@Jace?! The sky is falling! How do I get my copies? What deck do I play? How do we change the deck?
People. It's not that hard. Jace is just a card -- if you can't play it, then don't. Just play what you want to at FNM, and be able to beat other decks (including Jace decks). I would start by adding some extra counters to the main: the 3rd/4th Leak, Remand, Spell Pierce, etc. More Snapmages, maybe even up the Clique count, perhaps even Myth Realized. There's Mutavault and Faerie Conclave too. Honestly, it's like y'all don't know how to respond to a 4-mana sorcery that dies to damage!
What changes will this deck undergo? Let me tip my hat at it (I'm willing to be wrong, but let's discuss it):
Prediction 1: Miracles will be too inefficient, since there's only 1 viable way to get Terminus/Entreat back on top (Riverwise Augur is probably still not playable).
Prediction 2: Splashing Bolt could be relevant, but it's not 100% necessary -- I can see many upsides to it though.
Prediction 3: As for straight UW, countermagic is now the preferred mode of interaction -- especially if you don't have Jaces of your own. Storm is making a huge comeback, Tron will rise up to beat down control and midrange decks. Be able to beat those decks. Be prepared for opposing countermagic too.
Prediction 4: I don't think cutting Seas will get us anywhere.
Prediction 5: Playing Jace isn't even a necessity -- you will fall prey to people looking to punish Jace players.
Well...for now I'm probably completing my UW and hold on to my Jeskai stuff since I believe Jeskai is probably gonna be the best combination for U Control in Modern, since it was already really good and the Burn spells are probably gonna be required for fighting opposing JTMS.
I believe it all comes down to how Jeskai can fight Big Mana decks. I don't believe JTMS improves Jeskai's match up vs Tron or Valakut. So... IMO Jeskai will still be prayed on by Tron. That said, if I am right, I'd say there will still be room for both UW and Jeskai. UW being the best Control for fighting Big Mana, and Jeskai should be better against Aggros and Midranges.
I'll just finish my UW and play my Jaceless version for a while until the hype is gone and JTMS is reprinted.
I don't believe that we will be able to play Miracles just because of Jace. Without Brainstorm and/or Top, I think it would be too hard to rely on Miracles spells. They printed that Brainstorm Merfolk on Rivals of Ixalan, but he costs the same as Jace and allows only one activation.
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Modern RBWMardu Pyromancer R.I.P. BG The Rock
Commander W Nahiri, the Lithomancer
Well...for now I'm probably completing my UW and hold on to my Jeskai stuff since I believe Jeskai is probably gonna be the best combination for U Control in Modern, since it was already really good and the Burn spells are probably gonna be required for fighting opposing JTMS.
I believe it all comes down to how Jeskai can fight Big Mana decks. I don't believe JTMS improves Jeskai's match up vs Tron or Valakut. So... IMO Jeskai will still be prayed on by Tron. That said, if I am right, I'd say there will still be room for both UW and Jeskai. UW being the best Control for fighting Big Mana, and Jeskai should be better against Aggros and Midranges.
I'll just finish my UW and play my Jaceless version for a while until the hype is gone and JTMS is reprinted.
I don't believe that we will be able to play Miracles just because of Jace. Without Brainstorm and/or Top, I think it would be too hard to rely on Miracles spells. They printed that Brainstorm Merfolk on Rivals of Ixalan, but he costs the same as Jace and allows only one set up.
@annhilator - I don't think any of your predictions stand to reason. I think all of your predictions are based on hopes and dreams that Supreme Verdict is still going to be a real card, despite you not explicitly saying so.I have a strong suspicion that verdict becomes obsolete. Jace decks are going to want to clear the path long before turn 4 and non-jace decks are going back to passing what was known as 'the Jace test'. It basically means that if a creature doesn't gain advantage simply by being cast, it can't be played. Bob, Goyf, Thought-Knot, thalia, deaths shadow, and 90% of the cards that verdict was good against don't pass that test. We're going to be seeing more snaps, cliques, souls, bloodbraid, goblin guides and these type of cards that just don't care about verdict. And in that vein, the decks that spreading seas was good against disappear. Tron can't beat a meta of decks trying to get under Jace.
I think its too early to say that, jayjay.
Supreme verdict has been good for the entirety of modern, and while jace is a big shakeup, I don't think its going to change underlying assumptions like that.
Bob, goyf, tks, thalia, and death's shadow all match up acceptably vs jace.
Yea, bouncing something for 1 turn is annoying, but you're tapping out 4 mana to bounce 1 creature. If they have anything else on the battlefield, that doesn't become a good plan. Jace is only good against those creatures if you're playing supreme verdict.
If those creatures could all exist alongside supreme verdict (and exist in better decks that verdict decks) they can exist alongside jace too.
We're likely to see more snaps and cliques in the short term, because people will play more blue.
We're likely to see more pyromancers because that card is good and people have realized its been underrated for a while. Its started its climb pre-pro tour, and it will continue, regardless of jace.
On the other hand, cards like souls, pyromancer, bbe, goblin guide, etc, are also generally weak to verdict. In straight burn, guide may be an exception, but the rest of that list certainly doesn't like wraths.
Realistically, if verdict is bad, then blue is also bad.
A lot of people seem to think that jace is going to be incredibly warping to the metagame and we'll quickly see a metagame of jace decks that are heavily skewed towards either playing lots of removal (vs aggro) or playing lots of counterspells (vs combo/ramp) and then remain static.
Thats not going to happen. We'll see plenty of different decks change configurations, and we'll continue to see a rotating metagame clock. Some weeks, tron will do well and the next week it will be kicked down by fast aggro. And the week after that, aggro will lose to combo, which will then lose to the jace deck, which eventually loses to tron. Much like the meta we currently have. Matchups, and whats popular when will still be just as important as things like "does this creature pass the jace test".
Tron could go back to g/r with pyroclasms, but that makes it much weaker to spreading seas + cryptic decks. It could stay g/b and be better vs blue decks, but then lose points against the fast aggro again.
Bolt kills a lot of creatures that have continued to see play in modern. The card is good, but to say it dictates that only creatures that trade favorably with it are popular in modern are wrong. Hell, mantis rider has historically been the flagship "this creature would be good if bolt didn't exist" creature, and at a pro tour with a resurgence of bolt's popularity, proved to be a powerful and popular card.
. Bob, goyf, tks, thalia, and death's shadow all match up acceptably vs jace.
Yea, bouncing something for 1 turn is annoying, but you're tapping out 4 mana to bounce 1 creature. If they have anything else on the battlefield, that doesn't become a good plan. Jace is only good against those creatures if you're playing supreme verdict
This is just fundamentally incorrect, and sounds to me like you've never cast a Jace against a mid-range deck in any format ever. If you bounce a creature with Jace in play and get to untap with the Jace again, you're a huge favorite because you either have the Mana available to cast your 1 Mana answers, or you get to look at 3 new cards to find your 1 Mana answers. You don't build a game plan around casting Jace into supreme verdict, they need fundamentally different board states. Jace wants the field to have at most 1 threat on the field, verdict wants there to be 3 or more. You build a game plan of casting a Jace onto an empty board and then finding every answer you need for the rest of the game.
Jace is good, yes. But as you mentioned, jace likes to have at most, 1 threat on the field.
The nice things about 1-2 drops (bob, goyf, thalia, shadow, as you mentioned) is that their low mana cost often means you can play multiple my turn 4.
Yes, if you can bounce their single creature with jace, and they have nothing else going on, you're not doing too bad.
Of course, you had to go down on jace to do this, so you can't keep doing it forever. On the other hand, they can recast their creature, and can often recast more creatures.
TKS is an exception here (I promise bouncing tks never feels good), but the rest of the creatures you mentioned all are relevant early in the game. Bob matches up well against jace because jace comes down after bob has draw 2+ cards, and bounces him. Not dealing with him permanently. Goyf and shadow have likely gotten in for some damage, and by the time jace comes around, are big enough to kill him, meaning you have to bounce them. If they replay them, and you brainstorm, you either find what you're looking for, or jace dies on the spot. This is made more significant by the fact that jace is now at 2 loyalty, so snapcaster mage, scooze, grim flayer, bob, etc, will all kill him even if you do find a kill spell for the big creature. Thalia of course will come out on top given that mana spent.
The game plan is not jace into verdict, its verdict into jace.
Objectively speaking, the dream scenario with a jace + wrath deck is always going to be wrath away all of their stuff > play jace, fateseal them out of the game because jace came down when they had few to no resources.
The way to get them in a place where they have few to no resources capable of pressuring jace is by casting supreme verdict.
Jace's ideal board state is what post-supreme verdict looks like.
Short answer, in magical christmas land, jace is absurdly good against those creatures, but in actuality, he's often just an annoyance unless you have sweepers. He's not going to consistently be good enough against those types of creatures to have a meaningful impact on what sees play in the format at large, barring 1 exception: major powerlevel inconsistencies. This happened in standard (where cawblade was just so much better than everything else that of course the tier 0 deck had an impact on what sees play), but its much less likely to happen in modern. Worse case, no matter what the best jace deck looks like, it will still lose hard to either burn, dredge, tron, eldrazi, or storm, and it won't be able to absolutely take over the meta, even if the metagame RPS just looks like (storm) > jace > humans > storm.
That is what control decks are supposed to do JayJay. That is the trade-off for leaning control over midrange. You get an edge by going over the mid-range strategies by losing an edge against more aggressive strategies. That is a large part of why control isn't performing in the first place. It doesn't have a sufficient way to capitalize on turning the corner and stabilizing. If a mid-range deck hasn't put the game away in turns 8-12 against control it should dramatically lose the advantage going late. Jace should impact the format by bringing a piller archetype in line with the rest of the mainstay archetypes. It might turn into a problem in witch case we will know for a fact that yes JTMS is busted in modern. Plus side though if that is in fact the case. Then you can log onto MTGS and tell the world "I told you so!"
That is what control decks are supposed to do JayJay. That is the trade-off for leaning control over midrange. You get an edge by going over the mid-range strategies by losing an edge against more aggressive strategies. That is a large part of why control isn't performing in the first place. It doesn't have a sufficient way to capitalize on turning the corner and stabilizing. If a mid-range deck hasn't put the game away in turns 8-12 against control it should dramatically lose the advantage going late. Jace should impact the format by bringing a piller archetype in line with the rest of the mainstay archetypes. It might turn into a problem in witch case we will know for a fact that yes JTMS is busted in modern. Plus side though if that is in fact the case. Then you can log onto MTGS and tell the world "I told you so!"
I'm not really sure why you are mentioning me in this comment, it doesn't seem to map on to anything I've said and frankly I have no idea what you're talking about.
This whole sky is falling notion is baffling to me, yup JTMS is bonkers, yup he's going to be expensive for the near future, he'll even warp the format in the next few weeks.
Will the meta adapt? Of course.
Can people jam 4 Jace and auto win? Likely impossible.
Are lists bad with 2 or less points? Horrendously so.
This card just helps shore up our medium/good match ups, and is a bit of a liability in our weak ones unless we can drag the game out (like a control deck) and get to a comfortable place to slam the big boy. He's still trash against any go wide deck unless we can find a sweeper, gets wrecked by burn spells, and is as weak to the vast amounts of discard that dominates this format. Any control player upset by this unbanning I can only imagine is upset that they won't be able to pick up a few for a "reasonable" price for the next several weeks/months.
In the larger meta this may help spawn decks just on the power of Jace; Bant/Sultai/Esper Control, RUG tempo with BBE and Jace as top end, Miracles (rip brainstorm fish). We're in a wild west of sorts and its much more impactful than most new set releases have been for awhile.
I'm pumped, modern is sweet, time to brew and test!
Hey guys! I'm an avid UW Control player and with the Jace unban I've been testing UW Control all day. While it's not legal on MTGO events, I recorded 2 of my testing matches against a friend on RG Tron. I was testing the "bennyhillz" style build with 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor, although 3 may be the correct number. Anyways, I'll link them below. Hopefully it can be a solid starting point for someone who doesn't know where to begin and can help seasoned UW Control players assess Jace's role in certain matchups. Long story short: Jace is reaallllll sweet!
I was also recording with Sultai Jace Midrange earlier today, so if you see a decklist under my facecam that looks nothing like UW Control, I apologize. I forgot to update my OBS settings. Hopefully it's not too much of an inconvenience or clutter for y'all. Anyways, if you watch the videos and like what you see, let me know! If you didn't like it, provide me some constructive feedback. I am constantly trying to become a better content creator. Thanks!
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Check out some Magic Gameplay and Commentary videos here, including Modern Grixis, Jeskai, and Esper videos as well as some Standard and Drafts too: My YouTube Channel!
Cut Sphinx's Rev, big Gideon and a land for 3 JtMS. Without some of our most expensive spells, shaving an extra land to play the 3rd JtMS makes sense to me.
I think JtMS gives us enough card advantage that we don't need Rev anymore, but maybe we should add in maindeck Blessed Alliance for the lack of lifegain? Right now I added in the 2nd Wall of Omens to help protect our Planeswalkers but maybe that should be the Alliance?
Cut Sphinx's Rev, big Gideon and a land for 3 JtMS. Without some of our most expensive spells, shaving an extra land to play the 3rd JtMS makes sense to me.
I think JtMS gives us enough card advantage that we don't need Rev anymore, but maybe we should add in maindeck Blessed Alliance for the lack of lifegain? Right now I added in the 2nd Wall of Omens to help protect our Planeswalkers but maybe that should be the Alliance?
Otherwise I'm open to any suggestions on how we can craft the new version of UW control.
I gonna try something like this but I'll keep 25 lands. I'll cut one of the azcanta because of jace.
For my 25 lands I'll add a ghost quarter and play mystic gate instead of irrigated farmland.
I don't think that we need some lifegain maindeck and if it was the case, I won't play rev for this reason (usually you gain 3-4 life with your rev and it's the only card with lifegain. It's not enough to counter the very aggro decks because rev comes to late).
With the addition of jace, I'll play 2 leyelines in SB to protect him against bolts etc.
Yeah I think it's probably best to shave revelation and big gideon and cut a land.
I want to experiment with ancestral vision, trade a bunch and refill with ancestral, or after all that trading have the last threat in Jace. I might want to main deck 1 white leyline just to mise, but it seems overpriced on mtgo at the moment.
I'm playing 14 untapped blue sources for the turn one vision/visions, and then just jamming a bunch of interactive cards and hoping to win with Jace or secure the wastes, and maybe colonnade. Secure seems sweet against opposing Jaces.
Wall of Omens is a good call, I think playing even as many as 3 could be good because it blanks half of Bloodbraid Elf too, and sets up for Verdict into Jace.
As for Entreat, I'm not sure if it's a good call or not. We don't have many ways if drawing it on our opponent's turn (unless you go for Opt over Serum).
I'm not 100% on cutting snares entirely. The two archetypes we're expecting to see increase of play are fast combo and aggro which makes snares better positioned since these decks also prey on big mana. 2-2 split of walls/snares could be could or playing condemns and dropping the walls may be good, I've always been super medium towards wall so I may just be trying to justify not playing them.
I've got a pair of lists here that I'm going to be starting out the new world with; our traditional UW deck and some spice that's likely bad but was a blast to play.
Pretty straight forward retool from what we're all used to seeing; cut the Gideon Jura's, and a cryptic command to get the deck a little lower to the ground. A theme of mine in these lists is the addition of spell snare and condemn to help deal with early pressure as we all know that's whats coming for the next few weeks.
A third Jace, the Mind Sculptor may be wanted in this list but as I only have two currently this is where I'm going to be for the next 8 weeks at least.
I played SaffronOlive's UW miracles list at modern monday last night and really enjoyed myself while going 2-1-1. This is where I'm going to start even though I still expect the deck to have a hard time with aggro unless a lot of the sideboard is dedicated to it. I'm starting with cutting the remands, search for azcanta and obviously riverwise augur (thank you for your service). Doing this gets us more "actual" counter spells in Logic Knot and Mana Leak and Spell Snare. I also put in more removal in Detention Sphere's and condemn to help deal with aggro and random cards we aren't countering since there isn't a large number of counterspells.
I'm not 100% on the 22 lands, I think I'd like 23 but the deck has a ton of cantrip effects so keeping a two land hand isn't that scary. Vendilion Clique is something I'd like to try as a two of as well, though I'm not sure where to make cuts until getting some reps in.
People. It's not that hard. Jace is just a card -- if you can't play it, then don't. Just play what you want to at FNM, and be able to beat other decks (including Jace decks). I would start by adding some extra counters to the main: the 3rd/4th Leak, Remand, Spell Pierce, etc. More Snapmages, maybe even up the Clique count, perhaps even Myth Realized. There's Mutavault and Faerie Conclave too. Honestly, it's like y'all don't know how to respond to a 4-mana sorcery that dies to damage!
What changes will this deck undergo? Let me tip my hat at it (I'm willing to be wrong, but let's discuss it):
Prediction 1: Miracles will be too inefficient, since there's only 1 viable way to get Terminus/Entreat back on top (Riverwise Augur is probably still not playable).
Prediction 2: Splashing Bolt could be relevant, but it's not 100% necessary -- I can see many upsides to it though.
Prediction 3: As for straight UW, countermagic is now the preferred mode of interaction -- especially if you don't have Jaces of your own. Storm is making a huge comeback, Tron will rise up to beat down control and midrange decks. Be able to beat those decks. Be prepared for opposing countermagic too.
Prediction 4: I don't think cutting Seas will get us anywhere.
Prediction 5: Playing Jace isn't even a necessity -- you will fall prey to people looking to punish Jace players.
4x Celestial Colonnade
2x Glacial Fortress
2x Mutavault
3x Field of Ruin
4x Flooded Strand
2x Hallowed Fountain
5x Island
2x Plains
2x Spell Snare
2x Mana Leak
1x Negate
2x Logic Knot
2x Cryptic Command
Removal (10)
4x Path to Exile
1x Blessed Alliance
3x Supreme Verdict
2x Detention Sphere
2x Snapcaster Mage
2x Vendilion Clique
Draw/Selection (13)
2x Search for Azcanta
4x Serum Visions
4x Spreading Seas
2x Think Twice
1x Sphinx's Revelation
Concern: How will this deck beat Jund with BBE and Burn? Will it need Ancestral Vision against BGx and Jace decks?
4x Celestial Colonnade
2x Glacial Fortress
1x Mutavault
4x Field of Ruin
4x Flooded Strand
1x Scalding Tarn
2x Hallowed Fountain
5x Island
2x Plains
2x Spell Snare
2x Mana Leak
1x Negate
2x Logic Knot
2x Cryptic Command
Removal (10)
4x Path to Exile
1x Condemn
3x Supreme Verdict
2x Detention Sphere
2x Gideon of the Trials
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Draw/Selection (12)
4x Serum Visions
4x Spreading Seas
3x Snapcaster Mage
1x Sphinx's Revelation
Concern: What do you do against the decks that are out to beat Jace?
Edit: Too many stupid edits.
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
I believe it all comes down to how Jeskai can fight Big Mana decks. I don't believe JTMS improves Jeskai's match up vs Tron or Valakut. So... IMO Jeskai will still be prayed on by Tron. That said, if I am right, I'd say there will still be room for both UW and Jeskai. UW being the best Control for fighting Big Mana, and Jeskai should be better against Aggros and Midranges.
I'll just finish my UW and play my Jaceless version for a while until the hype is gone and JTMS is reprinted.
I don't believe that we will be able to play Miracles just because of Jace. Without Brainstorm and/or Top, I think it would be too hard to rely on Miracles spells. They printed that Brainstorm Merfolk on Rivals of Ixalan, but he costs the same as Jace and allows only one activation.
RBW
Mardu PyromancerR.I.P.BG The Rock
Commander
W Nahiri, the Lithomancer
I believe it all comes down to how Jeskai can fight Big Mana decks. I don't believe JTMS improves Jeskai's match up vs Tron or Valakut. So... IMO Jeskai will still be prayed on by Tron. That said, if I am right, I'd say there will still be room for both UW and Jeskai. UW being the best Control for fighting Big Mana, and Jeskai should be better against Aggros and Midranges.
I'll just finish my UW and play my Jaceless version for a while until the hype is gone and JTMS is reprinted.
I don't believe that we will be able to play Miracles just because of Jace. Without Brainstorm and/or Top, I think it would be too hard to rely on Miracles spells. They printed that Brainstorm Merfolk on Rivals of Ixalan, but he costs the same as Jace and allows only one set up.
RBW
Mardu PyromancerR.I.P.BG The Rock
Commander
W Nahiri, the Lithomancer
Supreme verdict has been good for the entirety of modern, and while jace is a big shakeup, I don't think its going to change underlying assumptions like that.
Bob, goyf, tks, thalia, and death's shadow all match up acceptably vs jace.
Yea, bouncing something for 1 turn is annoying, but you're tapping out 4 mana to bounce 1 creature. If they have anything else on the battlefield, that doesn't become a good plan. Jace is only good against those creatures if you're playing supreme verdict.
If those creatures could all exist alongside supreme verdict (and exist in better decks that verdict decks) they can exist alongside jace too.
We're likely to see more snaps and cliques in the short term, because people will play more blue.
We're likely to see more pyromancers because that card is good and people have realized its been underrated for a while. Its started its climb pre-pro tour, and it will continue, regardless of jace.
On the other hand, cards like souls, pyromancer, bbe, goblin guide, etc, are also generally weak to verdict. In straight burn, guide may be an exception, but the rest of that list certainly doesn't like wraths.
Realistically, if verdict is bad, then blue is also bad.
A lot of people seem to think that jace is going to be incredibly warping to the metagame and we'll quickly see a metagame of jace decks that are heavily skewed towards either playing lots of removal (vs aggro) or playing lots of counterspells (vs combo/ramp) and then remain static.
Thats not going to happen. We'll see plenty of different decks change configurations, and we'll continue to see a rotating metagame clock. Some weeks, tron will do well and the next week it will be kicked down by fast aggro. And the week after that, aggro will lose to combo, which will then lose to the jace deck, which eventually loses to tron. Much like the meta we currently have. Matchups, and whats popular when will still be just as important as things like "does this creature pass the jace test".
Tron could go back to g/r with pyroclasms, but that makes it much weaker to spreading seas + cryptic decks. It could stay g/b and be better vs blue decks, but then lose points against the fast aggro again.
Bolt kills a lot of creatures that have continued to see play in modern. The card is good, but to say it dictates that only creatures that trade favorably with it are popular in modern are wrong. Hell, mantis rider has historically been the flagship "this creature would be good if bolt didn't exist" creature, and at a pro tour with a resurgence of bolt's popularity, proved to be a powerful and popular card.
This is just fundamentally incorrect, and sounds to me like you've never cast a Jace against a mid-range deck in any format ever. If you bounce a creature with Jace in play and get to untap with the Jace again, you're a huge favorite because you either have the Mana available to cast your 1 Mana answers, or you get to look at 3 new cards to find your 1 Mana answers. You don't build a game plan around casting Jace into supreme verdict, they need fundamentally different board states. Jace wants the field to have at most 1 threat on the field, verdict wants there to be 3 or more. You build a game plan of casting a Jace onto an empty board and then finding every answer you need for the rest of the game.
The nice things about 1-2 drops (bob, goyf, thalia, shadow, as you mentioned) is that their low mana cost often means you can play multiple my turn 4.
Yes, if you can bounce their single creature with jace, and they have nothing else going on, you're not doing too bad.
Of course, you had to go down on jace to do this, so you can't keep doing it forever. On the other hand, they can recast their creature, and can often recast more creatures.
TKS is an exception here (I promise bouncing tks never feels good), but the rest of the creatures you mentioned all are relevant early in the game. Bob matches up well against jace because jace comes down after bob has draw 2+ cards, and bounces him. Not dealing with him permanently. Goyf and shadow have likely gotten in for some damage, and by the time jace comes around, are big enough to kill him, meaning you have to bounce them. If they replay them, and you brainstorm, you either find what you're looking for, or jace dies on the spot. This is made more significant by the fact that jace is now at 2 loyalty, so snapcaster mage, scooze, grim flayer, bob, etc, will all kill him even if you do find a kill spell for the big creature. Thalia of course will come out on top given that mana spent.
The game plan is not jace into verdict, its verdict into jace.
Objectively speaking, the dream scenario with a jace + wrath deck is always going to be wrath away all of their stuff > play jace, fateseal them out of the game because jace came down when they had few to no resources.
The way to get them in a place where they have few to no resources capable of pressuring jace is by casting supreme verdict.
Jace's ideal board state is what post-supreme verdict looks like.
Short answer, in magical christmas land, jace is absurdly good against those creatures, but in actuality, he's often just an annoyance unless you have sweepers. He's not going to consistently be good enough against those types of creatures to have a meaningful impact on what sees play in the format at large, barring 1 exception: major powerlevel inconsistencies. This happened in standard (where cawblade was just so much better than everything else that of course the tier 0 deck had an impact on what sees play), but its much less likely to happen in modern. Worse case, no matter what the best jace deck looks like, it will still lose hard to either burn, dredge, tron, eldrazi, or storm, and it won't be able to absolutely take over the meta, even if the metagame RPS just looks like (storm) > jace > humans > storm.
I'm not really sure why you are mentioning me in this comment, it doesn't seem to map on to anything I've said and frankly I have no idea what you're talking about.
In the larger meta this may help spawn decks just on the power of Jace; Bant/Sultai/Esper Control, RUG tempo with BBE and Jace as top end, Miracles (rip brainstorm fish). We're in a wild west of sorts and its much more impactful than most new set releases have been for awhile.
I'm pumped, modern is sweet, time to brew and test!
That being said, good blue cards is probably a net positive for me, unless it horrendously warps modern, which isn't anything I predict.
UW Jace Control vs. RG Tron (Deck Tech + Match 1)
UW Jace Control vs. RG Tron (Match 2 + Closing Comments)
I was also recording with Sultai Jace Midrange earlier today, so if you see a decklist under my facecam that looks nothing like UW Control, I apologize. I forgot to update my OBS settings. Hopefully it's not too much of an inconvenience or clutter for y'all. Anyways, if you watch the videos and like what you see, let me know! If you didn't like it, provide me some constructive feedback. I am constantly trying to become a better content creator. Thanks!
Just got into UW Control recently and I've been trying to figure out how we want to build our deck with JtMS in mind.
Here's the mainboad I've come up with:
4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Field of Ruin
4x Flooded Strand
2x Glacial Fortress
1x Hallowed Fountain
5x Island
2x Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Irrigated Farmland
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Wall of Omens
Enchantment (8)
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Spreading Seas
2 Detention Sphere
Instant (11)
4 Path to Exile
1 Spell Snare
1 Logic Knot
1 Mana Leak
1 Negate
3 Cryptic Command
4 Serum Visions
3 Supreme Verdict
Planeswalker (6)
2 Gideon of the Trials
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
I gonna try something like this but I'll keep 25 lands. I'll cut one of the azcanta because of jace.
For my 25 lands I'll add a ghost quarter and play mystic gate instead of irrigated farmland.
I don't think that we need some lifegain maindeck and if it was the case, I won't play rev for this reason (usually you gain 3-4 life with your rev and it's the only card with lifegain. It's not enough to counter the very aggro decks because rev comes to late).
With the addition of jace, I'll play 2 leyelines in SB to protect him against bolts etc.
I want to experiment with ancestral vision, trade a bunch and refill with ancestral, or after all that trading have the last threat in Jace. I might want to main deck 1 white leyline just to mise, but it seems overpriced on mtgo at the moment.
I'm playing 14 untapped blue sources for the turn one vision/visions, and then just jamming a bunch of interactive cards and hoping to win with Jace or secure the wastes, and maybe colonnade. Secure seems sweet against opposing Jaces.
No idea if this is good, but it's fun brewing.
As for Entreat, I'm not sure if it's a good call or not. We don't have many ways if drawing it on our opponent's turn (unless you go for Opt over Serum).
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Island
3 Plains
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Cryptic Command
2 Spell Snare
2 Negate
1 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
1 Condemn
Sorcery (7)
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
4 Serum Visions
2 Detention Sphere
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Spreading Seas
Creatures (5)
2 Wall of Omens
3 Snapcaster Mage
Planeswalkers (4)
2 Gideon of the Trials
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Pretty straight forward retool from what we're all used to seeing; cut the Gideon Jura's, and a cryptic command to get the deck a little lower to the ground. A theme of mine in these lists is the addition of spell snare and condemn to help deal with early pressure as we all know that's whats coming for the next few weeks.
A third Jace, the Mind Sculptor may be wanted in this list but as I only have two currently this is where I'm going to be for the next 8 weeks at least.
4 Field of Ruin
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Island
2 Plains
2 Logic Knot
4 Path to Exile
4 Telling Time
2 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
1 Condemn
4 Opt
4 Snapcaster Mage
Enchantment (2)
2 Detention Sphere
Sorcery (10)
2 Entreat the Angels
4 Terminus
4 Serum Visions
Jace (3)
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
I played SaffronOlive's UW miracles list at modern monday last night and really enjoyed myself while going 2-1-1. This is where I'm going to start even though I still expect the deck to have a hard time with aggro unless a lot of the sideboard is dedicated to it. I'm starting with cutting the remands, search for azcanta and obviously riverwise augur (thank you for your service). Doing this gets us more "actual" counter spells in Logic Knot and Mana Leak and Spell Snare. I also put in more removal in Detention Sphere's and condemn to help deal with aggro and random cards we aren't countering since there isn't a large number of counterspells.
I'm not 100% on the 22 lands, I think I'd like 23 but the deck has a ton of cantrip effects so keeping a two land hand isn't that scary. Vendilion Clique is something I'd like to try as a two of as well, though I'm not sure where to make cuts until getting some reps in.