Man, so using the queller stock list, what exactly is the sideboard plan for mono white taxes? The matchup feels awful. I have no clue how to approach this matchup
Also, curious, what do you guys think of the 8rack matchup? Any sideboard plans for that?
@Spsiegel987- I bring in EE and Clique, as well as PK. Sandbagging lands once you reach 1UUU mana is very important, as you can cast all of your spells with it. Kill Pack Rats on sight, as they can get out of hand quickly. Geist is your best way to victory here.
Man, so using the queller stock list, what exactly is the sideboard plan for mono white taxes? The matchup feels awful. I have no clue how to approach this matchup
Also, curious, what do you guys think of the 8rack matchup? Any sideboard plans for that?
I actually think Taxes (mono-white specifically) is terrible for the health of multicolor decks. It definitely gets worse the more complicated your mana base gets. In general, you just want to keep all your cheap, effective interaction and cut as much expensive stuff as possible. I also tend to leave my basics in the deck whenever possible as far as fetching goes.
The 8-Rack match up is more about knowing when to keep cards in hand and when to unload them. It takes practice more than having a particular setup. As tlhunter07 said, sometimes you want to sandbag lands. Sometimes you don't. If you have Wear // Tear and Engineered Explosives, this is where they can do work. I generally bring in Vendilion Clique to cycle through my own cards and as a threat they have to deal with. This also a match where Spell Snare is actually decent (Wrench Mind, Smallpox and some sideboard cards depending on the build). Also, and this one is new for me since I last faced it regularly, their inclusion of Liliana of the Veil kinda makes Geist of Saint Traft a sketchy lottery hope. I don't think you can cut all of them because you need to be able to turn the corner quickly, but I generally shave at least one.
8 rack players usually consider themselves favoured against Jeskai (I know quite a few, one of them my regular playing partner for 15 years). I would put it at somewhere like 60-40 in their favor game 1, as we are full of irrelevant kill spells and no good way to interact with resolved racks.
Game 2 and 3 get closer to 55-45 in our favour I feel. It does depend on your board though but getting rid of 4 copies of path to exile for almost any card boosts the % by a lot, so game 2 is at least even.
Mono-W taxes seems like it should be a good matchup for Jeskai, and it generally is IMO. However, as Chaos021 said, Mono-W taxes is a deck that is naturally strong vs. 3 color decks, and also, like when plying against affinity, playing the MU requires some experienced decision-making when both keeping a hand and sequencing removal. Geist is also not great in the MU for those Geist.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
I play against monowhite DnT a whole lot since one of my friends owns it, and I think it is a good matchup for us. If I lose it is because of LD, but you can play around it if you are careful. I'll do DnT for the next matchup analysis if people want
I play against monowhite DnT a whole lot since one of my friends owns it, and I think it is a good matchup for us. If I lose it is because of LD, but you can play around it if you are careful. I'll do DnT for the next matchup analysis if people want
I generally agree with this. When I lose to D&T is because they get to execute their LD plan early on, meaning I can't stop a T3 Arbiter+Ghost quarter or something along these lines.
They do have lines of play that are extremely powerful against us (T2 Thalia on the play into T3 uncounterable arbiter+GQ). They can also sometimes highroll T2-3 TKS which is also very good. But at their slightest notion that they are playing fair (i.e. no vial), then we can beat them relatively easily.
I've been trying out SFA in my flash list for a while, it's fine-ish. In general the flash list has been performing very well, but at the end of the day I would still just take a Geist list to a big tournament as it can just spike the odds the best. Modern is so diverse right now that your best bet is still to just end a blind game 1 asap, even if geist is clunky in a ton of matchups currently.
Azcanta seemed incredibly slow to me, frankly. It reminded me of the old control lists that won through Nephalia Drownyard. Something that was really relevant was the ramp, generally going from 4 to 6 mana if SFA drops on turn 2, but although the flipped ability is of course amazing, I did not get to activate it much. Even with plenty of mana available I wanted to keep open cryptic or snap+cryptic versus many decks and I didn't get to activate Azcanta until I hit land 8 or so. If I knew I was playing a meta of UW control and Abzan I'd run SFA but it does not solve the poorer matchups of jeskai.
My FNM meta is really grindy and I've been going 4-0 or 3-1 basically every week with my flash list but for a large open tourney I would still go geist.
I've been trying out SFA in my flash list for a while, it's fine-ish. In general the flash list has been performing very well, but at the end of the day I would still just take a Geist list to a big tournament as it can just spike the odds the best. Modern is so diverse right now that your best bet is still to just end a blind game 1 asap, even if geist is clunky in a ton of matchups currently.
Saw a 5-0 list on MTGGoldfish that had a couple of Rattlechains to protect Spell Queller and give Geist of Saint Traft flash. Maybe something to consider to make Geist less awkward with some upside.
Rattlechains has appeared in 'winning lists' a couple of times over the last month and thus I had to try it out. My experience was that the combat tricks didn't come up often enough to warrant three slots in the 75 - id be interested to hear what other ppl think that have tested it..
Rattlechains has appeared in 'winning lists' a couple of times over the last month and thus I had to try it out. My experience was that the combat tricks didn't come up often enough to warrant three slots in the 75 - id be interested to hear what other ppl think that have tested it..
I 5-0d with 3 rattlechains, and i wasn't super impressed.
*Notes about the deck:
0. Geist rocks. Seriously, It's a disgusting card and I will be picking up my foil copies now lol Promo or pack foil hmm....
1. Electrolyze is still good main deck
2. Spell Snare is great maindeck, especially against abzan AND BURN
3. Colonnade beats is legit, and great.
4. Remand wasn't bad. I did get to hit a Tasigur, the golden fang with it. Thinking of just making it a maindeck negate, we will see.
5. Sideboard is meh. I'm not excited about it. I wanna switch things up.
6. Don't underestimate the power of flashing on the end of t2 for Snapcaster mage beats or Queller beats on the end of t3. Snap beats helped me win a LOT tuesday.
Blue Moon
G1
He is on the play, just a couple basics and a few serum visions. I kinda figure he is Blue moon, but he is stuttering and not doing anything except he tried to cast a Search for Azcanta and I remand it. I play geist on my t3, and honestly just ride him to victory. If he would have found an anger he prolly would have got me, but i knew he didnt have an answer just by his playstyle and body language. Luck was on my side for that one
- A cryptic, 3 lightning helix, 3 path to exiles, 1 bolt
+ PnK, V clique, 2 Molten Rain, 1 negate, 1 dispel, 1 d stroke, 1 wear
G2
Didnt know he was on through the breach. I run out Snap on t2 to get early beats. He taps out for a Desolate lighthouse and i land a V clique the next turn which gets bolted durin his tunr... HOLY CRAP ITS EMRAKUL The aeons torn, get RID OF THAT!
I run a spell queller out to hit THREE remands by him while still beating, he finally draws a bolt for the snap, and the queller after the 3 remands. He blood moon's, i fight with logic knot and negate which I lose, which is fine cuz it opens up my mana to give me double red for a fatal molten rain... yes..a blood moon actually helped me win the game
Will write more notes tomorrow gang, im pretty sleepy lol
g2
He keeps a greedy hand i find out, 1 bauble, 1 land, 1 thoughtseize, 2 lingering souls, 2 grim flayer. I mull to 6 and keep geist, snap, and a serum visions and 3 lands, all celestial colonnade lolol this game was not nearly as reactive. he takes geist on his thoughtseize, and doesnt do much else. im very off tempo with these colonnades but he's not doing anything anyways lol i get to molten rain his only land, i throw out a spell queller next turn, counter a thoughtseize with a cryptic command cuz i could, and then he finally gets a tasigur to go off and dicards down to hand size to get a lingering souls in the graveyard. I path the tasigur, but the souls are blocking my celestial colonnade from getting through. So i hold back for another spell queller and a v clique. v clique reveals a whooe bunch of crap im not worried about, and soon after he dies from the air assault.
Updated 12-22.. geeze christmas time is busy when you put it alongside a wedding in 2 weeks lol
BURN ......... didnt take many notes here.
This match up is difficult for me in terms of time reference. I take longer than usual on my turns, just due to the fact that there are some games you dont even want to crack your fetch land lol
I remember game 1 it was super grindy, and i kept a geist in my hand which i probably shouldnt have, in order to be more reactive. But now i know to play that geist. it was super close, i was at 4 and he was at 6, and either one of us were dead on the next turn, he got me first because i was cryptic command flooded and would have killed for spell pierce in this first game lol
2nd game i mull to 6, land geist on 3 and race him. I hit 2 helix, and a snapcaster without having skullcrack so i was out of range in this game for him. Negate and spell queller both saw play here and were good.
3rd game
he mulls to 5. he draws 3 lava spike though lol I throw a snapcaster end of t2, and get my beats started early. do the same thing with my spell queller.
he is stuck on one land for too long and has all cmc 2 in his hand. Variance win is still a win lol
Affinity
g1- annilated everything, i got down to 14. won with colonnade beats
g2- i flooded out pretty bad and he just did affinity things with cranial plating.
g3- he drew too many lands and i hit electrolyze and wear / tear with snapcaster. geist on t3 here raced him pretty well
What's a discord channel and what does it do? Is it people talking about the deck over voice comms?
Discord is a VOIP communication server. It allows for both voice communication and the creation of chat channels (similar to IRCs back in the day). It essentially at this point is a much more lightweight skype that most gamers use.
Also, curious, what do you guys think of the 8rack matchup? Any sideboard plans for that?
UWR Control
BR Hollow One
I actually think Taxes (mono-white specifically) is terrible for the health of multicolor decks. It definitely gets worse the more complicated your mana base gets. In general, you just want to keep all your cheap, effective interaction and cut as much expensive stuff as possible. I also tend to leave my basics in the deck whenever possible as far as fetching goes.
The 8-Rack match up is more about knowing when to keep cards in hand and when to unload them. It takes practice more than having a particular setup. As tlhunter07 said, sometimes you want to sandbag lands. Sometimes you don't. If you have Wear // Tear and Engineered Explosives, this is where they can do work. I generally bring in Vendilion Clique to cycle through my own cards and as a threat they have to deal with. This also a match where Spell Snare is actually decent (Wrench Mind, Smallpox and some sideboard cards depending on the build). Also, and this one is new for me since I last faced it regularly, their inclusion of Liliana of the Veil kinda makes Geist of Saint Traft a sketchy lottery hope. I don't think you can cut all of them because you need to be able to turn the corner quickly, but I generally shave at least one.
Game 2 and 3 get closer to 55-45 in our favour I feel. It does depend on your board though but getting rid of 4 copies of path to exile for almost any card boosts the % by a lot, so game 2 is at least even.
Mono-W taxes seems like it should be a good matchup for Jeskai, and it generally is IMO. However, as Chaos021 said, Mono-W taxes is a deck that is naturally strong vs. 3 color decks, and also, like when plying against affinity, playing the MU requires some experienced decision-making when both keeping a hand and sequencing removal. Geist is also not great in the MU for those Geist.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
I was having Leon played against me when he had a GQ open so I never had a good opportunity to kill him without losing a land for sure
Geist is so easily blocked
Pia is easily blocked
7-8 GQ/Tec Edge for Colonnade.
I'm really surprised to hear some people say the matchup can be decent...This matchup definitely felt easier as a jund player
So, what exactly am I cutting and bringing in?
I think I ended up cutting like 3x Logic Knots, 1x Cryptic Command
1x Anger, 1x Izzet Staticaster, 1x Supreme Verdict, 1x EE
How would you guys go about it?
Maybe I should have attempted to path'd, and then bolt/helix response to the GQ and accept I was losing a piece of removal.
They do have lines of play that are extremely powerful against us (T2 Thalia on the play into T3 uncounterable arbiter+GQ). They can also sometimes highroll T2-3 TKS which is also very good. But at their slightest notion that they are playing fair (i.e. no vial), then we can beat them relatively easily.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
My FNM meta is really grindy and I've been going 4-0 or 3-1 basically every week with my flash list but for a large open tourney I would still go geist.
Saw a 5-0 list on MTGGoldfish that had a couple of Rattlechains to protect Spell Queller and give Geist of Saint Traft flash. Maybe something to consider to make Geist less awkward with some upside.
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
I 5-0d with 3 rattlechains, and i wasn't super impressed.
I'VE REACHED MY FIRST GOAL!
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Spell Queller
3 Geist of Saint Traft
Spells (25)
3 Cryptic Command
2 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
2 Logic Knot
1 Remand
4 Path to Exile
2 Spell Snare
4 Serum Visions
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Molten Rain
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Celestial Purge
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Wear
1 Elsepth, Sun's Champion
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Supreme Verdict
2-0 Blue Moon Breach
2-0 Abzan Delirium *Spicy
2-1 Burn
2-1 Affinity
*Notes about the deck:
0. Geist rocks. Seriously, It's a disgusting card and I will be picking up my foil copies now lol Promo or pack foil hmm....
1. Electrolyze is still good main deck
2. Spell Snare is great maindeck, especially against abzan AND BURN
3. Colonnade beats is legit, and great.
4. Remand wasn't bad. I did get to hit a Tasigur, the golden fang with it. Thinking of just making it a maindeck negate, we will see.
5. Sideboard is meh. I'm not excited about it. I wanna switch things up.
6. Don't underestimate the power of flashing on the end of t2 for Snapcaster mage beats or Queller beats on the end of t3. Snap beats helped me win a LOT tuesday.
Blue Moon
G1
He is on the play, just a couple basics and a few serum visions. I kinda figure he is Blue moon, but he is stuttering and not doing anything except he tried to cast a Search for Azcanta and I remand it. I play geist on my t3, and honestly just ride him to victory. If he would have found an anger he prolly would have got me, but i knew he didnt have an answer just by his playstyle and body language. Luck was on my side for that one
- A cryptic, 3 lightning helix, 3 path to exiles, 1 bolt
+ PnK, V clique, 2 Molten Rain, 1 negate, 1 dispel, 1 d stroke, 1 wear
G2
Didnt know he was on through the breach. I run out Snap on t2 to get early beats. He taps out for a Desolate lighthouse and i land a V clique the next turn which gets bolted durin his tunr... HOLY CRAP ITS EMRAKUL The aeons torn, get RID OF THAT!
I run a spell queller out to hit THREE remands by him while still beating, he finally draws a bolt for the snap, and the queller after the 3 remands. He blood moon's, i fight with logic knot and negate which I lose, which is fine cuz it opens up my mana to give me double red for a fatal molten rain... yes..a blood moon actually helped me win the game
Will write more notes tomorrow gang, im pretty sleepy lol
Abzan Delirium
g1
Starts off with Mishra's Bauble, im thinking a death shadow variant. Marsh flats, so no shadow lol especially after he plays Traverse the ulvenwald[/card, i know what he's playing. I play t3 geist, he answers it with t4 liliana of the veil. i answer it next turn with electrolyze. He plays Siege Rhino, I path to exile it on the end step. i play my 2nd geist, he plays engineered explosives on 3 and busts it lol hold on spell queller, a path and remand, he plays tasigur i remand it, but he plays it again, then i path it. then on the end step bring in spell queller, he fatal pushes it. then i draw my 3rd geist and slam it. ride em and another spell queller to victory while he floods out.
-3 lightning helix, -2 bolt, -1 spell queller, -1 logic knot
+1 izzet staticaster, +1 elspeth sun's champion, +1 pnk,+1 Engineered Explosives +2 molten rain, +1 vendilion clique
g2
He keeps a greedy hand i find out, 1 bauble, 1 land, 1 thoughtseize, 2 lingering souls, 2 grim flayer. I mull to 6 and keep geist, snap, and a serum visions and 3 lands, all celestial colonnade lolol this game was not nearly as reactive. he takes geist on his thoughtseize, and doesnt do much else. im very off tempo with these colonnades but he's not doing anything anyways lol i get to molten rain his only land, i throw out a spell queller next turn, counter a thoughtseize with a cryptic command cuz i could, and then he finally gets a tasigur to go off and dicards down to hand size to get a lingering souls in the graveyard. I path the tasigur, but the souls are blocking my celestial colonnade from getting through. So i hold back for another spell queller and a v clique. v clique reveals a whooe bunch of crap im not worried about, and soon after he dies from the air assault.
Updated 12-22.. geeze christmas time is busy when you put it alongside a wedding in 2 weeks lol
BURN ......... didnt take many notes here.
This match up is difficult for me in terms of time reference. I take longer than usual on my turns, just due to the fact that there are some games you dont even want to crack your fetch land lol
I remember game 1 it was super grindy, and i kept a geist in my hand which i probably shouldnt have, in order to be more reactive. But now i know to play that geist. it was super close, i was at 4 and he was at 6, and either one of us were dead on the next turn, he got me first because i was cryptic command flooded and would have killed for spell pierce in this first game lol
-1 cryptic command, -2 lightning bolt, -1 logic knot, -1 remand, -1 path, -1 queller
+2 molten rain, +1 negate, +1 dispel, +1 purge, +1 v clique, +1 ee
2nd game i mull to 6, land geist on 3 and race him. I hit 2 helix, and a snapcaster without having skullcrack so i was out of range in this game for him. Negate and spell queller both saw play here and were good.
3rd game
he mulls to 5. he draws 3 lava spike though lol I throw a snapcaster end of t2, and get my beats started early. do the same thing with my spell queller.
he is stuck on one land for too long and has all cmc 2 in his hand. Variance win is still a win lol
Affinity
g1- annilated everything, i got down to 14. won with colonnade beats
g2- i flooded out pretty bad and he just did affinity things with cranial plating.
g3- he drew too many lands and i hit electrolyze and wear / tear with snapcaster. geist on t3 here raced him pretty well
Thanks you very much DarkNightCavalier for the Sig.
TappedOut
Would love to have more input to improve!
UWR Control
BR Hollow One
Discord is a VOIP communication server. It allows for both voice communication and the creation of chat channels (similar to IRCs back in the day). It essentially at this point is a much more lightweight skype that most gamers use.
Thanks! I have joined!
TappedOut
Would love to have more input to improve!