I get to stick a Young Pyromancer with Vapor Snag up to let my Elemental token trade for one of his adepts, despite him vialing in another lord. The game was looking bad for him, and getting the the Path to Exile he pointed at my Pyromancer hit with a Spell Pierce led him to scoop with 13 life still left.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
In: 2 Engineered Explosives, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Echoing Truth, 1 Vendilion Clique
Out: 4 Remand, 1 Spell Pierce
In game two I’m blessed with a similarly interactive hand, and am able to effectively spend my first three turns bolt, helix, snap-bolting his threats to untap on turn four with his board reduced to a Mutavault and a Silvergill Adept and my life total kept high at 15.
My turn four Young Pyromancer quickly ate a Gut Shot, but not before making a token off a Gitaxian Probe. Seeing a hand still ripe with two-mana lords, I cast an Engineered Explosives on two and passed the turn back.
This put us in a favorable lock for the next few turns, as he wouldn’t swing his 2/1 into my 1/1, nor would he take his Vial off two until I cracked the Explosives. I could handle his three-drops and Mutavaults with removal, as I continued to craft my hand, and a low-devotion Master of Waves isn’t something I’m scared of.
Eventually I played another Pyromancer and had enough ammunition to make a small token army, and he was forced to play multiple bodies on defense, giving me enough reason to crack the explosives.
The tables were almost turned with an aggressive sequence though, where he cast a Lord of Atlantis and then flashed in Master of Waves on my end step (and I immediately Pathed the latter), and then next turn cast a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and a vialed in a second Master of Waves on his own turn, making five tokens to equal my own.
I couldn’t actually deal with the second Master without first killing Kira, as despite having two Snapcasters in hand, I only get one shot at Snap-Path in my one-Path deck. I awkwardly couldn’t Helix-Snap-Bolt it because my only remaining land would be a fetch which I’d need to Spell Snare his Negate I’d seen twelve or so turns ago - but I’d just put a Vapor Snag on top of my library as another way to deal with Masters, and I couldn’t afford to shuffle it away.
Had I not thought this through thoroughly, I could have misstepped here and cost myself the game, but thankfully it was early in the day and my wits were still sharp.
I untapped, drew the Snag, used it to hit Kira’s shield, then Helixed her, Snap-Pathed the Master, Spell Snared the Negate, swung to bring him to three, and sat back happily with Snap-Bolt up next turn as he optimistically cast yet another token-making four-drop.
Generally speaking, the more four-plus toughness creatures my opponent has, the worse I am. Make them uncounterable with Aether Vial and Cavern of Souls, and the situation quickly gets worse. Despite him going down to six on the play, I wasn't feeling good about my odds when he curved a Vial into a Tidehollow Sculler, taking my Lightning Helix.
I played a Young Pyromancer, hoping to Electrolyze the Sculler and get my bolt back, but a second Sculler stripped me of that option, and a follow-up pair of Thought-Knot Seers (thankfully one of which I got to Remand for a turn) kept me low on removal.
However I was rich in cantrips, and was able to frustrate his offense enough with chump blockers for the 4/4s that he came in with the 2/2s as well and forced me to trade off my Pyromancer to avoid death. This proved to be a huge mistake, as reclaiming my Electrolyze was the catalyst to a sequence of events where I also got back the helix, Snap-block-helixed one Thought-Knot and survived the other at two life, and quickly took the game back over with a second Pyromancer and a little luck not sending a Reality Smasher my way.
<u>Sideboard</u>:
Out: 2 Spell Pierce, 2 Remand
In: 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Echoing Truth
Match two was less dramatic by far. I kept a seven with a Pyro, Spell Snare for his Sculler, a bolt, and several draw spells.
He didn't lead with a vial, and his turn two and three Leonin Arbiters ate removal rather than the Snare, and I effortlessly overwhelmed him with elemental tokens and Vapor Snags to keep the board clear and my Pyro safe from attempted Wasteland Strangler takedowns.
He didn't hit me once, and I took myself down to 14, then back up to 19.
We exchanged sideboard swaps after the match and he showed me that he removed all three Reality Smashers, presumably playing around the countermagic I lightened up on. With eight-plus disruption spells, this seemed like a massive miscalculation. Never do this.
I dread this matchup, but thankfully my opponent has a delightful Southern drawl that somehow eases the suffering. It's a tough match to win in the first place, and it became immediately apparent that he also knew his deck extremely well, as he made a lot of very smart control decisions.
Game one I'm on the draw yet again, and despite a good seven, it's a value blowout in his favour. I try to be the aggressor, but there’s only so much of a board I can develop through Kolaghan’s Command before he plays a T4 Kalitas. I have the Vapor Snag for it, and a Snapcaster and Remand in hand too, but I can only play that game so long. Instead though, he doesn’t replay it, and goes for a Tasigur with mana up instead, which I can only afford to Remand once because of the Kalitas I can’t let resolve. I don’t have enough tokens to swing through the 4/5, and he Cryptic Commands my attempt to take it down on defense with blocks + bolt, and it’s all downhill from there.
Sideboard:
In: 2 Dispel, 1 Surgical Extraction, 1 Negate, 1 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Vendilion Clique, 1 Celestial Purge
Out: 2 Lightning Helix, 2 Electrolyze, 2 Spell Pierce, 1 Vapor Snag
Sideboarding here is awkward, because on the play I certainly have a chance at winning aggressively, but I also need to plan for the likelihood of the game going long. For example, I’d like to keep my Spell Pierces to protect an early Pyromancer, but it’s effectively card disadvantage after turn 4-5, outside of picking off a greedy Cryptic Command.
I did manage to come out of the gate hot with a Grim Lavamancer and a Young Pyro that made a few tokens before eating a Terminate, but he stabilized at seven life with enough mana up that I couldn’t just aggressively throw bolts at him. He had resolved two Ancestral Visions, so if I was going to win any counter wars, it would be on efficiency rather than attrition.
After getting him down to four, and sitting at eight myself, I bolted him at the end of his turn, trying to commit his resources to a counter war I thought I might win and see if I could topdeck another point of burn FTW. It was a bit of a longshot, but I was losing soon if I didn’t try.
My hand was bolt, Surgical Extraction, Spell Snare, Dispel, and Gitaxian Probe.
What resulted was the largest stack I’ve ever been involved in while playing Modern.
<ul>
<ul>
<ol>
<li>I bolted him.</li>
<li>He cast Snapcaster Mage, which I let resolve, targeting his Countersquall.</li>
<li>I cast Surgical Extraction, targeting Countersquall, going down to a critical six in doing so.</li>
<li>Before that resolved, he bolted me, which I let resolve and went down to three.</li>
<li>He cast another Snapcaster Mage, which I Spell Snared.</li>
<li>He cast another Snapcaster Mage, which I let resolve, targeting his Lightning Bolt.</li>
<li>He flashed back his second Bolt for lethal, which I dispelled.</li>
</ol>
</ul>
</ul>
Ten spells later, everything else resolved, leaving him with two Snapcasters on the board, at one life, a deck stripped of Countersqualls, and tapped out with a revealed hand of Kolaghan’s Command and Tasigur, and me at three with an empty board and only a Gitaxian Probe in hand. On one hand, I’m now dead if I draw blank, but on the other, him having a board also makes a Vapor Snag lethal.
I untapped and drew a promising Serum Visions, cast it drawing a land and seeing two more, cast the Probe, drawing another, and casting that to draw a Remand and extend the handshake.
The kicker is that early in this game, I had trouble calculating what to do with my Lavamancer - attack for one or shock for two - and naturally there was at least one instance in which attacking was the wrong call. As has been the case in testing with this deck, tight decisions around single points of damage often wind up mattering.
Frankly though, I was okay not going to a third game, as my odds were low, and this was a taxing match.
Yet again, I'm on the draw, but yet again I get to keep a decent seven. Still, a decent seven is little match for a turn two 7/1 Vault Skirge.
To make matters worse, he plays a turn three Ornithopter and Arcbound Ravager which I point a bolt at as soon as he attacks, leaving up a fetch for the emergency Vapor Snag.
If he wanted to maintain decent stats on the swinging Skirge, his choices were nothing, a 4/4 Ravager, or a 3/5 Ornithopter. Given that I looked like a Path-rich deck at this point, he wisely went the Thopter way, and I snagged it and went down to 8 from the Skirge, Snap-bolting it the next turn while he couldn't afford the BB to move the Plating over to a Blinkmoth.
I gradually let him peck me down to five, and tested his one-land hand for Galvanic Blast by fetching myself down to four but with Lightning Helix mana up. It worked like a charm, and I got to Snap-Helix my way back up to six before taking the game over with the Bedlam Reveler that had been weighing my hand down for a long time.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 4 Remand, 1 Bedlam Reveler (but thank you for your hard work), 1 Spell Pierce
In: 2 Engineered Explosives, 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Twisted Image
Game two was a different affair, as I Vapor Snagged the early 6/1 Vault Skirge again, which he couldn't immediately replay. That was the perfect window for me to stick a Pyromancer and go off with tokens, comfortably taking 4-5 damage per turn from a Signal Pest and some Nexii, and outracing him down to zero on turn six.
As an aside, this was the third consecutive match in which I'd been asked "... what deck are you playing?!?". <i>Ooooooooh</i> that tickles me in a very special way.
I roll a twelve, he rolls a twelve. I roll a ten, he rolls a twelve. That's magic, I guess.
Leading with a tapped Sacred Foundry, I'm misled to believe I'm facing Jeskai Control, but thankfully don't have the Serum Visions to prompt a fetch-shock start. Instead he sticks a turn-two Eidolon of the Great Revel, which I get to fetch a basic and bolt, going down to 17.
I play a Young Pyromancer as a defensive investment, and he follows up with a second Eidolon and a Lava Spike to the dome. I untap, lead with a Lightning Helix, and start enacting Plan A, winning the game at 10 life a few turns later.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 4 Gitaxian Probe, 2 Remand, 1 Vendilion Clique
In: 2 Dispel, 2 Engineered Explosives, 1 Celestial Purge, 1 Echoing Truth, 1 Wear // Tear
He leads with a Monastery Swiftspear and starts chipping away. My early Grim Lavamancer is met with a Searing Blaze, and my 18-land deck is failing exactly how you would expect it to versus a pair of Goblin Guides.
I manage to stabilize the board with an Engineered Explosives and Dispel mana up, but I can't counter the Lava Spike and he outwaits me with his Skullcrack versus my Helix.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 1 Remand
In: 1 Spreading Seas
I'm tempted with just a Steam Vents for land with two bolts and a Burst Lightning, but I can't take that risk. Top two cards are land of course, but so it goes.
Instead I keep a questionable six with two Snapcasters and only a Vapor Snag for removal, but it's playable enough.
He doesn't have any early threats, and I get to Spell Snare a turn two Eidolon, but I'm drawing bolts and so is he, and that doesn't bode well for me. I stick a Snapcaster just to have presence on board and it's quickly met with a predictable Searing Blaze.
I don't damage him once until I double-bolt him on the stack of my own impending death.
I learned an interesting thing from my opponent while discussing sideboards, as he told me that he boarded out a lot of his creatures against me in game three, realizing that he was better suited to trade spells for damage than spells for spells. Pretty clever, <i>for a burn player</i>. *cue arguments*
On the plus side, I improved to four consecutive "What are you playing" comments, so in my own special way I'm 4-1, not 3-2.
Ideally I don't want a third loss, so I'm now faced with the challenge to win four straight. Opening with a Sacred Foundry into a Grim Lavamancer (him, not me) - I'm not entirely sure what I'm up against, but quickly feel a pit in my stomach as the Goblin Guides come out.
Burn is actually a half-decent matchup for me though, so despite my recent loss, I'm confident that I can Helix my way out of this one. Indeed I do, and coast my way to victory on the back of a Snapcaster and my own Lavamancer clearing the way.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 4 Gitaxian Probe, 2 Remand, 1 Vendilion Clique
In: 2 Dispel, 2 Engineered Explosives, 1 Celestial Purge, 1 Echoing Truth, 1 Wear // Tear
Despite what I learned from the last match, there isn't really a different sideboarding angle I can take, so I repeat the same and cross my fingers for success.
I don't draw any way to gain life this time, but a hand with red and blue spells does the trick just as well too sometimes. I luck into my Lavamancer again and control his board at little cost, and get some absurd value off Dispel and Spell Pierce as he tries to go for the Searing Blaze twice.
An Electrolyze goes upstairs because the board is empty, and I bolt-snap-bolt him out of the game in no time, surviving with ten life.
This guy doesn't seem to care what it is I'm playing, so I'm now 4-2 either way you want to look at it.
This deck specializes in efficiently dealing with smaller threats. Tarmogoyfs, Liliana of the Veil, and Kalitas are a bit of a different story, and Scavenging Ooze is no walk in the park either.
It's not the worst matchup in the world, but a third Spell Snare was a contender for the sideboard for this matchup alone, to give you a idea of the challenge. It's certainly possible to tempo Jund out, but it requires some early offense before focusing on interacting, as going 1-for-1 all game is a losing proposal.
Game one delivered as expected. A turn one Inquisition of Kozilek grabbed an Electrolyze, and with my turn two Young Pyromancer getting hit with a Terminate, I was behind early and found it difficult to catch up. Similar to my Eldrazi D&T matchup, I did manage to very effectively use Snapcaster Mage on defense, though, with the block-bolt approach, taking down Kalitas without going down a card. In doing so, I was holding on better than expected.
Eventually, though, I was overrun by Raging Ravines. This was likely going to happen eventually either way, but it's worth noting that I made the massive gaffe here of letting the Ravine get a +1/+1 counter and move itself out of bolt range. I didn't leave up enough mana to flashback a bolt for the first one, and had to rely on Snap-Block-Bolt the turn after instead. The impact of being down the extra 2/1 body was devastating, as the second Ravine also got to grow to 4/4, definitively out of range at that point.
Played correctly, there's a 33% chance I'd turn that game around. Whoops.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 2 Gitaxian Probe, 1 Lightning Helix, 1 Electrolyze, 1 Spell Pierce
In: 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Celestial Purge, 1 Engineered Explosives, 1 Negate
Game two started strong for me, as I resolved a Young Pyro on turn two with a follow up Gitaxian Probe for the token. It immediately met its Terminate fate, but that effectively put me ahead a turn, and I'd gotten to see that my opponent only had a third land in hand, so Spreading Seas was about to do some work.
I had the Spell Pierce for Liliana, so I decided to limit his green rather than his black, and was happy to lock down a Raging Ravine at the same time. With Vapor Snags and Remands at the ready, I gave his Tarmogoyf a ride to bounceytown, and slowly chipped away at him until I had him down to five and he'd stabilized the board. I cast Bedlam Reveler into its immediate Terminate-ion, but its effect drew me a bolt, so I was just waiting on another burn spell or a Snapcaster to seal the deal.
And I waited, and I waited as the lands flooded in. His board quickly outsized mine, and he took me down to two after I'd drawn land three turns in a row. I threw my bolt at him to take him to two at his end step because why not, and shrugged as I flipped over my top card: Burst Lightning. Playing with flair achievement unlocked.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 1 Gitaxian Probe
In: 1 Spell Pierce
Game three was unfortunately far less interesting. I had to mulligan down to six, and had an average-at-best hand greeted with Inquisition-Tarmogoyf-Inquisition-Inquisition.
I stalled the game out a bit with Snapcasters and managed to peck him down to ten, but this was a quick one.
All of my Valakut-based testing had been against Prime Time variants, so I wasn't sure what to expect against the traditional spell-based approach, but this turned out to be a walk in the park. In part, it was because tempoing out Scapeshift and Cryptic Command is easy, but it was made even easier by drawing five Young Pyromancers over the first five turns of both games combined.
Game one I went first against his mull to six and resolved Pyros on turns two and three, and with a glut of Gitaxian Probes at the ready, I managed to get the elusive turn four kill. (Shocked himself for three, three pyro attacks for six, five elemental attacks for five, and a pair of bolts for the final six.)
Noteworthy observation was seeing him play a Prismatic Omen.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 1 Path to Exile, 1 Electrolyze, 1 Bedlam Reveler, 2 Vapor Snag
In: 1 Vendilion Clique, 1 Negate, 1 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Twisted Image
Yes, I forgot to bring in my Dispels against a blue control deck. I'm not accustomed to playing eight rounds of Magic, so my head was a bit scrambled at this point. (Note: Don't eat the convention centre food - it doesn't help!)
Thankfully, my opponent decided his best odds were to shave down his countermagic game and focus on getting his lands online as early as possible, as he later showed me he pulled out a pair of Cryptics, among other cards.
I had a slow but keepable start, and did my first four-five points of damage with an attacking Lavamancer while attacking his ramp spells and Prismatic Omen with counters.
I chopped him down to seven with a helix at he end of his turn, putting myself up to 19 and out of range should he survive to make his seventh land drop and Scapeshift me. He wouldn't though, as I had Bolt-Bolt-Burst Lightning up next turn, and got to do the fun Remand-your-own-spell thing against his counter-lethal Negate, recasting my burn for the easy win.
He got his revenge during side events the next day though, where I got stuck on three lands without white (and three helices in hand), and then two lands, as he threw mountains at me without any resistance.
As I mentioned before, I went into this match knowing that odds were reasonable for me to make day two if I won it, so a lot was riding on it and I did my best to pull what remaining mental faculties I had together.
I won the draw and shocked myself to cast a Serum Visions, filling my hand up with bolt effects. I was pretty happy when his first turn was just a land, a Mox Opal, a Springleaf Drum, and a Vault Skirge, as I had blindly crafted a strong anti-affinity start.
The Skirge died immediately, but what I didn't anticipate happening was him following it up with three consecutive Etched Champions. I couldn't turn off Metalcraft, thanks to his other artifacts being noncreature, and my offensive game was hiding elsewhere in my deck, so I quickly died while doing almost nothing.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 4 Remand, 2 Gitaxian Probe
In: 2 Engineered Explosives, 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Twisted Image
I don't recall my rationale for sideboading slightly differently this time, but I know I'd become more careful with Probes as the day went on.
Game two can only be described as epic. It was the longest game I'd played against affinity ever, and there were multiple turns where one of us couldn't kill the other because of one <i>something</i> - damage, blocker, or mana.
The beginning didn't go overly well for me, as he had an early Cranial Plating on an Ornithopter, but I was able to Wear // Tear the Plating and keep his board under control... atleast until he drew into back-to-back Etched Champions again, demonstrating the rare scenario in which Remand can matter against Affinity.
I responded with back to back Pyromancer-Snap-Helix-Pyromancer, though, and amassed a defense which was adequate to stop his attacks by having him dead on the crackback if he attacked with anything at all, if I had any playable, even though I couldn't block anything. The trouble was, the same was true in reverse.
His board was two Etched Champions, an Inkmoth Nexus, a Blinkmoth Nexus, a Memnite and an Ornithopter. He was at five. Mine was two Young Pyros, a Snapcaster, and one elemental token, and soon-to-be more. I was at eleven.
My plan was to simply hold back until I could make another pair of tokens, but I'd drawn two consecutive Spell Pierces and had no targets to cast them. I'd have Pierced my own bolt at this point (and paid for it), just for the extra bodies.
Before I could draw something relevant though, I was that interrupted by his one perfect draw: Cranial Plating. With a Springleaf Drum in play, he could equip and deal twelve to send me packing. Except that he only had eight mana available, and would need to activate at least one of his X-Moth Nexii in order to get the required 11 power. So I Spell Pierced it once, and he paid it, and then again, and had him realize that paying for the second and the equip cost would leave him short the mana to make the lands into an artifact for the full pump and would leave me at one, and that actually paying for the Spell Pierce at all would leave him dead thanks to tapping a blocker for the Springleaf (no longer a maybe, thanks to the new elementals). So the late game Spell Pierces somehow mattered, and I got to untap unscathed, now with five elementals.
I drew an Electrolyze, and started doing the math. Any way I sliced it though, I was one off too. I could attack in and get two through, and burn him down to one. I could kill either the Thopter or one of the manlands (the Inkmoth made them both effectively 2/2), get in for three, and have him down to two. Further damage on top would do it, but I didn't want to chance it. Similarly, though, I didn't want to chance another Plating situation, so I needed to cut down his artifact numbers either way, so I attacked with everything. He blocked the Pyros with his Champions, the Snapcaster with the Memnite, and three of the five elementals with the rest.
I needed to cast the Electrolyze before the Pyros died, but I gambled that he'd give me a good opportunity to do so, and he did by pumping the Blinkmoth. In response, I Electrolyzed it for one and him for one, leaving him with only the Champions and the Thopter and at two life, and myself with only four elemental tokens (still one too few), and praying for a bolt on top.
I got a fetch. But at least he was now attacking for a maximum of nine, and was dead if he attacked with anything.
I played the fetch and cracked it to go down to ten at his end of turn, and asked him to topdeck me something nice. It was a bit of a convoluted finish, but it worked out. I drew a Bedlam Reveler, cast it for two, drew two lands and an Engineered Explosives, set it on three, blew it up, and swung through for lethal.
PHEW.
<u>No addition sideboarding for game three</u> (As we had five minutes on the clock and neither of us would survive a draw.)
I was worried about speed on this one, so I happily accepted a hand of seven with two Pyromancers and some cantrips, hoping to go on early offense.
He started, though, and did the thing everyone hates Affinity for: He dumped his entire hand of seven cards on the table, and said go. Land, Mox Opal, Ornithopter, Two Memnites, Springleaf Drum, and Vault Skirge. Thankfully none of these were immediately threatening, but suddenly my Pyromancer plan didn't look so hot.
I drew a timely bolt, and hoped to stifle his life gaining plans at the very least.
But everything fell apart when he topdecks and played an Arcbound Ravager. I bolted the Skirge, knowing I could bluff the Vapor Snag to prevent him from wrecking me with the Ravager.
It worked, but the only problem now is that I needed to hold blue mana up until I could deliver on the promise. He drew another Skirge, and a Plating the turn after it, and my plan fell to pieces. My bluff lasted long enough to take us to turn five or six, but there were still two minutes left in the round when I died with him above thirty.
Not a ton I could have done about that one.
WBG Abzan Midrange
BRG Dredgevine
Newlamog is definitely annoying, but Tron is a reasonable matchup because of how well we can slow them down otherwise, and how quickly we can kill them due to their lack of early board presence. Remanding it is definitely a low-value play, but it's one of those "you gotta do what you gotta do" moves.
And frankly, Pathing it isn't the best plan in the world either. Game plan vs Tron is aggro. Newlamog doesn't do stink-all vs 5+ pyromancer tokens. Twisted Image is on average better to take out dorks, Wall of Omens/Roots, and the occasional main-board Spellskite, while cantripping. Cantrips are just too good with Snap, Pyro, and Reveler.
If you decide to play it, the shortcut lessons to success are to never cast Young Pyromancer unless you can get a token out of it (even if it's just T2 cast + Git Probe). You can ride a 1/1 token a surprisingly long distance. But T3 w/ Spell Pierce/Dispel is where you really want to me.
Second biggie is that Snapcaster on defense is incredible, particularly with Electrolyze. If you're facing X/4s and X/5s, this is your Plan A route to victory.
Finally, don't be afraid to take some big-body-beats. It's usually worth taking the 4 damage from a Goyf and holding Vapor Snag until EOT, rather than preventing damage with it.
You will also never feel in control of the game, except against things like Affinity and Infect where your game plan is to make them most first. Otherwise you're just barely keeping your opponent off-step and pecking in damage until they're in bolt-snap-bolt range.
Not the more powerful deck I've ever played, but by far the most fun I've had since the 90s.
WBG Abzan Midrange
BRG Dredgevine
Here is what I am currently playing for reference:
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Bedlam Reveler
1 Stormchaser Mage
Spells
4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
3 Path to Exile
1 Vapor Snag
2 Unsubstantiate
1 Boros Charm
2 Remand
1 Spell Pierce
2 Distortion Strike
1 Twisted Image
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand
2 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Seachrome Coast
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Celestial Purge
1 Monastery Siege
1 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Spellskite
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Hallowed Moonlight
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Wear // Tear
2 Stony Silence
Bedlam Reveler has been an absolute godsend. He is really what the deck was lacking at the top end for the midrange matchups. This style falls on the aggressive end of the spectrum as opposed to the more control oriented jeskai delver/tempo decks. Reveler fits wonderfully in this style of build, but I have still found two copies to be enough (possibly one in the board). In addition,Unsubstantiate continues to over perform in the main deck. I think it's especially well suited for a Geist of Saint Traft deck because it can clear blockers and it fits in a proactive tempo style build because it can be played both defensively and offensively. In addition, it has been great against Bant Eldrazi with Cavern of Souls. I would like to get one more counter spell in the deck. I was running Izzet Charm and at one point had a second copy of Spell Pierce in the deck. I am currently running a Twisted Image in the main, but that may move to the sideboard as my last sideboard slot making room for one more counter spell.
The deck can side into a more control oriented deck post sideboard, but due to only having 19 lands it will almost always play much closer to the tempo style rather than the draw-go UWR Flash style decks.
I'm currently debating the last sideboard slot. Engineered Explosives has been in my deck since the day I started playing Jeskai Delve (back in the boremandos days), but this deck is the most aggressive version of the deck I have ever played and EE has been sub par lately so it may be leaving.
Taptwo- Awesome right up! I checked out the site and the article is really well done. Congrats on the great day and the awesome article. People don't realize when Hoogland goes 5-4 on SCG he actually went 2-4 or 1-4 depending on byes. With no bye 5-4 is a solid day. That's slight variance away from a 6-3 day two finish. You make the Jeskai Delver/Tempo players proud!
I personally think more aggro/tempo is the way to go with the deck right now. Bedlam Reveler is too good not to play. You are also correct about the tron matchup. The tron matchup is a lot easier than it used to be with the more midrange version. I have had a couple people ask how Geist worked in the main and he has actually been great. He is basically part of the second wave of attacks (Geist, Bedlam Reveler, and Snapcaster to some extent). Once they spend their removal on Delver/Swiftspear we can land a Reveler or Geist and end the game. My deck is a little different because I utilize some lesser played cards in Distortion Strike and Unsubstantiate (was playing one Emerge Unscathed, but went to Twisted Image). They help the game one win percentage and then I can side into a tempo deck with specific hate for the opponent post board.
I think Bedlam Reveler will bring the delver archetype back to tier 1 or 2 in modern and I also think that Jeskai is the best shell for Reveler given all of the burn and protection it offers. I do have to run less counter magic than I would like, but with Izzet Charm and Unsubstantiate I can squeeze in 5-6 "counter spells" in total and maintain a very aggressive approach. I prefer Spell Pierce and Remand as my counter spells of choice in the more aggressive versions of the deck, however some do prefer Mana Leak and Spell Snare I wouldn't say that was wrong in any way, just a matter of preference.
A card I would like to hear other player's opinion on is Thought Scour. I have never liked this card and I still can't bring myself to play it in my deck even with Reveler and Snapcaster. I have just always prefered Serum Visions and Gitaxian Probe as my cantrips. I also feel we get 4-6 spells in the graveyard fairly quickly so I don't think thought scour is necessary. How do others feel about Thought Scour?
I'm glad to see the WUR delver activity is booming again and hopefully we will see the deck pop up in some major tournaments shortly!
The deck has been running very well lately.
Thanks for the comments, and I like your take on the deck a lot.
A key difference between our decks is the 4 copies of Young Pyromancer in mine. Relying on YP as your main source of offense, the value of cantrips like Remand shoot through the roof. I would actually love to run Mana Leak instead, but I've found that sticking an early YP and cantripping all day is my version of Geist, in terms of aggro.
There is certainly some awkwardness with that though, as I can't afford to play very many sorcery-speed effects. With the exception of playing an early YP, I seldom ever tap low on my own turn, which makes Geist an awkward inclusion for me.
I think you have 100% the right approach on Reveler, though. Dedicated counters are bad with it, and you're far better off churning through spells to fill up the yard. However consider that this direction pushes you towards the benefits of Thought Scour, which is a card more suited to Grixis lists than Jeskai, because of the Delve bodies you can power out with it. This also complements Prowess creatures arguably better than Jeskai, and Terminate is a major upgrade over Lightning Helix in over 70% of matches if you're leaning more on your creatures for damage than your spells.
I think that's actually going to be my next angle on the deck. Going into black also has a lot of benefits in a meta that is likely to become heavy in Dredge, as it doesn't get any better than Nihil Spellbomb when it comes to matching prowess with grave hate.
WBG Abzan Midrange
BRG Dredgevine
I totally agree with you. I have found that a lot of people are either big fans of Delver of Secrets or a big fan of Young Pyromancer with a few people loving both. I know that Shaun Mclaren LOVES Young Pyromancer, but hates Delver. He told that much when I tried to talk him into playing delver on his stream :). I agree with you that it comes down to the direction of the deck. If you want to really get value off of deck manipulation spells and permission that there is no better card than Young Pyromancer. Except maybe Monastery Swiftspear, but a 3 CMC creature that dies to bolt is tough to play in modern.
I have an slight obsession with Geist of Saint Traft. I have tried the deck with him in the sideboard instead of the mainboard, but the replacement cards (vendilion clique, another snap/reveler) just didn't perform as well as he did. Especially against removal heavy decks. It is tough to tap three mana to cast him, but he is at the top of my curve and it's more of an aggro deck so it's a bit easier than tapping out in the mid game to play a three mana threat.
I also think your correct about grixis. I have looked into grixis before, but I just love having access to Geist, Helix, Boros Charm, and the great sideboard options that white allows (wear/tear, stoney silence, blessed alliance, hallowed fountain, deflecting palm, etc). I do feel that the main deck of grixis is slightly more suited to this style of deck because the dredge creatures can take advantage of the lands/spells in the graveyard and because the hand disruption plays early also pair well with reveler. Grixis is a more linear and "concise" deck in my opinion in game one. However, it can't match the aggression that jeskai can offer with burn spells in game one. I like being able to play a pseudo burn role in game one and then being able to side into a more control oriented role in game two if I have to. I don't think you can go wrong with either grixis or jeskai, and I also agree that a majority of players will go with the grixis build because it's the more obvious (for lack of a better word) or built-in synergy tempo deck.
@CurdBros - thanks for mentioning Jeskai Tempo forum; I didn't even know about it and my list is definitely tempo, not so much Prowess but I'm experimenting with Swiftspear.
For dredge, the best plan is to race them and have Pyromancer tokens for chump-blocking. Vapor Snag is great, and I always have 2 Magma Sprays somewhere in my 75. Of course Path to Exile stays in for this one.
For Tron, I also go hard on aggro. I usually find that better than playing around Pyroclasm/Kozilek's Return because if you do that you probably run out of time. Spell Pierce stays in for their nut T3 Karn draws. After sideboard, Molten Rain + Surgical Extraction takes them off tron and also seems to demoralize them a lot!
Has anyone tried Blood Moon in a Jeskai Manabase? I play three in my U/R builds and it is really strong!! I haven't had time to test if fetching for plains is realistic.
Regarding Thought Scour, I run two in my U/R deck and I'm not sure if I like it, I board them out a lot. On one hand, it makes Reveler cheaper, but I'm not trying to rush him out all that early. It also gives Snapcaster targets which is fine. I find it awkward with Serum Visions because it can mess up my scrys. One thing I do like is to target the opponent with Thought Scour when I have a Surgical Extraction in hand.
Here's my current list; I always tweak the threats and right now I'm trying out 6 one-drops. I will not play less than 4 copies of Young Pyromancer. In my low-curve build, it is the best threat by far. I've gone down to 2 Bedlam Revelers and I like that too.
3 Delver of Secrets
3 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Young Pyromancer
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Bedlam Reveler
27 Spells
4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mutagenic Growth
3 Vapor Snag
2 Spell Pierce
2 Lightning Helix
2 Path to Exile
1 Emerge Unscathed
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Timely Reinforcements
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Seachrome Coast
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Bribery
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Emerge Unscathed
2 Magma Spray
2 Molten Rain
2 Lightning Helix
2 Spell Snare
2 Dispel
2 Wear // Tear
I'm glad you like the jeskai tempo forum. I have really enjoyed being the OP and we have a great group of regular posters. We always love to hear about great jeskai decks like yours.
I love the bribery tech in the sideboard! That's awesome.
Your deck looks sweet. I played Emerge Unscathed up until about two weeks ago and it will probably find it's way back into my deck. I love the rebound cards with prowess creatures. That's actually what got me started on my deck.
I am interested that you only run 3 delver. I used to run three swiftspears and 4 delvers, but when I went more aggro I added the fourth. Is this just a slot consideration or do you like making sure you don't have too many 1 drops?
Another question I had was how is the timely reinforcements in the main? We take a ton of damage from our lands so I am interested to see how that plays out. It could be a great one of to mitigate that problem on top of lightning helix.
I agree Mazereon. I have really like Hallowed Moonlight in my sideboard. It comes in against more decks than I had originally anticipated (aether vial decks, grislhoardbrand, evolution/chord decks, dredge, etc). In addition, cantrips are excellent in our deck.
Dredge is a very interesting deck. I have been beaten by it quickly and I have played games against it where they did absolutely nothing. I think we have enough to compete with them with cage, surgical extraction, negate, dispel, distortion strike, EE, hallowed moonlight, other counter magic, etc. Obviusly if there is a ton of dredge in someone's area they will want more, but I haven't seen it a lot in my area so I am not going to utilize any more sideboard slots for it.
I have never tried Blood Moon in my deck. My personal build is a true three color build. It leans more heavily on blue and red in the mainboard, but adds more white post board. I definitely can't play blood moon, but if you can play it I would suggest doing so. It nerfs soooo many decks. I don't like the card, but as long as it is legal its just a great choice.
Flipping Delvers since 2011
MY DECKS
Modern: UR Izzet Delver
Pauper: U Delver Faeries | R Red Burn | GInfect
Commander: WB Athreos, God of Passage | UR Keranos Spellslinger | GWU Derevi, Tempo Tactician | BGU Tasigur, the Golden Fang | RW Feather, the Redeemed
I had the same initial thought as well. I will definitely be testing her out for sure and building a few ideas with her in mind, but she is probably better in a different style deck. Here is to hoping she fits right and my first thought is wrong :).
With that said, there is no doubt that she is really really really good. She will definitely see play in my opinion.
I did try Myth Realized when it was first printed, but haven't tried it since. It wasn't great at that time because it just felt too slow. It's definitely something we should not forget. Especially in the more all in Bedlam Reveler builds with lots of cantrips.
http://modernnexus.com/quelling-jeskai-delver/
Very cool build that leans on Spell Queller. I tend to play a slightly more aggressive build, but this deck looks very consistent and would be right in the wheel house of a more tempo/control oriented delver player.