hey guys, just wondering, been off the local tournament circuit for a little over a year, kept with it by watching twitch and casual play but I'm wondering is it time to push UWR as a viable deck strat for tourney play? Is it well positioned? Yes tron is out there but pod is banned, scapeshift is nearly gone in play... Whenever i see decklists posted, seems like people are doing very well....
hey guys, just wondering, been off the local tournament circuit for a little over a year, kept with it by watching twitch and casual play but I'm wondering is it time to push UWR as a viable deck strat for tourney play? Is it well positioned? Yes tron is out there but pod is banned, scapeshift is nearly gone in play... Whenever i see decklists posted, seems like people are doing very well....
I'm doing well with my version at smaller events. I've got some GP trials coming up and a GP in March so I might run it at that. I'm going spell heavy with 4 Snapcasters and 4 Monastery Mentors. I'm not so sure how the traditional Geist versions are performing because I never see them where I play and I don't often hear too many results at big events. The ban list at the start of the next year is going to be interesting as well if speculation is correct and Bloom takes a hit. Bloom isn't generally very fun for fairer decks like Jeskai midrange and if it suddenly disappeared we might be in a better position.
I really wish people would look into the criteria Wizards maintains for its bans before cluelessly yelling about Bloom taking a hit in every single thread.
hey guys, just wondering, been off the local tournament circuit for a little over a year, kept with it by watching twitch and casual play but I'm wondering is it time to push UWR as a viable deck strat for tourney play? Is it well positioned? Yes tron is out there but pod is banned, scapeshift is nearly gone in play... Whenever i see decklists posted, seems like people are doing very well....
I'm doing well with my version at smaller events. I've got some GP trials coming up and a GP in March so I might run it at that. I'm going spell heavy with 4 Snapcasters and 4 Monastery Mentors. I'm not so sure how the traditional Geist versions are performing because I never see them where I play and I don't often hear too many results at big events. The ban list at the start of the next year is going to be interesting as well if speculation is correct and Bloom takes a hit. Bloom isn't generally very fun for fairer decks like Jeskai midrange and if it suddenly disappeared we might be in a better position.
Agreed. The deck is absolutely a great one to run locally. I've top 8'ed all three PPTQs I've taken this deck to (each 50+ people) and got 17th out of 300+ people at a WMCQ. At smaller local tournaments I usually expect to go 3-1. GreatNate took the deck to an RPTQ, and there are occasional solid performances at the GP level despite the very small number of people running it. The deck rewards tight play and continual tuning of the sideboard (and flexible main board slots) based on the meta. I've posted a few times on this deck, and each of the lists had some significant differences based on the meta I expected. The deck has access to many powerful options for fine tuning (like stony silence, keranos, celestial purge, timely reinforcements, rest in peace, dispel), and you have to choose wisely based on what you expect to see.
The deck is not easy to play at first, so expect growing pains. It's not only a matter of figuring out who is on the beat down based on the matchup (tron, amulet, burn, etc), but also figuring out how the board state changes turn to turn. You can switch from control to aggro on a dime. Against burn, you have to flip the switch on the correct turn to finish them off quickly, or you lose. Against GBx, you sometimes have to give up on the board state and card advantage, switching to the burnout plan. These decisions can even change during the course of the game. Figuring out when to slam Geist or activate a colonnade isnt trivial, either, and I think Geistofstdoom or someone else just addressed that point. Run this deck only if you like making these sorts of decisions.
Also on counterspells, since this is a point of debate: highly dependent on meta and plan fitting the meta (Aggro/control). I love 2 spell snares main. Not only great turn 2, but throughout the game and easily flashed back with snapcaster. The mana leak-remand split is something I go back and forth on. I like 2-2 right now, but you won't find a consensus because everyone's meta is different. Mana leak is great vs combo, aggro, and hard-to-answer cards like Liliana. (Generally I board in specific answers to those cards and board out some number of mana leaks in those match ups. Mana leak is a so-so catch-all answer, and the board is a place for stronger specific ones.). Remand is great elsewhere, like vs control (I wrote a post earlier about that), against delved spells, the back half of lingering souls, living end, and tempo-ing slower decks out. I ran serum visions/cryotics before when i could go over the top of other decks, but lately, I've gone with a lower to the ground approach. You can mess with people by going back and forth between weeks if you play at local tournaments with the same players routinely.
I really wish people would look into the criteria Wizards maintains for its bans before cluelessly yelling about Bloom taking a hit in every single thread.
Pros have an issue with Hive Mind mostly. It's very unlikely you lose the game outright turn 2 but it's possible to die to a t2 combo from Bloom. A lot of Pros and others dislike that you need to essentially deal with Bloom in two different ways, as a ramp deck with Titans and as a combo deck with Hive Mind. It's not clueless at all to speculate that it's status might change because it's placing well at a number of big events and is mostly non-interactive.
hey guys, just wondering, been off the local tournament circuit for a little over a year, kept with it by watching twitch and casual play but I'm wondering is it time to push UWR as a viable deck strat for tourney play? Is it well positioned? Yes tron is out there but pod is banned, scapeshift is nearly gone in play... Whenever i see decklists posted, seems like people are doing very well....
I'm doing well with my version at smaller events. I've got some GP trials coming up and a GP in March so I might run it at that. I'm going spell heavy with 4 Snapcasters and 4 Monastery Mentors. I'm not so sure how the traditional Geist versions are performing because I never see them where I play and I don't often hear too many results at big events. The ban list at the start of the next year is going to be interesting as well if speculation is correct and Bloom takes a hit. Bloom isn't generally very fun for fairer decks like Jeskai midrange and if it suddenly disappeared we might be in a better position.
Agreed. The deck is absolutely a great one to run locally. I've top 8'ed all three PPTQs I've taken this deck to (each 50+ people) and got 17th out of 300+ people at a WMCQ. At smaller local tournaments I usually expect to go 3-1. GreatNate took the deck to an RPTQ, and there are occasional solid performances at the GP level despite the very small number of people running it. The deck rewards tight play and continual tuning of the sideboard (and flexible main board slots) based on the meta. I've posted a few times on this deck, and each of the lists had some significant differences based on the meta I expected. The deck has access to many powerful options for fine tuning (like stony silence, keranos, celestial purge, timely reinforcements, rest in peace, dispel), and you have to choose wisely based on what you expect to see.
The deck is not easy to play at first, so expect growing pains. It's not only a matter of figuring out who is on the beat down based on the matchup (tron, amulet, burn, etc), but also figuring out how the board state changes turn to turn. You can switch from control to aggro on a dime. Against burn, you have to flip the switch on the correct turn to finish them off quickly, or you lose. Against GBx, you sometimes have to give up on the board state and card advantage, switching to the burnout plan. These decisions can even change during the course of the game. Figuring out when to slam Geist or activate a colonnade isnt trivial, either, and I think Geistofstdoom or someone else just addressed that point. Run this deck only if you like making these sorts of decisions.
Also on counterspells, since this is a point of debate: highly dependent on meta and plan fitting the meta (Aggro/control). I love 2 spell snares main. Not only great turn 2, but throughout the game and easily flashed back with snapcaster. The mana leak-remand split is something I go back and forth on. I like 2-2 right now, but you won't find a consensus because everyone's meta is different. Mana leak is great vs combo, aggro, and hard-to-answer cards like Liliana. (Generally I board in specific answers to those cards and board out some number of mana leaks in those match ups. Mana leak is a so-so catch-all answer, and the board is a place for stronger specific ones.). Remand is great elsewhere, like vs control (I wrote a post earlier about that), against delved spells, the back half of lingering souls, living end, and tempo-ing slower decks out. I ran serum visions/cryotics before when i could go over the top of other decks, but lately, I've gone with a lower to the ground approach. You can mess with people by going back and forth between weeks if you play at local tournaments with the same players routinely.
I posted my deck back a few pages ago I think but it's essentially a Control deck. I run 4 copies of Monastery Mentor however and I find it's very powerful as people tend to want to board out spot removal against Control and never think to run sweepers so if Mentor lasts even a single turn I can put the game completely out of reach. Failing that it just kills with Burn / Colonnades which works perfectly fine.
Sabinfrost- monastery mentor seems pretty sweet. I just started playing UW miracles in legacy, and he is a house there. Still, the key difference is that there are some nice cheap cantrip spells in legacy that don't exist in modern (brainstorm at instant speed, for example). In that legacy deck, it coexists with 4 main deck sweepers (terminus), so running sweepers with the mentor isn't totally out of the question, though you can shuffle away the sweepers in legacy with brainstorm/jace. I wonder if new jace might work well with mentor since he lets you discard unnecessary sweepers in that situation. (Seems like lots of grixis and even twin decks are turning to new jace.) Or desolate lighthouse. I'd think 4-of serum visions would be pretty fantastic in a mentor deck, and something like thought scour and peek (instant speed one mana cantrips) seem ok. I will try it out if I get my hands on a couple more mentors. How is the deck performing for you?
hey guys, just wondering, been off the local tournament circuit for a little over a year, kept with it by watching twitch and casual play but I'm wondering is it time to push UWR as a viable deck strat for tourney play? Is it well positioned? Yes tron is out there but pod is banned, scapeshift is nearly gone in play... Whenever i see decklists posted, seems like people are doing very well....
I'm doing well with my version at smaller events. I've got some GP trials coming up and a GP in March so I might run it at that. I'm going spell heavy with 4 Snapcasters and 4 Monastery Mentors. I'm not so sure how the traditional Geist versions are performing because I never see them where I play and I don't often hear too many results at big events. The ban list at the start of the next year is going to be interesting as well if speculation is correct and Bloom takes a hit. Bloom isn't generally very fun for fairer decks like Jeskai midrange and if it suddenly disappeared we might be in a better position.
But bloom is currently a small fraction of total decks out there isn't it? I'm not sure that they would ban it, doesn't seem to be dominating in uncounterable ways and warping everything? I might be wrong, again i havent been in a more serious tournament for a long time.
That said, good to see that its being considered, thing is this deck more than any other deck seems to always be able to stay relevant even when it isn't currently in a "tier".
hey guys, just wondering, been off the local tournament circuit for a little over a year, kept with it by watching twitch and casual play but I'm wondering is it time to push UWR as a viable deck strat for tourney play? Is it well positioned? Yes tron is out there but pod is banned, scapeshift is nearly gone in play... Whenever i see decklists posted, seems like people are doing very well....
I'm doing well with my version at smaller events. I've got some GP trials coming up and a GP in March so I might run it at that. I'm going spell heavy with 4 Snapcasters and 4 Monastery Mentors. I'm not so sure how the traditional Geist versions are performing because I never see them where I play and I don't often hear too many results at big events. The ban list at the start of the next year is going to be interesting as well if speculation is correct and Bloom takes a hit. Bloom isn't generally very fun for fairer decks like Jeskai midrange and if it suddenly disappeared we might be in a better position.
Agreed. The deck is absolutely a great one to run locally. I've top 8'ed all three PPTQs I've taken this deck to (each 50+ people) and got 17th out of 300+ people at a WMCQ. At smaller local tournaments I usually expect to go 3-1. GreatNate took the deck to an RPTQ, and there are occasional solid performances at the GP level despite the very small number of people running it. The deck rewards tight play and continual tuning of the sideboard (and flexible main board slots) based on the meta. I've posted a few times on this deck, and each of the lists had some significant differences based on the meta I expected. The deck has access to many powerful options for fine tuning (like stony silence, keranos, celestial purge, timely reinforcements, rest in peace, dispel), and you have to choose wisely based on what you expect to see.
The deck is not easy to play at first, so expect growing pains. It's not only a matter of figuring out who is on the beat down based on the matchup (tron, amulet, burn, etc), but also figuring out how the board state changes turn to turn. You can switch from control to aggro on a dime. Against burn, you have to flip the switch on the correct turn to finish them off quickly, or you lose. Against GBx, you sometimes have to give up on the board state and card advantage, switching to the burnout plan. These decisions can even change during the course of the game. Figuring out when to slam Geist or activate a colonnade isnt trivial, either, and I think Geistofstdoom or someone else just addressed that point. Run this deck only if you like making these sorts of decisions.
Also on counterspells, since this is a point of debate: highly dependent on meta and plan fitting the meta (Aggro/control). I love 2 spell snares main. Not only great turn 2, but throughout the game and easily flashed back with snapcaster. The mana leak-remand split is something I go back and forth on. I like 2-2 right now, but you won't find a consensus because everyone's meta is different. Mana leak is great vs combo, aggro, and hard-to-answer cards like Liliana. (Generally I board in specific answers to those cards and board out some number of mana leaks in those match ups. Mana leak is a so-so catch-all answer, and the board is a place for stronger specific ones.). Remand is great elsewhere, like vs control (I wrote a post earlier about that), against delved spells, the back half of lingering souls, living end, and tempo-ing slower decks out. I ran serum visions/cryotics before when i could go over the top of other decks, but lately, I've gone with a lower to the ground approach. You can mess with people by going back and forth between weeks if you play at local tournaments with the same players routinely.
So really nothings changed about this deck since i used to play a lot more. this is also great to know, i always loved this deck just due to the fact that there are very very rare matchups where we basically arent in play (aka tron) otherwise whenever i lose i can always attribute it to a misplay, meaning in my head UWR can and is likely one of the most power deck styles in the game its a matter of personal knowledge that sets the winners apart. My best was 4th in a 100man tourney about 1.5 years ago when everyone was saying big aggro decks were smashing us and we just couldnt keep up. Yet a couple simple hate cards and decent (not even good) turn decisions got me that far.
Ok great so im convinced, just looking at mtgtop8 and trying to get a good feel like so many others what's best to play, in a local weekly modern i actually saw another guy playing a very traditional resto angel/vendillion/giest/mindcensor he did quite well and i failed pretty badly with boggles lol.
Sabinfrost- monastery mentor seems pretty sweet. I just started playing UW miracles in legacy, and he is a house there. Still, the key difference is that there are some nice cheap cantrip spells in legacy that don't exist in modern (brainstorm at instant speed, for example). In that legacy deck, it coexists with 4 main deck sweepers (terminus), so running sweepers with the mentor isn't totally out of the question, though you can shuffle away the sweepers in legacy with brainstorm/jace. I wonder if new jace might work well with mentor since he lets you discard unnecessary sweepers in that situation. (Seems like lots of grixis and even twin decks are turning to new jace.) Or desolate lighthouse. I'd think 4-of serum visions would be pretty fantastic in a mentor deck, and something like thought scour and peek (instant speed one mana cantrips) seem ok. I will try it out if I get my hands on a couple more mentors. How is the deck performing for you?
I run a lot of cheap stuff and stuff that replaces itself. I run 4 copies of Lightning Bolt, 4 Paths, 4 Serum Visions, 4 Lightning Helix, 4 Remand, Snapcasters, Mentors and I curve at Cryptic Command. Other than that I run a couple of copies of Electrolyze and Spell Snare. Post-board it's very strong and mainboard it's very flexible. Lots of removal for different threats, some lifegain, lots of direct damage, a finisher in Mentor and loads of cantrips. I love Remand over typical counterspells for finding mentor and not exhausting my hand so if I want to go all out the turn after I drop a Mentor I can. It's a very consistent deck. I haven't wanted to swap anything out of it.
For the guy above I always have a Fracturing Gust in-case I run into Bogles. It's good against Robots as well. I generally run a couple of Spellskites on my sideboard as well, they work really well against Bogles, Twin and Infect. Those decks tend to run Twisted Image because of it at high level but it still doesn't invalidate how useful Skite is.
Kiki-Jiki is great, but I wouldn't run 1 of him. The problem with him is the RRR in his mana cost. If you are going to run Kiki-Jiki then I feel you should almost warp your build around him with wall of omens, kitchen finks, blade splicer, and the like.
I used to run a UWR control list with a Kiki-Jiki/Restoration Angel top end. I found that while I did win a good number of games just as a UWR midrange, the deck almost needed to win with the combo as it is a weaker version of regular UWR. Also the RRR really hurt and prevented me from playing cryptic command which the control list could really use.
So in recap: I wouldn't run one of due to his cost. If you play him he's better to build around, but it completely changes the outlook of the deck (which is fine just a heads up).
If you want to run Kiki-Jiki outside of Twin there is a Naya deck that is basically built to abuse him.
It uses the wall set (4x Omens, 4x Roots) to clog the ground and provide utility before using Chord of Calling to find Eternal Witness who gets back Chord of Calling. You then use Chord of Calling to find Resto Angel who bounces Witness and gets back Chord of Calling before using Chord to find Kiki and Kiki to copy the Resto Angel endlessly, combo and win. Outside of the combo Resto Angel can bounce Wall of Omens to turn itself into a cantrip.
Other than that it's just standard red / white. Lightning Bolt and Path, strong sideboard options, running Chord you can sort of run Pod creatures as well like Linvala vs. Twin and Sigarda vs. Jund, lifegain creatures like Lone Missionary or Finks as well that can be bounced.
Have you guys faced up against the new Bx Eldrazi lists? I'm getting wrecked by them and it feels completely unbeatable. They gain so much value from their creatures even if they don't resolve, which makes remand a good card for the, since they get to gain value twice. T1 relic is just back breaking too.
I have been having a lot of success main decking one pia and kiran nalaar in my Resto Angel heavy build with an additional PKN in the SB it's grinds out so well and the ability to have it be extra shocks ok a stick has been surprisingly great with the bolts helix and electrolyze plan when Geist is no longer an option. I will post my list shortly that is a mix of Geist burn as I also run an Ajani too.
Im glad to see people using monastery mentor! I run more of a token list with young pyromancer mentor and geist mainboard and I love it. the deck is much more effective in my meta than my original b/w tokens build.
my first tourney I took the deck to I beat the g/r tron player that has squashed me for months and it felt amazing lol
the feeling of remanding someone with pyromancer or mentor out after they have used all their mana is an extremely satisfying feeling 😊
So what's the opinion on Spire's Needle? To flimsy? Love the doublestrike, very weak, just seems like it should have haste or at least vigilance to me. Would be interesting to see it in as a 2 of...
Anyway opinions wanted in relation to this deck, what do you guys think?
Land
Spire's Needle enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add R or W to your mana pool.
2RW: Spire's Needle becomes a 2/1 Elemental creature with double strike until end of turn. It's still a land.
It's basically a Control deck but a bit more on the tempo side with faster evolving win conditions. The aim is to counter anything that's not a creature and blow up anything that is. One reason it's not Black is Path annihilates everything like Wurmcoil, Finks and Deceiver Exarch. One of the wincons is just nailing them in the face with Burn and swinging with the white Colonnade. Monastery Mentor is a 5 - 6 mana bomb card. It comes down with mana to protect it / fire off spells and completely flips the game on it's head. Even coming down t3 if it lasts a turn it's basically over as it will get pumped behind a wall of a burn and even if you remove it there are tokens to do the same. I also find Mentor to be a powerful wincon because you generally don't want to run boardwipes/spot removal against control so they get a lot of cards in their hand to deal with it wasted for the majority or entirety of some games.
Some other basic explanations, I have 1 Cavern because it can stop them counterspelling 8 cards in my deck. Verdict is almost solely there for Geist but is generally not unwanted otherwise. Outside of that the deck is pretty flexible mainboard and has a very good match against creature heavy aggro (includes Robots, Fish, Elves, Zoo).
On the sideboard; Celestial Purge removes Keranos, Liliana, Blood Moon and the Twin enchantment. Gust / Stony Silence are obvious hosers against Affinity but Gust works well against Boggles and Stony Silence is decent against Tron if it comes down early (loads of rocks/maps). Skite is obvious against Infect, Bogles, Twin, even Burn. Prison is a non-artifact counter against Twin decks as they often run ways to deal with Spellskite / Torpor Orb. Crumble to Dust is there for Tron but if you can pull it off on Valakut it's hilarious. Reinforcements is obvious against Burn + Zoo. Leyline is for Burn, Jund, and other Jeskai, I typically run it against Scapeshift as well.
Bad matches are pretty much the incredibly degenerate combos like Bloom (Hive Mind), Living End, Ad Naeuseum, Storm... it's a bit too fair to deal with that stuff. I could run Rule of Law for some of it, Mindcensor for other stuff, grave hosers but they're a fairly tiny percent of the meta except Bloom which is beatable with smart counterspells+path and I feel I need the sideboard. Batterskull and Leyline can be annoying. It's a convincing reason to run Wear / Tear. Batterskull is falling out of fashion though and between Snapcasters, Mentor, Colonnade and just playing Control and bouncing it I can handle Leyline. It slows me, it doesn't stop me.
Not sure about serum visions. In fact personally I would never play it over another remand or electrolyze. Thing is your not digging for a combo piece, and you`re wanting to lean toward tempo like you said then serum really puts a stop to that.
I`d say having something like an aven mindcensor, vendilion clique partly, and either 1-2 electrolyze or that 4th remand , or even just a larger threat like a single batterskull would be better.
What will happen more often than not is, you will work to bounce/remove all their threats and you`ll have a dead serum visions in your hand because you will not want them to get too far ahead of you and you will not be proactive putting you on the backfoot. Meanwhile as an opening move, i'd look at it this way, what is it that you "must" dig for, another bounce, another removal or another creature? Doesn't put you ahead in this deck.
I still like to see Mentor, I still like to have it come up as it really is a game ender. That's the reason I put Serum Visions in. Ultimately it's Control before it's Tempo as well, it's stronger in the midgame with active wincons at the cost of cards like Rev and more land which help in the long game.
If I dropped Visions I'd definitely run 4 Remands, I'm not sure on the extra Electrolyze but I could see myself running a Clique or two.
One thing I do value in every deck I build is consistency, I tend to avoid running 1-2s of things and when I do I have obvious this goes out for this and this goes in for this in flex spots.
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GWBoglesGW///URDelverUR WVial-knightsW
I'm doing well with my version at smaller events. I've got some GP trials coming up and a GP in March so I might run it at that. I'm going spell heavy with 4 Snapcasters and 4 Monastery Mentors. I'm not so sure how the traditional Geist versions are performing because I never see them where I play and I don't often hear too many results at big events. The ban list at the start of the next year is going to be interesting as well if speculation is correct and Bloom takes a hit. Bloom isn't generally very fun for fairer decks like Jeskai midrange and if it suddenly disappeared we might be in a better position.
It isn't winning enough, nor taking 10 minute turns that it'll be likely
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Agreed. The deck is absolutely a great one to run locally. I've top 8'ed all three PPTQs I've taken this deck to (each 50+ people) and got 17th out of 300+ people at a WMCQ. At smaller local tournaments I usually expect to go 3-1. GreatNate took the deck to an RPTQ, and there are occasional solid performances at the GP level despite the very small number of people running it. The deck rewards tight play and continual tuning of the sideboard (and flexible main board slots) based on the meta. I've posted a few times on this deck, and each of the lists had some significant differences based on the meta I expected. The deck has access to many powerful options for fine tuning (like stony silence, keranos, celestial purge, timely reinforcements, rest in peace, dispel), and you have to choose wisely based on what you expect to see.
The deck is not easy to play at first, so expect growing pains. It's not only a matter of figuring out who is on the beat down based on the matchup (tron, amulet, burn, etc), but also figuring out how the board state changes turn to turn. You can switch from control to aggro on a dime. Against burn, you have to flip the switch on the correct turn to finish them off quickly, or you lose. Against GBx, you sometimes have to give up on the board state and card advantage, switching to the burnout plan. These decisions can even change during the course of the game. Figuring out when to slam Geist or activate a colonnade isnt trivial, either, and I think Geistofstdoom or someone else just addressed that point. Run this deck only if you like making these sorts of decisions.
Also on counterspells, since this is a point of debate: highly dependent on meta and plan fitting the meta (Aggro/control). I love 2 spell snares main. Not only great turn 2, but throughout the game and easily flashed back with snapcaster. The mana leak-remand split is something I go back and forth on. I like 2-2 right now, but you won't find a consensus because everyone's meta is different. Mana leak is great vs combo, aggro, and hard-to-answer cards like Liliana. (Generally I board in specific answers to those cards and board out some number of mana leaks in those match ups. Mana leak is a so-so catch-all answer, and the board is a place for stronger specific ones.). Remand is great elsewhere, like vs control (I wrote a post earlier about that), against delved spells, the back half of lingering souls, living end, and tempo-ing slower decks out. I ran serum visions/cryotics before when i could go over the top of other decks, but lately, I've gone with a lower to the ground approach. You can mess with people by going back and forth between weeks if you play at local tournaments with the same players routinely.
Pros have an issue with Hive Mind mostly. It's very unlikely you lose the game outright turn 2 but it's possible to die to a t2 combo from Bloom. A lot of Pros and others dislike that you need to essentially deal with Bloom in two different ways, as a ramp deck with Titans and as a combo deck with Hive Mind. It's not clueless at all to speculate that it's status might change because it's placing well at a number of big events and is mostly non-interactive.
I posted my deck back a few pages ago I think but it's essentially a Control deck. I run 4 copies of Monastery Mentor however and I find it's very powerful as people tend to want to board out spot removal against Control and never think to run sweepers so if Mentor lasts even a single turn I can put the game completely out of reach. Failing that it just kills with Burn / Colonnades which works perfectly fine.
But bloom is currently a small fraction of total decks out there isn't it? I'm not sure that they would ban it, doesn't seem to be dominating in uncounterable ways and warping everything? I might be wrong, again i havent been in a more serious tournament for a long time.
That said, good to see that its being considered, thing is this deck more than any other deck seems to always be able to stay relevant even when it isn't currently in a "tier".
GWBoglesGW///URDelverUR WVial-knightsW
So really nothings changed about this deck since i used to play a lot more. this is also great to know, i always loved this deck just due to the fact that there are very very rare matchups where we basically arent in play (aka tron) otherwise whenever i lose i can always attribute it to a misplay, meaning in my head UWR can and is likely one of the most power deck styles in the game its a matter of personal knowledge that sets the winners apart. My best was 4th in a 100man tourney about 1.5 years ago when everyone was saying big aggro decks were smashing us and we just couldnt keep up. Yet a couple simple hate cards and decent (not even good) turn decisions got me that far.
Ok great so im convinced, just looking at mtgtop8 and trying to get a good feel like so many others what's best to play, in a local weekly modern i actually saw another guy playing a very traditional resto angel/vendillion/giest/mindcensor he did quite well and i failed pretty badly with boggles lol.
GWBoglesGW///URDelverUR WVial-knightsW
I run a lot of cheap stuff and stuff that replaces itself. I run 4 copies of Lightning Bolt, 4 Paths, 4 Serum Visions, 4 Lightning Helix, 4 Remand, Snapcasters, Mentors and I curve at Cryptic Command. Other than that I run a couple of copies of Electrolyze and Spell Snare. Post-board it's very strong and mainboard it's very flexible. Lots of removal for different threats, some lifegain, lots of direct damage, a finisher in Mentor and loads of cantrips. I love Remand over typical counterspells for finding mentor and not exhausting my hand so if I want to go all out the turn after I drop a Mentor I can. It's a very consistent deck. I haven't wanted to swap anything out of it.
For the guy above I always have a Fracturing Gust in-case I run into Bogles. It's good against Robots as well. I generally run a couple of Spellskites on my sideboard as well, they work really well against Bogles, Twin and Infect. Those decks tend to run Twisted Image because of it at high level but it still doesn't invalidate how useful Skite is.
GXTronGX
RWxBurnRWx
Kiki-Jiki is great, but I wouldn't run 1 of him. The problem with him is the RRR in his mana cost. If you are going to run Kiki-Jiki then I feel you should almost warp your build around him with wall of omens, kitchen finks, blade splicer, and the like.
I used to run a UWR control list with a Kiki-Jiki/Restoration Angel top end. I found that while I did win a good number of games just as a UWR midrange, the deck almost needed to win with the combo as it is a weaker version of regular UWR. Also the RRR really hurt and prevented me from playing cryptic command which the control list could really use.
So in recap: I wouldn't run one of due to his cost. If you play him he's better to build around, but it completely changes the outlook of the deck (which is fine just a heads up).
It uses the wall set (4x Omens, 4x Roots) to clog the ground and provide utility before using Chord of Calling to find Eternal Witness who gets back Chord of Calling. You then use Chord of Calling to find Resto Angel who bounces Witness and gets back Chord of Calling before using Chord to find Kiki and Kiki to copy the Resto Angel endlessly, combo and win. Outside of the combo Resto Angel can bounce Wall of Omens to turn itself into a cantrip.
Other than that it's just standard red / white. Lightning Bolt and Path, strong sideboard options, running Chord you can sort of run Pod creatures as well like Linvala vs. Twin and Sigarda vs. Jund, lifegain creatures like Lone Missionary or Finks as well that can be bounced.
my first tourney I took the deck to I beat the g/r tron player that has squashed me for months and it felt amazing lol
the feeling of remanding someone with pyromancer or mentor out after they have used all their mana is an extremely satisfying feeling 😊
Thanks you very much DarkNightCavalier for the Sig.
Anyway opinions wanted in relation to this deck, what do you guys think?
Land
Spire's Needle enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add R or W to your mana pool.
2RW: Spire's Needle becomes a 2/1 Elemental creature with double strike until end of turn. It's still a land.
GWBoglesGW///URDelverUR WVial-knightsW
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
3 Remand
1 Negate
4 Lightning Helix
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Electrolyze
3 Cryptic Command
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
3 Sulfur Falls
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Fracturing Gust
2 Stony Silence
2 Spellskite
1 Ghostly Prison
2 Crumble to Dust
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Leyline of Sanctity
It's basically a Control deck but a bit more on the tempo side with faster evolving win conditions. The aim is to counter anything that's not a creature and blow up anything that is. One reason it's not Black is Path annihilates everything like Wurmcoil, Finks and Deceiver Exarch. One of the wincons is just nailing them in the face with Burn and swinging with the white Colonnade. Monastery Mentor is a 5 - 6 mana bomb card. It comes down with mana to protect it / fire off spells and completely flips the game on it's head. Even coming down t3 if it lasts a turn it's basically over as it will get pumped behind a wall of a burn and even if you remove it there are tokens to do the same. I also find Mentor to be a powerful wincon because you generally don't want to run boardwipes/spot removal against control so they get a lot of cards in their hand to deal with it wasted for the majority or entirety of some games.
Some other basic explanations, I have 1 Cavern because it can stop them counterspelling 8 cards in my deck. Verdict is almost solely there for Geist but is generally not unwanted otherwise. Outside of that the deck is pretty flexible mainboard and has a very good match against creature heavy aggro (includes Robots, Fish, Elves, Zoo).
On the sideboard; Celestial Purge removes Keranos, Liliana, Blood Moon and the Twin enchantment. Gust / Stony Silence are obvious hosers against Affinity but Gust works well against Boggles and Stony Silence is decent against Tron if it comes down early (loads of rocks/maps). Skite is obvious against Infect, Bogles, Twin, even Burn. Prison is a non-artifact counter against Twin decks as they often run ways to deal with Spellskite / Torpor Orb. Crumble to Dust is there for Tron but if you can pull it off on Valakut it's hilarious. Reinforcements is obvious against Burn + Zoo. Leyline is for Burn, Jund, and other Jeskai, I typically run it against Scapeshift as well.
Bad matches are pretty much the incredibly degenerate combos like Bloom (Hive Mind), Living End, Ad Naeuseum, Storm... it's a bit too fair to deal with that stuff. I could run Rule of Law for some of it, Mindcensor for other stuff, grave hosers but they're a fairly tiny percent of the meta except Bloom which is beatable with smart counterspells+path and I feel I need the sideboard. Batterskull and Leyline can be annoying. It's a convincing reason to run Wear / Tear. Batterskull is falling out of fashion though and between Snapcasters, Mentor, Colonnade and just playing Control and bouncing it I can handle Leyline. It slows me, it doesn't stop me.
I`d say having something like an aven mindcensor, vendilion clique partly, and either 1-2 electrolyze or that 4th remand , or even just a larger threat like a single batterskull would be better.
What will happen more often than not is, you will work to bounce/remove all their threats and you`ll have a dead serum visions in your hand because you will not want them to get too far ahead of you and you will not be proactive putting you on the backfoot. Meanwhile as an opening move, i'd look at it this way, what is it that you "must" dig for, another bounce, another removal or another creature? Doesn't put you ahead in this deck.
Just my opinion.
GWBoglesGW///URDelverUR WVial-knightsW
If I dropped Visions I'd definitely run 4 Remands, I'm not sure on the extra Electrolyze but I could see myself running a Clique or two.
One thing I do value in every deck I build is consistency, I tend to avoid running 1-2s of things and when I do I have obvious this goes out for this and this goes in for this in flex spots.