MTG Salvation

Played a 4 round fnm on monday, went undefeated and I'm absolutely in love with Gifts Ungiven. Every time i've cast it, it puts me in such a good spot if not outright winning the game.I really want to start playing with a crucible now. There have been a few instances where getting a land with gifts would be great but then I'd have no way to get it back.

I only got to play Obstructionist once but it was to counter a skaura-tribe elder to keep him off double green for primeval titan, which felt great. Do you guys have any particularly good triggers to counter?

I went up to 2 Supreme Will, it's a great card and I'm never sad to see it.

@ BloodyRabbit_01: I do like your list and after testing out the Eldrazi-heavy Japanese lists, NuBlkAu/shoktroopa lists and yours I think it has the best aggro matchup with its extra access to black mana and 3 maindeck Dismember & Walking Ballista. The Japanese lists seem to just crush Control/Combo with the 4 TKS and Ulamog cast triggers, but the early game is very rough for me and it's where I often lose. I expect more aggro at SCG Milwaukee so I am leaning towards your list with some personal preference changes.


I am with most of the others on keeping the deck to 60 cards so I had to trim one card. I decided to drop 1x River of Tears to bring the land count back to 24 and added 1x Talisman of Dominance in its place. I prefer this over a 25th land because it adds to the artifact count for Thirst for Knowledge and allows for the explosive turn 3 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. The dropped card was 1x Repeal. Just felt like it was the most expendable card, but I also considered dropping 1x Oblivion Stone or 1x Ugin.

Speaking of adding the Talisman to up the artifact count, after testing I do love having more than the 1x Supreme Will that most people run, but 4 just seems overkill and I definitely miss having the full 4x Thirst. I am down to a 3/3 split. I might stay there, but it could go to 2/4 Will/Thirst by Saturday.

Sideboard seems pretty good. Keeping all the Chalices in the sideboard seems fine. What are your specific targets for Negate? Just control matchups and G Tron? I wonder if I'd rather have some mix of Spell Pierce/Dispel/Spell Snare in that slot. I find "testing" sideboards is pretty impossible so I'm just wondering how happy you have been with this configuration.

Any other advice on your specific list? Any maybeboard type stuff you have been looking at? Some stuff I am considering but don't think I will have time to try out before this weekend - Swapping 1x Snapcaster Mage for 1x Torrential Gearhulk... going back to 4x Expedition Map in the Main and dropping 1x Dismember for consistency in game 1... dropping 1x Engineered Explosives from the sideboard for something spicy (2x O-Stone, 2x Ugin, 2x Dismember, 4x Spatial in the 75; is 2x EE really needed)?

Quote from topkyle »

I expect more aggro at SCG Milwaukee so I am leaning towards your list with some personal preference changes.

I'll be playing Blue Tron at SCG Milwaukee.

Memorial to genius any consideration or is tolaria west just better ?

I think we should at least think about it and perhaps test it, even if it doesn't end up making the cut in the end. Draw 2 from the land spot is powerful.

Quote from rothgar13 »

I think we should at least think about it and perhaps test it, even if it doesn't end up making the cut in the end. Draw 2 from the land spot is powerful.

The card isn't remotely comparable to Tolaria West. You wouldn't play Blighted Cataract, and you wouldn't play this.

@BloodyRabbit

I have really enjoyed reading your posts; I like to see the thought process.

I am getting back into Modern (MTG as a whole as well) and I am going to be picking up U Tron as my deck. Really like your build, and I am going to start with it.

How noob friendly is it? I play U Tron back when I played but its been a long time (before Khans). Am I better off with a more traditional build of U Tron (Shok's/the 5-0 deck that has been floating around for a few months)?

Thanks

Quote from RaNDoMxGeSTuReS »

Quote from rothgar13 »

I think we should at least think about it and perhaps test it, even if it doesn't end up making the cut in the end. Draw 2 from the land spot is powerful.

The card isn't remotely comparable to Tolaria West. You wouldn't play Blighted Cataract, and you wouldn't play this.

Coming into play tapped off the Memorial is exceedingly awful. Add onto that, it's 5 and sac for draw 2. You'd be better playing a search for Azcanta, which has a lower cost to draw and stays in as a blue source.

Quote from BloodyRabbit_01 »

Related to this, if you see my last list you should see Spell Snare in the place of Negate, so I don’t know what are you referring at. I even considered going up to 2, but there is little to none space. Ah, Explosives are very needed, because they deal with things we cannot always keep at bay - like Boogles, multiple Humans on the field, Lantern, Infect or simply hordes of Goblins/Elves. They do a nice job at fighting most aggressive strategies. I really like my list at the moment.

Looks like I was going off of your older list and the Negates have been replaced by a Spell Snare and a Field of Ruin. Glad we had the same idea at least and you were just ahead of me. I'm not married to the Talisman and I could probably be fine just running 24 lands and the 3rd Repeal. The Field of Ruin in the side could just be slotted in as a 25th land against control.

Gifts Ungiven is a card I will definitely miss and it has pulled wins out of nowhere at FNM, but if I am going long for 7, 8, 9 rounds or whatever I just wanted to streamline my decision making and it's the most skill-intensive card in the deck. I am fine lowering my win % slightly against control though. I refuse to go something dumb like Affinity -> Humans -> Burn and then be out of contention so I want the anti-aggro safety valves in place.

Gifts is powerful but the deck isn't really optimised to make full use of it. If I want gifts in a deck I want to be in white so I can make better gifts packages like a Thopter/Sword pile or Snapcaster + 3 Wraths/Spot removals/Counterspells. Also the is the good old Unburial Rites + Elesh Norn/Iona package. Gifts is a very powerful card but I don't feel like the late game needs the extra tutoring it provides. The majority of the decks problems revolve around shoring up the early turns and Gifts doesn't help in this respect.

The non-creature clause is killing me but being able to hold up 3 mana, counter and still Thirst on end step sounds so delicious. I'm skeptical it makes a real impact for the reasons we have all been talking about (Aggro and now BBE being problematic so a Negate-type card is meh) but I am absolutely going to give it a real shot on release.

Memorial is a blue source and costs a mana less than Cataract. West comes into play tapped, only searches for a limited number of things. Search for azcanta is undoubtedly a powerful card but we can't flip it quickly without opts and fetches the other control decks play and it just doesn't have a lot of synergy with the deck.

Unfortunately modern is just too fast for unwind. My negates are either taging sylvan scrying or Khan or they are used in the middle of counter wars where mana efficiency is key.

Modern Nights are back. I tried to play a version of the deck without Talismans since everyone else cut them.... and the only thing I beat was Jund (In the no win bracket and the player just table flipped and rage quit the store... because I was taking too long to search??).
I had a number of times where I lost due to being one mana short :/. I don't know how everyone else does it, I always feel too slow without them.

Oh and I tried out Commit // memory. The 4 mana side is a bit clunky but it does deal with walkers nicely. The 6 mana side is good late in the game when you have tron, two blue sources and a million mana (I wasn't lucky enough to gearhulk it).

Comming into play tapped is a huge drawback for me. I've already been pissed off so many times because I had a tolaria West in my starting hand and it changed my chain of action in the firsts turns really bad. But the upside is that it searche for a limited number of things that are exactly what I want : Tron land, Field of ruins, academy ruins, walking ballista, chalice. At times, I can search for it with map and tutor a ballista, changing the map into a very expensive kill-tutor.
Memorial also comes into play tapped with almost no benefit: sure it's a U source, but paying 5 is a lot, (not so much of a problem with tron, but still) and you draw 2 by sacrificing it, meaning you lose a blue land (which I find horrible), and you draw 2 cards that may not be much relevant to your needs. I'll always prefer to tutor a good card for 3 rather than pay 5, lose a land to draw 2 random cards.
Search for azcanta is very good, but not for this deck, I don't think it was a serious proposition.
Agreed on the unwind]. I don't like counterspells to cost more than 2 (except dismissal and the XU counterspells).

I don't play talisman, so I don't know what your problem might be, I just never have problems being to slow, except versus very very fast decks.
I'm always very mana efficient. What is your list ?

Nothing feels worse than to tap out on turn 2 for a talisman only for the opponent to resolve some kind of large threat like Tarmogoyf or Tasigur. I dislike tapping out in my main phases with this deck unless the play is super impactful because we need to answer threats while they are on the stack as much as possible. I dropped talisman's from my lists about when K-command was printed and haven't really looked back since.

When I played talisman, I often waited until turn 3 to play it, so I could always have 2 mana open to counter something on turns 2 and 3.

Well, after 5 years of not playing I am back!

Sleeved up a version of Bloody Rabbit's deck (missing some Chalices and a Snap due to availability in my area).

Only played 2 rounds but man I missed playing this game.

My question (no this isnt just a post about my playing magic) is; how bad is our burn matchup? I played it tonight and even with a chalice on 1 on the play, it still required my opponent misplaying to win a single game (lost the match on a mull to 4).

We've always been a dog to aggro, but that specific list should do alright. Burn is the one aggro matchup where Dismember just hurts though as they're more than happy to trade a Goblin Guide for 4 of your life. At least that list runs multiple River of Tears to help you out. You're gonna want to bring in 4x Chalice (on 1 is good, but on 2 is generally better. Shuts off Helix, Boros Charm, Skullcrack but most importantly Destructive Revelry) and 4x Spatial Contortion (be careful popping this off on a Swiftspear if they have mana open). I think some Maps come out because you won't have time to use them before you're dead.

I tend to beat Burn if they get creature heavy hands as I have enough sideboard hate to keep the board clean. It's the stupid Bolt, Bolt, Bolt, Boros Charm etc. hands that beat me because I am prioritizing removal in my opening hand.

I think it largely depends on your personal list. I tested a good deal with my son, whose main deck is Burn. I did very well, but my list is a little different (as most seem to be at this point). What does your list look like? Here's mine:

Burn is really on slightly unfavorable, especially depending on your board. Game 1 I hope to draw into batterskull or tutor for wurmcoil. Game 2/3 I personally find TKS to be an all star in these MU since it dodges destructive revelry and redirects damage from your face.

Also its important to note that game 1 you should play chalice @ 1, but games 2/3 play chalice @ 2.

I have resolved a turn 4 wurmcoil against burn at 14 life and died before my next untap. Sometimes you just can't win against their nut draws. Chalice on 1 seems to be a key part of the recipe for winning that match up and the matchup can get a fair bit better post sideboard when we get to take out some of our dead cards. I personally think the elves matchup is probably worse due to Rec Sage + Ezuri + Cavern of Souls and all of the mana producers outpacing our counterspells. Merfolk is also another matchup that can be challenging in my experience because of the multiple threats and islandwalking. I would be interested in any insight people have for winning these matchups.