Now that Affinity is on the rise again, should we be considering Stony Silence once again into our sideboards? It's generally a favorable matchup to be honest, but I've played 5 matches against Affinity the past 2 days and it's very difficult to stop their nut draws without Stony Silence. It also helps in the Lantern Control, Ad Nauseum, and Tron matchups.
With that said, I'm having trouble figuring out what to take out for Stony Silences anyways. For reference, my current sideboard is:
I imagine I'd remove 1 Engineered Explosives to avoid the clunkiness of getting both. I could also see justification for running just 1 Stony Silence, although it seems like most people run 2 if any. I could also see cutting a Valorous Stance for the 2nd Stony Silence. Thoughts?
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paradox Omega I've been running 1-2 stony silence in the board for a while now and have been pretty happy. Really depends on the prevalence of Affinity in your meta. It is also decent early against Tron. I didn't face any affinity somehow in my last tournament, but there was a lot of it.
EE and Stony silence are fine to run together imo. If you stick a stony silence, you're in good shape anyway, so the dead EE doesn't matter. Also affinity runs some board enchantment removal, so getting both down is fine as well once they deal with Stony Silence. I'd recommend dropping Izzet staticaster for one stony silence since electrolyze can fill a similar role. Valorous stance seems fine, but I'd consider that one also. Maybe also Elspeth. Depends if you have a mainboard expensive win con. If you do, you may not need elspeth.
Oh, missed the part where you said you're running into a lot of affinity. Yeah definitely bring in 2 stony silence. Game-winner. Game 1 is tough, so boosting win rate to very high levels games 2-3 is necessary.
Now that Affinity is on the rise again, should we be considering Stony Silence once again into our sideboards? It's generally a favorable matchup to be honest, but I've played 5 matches against Affinity the past 2 days and it's very difficult to stop their nut draws without Stony Silence. It also helps in the Lantern Control, Ad Nauseum, and Tron matchups.
With that said, I'm having trouble figuring out what to take out for Stony Silences anyways. For reference, my current sideboard is:
I imagine I'd remove 1 Engineered Explosives to avoid the clunkiness of getting both. I could also see justification for running just 1 Stony Silence, although it seems like most people run 2 if any. I could also see cutting a Valorous Stance for the 2nd Stony Silence. Thoughts?
I'm doing a lot of sideboard thinking myself right now.
My meta consists of a lot of Affinity, Grixis Control/Delver/Twin, Infect, Elves, Tron (both U and RG), UW Midrange and Control variants, some Abzan, some Jund, I think a bit of combo like Grishoalbrand but that's about it.
I think finding room for 2 Stony Silence will definitely help but I do not want to cut Izzet Staticaster as that card has been nuts for me both in my local meta and testing online on trice. I could honestly see myself cutting a Valorous Stance as I don't find myself siding it in very often, and maybe an Engineered Explosives. I would cut Elspeth, Sun's Champion but she just does so much work in the grindy matchups like Jund and Abzan, and even the Grixis variants because those games tend to go long although I could justify cutting it. However, Engineered Explosives is some of our only answers against Boggles, a deck that is not in my meta but is one of my worst matchups. Explosives also avoids targetting which is relevant for Affinity (Etched Champion) and Infect (protection/pump spells). It's also just such a flexible card, although it can be a little slow sometimes. I'm very hesitant to drop it but I think I need 2 Stony Silence in my sideboard these days.
I'm doing a lot of sideboard thinking myself right now.
Let me know what you end up with, I value your opinion greatly.
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Yeah, GreatNate, would love to hear what you come up with as well. Also definitely value your perspective greatly.
Paradox Omega, which match ups do you board in izzet staticaster against? I do like taking it out in your meta, which doesn't seem predominated by Abzan/Jund. In Jund/Grixis, path is usually enough. Maybe cutting EE with that setup is ok, but EE has been an all star for me against so many decks. How about Anger of the Gods? If exiling isn't relevant, EE/staticaster may be enough. If your main doesn't have another Grindy card, then yeah, I like your choice to have Elspeth+keranos in the board.
I finally got my Vendilion Cliques for a not-stupid price so I've been picking this deck up again. I'd definitely run Stony Silence right now, not only for affinity but also because it's one of the best cards against tron
A discussion I'd like to revive is Jeskai Charm: back when it first came out, Lingering Souls was everywhere, but nowadays Electrolyze always seems like the worst card in the deck for me; small critters isn't what we have problems dealing with, it's the big delvers and goyfs, and while bouncing a Tasigur with cryptic is pretty damn strong already, putting him on top for a mana less seems even stronger. Add to that a 16 point life swing with Geist and the ability to go to the face and it seems incredibly strong in current modern where being on the aggressive is so important
Another discussion I kind of left in the middle of: in my opinion, building any deck that's blue and not merfolk should start with 4 Serum Visions and then the rest.
Hi All, I've had a bit of a break from Geist but I'm back after a sabbatical playing Twin. Merfolk is my main deck - so im not that amazing with Geist - but I have put a decent amount of time play testing - mostly on cockatrice (I have the deck in paper as well).
Some points i'd like to discuss and get feedback on from you guys are as follows:
1. Serum Visions and land count (I run 3x Visions and 24 Land)
25 lands seems optimal but I really like Visions to find relevant cards for a given game state and also control the amount of lands that we draw.
2. Counter spell package. As good as Cryptic Command is - I side it out a ton (vs dispel decks, super aggro decks etc). Other problems are that we play a pretty greedy mana base - 3 blue is just not always going to happen. Another problem is that it's often a clunky card for this deck? Mana Leak is a necessary evil (logic Knot is surpisingly awesome in my testing and rarely dead - early you use it as a force spike (with fetches/visions in the gy and late it outshines mana leak). I think remand is more of a Twin card and not great in this shell - I like the split of 3 Mana Leak/2 Logic Knot - what do you think?
3. 1-of's. I like Boros Charm and Valorous Stance as additional ways to protect your creatures and the flexibility for killing Lilli (Charm) and more fatty answers (Stance). Could easily be cut though. Chandra has been really good. 4 cmc planeswalker! - not too expensive but still has a ton of power and synergy with Geist. Disables lone blockers (with a ping to the dome), the ultimate is game winning, 0 is also good.
Seems like a great addition as a 1-of in our list. Seems great to cast with a Geist on the board, slightly worse without a Geist. But bouncing a big blocker and killing a smaller critter seems like a really awesome tempo play for just 4 mana, something that a card like Resto can't do outside of combat (with only 4 mana).
Works really favorably against Kitchen Finks and Etched Champion, two very popular cards at the moment. Also stalls uncounterable spells like Thrun, Verdict, or Decay for a turn (translation: tempo!)
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I really think it's a shame it can't shock to the face and I really wonder why it can't.
Given that it's 4 mana I'd rather max out on Cryptics before I'd start considering Brutal Expulsion, and since we never do, I don't think expulsion makes the cut
it kills me to see this deck in developing competitive. this was once top dog in the format and could go toe to toe with jund.
i think the deck needs to rethink its 3 drop, either go with something not a 2/2, or skip the sorcery speed creature all together and go back to the flash route.
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St Traft is just not good at the moment. Most decks play bigger and better creatures, and a Snappy trades with him. It could be better to save him for the sideboard and run more gas mainboard. Spellstutter Sprite is magic card, so maybe that's where we need to be again.
JohanCore, the list seems like a decent beginning to this deck that you can test. The list is a little slow with 13 cards with 4+ Cmc, which may not work out in modern. You probably do not need all of the huge wincons (elspeth, sphinxs rev, dragonlord ojutai). Go with 2 or so of them. Try two dragonlord ojutai only and cut the elspeths and revs, maybe. Also, add in early or cheaper interaction. Path to exile is absolutely essential as a 4-of in this format, or you will auto-lose to many of the popular decks like BGx. Cheap counter spells work great also--Dispel and Spell Snare are great now, and Mana Leak is probably needed. Add about 4 of those cheap counters. Consider cutting down to 3 electrolyze and 2 cryptics for your mana curve. Forked bolt is a nice early spell that can do something similar to Electrolyze without the card draw, if the flexible two damage is useful in your meta. Going up to 4 Geist given your mana curve may also be a good idea.
I assume that leaving out scalding tarn/arid Mesa is a budget choice. That is ok. Consider the cheaper "off-color" fetches like polluted delta since they can get you all three of your colors. Temples may be slow, and 9 basics is too many for the greedy UWR 3-color Manabase, especially eith cryptic command. Your mana add could also use either Tectonic Edge or Ghost Quarter for manlands/ utility lands/ tron lands.
The real money card is snapcaster Mage, which is just a way better version of Jace in my opinion. It can flashback counters, and Jace can't. The two power is also very useful. Jace can also get bolted right away, which seems like bad tempo. Still, I see Jace in some top lists, so you can test it out--don't go out of your way to buy more if cost is an issue, though. Snapcaster is the best creature in modern IMO and is irreplaceable, but it does cost a lot now. Jace may be a semi-budget replacement, but just understand that it's impossible to get close to Snapcaster. To get the Snapcaster selection value, serum visions may also be useful in your list.
Overall, the best improvements for their cost are: Path to Exile, low cmc counterspells, ghost quarters/tec edge, off color fetch lands. Sucks that Snapcaster costs so much, but I'm tempted to say it is the best card in the whole deck.
(It does seem intriguing to try Jace as a budget Snapcaster option, so I guess it is worth a shot. Maybe try the other changes first since they cost less.)
it kills me to see this deck in developing competitive. this was once top dog in the format and could go toe to toe with jund.
i think the deck needs to rethink its 3 drop, either go with something not a 2/2, or skip the sorcery speed creature all together and go back to the flash route.
You might be right. UWR control doesn't seem appealing either. What do we reckon the full flash deck looks like?
I guess if we drop the marquee card we have to ask the question, why white over black? Resto might be the answer. Just not sure if it's actually a better option than the delve guys, since they are sudo flash at 1 mana.
Further to above, I sketched out what I'd try if we went more of a Flash route. I kept Geist in the side, as I feel as though he might still be useful in some scenarios.
i'm not too focused on the geist slots right now. i'm still trying to figure out what to do with the two slots vacated by dig through time. there isn't a card that allows for selection like that. i mean, if we're going for something that's a shadow of dig, it'll be anticipate or telling time. if we're going the remand route, i think telling time is better.
my quick thoughts on the 3cmc slot is bump the cliques (i've always played 2, even in the deck's heyday) and find a big finisher of some sort, like a thundermaw. i wouldn't play keranos in the mainboard. a singular kiki-jiki can pair well with the resto plan as well, after you've traded enough resources. this deck is predominantly a burn deck with some nice supporting creatures. you essentially have to do about 9-12 creature damage, and typically you'll win via burn.
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With that said, I'm having trouble figuring out what to take out for Stony Silences anyways. For reference, my current sideboard is:
2 Dispel
1 Negate
2 Wear // Tear
1 Celestial Purge
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Elspeth, Suns's Champion
1 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Valorous Stance
I imagine I'd remove 1 Engineered Explosives to avoid the clunkiness of getting both. I could also see justification for running just 1 Stony Silence, although it seems like most people run 2 if any. I could also see cutting a Valorous Stance for the 2nd Stony Silence. Thoughts?
EE and Stony silence are fine to run together imo. If you stick a stony silence, you're in good shape anyway, so the dead EE doesn't matter. Also affinity runs some board enchantment removal, so getting both down is fine as well once they deal with Stony Silence. I'd recommend dropping Izzet staticaster for one stony silence since electrolyze can fill a similar role. Valorous stance seems fine, but I'd consider that one also. Maybe also Elspeth. Depends if you have a mainboard expensive win con. If you do, you may not need elspeth.
I'm doing a lot of sideboard thinking myself right now.
My meta consists of a lot of Affinity, Grixis Control/Delver/Twin, Infect, Elves, Tron (both U and RG), UW Midrange and Control variants, some Abzan, some Jund, I think a bit of combo like Grishoalbrand but that's about it.
I think finding room for 2 Stony Silence will definitely help but I do not want to cut Izzet Staticaster as that card has been nuts for me both in my local meta and testing online on trice. I could honestly see myself cutting a Valorous Stance as I don't find myself siding it in very often, and maybe an Engineered Explosives. I would cut Elspeth, Sun's Champion but she just does so much work in the grindy matchups like Jund and Abzan, and even the Grixis variants because those games tend to go long although I could justify cutting it. However, Engineered Explosives is some of our only answers against Boggles, a deck that is not in my meta but is one of my worst matchups. Explosives also avoids targetting which is relevant for Affinity (Etched Champion) and Infect (protection/pump spells). It's also just such a flexible card, although it can be a little slow sometimes. I'm very hesitant to drop it but I think I need 2 Stony Silence in my sideboard these days.
Let me know what you end up with, I value your opinion greatly.
Paradox Omega, which match ups do you board in izzet staticaster against? I do like taking it out in your meta, which doesn't seem predominated by Abzan/Jund. In Jund/Grixis, path is usually enough. Maybe cutting EE with that setup is ok, but EE has been an all star for me against so many decks. How about Anger of the Gods? If exiling isn't relevant, EE/staticaster may be enough. If your main doesn't have another Grindy card, then yeah, I like your choice to have Elspeth+keranos in the board.
A discussion I'd like to revive is Jeskai Charm: back when it first came out, Lingering Souls was everywhere, but nowadays Electrolyze always seems like the worst card in the deck for me; small critters isn't what we have problems dealing with, it's the big delvers and goyfs, and while bouncing a Tasigur with cryptic is pretty damn strong already, putting him on top for a mana less seems even stronger. Add to that a 16 point life swing with Geist and the ability to go to the face and it seems incredibly strong in current modern where being on the aggressive is so important
Another discussion I kind of left in the middle of: in my opinion, building any deck that's blue and not merfolk should start with 4 Serum Visions and then the rest.
Some points i'd like to discuss and get feedback on from you guys are as follows:
1. Serum Visions and land count (I run 3x Visions and 24 Land)
25 lands seems optimal but I really like Visions to find relevant cards for a given game state and also control the amount of lands that we draw.
2. Counter spell package. As good as Cryptic Command is - I side it out a ton (vs dispel decks, super aggro decks etc). Other problems are that we play a pretty greedy mana base - 3 blue is just not always going to happen. Another problem is that it's often a clunky card for this deck? Mana Leak is a necessary evil (logic Knot is surpisingly awesome in my testing and rarely dead - early you use it as a force spike (with fetches/visions in the gy and late it outshines mana leak). I think remand is more of a Twin card and not great in this shell - I like the split of 3 Mana Leak/2 Logic Knot - what do you think?
3. 1-of's. I like Boros Charm and Valorous Stance as additional ways to protect your creatures and the flexibility for killing Lilli (Charm) and more fatty answers (Stance). Could easily be cut though. Chandra has been really good. 4 cmc planeswalker! - not too expensive but still has a ton of power and synergy with Geist. Disables lone blockers (with a ping to the dome), the ultimate is game winning, 0 is also good.
//Lands
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Ghost Quarter
//Counters
3 Mana Leak
2 Logic Knot
//Removal
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Electrolyze
2 Lightning Helix
1 Boros Charm
1 Valorous Stance
//Draw/Filter
3 Serum Visions
//Creatures
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Restoration Angel
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
//Sideboard
SB: 2 Stony Silence
SB: 2 Celestial Purge
SB: 2 Negate
SB: 2 Dispel
SB: 2 Wear // Tear
SB: 2 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Rending Volley
SB: 1 Keranos, God of Storms
SB: 1 Jace, Architect of Thought
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Seems like a great addition as a 1-of in our list. Seems great to cast with a Geist on the board, slightly worse without a Geist. But bouncing a big blocker and killing a smaller critter seems like a really awesome tempo play for just 4 mana, something that a card like Resto can't do outside of combat (with only 4 mana).
Works really favorably against Kitchen Finks and Etched Champion, two very popular cards at the moment. Also stalls uncounterable spells like Thrun, Verdict, or Decay for a turn (translation: tempo!)
Given that it's 4 mana I'd rather max out on Cryptics before I'd start considering Brutal Expulsion, and since we never do, I don't think expulsion makes the cut
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
i think the deck needs to rethink its 3 drop, either go with something not a 2/2, or skip the sorcery speed creature all together and go back to the flash route.
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
I assume that leaving out scalding tarn/arid Mesa is a budget choice. That is ok. Consider the cheaper "off-color" fetches like polluted delta since they can get you all three of your colors. Temples may be slow, and 9 basics is too many for the greedy UWR 3-color Manabase, especially eith cryptic command. Your mana add could also use either Tectonic Edge or Ghost Quarter for manlands/ utility lands/ tron lands.
The real money card is snapcaster Mage, which is just a way better version of Jace in my opinion. It can flashback counters, and Jace can't. The two power is also very useful. Jace can also get bolted right away, which seems like bad tempo. Still, I see Jace in some top lists, so you can test it out--don't go out of your way to buy more if cost is an issue, though. Snapcaster is the best creature in modern IMO and is irreplaceable, but it does cost a lot now. Jace may be a semi-budget replacement, but just understand that it's impossible to get close to Snapcaster. To get the Snapcaster selection value, serum visions may also be useful in your list.
Overall, the best improvements for their cost are: Path to Exile, low cmc counterspells, ghost quarters/tec edge, off color fetch lands. Sucks that Snapcaster costs so much, but I'm tempted to say it is the best card in the whole deck.
Good luck!
You might be right. UWR control doesn't seem appealing either. What do we reckon the full flash deck looks like?
I guess if we drop the marquee card we have to ask the question, why white over black? Resto might be the answer. Just not sure if it's actually a better option than the delve guys, since they are sudo flash at 1 mana.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Restoration Angel
1 Keranos, God of Storms
Spells (25)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
2 Anticipate
2 Lightning Helix
3 Mana Leak
4 Remand
1 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Electrolyze
3 Cryptic Command
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Sulfur Falls
3 Island
2 Steam Vents
3 Celestial Colonnade
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Wear // Tear
2 Spell Pierce
2 Stony Silence
2 Counterflux
4 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Shatterstorm
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
my quick thoughts on the 3cmc slot is bump the cliques (i've always played 2, even in the deck's heyday) and find a big finisher of some sort, like a thundermaw. i wouldn't play keranos in the mainboard. a singular kiki-jiki can pair well with the resto plan as well, after you've traded enough resources. this deck is predominantly a burn deck with some nice supporting creatures. you essentially have to do about 9-12 creature damage, and typically you'll win via burn.