Going off of what Nevelo said, I do think another geist could be added, but 4 feels a little heavy. I experimented running the two geists main + 1 more in the sideboard, but I found myself not being sure when was the right time to bring it in. I agree that electrolyze is very powerful, I am not even considering cutting it. I like boros charm quite a bit, but in all honesty, I am not in love with izzet charm, I just kinda feel all modes are pretty mediocre. That being said, I've never actually played with it, so maybe its another one of those cards that feels a lot better than it looks. I'll consider giving it a shot. I do think the commands are gone, Im gonna find spots a full playset of Lightning angels, a Thundermaw hellkite, maybe another geist, and 2 spell pierce. or maybe 1 spell pierce, 1 spell snare? 1 izzet charm? Any suggestions as far as the last two counter spells go? Thundermaw hellkite definitely deserves one spot in the main, you're right that lingering souls would do me over real quick. I might even toss an aditional one in the side depending on how I like it, who knows.
On a sidenote, I cant get over how amazing Keranos is. In my testing haven't had any opponent come back from a resolved Keranos
Your list looks solid. You have the basic package. If Tron/Bloom are that scary (or if Blood Moon is played more because they are that scary) you might want to try aven mindcensor in the vendilion clique spots. Easier to cast (color wise), still a flash flying beater and is mainboard disruption. I got someone's fetch land on it recently and it was great. Also I'm not a huge fan of the cliques, so bear that in mind.
You don't run any big bad finishers mainboard? Is there any reason for that? The midrange lists usually run 1. Maybe cut a cryptic or electrolyze for one?
Your mana base looks solid and choke proof with the sulfur falls at a 2 of. Maybe cut the ghost quarter for another color? It is hard to run that and the Eiganjo Castle.
For your board: I don't think you need 2 finishers in the board (Elspeth and Keranos) and I do think you need a second Wear // Tear or Celestial Purge.
If your list is very proactive and aggro the 4 geist is a must because you can afford to have multiples in your hand. What's the worst case scenario in that case? You swing Geist into a blocker and deal 4 damage. Drop another Geist.
Regarding izzet charm. I am not a fan of izzet charm in noncombo decks. I've tried them out because of how useful diverse options are, but it's really a poor aggro card. Cards that shoot to the face are always better in a proactive deck (That is why lightning bolt is the most played card in modern).
Made some SB changes to the above list based on my LGS meta to test some things (saw zero tron, or affinity, so felt it was a good chance to give some borderline cards some more reps)
Blood Moon was an all-star last night. Got it early against Amulet and rode it out twice.
Almost beat bogles with it, but he happened to have basic plains in hand to cast his auras moving forward Didn't play tron but certainly appreciate it's power against it.
Did get burned with a cryptic in hand with a blood moon out once, need to make sure when I finalize my lists that it won't happen again, either by adding another island or by just cutting cryptic when blood moon comes in.
Crumble to Dust is great in that it ends Tron. But if we stumble in our land drops then they already played Karn and we lose anyways. Fulminator Mage and Shadow of Doubt and the bird are all tempo plays that slow them down. If we have a snapcaster mage or a geist in play then we can take advantage of that tempo. I played a game today against Blue Tron where I remanded Ugin 4 times but only dealt 6 damage in that time frame with Snapcaster. (Didn't end up mattering since they played platinum angel and I got them to -1 life but then never drew a path, doom, wear//tear or snapcaster.) So we would need to take advantage of that tempo gain.
I've had a lot of success in PPTQS with a similar list. However, I play -3 Serum Visions, -2 Cryptic Command, -2 Mana Leak, +1 Vendilion Clique, +1 Keranos, +1 Thundermaw Hellkite, +1 land, +2 remand, +1 flex spot. Just those tweaks makes the deck more tempo oriented and can win out by surprise more consistently.
However, I'm currently toying around with the black splash and I think I'm liking it much more. Consistency is slightly diminished for much better cards.
The Sideboard definitely needs to be changed for meta reasons. I'd like certain cards to be in there, like Valorous Stance (as it's good against twin and rock decks), slaughter games, deflecting palm, and keranos, god of storms. Our worst matchup is tron and 2nd probably amulet, of which Crumble to Dust, Aven Mincensor, Boom//Bust seem the best to combat, but perhaps even fringe stuff like catch // release.
Further, regarding the mana base, I've been tempted to replace one colonnade with a Tri land, either the esper or mardu one, in order to get more added color consistency.
Crumble to Dust is great in that it ends Tron. But if we stumble in our land drops then they already played Karn and we lose anyways. Fulminator Mage and Shadow of Doubt and the bird are all tempo plays that slow them down. If we have a snapcaster mage or a geist in play then we can take advantage of that tempo. I played a game today against Blue Tron where I remanded Ugin 4 times but only dealt 6 damage in that time frame with Snapcaster. (Didn't end up mattering since they played platinum angel and I got them to -1 life but then never drew a path, doom, wear//tear or snapcaster.) So we would need to take advantage of that tempo gain.
Thoughts?
Well for the more R/W/U version I'm going to toy with molten rain since snappy can get it back, think it could help the Tron/Bloom match-Ups and have random aplications elsewhere, could be good for your 4 color version as well, at least might be worth exploring.
One quick thought about RG Tron and Bloom. We could play Blood Moon ourselves, and then also side in Chromatic Lantern in order to offset it's effect on ourselves.
One quick thought about RG Tron and Bloom. We could play Blood Moon ourselves, and then also side in Chromatic Lantern in order to offset it's effect on ourselves.
Sounds like a huge stretch to me.
On the Fulminator Mage: RR is not always an easy cost to have to pay, especially in the UWRb builds.
One quick thought about RG Tron and Bloom. We could play Blood Moon ourselves, and then also side in Chromatic Lantern in order to offset it's effect on ourselves.
In order for Lantern to be effective, it has to be drawn in conjunction with Blood Moon. It isn't worth the card or the time casting it otherwise. The chances of getting both at the same time (even running 4 of each in the side), is fairly low. Without doing the math, it's probably like 20%. If your going to side Blood Moon, just build your manabase with more basics and don't play card with doubles of a single color in their casting cost. Building the mana this way does make Snapcaster slightly worse, as it will be more difficult to spell, snap, spell, but that's the price.
One quick thought about RG Tron and Bloom. We could play Blood Moon ourselves, and then also side in Chromatic Lantern in order to offset it's effect on ourselves.
Sounds like a huge stretch to me.
On the Fulminator Mage: RR is not always an easy cost to have to pay, especially in the UWRb builds.
I actually think 1RB is where you want to be on turn 3 in the UWRb builds. That's what I aim for: having 1 white, 1/2, blue, 1/2 red, and 1 black by turn 3 but actually have the WRB needed for crackling doom. But against Tron, if your off even a bit you lose. Either way you need to probably land fetch turn 1, snapcaster aggro turn 2, and land destruct turn 3 to have a chance and to take advantage of the tempo gain from slowing them down a turn. For fulminator mage, he's probably just an easier to cast (for the UWRb lists) Molten Rain that we can maybe get back with our 1 of kolaghan's command.
It's just that against those matchups we need to be something we aren't as good at being: much faster.
Single land destruction just seems mediocre against Tron without a serious clock. As you mention, GeistofStDoom, we need to be much faster. It isn't the same deck, but to relay an experience I had testing Tron vs my Melira Co deck. I had a sideboard plan of Fulminator with a couple mainboard flip Liliana. Every game I got Fulminator (maybe even twice), I still lost. I had no clock. I was spending my early turns disrupting, but he would search out and find the new piece more often than not. The games I did win, I never drew Fulminator. I just had a nice curve out and aggro'd him. We don't have that option as much with UWR. That's moslty why I think Crumble to Dust is where we want to be. We need to shut off their late game, as we can reasonably handle Wurmcoils and Karns with Paths and Counters once they get their turn 7-8. The main thing is dodging the natural drawn Tron into Karn hands.
This is my new deck that I'm possibly going to take to a GP next year barring potential modifications and the sideboard which I'll build as close as possible to the actual date,
It's more a Control deck than a Midrange deck but the guys in the Control thread would call it Midrange because it has more of a tempo style win con (Mentor) and it runs 24 land. Gameplan is pretty simple, drop Mentor or Burn kill them, Colonnades are an option in longer games. Mentor is incredibly powerful, if he can stick a turn the game is basically over.
Sabinfrost, I like the idea of Mentor as a wincon and will be interested to hear how it tests out. I like that you can choose "human" on Cavern so that Snap and Mentor are both counter-proof. I understand the appeal of G-Probes for 0 mana with Mentor, but would be concerned that they don't do much in multiples when Mentor isn't in play. My own inclination would be to swap some probes for Serum Visions, though of course I have no testing to back that up.
Sabinfrost, I like the idea of Mentor as a wincon and will be interested to hear how it tests out. I like that you can choose "human" on Cavern so that Snap and Mentor are both counter-proof. I understand the appeal of G-Probes for 0 mana with Mentor, but would be concerned that they don't do much in multiples when Mentor isn't in play. My own inclination would be to swap some probes for Serum Visions, though of course I have no testing to back that up.
That was the reason I took 1 Cavern. 8 targets. I didn't want to run too many as the deck really wants around 20 blue sources to make Cryptic Command consistent.
I had Serum Visions initially but I went with GProbe because the shock cast also means you can cycle a card turn 1 while dropping a tapped land (like Colonnade) or leaving a mana open for Spell Snare on the draw. That's all while getting hand information. Hand information helps a lot I find, it lets me know what I should be saving certain cards for, what to play around. It also lets you play a Snapcaster as a blocker turn 2 and draw a card out of it for the shock on 2 mana. That turn 2 double play is only moderately useful but it's something that Serum Visions can't do. Scry is funny as well with fetchlands shuffling the deck but that's kind of minor I suppose.
I was expecting more Jund, Tron, and Amulet than anything else. The mindcensors really help in those matchups, and they also do a little bit against Jund (increasing creature count against Lily is never bad, and their manabase is really greedy.) The card was fantastic all weekend, and it's in my deck to stay at least until Amulet is banned, maybe longer.
Anyhow, here we get to the matchups
Round 1 - BYE
he never even saw it coming 1-0
Round 2 - Affinity
He won the die roll, and emptied his hand by turn 2. I looked at my hand and realized giving my opponent any additional information (like the fact that I'm playing white) was a bad idea, and scooped. Game 2 was a bit closer. Played a tarn on turn 1. He once again had an awesome opening hand as was able to thoughtseize stony silence away on his T1. I still resolved a geist, and was able to get in once, before I completely flooded and got multiple ravager's and a giant valut skirge that I couldn't do anything about 1-1
Round 3 - Jund
Game 1 was pretty gross, I won the die roll, but he ended up with 3 goyfs in play on turn 4. Yikes, that was bad. Game 2 was much better. Got a Geist on 3, He had a lily, I got a Geist on 4 and he finished the game for me. Game 3 was crazy. He played a bob on t2, and immediately hit Olivia, (might as well been an Angel token). He was able to do work with his creatures, and got me to 7 and played his last card (a goyf) and passed the turn. I immediately slam Elspeth and minus, wiping his entire board. I plussed her the rest of the way and was never in danger. 2-1
Round 4 - Twin
Sometimes, this game is cruel and you never actually get to play it, in spite of what the pairings, standings, and shuffling would have you believe. I kept a 2 lander on the play with visions geist and some burn/counters. never saw land 3, never had a chance. Game 2, I mulled to 6, kept a two lander, and only saw 1 additional spell the rest of the game, but had 10 lands in play when he finally went off. Mad, but I understand. 2-2
Round 5 - Tron
Oh good, our favorite. I got really lucky when he mulled to 4 game 1. I resolved a geist and rode him to victory. In game 2, I had a snapcaster, geist, and a couple remands, I felt like the coast would be clear. He didn't have a colored source at all early (did have an eye however), and was able to Ugin turn 4 instead to clear geist away (I didn't see the turn 3 Tron, so I thought getting geist out there was more important than waiting, not sure if it was correct or not). He later played Ulamog, which if you didn't know, is really good against Remand.) Game 3 I played a basic Island visions, he plays a map, I play a sacred foundry for stony silence, and then turn 3 fetch basic plains for blood moon. GG 3-2
Round 6 - Tron
This went a little bit more like our usual tron matchup. I won the die roll and kept a reasonable geist-less hand. But I knew I was in trouble against tron land, map T1. Ulamog evenutally did me in, and I got to an awkward spot with 8 life, no red source, and a foundry and helix in hand. 9 life wasn't quite good enough. Game 2 I rolled to victory off a Clique and had counter magic to play around his hand perfectly. Game 3 however was quite difficult.
Over the course of a long day, you can't expect to play perfect (I'm sure there were dozens of different lines I could have taken that may have been better over the course of the day, this one was just exceptionally horrible). I played a snapcaster/visions on turn three thrying to dig to blood moon, but it was just being a grizzly bear that eventually got him down to 11. He had his 2nd Karn by then after exiling the snap and lands and playing another one after killing off the first. I remanded a Wurmcoil (he had a ton of mana at this point, Blood Moon would be great now, but Crumble would admittedly have been better in this spot.), so with a known Wurmcoil Engine in hand, I play a Eiganjo Castle and play Geist. I have Mana Leak and Resto in Hand, he has a Wurmcoil and 1 other card before his draw. I pass it back and he immedietly goes to exile the Castle. I don't have enough mana to flash in Resto here, so I should have just activated Castle in response in case he had the pyroclasm. I'm not quite sure why I didn't because he had so much mana, it was going to be highly unlikely that Leak would be anything more than a small hinderance at this point and never actually counter anything. But I let my Geist die. I leaked the Wurmcoil just because, which put me to just the Resto in hand. It was a nice play on his part though, he could've fished out Cryptic from me there because he then slammed Pyroclasm on me killing my only real threat left. Karn and Wurmcoil did the rest since Angel isn't exactly good on her own. Definite mistake on my part, that I'll work hard to never let happen again. This stung so much more because I could've ended up 2-0 against Tron on the day, and had the opportunity and blew it, thus ending any outside chance at Day 2. 3-3
Round 7 - Jund
Like every jund matchup, Goyfs without Paths are really hard to deal with Game 1. Game 2 went much better as expected. After a thoughseized Geist, He landed a Lily but I had enough Burn in hand to keep her from taking over. I passed on my turn 4 while he had zero in hand. He played a fetch and passed. I flashed in Resto and she started doing work. On his turn 5, he went to fetch and I flashed in Aven Mindcensor. Pretty wicked, considering he was now forced to tap out to play his now suddenly awful Crumble to Dust. He exiled one collenade from the battlefield, but found none in my top 4. I realized I was a terminate/bolt/goyf away from him turning this game around however. With Path to Exile and Elspeth in hand, I was gonna keep doing work with these guys until he made me do other wise. I got in on my next turn for 5 after replaying a fifth land. On his turn, he went to bolt the mindcensor, and I pathed it in response. Got my 6th land, and slammed Elspeth on my turn, Game Over. 4-3
Round 8 - UR Twin
The one great thing about UR Twin still being relevant in the meta is that it's such an old deck, that it will always have a large share of the field, and it gives me tons of experience playing against it and knowing how to stop it's game plan. He won the die roll, but visioned on Turn 3, I remanded it just to turn off his Remand on my turn 3, and he cast it again so I let it resolve.
<Aside: This is a really important tempo play with this deck in this matchup in particular. Being able to turn off Remand is so essential when trying to resolve a Geist or an Angel. If you do, then you know they aren't flashing in the combo, you know they aren't remanding it, and in some spots, you know they aren't flashing in Snap to block the Geist (yet). If it costs me a card to guarantee a resolved Geist on 3, I'm doing it everytime, sometimes they even let me draw the card off remand. This works even better when you haven't revealed that your also playing White as a color, because they think saving their dispel gives them more strength later (if they think it's the mirror) since they're still on the play after all. I have really started abusing this line lately, and I have yet to be punished for it. Getting Geist on 3 is one of the few reliable ways to beat this deck. Until these players start realize what I'm doing, I'm going to exploit this every single time.>
Slammed a geist on my turn 3, and was able to bolt snapcasters before blocks when needed. Game 2 was a bit trickier, when i cliqued on his turn 4, i saw Negate, Dispel, Spell Pierce, Splinter Twin, Thundermaw Hellkite (?!) and a land. I let him keep it since I was now only concerned about letting him tap out for Thundermaw (or close to it) so I could path/Geist my next turn where he couldn't respond. Passed back to me and I cast geist with steam vents up instead of hallowed fountain. (I wanted to represent no PTE here, I wanted him to think TH was safe.) He cast it killing my Clique, and shipped it back, I pathed it while he was tapped out on my turn, and rode Geist the rest of the way. 5-3
Round 9 - Affinity
I see that I'm paired against a name I recognize (or last name anyhow). I get to my seat and ask the usual "where you from? how many did you travel with?" and realize that this is Kyle Boggeemes cousin, who got to ride to Pittsburgh from Michigan listening to his cousin and Brian DeMars the whole time. This guy is probably no slouch. Game one was quick and he landed a T2 champion. Neat. Game 2 I found a staticaster and anger of the Gods a turn late for both. GG. 5-4
So for those paying close attention, in 8 rounds I played 4 decks, twice each. Went 2-0 against Jund, 1-1 against Twin and Tron, and 0-2 against Affinity. One thing I don't think I did well enough in those affinity matchups was mulligan aggressively to the sideboard hate. Obviously we have so many good cards there, that a bolt/remand/helix/geist/3lands hand is good in G1 against an unknown, but should be a throwaway when you're down a game against this deck. With all those hate cards, landing one can be the only reason we win, and taking a 6 card or even 5 card hand with 1 of them in it is better than that initial 7 of Game 1 Gas. I played in the Modern Super Sunday Series the following day, and can type that report up as well. But this GP was so much fun that I may just travel to each USA Modern GP next year. I told myself that if I felt this deck didn't have legs by the end of the weekend that I would move into another deck, but I was convinced that this deck could definitely hang with the best in the format (especially the mindcesors, another creature with a super useful ability was much better than cryptic/electrolyze). You could talk me into running a snare over that cryptic right now, I don't know if it's right, but cryptic felt like a card I just never wanted to draw (in these matches anyway). A punt against Tron and a non-game round 4 could've been the difference between Day 2 and the "Super Sadness Series" Thanks for reading.
I used to play URW quite a bit and recently I've come back to it with a list similar to yours, I'll post it below.
I'm really surprised that you lost twice to Affinity, as I've always found that to be one of my better matchups with Bolts, Path, Helix, and Electrolyze + snap, I find trading with them super easy and the life gain from helix really hurts them. After sideboarding, it's even better as you just side out most of your counter spells and bring in the sweepers and artifact hate.
I'm also loving Aven Mindsensor, he's really good in the current meta.
This list has been working fairly well, I've been winning quite a bit with it on Xmage and quite a few of the games I've lost have been my own fault. My life has been a bit too hectic to get out and play paper magic, but I'm might be able to swing a Modern FNM on Friday and I plan on taking this if I do.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
On a sidenote, I cant get over how amazing Keranos is. In my testing haven't had any opponent come back from a resolved Keranos
Stay crunchy in milk
Your list looks solid. You have the basic package. If Tron/Bloom are that scary (or if Blood Moon is played more because they are that scary) you might want to try aven mindcensor in the vendilion clique spots. Easier to cast (color wise), still a flash flying beater and is mainboard disruption. I got someone's fetch land on it recently and it was great. Also I'm not a huge fan of the cliques, so bear that in mind.
You don't run any big bad finishers mainboard? Is there any reason for that? The midrange lists usually run 1. Maybe cut a cryptic or electrolyze for one?
Your mana base looks solid and choke proof with the sulfur falls at a 2 of. Maybe cut the ghost quarter for another color? It is hard to run that and the Eiganjo Castle.
For your board: I don't think you need 2 finishers in the board (Elspeth and Keranos) and I do think you need a second Wear // Tear or Celestial Purge.
If your list is very proactive and aggro the 4 geist is a must because you can afford to have multiples in your hand. What's the worst case scenario in that case? You swing Geist into a blocker and deal 4 damage. Drop another Geist.
Regarding izzet charm. I am not a fan of izzet charm in noncombo decks. I've tried them out because of how useful diverse options are, but it's really a poor aggro card. Cards that shoot to the face are always better in a proactive deck (That is why lightning bolt is the most played card in modern).
Blood Moon was an all-star last night. Got it early against Amulet and rode it out twice.
Almost beat bogles with it, but he happened to have basic plains in hand to cast his auras moving forward Didn't play tron but certainly appreciate it's power against it.
Did get burned with a cryptic in hand with a blood moon out once, need to make sure when I finalize my lists that it won't happen again, either by adding another island or by just cutting cryptic when blood moon comes in.
Edit:
Still looking to beat RG Tron.
Options I see:
Fulminator Mage
Crumble to Dust
Shadow of Doubt
Aven Mindcensor
Crumble to Dust is great in that it ends Tron. But if we stumble in our land drops then they already played Karn and we lose anyways. Fulminator Mage and Shadow of Doubt and the bird are all tempo plays that slow them down. If we have a snapcaster mage or a geist in play then we can take advantage of that tempo. I played a game today against Blue Tron where I remanded Ugin 4 times but only dealt 6 damage in that time frame with Snapcaster. (Didn't end up mattering since they played platinum angel and I got them to -1 life but then never drew a path, doom, wear//tear or snapcaster.) So we would need to take advantage of that tempo gain.
Thoughts?
However, I'm currently toying around with the black splash and I think I'm liking it much more. Consistency is slightly diminished for much better cards.
What is your black splash list? Mine is below and I'm currently 43-11 with it.
1 blood crypt
4 celestial colonnade
4 flooded strand
1 godless shrine
1 hallowed fountain
1 island
1 mountain
1 plains
2 sacred foundry
1 scalding tarn
2 steam vents
1 sulfur falls
1 watery grave
1 electrolyze
1 kolaghan's command
4 lightning bolt
4 lightning helix
4 path to exile
4 remand
4 geist of saint traft
1 keranos, god of storms
3 restoration angel
4 snapcaster mage
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Celestial Purge
1x Counterflux
2x Dispel
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Kor Firewalker
2x Lingering Souls
2x Stony Silence
1x Supreme Verdict
2x Wear / Tear
1 blood crypt
4 celestial colonnade
3 flooded strand
1 godless shrine
1 hallowed fountain
2 island
1 mountain
1 plains
1 sacred foundry
3 scalding tarn
2 steam vents
2 sulfur falls
1 watery grave
2 electrolyze
1 kolaghan's command
4 lightning bolt
4 lightning helix
3 path to exile
4 remand
4 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendillion Clique
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Celestial Purge
1x Counterflux
2x Crumble to Dust
1x Aven Mindcensor
2x Kitchen Finks
2x Lingering Souls
1x Stony Silence
1x Supreme Verdict
2x Wear // Tear
1x Twisted Image
The Sideboard definitely needs to be changed for meta reasons. I'd like certain cards to be in there, like Valorous Stance (as it's good against twin and rock decks), slaughter games, deflecting palm, and keranos, god of storms. Our worst matchup is tron and 2nd probably amulet, of which Crumble to Dust, Aven Mincensor, Boom//Bust seem the best to combat, but perhaps even fringe stuff like catch // release.
Further, regarding the mana base, I've been tempted to replace one colonnade with a Tri land, either the esper or mardu one, in order to get more added color consistency.
Well for the more R/W/U version I'm going to toy with molten rain since snappy can get it back, think it could help the Tron/Bloom match-Ups and have random aplications elsewhere, could be good for your 4 color version as well, at least might be worth exploring.
Sounds like a huge stretch to me.
On the Fulminator Mage: RR is not always an easy cost to have to pay, especially in the UWRb builds.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
In order for Lantern to be effective, it has to be drawn in conjunction with Blood Moon. It isn't worth the card or the time casting it otherwise. The chances of getting both at the same time (even running 4 of each in the side), is fairly low. Without doing the math, it's probably like 20%. If your going to side Blood Moon, just build your manabase with more basics and don't play card with doubles of a single color in their casting cost. Building the mana this way does make Snapcaster slightly worse, as it will be more difficult to spell, snap, spell, but that's the price.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
I actually think 1RB is where you want to be on turn 3 in the UWRb builds. That's what I aim for: having 1 white, 1/2, blue, 1/2 red, and 1 black by turn 3 but actually have the WRB needed for crackling doom. But against Tron, if your off even a bit you lose. Either way you need to probably land fetch turn 1, snapcaster aggro turn 2, and land destruct turn 3 to have a chance and to take advantage of the tempo gain from slowing them down a turn. For fulminator mage, he's probably just an easier to cast (for the UWRb lists) Molten Rain that we can maybe get back with our 1 of kolaghan's command.
It's just that against those matchups we need to be something we aren't as good at being: much faster.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Snare
4 Remand
4 Lightning Helix
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Electrolyze
3 Cryptic Command
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Sulfur Falls
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Celestial Colonnade
It's more a Control deck than a Midrange deck but the guys in the Control thread would call it Midrange because it has more of a tempo style win con (Mentor) and it runs 24 land. Gameplan is pretty simple, drop Mentor or Burn kill them, Colonnades are an option in longer games. Mentor is incredibly powerful, if he can stick a turn the game is basically over.
That was the reason I took 1 Cavern. 8 targets. I didn't want to run too many as the deck really wants around 20 blue sources to make Cryptic Command consistent.
I had Serum Visions initially but I went with GProbe because the shock cast also means you can cycle a card turn 1 while dropping a tapped land (like Colonnade) or leaving a mana open for Spell Snare on the draw. That's all while getting hand information. Hand information helps a lot I find, it lets me know what I should be saving certain cards for, what to play around. It also lets you play a Snapcaster as a blocker turn 2 and draw a card out of it for the shock on 2 mana. That turn 2 double play is only moderately useful but it's something that Serum Visions can't do. Scry is funny as well with fetchlands shuffling the deck but that's kind of minor I suppose.
This was the list I finally settled on:
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Aven Mindcensor
3 Restoration Angel
Spells 21
3 Serum Visions
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
2 Remand
2 Mana Leak
1 Electrolyze
1 Cryptic Command
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Sacred foundry
2 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Dispel
2 Stony Silence
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Blood Moon
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Wear // Tear
1 Spellskite
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Celestial Purge
I was expecting more Jund, Tron, and Amulet than anything else. The mindcensors really help in those matchups, and they also do a little bit against Jund (increasing creature count against Lily is never bad, and their manabase is really greedy.) The card was fantastic all weekend, and it's in my deck to stay at least until Amulet is banned, maybe longer.
Anyhow, here we get to the matchups
Round 1 - BYE
he never even saw it coming 1-0
Round 2 - Affinity
He won the die roll, and emptied his hand by turn 2. I looked at my hand and realized giving my opponent any additional information (like the fact that I'm playing white) was a bad idea, and scooped. Game 2 was a bit closer. Played a tarn on turn 1. He once again had an awesome opening hand as was able to thoughtseize stony silence away on his T1. I still resolved a geist, and was able to get in once, before I completely flooded and got multiple ravager's and a giant valut skirge that I couldn't do anything about 1-1
Round 3 - Jund
Game 1 was pretty gross, I won the die roll, but he ended up with 3 goyfs in play on turn 4. Yikes, that was bad. Game 2 was much better. Got a Geist on 3, He had a lily, I got a Geist on 4 and he finished the game for me. Game 3 was crazy. He played a bob on t2, and immediately hit Olivia, (might as well been an Angel token). He was able to do work with his creatures, and got me to 7 and played his last card (a goyf) and passed the turn. I immediately slam Elspeth and minus, wiping his entire board. I plussed her the rest of the way and was never in danger. 2-1
Round 4 - Twin
Sometimes, this game is cruel and you never actually get to play it, in spite of what the pairings, standings, and shuffling would have you believe. I kept a 2 lander on the play with visions geist and some burn/counters. never saw land 3, never had a chance. Game 2, I mulled to 6, kept a two lander, and only saw 1 additional spell the rest of the game, but had 10 lands in play when he finally went off. Mad, but I understand. 2-2
Round 5 - Tron
Oh good, our favorite. I got really lucky when he mulled to 4 game 1. I resolved a geist and rode him to victory. In game 2, I had a snapcaster, geist, and a couple remands, I felt like the coast would be clear. He didn't have a colored source at all early (did have an eye however), and was able to Ugin turn 4 instead to clear geist away (I didn't see the turn 3 Tron, so I thought getting geist out there was more important than waiting, not sure if it was correct or not). He later played Ulamog, which if you didn't know, is really good against Remand.) Game 3 I played a basic Island visions, he plays a map, I play a sacred foundry for stony silence, and then turn 3 fetch basic plains for blood moon. GG 3-2
Round 6 - Tron
This went a little bit more like our usual tron matchup. I won the die roll and kept a reasonable geist-less hand. But I knew I was in trouble against tron land, map T1. Ulamog evenutally did me in, and I got to an awkward spot with 8 life, no red source, and a foundry and helix in hand. 9 life wasn't quite good enough. Game 2 I rolled to victory off a Clique and had counter magic to play around his hand perfectly. Game 3 however was quite difficult.
Over the course of a long day, you can't expect to play perfect (I'm sure there were dozens of different lines I could have taken that may have been better over the course of the day, this one was just exceptionally horrible). I played a snapcaster/visions on turn three thrying to dig to blood moon, but it was just being a grizzly bear that eventually got him down to 11. He had his 2nd Karn by then after exiling the snap and lands and playing another one after killing off the first. I remanded a Wurmcoil (he had a ton of mana at this point, Blood Moon would be great now, but Crumble would admittedly have been better in this spot.), so with a known Wurmcoil Engine in hand, I play a Eiganjo Castle and play Geist. I have Mana Leak and Resto in Hand, he has a Wurmcoil and 1 other card before his draw. I pass it back and he immedietly goes to exile the Castle. I don't have enough mana to flash in Resto here, so I should have just activated Castle in response in case he had the pyroclasm. I'm not quite sure why I didn't because he had so much mana, it was going to be highly unlikely that Leak would be anything more than a small hinderance at this point and never actually counter anything. But I let my Geist die. I leaked the Wurmcoil just because, which put me to just the Resto in hand. It was a nice play on his part though, he could've fished out Cryptic from me there because he then slammed Pyroclasm on me killing my only real threat left. Karn and Wurmcoil did the rest since Angel isn't exactly good on her own. Definite mistake on my part, that I'll work hard to never let happen again. This stung so much more because I could've ended up 2-0 against Tron on the day, and had the opportunity and blew it, thus ending any outside chance at Day 2. 3-3
Round 7 - Jund
Like every jund matchup, Goyfs without Paths are really hard to deal with Game 1. Game 2 went much better as expected. After a thoughseized Geist, He landed a Lily but I had enough Burn in hand to keep her from taking over. I passed on my turn 4 while he had zero in hand. He played a fetch and passed. I flashed in Resto and she started doing work. On his turn 5, he went to fetch and I flashed in Aven Mindcensor. Pretty wicked, considering he was now forced to tap out to play his now suddenly awful Crumble to Dust. He exiled one collenade from the battlefield, but found none in my top 4. I realized I was a terminate/bolt/goyf away from him turning this game around however. With Path to Exile and Elspeth in hand, I was gonna keep doing work with these guys until he made me do other wise. I got in on my next turn for 5 after replaying a fifth land. On his turn, he went to bolt the mindcensor, and I pathed it in response. Got my 6th land, and slammed Elspeth on my turn, Game Over. 4-3
Round 8 - UR Twin
The one great thing about UR Twin still being relevant in the meta is that it's such an old deck, that it will always have a large share of the field, and it gives me tons of experience playing against it and knowing how to stop it's game plan. He won the die roll, but visioned on Turn 3, I remanded it just to turn off his Remand on my turn 3, and he cast it again so I let it resolve.
<Aside: This is a really important tempo play with this deck in this matchup in particular. Being able to turn off Remand is so essential when trying to resolve a Geist or an Angel. If you do, then you know they aren't flashing in the combo, you know they aren't remanding it, and in some spots, you know they aren't flashing in Snap to block the Geist (yet). If it costs me a card to guarantee a resolved Geist on 3, I'm doing it everytime, sometimes they even let me draw the card off remand. This works even better when you haven't revealed that your also playing White as a color, because they think saving their dispel gives them more strength later (if they think it's the mirror) since they're still on the play after all. I have really started abusing this line lately, and I have yet to be punished for it. Getting Geist on 3 is one of the few reliable ways to beat this deck. Until these players start realize what I'm doing, I'm going to exploit this every single time.>
Slammed a geist on my turn 3, and was able to bolt snapcasters before blocks when needed. Game 2 was a bit trickier, when i cliqued on his turn 4, i saw Negate, Dispel, Spell Pierce, Splinter Twin, Thundermaw Hellkite (?!) and a land. I let him keep it since I was now only concerned about letting him tap out for Thundermaw (or close to it) so I could path/Geist my next turn where he couldn't respond. Passed back to me and I cast geist with steam vents up instead of hallowed fountain. (I wanted to represent no PTE here, I wanted him to think TH was safe.) He cast it killing my Clique, and shipped it back, I pathed it while he was tapped out on my turn, and rode Geist the rest of the way. 5-3
Round 9 - Affinity
I see that I'm paired against a name I recognize (or last name anyhow). I get to my seat and ask the usual "where you from? how many did you travel with?" and realize that this is Kyle Boggeemes cousin, who got to ride to Pittsburgh from Michigan listening to his cousin and Brian DeMars the whole time. This guy is probably no slouch. Game one was quick and he landed a T2 champion. Neat. Game 2 I found a staticaster and anger of the Gods a turn late for both. GG. 5-4
So for those paying close attention, in 8 rounds I played 4 decks, twice each. Went 2-0 against Jund, 1-1 against Twin and Tron, and 0-2 against Affinity. One thing I don't think I did well enough in those affinity matchups was mulligan aggressively to the sideboard hate. Obviously we have so many good cards there, that a bolt/remand/helix/geist/3lands hand is good in G1 against an unknown, but should be a throwaway when you're down a game against this deck. With all those hate cards, landing one can be the only reason we win, and taking a 6 card or even 5 card hand with 1 of them in it is better than that initial 7 of Game 1 Gas. I played in the Modern Super Sunday Series the following day, and can type that report up as well. But this GP was so much fun that I may just travel to each USA Modern GP next year. I told myself that if I felt this deck didn't have legs by the end of the weekend that I would move into another deck, but I was convinced that this deck could definitely hang with the best in the format (especially the mindcesors, another creature with a super useful ability was much better than cryptic/electrolyze). You could talk me into running a snare over that cryptic right now, I don't know if it's right, but cryptic felt like a card I just never wanted to draw (in these matches anyway). A punt against Tron and a non-game round 4 could've been the difference between Day 2 and the "Super Sadness Series" Thanks for reading.
I'm really surprised that you lost twice to Affinity, as I've always found that to be one of my better matchups with Bolts, Path, Helix, and Electrolyze + snap, I find trading with them super easy and the life gain from helix really hurts them. After sideboarding, it's even better as you just side out most of your counter spells and bring in the sweepers and artifact hate.
I'm also loving Aven Mindsensor, he's really good in the current meta.
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Helix
2 Electrolyze
1 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
3 Remand
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Restoration Angel
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Island
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Celestial Purge
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Stony Silence
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Spellskite
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Negate
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Counterflux
This list has been working fairly well, I've been winning quite a bit with it on Xmage and quite a few of the games I've lost have been my own fault. My life has been a bit too hectic to get out and play paper magic, but I'm might be able to swing a Modern FNM on Friday and I plan on taking this if I do.