On Surgery countering Kozilek and Thoughtseize: I wouldn't bring in such a card vs BGx. Too narrow and bad of a topdeck. It's only better than Counterflux vs Living End 'cause they can't Ricochet Trap it. However, vs Vision, Scapeshift or Ad Nauseam Counterflux is just better. One thing I've noticed while testing Surgery (have removed it now), it's that having delirium on is actually difficult.
On Trickbind, yea I agree it's narrow, I still think it's a nice way of stopping Nahiri and a way they can't do anything about. Countering Nahiri or Celestial Purging it is obviously good, but I just thought Trickbind could be an additional tech that can work as well in those other cases I mentioned.
Yeah, no worries. I'm pretty tempted to pull out my Shadow of Doubts and start jamming those in sideboards of UWR Nahiri Control. Not sure if that's where I want to be though or if I want something more hard-hitting.
Reprints the one card that people point to when saying that art objectifies women.
Well done Wizards.
Liliana does not objectify women in any way at all. We have gotten to a point in our society that every single picture of a women must be objectifying a women in some negative way......blah blah blah.. That is not the case. (((Sarcasm)))Picture of a girl drinking a milk shake, must be sex related and putting women down, picture of girl sitting on a beach, picture of a girl driving a car, picture of a girl on the moon at a new space station.)))
You have a picture of an attractive strong power women who girls dress up as for anime conventions. What more do you want? The picture is fine, happy to see a reprint. Sick of of seeing people claim that everything in existence must be putting women down. Then all I have to do is replace the word "women" with anything else to get the same mentality; fish, cats, arabs, blacks, jews, men, environment, whites, chinese, old people, etc. It doesn't matter what word I put in. Stop sucking life out of everything man. That artwork of her is awesome. Stop putting stuff down man. Just stop. If the picture was really as negative as you claim she would totally nude, in a kitchen, making sandwiches and giving blow jobs. Her abilities would be horrible as well. +1 do nothing -2 do nothing -6 do nothing. Instead liliana of the veil is an amazing planeswalker comparable to jace, the mind sculpter with great art to appreciate.
My suggestion listen to some comedy radio for a while, pandora is free, youtube is free there is something out there for you. ***** go make fun of somebody. The whole world is so serious and campaigning for some cause, or someones rights, everything is a hate crime, racist, sexist. blah blah blah.
"O no mcdonalds must be slandering a hate crime against skinny people every time they make a big mac." hahaha jeeze You're just someone perpetuating another groups negative perspective that they've made you believe is correct. Look at the picture for a hour and tell me what's wrong with it? I don't see anything.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
Wow guys, a lot of great discussion to read!
I went 1-2 last night and dropped. Won against a slivers player who didnt have vials or coco.
Lost against elves 1-2. Leyline of vitality game 3... did not see it coming lol
Lost against fairies 0-2, he wrecked me.
His first game he draws 3 ancestral visions, and he eats me alive with bitterblossom and Mistbind Clique.
Game 2 no visions, but he mistbinds me twice alongside bitterblossom, and all i can do is cry and pout lol
This new shop im playing at, has a lot of more aggro players, jund playersand tron players. so im going to have to adjust accordingly. And wtf do i do against this fairy deck?
Is it weird that i want to try eidolon of rhetoric in my sideboard? lol
As of now i added a remand in place of the 2nd elspeth. I also need another anger in the sideboard.
I really don't wanna switch over to nahiri combo bs. If i switch to control do i HAVE to run nahiri bs? Just running angers in my mainboard would go pretty well for me right now lol
Ad Nauseam (Dave) (2-1)
Game 1: I was not prepared for this deck. I had never played Ad Nauseum before but I knew there was a combo involving turn 1 lotus bloom. Remanding his Blooms as they resolved put him back a turn. I rode Tasigur and kolaghan's to victory. I never saw ad nauseum and couldn't remember if his win condition was an instant or sorcery so I didn't side in my dispels.
Game 2: He combo'd off. Then i sided in dispels.
Game 3: I landed a geist and remanded his threats. He pact of negation countered one of my remands. I kolaghan's command killed his pentad prism and he had to use an angel's grace to not die from his pact trigger. He cast mystical teachings and in response I snap bolted him to kill him.
Notes: Tasigur and K-Command were great. I underlined that Ad Nauseum is an instant.
GW Hate Bears (Scott) (1-2)
I knew he was on hate bears since he was sitting close by. This is not a great matchup.
Game 1: He landed a turn 2 Thalia which made me stumble in board growth. His Leonin Arbiters finished me off.
Game 2: I wear / tear killed his vial and he stumbled on lands. I won off lingering souls tokens.
Game 3: I had wanted to test Ashiok at this event. I was thoroughly impressed. For 3 mana she took 4 damage, fetched me an aven mindcensor which locked him out of a land after a path, and then nabbed loxodon smiter which could fend off his growing scavenging ooze. I was very close to winning. Or at least I felt that way. We went to time and he beat me in turns. If I had topdecked a snapcaster, timely, or lingering souls I would have tied.
Atarka Burn (Jesse) (2-0)
Game 1: I did not know what he was on and we got delayed with a deck inspection that resulted in everything being as it should be. I kept a reasonable seeming hand with 3 lands, 2 helix, a snapcaster, and a bolt. Triple Helix won me the game easily.
Game 2: This game I hit him with Boros Charm in the face when I had nothing else to do to race. However, because of this I ended up having more life then him when I drew my Timely Reinforcements. I made the call to cast it just for the 3 1/1s (he had an Eidolon of the Great Revel in play. The 3 1/1s blocked fantastically and even swung in for some damage for me to close it off with a lightning helix. Oh and he had a Blood Moon in play which had locked me out of U mana.
Affinity (Alex) (1-2)
Game 1: He had the nut draw and dumped his hand turn 1. By the time I recovered Galvanic Blast was there to finish me off.
Game 2: I landed a turn 2 Stony Silence and turn 3 geist. I won easily.
Game 3: I stupidly kept a 1 land hand with 3 path to exile, 1 stony silence, 1 lingering souls, and 1 bolt. I was on the draw so I tried rationalizing that I just needed to draw a white land with 2 draws. Oh? Did I mention that one land was a Steam Vents? Dumb gamble. Cost me the match.
Luckily even though I was 2-2, my tie breakers put me in the next round. Unfortunately I was the lowest seed in the next round and was paired with the undefeated GW Hate Bear player who I played earlier. He had the play by default.
GW Hate Bears (Scott) (0-2)
Game 1: He landed 2x arbiters with ghost quarters. I Kolaghan's Commanded his Vial and Killed an Arbiter with it as well. Tasigur was a beast and walled off his growing Scavenging Ooze even with Double Noble Hierarch in play. I was sitting on 7 life and he had 14 at the time so I was fine waiting to topdeck a path to exile, Lingering Souls, or Timely. Unfortunately after many turns I drew none of those and died to his Linvala.
Game 2: My notes from this game are: Double Tectonic Edge while on 4 Lands With Leonin Arbiter in play. I never recovered being pushed down to 2 mana. This was the only matchup where color of mana was an issue for me.
Overview:
Ashiok was very powerful against creature heavy decks. I'm glad she was in there.
My mana base is solid. Other than having obscene land destruction I always had the lands I needed when I needed them. This is consistent with my 146 matches with the deck. Serum Visions was meh. It is the worst card in the deck. Crackling Doom was ok. It was basically just a fifth path. This was my worst showing with it, but even still it killed something that bolt could not have. Kolaghan's Command was great. I'm glad I cut my Electrolyze for it. Electrolye just doesn't do as much as it should. Yes it would have been nice killing the Hate Bear's players double Noble Hierarch, but K-Command killed his vial and Arbiter, which is even better.
Tasigur is the real deal. He walled off aggression, swung in for a quick clock against combo, and would have closed out a grindy game against the Hate Bears if Linvala, Keeper of Silence wasn't on the board.
I am glad I cut my "finisher." It was Keranos, but I cut it for Nahiri fear. Then I reexamined my deck and realized I don't need a prototypical finisher. Boros Charm and Tasigur are enough there. Boros Charm, Snap, Boros Charm closes games faster than Keranos ever could.
Sideboard Thoughts:
I am not sure I needed the Nihil Spellbomb in the board. It was useless.
I almost did not put in Timely because I already have Lingering Souls. However, I feel that this is the right split because Timely's potential life gain can be very relevant.
Ashiok is very good.
I would love some feedback or constructive thoughts.
Reprints the one card that people point to when saying that art objectifies women.
Well done Wizards.
Liliana does not objectify women in any way at all. We have gotten to a point in our society that every single picture of a women must be objectifying a women in some negative way......blah blah blah.. That is not the case. (((Sarcasm)))Picture of a girl drinking a milk shake, must be sex related and putting women down, picture of girl sitting on a beach, picture of a girl driving a car, picture of a girl on the moon at a new space station.)))
You have a picture of an attractive strong power women who girls dress up as for anime conventions. What more do you want? The picture is fine, happy to see a reprint. Sick of of seeing people claim that everything in existence must be putting women down. Then all I have to do is replace the word "women" with anything else to get the same mentality; fish, cats, arabs, blacks, jews, men, environment, whites, chinese, old people, etc. It doesn't matter what word I put in. Stop sucking life out of everything man. That artwork of her is awesome. Stop putting stuff down man. Just stop. If the picture was really as negative as you claim she would totally nude, in a kitchen, making sandwiches and giving blow jobs. Her abilities would be horrible as well. +1 do nothing -2 do nothing -6 do nothing. Instead liliana of the veil is an amazing planeswalker comparable to jace, the mind sculpter with great art to appreciate.
My suggestion listen to some comedy radio for a while, pandora is free, youtube is free there is something out there for you. ***** go make fun of somebody. The whole world is so serious and campaigning for some cause, or someones rights, everything is a hate crime, racist, sexist. blah blah blah.
"O no mcdonalds must be slandering a hate crime against skinny people every time they make a big mac." hahaha jeeze You're just someone perpetuating another groups negative perspective that they've made you believe is correct. Look at the picture for a hour and tell me what's wrong with it? I don't see anything.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
Went through your new list and your article on the sideboard plan
You said you wen't something like 4-4 in the tournament, do you feel that the new changes may have been a contribution to that? Cutting the snares, the remands, are the Grim's and the other changes worth it? Answering something like a Goyf, for 1 mana is a pretty big deal, it also answers the typical counter-spell
Would you still absolutely recommend the same list going to a big tournament, or did you get unlucky with pairings? How do you feel about Nahiri and playing a Jeskai deck that isn't utilizing her, do you feel you're better off playing Jeskai Flash or being stubborn wanting it to work over the new Nahiri deck?
I made a couple mistakes that contributed to the 4/4 finish, my goal for myself was 6/2, which was definitely achievable. I can also attribute some game losses to a very unlucky number of mulligans to five and once to four. I did some research into shuffling, and concluded that I should be pile shuffling between matches, followed up by 20 or so good mash shuffles. My mulligans issues were all due to an inordinate amount of lands, or no lands. I have a habit of just picking up my board, putting it into my deck and shuffling after the game. I think this leads to clumps of lands, and I'm hoping one pile shuffle between rounds will help.
Grim has been great. I think going forward I'll settle on one Grim four Angels unless I think the meta is such that two Grim three Angels is better.
Logic Knot has also been superb.
I don't miss Snare. There are times the leaks in the deck counter the thing Snare would've while obviously being more flexible against other spells. I'll repost my thoughts on it below.
I think Geist gives the deck an angle of attack that the control lists lack, on top of being good against Nahiri. I think the Nahiri decks are great, I might start playing it more, but I don't make my deck selection choice based on what I think is best. I play the decks I feel like playing, and usually that's Jeskai Geist.
I had a quick question regarding Geist of Saint Traft (and most likely a stupid one). I'm currently playing it in my sideboard of one of my control decks, and I was wondering where you lot found it to be at its best? Not in junction with the surrounding burn and removal, but just when Geist as a card pulled the most weight. Like, I know that it can single-handedly win a game against a control player and can sufficiently race a deck like Tron or Combo, but I was wondering about matchups like Burn, or Infect for that matter.
Dude, Geist hoses burn, 6 damage along with bolts, helixes and electrolyzes is brutal
Infect is more about attritioning them than racing
I'm amazed no one has mentioned Rattlechains as a four-of alongside Geist. Has anyone tried it? Forget about the redundant hexproof ability, this is a cheap 2/1 flyer for 2 mana that can be flashed in, and used to flash in Geist at end of turn. 4 Rattlechains, 3-4 Geists, 4 Bolts, 4 Snappys, 3-4 Helix, 1-4 Electrolyze is going to put a LOT of pressure on opponents VERY fast at INSTANT speed. If you're worried about combo, Rattlechains allows you to play a more draw-go style with your counterspells alongside Geist. With five mana, you can flash both in end of turn. Even if Rattlechains dies, you can still respond by flashing in Geist.
Because of its speed and ability to flash in Geist? Clique and Resto are great, but they cost 3 and 4 CMC, respectively. I suppose it's the same reason that Stifle is generally considered so much better than Trickbind. Also, Quicken itself can't do two evasive damage per turn, nor can it flash in a Geist. Savage Summoning would be a better comparison (although green), but it doesn't do anything by itself, nor can it cantrip.
My theory is that Rattlechains would work well with a list with three or more Geist of Saint Traft, that has a ton of removal (Path to Exile, Bolt, Lightning Helix) to clear the way for Geist. The extra two evasive damage per turn will also give a deck like this (with bolts, snappys, and flashed GoST's) even greater reach in burning out an opponent that much faster. I'll test it out, if no one else will.
Because of its speed and ability to flash in Geist? Clique and Resto are great, but they cost 3 and 4 CMC, respectively. I suppose it's the same reason that Stifle is generally considered so much better than Trickbind. Also, Quicken itself can't do two evasive damage per turn, nor can it flash in a Geist. Savage Summoning would be a better comparison (although green), but it doesn't do anything by itself, nor can it cantrip.
My theory is that Rattlechains would work well with a list with three or more Geist of Saint Traft, that has a ton of removal (Path to Exile, Bolt, Lightning Helix) to clear the way for Geist. The extra two evasive damage per turn will also give a deck like this (with bolts, snappys, and flashed GoST's) even greater reach in burning out an opponent that much faster. I'll test it out, if no one else will.
I don't play the deck myself but Jeskai Geist seems like a deck that wants to make the opponent's removal as bad as possible. That's obvious with Geist being hexproof but also, Clique and Restoration Angel provide some kind of value even if they get killed off right away. Rattlechain doesn't have that same kind of value in this deck, even if flashing in Geist is pretty good.
I could see a card like Rattlechain being more relevant in an Esper dedicated spirit deck (lingering souls, spectral procession, drogskoll captain, kira, etc.)
Long time lurker to this forum, but I'm at a GPT on Saturday and want some last minute deck-building advice...
1. Does UWR Midrange ever want to run Spellskite? Why/why not?
Mainboard/Sideboard?
I see it as an all-round useful card, but do we have better, more consistent options?
3. Speaking of Nahiri, is Keranos, God of Storms still viable? He's one of my favourite cards in the deck and has won me lots of games, but I've seen a few people mention that people have boarded stuff in for Nahiri that also hits him like Celestial Purge...
4. I'm expecting a fair amount of Abzan/Melira CoCo decks so am running 2x Anger of the Gods, but do I want to swap one of these out for a Wrath of God or Supreme Verdict? Why? (I'm also running 2xRest in Peace in the Sideboard)
I don't know about 1-2 but I can help with 3-4. Keranos would be a bad card against Nahiri since her -2 exiles an enchantment and it's a dead card, and as you say, decks with hate cards like celestial purge can take Keranos easily, the question is do you expect Celestial Purge in your meta? because cards like pithing needle, grafdigger's cage, and phyrexian revoker are plain dead against Keranos. About 4 it can be a good idea to side out the angers for a wrath because those decks side in burrenton forge-tender which can be tutored with a chord of calling in response to your anger of the gods. I would additionally side rest in peace or relic of progenitus.
Long time lurker to this forum, but I'm at a GPT on Saturday and want some last minute deck-building advice...
1. Does UWR Midrange ever want to run Spellskite? Why/why not?
Mainboard/Sideboard?
I see it as an all-round useful card, but do we have better, more consistent options?
3. Speaking of Nahiri, is Keranos, God of Storms still viable? He's one of my favourite cards in the deck and has won me lots of games, but I've seen a few people mention that people have boarded stuff in for Nahiri that also hits him like Celestial Purge...
4. I'm expecting a fair amount of Abzan/Melira CoCo decks so am running 2x Anger of the Gods, but do I want to swap one of these out for a Wrath of God or Supreme Verdict? Why? (I'm also running 2xRest in Peace in the Sideboard)
Any advice would be much appreciated!
1) Yeah, Spellskite is a nice card in the sideboard. Not always an all-star, but when it is, it's great. Spellskite is good against Infect and Burn primarily. Feels pretty nice against them. Just be careful of Destructive Revelry when playing against Burn. Feels pretty godawful to turn those on. Skite is also decent against Bogles since it can redirect enchantments onto itself. I don't think it's a necessary sideboard card like it used to be vs. stuff like Twin (RIP in Peace), but it's still nice to have -- if you have the space for it.
2) Generally speaking, most would agree that Thundermaw is better than Stormbreath; however, I think Stormbreath has a pretty strong niche (being good against white cards). If that's what you're afraid of (white), and you're not worried about flyers, then Stormbreath is a fine card.
3)Yeah, Keranos is still viable. Slightly less because Nahiri's a thing (and Nahiri hate is a thing too). Thing though is: Keranos is naturally a hard card to deal with for most opponents. So he's never THAT bad. Play him if you want. If they don't have hate for it, and assuming you're playing him in the right match-ups, he's a fine card.
Reprints the one card that people point to when saying that art objectifies women.
Well done Wizards.
Liliana does not objectify women in any way at all. We have gotten to a point in our society that every single picture of a women must be objectifying a women in some negative way......blah blah blah.. That is not the case. (((Sarcasm)))Picture of a girl drinking a milk shake, must be sex related and putting women down, picture of girl sitting on a beach, picture of a girl driving a car, picture of a girl on the moon at a new space station.)))
You have a picture of an attractive strong power women who girls dress up as for anime conventions. What more do you want? The picture is fine, happy to see a reprint. Sick of of seeing people claim that everything in existence must be putting women down. Then all I have to do is replace the word "women" with anything else to get the same mentality; fish, cats, arabs, blacks, jews, men, environment, whites, chinese, old people, etc. It doesn't matter what word I put in. Stop sucking life out of everything man. That artwork of her is awesome. Stop putting stuff down man. Just stop. If the picture was really as negative as you claim she would totally nude, in a kitchen, making sandwiches and giving blow jobs. Her abilities would be horrible as well. +1 do nothing -2 do nothing -6 do nothing. Instead liliana of the veil is an amazing planeswalker comparable to jace, the mind sculpter with great art to appreciate.
My suggestion listen to some comedy radio for a while, pandora is free, youtube is free there is something out there for you. ***** go make fun of somebody. The whole world is so serious and campaigning for some cause, or someones rights, everything is a hate crime, racist, sexist. blah blah blah.
"O no mcdonalds must be slandering a hate crime against skinny people every time they make a big mac." hahaha jeeze You're just someone perpetuating another groups negative perspective that they've made you believe is correct. Look at the picture for a hour and tell me what's wrong with it? I don't see anything.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
Archangel Avacyn does seem great, but do you lose out with it not being hasty? Or would you just Flash it in end of turn if you think you could close the game on your next combat? And not worried about killing Geist if/when she flips?
Long time lurker to this forum, but I'm at a GPT on Saturday and want some last minute deck-building advice...
1. Does UWR Midrange ever want to run Spellskite? Why/why not?
Mainboard/Sideboard?
I see it as an all-round useful card, but do we have better, more consistent options?
3. Speaking of Nahiri, is Keranos, God of Storms still viable? He's one of my favourite cards in the deck and has won me lots of games, but I've seen a few people mention that people have boarded stuff in for Nahiri that also hits him like Celestial Purge...
4. I'm expecting a fair amount of Abzan/Melira CoCo decks so am running 2x Anger of the Gods, but do I want to swap one of these out for a Wrath of God or Supreme Verdict? Why? (I'm also running 2xRest in Peace in the Sideboard)
Any advice would be much appreciated!
To the poster who said Avacyn is better than Stormbreath/ Thundermaw, how? I don't see it being a relevant card for 5 mana.
1. Jeskai's burn match-ups are already great so you don't need spellskite there (destructive revelry is also a thing). It's good against Boggles but engineered explosives is just as good and far more versatile. In fact, decks like Infect and Boggles expect spellskite and bring in their own sideboard hate against it.
2. Thundermaw is just a more versatile card than Stormbreath. If I was facing a Nahiri, I'm either going to ignore it and finish the opponent OR I'm trying to kill it. Neither can kill it on the turn it comes down if Nahiri is at 6 or 8. With a burn spell, you have a far better chance of killing it with Thundermaw.
So in pretty much every relevant scenario, Thundermaw is better against Nahiri. Stormbreath is better if you are desperately trying to kill Nahiri over the course of two turns but honestly, you'd probably lose regardless in that kind of board state.
3. Why don't you board in another stormbreath/ thundermaw if you're so worried about Keranos-hate?
4. Supreme Verdict/ Wrath of God are still relevant because of BGx. Now I don't know if a Geist deck wants to board in board wipes against Abzan/ Jund but with only 4 path to exile in the deck, I could see it being relevant.
Nobody runs Welding Jar in Affinity and Thrun is not a common card you'll face.
You say that...but I actually played against a guy with Welding Jar in his Affinity deck. lol Made it hard for me to freely deploy my Electrolyzes, that's for sure.
Reprints the one card that people point to when saying that art objectifies women.
Well done Wizards.
Liliana does not objectify women in any way at all. We have gotten to a point in our society that every single picture of a women must be objectifying a women in some negative way......blah blah blah.. That is not the case. (((Sarcasm)))Picture of a girl drinking a milk shake, must be sex related and putting women down, picture of girl sitting on a beach, picture of a girl driving a car, picture of a girl on the moon at a new space station.)))
You have a picture of an attractive strong power women who girls dress up as for anime conventions. What more do you want? The picture is fine, happy to see a reprint. Sick of of seeing people claim that everything in existence must be putting women down. Then all I have to do is replace the word "women" with anything else to get the same mentality; fish, cats, arabs, blacks, jews, men, environment, whites, chinese, old people, etc. It doesn't matter what word I put in. Stop sucking life out of everything man. That artwork of her is awesome. Stop putting stuff down man. Just stop. If the picture was really as negative as you claim she would totally nude, in a kitchen, making sandwiches and giving blow jobs. Her abilities would be horrible as well. +1 do nothing -2 do nothing -6 do nothing. Instead liliana of the veil is an amazing planeswalker comparable to jace, the mind sculpter with great art to appreciate.
My suggestion listen to some comedy radio for a while, pandora is free, youtube is free there is something out there for you. ***** go make fun of somebody. The whole world is so serious and campaigning for some cause, or someones rights, everything is a hate crime, racist, sexist. blah blah blah.
"O no mcdonalds must be slandering a hate crime against skinny people every time they make a big mac." hahaha jeeze You're just someone perpetuating another groups negative perspective that they've made you believe is correct. Look at the picture for a hour and tell me what's wrong with it? I don't see anything.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
Yeah every Affinity deck I've played against for the past couple of months has played Jar. And Thrun is getting played by Jund in my area. Both of those are totally viable cards with the uptick in UWx being played due to Nahiri.
Yeah every Affinity deck I've played against for the past couple of months has played Jar
This statement looks so hyperbolic. Not to mention it's usually a 1of when it does see play (not much at all in my experience) and 4 mana sweepers aren't the best way to deal with Affinity anyway.
not hyperbolic at all. actual fact. and while 4-mana sweepers may not be the best way to handle the deck as a whole, your chances of knocking Affinity off of Metalcraft and sniping a Champion are pretty low, so it's a good contingency plan.
Yeah, no worries. I'm pretty tempted to pull out my Shadow of Doubts and start jamming those in sideboards of UWR Nahiri Control. Not sure if that's where I want to be though or if I want something more hard-hitting.
I went 1-2 last night and dropped. Won against a slivers player who didnt have vials or coco.
Lost against elves 1-2. Leyline of vitality game 3... did not see it coming lol
Lost against fairies 0-2, he wrecked me.
His first game he draws 3 ancestral visions, and he eats me alive with bitterblossom and Mistbind Clique.
Game 2 no visions, but he mistbinds me twice alongside bitterblossom, and all i can do is cry and pout lol
This new shop im playing at, has a lot of more aggro players, jund playersand tron players. so im going to have to adjust accordingly. And wtf do i do against this fairy deck?
Is it weird that i want to try eidolon of rhetoric in my sideboard? lol
As of now i added a remand in place of the 2nd elspeth. I also need another anger in the sideboard.
I really don't wanna switch over to nahiri combo bs. If i switch to control do i HAVE to run nahiri bs? Just running angers in my mainboard would go pretty well for me right now lol
Thanks you very much DarkNightCavalier for the Sig.
1 blood crypt
4 celestial colonnade
3 flooded strand
1 godless shrine
1 hallowed fountain
1 island
1 plains
2 sacred foundry
2 scalding tarn
2 steam vents
1 sulfur falls
1 watery grave
1 Crackling Doom
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
4 Remand
1 Shadow of Doubt
2 Serum Visions
4 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, The Golden Fang
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Counterflux
1 Celestial Purge
2 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2 Lingering Souls
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wear // Tear
1 Stony Silence
1 Engineered Explosives
The report:
Ad Nauseam (Dave) (2-1)
Game 1: I was not prepared for this deck. I had never played Ad Nauseum before but I knew there was a combo involving turn 1 lotus bloom. Remanding his Blooms as they resolved put him back a turn. I rode Tasigur and kolaghan's to victory. I never saw ad nauseum and couldn't remember if his win condition was an instant or sorcery so I didn't side in my dispels.
Game 2: He combo'd off. Then i sided in dispels.
Game 3: I landed a geist and remanded his threats. He pact of negation countered one of my remands. I kolaghan's command killed his pentad prism and he had to use an angel's grace to not die from his pact trigger. He cast mystical teachings and in response I snap bolted him to kill him.
Notes: Tasigur and K-Command were great. I underlined that Ad Nauseum is an instant.
GW Hate Bears (Scott) (1-2)
I knew he was on hate bears since he was sitting close by. This is not a great matchup.
Game 1: He landed a turn 2 Thalia which made me stumble in board growth. His Leonin Arbiters finished me off.
Game 2: I wear / tear killed his vial and he stumbled on lands. I won off lingering souls tokens.
Game 3: I had wanted to test Ashiok at this event. I was thoroughly impressed. For 3 mana she took 4 damage, fetched me an aven mindcensor which locked him out of a land after a path, and then nabbed loxodon smiter which could fend off his growing scavenging ooze. I was very close to winning. Or at least I felt that way. We went to time and he beat me in turns. If I had topdecked a snapcaster, timely, or lingering souls I would have tied.
Atarka Burn (Jesse) (2-0)
Game 1: I did not know what he was on and we got delayed with a deck inspection that resulted in everything being as it should be. I kept a reasonable seeming hand with 3 lands, 2 helix, a snapcaster, and a bolt. Triple Helix won me the game easily.
Game 2: This game I hit him with Boros Charm in the face when I had nothing else to do to race. However, because of this I ended up having more life then him when I drew my Timely Reinforcements. I made the call to cast it just for the 3 1/1s (he had an Eidolon of the Great Revel in play. The 3 1/1s blocked fantastically and even swung in for some damage for me to close it off with a lightning helix. Oh and he had a Blood Moon in play which had locked me out of U mana.
Affinity (Alex) (1-2)
Game 1: He had the nut draw and dumped his hand turn 1. By the time I recovered Galvanic Blast was there to finish me off.
Game 2: I landed a turn 2 Stony Silence and turn 3 geist. I won easily.
Game 3: I stupidly kept a 1 land hand with 3 path to exile, 1 stony silence, 1 lingering souls, and 1 bolt. I was on the draw so I tried rationalizing that I just needed to draw a white land with 2 draws. Oh? Did I mention that one land was a Steam Vents? Dumb gamble. Cost me the match.
Luckily even though I was 2-2, my tie breakers put me in the next round. Unfortunately I was the lowest seed in the next round and was paired with the undefeated GW Hate Bear player who I played earlier. He had the play by default.
GW Hate Bears (Scott) (0-2)
Game 1: He landed 2x arbiters with ghost quarters. I Kolaghan's Commanded his Vial and Killed an Arbiter with it as well. Tasigur was a beast and walled off his growing Scavenging Ooze even with Double Noble Hierarch in play. I was sitting on 7 life and he had 14 at the time so I was fine waiting to topdeck a path to exile, Lingering Souls, or Timely. Unfortunately after many turns I drew none of those and died to his Linvala.
Game 2: My notes from this game are: Double Tectonic Edge while on 4 Lands With Leonin Arbiter in play. I never recovered being pushed down to 2 mana. This was the only matchup where color of mana was an issue for me.
Overview:
Ashiok was very powerful against creature heavy decks. I'm glad she was in there.
My mana base is solid. Other than having obscene land destruction I always had the lands I needed when I needed them. This is consistent with my 146 matches with the deck.
Serum Visions was meh. It is the worst card in the deck.
Crackling Doom was ok. It was basically just a fifth path. This was my worst showing with it, but even still it killed something that bolt could not have.
Kolaghan's Command was great. I'm glad I cut my Electrolyze for it. Electrolye just doesn't do as much as it should. Yes it would have been nice killing the Hate Bear's players double Noble Hierarch, but K-Command killed his vial and Arbiter, which is even better.
Tasigur is the real deal. He walled off aggression, swung in for a quick clock against combo, and would have closed out a grindy game against the Hate Bears if Linvala, Keeper of Silence wasn't on the board.
I am glad I cut my "finisher." It was Keranos, but I cut it for Nahiri fear. Then I reexamined my deck and realized I don't need a prototypical finisher. Boros Charm and Tasigur are enough there. Boros Charm, Snap, Boros Charm closes games faster than Keranos ever could.
Sideboard Thoughts:
I am not sure I needed the Nihil Spellbomb in the board. It was useless.
I almost did not put in Timely because I already have Lingering Souls. However, I feel that this is the right split because Timely's potential life gain can be very relevant.
Ashiok is very good.
I would love some feedback or constructive thoughts.
I made a couple mistakes that contributed to the 4/4 finish, my goal for myself was 6/2, which was definitely achievable. I can also attribute some game losses to a very unlucky number of mulligans to five and once to four. I did some research into shuffling, and concluded that I should be pile shuffling between matches, followed up by 20 or so good mash shuffles. My mulligans issues were all due to an inordinate amount of lands, or no lands. I have a habit of just picking up my board, putting it into my deck and shuffling after the game. I think this leads to clumps of lands, and I'm hoping one pile shuffle between rounds will help.
Grim has been great. I think going forward I'll settle on one Grim four Angels unless I think the meta is such that two Grim three Angels is better.
Logic Knot has also been superb.
I don't miss Snare. There are times the leaks in the deck counter the thing Snare would've while obviously being more flexible against other spells. I'll repost my thoughts on it below.
I think Geist gives the deck an angle of attack that the control lists lack, on top of being good against Nahiri. I think the Nahiri decks are great, I might start playing it more, but I don't make my deck selection choice based on what I think is best. I play the decks I feel like playing, and usually that's Jeskai Geist.
Yep, Geist is awesome vs Burn.
No just a invitational qualifier
My theory is that Rattlechains would work well with a list with three or more Geist of Saint Traft, that has a ton of removal (Path to Exile, Bolt, Lightning Helix) to clear the way for Geist. The extra two evasive damage per turn will also give a deck like this (with bolts, snappys, and flashed GoST's) even greater reach in burning out an opponent that much faster. I'll test it out, if no one else will.
I don't play the deck myself but Jeskai Geist seems like a deck that wants to make the opponent's removal as bad as possible. That's obvious with Geist being hexproof but also, Clique and Restoration Angel provide some kind of value even if they get killed off right away. Rattlechain doesn't have that same kind of value in this deck, even if flashing in Geist is pretty good.
I could see a card like Rattlechain being more relevant in an Esper dedicated spirit deck (lingering souls, spectral procession, drogskoll captain, kira, etc.)
1. Does UWR Midrange ever want to run Spellskite? Why/why not?
Mainboard/Sideboard?
I see it as an all-round useful card, but do we have better, more consistent options?
2. Stormbreath Dragon over Thundermaw Hellkite? People seem to be worried about Nahiri, the Harbinger. The thopter combo decks and other flyers don't seem to be as big as Abzan CoCo or other decks running Path to Exile... I usually end up with enough land to make it Monstrous too...
3. Speaking of Nahiri, is Keranos, God of Storms still viable? He's one of my favourite cards in the deck and has won me lots of games, but I've seen a few people mention that people have boarded stuff in for Nahiri that also hits him like Celestial Purge...
4. I'm expecting a fair amount of Abzan/Melira CoCo decks so am running 2x Anger of the Gods, but do I want to swap one of these out for a Wrath of God or Supreme Verdict? Why? (I'm also running 2xRest in Peace in the Sideboard)
Any advice would be much appreciated!
1) Yeah, Spellskite is a nice card in the sideboard. Not always an all-star, but when it is, it's great. Spellskite is good against Infect and Burn primarily. Feels pretty nice against them. Just be careful of Destructive Revelry when playing against Burn. Feels pretty godawful to turn those on. Skite is also decent against Bogles since it can redirect enchantments onto itself. I don't think it's a necessary sideboard card like it used to be vs. stuff like Twin (RIP in Peace), but it's still nice to have -- if you have the space for it.
2) Generally speaking, most would agree that Thundermaw is better than Stormbreath; however, I think Stormbreath has a pretty strong niche (being good against white cards). If that's what you're afraid of (white), and you're not worried about flyers, then Stormbreath is a fine card.
3)Yeah, Keranos is still viable. Slightly less because Nahiri's a thing (and Nahiri hate is a thing too). Thing though is: Keranos is naturally a hard card to deal with for most opponents. So he's never THAT bad. Play him if you want. If they don't have hate for it, and assuming you're playing him in the right match-ups, he's a fine card.
Archangel Avacyn does seem great, but do you lose out with it not being hasty? Or would you just Flash it in end of turn if you think you could close the game on your next combat? And not worried about killing Geist if/when she flips?
What do you think our worst matchups are then?
Why do you prefer Supreme Verdict over Wrath of God?
To the poster who said Avacyn is better than Stormbreath/ Thundermaw, how? I don't see it being a relevant card for 5 mana.
1. Jeskai's burn match-ups are already great so you don't need spellskite there (destructive revelry is also a thing). It's good against Boggles but engineered explosives is just as good and far more versatile. In fact, decks like Infect and Boggles expect spellskite and bring in their own sideboard hate against it.
2. Thundermaw is just a more versatile card than Stormbreath. If I was facing a Nahiri, I'm either going to ignore it and finish the opponent OR I'm trying to kill it. Neither can kill it on the turn it comes down if Nahiri is at 6 or 8. With a burn spell, you have a far better chance of killing it with Thundermaw.
So in pretty much every relevant scenario, Thundermaw is better against Nahiri. Stormbreath is better if you are desperately trying to kill Nahiri over the course of two turns but honestly, you'd probably lose regardless in that kind of board state.
3. Why don't you board in another stormbreath/ thundermaw if you're so worried about Keranos-hate?
4. Supreme Verdict/ Wrath of God are still relevant because of BGx. Now I don't know if a Geist deck wants to board in board wipes against Abzan/ Jund but with only 4 path to exile in the deck, I could see it being relevant.
You say that...but I actually played against a guy with Welding Jar in his Affinity deck. lol Made it hard for me to freely deploy my Electrolyzes, that's for sure.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
not hyperbolic at all. actual fact. and while 4-mana sweepers may not be the best way to handle the deck as a whole, your chances of knocking Affinity off of Metalcraft and sniping a Champion are pretty low, so it's a good contingency plan.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control