You know Elixir is shuffled back to your library, right?
I'm playing all the Cantrips and testing instead of 4 Opt a 2/2 Split with Hieroglyphic Illumination. During Lategame CA might be better then CQ
There is a Card that solves any CA-problems and works best in this Deck - Day's Undoing. I play 1 Main, 2 SB and still try to find space for the 4th.
This one also improves Mulligans a lot lol
Well, having more cards in hand than your opponent at any time will be somewhat difficult, especially when you play Howling Mine.
Edit: This very Deck can easily turn Day's Undoing into Timetwister (except for being exiled during resolution). With a Miracle'd Mastery or 8-9 Mana (where we want to be either way) it is really a Card to love.
Game 1 was RB hollow one. The deck is pretty sweet but it feels slow. Inevitable but slow. Remand on cathartic reunion and keeping the team tapped help me seal away game 1, but I won with thing. In game 2 I was a little too slow and he exploded turn 3. I just eventually folded to the pressure (he had over 10 power turn 2?). Game 3 I stick a t2 thing and flipped it shortly after thanks to a miracle mastery and a few cantrips, then just beat face and exhaustioned him out. Sideboard was two things and dismember in, two remand and opt out 2-1, 1-0 record
Match 2 was against a mono white human weenie deck with kytheon, hero of akros. Remand was useless and the mine effects were brutal for me because he just kept dumping 2 or more 2+ power dudes a turn. I did steal game two but I was luck sacking hard. Game two was similar in that I stuck a t1 titi thanks to gemstone and rode it out. Game 3 I got rolled. Sideboard was two things, gut shot and dismember in, 3 remand and opt out. 1-2, 1-1 match record.
Match 3 was against merfolk. I realized that I had been firing off my gigadrowses way too early (t2-3 to tap down lands for tempo). I also realized I wasn't properly prioritizing mine effects. Both of these helped tighten play significantly against the merfolk guy. He took game 1 because I never hit a mine effect. I DID take like 6 extra turns though lol. Game two I stuck an early mine, had some solid tap downs and got a phantasmal image with gigadrowse (value). I eventually went off and stuck a thing. He vapor snaged it once but I just dropped it again and kept going off. Game 3 he had 1 land and vial, then missed lands despite the mines. It didn't slow him down much though (still deployed a threat every turn). I eventually got there off the back of thing again. Sideboard was 3 remand out, 2 things and dismember in. 2-1, 2-1 match record. Kiosks is pretty good against gigadrowse btw :/.
Match four was against 5c humans, the one that Collins mullens just stomped the open with. Miserable match up. Game 2 he called turn two exhaustion off meddling mage and my hand was 4 islands and two exhaustions lol. Sideboard was 3 remand 1 opt out, 2 things gut shot and dismember in. 0-2, 2-2 match record.
So obviously very creature centric games, but we had grixis DS, counters company, scapeshift, eldrazi tron and jeskai Kiki as well so there were some more spell heavy/midrange matches I could have played. I just got paired up vs creatures along the way.
Part of what I noticed in my play pattern is that I was firing off gigadrowse way early. Often holding it until turns 3-5 would have been more correct.
Exhaustion is fine to lock down a significant portion of resources. I noticed that sometimes my initial thought was waiting to snag all the lands or all the dudes, but just setting them back a significant portion of resources and fog most of the next attack is fine. I need to use exhaustion more readily.
I had previously been undervaluing mine effects. I was actively cantripping for them by the end of my second match because they're so important.
A boomerang or unsubstantiate is probably correct? Not sure but I feel like remand is super weak against a pretty wide variety of decks. Okay granted match one had dudes from the yard, match two had only 1-2 cmc guys, match three and four both had 4 vials/4 caverns. Remand was just super weak all night against my meta, but that may not be the case for everyone.
Probably 1-2 more kill spells in the side.
I didn't really miss cryptic command - which surprised me. It would have been helpful a handful of times to fog down the creature heavy attacks but it wouldn't have won me any of those games.
I want to fit a second snapcaster in there somewhere. Main more than likely.
Thing feels like the best card in the game sometimes. I didn't get any inkmoth kills (sad face). Lab man was for control games that drag out.
Match 1, Esper Gifts Reanimator
Game 1 he tapped out for flip jace on turn two then I exhaustioned him a few times until I was able to play a howling mine, then I held up a cyptic hoping he would tap out, he didn't, so instead I gigadrowsed him on end step, then I untapped and won. Sideboard
I didn't know what he was on, all I new is he had counters (because for some reason he mana leaked my gigadrowse), so I put in Dispel and Negate and took out 1 Remand and Unsubstantiate.
Game 2 he tapped out for jace on turn two then I played howling mine, then next turn he drew and activated jace played a land then passed, I played a land then passed holding up remand. He played a land and passed, then I played a land and passed then gigadrowsed him on upkeep he play gifts in response getting Unburial Rites and Ion then he passed, I untapped and won with 50 seconds left on the clock. Match record 2-0, Tournament record 1-0.
Match 2, Blue White Control
Game 1 I played gigadrowse and tapped him out with howling mine out, then I untapped and got a miracle temporal mastery, the next turn I got another mircale then I won.
Game 2, He kept a hand with no turn one creature, I won.
Sideboard
Kept it the same
Game 3, he had me down to 5 and was all tapped out, I had exhaustion in hand but miscounted my mana and played serum visions so I wasn't able to play exhaustion, I lost. Match record 1-2, Tournament Record 2-1.
Match 4, White Black eldrazi and taxes
Game 1, turn 2 Thalia, I lost.
Game 2, turn 2 Thalia, He had a slow hand, I won.
Game 3, turn 2 Thalia, I lost. Match record 1-2.
Tournament Record 2-2
Overall, besides the misplay against burn, I did pretty good and I'm happy with my list, although I want to try out Day's Undoing instead of a howling mine.
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There is a Card that solves any CA-problems and works best in this Deck - Day's Undoing. I play 1 Main, 2 SB and still try to find space for the 4th.
This one also improves Mulligans a lot lol
It is not card advantage if you give your opponent 7 cards and a turn as well.
I was originally against days undoing. It does give them a fresh hand of 7 cards. But a few months ago I swapped out a Howling Mine out for it and as a singleton it has shone quite well. It is a silver bullet against decks like Lantern control, but id rather run Elixer if burn goes back up in popularity. I do like that if it gets milled I can usually Snapcaster it anyways.
It has it drawbacks but remember it also gives us a fresh hand of 7 cards. And we can usually exploit that really well. It is pretty clear that once we get to 8 mana and can start Warping and casting Days in the same turn, it very quickly become the card that guarantees victory. Not so much a win more card but a "I will find my win con right now" button.
I have gone up to 4 Exhaustions. These are the cards which will help us cast Days Undoing in a very one sided and asymmetrical way. On turn 6, hitting them with an Exhaution and then following it up with a Days has always meant the end of the game(so far). The fresh grip of 7 has gotten me there every time I have been able to cast it with exhaustion. But I have also had some success with casting it blindly with 7 mana up hoping that in my new 7 is a Cryptic. This has worked out sometimes, but often I just spend the 4 remaining mana on holding up remand or Gigadrowsing down their board. So far casting it blindly on turn 7 has worked out for the better.
I have been having such good results with it, I am thinking about adding 2 or 3 Quicken into my 60, and going up to 2 Days Undoing. Being able to cast it during their endstep looks very tempting. Plus the side benefit of being able to quicken Exhaustions sound too good to be true. But I have yet to test this build out, but I have heard it taunting me to try it.
There is a Card that solves any CA-problems and works best in this Deck - Day's Undoing. I play 1 Main, 2 SB and still try to find space for the 4th.
This one also improves Mulligans a lot lol
It is not card advantage if you give your opponent 7 cards and a turn as well.
I was originally against days undoing. It does give them a fresh hand of 7 cards. But a few months ago I swapped out a Howling Mine out for it and as a singleton it has shone quite well. It is a silver bullet against decks like Lantern control, but id rather run Elixer if burn goes back up in popularity. I do like that if it gets milled I can usually Snapcaster it anyways.
It has it drawbacks but remember it also gives us a fresh hand of 7 cards. And we can usually exploit that really well. It is pretty clear that once we get to 8 mana and can start Warping and casting Days in the same turn, it very quickly become the card that guarantees victory. Not so much a win more card but a "I will find my win con right now" button.
I have gone up to 4 Exhaustions. These are the cards which will help us cast Days Undoing in a very one sided and asymmetrical way. On turn 6, hitting them with an Exhaution and then following it up with a Days has always meant the end of the game(so far). The fresh grip of 7 has gotten me there every time I have been able to cast it with exhaustion. But I have also had some success with casting it blindly with 7 mana up hoping that in my new 7 is a Cryptic. This has worked out sometimes, but often I just spend the 4 remaining mana on holding up remand or Gigadrow
sing down their board. So far casting it blindly on turn 7 has worked out for the better.
I have been having such good results with it, I am thinking about adding 2 or 3 Quicken into my 60, and going up to 2 Days Undoing. Being able to cast it during their endstep looks very tempting. Plus the side benefit of being able to quicken Exhaustions sound too good to be true. But I have yet to test this build out, but I have heard it taunting me to try it.
Could you post your list?
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I have been having such good results with it, I am thinking about adding 2 or 3 Quicken into my 60, and going up to 2 Days Undoing. Being able to cast it during their endstep looks very tempting. Plus the side benefit of being able to quicken Exhaustions sound too good to be true. But I have yet to test this build out, but I have heard it taunting me to try it.
I thought about the Quicken game plan a long time ago, but have never put it to paper. Another benefit to quicken is being able to cast an EOT (opponents turn) warp spell. I'm just not sure how to modify the standard 22-23 land, 11 warp, 7-10 pseudo warp, 7-8 cantrip, 7-8 mine build. Not sure this style wants snapcaster mage, but then again, it would be fun (albeit a ton of mana) to snap a quicken to cast a warp or exhaustion at their EOT.. MAYBE this goes in the As Foretold style deck because that says "once each turn" so you could cast quicken, then use as foretold to cast your "instant" sorcery card with CMC equal to the counters
You know Elixir is shuffled back to your library, right?
I'm playing all the Cantrips and testing instead of 4 Opt a 2/2 Split with Hieroglyphic Illumination. During Lategame CA might be better then CQ
Hieroglyphic Illumination is pretty similar to Opt in that you can cycle for U to draw a card. Yes, opt does give you the scry ability, but that is only relevant *some amount of time* (I've scryed top/bottom approximately 50% each). Quicken is the same thing as Hieroglyphic etc. but gives you the ability to cast your next sorcery as an instant, which is arguably pretty valuable to this deck. This deck might also be somewhat more of a card draw style deck with counter backup?
Edit: quicken into ideas unbound during their EOT is UUU draw 4 cards, at the beginning of the NEXT end step (on your turn because you've passed this beginning of EOT) discard 3 cards. If you have already dropped a dictate or mine, you will have plenty of cards to pitch at EOT. Just a major way to draw/cycle through your deck quickly.
Currently I have been testing this miracles-less version but historically my stock lists have been +4 Temporal Mastery, – 2 Snapcaster Mage, -1 Exhaustion, and -1 Part the Waterveil.
I'm just not sure how to modify the standard 22-23 land, 11 warp, 7-10 pseudo warp, 7-8 cantrip, 7-8 mine build.
If you are going to go down this line of thought then the first thing I would do is cut my non-Serum Vision cantrips. Opt or Sleight of Hand can easily get pulled out for Quickens if you just interested in testing the concept. Plus I wouldn't want to go all in on 1-mana spells. Getting blown out by a chalice on X=1 is never fun so keep your 1-mana spell count to 8 or less. I would not cut serum visions from my main just to test Quicken. If you don't already run Opt then cutting a little bit from everywhere else seems reasonable, since its a cantrip.
P.S. I would imagine casting a Quicken into an end-of-turn Serum Visions would also feel pretty good. Draw 2 cards then scry 2, then untap and draw again.
Any comments? I know its classic decklist but if you have any comments would be great. After the GP I will tell you how was everything.
Maybe you could take out one Remand for a single Unsubstantiate, if you are expecting any Cavern of souls than definitly play it, it also helps your aggro match when you can bounce a creature after attacks, you can also bounce a Thalia, guardian of Thraben (because against thalia you can't win, trust me I know from experience)
Also maybe vapor snag could help but otherwise it looks like a solid list to bring to a GP.
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I was at GP OKC and didn't do especially well. He's a brief tournament report.
Byes
2-0
Humans
This was my first time playing against Humans, and it doesn't feel great. There are a lot of must-kill threats (Thalia, Meddling Mage, to some extent Kitesail Freebooter), and their clock is fast. I couldn't Fatal Push enough creatures and I died.
Lost, 2-1
Jund
I got pretty lucky by having a Fatal Push for turn 2 Dark Confidant both games. In game 2 we draw-go'd for a long time because my opponent was stuck with reactive spells in hand and I didn't want to deploy my Dictates into Abrupt Decay.
Won, 3-1
Storm
My opponent mulled to 5 twice.
Won, 4-1
Death's Shadow
In game 1, my opponent deployed two 5/5 Death's Shadow on turn 2 that swung for 9 each on turn 3. In game 2, my opponent deployed two Shadows on turn 3 that killed me. Those games definitely didn't feel representative of the matchup.
Lost, 4-2
Skred Swans
The opponent's clock was slow in game 1, and he got missed his fourth land drop for many turns in game 2. This deck is really sweet by the way, here's an outdated decklist from 2016.
Won, 5-2
Storm
I overestimated how many resources it would take for my opponent to combo. In game 1, he had a live Baral for one or two turns and didn't go for it, so I assumed that I'd be able to EOT Dictate and combo off around turn 5 instead of Gigadrowsing the lands, but I died. I forgot exactly what happened in game 2, but it involved assuming my opponent would be unable to combo after a Thoughtseize or Collective Brutality then getting ambushed by 12 goblins.
Lost, 5-3
UR Breach
I missed land drops in game 1 so my Gigadrowses were looking foolish, and I mulled to 5 in game 2.
Lost, 5-4
This tournament didn't feel great for me, but with all the Tron and control in the tournament I think I had a below-average run.
Planning on trying again at GP Santa Clara in January!
Just watching the GP coverage and the top of the field is incredibly soft to turns it's boggling my mind.
Time to break out the gigadrowses
Yep, that was in Oklahoma but Madrid was a real hell for our deck. Or at least for me. I made a nice and clean 0-6 drop (the team did 1-5 drop).
My pairings: affinity, 8rack, storm, burn, affinity and eldrazi tron. I don't know how I lost against EldraziTron (1-2), but it happens sometimes. The rest of the games I couldnt really do anything. Burn and affinity were just me watching how they win. 8rack left me without hand in turn 3 both of the games. I lost 1-2 against Storm because he comboed me after a upkeep gigadrowse that left him with no lands but managed to combo with 2 Simian spirit guide.
It was really frustrating. After that I won a side event so it was less frustrating. But I keep thinking what should I do. Maybe change the deck, maybe not. And after this couple of days thinking about it I decided to try a splash.
What do you guys think about our deck and its situation? And does a splash improve much our deck?
Turns is very match up dependent. Some days you feel untouchable, and some days the planets all line up.... not in your favor. So don't let one bad tourney ruin your perception of the deck. On average (over many, many hands), Turns is better than the average tournament deck (beats most teir 1 and teir 2 decks 50% of the time or better), but this doesn't make it so every hand is a winner. Indeed, two FNM's ago I went 9-2 by hands and the following week I went 1-7. Variance happens, and there is nothing you can do about it except ensure your deck is thoroughly randomized and keep your fingers crossed that they don't draw pure jetfuel off the top of their library.
As far as the splash is concerned. When I first picked up this deck a couple of years ago I tried monoblue first. It is slightly more efficient than using the splash. For the most part splashing doesn't hurt, but every once in a while I have had to lay a turn one Glacial Fortress into turn 2 Glacial Fortress (feels pretty bad). I have been on the white splash for more than a year now and I still have to advocate for it. For the most part, I keep my mainboard blue and bring an almost all white sideboard (during pump infect winter last year I was packing 2 Angelsong in the main to great effect).
It would be too long of a list for me to point out all of the good white sideboard hate for us but i have tested many options and here is a short list of reasons to splash white.
Don't get me wrong the monoblue version is slightly more consistent. But I think the raw power of cards like Supreme Verdict and Stony Silence outweight the drawbacks of having to run fetches and Glacial Fortress.
Other splashes will also give you many good playables but I only really have experience with the white splash. The black splash is tempting, but I don't own Damnations so I haven't tested it yet.
P.S. It looks like most of the bad matchups you described (affinity, 8rack, storm, affinity and eldrazi tron) can all be curbstomped with either Leyline of Sanctity and/or Supreme Verdict. If you notice I left burn out, so far our best answers are Timely Reinforcements or Riot Control (Rest for the Weary even?).
I was wondering if you could post the decklist you use. I know nothing about the manabase for splashes in turns, and the decklists I found are not really serious or consistent.
I can't speak for Tanarax, but this is what I run. The mana base for a white splash could be virtually identical, with each UB land replaced with the corresponding UW land. However, I intentionally built this manabase assuming I wouldn't be casting any double splash cards, so you may want to add more splash lands if you plan on casting cards like Supreme Verdict or Damnation.
Turns is very match up dependent. Some days you feel untouchable, and some days the planets all line up.... not in your favor. So don't let one bad tourney ruin your perception of the deck. On average (over many, many hands), Turns is better than the average tournament deck (beats most teir 1 and teir 2 decks 50% of the time or better), but this doesn't make it so every hand is a winner. Indeed, two FNM's ago I went 9-2 by hands and the following week I went 1-7. Variance happens, and there is nothing you can do about it except ensure your deck is thoroughly randomized and keep your fingers crossed that they don't draw pure jetfuel off the top of their library.
As far as the splash is concerned. When I first picked up this deck a couple of years ago I tried monoblue first. It is slightly more efficient than using the splash. For the most part splashing doesn't hurt, but every once in a while I have had to lay a turn one Glacial Fortress into turn 2 Glacial Fortress (feels pretty bad). I have been on the white splash for more than a year now and I still have to advocate for it. For the most part, I keep my mainboard blue and bring an almost all white sideboard (during pump infect winter last year I was packing 2 Angelsong in the main to great effect).
Thank you mate. Really nice words and thoughts. You are right, I had really good results testing so I can't lose hope because of a single tournament. I will give another chance to the deck. I can't see myself playing another deck, its the one I enjoy most playing and after all I got some skills with it.
I was wondering if you could post the decklist you use. I know nothing about the manabase for splashes in turns, and the decklists I found are not really serious or consistent. Thank you again.
This is my stock list. If you scroll up to post #1519 you will see what I have been testing more recently. honestly it changes constantly. Since Timewalkinonsunshine brought it up I should point out that I have a couple of factors pushing me into this current mana base.
I have been using the below land base since last Februrary (upgraded from darksteel citadel to cataracts). So I think I am in a happy middle ground where I am not too weak to blood moon(9 basics still). Game one(since I am just blue in the main), I fetch into basics. They see me fetch into basic islands, then cast a whole slew of blue spells and they usually take out their blood moons realizing its not very likely to cripple me.
So, Humans is a real deck now. Rapid Hybridization is the Dismember-variant I wanted it to be - in conjunction with our other cards we rarely take 4 from it. It should probably be a split between it and Pongify to get around Meddling Mage, but I haven't gotten around to picking up foils yet. It kills randomly problematic creatures a la Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg, and Meddling Mage.
Search for Azcanta's the real deal, I can't say how great it's been for me. I was playing Thought Scour for a while to turn it on faster, but it's good enough on its own. I've typically won (even if I haven't gone off) if I can activate it once without dying, which is pretty doable given the number of stalling tactics we have at our disposal.
I wanted to bring up another point regarding Chalice of the Void and Opt/Serum Visions - I was thinking about swapping the 1-mana cantrips out for Censor, giving you another way to cantrip at 1 mana that dodges Chalice. If your opponent plays around Censor, you just cycle it and it effectively became Remand. If they don't, you still get the option to decide if their spell is dangerous enough to let stick and can still just opt (hehe) to draw a card. Seems like an idea worth testing, although I know timewalkinonsunshine said that his singleton copy in Vegas was a mistake.
I was also looking at Tolaria West having a one-of spot in the sideboard. There are some matchups where you want to just hit land drops, and going up to 23 would be fine in those matchups, while at the same time being able to tutor either Mikokoro or a one-of sideboarded Chalice (particularly prudent against control decks like Jeskai that have relevant 1 cmc spells like Bolt and Spell Snare).
Hey guys I'm back on the deck. Going to be running a fairly stock and lean list, except for one new inclusion:
Jace, vryn's prodigy.
Not tried the card before but honestly seems decent. I want to have a flexible core of value creatures that benefit the strategy and so far, snapcaster, thing in the ice and Jace seem like the best overall options.
Plus, a two mana planeswalker in this deck seems strong. There's a bit of setup required but hey, not too shabby. Certainly modern playable and strong if it sticks.
Anyway glad to be back. My foils are all out and getting some air haha
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
Jace proved to be the very best card in the deck when I ran Taking Turns at GP Lille last year. Early on, filtering through the deck and improving my hand is great, getting him to catch a Path to Exile is great, and when flipped, it's nearly impossible to fizzle.
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UR and sometimes WDelver Modern
U and sometimes WTurns Modern
URBWAffinity Modern
GWKarametra Enchantress EDH
UBRG Yidris Storm EDH
WSram Cheerios EDH
What's CA and what's CQ?
Commander: Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim Clerics BW, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest Voltron RWU
This one also improves Mulligans a lot lol
Edit: This very Deck can easily turn Day's Undoing into Timetwister (except for being exiled during resolution). With a Miracle'd Mastery or 8-9 Mana (where we want to be either way) it is really a Card to love.
1 Greer reach sanitarium
1 inkmoth nexus
1 gemstone cavern
4 serum vision
3 opt
4 gigadrowse
3 remand
3 howling mine
1 thing in the ice
1 snapcaster mage
4 dictate of kruphix
4 exhaustion
4 time warp
2 part the waterveil
1 walk the aeons
3 temporal mastery
Sideboard was:
2 redirect
2 thing in the ice
1 lab maniac
1 hurkyll's recall
1 gut shot
1 dismember
3 spell pierce
2 relic of progenitus
2 something else I can't remember
Anyway the tournament was 4 rounds top 4
Game 1 was RB hollow one. The deck is pretty sweet but it feels slow. Inevitable but slow. Remand on cathartic reunion and keeping the team tapped help me seal away game 1, but I won with thing. In game 2 I was a little too slow and he exploded turn 3. I just eventually folded to the pressure (he had over 10 power turn 2?). Game 3 I stick a t2 thing and flipped it shortly after thanks to a miracle mastery and a few cantrips, then just beat face and exhaustioned him out. Sideboard was two things and dismember in, two remand and opt out 2-1, 1-0 record
Match 2 was against a mono white human weenie deck with kytheon, hero of akros. Remand was useless and the mine effects were brutal for me because he just kept dumping 2 or more 2+ power dudes a turn. I did steal game two but I was luck sacking hard. Game two was similar in that I stuck a t1 titi thanks to gemstone and rode it out. Game 3 I got rolled. Sideboard was two things, gut shot and dismember in, 3 remand and opt out. 1-2, 1-1 match record.
Match 3 was against merfolk. I realized that I had been firing off my gigadrowses way too early (t2-3 to tap down lands for tempo). I also realized I wasn't properly prioritizing mine effects. Both of these helped tighten play significantly against the merfolk guy. He took game 1 because I never hit a mine effect. I DID take like 6 extra turns though lol. Game two I stuck an early mine, had some solid tap downs and got a phantasmal image with gigadrowse (value). I eventually went off and stuck a thing. He vapor snaged it once but I just dropped it again and kept going off. Game 3 he had 1 land and vial, then missed lands despite the mines. It didn't slow him down much though (still deployed a threat every turn). I eventually got there off the back of thing again. Sideboard was 3 remand out, 2 things and dismember in. 2-1, 2-1 match record. Kiosks is pretty good against gigadrowse btw :/.
Match four was against 5c humans, the one that Collins mullens just stomped the open with. Miserable match up. Game 2 he called turn two exhaustion off meddling mage and my hand was 4 islands and two exhaustions lol. Sideboard was 3 remand 1 opt out, 2 things gut shot and dismember in. 0-2, 2-2 match record.
So obviously very creature centric games, but we had grixis DS, counters company, scapeshift, eldrazi tron and jeskai Kiki as well so there were some more spell heavy/midrange matches I could have played. I just got paired up vs creatures along the way.
Part of what I noticed in my play pattern is that I was firing off gigadrowse way early. Often holding it until turns 3-5 would have been more correct.
Exhaustion is fine to lock down a significant portion of resources. I noticed that sometimes my initial thought was waiting to snag all the lands or all the dudes, but just setting them back a significant portion of resources and fog most of the next attack is fine. I need to use exhaustion more readily.
I had previously been undervaluing mine effects. I was actively cantripping for them by the end of my second match because they're so important.
A boomerang or unsubstantiate is probably correct? Not sure but I feel like remand is super weak against a pretty wide variety of decks. Okay granted match one had dudes from the yard, match two had only 1-2 cmc guys, match three and four both had 4 vials/4 caverns. Remand was just super weak all night against my meta, but that may not be the case for everyone.
Probably 1-2 more kill spells in the side.
I didn't really miss cryptic command - which surprised me. It would have been helpful a handful of times to fog down the creature heavy attacks but it wouldn't have won me any of those games.
I want to fit a second snapcaster in there somewhere. Main more than likely.
Thing feels like the best card in the game sometimes. I didn't get any inkmoth kills (sad face). Lab man was for control games that drag out.
2 Snapcaster Mage
Instants (10)
3 Remand
1 Unsubstantiate
4 Gigadrowse
2 Cryptic Command
Sorceries (18)
4 Serum Visions
3 Exhaustion
4 Time Warp
3 Part the Waterveil
4 Temporal Mastery
2 Howling Mine
Enchantments (4)
4 Dictate of Kruphix
Planeswalkers (1)
1 Jace Beleren
Lands (23)
2 Flooded Strand
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
18 Island
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Vapor Snag
1 Dispel
2 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sentinel Totem
2 Spreading Seas
1 Negate
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Shadow of Doubt
Match 1, Esper Gifts Reanimator
Game 1 he tapped out for flip jace on turn two then I exhaustioned him a few times until I was able to play a howling mine, then I held up a cyptic hoping he would tap out, he didn't, so instead I gigadrowsed him on end step, then I untapped and won.
Sideboard
I didn't know what he was on, all I new is he had counters (because for some reason he mana leaked my gigadrowse), so I put in Dispel and Negate and took out 1 Remand and Unsubstantiate.
Game 2 he tapped out for jace on turn two then I played howling mine, then next turn he drew and activated jace played a land then passed, I played a land then passed holding up remand. He played a land and passed, then I played a land and passed then gigadrowsed him on upkeep he play gifts in response getting Unburial Rites and Ion then he passed, I untapped and won with 50 seconds left on the clock. Match record 2-0, Tournament record 1-0.
Match 2, Blue White Control
Game 1 I played gigadrowse and tapped him out with howling mine out, then I untapped and got a miracle temporal mastery, the next turn I got another mircale then I won.
Sideboard
I did the same thing as I did agains't reanamator, 1 Remand and Unsubstantiate out 1 Dispel and Negate in.
Game 2, basically a replay of game 1 except he ghost quaterted my inkmoth nexus. Match record 2-0, Tournament record 2-0.
Match 3, Mono Red burn
Game 1, I wasnt able to combo off fast enough, I lost.
Sideboard
Put in Dispel and Negate, took out 2 Remand
Game 2, He kept a hand with no turn one creature, I won.
Sideboard
Kept it the same
Game 3, he had me down to 5 and was all tapped out, I had exhaustion in hand but miscounted my mana and played serum visions so I wasn't able to play exhaustion, I lost. Match record 1-2, Tournament Record 2-1.
Match 4, White Black eldrazi and taxes
Game 1, turn 2 Thalia, I lost.
Game 2, turn 2 Thalia, He had a slow hand, I won.
Game 3, turn 2 Thalia, I lost. Match record 1-2.
Tournament Record 2-2
Overall, besides the misplay against burn, I did pretty good and I'm happy with my list, although I want to try out Day's Undoing instead of a howling mine.
UR and sometimes WDelver Modern
U and sometimes WTurns Modern
URBWAffinity Modern
GWKarametra Enchantress EDH
UBRG Yidris Storm EDH
WSram Cheerios EDH
I was originally against days undoing. It does give them a fresh hand of 7 cards. But a few months ago I swapped out a Howling Mine out for it and as a singleton it has shone quite well. It is a silver bullet against decks like Lantern control, but id rather run Elixer if burn goes back up in popularity. I do like that if it gets milled I can usually Snapcaster it anyways.
It has it drawbacks but remember it also gives us a fresh hand of 7 cards. And we can usually exploit that really well. It is pretty clear that once we get to 8 mana and can start Warping and casting Days in the same turn, it very quickly become the card that guarantees victory. Not so much a win more card but a "I will find my win con right now" button.
I have gone up to 4 Exhaustions. These are the cards which will help us cast Days Undoing in a very one sided and asymmetrical way. On turn 6, hitting them with an Exhaution and then following it up with a Days has always meant the end of the game(so far). The fresh grip of 7 has gotten me there every time I have been able to cast it with exhaustion. But I have also had some success with casting it blindly with 7 mana up hoping that in my new 7 is a Cryptic. This has worked out sometimes, but often I just spend the 4 remaining mana on holding up remand or Gigadrowsing down their board. So far casting it blindly on turn 7 has worked out for the better.
I have been having such good results with it, I am thinking about adding 2 or 3 Quicken into my 60, and going up to 2 Days Undoing. Being able to cast it during their endstep looks very tempting. Plus the side benefit of being able to quicken Exhaustions sound too good to be true. But I have yet to test this build out, but I have heard it taunting me to try it.
Uw Taking Turns
The Bad Moon
Small Mardu Midrange
Big Mardu Midrange
Grixis Waste Not Combo
Bw 8-Rack
Bw Midrange
Could you post your list?
UR and sometimes WDelver Modern
U and sometimes WTurns Modern
URBWAffinity Modern
GWKarametra Enchantress EDH
UBRG Yidris Storm EDH
WSram Cheerios EDH
MAYBE this goes in the As Foretold style deck because that says "once each turn" so you could cast quicken, then use as foretold to cast your "instant" sorcery card with CMC equal to the counters
To the point of:
Edit: quicken into ideas unbound during their EOT is UUU draw 4 cards, at the beginning of the NEXT end step (on your turn because you've passed this beginning of EOT) discard 3 cards. If you have already dropped a dictate or mine, you will have plenty of cards to pitch at EOT. Just a major way to draw/cycle through your deck quickly.
Currently I have been testing this miracles-less version but historically my stock lists have been +4 Temporal Mastery, – 2 Snapcaster Mage, -1 Exhaustion, and -1 Part the Waterveil.
3 Gigadrowse
4 Remand
4 Exhaustion
4 Cryptic Command
4 Time Warp
4 Part the Waterveil
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Dictate of Kruphix
1 Jace Beleren
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
1 Day's Undoing
1 Howling Mine
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Prairie Stream
2 Mystic Gate
3 Glacial Fortress
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Cascading Cataracts
3 Supreme Verdict
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Stony Silence
2 Thing in the Ice
And yes my sideboard changes constantly. Ask me again in a couple weeks it will likely be different somehow as I adapt to my local meta.
Uw Taking Turns
The Bad Moon
Small Mardu Midrange
Big Mardu Midrange
Grixis Waste Not Combo
Bw 8-Rack
Bw Midrange
If you are going to go down this line of thought then the first thing I would do is cut my non-Serum Vision cantrips. Opt or Sleight of Hand can easily get pulled out for Quickens if you just interested in testing the concept. Plus I wouldn't want to go all in on 1-mana spells. Getting blown out by a chalice on X=1 is never fun so keep your 1-mana spell count to 8 or less. I would not cut serum visions from my main just to test Quicken. If you don't already run Opt then cutting a little bit from everywhere else seems reasonable, since its a cantrip.
P.S. I would imagine casting a Quicken into an end-of-turn Serum Visions would also feel pretty good. Draw 2 cards then scry 2, then untap and draw again.
Uw Taking Turns
The Bad Moon
Small Mardu Midrange
Big Mardu Midrange
Grixis Waste Not Combo
Bw 8-Rack
Bw Midrange
Maybe you could take out one Remand for a single Unsubstantiate, if you are expecting any Cavern of souls than definitly play it, it also helps your aggro match when you can bounce a creature after attacks, you can also bounce a Thalia, guardian of Thraben (because against thalia you can't win, trust me I know from experience)
Also maybe vapor snag could help but otherwise it looks like a solid list to bring to a GP.
UR and sometimes WDelver Modern
U and sometimes WTurns Modern
URBWAffinity Modern
GWKarametra Enchantress EDH
UBRG Yidris Storm EDH
WSram Cheerios EDH
Time to break out the gigadrowses
I was at GP OKC and didn't do especially well. He's a brief tournament report.
Byes
2-0
Humans
This was my first time playing against Humans, and it doesn't feel great. There are a lot of must-kill threats (Thalia, Meddling Mage, to some extent Kitesail Freebooter), and their clock is fast. I couldn't Fatal Push enough creatures and I died.
Lost, 2-1
Jund
I got pretty lucky by having a Fatal Push for turn 2 Dark Confidant both games. In game 2 we draw-go'd for a long time because my opponent was stuck with reactive spells in hand and I didn't want to deploy my Dictates into Abrupt Decay.
Won, 3-1
Storm
My opponent mulled to 5 twice.
Won, 4-1
Death's Shadow
In game 1, my opponent deployed two 5/5 Death's Shadow on turn 2 that swung for 9 each on turn 3. In game 2, my opponent deployed two Shadows on turn 3 that killed me. Those games definitely didn't feel representative of the matchup.
Lost, 4-2
Skred Swans
The opponent's clock was slow in game 1, and he got missed his fourth land drop for many turns in game 2. This deck is really sweet by the way, here's an outdated decklist from 2016.
Won, 5-2
Storm
I overestimated how many resources it would take for my opponent to combo. In game 1, he had a live Baral for one or two turns and didn't go for it, so I assumed that I'd be able to EOT Dictate and combo off around turn 5 instead of Gigadrowsing the lands, but I died. I forgot exactly what happened in game 2, but it involved assuming my opponent would be unable to combo after a Thoughtseize or Collective Brutality then getting ambushed by 12 goblins.
Lost, 5-3
UR Breach
I missed land drops in game 1 so my Gigadrowses were looking foolish, and I mulled to 5 in game 2.
Lost, 5-4
This tournament didn't feel great for me, but with all the Tron and control in the tournament I think I had a below-average run.
Planning on trying again at GP Santa Clara in January!
Turns is very match up dependent. Some days you feel untouchable, and some days the planets all line up.... not in your favor. So don't let one bad tourney ruin your perception of the deck. On average (over many, many hands), Turns is better than the average tournament deck (beats most teir 1 and teir 2 decks 50% of the time or better), but this doesn't make it so every hand is a winner. Indeed, two FNM's ago I went 9-2 by hands and the following week I went 1-7. Variance happens, and there is nothing you can do about it except ensure your deck is thoroughly randomized and keep your fingers crossed that they don't draw pure jetfuel off the top of their library.
As far as the splash is concerned. When I first picked up this deck a couple of years ago I tried monoblue first. It is slightly more efficient than using the splash. For the most part splashing doesn't hurt, but every once in a while I have had to lay a turn one Glacial Fortress into turn 2 Glacial Fortress (feels pretty bad). I have been on the white splash for more than a year now and I still have to advocate for it. For the most part, I keep my mainboard blue and bring an almost all white sideboard (during pump infect winter last year I was packing 2 Angelsong in the main to great effect).
It would be too long of a list for me to point out all of the good white sideboard hate for us but i have tested many options and here is a short list of reasons to splash white.
Leyline of Sanctity
Stony Silence
Rest in Peace
Timely Reinforcements
Supreme Verdict
Blessed Alliance
Path to Exile
Angel's Grace
Riot Control
Pollen Lullaby
Porphyry Nodes
Meddling Mage
Gideon's Intervention
Geist of Saint Traft
Ghostly Prison
Kataki, War's Wage
Myth Realized
Don't get me wrong the monoblue version is slightly more consistent. But I think the raw power of cards like Supreme Verdict and Stony Silence outweight the drawbacks of having to run fetches and Glacial Fortress.
Other splashes will also give you many good playables but I only really have experience with the white splash. The black splash is tempting, but I don't own Damnations so I haven't tested it yet.
P.S. It looks like most of the bad matchups you described (affinity, 8rack, storm, affinity and eldrazi tron) can all be curbstomped with either Leyline of Sanctity and/or Supreme Verdict. If you notice I left burn out, so far our best answers are Timely Reinforcements or Riot Control (Rest for the Weary even?).
Uw Taking Turns
The Bad Moon
Small Mardu Midrange
Big Mardu Midrange
Grixis Waste Not Combo
Bw 8-Rack
Bw Midrange
3x Howling Mine
4x Dictate of Kruphix
Time Walks
4x Time Warp
3x Temporal Mastery
3x Part the Waterveil
Other Spells
4x Serum Visions
4x Gigadrowse
3x Fatal Push
1x Snapback
2x Snapcaster Mage
3x Exhaustion
2x Cryptic Command
1x Commandeer
4x Blue fetchland
8x Island
1x Snow-Covered Island
1x Watery Grave
2x Sunken Hollow
3x Drowned Catacomb
1x Temple of Deceit
1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
2x Gemstone Cavern
2x Thoughtseize
3x Collective Brutality
3x Chalice of the Void
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Commandeer
2x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2x Thing in the Ice
This is my stock list. If you scroll up to post #1519 you will see what I have been testing more recently. honestly it changes constantly. Since Timewalkinonsunshine brought it up I should point out that I have a couple of factors pushing me into this current mana base.
1) I sometimes NEED white mana as early as turn 2 (for things like Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, or even meddling mage). Eventually through testing I found that 11 white got me there often enough (although the math points more toward 13 white being ideal, im happy with 11).
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/frank-analysis-how-many-colored-mana-sources-do-you-need-to-consistently-cast-your-spells/
2) And I cannot afford for any of my mid-game lands to enter tapped (so eventually I decided no Celestial Colonnade or Temples).
I have been using the below land base since last Februrary (upgraded from darksteel citadel to cataracts). So I think I am in a happy middle ground where I am not too weak to blood moon(9 basics still). Game one(since I am just blue in the main), I fetch into basics. They see me fetch into basic islands, then cast a whole slew of blue spells and they usually take out their blood moons realizing its not very likely to cripple me.
3 Gigadrowse
4 Remand
3 Exhaustion
4 Cryptic Command
4 Time Warp
3 Part the Waterveil
4 Temporal Mastery
4 Dictate of Kruphix
1 Jace Beleren
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
1 Day's Undoing
1 Howling Mine
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Prairie Stream
2 Mystic Gate
3 Glacial Fortress
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Cascading Cataracts
3 Supreme Verdict
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Stony Silence
2 Thing in the Ice
The sideboard changes constantly. But this is the core I start from before I start substituting in cards to test.
Uw Taking Turns
The Bad Moon
Small Mardu Midrange
Big Mardu Midrange
Grixis Waste Not Combo
Bw 8-Rack
Bw Midrange
Just thought I'd check back in after a few weeks of testing. I've moved onto this list:
4 Time Warp
4 Temporal Mastery
3 Part the Waterveil
Mines
4 Dictate of Kruphix
3 Search for Azcanta
Card Draw
4 Opt
Interaction
4 Gigadrowse
3 Exhaustion
3 Cryptic Command
4 Remand
2 Snapcaster Mage
20 Island
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Rapid Hybridization
3 Godhead of Awe
2 Spell Snare
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Exhaustion
So, Humans is a real deck now. Rapid Hybridization is the Dismember-variant I wanted it to be - in conjunction with our other cards we rarely take 4 from it. It should probably be a split between it and Pongify to get around Meddling Mage, but I haven't gotten around to picking up foils yet. It kills randomly problematic creatures a la Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg, and Meddling Mage.
Search for Azcanta's the real deal, I can't say how great it's been for me. I was playing Thought Scour for a while to turn it on faster, but it's good enough on its own. I've typically won (even if I haven't gone off) if I can activate it once without dying, which is pretty doable given the number of stalling tactics we have at our disposal.
I wanted to bring up another point regarding Chalice of the Void and Opt/Serum Visions - I was thinking about swapping the 1-mana cantrips out for Censor, giving you another way to cantrip at 1 mana that dodges Chalice. If your opponent plays around Censor, you just cycle it and it effectively became Remand. If they don't, you still get the option to decide if their spell is dangerous enough to let stick and can still just opt (hehe) to draw a card. Seems like an idea worth testing, although I know timewalkinonsunshine said that his singleton copy in Vegas was a mistake.
I was also looking at Tolaria West having a one-of spot in the sideboard. There are some matchups where you want to just hit land drops, and going up to 23 would be fine in those matchups, while at the same time being able to tutor either Mikokoro or a one-of sideboarded Chalice (particularly prudent against control decks like Jeskai that have relevant 1 cmc spells like Bolt and Spell Snare).
Just thought I'd raise some points.
Modern: U Living End
Standard: UW Approach of the Second Sun
Jace, vryn's prodigy.
Not tried the card before but honestly seems decent. I want to have a flexible core of value creatures that benefit the strategy and so far, snapcaster, thing in the ice and Jace seem like the best overall options.
Plus, a two mana planeswalker in this deck seems strong. There's a bit of setup required but hey, not too shabby. Certainly modern playable and strong if it sticks.
Anyway glad to be back. My foils are all out and getting some air haha