OK, so I've tried a single Sigarda in my SB for a few matches. It works against Junk, that much is true, though I already have so much junk hate that Sigarda only adds insult to injury I feel. Although, I've noticed Sigarda is a good card against control decks to some extent as the heproof and 5/5 body really messes with them, although Iona tends to mess with control decks already.
All in all, Sigarda feels like a win more card against junk(for me at least because of my sb) while in other matchups, it seems like a worse version of Iona. If Sigarda is put in, I guess it would free up some sb space but thats about it. Just my opinion on her.
OK, so I've tried a single Sigarda in my SB for a few matches. It works against Junk, that much is true, though I already have so much junk hate that Sigarda only adds insult to injury I feel. Although, I've noticed Sigarda is a good card against control decks to some extent as the heproof and 5/5 body really messes with them, although Iona tends to mess with control decks already.
All in all, Sigarda feels like a win more card against junk(for me at least because of my sb) while in other matchups, it seems like a worse version of Iona. If Sigarda is put in, I guess it would free up some sb space but thats about it. Just my opinion on her.
The thing is, everyone seems to have different opinions on the BGx matchup than I do. Everyone seems to do well and I've lost it a ton of times. Granted I haven't played it much post-Leyline, but for me I'm at least willing to test Sigarda since, like you said, it's really good against them.
OK, so I've tried a single Sigarda in my SB for a few matches. It works against Junk, that much is true, though I already have so much junk hate that Sigarda only adds insult to injury I feel. Although, I've noticed Sigarda is a good card against control decks to some extent as the heproof and 5/5 body really messes with them, although Iona tends to mess with control decks already.
All in all, Sigarda feels like a win more card against junk(for me at least because of my sb) while in other matchups, it seems like a worse version of Iona. If Sigarda is put in, I guess it would free up some sb space but thats about it. Just my opinion on her.
The thing is, everyone seems to have different opinions on the BGx matchup than I do. Everyone seems to do well and I've lost it a ton of times. Granted I haven't played it much post-Leyline, but for me I'm at least willing to test Sigarda since, like you said, it's really good against them.
I feel like I only do well against BGx is because my sideboard is really dedicated to fighting them and nothing else. 3x Purge and 4x leyling go a long way, as do 3x Timely split between main and side just to chump those goyfs. I am however, switching out my 1x Ghostly Prison for Sigarda mainly because Ghostly doesn't do what I want ti to do. Too slow when it matters while Sigarda actually can do things against BGx and Control decks sorta.
Hey Guys,
i played this deck for 2 weeks now and I really like it. The only thing i don't like is the tron part. I mean I see that against Some Mathups its essential, and also needed for lets say Emrakul or mindslaver combo.
To me it seems, that just because of Tron you are lacking early interactions, which you often need, just to "stay alive". Also it makes your colored-manabase much weaker, and if your opponent has some sort of land destruction he will typically use it on your colored lands unless he fears Tron.
To me it seems like the only thing this deck wants to do is cast gifts as early as possible and win from there, therefor opening hands without gifts or a thirst, seem to be quite week, since you have to draw one of those to actually be able to do something.
Also cards which should be at its best in this deck, like Sphinx's Revelation, or colonnade have been very unexciting for me when i played them. Mostly if you can really resolve a giant revelation you will draw into 60% lands. -.- and colonnade without tron (in most sb games)
is even more clunky than that.
And against aggressive mathups its basically a race between can they kill you before you can gifts for elesh or iona.
I am thinking of switching this deck to an Esper-Gifts list.
- you would get discard spells as your turn one play, which would typically buy you a turn against almost any strategy so its great for stalling.
- also you get Lingering Souls which work great with gifts and provide some blockers or a tiny clock.
- you also get more removal like Murderous cut, dismember, or doomblade to make a gifts for spot removal more efficiently.
- also the sweeper package becomes better because of damnation
- as far as win-conditions go, you can play a Gravetitan and maybe a Tasigur
What do you guys think?
Do you share my thoughts on the deck or is it just me?
Sphinx's Revelation is a mediocre card for a reason like that. Most control decks played 1, and a lot of them have cut it (I've cut mine). Colonnade can be a bit clunky at times, but manlands are very good and I'd at least play 3.
As far as the early game goes, being a UW deck means you don't have a ton of answers. You could certainly cut some of the slower cards in favour of more early game cards, but I'm not sure that's going to fix the problem.
What sets UW Tron apart from other Gifts decks (there have been several) is the fact that we don't need Gifts to win. Let me outline some of the other decks using Gifts:
UWR Gifts Control
4C Gifts Control
Tezzeret Gifts Control (Esper)
UWR Gifts Control is pretty much just a stock UWR Control list that added Gifts. It's going to shore up some holes for them as they have access to cards like Iona or Elesh Norn now. But UWR Control is a mediocre deck to begin with, and this doesn't exactly help. If you don't win via Gifts, you're still back to grinding the game out, except you've got more clunky cards in the deck. People have tried it, including some friends of mine, but they ultimately didn't like it very much.
4C Gifts Control is a take that tries to use Gifts for the most value possible. They get to play cards like Raven's Crime, Loam, and Lingering Souls, which synergize very well with Gifts. On the other hand, their win condition without Gifts combo is very grindy. They need cards like Lingering Souls and Liliana to hold up, or to hope they grind out with Loam + Raven's Crime/Tec Edge. It makes their deck very good against slow/grindy decks, but quite miserable against proactive decks. They also have a problem against RG Tron like us, because if they don't get some Tec Edge plan online really early, they're in for a world of trouble.
Tezzeret Gifts Control is Caleb Durward's pet deck. He takes something akin to our shell and then adds Tezzeret to it, which turns Signets into threats. He then adds a couple random black cards here and there and more artifacts, and you lose the top end like Emrakul, as well as stuff like Map and Remand. The problem with his deck is the same as the others, that you have to grind out the game with just a Tezzeret, and most of the cards in your deck are vacuously bad. In fact, his deck has more vacuously bad cards than any Gifts list I've seen. When I say vacuously bad, I mean cards that are bad on their own. He had 8 Signets and they're pretty miserable without Tezzeret or if you're not aiming for t3 Gifts.
Here's what you get if you move to an Esper list:
- Proactive answers in Thoughtseize/Inquisition. These are surprisingly not that great for control decks in a format like Modern. They're good in midrange decks that want to grind you out, but we absolutely don't want to do that. Sure, we can maybe stall a little better, but then we've also put a bunch of mediocre discard spells into our deck. What happens when on turn 15 you draw a Thoughtseize?
- Lingering Souls. It's great, I have nothing but good things to say about this card.
- More removal. I think if people wanted more spot-removal, they would have tried stuff like Dismember or Sunlance. Dismember is playable right now, and as a deck that punishes itself very little from its mana/spells, you can actually probably afford to play it. I know Mono U Tron plays Dismember for spot removal, and they don't complain about the cost.
- Playing Damnation in a tri-colour deck is probably not that much better than what we have. The reason is that you're playing a WW wrath and a BB wrath. Depending on how you fetch in the early game or the lands you draw, you might not have the mana. Caleb spoke out about that, and I think he's right with Damnation being wrong in a UW base deck. That said, you can and probably should still play Verdict as I imagine it won't be too bad to cast when you cut 12 Tron lands for actual coloured lands.
Ultimately I expect you to turn up something closer to what already exists. You're going to try to grind out games and use Gifts for value. Turns out those strategies aren't so good because if Gifts doesn't work, you pretty much lose the game. You have a horrible late game in those decks and you fold to anything that can handle Gifts. RG Tron stays a bad matchup, and Junk is worse now as well. You also now have 50/50s against other control decks whereas UW Tron has like 90/10s against control.
Mindslaver acts the same way Emrakul does because it's hard to answer for a control deck. At best they counter it and have to answer it again next turn. But the sentiment remains the same, you won't play Mindslaver in a non-Tron deck so you're losing the late game inevitability with cutting Tron.
Mono U Tron and Twin are matchups that are skill based, and also who can hold out the longest. You usually want to just play a draw-go game against them and not show your hand too early. Against Twin if you build up hands with answers like Path, Remand, etc and then they really can't go off. In Daily games against Twin, I honestly feel like I don't want to cast a turn 3 Thirst on their end step, I'd rather hold it up. If they Mana Leak or Remand it, they're getting decent far ahead, and I can almost never punish them for it. At the same time, they usually won't try to combo you when you leave mana up unless they Clique you to find out, so you're generally fairly safe just hanging back.
I board triple Negate right now. If you don't like that split, try 1 Negate, 1 Swan Song, 1 Dispel. It's more versatile in that you can Gifts for good counter packages now, and they're all cheap answers so if you want to use it for Gifts backup, you can totally do that.
Under the tab decklists, I post each decklist that I use in a Daily event. For the next iteration I am testing Sigarda, I just haven't had a chance to play in a Daily in a few days. In paper I play Mindslaver lock instead, I think it's better, but I'm more inclined to play Emrakul online just because of the feasibility.
Under the tab decklists, I post each decklist that I use in a Daily event. For the next iteration I am testing Sigarda, I just haven't had a chance to play in a Daily in a few days. In paper I play Mindslaver lock instead, I think it's better, but I'm more inclined to play Emrakul online just because of the feasibility.
Holy mother of god...
Also, to make this post non-spam: I've been liking Pithing Needle in the sb. It helps vs Lili, Fulminator mages, and Karns.
Yeah, I track all my stats extensively so I know exactly what is and isn't working, and what decks I do and don't need to alter my deck to beat. For example, the reason I'm so concerned with BGx is because pre-Leyline, I simply didn't beat them at all. I did it for Solforge, Hearthstone, and League too. I think statistically tracking information can help improve your game in ways people normally don't notice.
Under the tab decklists, I post each decklist that I use in a Daily event. For the next iteration I am testing Sigarda, I just haven't had a chance to play in a Daily in a few days. In paper I play Mindslaver lock instead, I think it's better, but I'm more inclined to play Emrakul online just because of the feasibility.
Holy mother of god...
Also, to make this post non-spam: I've been liking Pithing Needle in the sb. It helps vs Lili, Fulminator mages, and Karns.
I'm with you and really enjoy Pithing Needle in the sb so much so that I've picked up using a Trinket Mage package with Engineered Explosives in the main. I don't know if you saw my older list. (Honestly haven't done as much playing as I would have liked in the past 2 months). Darksteel and I, however, have had our little discussion about what you name Kikki or deceiver, deceiver or pestermite or other similar questions. I still have my reasons for liking it even in these match ups, Twin not using Kikki as much and usually favoring a 4/2 split on deciver/ pestermite, but I'll say darksteel has sound reasoning still glad to hear they're working for someone else as well.
I've just read up on everything since my last posts and am really interested in hearing how sigarta has held up?
Any thoughts on a more "Bant" style list that runs Wargate as well as Loam and Gifts? It was something a while back a friend and I had tossed around in our heads but never really put our brains to making a list. I saw it more of a 3 Color Bant control list that used Gifts combo as a primary win condition but also have the option using Wargate and or gift into loam 3 tron piece to build tron, while running only 1-2 copys of each tron land. He had a rather different vision of a almost slower bant tron list (which I really don't like) I think the issue is really that there are not enough good utility lands in Modern to make Wargate for 0 good enough, really I just wish there was a modern equivalent of the Legacy lands deck that locks people out. Just curious if Sigarta / Green adds enough value to warrant it as a color outside of using it as a gifts target.
Yeah, I track all my stats extensively so I know exactly what is and isn't working, and what decks I do and don't need to alter my deck to beat. For example, the reason I'm so concerned with BGx is because pre-Leyline, I simply didn't beat them at all. I did it for Solforge, Hearthstone, and League too. I think statistically tracking information can help improve your game in ways people normally don't notice.
I have watched your last entries on the list.
Is there a reason to mainboard Sundering titan?
Did you cut the supreme verdict? If yes in favor for what?, and how do you gift for a sweeper?
Reagards
I initially thought the meta would require Titan main, but it didn't. I cut it completely now. Junk is more or less the only matchup I need it for, and I use Sigarda now.
My latest list added the Verdict as a way to combat Junk. It's really good against them. If you don't have 3 sweeper, you can sometimes use Snapcaster as a 3rd sweeper, or Cyclonic Rift. Sometimes you just can't do it with a list playing only DoJ and Wrath and you have to accept that.
What you guys think about McWinSauce's List with only two maps. I played about 3-4 matches online with it didn't do too well.
I like the Ugin / Timely and massiv carddraw. Unfortunately I didn't find any vods to see how he is piloting the deck.
It seems like he has a bunch of 1-ofs that he's testing, perhaps he's done well with them, perhaps not. 2 Maps is fine, I tend to like more than less Maps, but 2 can be okay. It does get at the issue where we have too many dead cards. I'm not sure what I think about Think Twice, because I like the card but it has performed very poorly for me in UWR Control.
Hey guys I was thinking again about the deck itself. And to me it seemed like i play a very bad uw control list, if i dont draw into some action like gifts or a finisher. Even tron becomes useless from time to time just because i dont have anything to do with it.
I was considering to add more card selection to the deck. And I was thinking about the new card "Anticipate" from Dragons of Tarkir. It lets you dig 3 Cards deep at instand speed, so it may be worth running 2. The other option of course would be to run more and maybe lowercosted finishers like Batterskull mainboard, but that seems to clunky to me.
What do you think?
That's why a traditional Emrakul list plays Eye of Ugin, because you then have more threats from Map->Eye->Emrakul. Between cards like Thirst, Gifts, and the other win conditions, we have a lot of cards to just keep drawing and grinding out.
You can add more threats but the problem is that you run out of actual early game cards. My problem has never been finding threats or the late game, it has always been the early-mid game where I don't get the right cards I need to survive. Batterskull is a card people have played, including the MB. It's fine to play if you'd like, but again, too many finishers dilutes the deck a bit.
I also don't like Anticipate. It's much better for straight combo decks but for us it's slow. I already have a lot of turn 2 plays in Remand, Map, Signet, and Condescend. If we weren't willing to play any other 2-drop draw spells, Anticipate isn't going in.
Hey. Been lurking on this thread for a while. Just thought of something and wanted to see what you guys think... Has anyone thought of going over 60 cards as a means of reducing the chance of having a (or multiple) none playable cards in your starting 7? We have 6 cards that I would never want to see in an opening hand. i.e. Iona, Elesh, Emrakul, Eye of Ugin, Unburial Rite, and possibly Wurmcoil. I've found having these cards in opening hands, forcing mulligans, to be a very frustrating point in playing this deck.
I suppose in theory, increase the number of total cards, reduces the probability of drawing each card, making it kind of pointless. But it might make sense to alter the proportions of each card to another, so long as were okay with having a less than 4/60 chance of drawing a 4-of card. For example, if we increase the number of total cards, there would be no way to tweak the chance of drawing a gifts to greater than what it is now. But is this really a problem?
Hey. Been lurking on this thread for a while. Just thought of something and wanted to see what you guys think... Has anyone thought of going over 60 cards as a means of reducing the chance of having a (or multiple) none playable cards in your starting 7? We have 6 cards that I would never want to see in an opening hand. i.e. Iona, Elesh, Emrakul, Eye of Ugin, Unburial Rite, and possibly Wurmcoil. I've found having these cards in opening hands, forcing mulligans, to be a very frustrating point in playing this deck.
I suppose in theory, increase the number of total cards, reduces the probability of drawing each card, making it kind of pointless. But it might make sense to alter the proportions of each card to another, so long as were okay with having a less than 4/60 chance of drawing a 4-of card. For example, if we increase the number of total cards, there would be no way to tweak the chance of drawing a gifts to greater than what it is now. But is this really a problem?
That's an interesting idea but I don't think it's that great. At some point you will want to draw specific cards. You want to draw Tron, you want to draw Gifts, etc. We play Remand and Maps because of this, they let us draw cards or find the cards we need. Diluting the numbers isn't a step in the right direction, I think.
Hey. Been lurking on this thread for a while. Just thought of something and wanted to see what you guys think... Has anyone thought of going over 60 cards as a means of reducing the chance of having a (or multiple) none playable cards in your starting 7? We have 6 cards that I would never want to see in an opening hand. i.e. Iona, Elesh, Emrakul, Eye of Ugin, Unburial Rite, and possibly Wurmcoil. I've found having these cards in opening hands, forcing mulligans, to be a very frustrating point in playing this deck.
I suppose in theory, increase the number of total cards, reduces the probability of drawing each card, making it kind of pointless. But it might make sense to alter the proportions of each card to another, so long as were okay with having a less than 4/60 chance of drawing a 4-of card. For example, if we increase the number of total cards, there would be no way to tweak the chance of drawing a gifts to greater than what it is now. But is this really a problem?
I've personally never really found a problem with drawing any of the Unburial Rite pieces as we do run 4x Thirst for Knowledge which pretty much fixes the problem. Emrakul and eye are pretty damn annoying to draw into however, but I personally have switched into mindslaver lock as I can discard to thirst if I don't like it or just cast an play it for value as it isn't a dead card like Emrakul.
I used to run a single Godless Shrine in my list to deal with the case of drawing Rites but it just doesn't do enough if you're running it solely for the idea of playing rites from your hand.
Although if you're really having trouble, more looting effects could help out a lot here. Perhaps Compulsive Research or something similar as they help you dig and get rid of unnecessary combo pieces.
I played in a team unified modern event today, using UW Tron. I basically had zero crossover cards with my team mates (Suicide Zoo and Dredge), so I got to use my full list.
I went 3-2 in individual games, which is the same record as my team.
R1: 1-2 vs. Affinity
G1 was rough - he thoughtcasted 3 times and I saw no wrath.
G2 I got elesh norn out early and sealed the game.
G3 He thoughtseize'd my wrath and had enough damage to close the game (many counters from arcbound to etched chamion) when I got elesh norn out.
My team mates won their matches though.
R2: 2-0 vs. Black Moon
This was my friend - I knew he ran blood moons and contaminated ground main as well as many discard spells, and thought it would be a difficult matchup.
G1 I got to emrakul through a blood moon - yes I reached 15 lands (12+3 signets to be precise. This was ONE turn away from his Ajani Vengeant going ultimate.
G2 I Unburial'd Iona, naming black, and he scooped.
My team mates lost their matches this time, so overall we lost as a team.
R3: 1-2 vs. Time Walk
You'd think this is an easy matchup, but I can assure you it is not.
G1: He managed to force his chain through my remands.
G2: He scooped to T4 Iona.
G3: He topdeck'd a gigadrowse on the turn I could cast Emrakul. I remanded two copies of gigadrowse so that I had enough mana for a negate, but he managed to combo off through my one negate.
My team mates were 1-1, so we lost overall.
R4: 2-0 vs BW Tokens
This is a very easy matchup if they don't chain discard spells.
G1 Elesh Norn, and he had 3 bitterblossoms in play.
G2 Ugin. Ugin is so ridiculous vs tokens - literally nothing in their entire 75 deals with him if he lands.
Team mates were 1-1 this round, so we won overall.
R5: 2-0 vs Living End
G1 I dumped Iona and Elesh Norn into my yard with Thirst. He either did not want to LE those fatties in for me, or did not have it. Either way my wurmcoil engine closed the game.
G2 He played a fair game of magic. We are great at fair games of magic.
Both my team mates won their matches as well.
Triple Wrath seems super greedy with 4 basics. He has only 11 lands that tap for white mana. I traditionally play 12 in an Emrakul build. To be fair, he is playing 25 lands as opposed to 24 + Eye, and he is playing Talisman that I don't play. Normally a land like Godless Shrine doesn't impact casting Verdict because any other two coloured lands or Signet + any other land can give you the mana, but there's a potential for some awkwardness with Island, Snow-Covered Island, dual, Tron land. It's very unlikely, I just wanted to point it out.
I still don't like Revelation that much, and I really wouldn't want to play it over a Wurmcoil or something. I don't really mind 2 Map and 3 Remand. 2 Map seems better when you don't run Eye because you don't have as much utility from your lands.
Swan Song doesn't surprise me, I've debated it. I don't know how good it is but I'm intending to test it out. I'm also not sure Faith's Fetters is better than Pithing Needle because it costs 4 mana. I suppose gaining 4 against Burn is relevant, and you don't take damage from Eidolon. At the same time, 4 mana gain 4 kill your Goblin Guide seems really slow. I'm sure he probably tested it, but I think it's a toss up and you can go either way. He might be more inclined to play it because he doesn't play Leylines, meaning he does want the extra value against mono rd.
All in all, Sigarda feels like a win more card against junk(for me at least because of my sb) while in other matchups, it seems like a worse version of Iona. If Sigarda is put in, I guess it would free up some sb space but thats about it. Just my opinion on her.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
I feel like I only do well against BGx is because my sideboard is really dedicated to fighting them and nothing else. 3x Purge and 4x leyling go a long way, as do 3x Timely split between main and side just to chump those goyfs. I am however, switching out my 1x Ghostly Prison for Sigarda mainly because Ghostly doesn't do what I want ti to do. Too slow when it matters while Sigarda actually can do things against BGx and Control decks sorta.
As far as the early game goes, being a UW deck means you don't have a ton of answers. You could certainly cut some of the slower cards in favour of more early game cards, but I'm not sure that's going to fix the problem.
What sets UW Tron apart from other Gifts decks (there have been several) is the fact that we don't need Gifts to win. Let me outline some of the other decks using Gifts:
UWR Gifts Control
4C Gifts Control
Tezzeret Gifts Control (Esper)
UWR Gifts Control is pretty much just a stock UWR Control list that added Gifts. It's going to shore up some holes for them as they have access to cards like Iona or Elesh Norn now. But UWR Control is a mediocre deck to begin with, and this doesn't exactly help. If you don't win via Gifts, you're still back to grinding the game out, except you've got more clunky cards in the deck. People have tried it, including some friends of mine, but they ultimately didn't like it very much.
4C Gifts Control is a take that tries to use Gifts for the most value possible. They get to play cards like Raven's Crime, Loam, and Lingering Souls, which synergize very well with Gifts. On the other hand, their win condition without Gifts combo is very grindy. They need cards like Lingering Souls and Liliana to hold up, or to hope they grind out with Loam + Raven's Crime/Tec Edge. It makes their deck very good against slow/grindy decks, but quite miserable against proactive decks. They also have a problem against RG Tron like us, because if they don't get some Tec Edge plan online really early, they're in for a world of trouble.
Tezzeret Gifts Control is Caleb Durward's pet deck. He takes something akin to our shell and then adds Tezzeret to it, which turns Signets into threats. He then adds a couple random black cards here and there and more artifacts, and you lose the top end like Emrakul, as well as stuff like Map and Remand. The problem with his deck is the same as the others, that you have to grind out the game with just a Tezzeret, and most of the cards in your deck are vacuously bad. In fact, his deck has more vacuously bad cards than any Gifts list I've seen. When I say vacuously bad, I mean cards that are bad on their own. He had 8 Signets and they're pretty miserable without Tezzeret or if you're not aiming for t3 Gifts.
Here's what you get if you move to an Esper list:
- Proactive answers in Thoughtseize/Inquisition. These are surprisingly not that great for control decks in a format like Modern. They're good in midrange decks that want to grind you out, but we absolutely don't want to do that. Sure, we can maybe stall a little better, but then we've also put a bunch of mediocre discard spells into our deck. What happens when on turn 15 you draw a Thoughtseize?
- Lingering Souls. It's great, I have nothing but good things to say about this card.
- More removal. I think if people wanted more spot-removal, they would have tried stuff like Dismember or Sunlance. Dismember is playable right now, and as a deck that punishes itself very little from its mana/spells, you can actually probably afford to play it. I know Mono U Tron plays Dismember for spot removal, and they don't complain about the cost.
- Playing Damnation in a tri-colour deck is probably not that much better than what we have. The reason is that you're playing a WW wrath and a BB wrath. Depending on how you fetch in the early game or the lands you draw, you might not have the mana. Caleb spoke out about that, and I think he's right with Damnation being wrong in a UW base deck. That said, you can and probably should still play Verdict as I imagine it won't be too bad to cast when you cut 12 Tron lands for actual coloured lands.
Ultimately I expect you to turn up something closer to what already exists. You're going to try to grind out games and use Gifts for value. Turns out those strategies aren't so good because if Gifts doesn't work, you pretty much lose the game. You have a horrible late game in those decks and you fold to anything that can handle Gifts. RG Tron stays a bad matchup, and Junk is worse now as well. You also now have 50/50s against other control decks whereas UW Tron has like 90/10s against control.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Mono U Tron and Twin are matchups that are skill based, and also who can hold out the longest. You usually want to just play a draw-go game against them and not show your hand too early. Against Twin if you build up hands with answers like Path, Remand, etc and then they really can't go off. In Daily games against Twin, I honestly feel like I don't want to cast a turn 3 Thirst on their end step, I'd rather hold it up. If they Mana Leak or Remand it, they're getting decent far ahead, and I can almost never punish them for it. At the same time, they usually won't try to combo you when you leave mana up unless they Clique you to find out, so you're generally fairly safe just hanging back.
I board triple Negate right now. If you don't like that split, try 1 Negate, 1 Swan Song, 1 Dispel. It's more versatile in that you can Gifts for good counter packages now, and they're all cheap answers so if you want to use it for Gifts backup, you can totally do that.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Under the tab decklists, I post each decklist that I use in a Daily event. For the next iteration I am testing Sigarda, I just haven't had a chance to play in a Daily in a few days. In paper I play Mindslaver lock instead, I think it's better, but I'm more inclined to play Emrakul online just because of the feasibility.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Holy mother of god...
Also, to make this post non-spam: I've been liking Pithing Needle in the sb. It helps vs Lili, Fulminator mages, and Karns.
Modern: Jund Legacy: RUG Delver EDH: Captain Sisay
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
I'm with you and really enjoy Pithing Needle in the sb so much so that I've picked up using a Trinket Mage package with Engineered Explosives in the main. I don't know if you saw my older list. (Honestly haven't done as much playing as I would have liked in the past 2 months). Darksteel and I, however, have had our little discussion about what you name Kikki or deceiver, deceiver or pestermite or other similar questions. I still have my reasons for liking it even in these match ups, Twin not using Kikki as much and usually favoring a 4/2 split on deciver/ pestermite, but I'll say darksteel has sound reasoning still glad to hear they're working for someone else as well.
I've just read up on everything since my last posts and am really interested in hearing how sigarta has held up?
Any thoughts on a more "Bant" style list that runs Wargate as well as Loam and Gifts? It was something a while back a friend and I had tossed around in our heads but never really put our brains to making a list. I saw it more of a 3 Color Bant control list that used Gifts combo as a primary win condition but also have the option using Wargate and or gift into loam 3 tron piece to build tron, while running only 1-2 copys of each tron land. He had a rather different vision of a almost slower bant tron list (which I really don't like) I think the issue is really that there are not enough good utility lands in Modern to make Wargate for 0 good enough, really I just wish there was a modern equivalent of the Legacy lands deck that locks people out. Just curious if Sigarta / Green adds enough value to warrant it as a color outside of using it as a gifts target.
UBRNicol Bolas, the RavagerUBR
R Jaya Ballard, Task Mage R
2DH / Budget Commanders:
WMangara of Corondor 2DHW
BRXantcha, Sleeper Agent 2DHBR
My latest list added the Verdict as a way to combat Junk. It's really good against them. If you don't have 3 sweeper, you can sometimes use Snapcaster as a 3rd sweeper, or Cyclonic Rift. Sometimes you just can't do it with a list playing only DoJ and Wrath and you have to accept that.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
That's why a traditional Emrakul list plays Eye of Ugin, because you then have more threats from Map->Eye->Emrakul. Between cards like Thirst, Gifts, and the other win conditions, we have a lot of cards to just keep drawing and grinding out.
You can add more threats but the problem is that you run out of actual early game cards. My problem has never been finding threats or the late game, it has always been the early-mid game where I don't get the right cards I need to survive. Batterskull is a card people have played, including the MB. It's fine to play if you'd like, but again, too many finishers dilutes the deck a bit.
I also don't like Anticipate. It's much better for straight combo decks but for us it's slow. I already have a lot of turn 2 plays in Remand, Map, Signet, and Condescend. If we weren't willing to play any other 2-drop draw spells, Anticipate isn't going in.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
I suppose in theory, increase the number of total cards, reduces the probability of drawing each card, making it kind of pointless. But it might make sense to alter the proportions of each card to another, so long as were okay with having a less than 4/60 chance of drawing a 4-of card. For example, if we increase the number of total cards, there would be no way to tweak the chance of drawing a gifts to greater than what it is now. But is this really a problem?
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
I've personally never really found a problem with drawing any of the Unburial Rite pieces as we do run 4x Thirst for Knowledge which pretty much fixes the problem. Emrakul and eye are pretty damn annoying to draw into however, but I personally have switched into mindslaver lock as I can discard to thirst if I don't like it or just cast an play it for value as it isn't a dead card like Emrakul.
I used to run a single Godless Shrine in my list to deal with the case of drawing Rites but it just doesn't do enough if you're running it solely for the idea of playing rites from your hand.
Although if you're really having trouble, more looting effects could help out a lot here. Perhaps Compulsive Research or something similar as they help you dig and get rid of unnecessary combo pieces.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
I went 3-2 in individual games, which is the same record as my team.
I will be typing a succinct report.
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Spells (30)
2 Condescend
3 Expedition Map
4 Path to Exile
1 Cyclonic Rift
4 Azorius Signet
4 Remand
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Day of Judgment
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
4 Gifts Ungiven
1 Unburial Rites
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Plains
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Seachrome Coast
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
2 Pithing Needle
1 Celestial Purge
1 Disenchant
2 Negate
2 Spellskite
1 Ghostly Prison
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Terastodon
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
R1: 1-2 vs. Affinity
G1 was rough - he thoughtcasted 3 times and I saw no wrath.
G2 I got elesh norn out early and sealed the game.
G3 He thoughtseize'd my wrath and had enough damage to close the game (many counters from arcbound to etched chamion) when I got elesh norn out.
My team mates won their matches though.
R2: 2-0 vs. Black Moon
This was my friend - I knew he ran blood moons and contaminated ground main as well as many discard spells, and thought it would be a difficult matchup.
G1 I got to emrakul through a blood moon - yes I reached 15 lands (12+3 signets to be precise. This was ONE turn away from his Ajani Vengeant going ultimate.
G2 I Unburial'd Iona, naming black, and he scooped.
My team mates lost their matches this time, so overall we lost as a team.
R3: 1-2 vs. Time Walk
You'd think this is an easy matchup, but I can assure you it is not.
G1: He managed to force his chain through my remands.
G2: He scooped to T4 Iona.
G3: He topdeck'd a gigadrowse on the turn I could cast Emrakul. I remanded two copies of gigadrowse so that I had enough mana for a negate, but he managed to combo off through my one negate.
My team mates were 1-1, so we lost overall.
R4: 2-0 vs BW Tokens
This is a very easy matchup if they don't chain discard spells.
G1 Elesh Norn, and he had 3 bitterblossoms in play.
G2 Ugin. Ugin is so ridiculous vs tokens - literally nothing in their entire 75 deals with him if he lands.
Team mates were 1-1 this round, so we won overall.
R5: 2-0 vs Living End
G1 I dumped Iona and Elesh Norn into my yard with Thirst. He either did not want to LE those fatties in for me, or did not have it. Either way my wurmcoil engine closed the game.
G2 He played a fair game of magic. We are great at fair games of magic.
Both my team mates won their matches as well.
Modern: Jund Legacy: RUG Delver EDH: Captain Sisay
He's back to the original list with 3 wraths and Sphinx, Emrakul with no Eye, down to 2 maps. And he got past merfolk in the top 8.
I still don't like Revelation that much, and I really wouldn't want to play it over a Wurmcoil or something. I don't really mind 2 Map and 3 Remand. 2 Map seems better when you don't run Eye because you don't have as much utility from your lands.
Swan Song doesn't surprise me, I've debated it. I don't know how good it is but I'm intending to test it out. I'm also not sure Faith's Fetters is better than Pithing Needle because it costs 4 mana. I suppose gaining 4 against Burn is relevant, and you don't take damage from Eidolon. At the same time, 4 mana gain 4 kill your Goblin Guide seems really slow. I'm sure he probably tested it, but I think it's a toss up and you can go either way. He might be more inclined to play it because he doesn't play Leylines, meaning he does want the extra value against mono rd.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer