MTG Salvation

Right now, I wouldn't waste too much time thinking about this navigator's compass.
I much more interested into damping sphere and the slot it could take in my sideboard. I like summary dismissal a lot, but maybe it could take its place? I'm not to sure... I really like dismissal....

@AMP791985 , hello there. Always happy to see someone new coming. Don't take this wrong, but maybe you could make a little effort to make your list easier to read? You could use the "[deck]" and the "[card]" tag to make it look better. Anyway, welcome.

Thran temporal Gateway spoiler. Seems very interesting in a meta full of field of ruin

@bloodyrabbit_01

Could you tell me what you dont like about the list? I run a similar list but mine is closer to yours.

To me, it seems like a potentially playable card.
Against aggro: ramps (any!!) threat into turn 5, which is massive.
Against control/combo: playing threats at instant speed, uncountereable, allows to play threats end-of-turn.
And in general, CMCwise it fits well in the deck, taking the place of some controversial cards like solemn and/or talismans, and improving them somehow. It's an artifact, which is great for TfK. And as already mentioned, it would make the deck even more consistent without Tron online.

I would start testing it as a 1 of.

Thran temporal Gateway spoiler. Seems very interesting in a meta full of field of ruin

I've learned to live with land destruction, like fulminator mage and field of ruins. Nowadays, it doesn't bother me that much. I'm never in a rush to assemble tron when I play against this type of deck. I wouldn't play gateway just for that.

Against aggro losing turn 4 into casting something turn 5 isn’t better than directly casting something on turn 6 (Wurmcoil, mostly

.
Yep, agreed, I'd rather play something with more impact in these turns (thinking about artifact hate EOT on the gateway)... Against aggro, I don't feel like I need this. It won't help my bad aggro match up (thinking about burn this time).

I would simply bring “my” list, otherwise I would have played something different. I’m not liking Chalices maindeck anymore, nor I agree with the lack of Dismember maindeck (which is often crucial, IMHO). I found out that having Supreme Will in multiples is better than clogging your hand with a lot of Thirsts, and more sweepers are needed. Other than that, I’m fully convinced that each list that doesn’t present three Ballista in it is a bad list, nowadays.

That's also what I'm trying nowadays, but I have to say that in my last few games, chalice MD would have been very good also. I love my ballistas MD, but I kinda also miss the chalices, (thinking about this game 1 versus living end)... Still trying to figure out what's better. I will probably stick with the ballistas MD and chalices SB for a while.

Hey all,
Any tips for the RG eldrazi matchup? 4 caverns make countering threats hard, and BBE and Eldrazi Obligator outvalue counterspells pretty well. Obligator's cast trigger even removes Wurmcoil's ability to stabilize, something that I rely on a lot against midrange decks. This, in addition to the normal Eldrazi package of Reshaper/TKS/Smasher makes the matchup very hard in my experience, unless I get lucky and hit an o-stone/ugin on turn 4 or 5.

This is the list I'm working with right now. I've read all the stuff on here about gifts being too slow, and I'm open to cutting it, but it's the best possible late-game draw and it's so versatile in the mid-game that I've grown a little bit of a soft spot for it. That said, any and all feedback is appreciated.



Edit: Actually, Ugin doesn't do anything besides shooting down Obligators or Elves. Good, but not usually enough to stabilize.

@uenot47

My buddy plays RG Eldrazi and, much like humans, there's isn't much you can do to keep up when there's a Cavern of Souls in play. It's either race, via assembling Tron quickly and hitting your card advantage draws and/or land destruction to eliminate the Cavern issue.

Cavern presents a huge problem for us and other control decks because it clearly eliminates the ability to control the stack. This means we're relying on controlling the board, without the same number of sweepers or direct kill spells as other control decks. It can sometimes becomes a matter of getting Tron + Academy Ruins and an OStone in the yard to keep the board under control.

All this to say, the matchup is not good. I would personally, in looking at your list, dump the Tec Edge for Field of Ruin in the side and consider using Ghost Quarter in the main, instead of Field. That was a change I made, after analyzing the "Japanese List", to my personal deck, and I quite like it.

You may also want to consider dumping Gifts and Gearhulk for lower CMC spells + better early game spells. I've messed around with Gearhulk and think the 5/6 body at instant speed with the snapcaster effect is awesome, but, I believe many others have mentioned this, he's dead too often in the early game to make the infrequent situational late game use worth it.

My thought on Gifts has always been similar. Yeah, it's great when you get to that point in the game and can punish your opponent with Gifts, but those aren't the matchups that are worth devoting more cards to, in my opinion.

Hey guys, whats the secret against ponza? Chalice is kinda slow sometimes, and yesterday i played against 3 ponzas at the local store, it was ******* bad. My list is quite standard list inspired in Pie.

Chalice is useless against Ponza. By the time you can cast it, the 1-drops that matter have already been cast. You need cheap interaction to hang with them; Remand and Repeal shine in the mainboard, whereas Dismember, Spatial Contortion, and Spreading Seas have done very well for me from the sideboard. I've had some reasonable amounts of success against them in the postboard meta (close to 50/50, which I think is remarkable given how both decks are structured) using this approach. Cards like Engineered Explosives can also do well if you happen to have them.

@darkx87

I'll probably replace gearhulk for a snappy once I can get my hands on one. Seems like it'd have more early-game utility.

Why Ghost Quarter in the main and Field of Ruin in the SB and not the other way around? Field's a blue source in a pinch and doesn't set you back on lands, whereas GQ is pretty bad against decks without caverns or tronlands.

Because those are the decks that we most need land destruction against early, the cavern and tron decks. GQ has no requirements on our side to eliminate one of their lands, whereas ruin is t3, earliest. A mix of them seems to work well.

Shok posted two 5-0 leagues yesterday with meta-calls Aetherspouts and Aetherize. With Boggles getting really popular I think it's nice to have a mass bounce spell mainboard and it also happens to be great against Affinity and Infect which are popular at my LGS so I'm gonna give it a try.

https://www.twitch.tv/kharniverous/videos/all

Quote from topkyle »

Shok posted two 5-0 leagues yesterday with meta-calls Aetherspouts and Aetherize. With Boggles getting really popular I think it's nice to have a mass bounce spell mainboard and it also happens to be great against Affinity and Infect which are popular at my LGS so I'm gonna give it a try.

https://www.twitch.tv/kharniverous/videos/all

Those looking for the list:

Talisman help me out game 1 quite a bit.. Gives us some acceleration and also extra blue. Running cards like gifts and even the aetherspouts, those talismans speed us up a turn. In an environment where lots of creatures are running around talismans can only help us game 1. Supreme will is out in favor of the gifts ungiven. I haven't played in a while, and I also have not looked at what is the most popular at this time. I added the spouts to help combat hollow one.dec. We are running hot right now.

Come on, you're talking to the creator of the deck here. Shok's the man. As far as I'm concerned, him and pie are the only ones with any credibility for a deck that has virtually no GP/SCG top 8s.

I'm all for innovation but I don't think anyone can take a 61 card deck seriously. I'm fully convinced that any deck that doesn't present four TFK is a bad list.

I don't think it's fair to discredit someone's opinion because they didn't create the deck. BloodyRabbit has a pretty different approach to Utron than Shok does, and that's fine- no deck is set in stone. We improve our lists through discussion and testing, and this thread should be the place to discuss.

I'd be curious to see what your experience without Chalice is. I've played with 4x MB, 2/2 Split, and 1/1 Split. Personally, I think the 2/2 split is the way to go.

In matches where it's dead, you pitch it to TFK. In matches it's not dead, it's a game changer.

Even in matchups where opp isn't running umpteen 1 or 2 drops, it can still play a huge role in shutting down key components of their win strategy or defense strategy.

For example, dropping a chalice on 1 v a white deck running Path often shuts down their primary and/or only means for removing Wurmcoil. If they do happen to have additional creature/artifact removal, it's coming at a higher cost and easier to counter with Condescend or Remand without fear of having it recast the same turn.

Chalice represents a highly efficient means for continually shutting down a specified CMC. Something we need, given our smaller set of slots available for counters, even if you remove all Chalices.

Would also note that I went 3-1 at the LGS last night playing a list similar to Shok's. The Matchups:

1) Temur Good Stuff - (1-2) - Very bad draws
2) BW Tokens - (2-0) - EE for days
3) Soul Sisters - (2-1) - EE and Chalice + Wurmcoil; slow games with a Chalice on 1, 2, and 3 for a hard lock on his deck
4) UG Merfolk - (2-0) - Ugin

Posted a 5-0 on Shoks list, accidentally left in the trinket mage and played a 61 card special.

1. Jund 2-0 Aetherspouts over preformed.

2. Jeskai Control 2-0 Gifts was great.

3. KCI 2-0 Counter magic and chalice on 1.

4. UW Control 2-0 Crucible and chalice on 1.

5. Mardu Pyro 2-1 Game one lost to Lilly. Post board opponent overvalued blood moon. O stone was great.

Overall the list felt good but I have cut the trinket mage since. The 3 talismans smoothed out some of my draws. Chalice was constantly strong outside of the jund game and I would hate to cut it. Aetherspouts has been great for me so far against affinty and humans. I think it might be better to play gearhulk over titan with the aetherize and aetherspouts in the 75.

Hi all. I haven't played Magic since the Twin ban, but decided to play again on Friday with Blue Tron, one of my favorites from back then. I've been following the recent development of this deck though. I agree with BloodyRabbit in that modal spells are important, and I generally like these types of lists must better than other "standard" lists. I've always believed U-Tron should try to maximize its effectiveness when it doesn't have tron. The games are lose are the games I don't get started in.

Anyway, here's my list I played. Although I imagine it won't be very well liked, I still wish to share:



I played to 3-1 at my local store, playing:

1. Whir Combo (2-0): Too slow and they don't have the right answers
2. Death's Shadow (1-2): I win the first game with Ostone followed by a Batterskull, but had to mull to 6 the next two games and just stumbled on mana.
3. Affinity (2-0): Oblivion Stone wins game 1 and post-board I have a ton of answers.
4. Esper Control (2-0): They have too much creature removal and not enough threats. Recurring walking ballistas seal both games.

Some thoughts

• No Mindslaver. I used this card for a long time, but ultimately felt like there were few circumstances where I needed Mindslaver, and only mindslaver, to win the game. There are so many other win conditions which are useful at earlier points in the game or do a better job of stabilizing the game (like Ugin), that it felt unnecessary with me. And with field of ruin being so common now, setting up for a lock with Academy Ruins is even harder.
• Batterskull isn't as objectively powerful as Wurmcoil, but I find the lower mana cost is worth it. Getting to 6 mana in a timely manner just doesn't always happen. It's helped quite a lot, and is an example of a card which is useful without tron but amazing with tron.
• 9 basic islands because I just never felt the upside of utility U-lands was worth it vs. wanting more basics against things like blood moon.
• 4 OStones are used because I find that, by far, this card helps me stabilize the most. Without tron it's still very powerful, and with Tron becomes incredible. It's always surprised me that more OStones are not run.
• Tolaria West has been very useful, either being a land or tutoring for what I need. It's been especially nice being able to turn late-game maps into threats via walking ballista.
• Walking Ballista was amazing. I probably will replace the second Ugin with the 3rd ballista.
• Oona's Gatewarden is a silly card, but being able to play an anti-creature card on turn 1 helps a lot.
• Trinket Mage in the sideboard has always been very good to me. It gives you a lot of copies of key cards like needle, cage, chalice, and explosives, but saves a lot of sideboard space. Generally good against midrange and control.

Guys, I know that we already had some thoughts about this but - what do You think about new Karn, scion of urza? Do 3rd turn Karn (with talismans) is real deal? If we gonna get some real adventages from this planeswalker? Or it's just win more card?
He's got not bad price and I wonder If there is a good time to get few for the deck