Won a 12 person tournament today playing Cheerios, matchups were as follows:
R1 vs Ponza, 2-0: I thought he was on Zoo until he blows my land on turn 3... after that I knew he wouldn't have a lot of interaction so I waited till he Bolted 2 of my birds and then went off.
R2 vs Stompy, 2-0: he had a dismember but I had more dudes so I combo turn 3. I also comboed turn 3 on game 2.
R3 vs Living End, 2-1: I had never played this match before so I did lose a game and then I knew how I had to play > board in Paradoxical Outcome and force him to play my game. It wasn't easy though and I also used Faith's Shield to protect my dudes from Beast Within.
R4 vs Burn, 2-1: I know this is a bad matchup but my friend kept his 1-lander just because he had 2 Eidolons. He never got his second. Game 3 I go to 5 and don't find a removal for his Eidolon soon enough. Game 3 I'm going first and I have 3 dudes in my hand which help me stay alive since he's got to kill them. He knew I had removal for his Eidolon since he revealed a Path I had on top when he attacks me with his Goblin Guide. This caused him to play completely different and I just killed all his dudes and eventually went off.
Overall I'd say luck was in my favor, but I also mullinaged everytime my hand wasn't good. I made a mistake on R1 by keeping Abrade in the deck instead of switching them for Wear/Tear which would've been much better since they play... Bloodmoon?... yeah I kinda forgot they play that card hahahaha.
This is a relatively generic list with some solid inclusions. I love the 3 SV + 2 Repeal for 5 total maindeck cantrips. As I've said before and will keep saying, it is wrong to not play cantrips in this deck. Play as many as you can fit. Double NR is nice in the main and I like the Paradoxical too in a metagame that has some heavy control presence and might need to go long.
Zyrnak lost to UW Control in the quarterfinals (0-2), but I like where this list was going. I do think there's room to adopt the Claim // Fame technology in certain metagames too, and don't want to knock that developmental angle in praising Zyrnak's success. I do want to highlight successful lists, however, as we should be iterating on successes as much as possible.
Played Magic for the first time in 2 months last night and came in 2nd in a 20 player field, I lost the playoff to KCI and he was apologizing as he ground through his combo and I was like "I play Cheeri0s and I have my big boy pants on, I can take it"...plus honestly I was entertained; Mox Opal was dominating last night!
Round 2 against Eldrazi my opponent plays T1 Chalice on zero, I play T2 Puresteel and T3 Repeal his Chalice and kill him. Then game two is exact repeat from the draw...hilarious! We were the streamed feature match that round. Actually I was on stream the rest of the night.
In the end against Ironworks I got blown out by Guttoral Response. I had sided in Silence but couldn't find them.
Went to GP Prague last weekend to grind the side events. Plan was to play Elves and take Cheeri0s for a spin or two. Well, I started off first double-up on Friday with Elves and went 1-2 after losing to G-Tron and Infect while beating Jund.
Figured I'd give Cheeri0s a try for the next one and what do you know, 3 rounds later I was 2-0-1 (Affinity, Dredge) bagging 200 tix. I said to myself, let's see how far we can take this. Took down the next one 2-0-1 (Storm, BR Hollow One) again, 2-0-1 (GW Hatebears, G-Tron) double up on Saturday, 1-2 (Lost to Jeskai Control and Burn, won vs Burn) and 2-1 (Won UW Control, Jund, lost to Temur Delver) double up on Sunday. Altogether a 9-3-3 score for a total of 1140 tix which got me 3 boxes.
Went 3-1 (Lost to Storm, won vs Aristocrats, Bant Spirits, BR Hollow One) this Monday and 4-2 today at a PPTQ (34 people, lost to Mardu Pyromancer and Jund, won vs Jeskai Control, Storm, Ad Nauseam and Bant Vizier Combo).
All in all 16-6-3 in the past week. I love Claim // Fame and two Noxious Revivals in the mainboard, it makes the deck incredibly resilient.
I've tested Erayo. We have to use many combo pieces to unlock it and it actually doesn't beat a lot of decks. After flipping her it's tough to go off with so many pieces used. I've always disliked Artificer's Assistant for the same reason.
Chance for Glory forces us to go off the following turn. If we have three extra mana and are guaranteed to win the following turn, chances are pretty good that we could just win this turn. There are far better protection spells than a three mana spell.
Yesterday made 4-0 (3-0 split) with my new Cherios idea.
1 Round vs Jund quick lose in first game but second game won with gaist :), g3 I won t2 becouse he tapped for dark confidant.t lo
2 Round vs Bant spirits again lost first game, didnt make it with 2 paladins, didnt get any nets to stall the game. Round 2 I was on play and just made it turn 2 kill. Last game was bit longer, a lot of paths and spell quellers were running around. I made blow out by casting path in queller to free sram, casted mentor and paladin from my hand couple cherios later i found mass hysteria.
3 Round vs Storm lost first game, didnt combo with 2 dudes and he got his kill on turn 3. Game 2 I played from 5 it was ok but it was losing to bolt, I was thinkg 3 minutes to choose dual from land and I decided to go for shrine becouse maybe I will find claim and I was rewarded for cracking canopy in his turn 3 when he tapped out. Last game was retarded, no one could combo so I killed him with 5 creatures in table, 2x paladin, 1x sram, 2x burrenton. Ewentualy I found sigil and played it for 6 and kill him in turn 10 or something.
I think this idea is pretty interesting. I've been thinking about testing simian spirit guide, as that free mana seems especially appealing to cast Sram and/or help during the combo turn. That being said, I am unsure that the modifications you made are worth it. From your report, if I read correctly, you had three games where you couldn't combo with 2 paladins out (R2G1, R3G1, R3G3), which to me raises a huge red flag. Having two paladin/Sram should be lethal 99% of the time (at least this is how I feel).
On another note, I 5-0'd a league on MTGO over the weekend. My list is pretty generic, with the exception of 1 Erayo and 1 Hurkyl recall. I love recall, but Erayo was underwhelming. I've flipped him many times, but it always feels like win-more. I am now testing a list with 3 Time of Need in place of the Serum visions and Erayo. So far I am a fan, but need to test more games. I view this deck as a 1 card combo deck (for the most part), and having 3 extra copies of our card has seriously decreased my mulligan rate. Also an interesting side effect, it combos with Noxious Revival if Sram gets path to exiled (which happens quite frequently vs UW control). I'm going to run this deck in GP Portland in December, and am looking to gain as much experience as possible before then.
On an important side note, Kenshin has mentioned this before, and I want to circle back to it. The biggest challenge with optimizing this deck is "what it needs" vs "what you want." I first started playing this deck because it thwomped me online while I was playing burn. His version played Artificer's Assistant (AA), which seemed like a no brainer. My first list played them, and I was a huge fan of the added consistency (especially for the turn 2 wins). I wound up cutting them out of curiosity, and my win rate significantly increased. Kenshin mentioned this too, that although AA looks great on paper, I don't think it actually helps with the biggest issue this deck has (sticking Sram/paladin). I rarely fizzle when I start to combo (and a second Noxious Revival really helps with that), but most of my loses are mulliganing into oblivion or a combination of discard/removal (which AA doesn't mitigate). I hope this generates some lively discussion, and will try to continuosly update this thread with the results of Time of Need.
I disagree, I cut AA and my fizzle rate increase significantly. I'm going to try to build a list with SSG & AA & Rugged Prairie for game 1 insanity. Sideboard will include Claim/Fame and a Godless Shrine in the sideboard.
A long long time ago I used Signal the Clans to find my threats. Time of Need seems ok, but I'd like to see more ways to keep the Sram sticking on the 3rd turn since you are telegraphing the Sram. It might be ok against the low interactivity from the current decks though (Dredge, Storm), but against any deck with more control elements I like Serum Visions and Repeal more, just to conceal information.
This is a great argument that makes complete sense to me. I am Jiggywiggy, except that I managed to recover my old account (hooray!). Time of need was great vs non-interactive decks, but those are already good matchups. The green I added to the manabase was also painful, so I'm happy to cut it. I 5-0'd another league with 2 Time of need, but am for sure going to cut them. I'm considering running 1 Erayo and a playset of repeals, with no serum visions. I want to see how useful repeal can be by itself, and will update with the results.
Gonna revive this thread with some observations. Here's the list that I recently 5-0'd a modern competitive league. As mentioned previously, I was playing 2 Time of Need, but have opted to cut them. This also frees up green from the manabase, which was always sketchy to begin with. This is the current list I'm playing:
For the flex slots, I opted for the playset of repeals, Erayo, Hurkyl's Recall, and an extra noxious. I'm super satisfied with the recall and revival. They add consistency, and often times recall is relevant against affinity and KCI. Erayo is lackluster. I gave him a second shot, and am disappointed. I though he would serve as a nice 9th paladion/sram (a turn 2 flipped erayo should buy enough turns to win), but he is either win-more, or too difficult to flip.
I chose the playset of repeals to see how much I like the card in general. So far, I am very happy with it, but still want to test other configurations. The best argument for repeal is that it is always decent, and can scale up to be wonderful. At worst, it's a cantrip for U. At best, it can be a Thoughtcast or Ancestral Recall. The other benefits are a MD answer to hate (such as Eidilon or Meddling Mage), and that it is never a dead draw while you are comboing (cast with mox opal to return mox opal for a free cantrip). There have been several times when I would have preferred a Serum Visions, but I think the flexibility outweighs that.
The biggest problem that I've been having is discard-based midrange decks. Grixis Death Shadow is the main culprit, and Jund Death Shadow and Jund in general are problematic too. They have discard to rip Sram/Paladin from our hands, and removal to kill him on the board. Topped off with a fast clock, things go downhill fast. Occasionally I can sneak a G1 win, but when they know what's up G2/3 things are more difficult. Adding Claim/Fame has helped tremendously, but wasn't enough. I've been trying Leyline of Sanctity, but am not super impressed with it. It helps with discard, but doesn't help with removal, is only good if it's in the opening hand, and is dead during combo. I also added Inquisition of Kozilek, and have been quite happy with it. Nabbing discard/removal/hate and learning info about my opponents' hand has helped tremendously. An interesting idea that I came across was Ancestral Visions. I am going to swap them for Leylines next league I join. I think they are great because (1) they are another threat that will eat discard, (2) are a great T1 play, and (3) are a good topdeck in stalled games. I'll report back my results when I've played more.
There is also one last permutation I want to try, with Artificer's Assistant. I have played it before, and loved the added consistency. I also liked that it ate removal so Sram/Paladin could stick. The problem was that it's dead during combo, and dropping artifacts to scry makes it more difficult to combo later in the game. To solve this, I want to try adding 3 MD Hurkyl's Recall, and 1 Mox Amber. I am unsure about Amber, but have noticed that most of the time I'll have a Sram on the field while comboing. This would generate mana with retract, and make recalls free. From my previous list, the plan is -4 Repeal, -1 Erayo, -1 Noxious Revival, +4 Artificer's Assistant, +2 Hurkyl's Recall. Still need to think what I would cut for the Amber. I'll post my feelings about the changes after I've tested them in a bit.
Thanks to MTGO, I've gotten to play dozens of games with Cheeri0s. I am planning to play this deck at GP Portland, and am hoping to at last make day 2. I think it's possible, as long as I get lucky enough with my matchups. If anyone has any suggestions with advice or cards to test (with good reasons), let me know, as I have some time to test and optimize this deck before the GP.
Yesterday I played small tournament, 9 people modern open, managed top 2 in 7 rounds. Didnt played finals.
During tournament I won vs uw spirits twice and mardu. Lost to humans and grixis ds.
Congrats on your solid performances lately! Do you have any reflections on your matchups? Which ones are most difficult for you, and why? And how do you like signal the clans? I am super curious about your experiences with your list.
Reilly played a very generic list with 3 SV (for the tenth time; play these cantrips), 15 lands, 3 MD Repeal (again, more cantrip effects - PLAY THESE), and 0 Assistants. SB tech includes triple Claim // Fame with a bunch of usual suspects:
Notably, this deck beat UW Control in the finals, which is a nice performance record against a top deck. The only thing I'd tweak would be -1 or -2 artifacts for either more utility (+1 Repeal/NR) and/or more dig (+1 SV). Maybe a singleton Assistant.
Hello, Reilly here. I am very happy with the list as it currently is and would not change a thing at the moment. One last minute change that I made before the tournament was to add a second noxious instead of a 4th serum visions. Both are comparable, but Noxious is better in a more hostile meta and serum is better in a faster, more combo based meta. Even though the meta ended up being faster and more combo based I decided to play it safe with an extra noxious. Both are fine and they play similar roles. I would add a 4th serum before a 4th repeal, however.
In addition, we want to be comboing off as fast as possible game one so I honestly believe that we should be on 20 equipment and no less, especially in the current meta. We can board down to 16-18 depending on the matchup but I think that game one we want a large number of equipment. I personally would make other cuts before eating away at our equipment count. I think it's a mistake to go to 19 equipment to add another serum visions, but you could test it.
As far as the bird goes, I don't think it belongs in the deck at a competitive level. It has words on it that make it seem like it was designed for the deck but the deck already has all of the pieces that it needs. After testing both, I think Erayo and the bird are similar in that they synergize with the deck without actually adding anything to the deck's win percentage. If you're looking for another creature I would play Sai.
EDIT: Notably, the best 9th engine card I've tested was Jeskai Ascendancy (By far) and then Riddlesmith. I would play either of those before Bird, Sai, or Mentor. However, as you can see from my list, I choose not to play a 9th engine at the moment.
R1 vs Ponza, 2-0: I thought he was on Zoo until he blows my land on turn 3... after that I knew he wouldn't have a lot of interaction so I waited till he Bolted 2 of my birds and then went off.
R2 vs Stompy, 2-0: he had a dismember but I had more dudes so I combo turn 3. I also comboed turn 3 on game 2.
R3 vs Living End, 2-1: I had never played this match before so I did lose a game and then I knew how I had to play > board in Paradoxical Outcome and force him to play my game. It wasn't easy though and I also used Faith's Shield to protect my dudes from Beast Within.
R4 vs Burn, 2-1: I know this is a bad matchup but my friend kept his 1-lander just because he had 2 Eidolons. He never got his second. Game 3 I go to 5 and don't find a removal for his Eidolon soon enough. Game 3 I'm going first and I have 3 dudes in my hand which help me stay alive since he's got to kill them. He knew I had removal for his Eidolon since he revealed a Path I had on top when he attacks me with his Goblin Guide. This caused him to play completely different and I just killed all his dudes and eventually went off.
Overall I'd say luck was in my favor, but I also mullinaged everytime my hand wasn't good. I made a mistake on R1 by keeping Abrade in the deck instead of switching them for Wear/Tear which would've been much better since they play... Bloodmoon?... yeah I kinda forgot they play that card hahahaha.
This was my list:
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Puresteel Paladin
2 Abrade
2 Serum Visions
1 Grapeshot
4 Retract
4 Cathar's Shield
4 Accorder's Shield
3 Mox Opal
3 Sigil of Distinction
4 Bone Saw
4 Paradise Mantle
1 Golem-Skin Gauntlets
4 Flooded Strand
2 Windswept Heath
3 Sacred Foundry
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Plains
1 Abrade
2 Paradoxical Outcome
3 Path to Exile
3 Wear//Tear
2 Faith's Shield
2 Lightning Helix
Artificer's Assistant is amazing and so is Paradoxical Outcome.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2018-08-12
4 Puresteel Paladin
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
Sorceries
1 Grapeshot
3 Serum Visions
Instants
2 Noxious Revival
1 Paradoxical Outcome
2 Repeal
4 Retract
Artifacts
4 Accorder's Shield
4 Cathar's Shield
4 Mox Opal
4 Paradise Mantle
4 Sigil of Distinction
4 Spidersilk Net
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Seachrome Coast
1 Windswept Heath
1 Noxious Revival
1 Paradoxical Outcome
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Echoing Truth
1 Fragmentize
1 Ghirapur Aether Grid
3 Path to Exile
4 Silence
This is a relatively generic list with some solid inclusions. I love the 3 SV + 2 Repeal for 5 total maindeck cantrips. As I've said before and will keep saying, it is wrong to not play cantrips in this deck. Play as many as you can fit. Double NR is nice in the main and I like the Paradoxical too in a metagame that has some heavy control presence and might need to go long.
Zyrnak lost to UW Control in the quarterfinals (0-2), but I like where this list was going. I do think there's room to adopt the Claim // Fame technology in certain metagames too, and don't want to knock that developmental angle in praising Zyrnak's success. I do want to highlight successful lists, however, as we should be iterating on successes as much as possible.
Round 2 against Eldrazi my opponent plays T1 Chalice on zero, I play T2 Puresteel and T3 Repeal his Chalice and kill him. Then game two is exact repeat from the draw...hilarious! We were the streamed feature match that round. Actually I was on stream the rest of the night.
In the end against Ironworks I got blown out by Guttoral Response. I had sided in Silence but couldn't find them.
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Accorder's Shield
4 Cathar's Shield
4 Paradise Mantle
4 Sigil of Distinction
4 Spidersilk Net
4 Mox Opal
1 Grapeshot
2 Noxious Revival
1 Paradoxical Outcome
2 Repeal
4 Retract
3 Serum Visions
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Seachrome Coast
3 Windswept Heath
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Claim // Fame
1 Fragmentize
1 Ghirapur Aether Grid
3 Path to Exile
4 Silence
1 Wear // Tear
Went to GP Prague last weekend to grind the side events. Plan was to play Elves and take Cheeri0s for a spin or two. Well, I started off first double-up on Friday with Elves and went 1-2 after losing to G-Tron and Infect while beating Jund.
Figured I'd give Cheeri0s a try for the next one and what do you know, 3 rounds later I was 2-0-1 (Affinity, Dredge) bagging 200 tix. I said to myself, let's see how far we can take this. Took down the next one 2-0-1 (Storm, BR Hollow One) again, 2-0-1 (GW Hatebears, G-Tron) double up on Saturday, 1-2 (Lost to Jeskai Control and Burn, won vs Burn) and 2-1 (Won UW Control, Jund, lost to Temur Delver) double up on Sunday. Altogether a 9-3-3 score for a total of 1140 tix which got me 3 boxes.
Went 3-1 (Lost to Storm, won vs Aristocrats, Bant Spirits, BR Hollow One) this Monday and 4-2 today at a PPTQ (34 people, lost to Mardu Pyromancer and Jund, won vs Jeskai Control, Storm, Ad Nauseam and Bant Vizier Combo).
All in all 16-6-3 in the past week. I love Claim // Fame and two Noxious Revivals in the mainboard, it makes the deck incredibly resilient.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
Chance for Glory forces us to go off the following turn. If we have three extra mana and are guaranteed to win the following turn, chances are pretty good that we could just win this turn. There are far better protection spells than a three mana spell.
I think this idea is pretty interesting. I've been thinking about testing simian spirit guide, as that free mana seems especially appealing to cast Sram and/or help during the combo turn. That being said, I am unsure that the modifications you made are worth it. From your report, if I read correctly, you had three games where you couldn't combo with 2 paladins out (R2G1, R3G1, R3G3), which to me raises a huge red flag. Having two paladin/Sram should be lethal 99% of the time (at least this is how I feel).
On another note, I 5-0'd a league on MTGO over the weekend. My list is pretty generic, with the exception of 1 Erayo and 1 Hurkyl recall. I love recall, but Erayo was underwhelming. I've flipped him many times, but it always feels like win-more. I am now testing a list with 3 Time of Need in place of the Serum visions and Erayo. So far I am a fan, but need to test more games. I view this deck as a 1 card combo deck (for the most part), and having 3 extra copies of our card has seriously decreased my mulligan rate. Also an interesting side effect, it combos with Noxious Revival if Sram gets path to exiled (which happens quite frequently vs UW control). I'm going to run this deck in GP Portland in December, and am looking to gain as much experience as possible before then.
On an important side note, Kenshin has mentioned this before, and I want to circle back to it. The biggest challenge with optimizing this deck is "what it needs" vs "what you want." I first started playing this deck because it thwomped me online while I was playing burn. His version played Artificer's Assistant (AA), which seemed like a no brainer. My first list played them, and I was a huge fan of the added consistency (especially for the turn 2 wins). I wound up cutting them out of curiosity, and my win rate significantly increased. Kenshin mentioned this too, that although AA looks great on paper, I don't think it actually helps with the biggest issue this deck has (sticking Sram/paladin). I rarely fizzle when I start to combo (and a second Noxious Revival really helps with that), but most of my loses are mulliganing into oblivion or a combination of discard/removal (which AA doesn't mitigate). I hope this generates some lively discussion, and will try to continuosly update this thread with the results of Time of Need.
This is a great argument that makes complete sense to me. I am Jiggywiggy, except that I managed to recover my old account (hooray!). Time of need was great vs non-interactive decks, but those are already good matchups. The green I added to the manabase was also painful, so I'm happy to cut it. I 5-0'd another league with 2 Time of need, but am for sure going to cut them. I'm considering running 1 Erayo and a playset of repeals, with no serum visions. I want to see how useful repeal can be by itself, and will update with the results.
4 Arid Mesa
4 Cathar's Shield
4 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Grapeshot
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
4 Mox Opal
2 Noxious Revival
4 Paradise Mantle
2 Plains
4 Puresteel Paladin
4 Repeal
4 Retract
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Sigil of Distinction
4 Spidersilk Net
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
2 Echoing Truth
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Paradoxical Outcome
For the flex slots, I opted for the playset of repeals, Erayo, Hurkyl's Recall, and an extra noxious. I'm super satisfied with the recall and revival. They add consistency, and often times recall is relevant against affinity and KCI. Erayo is lackluster. I gave him a second shot, and am disappointed. I though he would serve as a nice 9th paladion/sram (a turn 2 flipped erayo should buy enough turns to win), but he is either win-more, or too difficult to flip.
I chose the playset of repeals to see how much I like the card in general. So far, I am very happy with it, but still want to test other configurations. The best argument for repeal is that it is always decent, and can scale up to be wonderful. At worst, it's a cantrip for U. At best, it can be a Thoughtcast or Ancestral Recall. The other benefits are a MD answer to hate (such as Eidilon or Meddling Mage), and that it is never a dead draw while you are comboing (cast with mox opal to return mox opal for a free cantrip). There have been several times when I would have preferred a Serum Visions, but I think the flexibility outweighs that.
The biggest problem that I've been having is discard-based midrange decks. Grixis Death Shadow is the main culprit, and Jund Death Shadow and Jund in general are problematic too. They have discard to rip Sram/Paladin from our hands, and removal to kill him on the board. Topped off with a fast clock, things go downhill fast. Occasionally I can sneak a G1 win, but when they know what's up G2/3 things are more difficult. Adding Claim/Fame has helped tremendously, but wasn't enough. I've been trying Leyline of Sanctity, but am not super impressed with it. It helps with discard, but doesn't help with removal, is only good if it's in the opening hand, and is dead during combo. I also added Inquisition of Kozilek, and have been quite happy with it. Nabbing discard/removal/hate and learning info about my opponents' hand has helped tremendously. An interesting idea that I came across was Ancestral Visions. I am going to swap them for Leylines next league I join. I think they are great because (1) they are another threat that will eat discard, (2) are a great T1 play, and (3) are a good topdeck in stalled games. I'll report back my results when I've played more.
There is also one last permutation I want to try, with Artificer's Assistant. I have played it before, and loved the added consistency. I also liked that it ate removal so Sram/Paladin could stick. The problem was that it's dead during combo, and dropping artifacts to scry makes it more difficult to combo later in the game. To solve this, I want to try adding 3 MD Hurkyl's Recall, and 1 Mox Amber. I am unsure about Amber, but have noticed that most of the time I'll have a Sram on the field while comboing. This would generate mana with retract, and make recalls free. From my previous list, the plan is -4 Repeal, -1 Erayo, -1 Noxious Revival, +4 Artificer's Assistant, +2 Hurkyl's Recall. Still need to think what I would cut for the Amber. I'll post my feelings about the changes after I've tested them in a bit.
Thanks to MTGO, I've gotten to play dozens of games with Cheeri0s. I am planning to play this deck at GP Portland, and am hoping to at last make day 2. I think it's possible, as long as I get lucky enough with my matchups. If anyone has any suggestions with advice or cards to test (with good reasons), let me know, as I have some time to test and optimize this deck before the GP.
How well did it work?
Congrats on your solid performances lately! Do you have any reflections on your matchups? Which ones are most difficult for you, and why? And how do you like signal the clans? I am super curious about your experiences with your list.
http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/125033
Reilly played a very generic list with 3 SV (for the tenth time; play these cantrips), 15 lands, 3 MD Repeal (again, more cantrip effects - PLAY THESE), and 0 Assistants. SB tech includes triple Claim // Fame with a bunch of usual suspects:
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Puresteel Paladin
Artifacts: 24
4 Cathar's Shield
4 Accorder's Shield
4 Mox Opal
4 Spidersilk Net
4 Sigil of Distinction
4 Paradise Mantle
Instants/sorceries: 14
2 Noxious Revival
1 Grapeshot
3 Repeal
3 Serum Visions
4 Retract
3 Flooded Strand
2 Plains
1 Godless Shrine
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Seachrome Coast
4 Arid Mesa
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Claim // Fame
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
3 Silence
3 Path to Exile
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Echoing Truth
Notably, this deck beat UW Control in the finals, which is a nice performance record against a top deck. The only thing I'd tweak would be -1 or -2 artifacts for either more utility (+1 Repeal/NR) and/or more dig (+1 SV). Maybe a singleton Assistant.
In addition, we want to be comboing off as fast as possible game one so I honestly believe that we should be on 20 equipment and no less, especially in the current meta. We can board down to 16-18 depending on the matchup but I think that game one we want a large number of equipment. I personally would make other cuts before eating away at our equipment count. I think it's a mistake to go to 19 equipment to add another serum visions, but you could test it.
As far as the bird goes, I don't think it belongs in the deck at a competitive level. It has words on it that make it seem like it was designed for the deck but the deck already has all of the pieces that it needs. After testing both, I think Erayo and the bird are similar in that they synergize with the deck without actually adding anything to the deck's win percentage. If you're looking for another creature I would play Sai.
EDIT: Notably, the best 9th engine card I've tested was Jeskai Ascendancy (By far) and then Riddlesmith. I would play either of those before Bird, Sai, or Mentor. However, as you can see from my list, I choose not to play a 9th engine at the moment.