I haven't had (made) time since FNM to put down a brief report and still don't have time but thought I'd fill in a spot, which I can edit later. Last Friday I went 3-0-1 splitting the final round. The previous Friday was a 3-1 finish losing round 1 to bad keeps and terrible shuffling (also merfolk). The deck is really strong and I think it just needs more exposure to get really tuned.
Everyone that I've played agains and around knows what the deck is, so that's not the problem. Not enough people are playing it and adding to the reflection pool 🤔
Hopefully I'll have some time tomorrow to put some content in this post!
looking forward to it.
i guess easily added would be your list. commentary and analysis can come later - we're all busy people!
I admittedly haven't played turns in a few weeks. I've been on a tear with vizier/druid CoCo and until my win streak breaks i'm going to carry on playing it out. I've tweaked turns a bit and it's sitting there ready to go in the deck box, but as i'm sure you all know, it's difficult to play just one deck when you have loads of them & they all want your attention =P.
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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
DAAAAAAAMNIT, was almost done with the report and lost it to a miss-click on my browser
Basically it comes down to:
2 weeks back, went 3-1 with a loss early to merfolk, a bye and 2 wins vs non-experienced players (GW Gideon tokens and Affinity)
Last week went 3-0-1 winning against Living End, G(w) Tron and UR Kiki-Control.
Bottom line, 4x Opt is too many, for my particular build. Going to drop 2 and add a third snapcaster and a third cryptic to the main. By adding snappy and a probable cantrip, I'm sticking with 22 lands. Sideboard is shifting -1 cryptic, -1 gigadrowse and +2 spell pierce.
Uggg, I'm still pissed at myself for the miss-click!
Edit:
Seeing as nobody has commented yet, I'll put a bit more detail in here!
Nothing really of note for the 3-1 finish except that the affinity player really messed up and had lethal on board, but since I mind-tricked him, didn't notice it. Was an untapped Inkmoth with the ability to animate and equip with plating. The mind-trick was an exhaustion and spreading seas. Should have held up the seas for Recall but won anyway!
Last week required a few moments that I'm pretty proud of. Vs living end I noticed they were playing Ricochet Trap in game 2 and play around it REAL hard in game 3 only casting non-targeting spells until they were completely off R. This was clutch because he had the trap in hand!
Vs G(w) Tron I got "lucky" and had a turn 1 Howling Mine! There was a time in game 2 where he kept playing a plains and it immediately made me wonder, but eventually though he had Path?? In tron?? Sure enough, after I bounced it with cryptic, and won with an awoken Inkmoth, he revealed the path!
Felt really good to win vs the Kiki deck because he is a really good local player and one of my "mini boss" opponents. He always beats me! Went to 3 games and in the final game, we both had a ton of mana and when I tried to cast TitI got in a counter war. My TitI, he Remanded, I Dispelled, with only 3 up he cast snapcaster targeting the dispel from turns earlier and targeted my dispel. Back to the remand targeting TitI which I wondered about for a good minute. I had 4 mana still up and cryptic in hand. Also an exhaustion.. Not sure why I had to think that long as exhaustion was the OBVIOUS choice. Let remand resolve, titi back to hand, windmill slam exhaustion! His expression was epic. Him:"Awe crap! Should have played around that!" Me:"YUP!"
Proceeded to win.
Thanks for the write up. I love reading them, dont know why I never post any results. I'm assuming gemstone was your turn one mine, ive never hit one turn one. Good job.
With 10 Cantrips (Opt, Vision, Irrigated Farmland) is Temporal Trespass a Must Play. Also i play Mana Leak over Remand. I prefer to handle a spell permanently instead to draw a card.
Hard Matchups are Swarm Aggro like Vengevine Dredge and Elves and Fast Combo like Storm. For Storm and Burn i have the Leylines, but the Swarms kill me before I find the Mass Removal
Are there any tipps?
Burning tree emissary/bushwhacker decks are always rough but go-wide tokens decks should be a walk in the park.
Exhaustion, remand, supreme verdict, thing in the ice are all great options against token strategies. Tokens decks always lean heavily on their manabase and rely on curving out for things like lingering souls and Gideon.
For more zoo-like aggro. Bushwhacker style, you rely on early disruption. Curving from fatal push into exhaustion is usually enough to get you there, especially if you have a snapcaster mage and hit your land drops. Mainly I'd say that beating fast decks really relies on you not missing any early land drops and being able to cast your disruption on time, without having to waste mana casting card draw spells to find what you need. Missing land drops in quick games is a death sentence, which is why i never drop below 23 lands. Once your card advantage engines take over it doesn't matter, but in those early turns there's a huge difference between being able to gigadrowse for 3 or for 2.
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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
Good to have some feedback about Opt. I like your list except I prefer remand over spreading seas.
Oh I know you're stance on Remand Maybe when you're in turns, drawing multiple cards per turn, the dead draw is irrelevant, but sometimes I'd say it's not and the mana denial AND card draw is usable without having to target a spell. Seas does give you the chance to keep rolling if you've drawn no gas, that one extra draw sometimes keeps you rolling and you can't get that with a remand.
I'm sure you've explained somewhere in this forum but do you have any input on the dead-drawn remand? I ran 2+ remand for a LONG time, but have since realized that Exhaustion is much more important so I've upped that to the mandatory playset! Was formerly on 2-3 with 4 Gigadrowse and switched it up. My argument for seas over remand is a meta choice. My meta has lots of tron and other decks that don't like island. Also, if something is a threat that I was going to counter on turn 2 or 3, I'll just bounce it a turn or 2 later with cryptic command.
Good to have some feedback about Opt. I like your list except I prefer remand over spreading seas.
Oh I know you're stance on Remand Maybe when you're in turns, drawing multiple cards per turn, the dead draw is irrelevant, but sometimes I'd say it's not and the mana denial AND card draw is usable without having to target a spell. Seas does give you the chance to keep rolling if you've drawn no gas, that one extra draw sometimes keeps you rolling and you can't get that with a remand.
I'm sure you've explained somewhere in this forum but do you have any input on the dead-drawn remand? I ran 2+ remand for a LONG time, but have since realized that Exhaustion is much more important so I've upped that to the mandatory playset! Was formerly on 2-3 with 4 Gigadrowse and switched it up. My argument for seas over remand is a meta choice. My meta has lots of tron and other decks that don't like island. Also, if something is a threat that I was going to counter on turn 2 or 3, I'll just bounce it a turn or 2 later with cryptic command.
The remand discussion is a tricky one but it amounts to two things:
1) the real issue that this deck has isn't "going off" once we've landed a mine and have started to chain turns. Yea it's true that you can whiff but with a list full of exhaustion, cryptic and gigadrowse, keeping an opponent on check once you've got a mana advantage should be fairly trivial. Not always 100% because this is modern but fairly trivial. Also remember that if you fizzle while comboing it can feel pretty bad, which sticks in your mind. As a result, you may unfairly prioritise fixing this 'bug' in the deck by incorporating new cards when in reality you've lost far more games than you recall to early threats, counterspells and similar things which remand does more against. Remember most modern decks want to utilise all their mana each turn and do so aggressively as possible.
2) the deck's real issue is surviving long enough to draw into what we need to combo off. For most games that's a dictate, but a mine or a thing in the ice could also be that needed draw. Much like splinter twin we have a flash setup card and a sorcery speed follow up, and Muxh like twin we rely on being able to disrupt an opponent just long enough to get this online, while maintaining velocity through our deck at a reasonable mana investment. Remand represents the single best way to unbalance an opponent who is trying to aggressively curve out (ideally on turn 2 or 3) while drawing us closer to that critical engine card we need to start the combo. Spreading Seas is less consistent at doing this.
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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
Went to a modern event today and went 3-1 with Mono-U Turns! Quick report:
Round 1 - Eldrazi Tron (2-1):
Game 1: Despite having turn 3 Tron opponent didn't play much, just 1 thought-knot and 1 matter reshaper. Found out later that they weren't running any planeswalkers due to budget. Easy game
Game 2: Opponent resolved some solid threats. Endbringer + a well timed Warping Wail ended the game for me.
Game 3: Exhaustion was a house
Round 2 - Jesaki Control (2-0):
Game 1: Ate a lot of bolts and helixs to the face, but was able to Gigadrowse on their endstep and proceeded to combo off
Game 2: Grindier game, but opponent was only able to slow me down slightly. Never did anything that really threatened my life total. Was also surprisingly lacking in counters/removal
Round 3 - Mono-R Burn (1-2):
Game 1: Swiftspear plus a bunch of bolts = GG
Game 2: Mulled to 5 with no lands on the play (super risky keep, but didn't want to go to 4). Drew into a land and used serum visions to set up a couple more. Had the counters I needed and was able to filp a Thing in the Ice. Bounced his Eidolon end of turn to swing for lethal with Awoken Horror
Game 3: Managed to stall out a little bit, but had no answer to Eidolon and was unable to get anything going
Round 4 - Amulet Titan (2-0):
Game 1: Exhaustion + Gigadrowse slowed him down some. Remanded Titan and then comboed off.
Game 2: Boomerang on a bounce land set him back. Cryptic on Titan allowed me an easy combo.
Can post deck list if people care. Sideboard is still a work in progress.
Can post deck list if people care. Sideboard is still a work in progress.
Yes, also quite interested! I'd say that if you haven't posted a list yet, please share! More the merrier, honestly 👍
Solid finish too by the way. Burn is damn hard.
I don't run Chalice in the sideboard due to not wanting to pay the $$$ for 3. Thinking of trying to make room for a 3rd Thing in the Ice or more cheap counters like Spell Pierce and Dispel, but very open to suggestions.
One thing that really seems to benefit us is the lack of knowledge that opponents have about our deck. Most people see blue and assume you are a heavy control deck as opposed to a combo-control deck that runs just enough disruption to stall before combo-town.
I don't run Chalice in the sideboard due to not wanting to pay the $$$ for 3. Thinking of trying to make room for a 3rd Thing in the Ice or more cheap counters like Spell Pierce and Dispel, but very open to suggestions.
One thing that really seems to benefit us is the lack of knowledge that opponents have about our deck. Most people see blue and assume you are a heavy control deck as opposed to a combo-control deck that runs just enough disruption to stall before combo-town.
How's Nephalia Academy been for you? I like the idea of the card, just not sure how well it works in our deck.
About your sideboard questions, you could remove the two cards you're testing or not in love with for another TitI and Spell Pierce? In the times I've brought in TitI, it was either all 3 or 2 of them to make sure I can draw one in the early half of the game.
I do think that Nimble Obstructionist is a solid card, this deck is not it's true home. It really wants to be in a counter-control deck, not combo-control. What match-ups do you see the Relic being relevant? In those match-ups, does it really matter? I only ask because I haven't had to play against a graveyard strategy yet with this deck. It seems like a 2-of sideboard card vs a graveyard deck isn't enough slots to really matter.
How's Nephalia Academy been for you? I like the idea of the card, just not sure how well it works in our deck.
I do think that Nimble Obstructionist is a solid card, this deck is not it's true home. It really wants to be in a counter-control deck, not combo-control. What match-ups do you see the Relic being relevant? In those match-ups, does it really matter? I only ask because I haven't had to play against a graveyard strategy yet with this deck. It seems like a 2-of sideboard card vs a graveyard deck isn't enough slots to really matter.
Nephalia Academy is a pretty solid card. It helps make discard heavy matchups less miserable and at a fairly low cost in mono-blue. It provides only small advantages, but I still like having it in
I have yet to sideboard in Relic of Progenitus either on account of not playing against any graveyard heavy decks. I feel like I either play against burn/aggro or big slow control decks. So heavily disadvantaged and heavily favored matchups.
Will be trying out 2 Search for Azcanta in a local tourney soon.
Seems to do great in test games so far, filters my draws more and gives me the option to cut down on some cards due to the lategame impulse/filtering.
Anyone else tried it already?
I've been playing it over the 2 Howling Mines in my build for a little while, and I love it so far.
The card has so much play with the double optional triggers, and being able to control when it flips is a godsend. There have been multiple matches that have been decided by me being able to find a Cryptic or Exhaustion off of the transformed side, and the card allows you to be more liberal about using warps to make land drops because by the time you hit ~6-7 lands, flipping it to add an additional land to your board allows you to find that crucial something to stall the game out for that one extra turn before you can lock them down and combo off.
You know those games against Shadow where they go Thoughtseize-Snap-Thoughtsieze over and over? This card helps in those games, and not giving your opponent extra cards (or extra Stubborn Denials/Snapcasters) is huge in that matchup since they frequently see a lot of their deck anyways without our help with the Mines. It also cannot be blown up by K-Command.
I'm the happiest with my mainboard as I've been in a while against the current meta. Here is what I'm on so far:
The mainboard is relatively stock. Some things to address:
Why cut any number of Serum Visions before Opt?
I've always been more or less neutral on Serum Visions. Like Opt, its 'air' in our deck, getting us towards those key cards in our deck a bit faster. After trying out the 8-cantrip build, I found that I wanted to have more cheap countermagic in the mainboard to interact with my opponent - so I took two Visions out for Remands. The reason I kept the playset of Opt is because it plays nicer with Remand in terms of holding mana up. This leaves me with 6 cantrips in the mainboard, which means that for the most part I should have one up turn 1, which is where i want it most (for the simple reason being that I don't want my turn 1 to just be "Island, Pass"). In a deck where we're trying to stall just enough to take all the turns, taking a turn off (especially turn 1 in a particularly aggressive format) feels pretty bad, but having too many cantrips also can spell disaster because it means you're doing things like getting locked out by Chalice of the Void on 1 and spending mana to not affect the board or disrupt your opponent's gameplan in a meaningful way.
No Thing in the Ice sideboard?
Its been underperforming for me. I feel too often that its a turn too slow, or that I'm in this awkward position of wanting to cantrip but also having a Thing in hand that hasn't been cast yet. In terms of an alternate win condition, I went with Godhead of Awe to beat Shadow (can't be pushed or Stubborn Denial'd, kills off all Death's Shadows in play).
The 5c Humans deck that Collins Mullen recently piloted to 1st at the SCG Open at Cinci has also just won the SCG Modern Classic at Washington DC. If it keeps doing that we'll need to be prepared - that matchup is not very good for us with the mainboard Kitesail Freebooters and Meddling Mages paired with Aether Vial and Cavern of Souls nullifying our countermagic. Evidently that deck was all over the place at DC. The Shackles is currenly my flex spot in the board for the Humans matchup.
The rest of the playset of Remands in the board are there to close out those matchups like Tron or Scapeshift. The thing about Remand is that when its good, it feels backbreaking. We often win game 1 against those decks, and I'd rather be a 90-10 to win those matches rather than dedicate the slots to Shadow and Burn where at best it becomes a 50/50. Of those two, I picked Shadow as the deck that I wanted to beat with the Godheads in the sideboard, and Burn the deck I would just accept losing to (although with Chalice in the board, its not as bad as it used to be).
Here is my American Turns brew I'm testing. Very happy with it so far. Thoughts? I still don't know about running 2 Search for Azcanta over Howling Mine. Also still considering running the verdicts mainboard but moved them to the side to make my curve better.
I recently stumbled upon a very different approach to taking turns. This version relies heavily on As Foretold rather than howling mines and dictates. As Foretold allows you to play a 0 mana wrath via living end and you can cast anscestral vision for free! I still need to playtest more but I was wondering what everyone thinks about this route.
So I played against 5c Humans last night and it's really really good. It is super good against our list. I'm confident that it is our worst matchup next to burn. I went 1-2 against it with my American build. Even with all my Main board removal he got me game 1 on his turn 5. Game 2 I brought in verdicts and timely reinforcements which got me there. Game 3 I lost to Thalia, meddling mage, and kitesail. It was brutal. Perhaps we need to Main board mass removal? I only run 2 verdicts in the side.
P.s. After testing search for azcanta; I think it should be played over howling mine but only in more control heavy turns lists. I love it. If you haven't tested it, you should.
So is our primer no longer getting updated? Seems like it hasn't seen much activity for awhile.
I still frequent the thread but I play extraplanar lens and my deck performs way diffrent and since nobody else plays it I feel I don't have much to contribute. I really like being able to go off turn four, at the cost of two slots it's well worth it.
I've tried every flavor and I still think mono blue has the strongest legs.
AV, opt, serum and sleight are all meh. With all the slots being taken by our engines or turn spells I've replaced those cards with early interaction. void snare has been better than expected and stops decay which I had a problem with for awhile.
Ratchet bomb I really like too, better than explosives, most of the time it goes unanswered. Kills fish, goyfs, tokens,is good for burn on one and has saved my bacon numerous times.
Early frost is ok but downpour has been better for me, for those having issues against 5c humans I'd recommend trying it. It's giga or exhaustion 5&6.
Hey guys. I play the mono U version and I was thinking about what is our plan against Abzan. They have everything we hate. I love the option that Xexen proposed against Grixis DS, that is the Godhead of Awe. I will definitely test it and I think its a great threat for them. But what about Abzan? Do you have any cards in the sideboard to deal with it? I can't stop losing 1-2 against them and I hate it: discard, abrupt decay, the aggro side, lilianas,... I hate everything. Thanks for your answers!
Try redirect for really interactive metas. Redirecting an abrupt decay onto a lili or goyf feels great. Redirecting a thoughtsieze feels even better.
They're kinda forced to peel the redirect with T1 discard unless they plan to follow up with something you can't redirect (collective brutality is a mode that stops you from having legal targets). If they don't then they run the risk of having a crucial spell 2 for 1 them.
It can severely slow you down if you hold open mana for it though, which is a big issue. So much of the core plays at instant speed though (gigadrowse, dictate, cryptic, opt if you run it, remand if you run it) that really it's just the t2 mine effects and the turn chain that eat up mana on your turn.
I've loved the card in the past and been messing with it as a two of. Redirecting a lightning bolt into a guide or swiftspear just feels so good...just don't waste it on a lava spike. You also can't change modes of the card, so savvy opponents will just start double striking with boros charm.
Anyway, just an idea. And it's cheap which always helps.
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looking forward to it.
i guess easily added would be your list. commentary and analysis can come later - we're all busy people!
I admittedly haven't played turns in a few weeks. I've been on a tear with vizier/druid CoCo and until my win streak breaks i'm going to carry on playing it out. I've tweaked turns a bit and it's sitting there ready to go in the deck box, but as i'm sure you all know, it's difficult to play just one deck when you have loads of them & they all want your attention =P.
Basically it comes down to:
2 weeks back, went 3-1 with a loss early to merfolk, a bye and 2 wins vs non-experienced players (GW Gideon tokens and Affinity)
Last week went 3-0-1 winning against Living End, G(w) Tron and UR Kiki-Control.
Bottom line, 4x Opt is too many, for my particular build. Going to drop 2 and add a third snapcaster and a third cryptic to the main. By adding snappy and a probable cantrip, I'm sticking with 22 lands. Sideboard is shifting -1 cryptic, -1 gigadrowse and +2 spell pierce.
Uggg, I'm still pissed at myself for the miss-click!
Edit:
Seeing as nobody has commented yet, I'll put a bit more detail in here!
Nothing really of note for the 3-1 finish except that the affinity player really messed up and had lethal on board, but since I mind-tricked him, didn't notice it. Was an untapped Inkmoth with the ability to animate and equip with plating. The mind-trick was an exhaustion and spreading seas. Should have held up the seas for Recall but won anyway!
Last week required a few moments that I'm pretty proud of. Vs living end I noticed they were playing Ricochet Trap in game 2 and play around it REAL hard in game 3 only casting non-targeting spells until they were completely off R. This was clutch because he had the trap in hand!
Vs G(w) Tron I got "lucky" and had a turn 1 Howling Mine! There was a time in game 2 where he kept playing a plains and it immediately made me wonder, but eventually though he had Path?? In tron?? Sure enough, after I bounced it with cryptic, and won with an awoken Inkmoth, he revealed the path!
Felt really good to win vs the Kiki deck because he is a really good local player and one of my "mini boss" opponents. He always beats me! Went to 3 games and in the final game, we both had a ton of mana and when I tried to cast TitI got in a counter war. My TitI, he Remanded, I Dispelled, with only 3 up he cast snapcaster targeting the dispel from turns earlier and targeted my dispel. Back to the remand targeting TitI which I wondered about for a good minute. I had 4 mana still up and cryptic in hand. Also an exhaustion.. Not sure why I had to think that long as exhaustion was the OBVIOUS choice. Let remand resolve, titi back to hand, windmill slam exhaustion! His expression was epic. Him:"Awe crap! Should have played around that!" Me:"YUP!"
Proceeded to win.
New version of the deck is:
3 Snapcaster Mage
Spells:35
3 Gigadrowse
2 Opt
4 Serum Visions
2 Howling Mine
2 Spreading Seas
4 Dictate of Kruphix
4 Exhaustion
3 Cryptic Command
4 Time Warp
3 Part the Waterveil
4 Temporal Mastery
1 Gemstone Caverns
19 Island
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Thing in the Ice
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Dispel
2 Spell Pierce
3 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Spreading Seas
1 Commandeer
Not as great as the original version of this post but pretty close. Still bummed about the miss-click lol
Burning tree emissary/bushwhacker decks are always rough but go-wide tokens decks should be a walk in the park.
Exhaustion, remand, supreme verdict, thing in the ice are all great options against token strategies. Tokens decks always lean heavily on their manabase and rely on curving out for things like lingering souls and Gideon.
For more zoo-like aggro. Bushwhacker style, you rely on early disruption. Curving from fatal push into exhaustion is usually enough to get you there, especially if you have a snapcaster mage and hit your land drops. Mainly I'd say that beating fast decks really relies on you not missing any early land drops and being able to cast your disruption on time, without having to waste mana casting card draw spells to find what you need. Missing land drops in quick games is a death sentence, which is why i never drop below 23 lands. Once your card advantage engines take over it doesn't matter, but in those early turns there's a huge difference between being able to gigadrowse for 3 or for 2.
I'm sure you've explained somewhere in this forum but do you have any input on the dead-drawn remand? I ran 2+ remand for a LONG time, but have since realized that Exhaustion is much more important so I've upped that to the mandatory playset! Was formerly on 2-3 with 4 Gigadrowse and switched it up. My argument for seas over remand is a meta choice. My meta has lots of tron and other decks that don't like island. Also, if something is a threat that I was going to counter on turn 2 or 3, I'll just bounce it a turn or 2 later with cryptic command.
The remand discussion is a tricky one but it amounts to two things:
1) the real issue that this deck has isn't "going off" once we've landed a mine and have started to chain turns. Yea it's true that you can whiff but with a list full of exhaustion, cryptic and gigadrowse, keeping an opponent on check once you've got a mana advantage should be fairly trivial. Not always 100% because this is modern but fairly trivial. Also remember that if you fizzle while comboing it can feel pretty bad, which sticks in your mind. As a result, you may unfairly prioritise fixing this 'bug' in the deck by incorporating new cards when in reality you've lost far more games than you recall to early threats, counterspells and similar things which remand does more against. Remember most modern decks want to utilise all their mana each turn and do so aggressively as possible.
2) the deck's real issue is surviving long enough to draw into what we need to combo off. For most games that's a dictate, but a mine or a thing in the ice could also be that needed draw. Much like splinter twin we have a flash setup card and a sorcery speed follow up, and Muxh like twin we rely on being able to disrupt an opponent just long enough to get this online, while maintaining velocity through our deck at a reasonable mana investment. Remand represents the single best way to unbalance an opponent who is trying to aggressively curve out (ideally on turn 2 or 3) while drawing us closer to that critical engine card we need to start the combo. Spreading Seas is less consistent at doing this.
Round 1 - Eldrazi Tron (2-1):
Round 2 - Jesaki Control (2-0):
Round 3 - Mono-R Burn (1-2):
Round 4 - Amulet Titan (2-0):
Game 1: Exhaustion + Gigadrowse slowed him down some. Remanded Titan and then comboed off.
Game 2: Boomerang on a bounce land set him back. Cryptic on Titan allowed me an easy combo.
Can post deck list if people care. Sideboard is still a work in progress.
Commander: Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim Clerics BW, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest Voltron RWU
Yes, also quite interested! I'd say that if you haven't posted a list yet, please share! More the merrier, honestly 👍
Solid finish too by the way. Burn is damn hard.
Commander: Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim Clerics BW, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest Voltron RWU
20 Island
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Nephalia Academy
Turns
4 Time Warp
4 Temporal Mastery
3 Part the Waterveil
Mines
4 Dictate of Kruphix
2 Howling Mine
1 Jace Beleren
4 Serum Visions
2 Opt
Disruption
1 Boomerang
3 Exhaustion
3 Gigadrowse
2 Remand
2 Cryptic Command
Creatures
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Dispel
1 Redirect - (Just trying this out to fight Abrupt Decay and burn spells)
1 Spell Pierce
1 Nimble Obstructionist - (fun card, but not sold on it)
1 Commandeer - (moved this from main to sideboard)
1 Negate
2 Echoing Truth
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Thing in the Ice
I don't run Chalice in the sideboard due to not wanting to pay the $$$ for 3. Thinking of trying to make room for a 3rd Thing in the Ice or more cheap counters like Spell Pierce and Dispel, but very open to suggestions.
One thing that really seems to benefit us is the lack of knowledge that opponents have about our deck. Most people see blue and assume you are a heavy control deck as opposed to a combo-control deck that runs just enough disruption to stall before combo-town.
Commander: Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim Clerics BW, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest Voltron RWU
How's Nephalia Academy been for you? I like the idea of the card, just not sure how well it works in our deck.
About your sideboard questions, you could remove the two cards you're testing or not in love with for another TitI and Spell Pierce? In the times I've brought in TitI, it was either all 3 or 2 of them to make sure I can draw one in the early half of the game.
I do think that Nimble Obstructionist is a solid card, this deck is not it's true home. It really wants to be in a counter-control deck, not combo-control. What match-ups do you see the Relic being relevant? In those match-ups, does it really matter? I only ask because I haven't had to play against a graveyard strategy yet with this deck. It seems like a 2-of sideboard card vs a graveyard deck isn't enough slots to really matter.
Nephalia Academy is a pretty solid card. It helps make discard heavy matchups less miserable and at a fairly low cost in mono-blue. It provides only small advantages, but I still like having it in
I have yet to sideboard in Relic of Progenitus either on account of not playing against any graveyard heavy decks. I feel like I either play against burn/aggro or big slow control decks. So heavily disadvantaged and heavily favored matchups.
Commander: Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim Clerics BW, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest Voltron RWU
I've been playing it over the 2 Howling Mines in my build for a little while, and I love it so far.
The card has so much play with the double optional triggers, and being able to control when it flips is a godsend. There have been multiple matches that have been decided by me being able to find a Cryptic or Exhaustion off of the transformed side, and the card allows you to be more liberal about using warps to make land drops because by the time you hit ~6-7 lands, flipping it to add an additional land to your board allows you to find that crucial something to stall the game out for that one extra turn before you can lock them down and combo off.
You know those games against Shadow where they go Thoughtseize-Snap-Thoughtsieze over and over? This card helps in those games, and not giving your opponent extra cards (or extra Stubborn Denials/Snapcasters) is huge in that matchup since they frequently see a lot of their deck anyways without our help with the Mines. It also cannot be blown up by K-Command.
I'm the happiest with my mainboard as I've been in a while against the current meta. Here is what I'm on so far:
4 Time Warp
4 Temporal Mastery
3 Part the Waterveil
Mines
4 Dictate of Kruphix
2 Search for Azcanta
Card Draw
4 Opt
2 Serum Visions
4 Gigadrowse
4 Exhaustion
3 Cryptic Command
2 Remand
2 Snapcaster Mage
Lands
20 Island
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Godhead of Awe
2 Spell Snare
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Remand
2 Vedalken Shackles
The mainboard is relatively stock. Some things to address:
Why cut any number of Serum Visions before Opt?
I've always been more or less neutral on Serum Visions. Like Opt, its 'air' in our deck, getting us towards those key cards in our deck a bit faster. After trying out the 8-cantrip build, I found that I wanted to have more cheap countermagic in the mainboard to interact with my opponent - so I took two Visions out for Remands. The reason I kept the playset of Opt is because it plays nicer with Remand in terms of holding mana up. This leaves me with 6 cantrips in the mainboard, which means that for the most part I should have one up turn 1, which is where i want it most (for the simple reason being that I don't want my turn 1 to just be "Island, Pass"). In a deck where we're trying to stall just enough to take all the turns, taking a turn off (especially turn 1 in a particularly aggressive format) feels pretty bad, but having too many cantrips also can spell disaster because it means you're doing things like getting locked out by Chalice of the Void on 1 and spending mana to not affect the board or disrupt your opponent's gameplan in a meaningful way.
No Thing in the Ice sideboard?
Its been underperforming for me. I feel too often that its a turn too slow, or that I'm in this awkward position of wanting to cantrip but also having a Thing in hand that hasn't been cast yet. In terms of an alternate win condition, I went with Godhead of Awe to beat Shadow (can't be pushed or Stubborn Denial'd, kills off all Death's Shadows in play).
The 5c Humans deck that Collins Mullen recently piloted to 1st at the SCG Open at Cinci has also just won the SCG Modern Classic at Washington DC. If it keeps doing that we'll need to be prepared - that matchup is not very good for us with the mainboard Kitesail Freebooters and Meddling Mages paired with Aether Vial and Cavern of Souls nullifying our countermagic. Evidently that deck was all over the place at DC. The Shackles is currenly my flex spot in the board for the Humans matchup.
The rest of the playset of Remands in the board are there to close out those matchups like Tron or Scapeshift. The thing about Remand is that when its good, it feels backbreaking. We often win game 1 against those decks, and I'd rather be a 90-10 to win those matches rather than dedicate the slots to Shadow and Burn where at best it becomes a 50/50. Of those two, I picked Shadow as the deck that I wanted to beat with the Godheads in the sideboard, and Burn the deck I would just accept losing to (although with Chalice in the board, its not as bad as it used to be).
Modern: U Living End
Standard: UW Approach of the Second Sun
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Glacial Fortress
4x Flooded Strand
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Steam Vents
2x Hallowed Fountain
6x Island
1x Nephalia Academy
1x Inkmoth Nexus
1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
Get there Package
4x Serum Visions
3x Path to Exile
3x Lightning Helix
2x Snapcaster Mage
2x Cryptic Command
2x Render Silent
3x Gigadrowse
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4x Dictate of Kruphix
2x Search for Azcanta
4x Time Warp
3x Part the Waterveil
3x Temporal Mastery
2x Supreme Verdict
2x Timely Reinforcements
3x Negate
3x Swan Song
2x Rest in Peace
3x Leyline of Sanctity
4 As Foretold
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Cryptic Command
1 Day's Undoing
4 Exhaustion
1 Gemstone Caverns
6 Island
1 Living End
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Mountain
4 Opt
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Search for Azcanta
4 Serum Visions
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Temporal Mastery
4 Time Warp
3 Tolaria West
1 Wheel of Fate
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Dispel
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Gigadrowse
2 Pyroclasm
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Swan Song
2 Thing in the Ice
1 Tormod's Crypt
P.s. After testing search for azcanta; I think it should be played over howling mine but only in more control heavy turns lists. I love it. If you haven't tested it, you should.
I still frequent the thread but I play extraplanar lens and my deck performs way diffrent and since nobody else plays it I feel I don't have much to contribute. I really like being able to go off turn four, at the cost of two slots it's well worth it.
I've tried every flavor and I still think mono blue has the strongest legs.
AV, opt, serum and sleight are all meh. With all the slots being taken by our engines or turn spells I've replaced those cards with early interaction. void snare has been better than expected and stops decay which I had a problem with for awhile.
Ratchet bomb I really like too, better than explosives, most of the time it goes unanswered. Kills fish, goyfs, tokens,is good for burn on one and has saved my bacon numerous times.
Early frost is ok but downpour has been better for me, for those having issues against 5c humans I'd recommend trying it. It's giga or exhaustion 5&6.
Try redirect for really interactive metas. Redirecting an abrupt decay onto a lili or goyf feels great. Redirecting a thoughtsieze feels even better.
They're kinda forced to peel the redirect with T1 discard unless they plan to follow up with something you can't redirect (collective brutality is a mode that stops you from having legal targets). If they don't then they run the risk of having a crucial spell 2 for 1 them.
It can severely slow you down if you hold open mana for it though, which is a big issue. So much of the core plays at instant speed though (gigadrowse, dictate, cryptic, opt if you run it, remand if you run it) that really it's just the t2 mine effects and the turn chain that eat up mana on your turn.
I've loved the card in the past and been messing with it as a two of. Redirecting a lightning bolt into a guide or swiftspear just feels so good...just don't waste it on a lava spike. You also can't change modes of the card, so savvy opponents will just start double striking with boros charm.
Anyway, just an idea. And it's cheap which always helps.