Hi all, I've enjoyed UW control videos and gameplay enough to join your side of the game. The first thing I'd like to ask is if the terminus version is still worth the loss of the serum visions set and the presence of the third jace tms. I remember a discussion I've read last summer about Ivan Floch and other hall of famers runing SV over the full set of Opts, while still picking terminus as a wrath effect...
I've played my first FNM with 2 Verdicts and 2 Settle, 3+3 Sv/ opts just to see how those two types of cantrip work, one Gideon AoZ in replacement of the 3rd Jace, and it felt very good (faced eldrazi tron, mardu pyro, ur phoenix. Gideon has been impressive by the way). I kind of feel Terminus is very relevant in the Spirits mu ( I'm a Spirits player,I know how easier life is when UW is on the settle/verdict plan), but I wonder If it's actually superior to the settle/verdict split against dredge and phoenix given that shuffling occurs during the game and looting digs for those threats again.
Also,in my meta GDS is well represented, and I can see Verdict being much safer than Teminus there.
Other than this, I'd like to hear something about the mana and the effort you have to put to set up Terminus. I believe someone here said months ago you've got less than 15% to flip terminus off the top, but I'm actually more worried about this 6 mana sorcery that needs Jace to be set up, which means it's not coming down before turn 5 when you don't happen to draw it as the first card for the turn...
Another thing I'm debating on is which should be the spot removal #5: I have heard good about condemn because of the instant speed nature, which is good along with snap and it's very good vs GDS, but it depends on the creature attacking, and once again I'm not a fan of textboxes with conditions. How about oust to get rid of bears ( exp if they know I'm on the Settle plan)or creature combo pieces like Vannifar, or lavamancer, Teeg and that type of garbage? Is Blessed Alliance too mana inefficient to be considered in that spot?
Blessed Alliance has been pretty terrible for me, sacrifice vs target removal that does not put the creature in the graveyard is a huge deal. Timely does much better as a life gaining stabiliser and I personally love it in the maindeck.
Terminus is good because in modern you need to be able to cheese opponents out of the game with the 'nutdraw', you basically need to have the option to win if you get lucky - it's the sad truth of the format that most people won't admit. For most combo decks this is some unbeatable draw like getting three phoenix or hollow one out on t2, for us that is ripping a terminus off the top and clearing the opponents board. Previously, UW could cheese games by using spreading seas but that is way too fair these days and does nothing against the best decks. Terminus was previously unplayable cause you couldn't put it back on top but Jace makes it playable, so in my opinion I think it makes sense to keep it in the deck. The old versions of UW that I used to play always felt too 'fair', so I am going to continue packing Terminus for now. Of course I also understand how annoying it is when Terminus basically makes you force to mulligan, but that is why you play some extra sweepers to round out the package and let you survive till you can hardcast one.
I'll add that I'm excited for the London mulligan in U/W control. I think the new rule does a lot to make terminus better. Now when we mulligan to 6 and start with a terminus in hand we are basically starting with a mull to 5. With the new rule we will draw 7 and put back the terminus we don't want in our opener giving us a stronger 6 card hand as well as more terminus in our deck to increase the chance of a miracle trigger. Our deck also has a relatively clunky, high costing mana curve with many 4 and 5 mana spells, the London mulligan seems beneficial here too by helping our opening hand to have a better curve that doesn't do nothing until turn 4. In games 2 and 3 (or against a know opponent in game 1) we also have the ability to hit the relevant answers or hate cards with a higher frequency.
I realize the new mulligan helps other proactive decks be more consistent in enacting their game-plans and in finding 2 card combos, but I really think that current builds of U/W miracles have more to gain from the implementation of this rule.
The London mull is good for terminus but medium for control overall; Our game 1 mulligan decisions are not highly impacted by the new mull rule because we don't know what we need to react to. Other decks have a clear mulligan plan despite not knowing what the opponent is on.
Game 2 and game 3 the new mull is good for us because we have really high impact sideboard cards and we will have a clearer mulligan plan since we know the opponents archetype by then.
I completely agree that the game 1 decisions are not as favorable for us since we don't know what cards are duds or must-haves if we don't know our opponent's plan. However, I think there is more to it than that. Regardless of what we are playing against cards like terminus, teferi, cryptic command, and JTMS tend to clog up our opening hands and getting 2 or more of any of these can be equivalent to starting on a mull to 5 against faster decks. Another factor is our high land count, when we have 25 land in the deck it is pretty common to have 4 or more in the opener. If we open an example hand with 4 land, 2x spells that cost 4 or more, and say 1 interactive spell that costs 1 or 2 mana, this hand can just get run over if we don't draw another relevant interactive piece in the top 3 cards but we are normally priced into keeping something like that game 1. Going forward I will be much more likely to mull that 7 card opener and look for a 6 with a better balance of cards to get through the first few turns.
It's hard to describe, but I just feel like we need a very specific ratio of all of our cards to succeed in any given game. By design, our deck will run more expensive spells than most other decks since our goal is to have a better late game than everyone else. The new mulligan rule will remove some of the pain that we deal with when drawing too many of our opening hand brick cards. Most lists have 2 teferi, 3 JTMS, 3 Cryptics, and 4 Terminus which is 12 cards we really don't want to see in our opener. I'm excited to have the option to draw 7 and then put back any of these cards to consistently improve mulligan quality. It's just such a big difference to have 6 strong opening cards versus the current mulligan rule where you draw 1 brick on your mull to 6 and suddenly you have a virtual 5 card hand and winning becomes extremely difficult.
Time will tell which decks gain the most from the new rule (looking at dredge and eldrazi), but I'm really looking forward to how this will impact U/W control.
No matter which deck I read here or in discords, all of them think they have more benefit from new rule. So I am sceptical. By the way, only a opinion of a non uw player. We will see in the future which decks are really favored after London. Each deck has cards which they won't in opening hand or cards they need in opening. This is not really a benefit, it's normal with new rule
No matter which deck I read here or in discords, all of them think they have more benefit from new rule. So I am sceptical. By the way, only a opinion of a non uw player. We will see in the future which decks are really favored after London. Each deck has cards which they won't in opening hand or cards they need in opening. This is not really a benefit, it's normal with new rule
Exactly. Every deck needs the right mix of land/spells/curve-considerations. It will benefit everyone that way, and us the least since we can't take advantage of the better mulligan options in game 1.
The only way it benefits UW differently than anyone else is that it can let us put terminus back into the deck, increasing the odds of drawing it after a shuffle effect. There may be other decks that actively want to put a card back (Maybe Nahiri-Emrakrul or Madcap-Emperion for example) which might also benefit in this way but they aren't popular at the moment (or I'm not thinking of it off top of my head).
London won't necessarily be representative of which decks benefit from the new mull since decklists will be available throughout the tournament to all players. This advantages reactive decks more than other lists in game 1s so any result where control decks come out on top should he taken with a grain of salt.
picked up the colonnades I needed to finish my set on the weekend, so decided to play UW control for a bit. Can I get some advice on the amulet titan matchup?
picked up the colonnades I needed to finish my set on the weekend, so decided to play UW control for a bit. Can I get some advice on the amulet titan matchup?
A long-winded, unedited blurb of mine from the Competitive UWx Facebook Group:
Side out your Remand if you have any in the main, they are terrible against Pacts and Amulets, which are the two strongest enablers of the deck against us. Obviously side out Spell Snare if you have them as they don't produce results against anything but Negate
Proactively use your Field of Ruin to prevent them from interacting with Pact of Negation before they can put it on the stack if you have a way to bury them before it's a live play. Obviously if they are a newer player and are tempted to Pact a high impact play like Detention Sphere on multiple Amulets early on, you can try to hedge for these scenarios with 1x Ghost Quarter main being sandbagged in your hand for Karoo lands / blue sources (although most people have moved on to now playing with only 4x Field as their LD) Otherwise, if you are in the business of tempo-ing the opponent, don't forget to Cryptic their Coalition Relic if they've resolved Pact, as it can single handedly help to pay for UU. The matchup between UWx and Amulet has evolved quite a bit that the collective intel regarding free wins against Pact of Negation is overall coming to a slow halt. I don't think you should angle the opponent on this line but be aware of when you can get a free win amirite
Be aware of their manabase, look at the trending decks and count the aggregate number of basics/Caverns/Tolaria West. This lets you know whether it's a +EV play to Path, Field, or Surgical any particular target depending on how much mana you are afforded at various stages of the game. I've seen lists running 3-4 Forests main so that's probably a safe bet
Don't be afraid to Path an enabler like Sakura Tribe Scout (unless they have Amulet(s) going and you need outs to Titan,) as you don't want them to leverage you with an activation in response to Field by having a Karoo land bounce the Field target They tend to make important plays with only half their deck, so if you can throttle their action by countering/D Sphere-ing their Amulets, removing their creatures, and casting Surgical targeting T West, you can really bottleneck them on their potential line of plays down to a paltry few options in Titan and Hive Mind, which are easy to topple one at a time
I have hedged with 1x Disallow to prevent Primeval Titan + Cavern of Souls from snowballing into an unwinnable game state so make sure to have some kind of plan for their big turn. On top of this I have cut Mana Leak from the 75 to play an extra Negate main because of how there is almost no return for it against big mana and combo decks
Sometimes, we just lose to set play. They have a turn 2 nut draw, we either have 1CC removal and somehow stabilize or cry and move on to the next game
If you can make them stumble early on, be generous (as previously mentioned) in how you use Path, yet mindful: as their sideboard plan involves Tireless Tracker to gain card advantage. Don't get caught lacking removal against it because they tend to draw 5-10+ cards when it goes unchecked and it can just break the game open
If you have to fight multiple game enders, let Cryptic + Path/Condemn be designated to fight Titan, and counters + Snapcaster to fight Hive Mind. We are always going to be catching up to their tempo, making the most mana efficient play is critical to staying alive.
You want to invest all your counterspells in succession for Hive Mind to A) not die on the spot to Summoner's Pact if it resolves and B) to hope that if we cannot prevent it from sticking that they had to fight with enough Pact of Negations that they cannot force multiple copies of it on us. When they're piling up lands with a Cavern + Titan, you want to force Pact to keep Cryptic from buying yourself another turn while holding up the cheapest removal possible.
In these cases, the opponent sees that we are spending lots of mana to barely stay alive, and they can get greedy and want to search for Tolaria West + Karoo land to keep the threats coming instead of saving Pact for when they have lethal on the spot. Letting Cryptic take a hit so that the removal resolves and we have to worry about getting opened up a little less is the best EV Overall the simplest way to approach this matchup is to assume the position of the Amulet player, and know that they either want to blitz us with a fast Amulet draw by turn 3-4 or cheese us out with Hive Mind + Pacts in turns 4+ or if plan A backfires, and try to mitigate those plans in the aforementioned order by the appropriate stage of the match.
Lastly, when all else fails in the long game, you can fall back on Logic Knot and Snapcaster combined to stop Summoner's Pact copies from Hive mind, as their Hive Mind cannot copy Logic Knot for 0UU and use it to copy anything but the Pacts (if they are silly enough to go that route) One Logic Knot and one Snapcaster should probably be enough insurance to prevent such a line, considering there is Surgical Extraction as well to fight the green pact
Just know that they have a big leg up on us in tempo so try to not think that the games will be relatively fair - we need a bit of luck for these games to pan out in our favor. I think most of us would be remiss to brush this matchup off as we are pretty much a underdog against Amulet
Furthermore, I'd add that after jamming about 10 or so leagues (after getting tired of my work schedule not letting me commit to paper MTG and pushing me to switch to MTGO,) I've finally 5-0ed a Friendly league (gotta get to comps one day when my budget allows lol) and my newest version has eschewed Stony Silence for Disenchant and one Lavinia, Azorius Renegade. It makes you a little bit softer to the likes of Tireless Tracker and Walking Ballista when facing off against the Amulet decks, but I figure they try to win by siding into Hornet Queen if they aren't playing it maindeck. The upside is that Lavinia blanks so much of what they try to accomplish while modestly getting in for 2dmg per turn. She's been really good for me in other spots as well, like Whir Prison and Grishoalbrand for example
Is it better than Damping Sphere? That card has been an all-star for me in the sideboard, because it is so disruptive to so many decks while being a bit harder to remove than a creature.
Is it better than Damping Sphere? That card has been an all-star for me in the sideboard, because it is so disruptive to so many decks while being a bit harder to remove than a creature.
Oh, I don't think one is strictly better than the other in a vacuum, they are both case dependent. I would even argue that Damping Sphere is usually worse for us in matchups where we would want either/or, because we like to have the ability to counter multiple things in a turn and our own Spheres hurt us in doing that from time to time. It is definitely harder to fight through decks that play cheap win-cons/mana ramp or rituals/Silence/Pact of Negation/Echoing Truth/cheap counterspells/etc in some variation when we are fighting through the incremental tax.
I also don't think Lavinia is the end-all/be-all, and it was just a fun try at another bit of 1x tech for learning purposes, but you should definitely be more mindful than to think one card is more useful than another when making your 75 count. It's all about consolidating maindeck-to-sideboard slot ratios and creating the least amount of dead spaces in your configuration spread, while mustering the chance to fight the opponent with the most potent answers you can manage in doing so.
I think one of the key factors not mentioned to the titan match-up is to simply make sure you have field of rune + activation mana open for use on their 1 copy of Slayers Stronghold. This is the card which allows the to actually put pressure on you and end the game. If you're allowed to untap and use your sorcery speed sweepers on them or PW's, then the matchup isnt as horrendous. I do think its still very favoured for them after playtesting it a A LOT however.
What do you all think of Blast Zone? I think it has a lot of potential for UW in particular. Field of Ruin is still the premiere colorless land and you probably add 4 FoR before adding a single blast zone, but UW has always had a single flex land spot it could fit into, and I even kind of like going up to 26 lands to play 2.
What do you all think of Blast Zone? I think it has a lot of potential for UW in particular. Field of Ruin is still the premiere colorless land and you probably add 4 FoR before adding a single blast zone, but UW has always had a single flex land spot it could fit into, and I even kind of like going up to 26 lands to play 2.
Blast zone is very powerful, it could definitely find it's way into our lists. Ironically, the existence of blast zone makes us want to play high numbers of field because blast zone is good against us as well; we give our opponents unlimited time to get to 4 counters to prepare in advance for our walkers. This card is going to make our Tron matchup harder.
I'm not sure how many we can play, but this would definitely take the slot over Ghost Quarter that some lists play (I don't think they should have been playing GQ in the first place, but whatever).
I will definitely be testing it as a 1-of in 25 Land lists and 2-of in 26 Land lists as you suggested.
Blast Zone intrigues me as far as deck design goes. If it's helpful against the meta, I can see myself playing 25 lands MD 1 SB, to be able to hit our land drops in post board games vs the fair decks, and to yankee swap Field for something more relevant against the aggro/8-rack/misc lists of the world that might have a hard check by how effective it is. Bogles, Elves, Merfolk, and Goblins are the first decks that come to mind that are pretty easy to hedge against based on their average CMC of their most powerful cards. I would say that Humans is probably the one matchup that's relevant to us where hitting them for 2cmc is going to save our hide the most, though I'd argue that we can hedge against them by diversifying our sweeper suite anyway.
It's a very good card, and by virtue of that, it could easily be a trap if we play it for no reason
I got another tournament report, this time from the FacetoFace Open in Edmonton. Played the same decklist I top 8'd GP Calgary with except one sideboard swap: +Runed Halo -Settle the Wreckage
Round 1 Abzan Midrange W 2-0
My opponent was a kitchen table player who was playing a budget deck. The match wasn't very exciting.
Round 2 Grixis Shadow W 2-0
He was either new to the deck or new to modern. He was reluctant to take damage early, when he did draw death shadows he couldn't play them. Again another unexciting match.
Round 3 Amulet Titan w 2-1
Now this was more of a game. He mulled to five game one which slowed him down enough for me to set up counter spells for his first two Titans. He scooped to an imminent Teferi ultimate with a Jace on the board. Game two he assembled Cavern of Souls + Walking Ballista + Academy Ruins. There was nothing I could do and the game ended quickly after that. Game three he starts going off, plays a Azsua, Lost but Seeking I attempt to counter it, but he casts Pact of Negation. He plays a couple of bounce lands, and accidentally picks up a blue source. He kills himself on his next upkeep due to the Pact. Got a little lucky, my hand was terrible and he could have played multiple Titans that turn if he didn't kill himself.
Round 4 Jund Valakut W 2-1
Played against the winner of GP Calgary on his GP list. Was excited for the match, because I would have played him at the GP if I hadn't have lost in the quarters, and was curious about what might have happened. Game one he does his this and I die to Titan finding Valakuts. Games two and three I Surgical Extraction his Valakuts and his Titans, and he didn't have another reasonable win-con that I can't beat in his deck.
Round 5 Izzet Phoenix L 0-2
Game one he multiple Phoenix on turn two, While I kept a risky hand. Game two he cast three Molten Rain with an active Pyromancer Ascension destroying six(SIX!!) of my lands, before finishing my off with a couple of bolts.
Round 6 Burn W 2-0
Played a friend who was trying main deck Deflecting Palm which is horrendous in the match. Game on I was at 1 life for a couple of turns, with no protection, while he had four cards in hand that did nothing; Palm and Searing Blaze. I landed a Jace and was able to cast Absorb, then fate-sealed him out of the game. Game two I waited to play Timely Reinforcements until I could Negate a Skullcrack. I then flashed back Timely and beat him down with a pair of Snapcaster Mage.
Round 7 Humans Win 2-1
Game one he curves out beautifully and he kills me on turn four, cool. Game two get to the point where I'm sure I'm dead, I needed a miracle. I blind flipped a Terminus then top decked a Jace to put another Terminus on top. Slammed a Baneslayer Angel, and he bounced it with Reflector Mage. Think I'm dead again, but then top deck a settle. Game three was pretty much the same as Game two, a a lot of back and forth with crazy top decks on both sides, but the my Angels eventually get there. I wish there was a way I could have gotten this match on video. It was probably the best match I have ever played with the deck, the whole thing was just crazy.
Round 8 U/G Infect ID
There were nine people who were in contention for top 8. I was eighth in the standings, but the tie breakers from 5th to 8th were all within 5%. I hoped that the ninth player, who got paired down, would lose and it wouldn't have to go to breakers. His opponent conceded the match after the top 4 tables drew. sadly my tiebreakers tanked, and I finished 9th place. I was the only 19 pointer to not make the top 8. I felt like an idiot, but I knew taking the draw was risky. Will never make that mistake again.
what are your guys thoughts on playing a singleton terminus (alongside 4cmc wraths)? i was thinking about sleeving up one of the UW lists from the MC where most were running mostly miracles type builds w/o terminus. i was thinking of adding 1 terminus (not sure what id cut yet, but w/e) as sort of a hedge inclusion. if it comes up that's great, if not it still a powerful (and unique) effect that can be played towards as an out; and there are still 3 jaces for searching/filtering as needed. sorta like the mentality of playing a single leyline of the void in the side (for Bxx midrangy decks that is).
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With humans on the upswing, diversifying our removal and wraths starts to look more attractive. I've got 1 terminus, 1 settle, 1 wrath, and 1 verdict in my build currently. Having the split also makes it harder for our opponents to play around them since they don't know how many of each we are playing. I'm also running a condemn and a D-sphere in the main to really have a spread of singletons. Counting on 4 path and 4 terminus is a recipe for disaster against meddling mages.
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I've played my first FNM with 2 Verdicts and 2 Settle, 3+3 Sv/ opts just to see how those two types of cantrip work, one Gideon AoZ in replacement of the 3rd Jace, and it felt very good (faced eldrazi tron, mardu pyro, ur phoenix. Gideon has been impressive by the way). I kind of feel Terminus is very relevant in the Spirits mu ( I'm a Spirits player,I know how easier life is when UW is on the settle/verdict plan), but I wonder If it's actually superior to the settle/verdict split against dredge and phoenix given that shuffling occurs during the game and looting digs for those threats again.
Also,in my meta GDS is well represented, and I can see Verdict being much safer than Teminus there.
Other than this, I'd like to hear something about the mana and the effort you have to put to set up Terminus. I believe someone here said months ago you've got less than 15% to flip terminus off the top, but I'm actually more worried about this 6 mana sorcery that needs Jace to be set up, which means it's not coming down before turn 5 when you don't happen to draw it as the first card for the turn...
Another thing I'm debating on is which should be the spot removal #5: I have heard good about condemn because of the instant speed nature, which is good along with snap and it's very good vs GDS, but it depends on the creature attacking, and once again I'm not a fan of textboxes with conditions. How about oust to get rid of bears ( exp if they know I'm on the Settle plan)or creature combo pieces like Vannifar, or lavamancer, Teeg and that type of garbage? Is Blessed Alliance too mana inefficient to be considered in that spot?
Terminus is good because in modern you need to be able to cheese opponents out of the game with the 'nutdraw', you basically need to have the option to win if you get lucky - it's the sad truth of the format that most people won't admit. For most combo decks this is some unbeatable draw like getting three phoenix or hollow one out on t2, for us that is ripping a terminus off the top and clearing the opponents board. Previously, UW could cheese games by using spreading seas but that is way too fair these days and does nothing against the best decks. Terminus was previously unplayable cause you couldn't put it back on top but Jace makes it playable, so in my opinion I think it makes sense to keep it in the deck. The old versions of UW that I used to play always felt too 'fair', so I am going to continue packing Terminus for now. Of course I also understand how annoying it is when Terminus basically makes you force to mulligan, but that is why you play some extra sweepers to round out the package and let you survive till you can hardcast one.
Counters
Removal
I realize the new mulligan helps other proactive decks be more consistent in enacting their game-plans and in finding 2 card combos, but I really think that current builds of U/W miracles have more to gain from the implementation of this rule.
Game 2 and game 3 the new mull is good for us because we have really high impact sideboard cards and we will have a clearer mulligan plan since we know the opponents archetype by then.
It's hard to describe, but I just feel like we need a very specific ratio of all of our cards to succeed in any given game. By design, our deck will run more expensive spells than most other decks since our goal is to have a better late game than everyone else. The new mulligan rule will remove some of the pain that we deal with when drawing too many of our opening hand brick cards. Most lists have 2 teferi, 3 JTMS, 3 Cryptics, and 4 Terminus which is 12 cards we really don't want to see in our opener. I'm excited to have the option to draw 7 and then put back any of these cards to consistently improve mulligan quality. It's just such a big difference to have 6 strong opening cards versus the current mulligan rule where you draw 1 brick on your mull to 6 and suddenly you have a virtual 5 card hand and winning becomes extremely difficult.
Time will tell which decks gain the most from the new rule (looking at dredge and eldrazi), but I'm really looking forward to how this will impact U/W control.
Exactly. Every deck needs the right mix of land/spells/curve-considerations. It will benefit everyone that way, and us the least since we can't take advantage of the better mulligan options in game 1.
The only way it benefits UW differently than anyone else is that it can let us put terminus back into the deck, increasing the odds of drawing it after a shuffle effect. There may be other decks that actively want to put a card back (Maybe Nahiri-Emrakrul or Madcap-Emperion for example) which might also benefit in this way but they aren't popular at the moment (or I'm not thinking of it off top of my head).
London won't necessarily be representative of which decks benefit from the new mull since decklists will be available throughout the tournament to all players. This advantages reactive decks more than other lists in game 1s so any result where control decks come out on top should he taken with a grain of salt.
A long-winded, unedited blurb of mine from the Competitive UWx Facebook Group:
Proactively use your Field of Ruin to prevent them from interacting with Pact of Negation before they can put it on the stack if you have a way to bury them before it's a live play. Obviously if they are a newer player and are tempted to Pact a high impact play like Detention Sphere on multiple Amulets early on, you can try to hedge for these scenarios with 1x Ghost Quarter main being sandbagged in your hand for Karoo lands / blue sources (although most people have moved on to now playing with only 4x Field as their LD) Otherwise, if you are in the business of tempo-ing the opponent, don't forget to Cryptic their Coalition Relic if they've resolved Pact, as it can single handedly help to pay for UU. The matchup between UWx and Amulet has evolved quite a bit that the collective intel regarding free wins against Pact of Negation is overall coming to a slow halt. I don't think you should angle the opponent on this line but be aware of when you can get a free win amirite
Be aware of their manabase, look at the trending decks and count the aggregate number of basics/Caverns/Tolaria West. This lets you know whether it's a +EV play to Path, Field, or Surgical any particular target depending on how much mana you are afforded at various stages of the game. I've seen lists running 3-4 Forests main so that's probably a safe bet
Don't be afraid to Path an enabler like Sakura Tribe Scout (unless they have Amulet(s) going and you need outs to Titan,) as you don't want them to leverage you with an activation in response to Field by having a Karoo land bounce the Field target They tend to make important plays with only half their deck, so if you can throttle their action by countering/D Sphere-ing their Amulets, removing their creatures, and casting Surgical targeting T West, you can really bottleneck them on their potential line of plays down to a paltry few options in Titan and Hive Mind, which are easy to topple one at a time
I have hedged with 1x Disallow to prevent Primeval Titan + Cavern of Souls from snowballing into an unwinnable game state so make sure to have some kind of plan for their big turn. On top of this I have cut Mana Leak from the 75 to play an extra Negate main because of how there is almost no return for it against big mana and combo decks
If you can make them stumble early on, be generous (as previously mentioned) in how you use Path, yet mindful: as their sideboard plan involves Tireless Tracker to gain card advantage. Don't get caught lacking removal against it because they tend to draw 5-10+ cards when it goes unchecked and it can just break the game open
If you have to fight multiple game enders, let Cryptic + Path/Condemn be designated to fight Titan, and counters + Snapcaster to fight Hive Mind. We are always going to be catching up to their tempo, making the most mana efficient play is critical to staying alive.
You want to invest all your counterspells in succession for Hive Mind to A) not die on the spot to Summoner's Pact if it resolves and B) to hope that if we cannot prevent it from sticking that they had to fight with enough Pact of Negations that they cannot force multiple copies of it on us. When they're piling up lands with a Cavern + Titan, you want to force Pact to keep Cryptic from buying yourself another turn while holding up the cheapest removal possible.
In these cases, the opponent sees that we are spending lots of mana to barely stay alive, and they can get greedy and want to search for Tolaria West + Karoo land to keep the threats coming instead of saving Pact for when they have lethal on the spot. Letting Cryptic take a hit so that the removal resolves and we have to worry about getting opened up a little less is the best EV Overall the simplest way to approach this matchup is to assume the position of the Amulet player, and know that they either want to blitz us with a fast Amulet draw by turn 3-4 or cheese us out with Hive Mind + Pacts in turns 4+ or if plan A backfires, and try to mitigate those plans in the aforementioned order by the appropriate stage of the match.
Lastly, when all else fails in the long game, you can fall back on Logic Knot and Snapcaster combined to stop Summoner's Pact copies from Hive mind, as their Hive Mind cannot copy Logic Knot for 0UU and use it to copy anything but the Pacts (if they are silly enough to go that route) One Logic Knot and one Snapcaster should probably be enough insurance to prevent such a line, considering there is Surgical Extraction as well to fight the green pact
Just know that they have a big leg up on us in tempo so try to not think that the games will be relatively fair - we need a bit of luck for these games to pan out in our favor. I think most of us would be remiss to brush this matchup off as we are pretty much a underdog against Amulet
Furthermore, I'd add that after jamming about 10 or so leagues (after getting tired of my work schedule not letting me commit to paper MTG and pushing me to switch to MTGO,) I've finally 5-0ed a Friendly league (gotta get to comps one day when my budget allows lol) and my newest version has eschewed Stony Silence for Disenchant and one Lavinia, Azorius Renegade. It makes you a little bit softer to the likes of Tireless Tracker and Walking Ballista when facing off against the Amulet decks, but I figure they try to win by siding into Hornet Queen if they aren't playing it maindeck. The upside is that Lavinia blanks so much of what they try to accomplish while modestly getting in for 2dmg per turn. She's been really good for me in other spots as well, like Whir Prison and Grishoalbrand for example
Counters
Removal
Oh, I don't think one is strictly better than the other in a vacuum, they are both case dependent. I would even argue that Damping Sphere is usually worse for us in matchups where we would want either/or, because we like to have the ability to counter multiple things in a turn and our own Spheres hurt us in doing that from time to time. It is definitely harder to fight through decks that play cheap win-cons/mana ramp or rituals/Silence/Pact of Negation/Echoing Truth/cheap counterspells/etc in some variation when we are fighting through the incremental tax.
I also don't think Lavinia is the end-all/be-all, and it was just a fun try at another bit of 1x tech for learning purposes, but you should definitely be more mindful than to think one card is more useful than another when making your 75 count. It's all about consolidating maindeck-to-sideboard slot ratios and creating the least amount of dead spaces in your configuration spread, while mustering the chance to fight the opponent with the most potent answers you can manage in doing so.
Blast zone is very powerful, it could definitely find it's way into our lists. Ironically, the existence of blast zone makes us want to play high numbers of field because blast zone is good against us as well; we give our opponents unlimited time to get to 4 counters to prepare in advance for our walkers. This card is going to make our Tron matchup harder.
I'm not sure how many we can play, but this would definitely take the slot over Ghost Quarter that some lists play (I don't think they should have been playing GQ in the first place, but whatever).
I will definitely be testing it as a 1-of in 25 Land lists and 2-of in 26 Land lists as you suggested.
It's a very good card, and by virtue of that, it could easily be a trap if we play it for no reason
6 Island
2 Plains
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Glacial Fortress
4 Flooded Strand
4 Field of Ruin
3 Celestial Colonnade
Creatures
3 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
2 Serum Visions
4 Opt
4 Path to Exile
1 Condemn
1 Spell Snare
1 Negate
1 Logic Knot
1 Mana Leak
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Absorb
2 Detention Sphere
1 Hieroglyphic Illumination
3 Cryptic Command
1 Settle the Wreckage
4 Terminus
2 Dispel
1 Negate
2 Celestial Purge
2 Rest in Peace
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Stony Silence
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Runed Halo
1 Lyra Dawnbringer
1 Baneslayer Angel
I got another tournament report, this time from the FacetoFace Open in Edmonton. Played the same decklist I top 8'd GP Calgary with except one sideboard swap: +Runed Halo -Settle the Wreckage
Round 1 Abzan Midrange W 2-0
My opponent was a kitchen table player who was playing a budget deck. The match wasn't very exciting.
Round 2 Grixis Shadow W 2-0
He was either new to the deck or new to modern. He was reluctant to take damage early, when he did draw death shadows he couldn't play them. Again another unexciting match.
Round 3 Amulet Titan w 2-1
Now this was more of a game. He mulled to five game one which slowed him down enough for me to set up counter spells for his first two Titans. He scooped to an imminent Teferi ultimate with a Jace on the board. Game two he assembled Cavern of Souls + Walking Ballista + Academy Ruins. There was nothing I could do and the game ended quickly after that. Game three he starts going off, plays a Azsua, Lost but Seeking I attempt to counter it, but he casts Pact of Negation. He plays a couple of bounce lands, and accidentally picks up a blue source. He kills himself on his next upkeep due to the Pact. Got a little lucky, my hand was terrible and he could have played multiple Titans that turn if he didn't kill himself.
Round 4 Jund Valakut W 2-1
Played against the winner of GP Calgary on his GP list. Was excited for the match, because I would have played him at the GP if I hadn't have lost in the quarters, and was curious about what might have happened. Game one he does his this and I die to Titan finding Valakuts. Games two and three I Surgical Extraction his Valakuts and his Titans, and he didn't have another reasonable win-con that I can't beat in his deck.
Round 5 Izzet Phoenix L 0-2
Game one he multiple Phoenix on turn two, While I kept a risky hand. Game two he cast three Molten Rain with an active Pyromancer Ascension destroying six(SIX!!) of my lands, before finishing my off with a couple of bolts.
Round 6 Burn W 2-0
Played a friend who was trying main deck Deflecting Palm which is horrendous in the match. Game on I was at 1 life for a couple of turns, with no protection, while he had four cards in hand that did nothing; Palm and Searing Blaze. I landed a Jace and was able to cast Absorb, then fate-sealed him out of the game. Game two I waited to play Timely Reinforcements until I could Negate a Skullcrack. I then flashed back Timely and beat him down with a pair of Snapcaster Mage.
Round 7 Humans Win 2-1
Game one he curves out beautifully and he kills me on turn four, cool. Game two get to the point where I'm sure I'm dead, I needed a miracle. I blind flipped a Terminus then top decked a Jace to put another Terminus on top. Slammed a Baneslayer Angel, and he bounced it with Reflector Mage. Think I'm dead again, but then top deck a settle. Game three was pretty much the same as Game two, a a lot of back and forth with crazy top decks on both sides, but the my Angels eventually get there. I wish there was a way I could have gotten this match on video. It was probably the best match I have ever played with the deck, the whole thing was just crazy.
Round 8 U/G Infect ID
There were nine people who were in contention for top 8. I was eighth in the standings, but the tie breakers from 5th to 8th were all within 5%. I hoped that the ninth player, who got paired down, would lose and it wouldn't have to go to breakers. His opponent conceded the match after the top 4 tables drew. sadly my tiebreakers tanked, and I finished 9th place. I was the only 19 pointer to not make the top 8. I felt like an idiot, but I knew taking the draw was risky. Will never make that mistake again.
What’s your take on serum Visions?
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)