That is a good write up and is in line of a good jund player. I've found Needle and Celestial Purge are the best SB cards for the matchup.
doesn't needle get destroyed easily? Abrupt Decay and K-Command deal with it way too easily.
You're right, Pithing Needle does die to Abrupt Decay and Malstrom Pulse but it's better than nothing so if I have any useless cards I'll side into it anyway. Plus it's recurable through a Sun Titan, even through a Grafdigger's Cage. In my opinion if it blanks a few activations of Liliana or Scooze then eats removal that's still a fair trade.
Also those new cycling dual lands are nice. They enter tapped which is a downside but I think I'll playtest a couple in Mono White Emeria.
Also because no one has complained yet I wanted to give a modern event report.
Record 3 - 1
Scapeshift
Ponza
Affinity
Burn
Match One RUG Scapeshift 0 - 2
Game 1
My opponent was on old school Scapeshift with a few new cards for spice, the first game I got wrecked. I wasn't able to apply enough pressure or gain enough life to do anything meaningful and folded to a resolved Scapeshift turn 6. The good news is I found my opponent played a full play set of Steam Vents and Stomping Grounds, usefull information.
Side in: 2 x Pithing Needle, 2 x Surgical Extraction, 2 x Kor Firewalker
Side out: 2 x Path to Exile, 2 x Eldrazi Displacer, 2x Mortapod
Game 2
Game two I punted, hard...like a game loosing punt of epic magnitude. To be fair though I haven't played Scapeshift for over six months and am bit rusty on the matchup. Anyway, I got down early threats and went after my opponents lands with Tec Edge and Ghost Quarter, the Green mana sources. I'm still not sure if that's the right play but without knowing what my opponent boarded into I think it's reasonable. I was able to disrupt my opponent enough to get them down to 2 life, my opponent peels a Flooded Grove needed to cast a Cryptic to tap my team and draws a card. Then Scapeshifts with eight lands and wins. My punt was that my opponent was basically tapped out and I didn't use my Blessed Alliance to untap my two creatures to attack for the win, which would have won me the game.
Match Two R/G Ponza 2 - 0
Game 1
Now I've never played this matchup before so I'm unsure if it's supposed to be a good matchup or not but I absolutely trounced my opponent. Anyway, game one my opponent lead of with a Stomping Grounds into Arbor Elf, now if I didn't already know what I was playing I would assume Ponza, possibly a R/G devotion variant but they usually only play a 1 of Stomping Grounds to fetched up. I digress, my opponent plays Utopia Sprawl into Molten Rain, into Acid Moss into Inferno Titan turn four. I end up going down to 8 life but am able to climb to 4 lands and by turn six cast a Wrath of God, Ghost Quarter takes care of the forest with Utopia Sprawl and my opponent is left with nothing relevant in hand. At this point I begin the long climb back up to a healthy life total with Lone Missionary and Finks. For the rest of the game it's basically me pecking away at my opponent and slowly grinding them out. I mean they miracled a Bonefire and cast a Stormbreath Dragon but I had a Blessed Alliance and Emeria was closing in.
Side in: 2 x Kor Firewalker 2 x Kitchen Finks 2 x Wrath of God
Side out: 2 x Blade Splicer 2 x Lone Missionary 2 x Thraben Inspector
Game 2
My opponent had a birds and two Utopia Sprawls which I took care of with Ghost Quarter and Mortipod. They cast a Thrun and a Thragtusk, some land destruction here and there but again nothing I was actually concerned about... ended up wining through Flickerwisp and Restoration beats. Also a big shout out to Flagstones of Trokir, I finally caved and got them but man was that card good in this matchup.
Match Three Affinity 2 - 0
Game 1
Affinity is a match were I find if you draw the right half of your deck and avoid Cranal Plating game 1 you're golden. I was on the play and my opponent emptied their hand, memnite, ornithopter(2x), Arcbound Ravager, Mox Opal, Darksteel Citidel. I Path the Ravager at endstep untap and play a Wall of Omens. They play a Steel Overseer and I untap and cast a Mortipod and they conceded.
Sideboard in: 2 Pithing Needle, 1 Kataki, War's Wage, 2 Stony Silence, 2 Wrath of God, 1 Condem
Side out: 4 Thraben Inspector, 4 Wall of Omens
Game 2
My opponent starts off with a less explosive hand, they just play an Ornithopter, and Signal Pest.
my hand has a Path, a Needle, and a Wrath, since I have a lot of creature removal, I Needle naming Cranal Plating. Since I was confidant I could deal with most creatures. Sure enough my opponent plays a Steel Overseer, which I remove. I get down some pressure with a Lone Missionary and then my opponent just stops playing magic...I find out after the game they started off with a Cranial Plating in hand, drew two more and a string of lands. Not a fun or eventfull matchup but a win is a win.
Match Four Naya Burn 2 - 1
Game 1
My opponent had an optimal hand, aggressive. I couldn't find much lifegain, the Finks I did find got Skullcracked died to Searing Blaze and cost me two points of damage to play because Eidolon of the Great Revel is a party pooper.
Sideboard in: 2 Kor Firewalker, 2 Kitchen Finks, 1 Condem
Sideboard out: 2 Mortipod, Eldrazi Displacer, Sun Titan
Game 2
My opponent had a creature heavy draw and I curved Lone Missionary into Finks into Wrath. I won that game.
Game 3
My opponent kept on 7, I had to Mullighan to five because lands were non-existant but accidentally drew too many cards and because of the Vendilion Clique effect rule I chose to Mulligan to four. I kept Plains Flagstones Lone Missionary and Bladesplicer scrying a Ghost Quarter to the top. It was beutiful, I drew a Finks after the Ghost Quarter and curved Lone Missionary into Finks into Splicer and had drawn a Path to deal with Eidolon they dropped late. I have never seen an opponent so tilted, they apparently kept 7 but it had four lands they drew 3 more and after I Pathed their Eidolon they scooped. That game was awesome!
So from those games I learned to remember Blessed Alliance has 3 modes (just in case I want to untap after cryptic or kill a Phantasmal Image / Eternal Scourge) and to always lead of on a Flagstones of Trokir if I see Arbor Elf Stomping Ground because you never know if you're opponent is going to go t2 stone rain your plains when you're on the draw. I'm also thinking of replacing my 1 of Condem with an Aven Mindscensor if Scapeshift becomes a regular thing in my meta, any thoughts?
So the new Gideon was spoiled today. What do you all think of it? For me at least, it seems to be nice answer to Ad Nauseam. Speaking of spoilers I've also been thinking of replacing a Wrath of God in my sideboard with Dusk // Dawn.
The new Gideon is probably the best card that has been printed for this deck for quite some time, it can really give it a serious power boost.
And the new edict enchantment - Trial of Ambition, also seems very good for a W/B version of the deck as it is cheaper than Oath of Liliana which already seemed almost playable.
It is pretty good on a Titan but that seems a bit win-more, it won't replace Spreading Seas for me any time soon.
The Blue Trial is also good but 4-cmc unfortunetly.
Holy ****, that Gideon. That feels like an auto 2 of, possibly even 3 of in my list. Aside from being a 3 mana 4/4 beater, that 0 cost emblem ability is nutso considering you can make it, have Gideon die and just bring him back with Sun Titan and have it turn on again.
Loving it.
Also, Trial of Strength seems mildly playable in the place of Blade Splicer? Less of a chance your opponent kills trial to stop you from spawning dudes, whereas they can just bolt a Blade Splicer and kill your production.
I don't even play Blade Splicer in my deck as it is not as good defensively (blocks at least twice and gains life) as Kitchen Finks (which also comes back after I wrath the board).
It works with Emeria unlike the enchantment though and 2 bodies are better than 1.
Is anyone else still playing the Jeskai version with Saheeli Rai ?
I wonder if it can be a good idea to sideboard into a all-in combo deck with 3x Felidar Guardian against decks that don't interact well with the grind out plan.
After some initial testing I have to say that this plan seems pretty good, I managed to combo in some post board games when the opponent wasn't expecting it.
There are usually enough cards to board out for the 3x Felidar Guardians.
I'd still not play them in the maindeck as it will make the curve even higher but they seem like a solid addition to the SB
(I took out: 1x Pithing Needle and 2x Meddling Mage to fit them in).
New Gideon looks really good for our deck. Just have to think carefully of what to cut...
Can't really remove all the splicers, because the golem tokens help block etched champion. Affinity is sort of a regular player in my meta.
Playing Mono White I currently play a two of Eldrazi Displacer in my flex slot mainly as an additional way to block Etched Champion along side Blade Splicer. I also like that it is a hedge against graveyard hate but I find that I tend to sideboard it out in a lot of matchups. I may cut them to playtest the new Gideon. The thing is though, if Eldrazi Displacer sticks on the battlefield or is recured through Sun Titan it generates almost insurmountable advantage. I feel like new Gideon will be play out much the same way. As in if you're opponent can't remove it and you're able to untap you're golden. It may just be safer and more reliable to put a pair of Aven Mindscensors in the deck instead. In order to give some game against Scapeshift and Tron. I'm honestly at a loss of what to do and I think that the correct decision will depend on the meta.
How would one sideboard against Death's Shadow Jund, as opposed to Death's Shadow Aggro? Is it any different? How is the matchup in general?
In my experience the match up is in our favour. Still the deck should not be underestimated If they have enough disruption they may sneak a win. Game 1 should be good but the players I've played against employ the old Fullminator Mage + Surgical Extraction from the sideboard. If Emeria does become active you're sitting pretty. Sun Titan is your best friend in this matchup if you can get him to stick you're golden. If you're still worried about the match up squeeze a couple Blessed Alliance, Celestial Purge and a Condem somewhere in you're 75. Good luck!
Don't see a reason why you can't post a UWx Sun Titan deck idea here, but you are missing Emeria, which is a key strategy among UWx Sun titan decks. And sadly, you aren't gaining much in return for losing Emeria's inevitability. Panharmonicon is really just a win-more card that won't really do anything for this deck. It's too slow, is 4 cmc among other things. You want, especially in modern, your 4 cmc spells to DO something on their own, where this card does not.
Liliana of the Veil is obviously an outstanding card, but I don't think meshes well with this deck's goal.
On the other hand, I seriously think Gideon of the Trials is more than playable in this deck, possibly up to the full 4 within the 75. Some decks will have a hard time dealing with that card when it's able to be brought back every turn by Sun Titan.
Hmm, might be worth looking into another list running that with Smuggler's Copter. Could use it to crew with a wall + random dude, attack and second mainphase Harvest Season for 3 lands, pretty much turning on Emeria on its own..
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I think that a G/W build with access to Cyptolith Rite may be able to manage it. I'm not sold on the idea yet though and I have doubts that this is better than any of the alternatives available to G/W at three cmc. The three drop slot in Emeria, especially G/W Emeria is extreemly congested. For this to be playable over other three drops like Renigade Rallier, Courser of Kruphix or Eternal Witness you'd need to grab at least three lands. That means that three of your increadibly vulnerable creatures need to be tapped. If you can manage that then this card seems increadibly powerfull. I'll remain skeptical though, this effect seems much more powerful in an Elves build where you get access to Heritage Druid and can reliably dump your hand turn two.
You're right, Pithing Needle does die to Abrupt Decay and Malstrom Pulse but it's better than nothing so if I have any useless cards I'll side into it anyway. Plus it's recurable through a Sun Titan, even through a Grafdigger's Cage. In my opinion if it blanks a few activations of Liliana or Scooze then eats removal that's still a fair trade.
Also those new cycling dual lands are nice. They enter tapped which is a downside but I think I'll playtest a couple in Mono White Emeria.
Also because no one has complained yet I wanted to give a modern event report.
Record 3 - 1
Scapeshift
Ponza
Affinity
Burn
Match One RUG Scapeshift 0 - 2
Game 1
My opponent was on old school Scapeshift with a few new cards for spice, the first game I got wrecked. I wasn't able to apply enough pressure or gain enough life to do anything meaningful and folded to a resolved Scapeshift turn 6. The good news is I found my opponent played a full play set of Steam Vents and Stomping Grounds, usefull information.
Side in: 2 x Pithing Needle, 2 x Surgical Extraction, 2 x Kor Firewalker
Side out: 2 x Path to Exile, 2 x Eldrazi Displacer, 2x Mortapod
Game 2
Game two I punted, hard...like a game loosing punt of epic magnitude. To be fair though I haven't played Scapeshift for over six months and am bit rusty on the matchup. Anyway, I got down early threats and went after my opponents lands with Tec Edge and Ghost Quarter, the Green mana sources. I'm still not sure if that's the right play but without knowing what my opponent boarded into I think it's reasonable. I was able to disrupt my opponent enough to get them down to 2 life, my opponent peels a Flooded Grove needed to cast a Cryptic to tap my team and draws a card. Then Scapeshifts with eight lands and wins. My punt was that my opponent was basically tapped out and I didn't use my Blessed Alliance to untap my two creatures to attack for the win, which would have won me the game.
Match Two R/G Ponza 2 - 0
Game 1
Now I've never played this matchup before so I'm unsure if it's supposed to be a good matchup or not but I absolutely trounced my opponent. Anyway, game one my opponent lead of with a Stomping Grounds into Arbor Elf, now if I didn't already know what I was playing I would assume Ponza, possibly a R/G devotion variant but they usually only play a 1 of Stomping Grounds to fetched up. I digress, my opponent plays Utopia Sprawl into Molten Rain, into Acid Moss into Inferno Titan turn four. I end up going down to 8 life but am able to climb to 4 lands and by turn six cast a Wrath of God, Ghost Quarter takes care of the forest with Utopia Sprawl and my opponent is left with nothing relevant in hand. At this point I begin the long climb back up to a healthy life total with Lone Missionary and Finks. For the rest of the game it's basically me pecking away at my opponent and slowly grinding them out. I mean they miracled a Bonefire and cast a Stormbreath Dragon but I had a Blessed Alliance and Emeria was closing in.
Side in: 2 x Kor Firewalker 2 x Kitchen Finks 2 x Wrath of God
Side out: 2 x Blade Splicer 2 x Lone Missionary 2 x Thraben Inspector
Game 2
My opponent had a birds and two Utopia Sprawls which I took care of with Ghost Quarter and Mortipod. They cast a Thrun and a Thragtusk, some land destruction here and there but again nothing I was actually concerned about... ended up wining through Flickerwisp and Restoration beats. Also a big shout out to Flagstones of Trokir, I finally caved and got them but man was that card good in this matchup.
Match Three Affinity 2 - 0
Game 1
Affinity is a match were I find if you draw the right half of your deck and avoid Cranal Plating game 1 you're golden. I was on the play and my opponent emptied their hand, memnite, ornithopter(2x), Arcbound Ravager, Mox Opal, Darksteel Citidel. I Path the Ravager at endstep untap and play a Wall of Omens. They play a Steel Overseer and I untap and cast a Mortipod and they conceded.
Sideboard in: 2 Pithing Needle, 1 Kataki, War's Wage, 2 Stony Silence, 2 Wrath of God, 1 Condem
Side out: 4 Thraben Inspector, 4 Wall of Omens
Game 2
My opponent starts off with a less explosive hand, they just play an Ornithopter, and Signal Pest.
my hand has a Path, a Needle, and a Wrath, since I have a lot of creature removal, I Needle naming Cranal Plating. Since I was confidant I could deal with most creatures. Sure enough my opponent plays a Steel Overseer, which I remove. I get down some pressure with a Lone Missionary and then my opponent just stops playing magic...I find out after the game they started off with a Cranial Plating in hand, drew two more and a string of lands. Not a fun or eventfull matchup but a win is a win.
Match Four Naya Burn 2 - 1
Game 1
My opponent had an optimal hand, aggressive. I couldn't find much lifegain, the Finks I did find got Skullcracked died to Searing Blaze and cost me two points of damage to play because Eidolon of the Great Revel is a party pooper.
Sideboard in: 2 Kor Firewalker, 2 Kitchen Finks, 1 Condem
Sideboard out: 2 Mortipod, Eldrazi Displacer, Sun Titan
Game 2
My opponent had a creature heavy draw and I curved Lone Missionary into Finks into Wrath. I won that game.
Game 3
My opponent kept on 7, I had to Mullighan to five because lands were non-existant but accidentally drew too many cards and because of the Vendilion Clique effect rule I chose to Mulligan to four. I kept Plains Flagstones Lone Missionary and Bladesplicer scrying a Ghost Quarter to the top. It was beutiful, I drew a Finks after the Ghost Quarter and curved Lone Missionary into Finks into Splicer and had drawn a Path to deal with Eidolon they dropped late. I have never seen an opponent so tilted, they apparently kept 7 but it had four lands they drew 3 more and after I Pathed their Eidolon they scooped. That game was awesome!
So from those games I learned to remember Blessed Alliance has 3 modes (just in case I want to untap after cryptic or kill a Phantasmal Image / Eternal Scourge) and to always lead of on a Flagstones of Trokir if I see Arbor Elf Stomping Ground because you never know if you're opponent is going to go t2 stone rain your plains when you're on the draw. I'm also thinking of replacing my 1 of Condem with an Aven Mindscensor if Scapeshift becomes a regular thing in my meta, any thoughts?
Hope you all enjoyed
And the new edict enchantment - Trial of Ambition, also seems very good for a W/B version of the deck as it is cheaper than Oath of Liliana which already seemed almost playable.
The Blue Trial is also good but 4-cmc unfortunetly.
Cartouche of Solidarity doesn't seem too bad for a 1-mana enchantment.
Loving it.
Also, Trial of Strength seems mildly playable in the place of Blade Splicer? Less of a chance your opponent kills trial to stop you from spawning dudes, whereas they can just bolt a Blade Splicer and kill your production.
Kitchen Finks, Renegade Rallier, Eternal Witness and now also Gideon of the Trials
(Courser of Kruphix and Tireless Tracker are also not bad).
I don't even play Blade Splicer in my deck as it is not as good defensively (blocks at least twice and gains life) as Kitchen Finks (which also comes back after I wrath the board).
It works with Emeria unlike the enchantment though and 2 bodies are better than 1.
I think we're in the market for a Platinum Angel that's recurrable by Sun Titan, aren't we?
After some initial testing I have to say that this plan seems pretty good, I managed to combo in some post board games when the opponent wasn't expecting it.
There are usually enough cards to board out for the 3x Felidar Guardians.
I'd still not play them in the maindeck as it will make the curve even higher but they seem like a solid addition to the SB
(I took out: 1x Pithing Needle and 2x Meddling Mage to fit them in).
Can't really remove all the splicers, because the golem tokens help block etched champion. Affinity is sort of a regular player in my meta.
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Blessed Alliance, Condemn, Declaration in Stone and Celestial Purge are very good and Ghostly Prison can be pretty good if you can slow them down enough for it to matter.
Some other option that can be decent:
Tormod's Crypt/Wheel of Sun and Moon to fight the GY (since Relic of Progenitus/Rest in Peace work against our own deck).
Auriok Champion is a bit narrow but blanks everything in their deck besides Tarmogoyf.
Kami of False Hope can work as a reccurable Fog.
Aven Mindcensor can mess with thier Traverse the Ulvenwald and numerous fetch lands.
In my experience the match up is in our favour. Still the deck should not be underestimated If they have enough disruption they may sneak a win. Game 1 should be good but the players I've played against employ the old Fullminator Mage + Surgical Extraction from the sideboard. If Emeria does become active you're sitting pretty. Sun Titan is your best friend in this matchup if you can get him to stick you're golden. If you're still worried about the match up squeeze a couple Blessed Alliance, Celestial Purge and a Condem somewhere in you're 75. Good luck!
Don't see a reason why you can't post a UWx Sun Titan deck idea here, but you are missing Emeria, which is a key strategy among UWx Sun titan decks. And sadly, you aren't gaining much in return for losing Emeria's inevitability. Panharmonicon is really just a win-more card that won't really do anything for this deck. It's too slow, is 4 cmc among other things. You want, especially in modern, your 4 cmc spells to DO something on their own, where this card does not.
Liliana of the Veil is obviously an outstanding card, but I don't think meshes well with this deck's goal.
On the other hand, I seriously think Gideon of the Trials is more than playable in this deck, possibly up to the full 4 within the 75. Some decks will have a hard time dealing with that card when it's able to be brought back every turn by Sun Titan.
I think that a G/W build with access to Cyptolith Rite may be able to manage it. I'm not sold on the idea yet though and I have doubts that this is better than any of the alternatives available to G/W at three cmc. The three drop slot in Emeria, especially G/W Emeria is extreemly congested. For this to be playable over other three drops like Renigade Rallier, Courser of Kruphix or Eternal Witness you'd need to grab at least three lands. That means that three of your increadibly vulnerable creatures need to be tapped. If you can manage that then this card seems increadibly powerfull. I'll remain skeptical though, this effect seems much more powerful in an Elves build where you get access to Heritage Druid and can reliably dump your hand turn two.
So that might be an automatic 3-4 of in my list for a long while. Even if only for extreme testing.